God always does a unique work in His people at the end of a dispensation in preparation for the beginning of a new era. As one author put it,
Things become very strange and very difficult; everything seems to be thrown into a state of disturbance, upheaval, intense pressure and conflict. The great conflicting forces in this universe register very terribly and intensely upon that which is of God and upon those who are of account to Him, so that there often arises the sense that this is an actual end, and a question as to what more is possible. Inwardly we feel that the way is becoming exceedingly hedged up: 'frustration' is the word which seems to prevail, and outwardly everything is in a state of serious and great question as to the future. Indeed, it becomes more persistently the experience of the true people of God that they could give up and abandon everything. The ways in which this works out are numerous, but the whole effect is to paralyze and put out of commission that which is of God and bring it to a complete standstill.
This is a time of increased intensity in spiritual conflict. Life can’t simply be approached business-as-usual any longer. We can’t just go through the motions week after week as if things will continue status quo forever. We are now at a time in history when the Lord is bringing an awakening in the knowledge of Christ to those in His church who want His best – who are in pursuit of Christ. And that desire to know the Lord in fullness is being resisted with great intensity by our enemy.
In a very practical way, God is reducing all of us to Christ. Meaning that everything we thought would carry us through; everything we thought would sustain us and provide life and security is being stripped away. As Paul told the Corinthians, We had the sentence of death in ourselves so that we would learn to not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.
We can no longer rely on a second-hand knowledge of the Lord. Things must become very personal and very real for us to survive spiritually. The reason for this is simple: Christ must become our life not merely our religion. In Philippians 1:21 Paul told them, For me to live is Christ. . . He wasn’t being poetic. Paul knew that Christ (not Paul, not Christianity) – Christ was the direct, intimate source of Paul’s life.
In Hebrews 12:27 we read, And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. The Lord is in the process of “removing” everything from our lives that we depend on and replacing them with Christ.
We can only learn dependence on Him when we are at the end of all our resources. The Lord knows that many of us want to live in Christ; we want to know what that means. He also knows that to get us there we must experience the failure of all that is not Christ. If this is to be personal for us, not just Christian techniques or ten-steps-to-victory programs; if you and I are going to find our life exclusively in Christ, we must come up against what only Christ can overcome. Then we learn what both faith and the presence of Christ in us are all about. One speaker I heard once said that faith doesn’t even begin until we end.
God must remove the temporal, the seen and replace it with the eternal, the unseen:
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the thing which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)
Put simply, God will see to it, by the intensity of our circumstances, that anything in our lives that is temporal or carnal will be removed and replaced by that which is spiritual and eternal in nature. There must be an intensifying of this process which places us in complete dependency of faith and humility before God, having no confidence in ourselves and absolute confidence in the Lord.
This is a focused characteristic of the final generation.
Satan’s time is short and his wrath great. The war is consummating and we, as God’s people, are the targets of the enemy’s anger and desperation. In times like these our vision must be greater than simply going through the motions of Christianity. We must both see and draw from the life of Christ in us. We must know Him deeply in real and practical experience.
As Major Ian Thomas once wrote,
To be entirely honest, I know of nothing quite so boring as Christianity without Christ. Countless people have stopped going to a place of worship simply because they are sick of going through the motions of a dead religion. . . What a pity that there are not more people around to show them that Jesus Christ is alive.
Christ is alive in us. Do we know that beyond the theology of it?
Another author wrote,
How necessary it is for there to be more than an ordinary abandonment to the Lord – coming to the place where his master and Lord in truth, and where we are utterly subject to Him. If we can at all discern the signs of this time, both as to the world and the coming phase of things, as well as in our own spiritual experience, let us see that they are of tremendous meaning. The eternal counsels of God, comprehending all ages and realms, so vast in their importance. So much of a deepening work in us must be done to bring about a corresponding vision is us of ultimate intention for our lives.
Have you had an experience of waiting, longing, praying, and feeling and then the Lord brings you in touch with something that is original; something that is very uniquely of Him in relation to you? You have sensed a deep need for something more and found that this need can only be met in Christ in a personal way? This is where the Lord would have us; seeking Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Seeking and finding. Christ is so vast, so incomprehensible, that when we have pursued and gained an increasing knowledge of Him, we will have only scratched the surface.
We are coming to the time when a great many changes are going to take place in the system of Christianity. God desires to have a people who are in tune with His fuller purpose in Christ. For many of us, there is coming a point in time, soon, when all that is temporal, impersonal, or organizational is going to be forced by world conditions to give way to a spiritual ground; where our entire focus will have to shift from earth to heaven – from Christianity to Christ. It will not be possible to simply carry on as usual. We are being forced into a fuller measure of spiritual life and vision where our interests and God’s interests become the same.
It’s not simply a question of what we have been taught in church services, seminaries and conferences, but of what has really been revealed in us of Christ Himself. No one can take away from us what God personally reveals to us; nothing can destroy that; it becomes a part of who we are. That is the crucial issue at the end of this age. We must be able to recognize the changing direction of things, and we must be able to move with God and distinguish what is of Christ and what is of man. We must move further and higher than we have ever gone in Him to see the destiny and purpose of God in the church.
If we do press forward we will be resisted and we may feel very alone, but the things God will show us will make everything that is less than God’s intention empty and dissatisfying. We will hunger with a spiritual hunger for that which is real and eternal.
Let me close with this comment by T. Austin Sparks,
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. 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. 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.
Let’s make sure we are in that company of overcomers when our Lord returns to take us home and free us from the war we find ourselves in.
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