Thursday, November 22, 2012
All the believers were one in heart and soul. (Acts 4:32 ISV)
The Lord must have a company in the earth who, in every respect, are a heavenly people. They are not from here or of here, just as Christ was from above, not from beneath. They are born from above and realize the implications of that reality. Their spiritual resources of life, power, wisdom, knowledge, and purpose must be heavenly and by mediation of the Holy Spirit alone. Their means and methods must be Divinely supplied and dictated. Their energy must be directly Divine energy; which means that they must have been separated from their own. The spiritual relationships and associations must be heavenly. It was the resolving into an earthly institution and system which cost the Church its Throne power at the beginning, and there can be no recovery without a clear position as to traditional relationships. There will need to be a purely heavenly position as to the really heavenly nature of the Body of Christ – the Church, without any contradictions in earthly orders. We have heard it said that at a certain gathering of servants of the Lord "it was like a touch of heaven; everyone dropped – for the time being – their differences of denomination and earthly divisions." This speaks for itself. But why go back to them?
They were of one mind and one soul. We can never arrange this, or decide to do this heavenly business to any consequence (except failure) unless each one concerned is in it by revelation of the Holy Spirit, and is born into it through spiritual travail. We shall be wasting our time if we expect, try, or even pray for anything really effective apart from this essentially heavenly and therefore anointed ground. There is no royal road or short cut to the Throne or to Throne power; it will cost us everything here. We have known more than one to be faced with this issue, and – in trying to keep something here – miss the Lord's highest and best, and later in life to know that it was so. Will you go to the Lord and ask Him to do that deep work by His Cross in the hands of the Holy Spirit which will result in your being brought into the place where His authority is exercised through you, and His rule is registered in the realm where things matter most, through your heavenly union with Him? TAS
Sunday, November 18, 2012
God's Real Work; His Ultimate Goal
. . . to those who are called according to His purpose, God works all things together for good. (Romans 8:28)
Go back to the place where, for the time being, the Lord has put you, where He has called you to live your life and do your work in all the trial and difficulty and suffering of it, and do not strain to get out of it. Do not lose the present value of it by always living mentally or hopefully in a time when you will be out of it, but go back there and recognize that if you are the Lord's, if you love God and are called according to purpose (as you are if you are in Christ), God is seeking to do something with you and in you by means of the conditions of your present situation. You will only defeat God's end if you try to get out, and will fail to recognize and accept what He is seeking to do. I can think of few things more regrettable and grievous than that we should look back upon any part of our life and have to say, "I might have realized some great purpose of God in that period of my life if only I had taken another attitude toward it than the one I did take; I was chafing, impatient, all the time looking for a way of escape; I was rebellious, living in another mental world of my own creating, in which I would do and be this and that; and I missed all that God intended at that time." I say, there can be few things more grievous than that.
So we must go back to the sphere and conditions in which the Lord has placed us, with this attitude – God has a thought which relates to me as one of His Own; and that thought is, that through the conditions and sufferings of my life He should develop in me the features of His Son. On the one hand, the features of the old creation may be seen to be more and more terrible and horrible, as I recognize them in myself; but over against that God is doing something which is other than myself, not me at all. He is bringing into being Another, altogether other, and that is His Son. Slowly, all too slowly; nevertheless something is happening. That sonship is not very much manifested yet, but it is going to be manifested. What God has been doing will come out into the light eventually – conformity to the image of His Son; "that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." So we look out upon the people of God on the earth amongst whom we are included, and we have to adjust our ideas as to why we are here. There may be things to do, but God is far more concerned with the being than with the doing. TAS
Go back to the place where, for the time being, the Lord has put you, where He has called you to live your life and do your work in all the trial and difficulty and suffering of it, and do not strain to get out of it. Do not lose the present value of it by always living mentally or hopefully in a time when you will be out of it, but go back there and recognize that if you are the Lord's, if you love God and are called according to purpose (as you are if you are in Christ), God is seeking to do something with you and in you by means of the conditions of your present situation. You will only defeat God's end if you try to get out, and will fail to recognize and accept what He is seeking to do. I can think of few things more regrettable and grievous than that we should look back upon any part of our life and have to say, "I might have realized some great purpose of God in that period of my life if only I had taken another attitude toward it than the one I did take; I was chafing, impatient, all the time looking for a way of escape; I was rebellious, living in another mental world of my own creating, in which I would do and be this and that; and I missed all that God intended at that time." I say, there can be few things more grievous than that.
So we must go back to the sphere and conditions in which the Lord has placed us, with this attitude – God has a thought which relates to me as one of His Own; and that thought is, that through the conditions and sufferings of my life He should develop in me the features of His Son. On the one hand, the features of the old creation may be seen to be more and more terrible and horrible, as I recognize them in myself; but over against that God is doing something which is other than myself, not me at all. He is bringing into being Another, altogether other, and that is His Son. Slowly, all too slowly; nevertheless something is happening. That sonship is not very much manifested yet, but it is going to be manifested. What God has been doing will come out into the light eventually – conformity to the image of His Son; "that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." So we look out upon the people of God on the earth amongst whom we are included, and we have to adjust our ideas as to why we are here. There may be things to do, but God is far more concerned with the being than with the doing. TAS
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Spiritual Reality vs. Christendom
The Most High does not live in buildings made by human hands. (Acts 7:48 ISV)
What Stephen saw, and what is stated, intimated, and implicit in the New Testament (a monumental document on the matter is "the Letter to the Hebrews"), was that Solomon was – at most – but a figure of a greater "Son," and his temple, with all its glory, wealth, and beauty, was only a pointer onward to "A house not made with hands"; what Peter – after a difficult and painful transition – called, God's spiritual house. Stephen concludes with a comprehensive gathering of all this history into "the Prophets," and virtually says that the spirit of prophecy was related to this ever-future, onward, and ultimate spiritual goal of God.
What again, then, does all this amount to? On the one side, it is a mighty exposure and denunciation of the incorrigible habit and disposition of God's people to bring what is essentially heavenly down to earth and fasten it there; to make of the spiritual something temporal; to make of the eternal something which will not – and cannot – abide; to make form, means, orders, program and technique all-important. In a word, to have things fixed and boxed, so that the Holy Spirit is thwarted and frustrated.
The most dominant note, the most imperative cry of the New Testament is "Let us go on." But the context of this cry is – "outside the camp." The writer of those words in the Letter to the Hebrews, who has so much in common with Stephen, makes it abundantly clear that "outside the camp" means outside of all that which in its Judaistic nature systematizes and crystallizes Christianity into a set and settled form: into something earth-bound and final. On the other side, all this is a revelation of how fierce and terrible will be the opposition of such systems to a purely and definitely spiritual testimony. Unless there is a conforming, there will at least be ostracism, and at most martyrdom. T.A. Sparks
What Stephen saw, and what is stated, intimated, and implicit in the New Testament (a monumental document on the matter is "the Letter to the Hebrews"), was that Solomon was – at most – but a figure of a greater "Son," and his temple, with all its glory, wealth, and beauty, was only a pointer onward to "A house not made with hands"; what Peter – after a difficult and painful transition – called, God's spiritual house. Stephen concludes with a comprehensive gathering of all this history into "the Prophets," and virtually says that the spirit of prophecy was related to this ever-future, onward, and ultimate spiritual goal of God.
What again, then, does all this amount to? On the one side, it is a mighty exposure and denunciation of the incorrigible habit and disposition of God's people to bring what is essentially heavenly down to earth and fasten it there; to make of the spiritual something temporal; to make of the eternal something which will not – and cannot – abide; to make form, means, orders, program and technique all-important. In a word, to have things fixed and boxed, so that the Holy Spirit is thwarted and frustrated.
