Here and there in the Bible we catch sight of a life penetrated by a strange glow. Here and there too, in this twentieth century world, souls cross our path, in contact with whom we feel a kindling for which, perhaps, we can hardly account. They are those to whom Christ is not merely an example, but an inspiration. There is such a thing, thank God, as a life on fire!
Let us draw near three of these glowing lives, and see if some spark may not, through God’s mercy, fall upon us. The first and second teach us their lesson in figure; the third in literal fact.
“Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."
“Surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.”
“There came a woman, having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she broke the box, and poured it on His head.”
A life fired into a passion of love, and loyalty, and surrender; that is the picture into which the following three stories blend. Let us look first at—
The Life of Love.
The story of Ruth and that of Ittai have the same outline. Both had reached a point to which duty alone had carried them, and now before each stood a choice. A new life lay stretched out, to be entered only by the narrow gate of loss; a choice, deliberate and final, must be made. To each came the generous pleading—“Stop, consider!” both persisted in their decision; and in both we watch the slow preparation of years break into a sudden flame, transforming them with a breath of glory. In Ruth’s case especially, it was love that gave the illuminating touch.
Is there a possible counterpart to this experience in our lives?
Yes, a path lies within our reach, making the ordinary Christian life look cold and colourless by its contrast—a path stretching even beyond that of consecration in its lower sense; for this latter may be very subjective in tone, may hold the way of obedience chiefly as a means of rest and victory. It is to many of us a distinctly fresh life when God’s Spirit leads us to the objective side, lifting our gaze from the road beneath our feet to the form of Him who goes before; riveting it there by His radiant beauty.
“A homeless Stranger amongst us came
To this land of death and mourning,
He walked in a path of sorrow and shame,
Through insult and hate and scorning.
“A Man of sorrows, of toil and tears,
An outcast Man and a lonely;
But He looked on me and through endless years
Him must I love, Him only.
“Then from this sad and sorrowful land,
From this land of tears, He departed;
But the light of His eyes, and the touch of His hand,
Had left me broken-hearted.
“And I clave to Him as He turned His face
From the land that was mine no longer;
The land I had loved in the ancient days,
Ere I knew the love that was stronger.
“And I would abide where He abode,
And follow His steps for ever;
His people my people, His God my God,
In the land beyond the river.
“And where He died would I also die:
Far dearer a grave beside Him
Than a kingly place among living men,
The place which they denied Him.”
Yes, “The love of Christ constraineth us.” The word is the same as that translated “pressed” in Acts 18:5, “straitened” in Luke 12:50. It gives the thought of a mighty stream hemmed in by banks too narrow for it. Is that true concerning the love of Christ in our hearts? Have we opened them to that love till it has become a flood too strong for their poor limits, and must force our lives hither and thither at its will, to find outlets?
If so, the measure of sunshine and shadow in our days will be simply in the shining or the veiling of His face; nothing on earth will make up for the slightest dimming of that light; nothing will really matter that leaves it untouched.
And therefore the new cry must arise, “Whither thou goest I will go.” In the old days it was enough to say, “Come with me, Lord; leave me not, neither forsake me”; but to have His presence as a mere accompaniment of our lives will not satisfy us now. We must go His way with Him; it is the only path worth treading, when once our hearts have come under His irresistible sway.
And going with Him does not simply mean a fresh stage of obedience; it means a yielding up of our spirits to catch His spirit—a yielding up of our hearts to glow with His triumphs and joys, and to ache with whatever pains Him, to enter eagerly into fellowship with any phase of His life that He may in His love ask us to share.
And as we follow, our love will “abound in knowledge and in all perception” (Phil. 1:9, Alford’s translation). It will become impossible that He should tarry behind unnoticed, as in Jerusalem of old; our hearts will grow too sensitive to lose sight of Him unconsciously.
“Whither Thou goest I will go.” The external features of the path will matter little. It may be a life of plodding labour, or frittered away in ceaseless home claims, with all powers and talents seemingly buried, or worn down with ill-health, or broken by wave after wave of trouble; but it will be a life satisfied, rounded, hushed into absolute content, if it has reached this simple point, “To live is Christ.”
Turn now to Ittai’s story; there is an element of fresh beauty here—the beauty of a soul kindled by the honour of standing by the king in his rejection. He comes before us as a picture of—
The Life of Loyalty.
It is only in stormy times like his that this spirit can be developed. The loyalty called forth by a popular monarchy is but superficial; if we wish to see it in its ideal form we go to the days when it involved dishonour and contempt. We feel as we read the story of Charles the First, for instance, that the strength of his cause lay mainly in the instinct of chivalry, roused by the loss of his rightful place.
