Isa 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

HIS POWER TO DELIVER

                                                   
The Assyrian army had surrounded Jerusalem. At that point, King Hezekiah  decided, "We are not going to lean on the arm of flesh this time. We are going to do it all God's way!"

The king  humbled himself and sought God in prayer: “And it came to pass,
  when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord” (Isaiah 37:1). Hezekiah confessed, "Lord, I know I have nothing of myself to give You except my faith. I am helpless in my own strength to fight Sennacherib. We're surrounded by our enemies. Please, give us Your direction!"

Hezekiah knew that Isaiah would have God's word of guidance, so this time he
 sent his envoy to the prophet. These men said to Isaiah, "The children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth" (verse 3). In other words: "This time we want to do everything God's way but we have no strength
left. What should we do?"

Isaiah had God's word for them: "Be not afraid of the words that thou hast
heard. . . . I will cause [Sennacherib] to fall by the sword" (verses 6-7). God was saying, "Any enemy of yours is an enemy of Mine now because you have turned the battle over to Me! If anyone talks against you, hurts you or abuses you, it is an attack against Me. I will take care of that enemy, whether human or demonic."

"He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it
  with shields, nor cast a bank against it" (verse 33). God says, "Others may be falling all around you, but that doesn't mean a thing. You are walking in covenant with Me and I have promised to do battle against every enemy that assails you."

What a wonderful picture God has given of His power to deliver us from our
enemies. The enemy may shoot fiery arrows at us, but they will not strike. Satan may noisily attack us with a huge army of lusts and temptations, but in the end he will turn and run. God has declared, "I will defend every child of Mine who believes in Me enough to lay down his own sword."


~David Wilkerson~

Sunday, October 21, 2012

The LORD Dwelleth Not In Temples Made With Hands

Act 7:48  Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet 
 
Christendom is largely constituted by this sense its architecture, its ritual, its music its adornment its lighting (or lack of it), its tone its atmosphere its vestments and so forth.

ALL are of the soul.... Spiritual death marks that realm, and while there may be intense emotions which make for resolves, "high" thoughts and desires, there is no genuine change in the nature of those concerned, and repeated doses of this must be taken to maintain any measure of soul-self-satisfaction which makes them feel good.

ALL religions have this soulish feature in common, more or less, and it is here that the fatal blunder has been made by many religious people who contend that other religions, which are undoubtedly devout and sincere, should not be interfered with, but the good in them should be recognized and accepted.

It is the confusing of religion with what the Bible means by being spiritual. Religion can rise to high levels and sink to terrible depths. It is the same thing which does both. But that thing never rises above the human level; it never really reaches God.

Religion can be the greatest enemy of God's true thought, because it is Satan's best deception. Asceticism is no more truly spiritual than aestheticism. There is no more a brief with God for rigors, denials, fastings, puritanic iciness, etc., as such, than for the opposite.

Simplicity may give God a chance, but it is not necessarily spiritual. It may be a matter of taste....

How near to the truth in perception and interpretation can the mystical go! What wonderful things can the imagination see, even in the Bible! 

What thrills of awe, amazement, ecstasy, can be shot through an audience or congregation by a master soul!

But it may all be a FALSE world with NO Divine and eternal issues. It may all go to make up this life here, and relieve it of its drabness, but it ends there.

What an artificial world we live in! When the music is progressing and the romantic elements are in evidence the dress and tinsel and human personalities are parading, see how PRIDE and RIVALRY assert themselves, and what a power of make believe enters the atmosphere!

Yes, an artificial world.The tragedy in this melodrama is that it is "real life" to so many. This soul-world is the devil's imitation. It is all false, wherever we may find it, whether associated with religion or not.... 

The Christian Faith embraced as a religion, a philosophy, or as a system of truth and a moral or ethical doctrine, may carry the temporary stimulus of a great ideal; but this will not result in the regeneration of the life, or the new birth of the spirit.

There are multitudes of such Christians in the world today, but their spiritual effectiveness is nil.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Friday, October 19, 2012

Everlasting Love


                              
Jer 31:3  The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

I have borne with you all this time because I love you; anything could have happened to you, but I have not let it, I have shown you infinite longsuffering and patience, and earnest solicitude for your eternal well-being: because I love you, I have kept you alive, and have brought you to this time and to this place; I have not let you go. Oh, that this might come home to us!

We may, all unconsciously, be hearing this message now simply because of this infinite love of God which has been preserving us unto this hour to let us know it. You may think it is quite fortuitous that you are hearing it – just one of the chance happenings of life; but if you knew the truth it is this infinite love of God which has held you to this time in relation to the infinite purposes of that love to let you know it. 

There is nothing casual about it, there is sovereign love here. "Because I have so loved, because, self-sufficient as I am, I cannot do without you" – oh, mystery of Divine love! – because I so much wanted you I created you, and now at this moment I am drawing you.

We cannot take that in, but that is the teaching of the Word of God... God does not want that kind of love that is not love at all because it gets everything that it wants to satiate its own lusts. That is not love.

This love of God must make us like itself, it must be after its own kind. And so, strangely enough, many have come to find the love of God through the dark way of suffering – to discover that God was not their enemy but their friend, when they thought that He was pursuing with the object of destroying them....

Listen again, whoever you may be. If you know yourself only a little you must be amazed at this statement, but if it does not come to you as the most wonderful thing that ever was or could be, there is something grievously the matter with you; that such a One should say to such as WE, I have loved THEE, with an everlasting love.

May God Himself bring that home to us with something of its implication, something of its meaning and value, its glory, its wonder. If He should graciously do that, we shall be worshipers for the rest of our lives; there will be something about us that is in the nature of awe and wonder and we shall go softly.

The realization of it will smite all our pride to the dust. There is no room for pride here. This will remove all those horrible things - pride, avarice, covetousness, self-interest, worldly ambition - and we shall be very humble, very grateful people, full of a great longing somehow to requite that love, somehow to win for that One His rights.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Monday, October 8, 2012

No Compromise With The Self-Principle

                                    
Now, deep down in Saul there was the self-principle active; there is no doubt about it; and, although at times he seemed to rise above it and to have the Lord's interests at heart, that self-principle was recurrent, and when put to the final test with Amalek in I Samuel Chapter 15, we find that it asserted itself again.

That was the turning point, where the Lord rejected Saul and finally in intention passed the kingdom from him to David.

The self-principle goes too deep for the Lord to regard it lightly. 

It is not just a matter of the person. It is there that the link with an entirely antagonistic spiritual system is found. Amalek was such a link. Amalek had stood in the way of Israel when they came out of Egypt and were making for the land. They had stood across their path in the attempt to frustrate the Lord's intentions of spiritual fulness for Israel, and that very people Amalek were the test case for Saul as to whether he was really wholly set upon the Lord or whether he had personal interests.

When, through Samuel, the Lord commanded Saul to destroy every vestige of Amalek, leaving nothing alive, Saul reserved the best of the herd and the flock.

He discriminated according to human judgment, to keep something that he fancied, that he thought was good. 

He set his own judgment over against the judgment of the Lord because of this self-principle that was in him, thus proving that in principle he was one with Amalek, that is, he was not set upon all that the Lord was after. 

The Lord was seeking to bring Israel into the land, that is, to spiritual fulness. Amalek said 'No'. Saul and Amalek found themselves one in principle. He spared them.

But see what Samuel does to Agag, king of the Amalekites! - he hews him in pieces before the Lord. There is no compromise there.

~T. Austin Sparks~