The most dominant note, the most imperative cry of the New Testament is "Let us go on." But the context of this cry is – "outside the camp." The writer of those words in the Letter to the Hebrews, who has so much in common with Stephen, makes it abundantly clear that "outside the camp" means outside of all that which in its Judaistic nature systematizes and crystallizes Christianity into a set and settled form: into something earth-bound and final. On the other side, all this is a revelation of how fierce and terrible will be the opposition of such systems to a purely and definitely spiritual testimony. Unless there is a conforming, there will at least be ostracism, and at most martyrdom. T.A. Sparks
Thursday, August 23, 2012
The Crisis of Seeing
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you. (Ephesians 1:18 NIV)
It is a seeing of the immense significance of Jesus in the eternal and universal order. With the Apostles that seeing was subsequent to the days of physical association. During the forty days after His resurrection it was like the dawning of a new day. First, those intimations, as when the uncertain light just passes over the heavens. Then more steady and certain rays, leading to the Day of Pentecost, when the sun appeared in full glory over the horizon dispelling the last shadow of uncertainty. On that day they saw Him as by an opened heaven. The mystery of the past was dispelled. The Bible lay open like a new book. They saw Him in the light of eternity. They began to see that, while He was the glorified, personal, Son of God, He was Himself the embodiment of a great, a vast heavenly and spiritual order and system. This seeing was absolutely revolutionary. It was a crisis out of which a new world and a new creation was born. True to this fundamental principle, all that vast revelation, which has come down the centuries from and through the Apostle Paul took its rise from that crisis described by him as "It pleased God... to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:16). "I received it... by revelation of Jesus Christ" (vs. 12). All the implicates were in the crisis; the full content was a progressive and ever-growing revelation.
While there was some initial testimony, the Apostles did not formulate in conference an enterprise, a mission, with all the related arrangements and organization. The new Life forced off the old leaves and dressed the new organism with a new vesture from within. The might, energy and urge of the Holy Spirit within produced a Way and an order, un-thought-of, unintended by them, and always to their own surprise. What was happening was really that Christ was taking form within them, individually and corporately, by new birth and growth. The believers not establishing a "church" as we think of churches; they were becoming an outward expression of the living, indwelling Christ.
T.A. Sparks
It is a seeing of the immense significance of Jesus in the eternal and universal order. With the Apostles that seeing was subsequent to the days of physical association. During the forty days after His resurrection it was like the dawning of a new day. First, those intimations, as when the uncertain light just passes over the heavens. Then more steady and certain rays, leading to the Day of Pentecost, when the sun appeared in full glory over the horizon dispelling the last shadow of uncertainty. On that day they saw Him as by an opened heaven. The mystery of the past was dispelled. The Bible lay open like a new book. They saw Him in the light of eternity. They began to see that, while He was the glorified, personal, Son of God, He was Himself the embodiment of a great, a vast heavenly and spiritual order and system. This seeing was absolutely revolutionary. It was a crisis out of which a new world and a new creation was born. True to this fundamental principle, all that vast revelation, which has come down the centuries from and through the Apostle Paul took its rise from that crisis described by him as "It pleased God... to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:16). "I received it... by revelation of Jesus Christ" (vs. 12). All the implicates were in the crisis; the full content was a progressive and ever-growing revelation.
While there was some initial testimony, the Apostles did not formulate in conference an enterprise, a mission, with all the related arrangements and organization. The new Life forced off the old leaves and dressed the new organism with a new vesture from within. The might, energy and urge of the Holy Spirit within produced a Way and an order, un-thought-of, unintended by them, and always to their own surprise. What was happening was really that Christ was taking form within them, individually and corporately, by new birth and growth. The believers not establishing a "church" as we think of churches; they were becoming an outward expression of the living, indwelling Christ.
T.A. Sparks
Friday, August 3, 2012
Those God Calls
This author is old. Actually he's not even on earth any more. So, struggle through the lanquage and remember people with vision - with specific, personal (not second hand) revelation from God are rare and desparately needed, but such people are forged in the furnace of affliction. Anyway, you can take it from there. I'm praying that this is what God is doing with us and the outcome will be a ministry, a service, to others that is vital for our time and eternal in its impact. As Amy Carmichel said, "Those who suffer most, have most to give."
Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint. (Proverbs 29:18 NIV)
No one who knows anything about the present conditions will disagree with the statement that the Church is in tragic need of men with a message, but our point is that what is needed is the knowledge of what the message is for this time. That message must come from God to men chosen for the purpose. This is not a ministry which can be taken up. Usually for such ministry there is a long and deep history with God, a history full of mystery and suffering. Many phases are passed through, all in the permissive will of God, or in His directive will, inasmuch as they are intended to educate and give experience, but the course is never that of the established and settled kind, and so big changes may be called for, each of which comes by a new spiritual crisis. No one can do anything in the making of such vessels, however much they may be concerned for them. This is God's work alone, and they have to be left in His hands.
Men of vision and courage! Yes, and more courage will be required here than in any other realm of which we know. A specific revelation will – to begin with – set a distance between such as have it and such as have not that specific revelation. This will give rise to many possibilities. Even the best servants of God who have not so seen will probably stand back. It will mean loneliness, and going on alone perhaps for quite a time. It will mean ostracism, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, suspicion, closed doors (so far as man can close them). Then, no revelation from God is ever just verbal truth, it always involves practical issues. These practical issues will appear like the crystallizing of the truth, so that those who obey it will become marked people. This raises a new set of opposing elements. If God has given a revelation concerning His purpose in Christ which is of such vital importance as to have called for all this special history and preparation, we must realize that it is of very great moment to Satan's interests, and he will leave nothing unused to make its course impossible. If the greatest need of the hour is that of men of vision, along with it will go the need for willingness to pay the price. But there is another side, and that is God's side, and the compensations are great. It is a great thing to be in possession of an open heaven and of a mandate from God.
Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint. (Proverbs 29:18 NIV)
No one who knows anything about the present conditions will disagree with the statement that the Church is in tragic need of men with a message, but our point is that what is needed is the knowledge of what the message is for this time. That message must come from God to men chosen for the purpose. This is not a ministry which can be taken up. Usually for such ministry there is a long and deep history with God, a history full of mystery and suffering. Many phases are passed through, all in the permissive will of God, or in His directive will, inasmuch as they are intended to educate and give experience, but the course is never that of the established and settled kind, and so big changes may be called for, each of which comes by a new spiritual crisis. No one can do anything in the making of such vessels, however much they may be concerned for them. This is God's work alone, and they have to be left in His hands.
Men of vision and courage! Yes, and more courage will be required here than in any other realm of which we know. A specific revelation will – to begin with – set a distance between such as have it and such as have not that specific revelation. This will give rise to many possibilities. Even the best servants of God who have not so seen will probably stand back. It will mean loneliness, and going on alone perhaps for quite a time. It will mean ostracism, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, suspicion, closed doors (so far as man can close them). Then, no revelation from God is ever just verbal truth, it always involves practical issues. These practical issues will appear like the crystallizing of the truth, so that those who obey it will become marked people. This raises a new set of opposing elements. If God has given a revelation concerning His purpose in Christ which is of such vital importance as to have called for all this special history and preparation, we must realize that it is of very great moment to Satan's interests, and he will leave nothing unused to make its course impossible. If the greatest need of the hour is that of men of vision, along with it will go the need for willingness to pay the price. But there is another side, and that is God's side, and the compensations are great. It is a great thing to be in possession of an open heaven and of a mandate from God.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Help My Unbelief
I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief! (Mark 9:24 NLT)
Here is something that you and I must dwell upon. Personally, I am constantly brought to this: I have not yet learnt thoroughly to believe what I believe in! I believe in the finished work of Christ, yet sometimes I am just as miserable about myself as any man could be. I am often almost at the point of giving up because of what a wretched kind of thing I am. If there is anything in this world that would cause me to give up the Christian ministry, it is myself. Do you understand what I mean? Oh, how we are discouraged by what we find in ourselves! And so, we don't believe what we believe in. We believe in the finished work of Christ, and that God puts all that finished work to our account. God does not see us in ourselves – He sees us in Christ. He does not see us, He sees Christ in us. We don't believe that! If we really did we would be delivered from ourselves and would indeed be triumphant Christians.