And our King stands uncrowned now, despised and rejected in His own world, and to us, for a little while, comes the chance of standing there by His side. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” “The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.”
Is it true? Is our loyalty distinct enough to make “the world” uncomfortable, so far as we cross its path? Or is our witness to Christ of such a negative kind as never to cause a misgiving as fearless in rebuking sin; uncompromising as He was uncompromising, in asserting God’s claims? Have we even come so far as to be able to speak of Him by name to our acquaintances and relations? Confessing Christ is something more definite than confessing to being religious.
Kedron, the brook which Ittai chose to cross with his king, signifies “obscurity”; and this points to the form that the offence of the Cross takes most commonly now. In this twentieth century, Christ is not so much hated as ignored. Blessed with His own blessing, in the path when loyalty brings into actual persecution and loss; but for most of us there is no such honour. A few slights and sneers are all that it will probably involve: “a narrow-minded fool” is the worst epithet likely to be flung.
Be our fellowship in His rejection what it may, we will welcome it, rejoicing if we are even “counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name”; “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt”; “going forth unto Him without the camp.”
To some it may not be so much a departing from the camp of the openly hostile and indifferent. Their life may be cast among half-hearted, inconsistent servants of the King; but none the less would loyalty involve “bearing His reproach.”
Oh, for an enthusiasm for Christ that will not endure to be popular when He is unpopular; that will be fired rather than quenched when His claims are unrecognized and His word is slighted; that will thrill us with joy if He allows us to share in any faint measure in His dishonour and loneliness; that will set every pulse throbbing with exultation as we “go forth unto Him!”
Come now to the last of these three burning lives—a spirit aglow with the passionate longing to give. In Mary of Bethany, with her broken box of ointment we see shadowed forth—
The Life of Surrender.
One fancies that she went into the house of Simon meaning to loosen the stopper, and empty forth all that would pour naturally; but that when, face to face with the Master, she found the flow checked, the impulse to shatter the vessel and give all that could be given, came, and was obeyed.
So, in any case, it is with us. The lesson of giving, like all other lessons, is best learnt in His Presence. It is as we look into His Face that we grow dissatisfied with offering as we thought to offer, and rejoice in a breaking of will and spirit that sets free all restraint in the surrender.
It may be in some outward act of obedience costing dear, that the breaking will begin; but it will be best perfected, at any rate, by accepting, instantly and wholly, the hourly disappointments, losses, jars, and burdens of common experience, till a practical readiness to be offered is developed.
“Measure thy life by loss, and not by gain,
Not by the wine drunk, but by the wine poured forth;
For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice,
And he who suffers most has most to give.”
Let our one aim in the matter be to find what still remains kept back; let our ideal of life be no longer a fair unbroken whole but a handful of shattered, empty fragments from which all that could be given has been lavished upon Christ. Is He not worthy?
Have we learnt so to give? Have we learnt to give at all? It can hardly be called “giving” when God must plead and wait, and at last must loosen forcibly our clinging grasp from the treasure. Have we even learnt the preliminary lesson of an instant blindfold “Yes, Lord,” when the Spirit points out a fresh act of sacrifice?
It is only as we go on in a life of surrender that the blessed joy of pouring forth upon Him our costly things dawns on us. The giving sets free, as has been well said, a spring of conscious love, and the love, in its turn, inspires to fresh giving; and though the pain involved is still pain, such a strange sweetness becomes interwoven with it that we wonder whether heaven can be perfect without the possibility of suffering loss for Him.
“To what purpose is this waste?” Oh, that the lives of His people called forth more often that accusation! There is small fear of it while the giving is weighed and measured carefully, seldom reaching (even in such elementary matters as time and money) to more than a yielding of that which will never be missed. When shall we let the world seek not merely in outward symbol, Sunday by Sunday, but in literal daily practice, that it is a broken, poured-out life, wherein “by faith, with thanksgiving,” we are partakers?
We have seen something of the possibilities that lie before us; something of the transfiguration that may come into our days if the glory of the Lord has risen upon us, kindling at last these slow, dull hearts.
To some of us they are no mere possibilities, thank God, but in some measure realities; though we need continually the breath of the Spirit and the fuel of fresh surrender, that the command may be fulfilled — “The fire shall be ever burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”
To others the glimpse of a life that has found its centre in Christ comes as the Father’s answer to a hunger and thirst that have been deepening for long; their souls have been following hard after Him already, and they have only to open them to the Comforter who reveals Him.