Of course, that does not mean that we can just behave anyhow. We may speak and act wrongly, but for every Christian there is a refuge – a mercy seat. It has not to be made; it is there with the precious Blood. That has not to be shed; it is shed. There is a High Priest making intercession for us. There is everything that we need. The work is finished, completed. Oh, we Christians must believe our beliefs! We must take hold, with both hands, of the things which are of our Christian faith.
T.A. Sparks
Here is something that you and I must dwell upon. Personally, I am constantly brought to this: I have not yet learnt thoroughly to believe what I believe in! I believe in the finished work of Christ, yet sometimes I am just as miserable about myself as any man could be. I am often almost at the point of giving up because of what a wretched kind of thing I am. If there is anything in this world that would cause me to give up the Christian ministry, it is myself. Do you understand what I mean? Oh, how we are discouraged by what we find in ourselves! And so, we don't believe what we believe in. We believe in the finished work of Christ, and that God puts all that finished work to our account. God does not see us in ourselves – He sees us in Christ. He does not see us, He sees Christ in us. We don't believe that! If we really did we would be delivered from ourselves and would indeed be triumphant Christians.
Of course, that does not mean that we can just behave anyhow. We may speak and act wrongly, but for every Christian there is a refuge – a mercy seat. It has not to be made; it is there with the precious Blood. That has not to be shed; it is shed. There is a High Priest making intercession for us. There is everything that we need. The work is finished, completed. Oh, we Christians must believe our beliefs! We must take hold, with both hands, of the things which are of our Christian faith.
T.A. Sparks
Sunday, May 20, 2012
All in Christ
I strongly recommend that you subscribe to the following newsletter. It comes daily, it's free and is always enlightening. I've included a sample below. Here's their address:
http://www.austin-sparks.net/PHPlist/?p=subscribe
...That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ. (Ephesians 1:10)
There is one comprehensive and all-embodying truth which, if it really gained the complete mastery of our hearts and dominated our whole consciousness, capturing our will, our hearts, and our minds, would really revolutionize everything, just as the new covenant represents a revolution from the old covenant. The great truth which embodies everything is this: that God has determined that nothing which is not Christ shall remain, and He is working toward that end, on the one hand to rid this universe of everything that is not Christ; on the other hand to fill this universe with that which is Christ. That means that God does not accept or recognize anything whatever that is not Christ. Then again, it means that God puts His seal upon what is Christ, and it is all a matter of the measure of Christ. It is a tremendous thing when that really does come to our hearts with the force and the power which it really does represent. It explains everything of God's dealings with us. It gives us the key to our problems. It sets us at once upon the highway of God's own purpose.
http://www.austin-sparks.net/PHPlist/?p=subscribe
...That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ. (Ephesians 1:10)
There is one comprehensive and all-embodying truth which, if it really gained the complete mastery of our hearts and dominated our whole consciousness, capturing our will, our hearts, and our minds, would really revolutionize everything, just as the new covenant represents a revolution from the old covenant. The great truth which embodies everything is this: that God has determined that nothing which is not Christ shall remain, and He is working toward that end, on the one hand to rid this universe of everything that is not Christ; on the other hand to fill this universe with that which is Christ. That means that God does not accept or recognize anything whatever that is not Christ. Then again, it means that God puts His seal upon what is Christ, and it is all a matter of the measure of Christ. It is a tremendous thing when that really does come to our hearts with the force and the power which it really does represent. It explains everything of God's dealings with us. It gives us the key to our problems. It sets us at once upon the highway of God's own purpose.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Dominique
Do not let anyone corrupt you from the simplicity that is in Christ
(2 Corinthians 11:3b).
Dominique Voillaume has influenced my life as few people ever have. One year during our ministry in France, Dominique, a lean, muscular six-foot, two inched, always wearing a navy blue beret, learned at age fifty-four that he was dying in inoperable cancer. With the mission’s permission he moved to a poor neighborhood in Paris and took a job as night watchman at a factory. Returning home every morning at 8 a.m. he would go directly to a little park across the street from where he lived and sit down on a wooden bench. Hanging around the park were marginal people, drifters, winos, dirty old men who ogled the girls passing by.
Dominique never criticized, scolded, or reprimanded them. He laughed, told stories, shared his candy, and accepted them just as they were. From living so long out of the inner circle, he gave off a peace, a serene sense of self-possession and an hospitality of heart that caused cynical young men and defeated old men to gravitate toward him. His simple witness lay in accepting others as they were without questions and allowing them to make themselves at home in his heart. Dominique was the most nonjudgmental person I have ever known.
One day, when the ragtag group of rejects asked him to talk about himself, Dominique gave them a thumbnail description of his life. Then he told them with quiet conviction that God loved them tenderly and stubbornly, that Jesus had come for rejects and outcasts just like them. His witness was credible because the Word was enfleshed on his bones. Later one old man said, ‘The dirty jokes, vulgar language, and leering at girls just stopped.’
One morning Dominique failed to appear on his park bench. The men grew concerned. A few hours later, he was found dead on the floor of his cold-water flat. He died in the obscurity of a Paris slum.
Dominique Voillaume never tried to impress anybody, never wondered if his life was useful or his witness meaningful. He never felt he had to do something great fro God. He did keep a journal. It was found shortly after his death in the drawer of the night stand by his bed. His last entry is one of the most astonishing things I have ever read:
All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness. If He wants it to, my life will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices. But the usefulness of my life is His concern, not mine. It would be indecent of me to worry about that.
In Dominique Voillaume I saw the reality of a life lived entirely for God and for others. After an all-night prayer vigil by his friends, he was buried in an unadorned pine box in the backyard of our fellowship house in Saint-Remy. A simple wooden cross over his grave with the instruction: “Dominique Voillaume, a witness to Jesus Christ” said it all. More than seven thousand people gathered from all over Europe to attend his funeral.
Source Unknown
(2 Corinthians 11:3b).
Dominique Voillaume has influenced my life as few people ever have. One year during our ministry in France, Dominique, a lean, muscular six-foot, two inched, always wearing a navy blue beret, learned at age fifty-four that he was dying in inoperable cancer. With the mission’s permission he moved to a poor neighborhood in Paris and took a job as night watchman at a factory. Returning home every morning at 8 a.m. he would go directly to a little park across the street from where he lived and sit down on a wooden bench. Hanging around the park were marginal people, drifters, winos, dirty old men who ogled the girls passing by.
Dominique never criticized, scolded, or reprimanded them. He laughed, told stories, shared his candy, and accepted them just as they were. From living so long out of the inner circle, he gave off a peace, a serene sense of self-possession and an hospitality of heart that caused cynical young men and defeated old men to gravitate toward him. His simple witness lay in accepting others as they were without questions and allowing them to make themselves at home in his heart. Dominique was the most nonjudgmental person I have ever known.
One day, when the ragtag group of rejects asked him to talk about himself, Dominique gave them a thumbnail description of his life. Then he told them with quiet conviction that God loved them tenderly and stubbornly, that Jesus had come for rejects and outcasts just like them. His witness was credible because the Word was enfleshed on his bones. Later one old man said, ‘The dirty jokes, vulgar language, and leering at girls just stopped.’
One morning Dominique failed to appear on his park bench. The men grew concerned. A few hours later, he was found dead on the floor of his cold-water flat. He died in the obscurity of a Paris slum.
Dominique Voillaume never tried to impress anybody, never wondered if his life was useful or his witness meaningful. He never felt he had to do something great fro God. He did keep a journal. It was found shortly after his death in the drawer of the night stand by his bed. His last entry is one of the most astonishing things I have ever read:
All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness. If He wants it to, my life will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices. But the usefulness of my life is His concern, not mine. It would be indecent of me to worry about that.
In Dominique Voillaume I saw the reality of a life lived entirely for God and for others. After an all-night prayer vigil by his friends, he was buried in an unadorned pine box in the backyard of our fellowship house in Saint-Remy. A simple wooden cross over his grave with the instruction: “Dominique Voillaume, a witness to Jesus Christ” said it all. More than seven thousand people gathered from all over Europe to attend his funeral.
Source Unknown
Monday, April 2, 2012
Marriage – God’s Model for Christ and the Church
"Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husban." (Eph. 5:22-33)
One of the reasons there is so much debate and controversy around the roles we each have in marriage is because our focus is on the roles and not the reason or purpose of the roles. It’s very typical for us humans to look at marriage from the angle of what’s in it for me, but what Paul is talking about is in the context of the filling of the Spirit in Eph. 5:18, which presupposes that the married couple is more concerned with the glory of God than their own critique of each other’s performance. Their lives are characterized by the control, leading and shaping of the Holy Spirit, not the flesh.
Nothing will destroy a marriage faster than two people on a mission to fix each other.
In Matthew 10:39 our Lord lays down the one primary rule for discipleship, He who loses his life will find it. Practically speaking, this is what the filling of the spirit implies. We lose our lives so that Christ can bring His life into us. He can’t do so while we are in the way.
Marriage is the great testing ground for discipleship. Marriage is not meant to be 50/50; it’s meant to be 100/100 – meaning that to the extent a person loses his or her life, to that same extent, spiritual life and happiness can enter that marriage. Happiness in marriage is a byproduct of the pursuit of the glory of God.
The only reason my marriage is good and getting better all the time (Lennon-McCartney), is because each of us is learning how to give up our rights rather than fighting to keep our rights. Marriage isn’t about rights; it’s about sacrifice.
As one author wrote,
Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side; which leads to what I said in the beginning about the purpose for the roles in marriage. Compare these verses:
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms . . . For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. (Eph. 3:10, Eph. 5:31-32)
Our purpose in getting married is to find someone who can make us happier than we’d be if we were alone and then spend the rest of our lives trying to shape them into someone who will make us even happier. But God’s purpose is to use marriages to show the angelic realms and the human race the relationship between Christ and the church. Those are conflicting purposes. Which is why most marriages either fail or if they stay together, they are not even close to being genuinely happy.
So, again, no one finds life until they lose their own life and this is truer in marriage than in any other relationship. What the marriage relationship has the potential of being will never be experienced until both persons lose their lives for the other. And no marriage based on self – on rights and personal agendas – can be truly happy nor can it glorify God because personal rights, agendas and selfishness are not what the relationship between Christ and His church is all about.
So, when Paul says that the wife is to respect her husband, he’s not just offering some practical peace-keeping advice, he’s asking her to take on a role that reflects the attitude of the church to Christ. If she’s unwilling to take that role because of personal reasons, she misses both the joy of marriage as it can be and the opportunity to fulfill God’s purpose as shown in Eph. 3:10.
Notice this passage in 1 Peter 3:6, Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. . . You don’t have to do the calling him lord part, but you get the idea. Sarah’s relationship with Abraham reflected the church’s relationship to Christ.
When Paul asks the husband to love as Christ loved, he’s asking for sacrifice. Most husbands are much more interested in what their wives can sacrifice for them than visa versa. But when a husband sacrifices for his wife, he’s helping build a relationship of love that will make them both happier. He’s losing his life to gain a greater life in union with his wife.
It reminds me of the passage in Heb. 12:2, Who for the joy set before Him (i.e. our salvation), he endured the cross, despising the shame . . .
Jesus was alone until after the cross and resurrection, but when the grain of wheat fell into the ground and died, it bore much fruit. An entirely new race was born from the resurrection of Christ; a race that would become one flesh with Him. This was the result of the sacrifice of the cross.
When wives respect their husbands and when husbands love their wives like this, two things happen: God’s purpose in revealing the relationship of Christ and the church is accomplished, and the marriage becomes increasingly wonderful for the couple involved.
If we can get past our own self-centered expectations, we can not only glorify God in our marriage but we could also have a marriage that, as Paul wrote in another context is above all we could ask or think.
I’m going to close with a story that helps us see this in a practical way, in this case by focusing on the privilege of being a mother – though this could apply to the father as well:
The young mother set her foot on the path of life. 'Is the way long?’ she asked. And her Guide said: 'Yes'. 'And the way is hard'. 'And you will be old before you reach the end of it'. 'But the end will be better than the beginning'.
But the young Mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way, and bathed with them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them and life was good, and the young Mother cried, ‘Nothing will ever be lovelier than this'.
Then night came, and storm, and the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the Mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, 'Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come,’ and the Mother said, ‘This is better than the brightness of day, for I have taught my children courage'.
And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the Mother was weary, but at all times, she said to the children, A little patience and we are there. So the children climbed, and when they reached the top, they said, 'We could not have done it without you, Mother'. And the Mother, when she lay down that night, looked at the stars and said: 'This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned strength in the face of hardship'.
And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth-clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled, and the Mother said: 'Look up'. 'Lift your eyes to the Light'. And the children looked and saw above them beyond the darkness. And that night the Mother said: ‘This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God.’
And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the Mother grew old, and she was little and bent. And when the way was hard, they helped their Mother, and when the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and golden gate flung wide.
And the Mother said: 'I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them'. And the children said: 'You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates'.
And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her. And they said: 'We cannot see her, but she is with us still. A Mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence'.
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husban." (Eph. 5:22-33)
One of the reasons there is so much debate and controversy around the roles we each have in marriage is because our focus is on the roles and not the reason or purpose of the roles. It’s very typical for us humans to look at marriage from the angle of what’s in it for me, but what Paul is talking about is in the context of the filling of the Spirit in Eph. 5:18, which presupposes that the married couple is more concerned with the glory of God than their own critique of each other’s performance. Their lives are characterized by the control, leading and shaping of the Holy Spirit, not the flesh.
Nothing will destroy a marriage faster than two people on a mission to fix each other.
In Matthew 10:39 our Lord lays down the one primary rule for discipleship, He who loses his life will find it. Practically speaking, this is what the filling of the spirit implies. We lose our lives so that Christ can bring His life into us. He can’t do so while we are in the way.
Marriage is the great testing ground for discipleship. Marriage is not meant to be 50/50; it’s meant to be 100/100 – meaning that to the extent a person loses his or her life, to that same extent, spiritual life and happiness can enter that marriage. Happiness in marriage is a byproduct of the pursuit of the glory of God.
The only reason my marriage is good and getting better all the time (Lennon-McCartney), is because each of us is learning how to give up our rights rather than fighting to keep our rights. Marriage isn’t about rights; it’s about sacrifice.
As one author wrote,
Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side; which leads to what I said in the beginning about the purpose for the roles in marriage. Compare these verses:
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms . . . For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. (Eph. 3:10, Eph. 5:31-32)
Our purpose in getting married is to find someone who can make us happier than we’d be if we were alone and then spend the rest of our lives trying to shape them into someone who will make us even happier. But God’s purpose is to use marriages to show the angelic realms and the human race the relationship between Christ and the church. Those are conflicting purposes. Which is why most marriages either fail or if they stay together, they are not even close to being genuinely happy.
So, again, no one finds life until they lose their own life and this is truer in marriage than in any other relationship. What the marriage relationship has the potential of being will never be experienced until both persons lose their lives for the other. And no marriage based on self – on rights and personal agendas – can be truly happy nor can it glorify God because personal rights, agendas and selfishness are not what the relationship between Christ and His church is all about.
So, when Paul says that the wife is to respect her husband, he’s not just offering some practical peace-keeping advice, he’s asking her to take on a role that reflects the attitude of the church to Christ. If she’s unwilling to take that role because of personal reasons, she misses both the joy of marriage as it can be and the opportunity to fulfill God’s purpose as shown in Eph. 3:10.