But some of us feel perhaps that all is misty and vague, and that some very definite change is needed, if it is to grow from dreamy sentiment into sober and literal fact. Shall we turn to one more story that seems to picture this condition and the way to escape?
Come in thought to the Sea of Galilee and stand with Peter in the stern of his boat. He is in no dreamland; his surroundings—slippery planks, creaking oars, showers of spray—are tangible enough; but he is straining his eyes on a spot where a dim and beautiful vision dawns out of the twilight. Is it real, or is it a phantom? It is contrary to all experience, but the Form and Voice draw out his heart irresistibly, and he cries, “Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.”
You can get so far as an echo of that cry, can you not? “Lord, if it be Thou”—this dim vision is really some fresh revelation of Thyself, unknown to me as yet—“bid me come unto Thee.” And back across all the storm, His voice will ring, “Come.”“And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.”
He stepped out, that is, into a path of uncertainties. So long as he stayed in the ship, he had solid planks under his feet; more than that, he could steer his own way. But as he swung himself overboard, one uncertain foothold could only be left for another as uncertain. Each step took him further from the place where he could walk by sight, and committed him more helplessly to a walk by faith.
Is it not, perhaps, a consciousness of something of the kind involved in the Master’s word, “Come,” that makes you hesitate, though your heart begins to cry out for Him and will not be silenced?
The old life has been a hard “toiling in rowing,” but you knew what you were about, and could after a fashion hold the helm; but this life of uncertainties, can it be ventured upon? If only you could foresee and measure the future of a life of absolute surrender and faith, you could brace yourself to it; but to yield yourself blindly to an unknown, untried issue, this is another matter. It is a binding the sacrifice to the horns of the altar, not knowing where or when the knife may strike.
But this stepping out at all risks, with the element of uncertainty contained in it, is just where the truth of our surrender is tested, and therefore it must be faced thoroughly. So long as we reserve to ourselves the power of withdrawing to the old life if an emergency arises, there is no real progress possible. Do not, therefore, make the effort in a tentative spirit, feeling for a footing on the water before you loosen your grasp on the boat’s side; you will never find the surface grow firm under you till you let go. “When Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.” Leave hold of the old life of self-will and self-dependence, heedless of consequences; drop down on the wave below as an irrevocable act, leaving no other resource than the one simple aim “to go to Jesus,” “to win Christ,” chance what may. The responsibility lies with Him who has said “Come”; we need a little more recklessness in our faith and obedience.
We must not stay to trace the story in detail—the failure and the rescue, and the return to the ship. But let us notice this one point: that to all the disciples came finally that immediate personal Presence of Christ, which Peter had recognised afar off, and gone forth to welcome at all hazards. To him too, therefore, the Lord would have come in time, if he had waited in the boat; but he would have missed one of the greatest experiences of his life.
And to us also in the end, the King in His beauty will be revealed; but shall it be only at the last, when He comes to our ship to bid the storm cease and to bring us into the desired haven? Shall it be only when the chance of going to Him on the water is over forever? In all the stories at which we have glanced we see the same lesson. An hour of delay on Ruth’s part, and Naomi would have gone on her journey, leaving her to return to the old life. A few weeks of hesitation, and Ittai would have seen David welcomed back by his people; the honour of holding by him in his banishment would have been missed forever. Six days more, and Mary would have beheld the Son of Man betrayed and slain, with the sense that her opportunity for ministry had slid into the irretrievable past.
So now, for each of us, a few years (far less than that, it may be) will see the last chance over—the last chance of following Him in His lonely path, of standing by Him in His rejection, of pouring all that we hold precious at His feet. They lie before us now, the few remaining possibilities, counted out already in His mind and heart for us. And He stands there, watching sadly as one by one we let them slip...
It is not lightly, on a mere strip of the emotional part of our being, that He would have us commit ourselves to this life of devotedness; He will not take advantage of any surface impulse; He will challenge us, as Ruth and Ittai were challenged, asking “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with?” Tenderly He will look into our faces as He waits for the answer—an answer to be given with our wills, in all self-distrust and brokenness of spirit, but quietly and fearlessly in His strength, “We are able.” Shall He wait in vain?
“Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” (Psalm 73:25)
“What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Philippians 3:8)
By Lilias Trotter
Monday, May 31, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
By Faith, Not by Sight
The Church Age is unique. Unlike the age of Israel before us, we have no formal priesthood (the Levites) to represent us to God. In union with Christ we are a “royal priesthood”; we represent ourselves (1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 1:9). We are not under the Mosaic Law (Galatians 3:23-25; 4:19-31). We are indwelt by God’s Spirit so that we might be conformed to the image of Christ. Conformity to Christ results in the fruit of the Spirit, against which there is no Law (Galatians 5:22-23). There are many other contrasts between the age of Israel and the Church age, but there is one principle, one distinctive, unique to our generation: The principle of Intensification.