Notice this passage in 1 Peter 3:6, Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. . . You don’t have to do the calling him lord part, but you get the idea. Sarah’s relationship with Abraham reflected the church’s relationship to Christ.
When Paul asks the husband to love as Christ loved, he’s asking for sacrifice. Most husbands are much more interested in what their wives can sacrifice for them than visa versa. But when a husband sacrifices for his wife, he’s helping build a relationship of love that will make them both happier. He’s losing his life to gain a greater life in union with his wife.
It reminds me of the passage in Heb. 12:2, Who for the joy set before Him (i.e. our salvation), he endured the cross, despising the shame . . .
Jesus was alone until after the cross and resurrection, but when the grain of wheat fell into the ground and died, it bore much fruit. An entirely new race was born from the resurrection of Christ; a race that would become one flesh with Him. This was the result of the sacrifice of the cross.
When wives respect their husbands and when husbands love their wives like this, two things happen: God’s purpose in revealing the relationship of Christ and the church is accomplished, and the marriage becomes increasingly wonderful for the couple involved.
If we can get past our own self-centered expectations, we can not only glorify God in our marriage but we could also have a marriage that, as Paul wrote in another context is above all we could ask or think.
I’m going to close with a story that helps us see this in a practical way, in this case by focusing on the privilege of being a mother – though this could apply to the father as well:
The young mother set her foot on the path of life. 'Is the way long?’ she asked. And her Guide said: 'Yes'. 'And the way is hard'. 'And you will be old before you reach the end of it'. 'But the end will be better than the beginning'.
But the young Mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way, and bathed with them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them and life was good, and the young Mother cried, ‘Nothing will ever be lovelier than this'.
Then night came, and storm, and the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the Mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, 'Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come,’ and the Mother said, ‘This is better than the brightness of day, for I have taught my children courage'.
And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the Mother was weary, but at all times, she said to the children, A little patience and we are there. So the children climbed, and when they reached the top, they said, 'We could not have done it without you, Mother'. And the Mother, when she lay down that night, looked at the stars and said: 'This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned strength in the face of hardship'.
And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth-clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled, and the Mother said: 'Look up'. 'Lift your eyes to the Light'. And the children looked and saw above them beyond the darkness. And that night the Mother said: ‘This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God.’
And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the Mother grew old, and she was little and bent. And when the way was hard, they helped their Mother, and when the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and golden gate flung wide.
And the Mother said: 'I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them'. And the children said: 'You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates'.
And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her. And they said: 'We cannot see her, but she is with us still. A Mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence'.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Dark Night of the Soul
I want to begin with a short passage in Ephesians 4:17-24
So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God. . . . That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that you put on the new man, which in God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
So, everyone has done that, right? You’re a new creation in Christ and you are living perfectly in all that the new life implies? Or maybe, like me, you’re just really close to perfection but haven’t quite got there yet. It is so frustrating – sinning occasionally:)
We know we aren’t supposed to live like we used to; that we’re supposed to lay aside the old life and move into a whole new life, but for most Christians the real issue is not knowing what we are supposed to do, but knowing how to do it.
For example, Paul struggles with this issue in Romans 7,
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
We’re not alone in this battle. Even the great apostle Paul went through a season of knowing exactly what was expected of him and discovering he wasn’t even close to living that way. So, how do we move from the old to the new? The first step is to recognize the fact that there is an old and a new - and that the old life is both empty and destructive.
Our old life at its absolute best is nothing more that spiritual death disguised as living a normal life. The first thing to realize is that no one moves out of their old life until they know, beyond doubt, that it’s worthless and self-destructive. When you and I can honestly, inside, say,
Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?!”
Can you relate to this? There’s nothing like desperation to motivate change. So then the question is - how, exactly, does the change occur? What does moving forward look like?
The change occurs when God shatters your life.
Let’s just take a couple of brief examples. We already saw Paul’s cry of desperation in Romans 7. Here’s a similar experience Peter had in Luke 22:31-34;
Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simo, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” Jesus answered, I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.
Remember Peter’s three denials? Afterward the Bible says Peter went and wept bitterly. All of Peter’s illusions of how capable he was of living the Christian life were shattered that night.
I want to cite an author’s description of this experience. If this hasn’t happen to you yet, it will – assuming you really do want to live the spiritual life Christ has brought you into.
Every true servant of God must experience a disabling from which he can never recover; he can never be quite the same again. Something must happen to you which means that from now on you will genuinely fear yourself. You will fear to move out on the impulse of your own mind, your own desires and creativity.. We must be aware that we are often working and serving the Lord in our own natural strength; we are not drawing from God.
God must bring us to a point – I cannot tell you how it will be, but he will do it – where, through a deep and dark experience, our natural power is touched and fundamentally weakened, so that we no longer dare trust ourselves.
The Lord graciously laid me aside for a season in my life and put me, spiritually, into utter darkness. It was almost as though he had forsaken me, almost as though nothing was going on and I had really come to the end of everything. And then by degrees he brought things back again. The temptation is always to try to help God by taking things back ourselves; but remember, there must be a full night in darkness. It cannot be hurried; he knows what he is doing.
And of course I cannot tell you how long he will take, but in principle I think it is quite safe to say this, that there will be a definite period when he will keep you there. It will seem as though nothing is happening; as though everything you valued is slipping from your grasp. There confronts you a blank wall with no door in it. Seemingly everyone else is being blessed and used, while you yourself have been passed by and are losing out. All is in darkness, but it is only for a night. It must indeed be a full night, but that is all. Afterwards you will find that everything is given back to you in glorious resurrection; and nothing can measure the difference between what was before and what now is....When once your back is broken, you will yield to the slightest touch from God.
Watchman Nee
Peter, and everyone who has ever been used of God in a great way, had to come to a place experientially that when he looked at himself, all he saw was a total failure. The Lord had great plans for Peter, but none of those plans could happen until first Peter understood his complete inability in himself to live the Christian life. Remember how our Lord said that only those who lose their lives will find it? Now you know what that means.
As long as we believe we having something to offer, something in us that will be of great help and value to God, we are still living at least in part in the old mindset of pride and blindness. But when we come to the end of ourselves, when we genuinely lose our lives, we discover that God is willing and able to strengthen us to live by His life, by His power. This is why Paul wrote the following to the Corinthians,
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; confused, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
The Lord desires that we express the likeness of Christ, of our new life in Him; not the likeness of our old life. And the only way that can happen is if we allow the Lord to bring us to a place of no confidence in ourselves and all confidence in Him. As Paul told the Philippians in 3:3,
For we worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
How do you get to the place of “no confidence” in the flesh? It is only when we see ourselves as absolute failures when it comes to living as Christ lived that we can begin to understand the how of all this.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. . .
Paul had experienced Romans 7 and knew, beyond any doubt, that only Christ could live the Christian life. Once that foundation of zero expectancy from ourselves and all expectancy from God is established, then we can approach the leading of the Spirit in this new life we entered with assurance that, as Paul told the Philippians, It is God who now works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13).
At that point, we want what God wants. We know that only He has the power to live that way; and we know that He is willing to work in us in a way that will get us there. The “getting us there” process is never an overnight thing; it may take years of learning and failing and winning and losing. But if we are walking by faith in Him instead of faith in us, He will definitely complete what He has begun in us. Like the Potter shaping the clay, if the clay is willing to be shaped, it’s only a matter of time until that clay represents exactly what the Potter has in mind. As painful as this training under the hand of God is, the outcome is perfect; it is exactly what He, and what we, long for. As one author put it,
Nothing so reveals the solid progress of a soul as when it is enable to view its own depravity without being disturbed or discouraged.
When we became Christians, what did we really expect from us? Why do you think God says the Christian life is a life of faith; of dependence upon Him, not on us? Jesus said that there is none good but God. Do we really believe we’re good? The goodness of any man or woman exists only to the extent that Christ is seen in them. We must decrease – He must increase. And the path of our decreasing and His increasing is that season of life that shows us in a very personal way that we cannot, in our own strength, be what the Lord would have us be. But He is more than willing to get us there by His mercy and power.
Finally, notice this comment by another writer,
Let us remember for our consolation that the perception of a disease is the fires step to a cure; when we have no sense of our need, we have no curative principle within. Discouragement is not a fruit of humility, but of pride. Suppose we have failed; all our falls are useful if they strip us of a disastrous confidence in ourselves.
Remember the passage I mentioned earlier from Philippians,
For we worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
When, because of the experiences of life you know, personally, beyond any doubt that you can’t live the Christian life, and when you believe that He can and is willing to do so in you, you will be able to move forward, walking by faith in the Son of God Who loved you and gave Himself for you. As Paul wrote in 1 Thess. 5:24, Faithful is He who called you, who will also do it.
So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God. . . . That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that you put on the new man, which in God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
So, everyone has done that, right? You’re a new creation in Christ and you are living perfectly in all that the new life implies? Or maybe, like me, you’re just really close to perfection but haven’t quite got there yet. It is so frustrating – sinning occasionally:)
We know we aren’t supposed to live like we used to; that we’re supposed to lay aside the old life and move into a whole new life, but for most Christians the real issue is not knowing what we are supposed to do, but knowing how to do it.
For example, Paul struggles with this issue in Romans 7,
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
We’re not alone in this battle. Even the great apostle Paul went through a season of knowing exactly what was expected of him and discovering he wasn’t even close to living that way. So, how do we move from the old to the new? The first step is to recognize the fact that there is an old and a new - and that the old life is both empty and destructive.
Our old life at its absolute best is nothing more that spiritual death disguised as living a normal life. The first thing to realize is that no one moves out of their old life until they know, beyond doubt, that it’s worthless and self-destructive. When you and I can honestly, inside, say,
Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?!”
Can you relate to this? There’s nothing like desperation to motivate change. So then the question is - how, exactly, does the change occur? What does moving forward look like?
The change occurs when God shatters your life.
Let’s just take a couple of brief examples. We already saw Paul’s cry of desperation in Romans 7. Here’s a similar experience Peter had in Luke 22:31-34;
Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simo, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” Jesus answered, I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.
Remember Peter’s three denials? Afterward the Bible says Peter went and wept bitterly. All of Peter’s illusions of how capable he was of living the Christian life were shattered that night.
I want to cite an author’s description of this experience. If this hasn’t happen to you yet, it will – assuming you really do want to live the spiritual life Christ has brought you into.
Every true servant of God must experience a disabling from which he can never recover; he can never be quite the same again. Something must happen to you which means that from now on you will genuinely fear yourself. You will fear to move out on the impulse of your own mind, your own desires and creativity.. We must be aware that we are often working and serving the Lord in our own natural strength; we are not drawing from God.
God must bring us to a point – I cannot tell you how it will be, but he will do it – where, through a deep and dark experience, our natural power is touched and fundamentally weakened, so that we no longer dare trust ourselves.
The Lord graciously laid me aside for a season in my life and put me, spiritually, into utter darkness. It was almost as though he had forsaken me, almost as though nothing was going on and I had really come to the end of everything. And then by degrees he brought things back again. The temptation is always to try to help God by taking things back ourselves; but remember, there must be a full night in darkness. It cannot be hurried; he knows what he is doing.
And of course I cannot tell you how long he will take, but in principle I think it is quite safe to say this, that there will be a definite period when he will keep you there. It will seem as though nothing is happening; as though everything you valued is slipping from your grasp. There confronts you a blank wall with no door in it. Seemingly everyone else is being blessed and used, while you yourself have been passed by and are losing out. All is in darkness, but it is only for a night. It must indeed be a full night, but that is all. Afterwards you will find that everything is given back to you in glorious resurrection; and nothing can measure the difference between what was before and what now is....When once your back is broken, you will yield to the slightest touch from God.
Watchman Nee
Peter, and everyone who has ever been used of God in a great way, had to come to a place experientially that when he looked at himself, all he saw was a total failure. The Lord had great plans for Peter, but none of those plans could happen until first Peter understood his complete inability in himself to live the Christian life. Remember how our Lord said that only those who lose their lives will find it? Now you know what that means.
As long as we believe we having something to offer, something in us that will be of great help and value to God, we are still living at least in part in the old mindset of pride and blindness. But when we come to the end of ourselves, when we genuinely lose our lives, we discover that God is willing and able to strengthen us to live by His life, by His power. This is why Paul wrote the following to the Corinthians,
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; confused, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
The Lord desires that we express the likeness of Christ, of our new life in Him; not the likeness of our old life. And the only way that can happen is if we allow the Lord to bring us to a place of no confidence in ourselves and all confidence in Him. As Paul told the Philippians in 3:3,
For we worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
How do you get to the place of “no confidence” in the flesh? It is only when we see ourselves as absolute failures when it comes to living as Christ lived that we can begin to understand the how of all this.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. . .
Paul had experienced Romans 7 and knew, beyond any doubt, that only Christ could live the Christian life. Once that foundation of zero expectancy from ourselves and all expectancy from God is established, then we can approach the leading of the Spirit in this new life we entered with assurance that, as Paul told the Philippians, It is God who now works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13).
At that point, we want what God wants. We know that only He has the power to live that way; and we know that He is willing to work in us in a way that will get us there. The “getting us there” process is never an overnight thing; it may take years of learning and failing and winning and losing. But if we are walking by faith in Him instead of faith in us, He will definitely complete what He has begun in us. Like the Potter shaping the clay, if the clay is willing to be shaped, it’s only a matter of time until that clay represents exactly what the Potter has in mind. As painful as this training under the hand of God is, the outcome is perfect; it is exactly what He, and what we, long for. As one author put it,
Nothing so reveals the solid progress of a soul as when it is enable to view its own depravity without being disturbed or discouraged.
When we became Christians, what did we really expect from us? Why do you think God says the Christian life is a life of faith; of dependence upon Him, not on us? Jesus said that there is none good but God. Do we really believe we’re good? The goodness of any man or woman exists only to the extent that Christ is seen in them. We must decrease – He must increase. And the path of our decreasing and His increasing is that season of life that shows us in a very personal way that we cannot, in our own strength, be what the Lord would have us be. But He is more than willing to get us there by His mercy and power.
Finally, notice this comment by another writer,
Let us remember for our consolation that the perception of a disease is the fires step to a cure; when we have no sense of our need, we have no curative principle within. Discouragement is not a fruit of humility, but of pride. Suppose we have failed; all our falls are useful if they strip us of a disastrous confidence in ourselves.
Remember the passage I mentioned earlier from Philippians,
For we worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
When, because of the experiences of life you know, personally, beyond any doubt that you can’t live the Christian life, and when you believe that He can and is willing to do so in you, you will be able to move forward, walking by faith in the Son of God Who loved you and gave Himself for you. As Paul wrote in 1 Thess. 5:24, Faithful is He who called you, who will also do it.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Great Expectations
In John chapters 14-16 Jesus is summing up His final instructions and encouragement to His followers. He promises to send the Holy Spirit to be with them so they won’t be left alone while He’s gone, and He promises them they will know His joy and His peace – that they need not be afraid.
But if we’re real about our lives and what we are experiencing, we know there’s a lot of mystery around these promises. Much of the time, experientially, we don’t have a clue what He was talking about.
For example,
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
So the promise here, which is very similar to other promises throughout this section of John, is inner peace in the midst of outward turmoil. We are all very familiar with the outward turmoil part. The whole creation, us included, groans and travails in pain (Romans 8:22-23). Life is extremely hard, especially for those who are growing spiritually.