“The feature of intensification is inherent in all realms; the physical and the spiritual. In nature, harvest is the intensification of a process. The end is but the full outworking or development of what was inherent in the beginning. We are living in an age when, in every realm, this process has reached an enormous proportion.” T.A. Sparks
Sin, lawlessness, and deception have always been with us. They are from the beginning. But in our age, called the “last time” (1 John 2:18; 1 Peter 1:20; Jude 1:18) and the “last days” (Hebrews 1:2; 2 Timothy 3:1-9), we draw ever closer to the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom and the final dethronement of the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). We know from Revelation 12:12 that the nearer we get to the end of this age, the greater becomes the wrath of Satan, and the more intense become his attacks on God’s people; whether physical, emotional, or spiritual.
In Ephesians 6:12 Paul says we “wrestle” against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world. In the original ‘wrestle’ is a description of intense conflict, not mild conflict. As the time of the coming of the Christ draws near, the conflict between the people of God and the forces arrayed against us intensifies. Demons go insane (maybe I should say more insane). We saw the intensity of the attacks against Christ in His humanity. The church is the body of Christ, and as such, faces a similar conflict, especially for those in the church who intend to go on to God’s full thought for their lives. Each step forward is met with fierce resistance. The greater our spiritual advance, the greater the antagonism against us. We are at war. And in the church age, that war is the hottest battle in the history of mankind.
The forms this war takes against the saints are varied. The primary form (which has always been at the top of Satan’s list) is deception. As bad as persecution is, the most effective and lasting way to neutralize the spiritual impact of God’s people is to deceive them.
We see deception beginning early in the church age. In our generation deception is global and is greatly intensified in both saturation and subtlety. There are many truths we simply don’t understand anymore. Our thoughts are clouded and distracted. The key principles and concepts of the teaching of this dispensation are a mystery to us. But what’s really scary is that we believe we are fine (we would say there’s always room for improvement of course, but overall, we believe we’re doing great),
“Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and do not realize that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind.” (Revelation 3:17)
Do we even consider it possible that verses such as this could apply to us? Jesus isn’t talking about material poverty when He says the Laodecians are “poor”; He’s talking about spiritual blindness. We couldn’t be as closed or as blind as the Laodecians, or the Galatians, or the Hebrews, or the Corinthians, or . . . . could we? Why do we think we’re not equally at risk? Why do we consider ourselves superior?
This age of intensification is a spiritual battle for the minds and hearts of the people of God. It is the time when all of us are on the frontlines of spiritual conflict. What did we think war would be like?
As Bob Dylan said, “When you gonna wake up?” There is a slow train coming and when it arrives the spiritual condition of each of us will be revealed in truth. There will be no more hiding, no more playing church, and no more self-justification. Those eyes which are “as a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:14) will pierce to the depths of our souls and expose the life (or lack thereof) that resides within each of us. “Let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6)
One other area of intensification should be looked at briefly in this context. In Revelation 12:12 we are told that at some point in the near future Satan will be unleashing “great wrath” upon the earth “knowing that he has but a short time.” This coincides with our Lord’s teaching in Matthew 24:21-24 (and similar passages) that stress the exponential intensification of spiritual warfare and deception which will characterize the final generation. As the time of Satan’s judgment draws near, his anger increases, as does his assault on the Body of Christ. Our wrestling against principalities and powers will increase significantly as we come nearer to the close of this age.
“It is true that the true children of God are going through a time of intense trial and testing spiritually in these last days; everywhere it is so. Why? Because the Lord must have something against which hell is impotent and by which He demonstrates to the universe that strength of His might which causes to stand and withstand, having done all to stand. If one were asked what the last issue for the church in this age is, I would say that it stands, and that is saying a tremendous thing. Oh, you say, that is surely limiting things, are you not expecting much more than that? Progress,, advance, sweeping movements?
(The intensification of the conflict will be so overwhelming that) . . . “the church will have its work cut out in the end just to stand, but its standing will be its victory. Just to be able, through testing, trial, when everything is blowing round you like a blizzard; when everything is dark, mysterious, and even God seems far away and unreal, and faith is tested and you are being assailed on the right hand and on the left, and there is every reason outwardly for giving up, falling down, surrendering, lowering your standard. Just to stand and not be moved in your faith is the greatest possible victory in the final generation.” T.A. Sparks
As our Lord Himself stated in Luke 18:8, “. . . when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” I am certain the Holy Spirit will be graciously using a number of God’s children to accomplish wondrous things in the world at the time of the end, but for many of us, holding on to our faith and standing firm in the midst of the most intense spiritual battle of all time, will be the great test, and the great victory for those who do stand.