For those who aren’t growing, life may be somewhat easier because they haven’t incurred the anger of the forces that are against Christ. The flesh is content, they fit into the world, and demons find other people to hassle. But if you try to move forward with Christ and take your stand with Him, the world, the flesh and the devil all come at you in full force. They don’t let up. They don’t know the meaning of vacation or mercy.
That’s tribulation and it doesn’t stop until we either leave this world or turn our back on spiritual advance. So, when Jesus says we will have tribulation we know what that means. But He also said we could have peace in our souls in the midst of whatever storms are raging outside.
We can understand that in concept, but look at the reason He gives for this happening, I have overcome the world (John 16:33). I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but my initial response would be, That’s great – but what’s that got to do with me? How is His victorious life related to my peace? Look at our Lord’s words in the next chapter, John 17:22-23
The glory which You, Father, have given Me, I have given them, so they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and You in Me. . .
All that Jesus was and all that He accomplished was somehow to be transferred to those who belong to Him. His victory, His destiny, His very life would become ours. As Paul puts it, Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
Through the Holy Spirit, Christ has come to live within us and to share His own life with us. So, then the question becomes, Again, that’s great, when and how do I start experiencing that life? Having something, but not experiencing it, is no better practically speaking than not having it.
I’m assuming most of you experience, from time to time, some degree of thankfulness, maybe even joy, over the fact that you’re going to heaven instead of hell. You are sharing Christ’s destiny because of what He did on the cross. That’s good news, and occasionally, you probably experience a degree of peace or joy when that reality hits home. When you stop and think about it, and when you contrast eternal condemnation with eternal happiness, one can’t help but experience a bit of joy about that.
So, you will notice that two things are in action when you actually experience something related to the promises of God: The work and Person of Christ, and faith on your part.
If you didn’t believe the cross had anything to do with your eternal destiny, I doubt you’d experience any personal joy or relief around the fact that Christ’s death 2000 years ago resolved your sin problem.
The same is true now that you are His child. Heaven is settled, but now the issues are related more to daily living than eternal destiny. However, the principle remains exactly the same. As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him. (Colossians 2:6)
When we learn something about Who He is and what He’s done or promised, we can either believe or not believe Him. With the gospel, we believed and a billion incredible things happened. Inner rest in this case is the practical outworking of our belief that what the Bible says is true.
Paul tells us that Jesus is head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1:22). Not some things, all things. Our lives are not too big a challenge for Him. Our circumstances, failures, weaknesses are not beyond God’s ability to deal with. When we trust Him, the things themselves (our circumstances) may or may not change, but faith affects our inner lives, and to God what matters most is the inner man, the spirit, and that issue must be settled first. The rest of faith must be our position, our stand, in His Word to us.
Even if, like Abraham waiting for Isaac, we don’t see immediate results, it is inevitable that if we stand by faith in Christ on His word, we will ultimately win this battle we’re in. We’re asked to fight a fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12).
Think of this hypothetical analogy. We have a loved one, maybe a husband or father, away at war. We haven’t heard from them for too long and we assume the worst. Then an epistle comes to us from the army base in that region telling us the he is alive.. We rejoice without any evidence this is true simply because we believe the epistle.
Compare that story to these verses in 1 Peter 1:6,8;
In this you greatly rejoice . . . Whom (Jesus), having not seen, you love; in Whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and fullof glory.
Those Peter was writing to had never seen Jesus and were not seeing Him in the present, but because they believed what they were told of Him, they rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Nothing in their circumstances changed, but look at the effect of faith on their soul!
Thomas needed to see to believe and to this Jesus said, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed: Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believed.(John 20:29). And in John 4:48 the Lord said, Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. .
All of us would love to have confirmation in terms of experiences, signs, anything to which we could attach our faith. That’s because, like Thomas and others, we are empiricists whether we want to admit it or not. But now we are being asked to walk by faith not by sight; not something we are used to; not something we even want to do.
Knowing and believing the Word of God brings rest, joy, peace. Faith doesn’t always change our circumstances but it definitely changes our heart.
Just as we believed (and rejoiced) that the Cross affected our destiny without any evidence beyond faith to confirm that fact, we can believe (and rejoice) that the Potter is shaping us through our circumstances into something wonderful whether we have any evidence to confirm those promises:
We rejoice in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation develops perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope . . . (Romans 5:3-4)
Count it all joy when you fall into various trials . . . that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4)
James calls this, the testing of your faith (James 1:3).
Abraham was excited about being the father of many nations. He was excited about that nearly 100 years before Isaac was born! You can read other similar stories in Hebrews 11.
God may supernaturally inject peace or joy into us. He’s God and can do whatever He wants. But as we saw in the words of Jesus to Thomas, there is greater blessing in time and eternity for those whose rest and rejoicing come as a result of faith.
We began this study with the passage in John regarding Jesus' overcoming of the world and asked how that would apply to us. We share His overcoming because we share His life. This is not something that will happen, future tense, if we just believe. It is something that is a present reality. We are, now, seated at the right hand of God above all principalities and powers (Ephesians 1:20-21, 2:6). As John tells us in 1 John 5:4, For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.
Faith doesn’t make something happen, it allows what has already happen to become real in our experience. We’re not going to be blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, we already are (Ephesians 1:3).
If we’re going to have realistic expectations we must never forget the supreme value and definition of what faith really is, Faith is inner assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith give experiential substance to things we cannot see.
Again, we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
But if we’re real about our lives and what we are experiencing, we know there’s a lot of mystery around these promises. Much of the time, experientially, we don’t have a clue what He was talking about.
For example,
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
So the promise here, which is very similar to other promises throughout this section of John, is inner peace in the midst of outward turmoil. We are all very familiar with the outward turmoil part. The whole creation, us included, groans and travails in pain (Romans 8:22-23). Life is extremely hard, especially for those who are growing spiritually.
For those who aren’t growing, life may be somewhat easier because they haven’t incurred the anger of the forces that are against Christ. The flesh is content, they fit into the world, and demons find other people to hassle. But if you try to move forward with Christ and take your stand with Him, the world, the flesh and the devil all come at you in full force. They don’t let up. They don’t know the meaning of vacation or mercy.
That’s tribulation and it doesn’t stop until we either leave this world or turn our back on spiritual advance. So, when Jesus says we will have tribulation we know what that means. But He also said we could have peace in our souls in the midst of whatever storms are raging outside.
We can understand that in concept, but look at the reason He gives for this happening, I have overcome the world (John 16:33). I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but my initial response would be, That’s great – but what’s that got to do with me? How is His victorious life related to my peace? Look at our Lord’s words in the next chapter, John 17:22-23
The glory which You, Father, have given Me, I have given them, so they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and You in Me. . .
All that Jesus was and all that He accomplished was somehow to be transferred to those who belong to Him. His victory, His destiny, His very life would become ours. As Paul puts it, Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
Through the Holy Spirit, Christ has come to live within us and to share His own life with us. So, then the question becomes, Again, that’s great, when and how do I start experiencing that life? Having something, but not experiencing it, is no better practically speaking than not having it.
I’m assuming most of you experience, from time to time, some degree of thankfulness, maybe even joy, over the fact that you’re going to heaven instead of hell. You are sharing Christ’s destiny because of what He did on the cross. That’s good news, and occasionally, you probably experience a degree of peace or joy when that reality hits home. When you stop and think about it, and when you contrast eternal condemnation with eternal happiness, one can’t help but experience a bit of joy about that.
So, you will notice that two things are in action when you actually experience something related to the promises of God: The work and Person of Christ, and faith on your part.
If you didn’t believe the cross had anything to do with your eternal destiny, I doubt you’d experience any personal joy or relief around the fact that Christ’s death 2000 years ago resolved your sin problem.
The same is true now that you are His child. Heaven is settled, but now the issues are related more to daily living than eternal destiny. However, the principle remains exactly the same. As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him. (Colossians 2:6)
When we learn something about Who He is and what He’s done or promised, we can either believe or not believe Him. With the gospel, we believed and a billion incredible things happened. Inner rest in this case is the practical outworking of our belief that what the Bible says is true.
Paul tells us that Jesus is head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1:22). Not some things, all things. Our lives are not too big a challenge for Him. Our circumstances, failures, weaknesses are not beyond God’s ability to deal with. When we trust Him, the things themselves (our circumstances) may or may not change, but faith affects our inner lives, and to God what matters most is the inner man, the spirit, and that issue must be settled first. The rest of faith must be our position, our stand, in His Word to us.
Even if, like Abraham waiting for Isaac, we don’t see immediate results, it is inevitable that if we stand by faith in Christ on His word, we will ultimately win this battle we’re in. We’re asked to fight a fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12).
Think of this hypothetical analogy. We have a loved one, maybe a husband or father, away at war. We haven’t heard from them for too long and we assume the worst. Then an epistle comes to us from the army base in that region telling us the he is alive.. We rejoice without any evidence this is true simply because we believe the epistle.
Compare that story to these verses in 1 Peter 1:6,8;
In this you greatly rejoice . . . Whom (Jesus), having not seen, you love; in Whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and fullof glory.
Those Peter was writing to had never seen Jesus and were not seeing Him in the present, but because they believed what they were told of Him, they rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Nothing in their circumstances changed, but look at the effect of faith on their soul!
Thomas needed to see to believe and to this Jesus said, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed: Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believed.(John 20:29). And in John 4:48 the Lord said, Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. .
All of us would love to have confirmation in terms of experiences, signs, anything to which we could attach our faith. That’s because, like Thomas and others, we are empiricists whether we want to admit it or not. But now we are being asked to walk by faith not by sight; not something we are used to; not something we even want to do.
Knowing and believing the Word of God brings rest, joy, peace. Faith doesn’t always change our circumstances but it definitely changes our heart.
Just as we believed (and rejoiced) that the Cross affected our destiny without any evidence beyond faith to confirm that fact, we can believe (and rejoice) that the Potter is shaping us through our circumstances into something wonderful whether we have any evidence to confirm those promises:
We rejoice in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation develops perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope . . . (Romans 5:3-4)
Count it all joy when you fall into various trials . . . that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4)
James calls this, the testing of your faith (James 1:3).
Abraham was excited about being the father of many nations. He was excited about that nearly 100 years before Isaac was born! You can read other similar stories in Hebrews 11.
God may supernaturally inject peace or joy into us. He’s God and can do whatever He wants. But as we saw in the words of Jesus to Thomas, there is greater blessing in time and eternity for those whose rest and rejoicing come as a result of faith.
We began this study with the passage in John regarding Jesus' overcoming of the world and asked how that would apply to us. We share His overcoming because we share His life. This is not something that will happen, future tense, if we just believe. It is something that is a present reality. We are, now, seated at the right hand of God above all principalities and powers (Ephesians 1:20-21, 2:6). As John tells us in 1 John 5:4, For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.
Faith doesn’t make something happen, it allows what has already happen to become real in our experience. We’re not going to be blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, we already are (Ephesians 1:3).
If we’re going to have realistic expectations we must never forget the supreme value and definition of what faith really is, Faith is inner assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith give experiential substance to things we cannot see.
Again, we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Hypothetical
And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. (Daniel 8:23-25)
Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.
(2 Thess. 2:8-11)
No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. (2 Cor. 11:14-15)
Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. . . (2 Thess. 2:3)
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. (1 Timothy 4:1)
How is the enemy going to unite the world? How can Muslims, Jews and Christians all join hands and sing Kumbaya? I admit that if the Bible didn’t say specifically that global unity is going to happen, it would seem very unlikely; and increasingly so as wars and rumors of wars increase, not decrease.
At the close of this writing I will give you a hypothetical scenario of how such a deception may occur, based on hope and change, signs and wonders, first contact with alien races and other overwhelmingly convincing (hypothetical) phenomena. But first, let's stay with the non-hypothetical for a few minutes.
In the history of the human race, in all the ages of Man both old and new, there is one principle, one distinctive, unique to our generation: It is 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.
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 language of scripture, 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.
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 has greatly increased in both saturation and subtlety. There are many truths we simply don’t understand anymore.
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 sang, 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)
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. 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.
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 severe spiritual battle of all time, will be the great test and the victory for those who stand firm.
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 sound doctrine, witnesses to the lost, engages in prayer, sings worship songs, then the imitator will also do 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.
What if such an event was held in a Christian church on 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).
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 subtlety of the last day’s deception for us to consider ourselves invulnerable to being deceived.
One of the primary characteristics of deception in the generation of antichrist is lying 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 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 ultimate 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; they are characterized by that which appeals to sight (video clips, stage lights, celebrity-status preachers, performers, high energy music, etc.). And we have come to believe that these things have spiritual content. If they were removed, the church would no longer be popular. 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.
I would be willing to simply relegate this development in American Christianity to the realm of immaturity where sincerely seeking believers have neglected to move from milk to meat in their pursuit of spiritual growth. 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 (as Paul told the Thessalonians the apostasy comes first. . . ).
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 now determine what is spiritual by what we experience through our senses and our natural reasoning, not by what we experience in the spirit. We have little spiritual discernment to work with, so we use our eyes, minds, and emotions to determine what is good and true. The church is being conditioned to eventually succumb to a deception which moves us away from a mature walk of faith 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 increase our “activity” or “works” (see Matthew 7:22) while at the same time neutralizing the spiritual impact of the church on the powers of darkness.
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 deception in these last days.
Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.
(2 Thess. 2:8-11)
No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. (2 Cor. 11:14-15)
Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. . . (2 Thess. 2:3)
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. (1 Timothy 4:1)
How is the enemy going to unite the world? How can Muslims, Jews and Christians all join hands and sing Kumbaya? I admit that if the Bible didn’t say specifically that global unity is going to happen, it would seem very unlikely; and increasingly so as wars and rumors of wars increase, not decrease.
At the close of this writing I will give you a hypothetical scenario of how such a deception may occur, based on hope and change, signs and wonders, first contact with alien races and other overwhelmingly convincing (hypothetical) phenomena. But first, let's stay with the non-hypothetical for a few minutes.
In the history of the human race, in all the ages of Man both old and new, there is one principle, one distinctive, unique to our generation: It is 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.
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 language of scripture, 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.
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 has greatly increased in both saturation and subtlety. There are many truths we simply don’t understand anymore.
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 sang, 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)
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. 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.
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 severe spiritual battle of all time, will be the great test and the victory for those who stand firm.
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 sound doctrine, witnesses to the lost, engages in prayer, sings worship songs, then the imitator will also do 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.
What if such an event was held in a Christian church on 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).
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 subtlety of the last day’s deception for us to consider ourselves invulnerable to being deceived.
One of the primary characteristics of deception in the generation of antichrist is lying 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 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 ultimate 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; they are characterized by that which appeals to sight (video clips, stage lights, celebrity-status preachers, performers, high energy music, etc.). And we have come to believe that these things have spiritual content. If they were removed, the church would no longer be popular. 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.
I would be willing to simply relegate this development in American Christianity to the realm of immaturity where sincerely seeking believers have neglected to move from milk to meat in their pursuit of spiritual growth. 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 (as Paul told the Thessalonians the apostasy comes first. . . ).
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 now determine what is spiritual by what we experience through our senses and our natural reasoning, not by what we experience in the spirit. We have little spiritual discernment to work with, so we use our eyes, minds, and emotions to determine what is good and true. The church is being conditioned to eventually succumb to a deception which moves us away from a mature walk of faith 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 increase our “activity” or “works” (see Matthew 7:22) while at the same time neutralizing the spiritual impact of the church on the powers of darkness.
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 deception in these last days.
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