The “perilous times” spoken of in 2 Timothy 3:1 point to the rise of activities in the last days similar to that of Jannes and Jambres (verse 8). These were the magicians of Pharaoh who withstood Moses (Exodus 7:8-13). We need to notice the nature of their resistance to the truth. The mode in which “Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses” was simply by imitating, as far as they were able, whatever he did. What Moses did, they could do, so from an objective observer’s viewpoint, there was no significant difference. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses wrought miracles to get the people out of Egypt, they would work miracles to keep them in.
The most satanic resistance to God’s testimony in the world “in the last days” is offered by those who, though they imitate the effects of the truth, have “a form of godliness,” but not “the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). People like this can do the same things, adopt the same forms, use the same theology, phraseology and profess the same convictions as others. If the true Christian feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, teaches the Scriptures, witnesses to the lost, engages in prayer, sings worship songs, then the imitator will also do every one of these things. Again, this is the special character of the resistance offered to the truth “in the last days”. This is the spirit and work of 21st century “Jannes and Jambres.”
Only spiritual discernment can distinguish the imitation from the real. External observance alone cannot separate the two (Hebrews 5:14).
“The whole assembly stood there with the greatest reverence before this highest Majesty and most powerful Inspirer of awe, before which the greatest of souls becomes so little as to be almost nothing. And if we had not been witness to the movement of the body during this event, the raising of hands during the songs and prayers, and the expressions of humility – and if we had not heard the beating of the hearts before this immeasurable grandeur – we would have thought ourselves transferred to another life; to heaven. And, truly, we were at that hour in another world; the world of the Spirit. We were in the house of God, in God’s immediate Presence, and all with lowered heads and humble tongues and voices raised in prayer and praise, (were surrounded by) weeping eyes, awestruck hearts and pure thoughts of intercession.”
This recounting of a worship experience which occurred in the early 1900’s cites the spiritual impact on the attendees of the Islamic Ka’aba (original source unknown).
What if such an event was held in a Christian church (on, say, a Sunday morning) and instead of being saturated with the forms and words of Islam, was instead saturated with Christian forms and words? Would we know whether we were dealing with the Holy Spirit or with the spirit of Jannes and Jambres which Paul prophesied would come to the church in the last days? “. . . If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24b). But as we close in on the final apostasy of the church (2 Thessalonians 2:3), it seems that many in evangelical Christianity believe they are impervious to deception. The security of the born again believers in Christ does not prevent them from being “children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). We may be evangelical, doctrinally orthodox and safe in Christ, but we are not immune to deception. There are too many warnings in the scriptures given to the church of Jesus Christ regarding the intensity and subtlety of the last day’s deception for us to consider ourselves invulnerable to being deceived.
The character of deception in the generation of antichrist is based on “signs and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). The world operates in the realm of the sensual; the five senses coupled with logic, reason and instinct. These systems of perception are all that humans are capable of outside of Christ. But the Christian is a spiritual being and has the capacity (if developed) to see through the visible and sensual to the spiritual realities behind what is seen (note: 1 Corinthians 2:10-15; Hebrews 5:14). We are to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). There has never been a generation in the history of the church when this was more important than now. Unfortunately, we have become the generation of “walking by sight”; not the generation of “walking by faith”. The deception of the world and of the church will be based on that which is seen, so the church must be a company of people who are able to see through the surface and penetrate to the spiritual reality of all things. We must be able to give a spiritual interpretation to all that is around us.
I believe the church in America is being conditioned to walk by sight, by empiricism, not by faith. Our largest churches are not known for the kind of study and spiritual depth needed to develop deep and sustaining faith and spiritual discernment (Hebrews 5:11-14); they are characterized by that which appeals to sight (video clips, stage lights, celebrity-status preachers, energy-charged high volume music, etc.). We have come to believe that these things have spiritual content. If they were removed, the church would no longer be popular because spiritual life has been redefined from that which is based on faith and eternal spiritual reality (2 Corinthians 4:15), to that which is based on sight, feelings, and sensory presentation. We no longer have the capacity to walk by faith as the early church did. We need visual props and Hollywood style professionalism to persuade us that we are experiencing ‘awesome Christianity’.
I would be willing to simply relegate this development in American Christianity to the realm of immaturity where sincerely seeking believers have failed to move from milk to meat in their pursuit of spiritual sustenance. But it’s much more dangerous than simple childishness. It is a well-developed, demonic conditioning of the church to glide slowly into a state of apostasy, far removed from even understanding, let alone living, original intent. This is the work of the principalities and principalities we wrestle with in our generation. It is the psychological conditioning of the church in the final generation to replace the spiritual with the sensual; to believe that that which is outwardly impressive is true and of eternal value, and at the same time to disregard the seemingly irrelevant and boring nature of the spiritual instruction and protection we so desperately need (1 Corinthians 1:25-2:5). Again, we are being conditioned to walk by sight, not by faith; to be sensual rather than spiritually discerning people. When Christ returns, will He find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8), or will He find that His people can no longer see the invisible (Colossians 3:1-4; compare Hebrews 11:27b)?
We go to church on Sunday morning and the worship band kicks into high gear playing the latest, repetitive pablum-based choruses followed by dim lights and an attention grabbing series of video clips. Then a guy in designer jeans and hanging shirt-tales takes center stage and preaches about things you’ve known since you were a week old in the faith. This isn’t Christianity New Testament style, it’s a Hollywood show – it’s American Christianity. But even more, it’s an experience, a religious subculture, designed by the enemy to move the church from a spiritual, faith-based foundation to a sensual, sight-based lifestyle. The popularity of this Sunday service paradigm and the fact of its near-exact reproduction throughout our country in all the really cool mega churches in our nation show how entrenched this “walk by sight” deception has become.
We now determine what is spiritual, what is awesome, by what we experience through our senses and our natural reasoning, not by what we experience in the spirit. We have little to no spiritual discernment to work with, so we use our eyes, minds, and emotions to determine what is good and true. This conditions the church to eventually succumb to a deception which moves us away from a mature walk of faith and manifestation of the indwelling Christ to an expression of religion and of things which are only impressive to the natural man. As this conditioning continues, our impact on the demonic world becomes minimal, which is the goal of the deception on their part – to neutralize the spiritual impact of the church on the powers of darkness and to lessen our impact on those seeking to find the Lord in us.
We are incredibly blessed to be living in the generation of our Lord’s return! But Satan also knows the time and that his time is running out. His wrath is intensifying and his attempts at deception are becoming much more dangerous, global and elusive. He has had 6000 years to study us and to learn what works and what does not work when it comes to neutralizing our spiritual vitality and discernment. We must pray and study with a determined seriousness if we are to overcome the intensification of deception in these last days.
“The feature of intensification is inherent in all realms; the physical and the spiritual. In nature, harvest is the intensification of a process. The end is but the full outworking or development of what was inherent in the beginning. We are living in an age when, in every realm, this process has reached an enormous proportion.” T.A. Sparks
Sin, lawlessness, and deception have always been with us. They are from the beginning. But in our age, called the “last time” (1 John 2:18; 1 Peter 1:20; Jude 1:18) and the “last days” (Hebrews 1:2; 2 Timothy 3:1-9), we draw ever closer to the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom and the final dethronement of the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). We know from Revelation 12:12 that the nearer we get to the end of this age, the greater becomes the wrath of Satan, and the more intense become his attacks on God’s people; whether physical, emotional, or spiritual.
In Ephesians 6:12 Paul says we “wrestle” against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world. In the original ‘wrestle’ is a description of intense conflict, not mild conflict. As the time of the coming of the Christ draws near, the conflict between the people of God and the forces arrayed against us intensifies. Demons go insane (maybe I should say more insane). We saw the intensity of the attacks against Christ in His humanity. The church is the body of Christ, and as such, faces a similar conflict, especially for those in the church who intend to go on to God’s full thought for their lives. Each step forward is met with fierce resistance. The greater our spiritual advance, the greater the antagonism against us. We are at war. And in the church age, that war is the hottest battle in the history of mankind.
The forms this war takes against the saints are varied. The primary form (which has always been at the top of Satan’s list) is deception. As bad as persecution is, the most effective and lasting way to neutralize the spiritual impact of God’s people is to deceive them.
We see deception beginning early in the church age. In our generation deception is global and is greatly intensified in both saturation and subtlety. There are many truths we simply don’t understand anymore. Our thoughts are clouded and distracted. The key principles and concepts of the teaching of this dispensation are a mystery to us. But what’s really scary is that we believe we are fine (we would say there’s always room for improvement of course, but overall, we believe we’re doing great),
“Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and do not realize that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind.” (Revelation 3:17)
Do we even consider it possible that verses such as this could apply to us? Jesus isn’t talking about material poverty when He says the Laodecians are “poor”; He’s talking about spiritual blindness. We couldn’t be as closed or as blind as the Laodecians, or the Galatians, or the Hebrews, or the Corinthians, or . . . . could we? Why do we think we’re not equally at risk? Why do we consider ourselves superior?
This age of intensification is a spiritual battle for the minds and hearts of the people of God. It is the time when all of us are on the frontlines of spiritual conflict. What did we think war would be like?
As Bob Dylan said, “When you gonna wake up?” There is a slow train coming and when it arrives the spiritual condition of each of us will be revealed in truth. There will be no more hiding, no more playing church, and no more self-justification. Those eyes which are “as a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:14) will pierce to the depths of our souls and expose the life (or lack thereof) that resides within each of us. “Let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6)
One other area of intensification should be looked at briefly in this context. In Revelation 12:12 we are told that at some point in the near future Satan will be unleashing “great wrath” upon the earth “knowing that he has but a short time.” This coincides with our Lord’s teaching in Matthew 24:21-24 (and similar passages) that stress the exponential intensification of spiritual warfare and deception which will characterize the final generation. As the time of Satan’s judgment draws near, his anger increases, as does his assault on the Body of Christ. Our wrestling against principalities and powers will increase significantly as we come nearer to the close of this age.
“It is true that the true children of God are going through a time of intense trial and testing spiritually in these last days; everywhere it is so. Why? Because the Lord must have something against which hell is impotent and by which He demonstrates to the universe that strength of His might which causes to stand and withstand, having done all to stand. If one were asked what the last issue for the church in this age is, I would say that it stands, and that is saying a tremendous thing. Oh, you say, that is surely limiting things, are you not expecting much more than that? Progress,, advance, sweeping movements?
(The intensification of the conflict will be so overwhelming that) . . . “the church will have its work cut out in the end just to stand, but its standing will be its victory. Just to be able, through testing, trial, when everything is blowing round you like a blizzard; when everything is dark, mysterious, and even God seems far away and unreal, and faith is tested and you are being assailed on the right hand and on the left, and there is every reason outwardly for giving up, falling down, surrendering, lowering your standard. Just to stand and not be moved in your faith is the greatest possible victory in the final generation.” T.A. Sparks
As our Lord Himself stated in Luke 18:8, “. . . when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” I am certain the Holy Spirit will be graciously using a number of God’s children to accomplish wondrous things in the world at the time of the end, but for many of us, holding on to our faith and standing firm in the midst of the most intense spiritual battle of all time, will be the great test, and the great victory for those who do stand.
The “perilous times” spoken of in 2 Timothy 3:1 point to the rise of activities in the last days similar to that of Jannes and Jambres (verse 8). These were the magicians of Pharaoh who withstood Moses (Exodus 7:8-13). We need to notice the nature of their resistance to the truth. The mode in which “Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses” was simply by imitating, as far as they were able, whatever he did. What Moses did, they could do, so from an objective observer’s viewpoint, there was no significant difference. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses wrought miracles to get the people out of Egypt, they would work miracles to keep them in.
The most satanic resistance to God’s testimony in the world “in the last days” is offered by those who, though they imitate the effects of the truth, have “a form of godliness,” but not “the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). People like this can do the same things, adopt the same forms, use the same theology, phraseology and profess the same convictions as others. If the true Christian feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, teaches the Scriptures, witnesses to the lost, engages in prayer, sings worship songs, then the imitator will also do every one of these things. Again, this is the special character of the resistance offered to the truth “in the last days”. This is the spirit and work of 21st century “Jannes and Jambres.”
Only spiritual discernment can distinguish the imitation from the real. External observance alone cannot separate the two (Hebrews 5:14).
“The whole assembly stood there with the greatest reverence before this highest Majesty and most powerful Inspirer of awe, before which the greatest of souls becomes so little as to be almost nothing. And if we had not been witness to the movement of the body during this event, the raising of hands during the songs and prayers, and the expressions of humility – and if we had not heard the beating of the hearts before this immeasurable grandeur – we would have thought ourselves transferred to another life; to heaven. And, truly, we were at that hour in another world; the world of the Spirit. We were in the house of God, in God’s immediate Presence, and all with lowered heads and humble tongues and voices raised in prayer and praise, (were surrounded by) weeping eyes, awestruck hearts and pure thoughts of intercession.”
This recounting of a worship experience which occurred in the early 1900’s cites the spiritual impact on the attendees of the Islamic Ka’aba (original source unknown).
What if such an event was held in a Christian church (on, say, a Sunday morning) and instead of being saturated with the forms and words of Islam, was instead saturated with Christian forms and words? Would we know whether we were dealing with the Holy Spirit or with the spirit of Jannes and Jambres which Paul prophesied would come to the church in the last days? “. . . If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24b). But as we close in on the final apostasy of the church (2 Thessalonians 2:3), it seems that many in evangelical Christianity believe they are impervious to deception. The security of the born again believers in Christ does not prevent them from being “children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). We may be evangelical, doctrinally orthodox and safe in Christ, but we are not immune to deception. There are too many warnings in the scriptures given to the church of Jesus Christ regarding the intensity and subtlety of the last day’s deception for us to consider ourselves invulnerable to being deceived.
The character of deception in the generation of antichrist is based on “signs and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). The world operates in the realm of the sensual; the five senses coupled with logic, reason and instinct. These systems of perception are all that humans are capable of outside of Christ. But the Christian is a spiritual being and has the capacity (if developed) to see through the visible and sensual to the spiritual realities behind what is seen (note: 1 Corinthians 2:10-15; Hebrews 5:14). We are to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). There has never been a generation in the history of the church when this was more important than now. Unfortunately, we have become the generation of “walking by sight”; not the generation of “walking by faith”. The deception of the world and of the church will be based on that which is seen, so the church must be a company of people who are able to see through the surface and penetrate to the spiritual reality of all things. We must be able to give a spiritual interpretation to all that is around us.
I believe the church in America is being conditioned to walk by sight, by empiricism, not by faith. Our largest churches are not known for the kind of study and spiritual depth needed to develop deep and sustaining faith and spiritual discernment (Hebrews 5:11-14); they are characterized by that which appeals to sight (video clips, stage lights, celebrity-status preachers, energy-charged high volume music, etc.). We have come to believe that these things have spiritual content. If they were removed, the church would no longer be popular because spiritual life has been redefined from that which is based on faith and eternal spiritual reality (2 Corinthians 4:15), to that which is based on sight, feelings, and sensory presentation. We no longer have the capacity to walk by faith as the early church did. We need visual props and Hollywood style professionalism to persuade us that we are experiencing ‘awesome Christianity’.
I would be willing to simply relegate this development in American Christianity to the realm of immaturity where sincerely seeking believers have failed to move from milk to meat in their pursuit of spiritual sustenance. But it’s much more dangerous than simple childishness. It is a well-developed, demonic conditioning of the church to glide slowly into a state of apostasy, far removed from even understanding, let alone living, original intent. This is the work of the principalities and principalities we wrestle with in our generation. It is the psychological conditioning of the church in the final generation to replace the spiritual with the sensual; to believe that that which is outwardly impressive is true and of eternal value, and at the same time to disregard the seemingly irrelevant and boring nature of the spiritual instruction and protection we so desperately need (1 Corinthians 1:25-2:5). Again, we are being conditioned to walk by sight, not by faith; to be sensual rather than spiritually discerning people. When Christ returns, will He find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8), or will He find that His people can no longer see the invisible (Colossians 3:1-4; compare Hebrews 11:27b)?
We go to church on Sunday morning and the worship band kicks into high gear playing the latest, repetitive pablum-based choruses followed by dim lights and an attention grabbing series of video clips. Then a guy in designer jeans and hanging shirt-tales takes center stage and preaches about things you’ve known since you were a week old in the faith. This isn’t Christianity New Testament style, it’s a Hollywood show – it’s American Christianity. But even more, it’s an experience, a religious subculture, designed by the enemy to move the church from a spiritual, faith-based foundation to a sensual, sight-based lifestyle. The popularity of this Sunday service paradigm and the fact of its near-exact reproduction throughout our country in all the really cool mega churches in our nation show how entrenched this “walk by sight” deception has become.
We now determine what is spiritual, what is awesome, by what we experience through our senses and our natural reasoning, not by what we experience in the spirit. We have little to no spiritual discernment to work with, so we use our eyes, minds, and emotions to determine what is good and true. This conditions the church to eventually succumb to a deception which moves us away from a mature walk of faith and manifestation of the indwelling Christ to an expression of religion and of things which are only impressive to the natural man. As this conditioning continues, our impact on the demonic world becomes minimal, which is the goal of the deception on their part – to neutralize the spiritual impact of the church on the powers of darkness and to lessen our impact on those seeking to find the Lord in us.
We are incredibly blessed to be living in the generation of our Lord’s return! But Satan also knows the time and that his time is running out. His wrath is intensifying and his attempts at deception are becoming much more dangerous, global and elusive. He has had 6000 years to study us and to learn what works and what does not work when it comes to neutralizing our spiritual vitality and discernment. We must pray and study with a determined seriousness if we are to overcome the intensification of deception in these last days.
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