We Saw The Giants

                                       

There we saw the giants. (Numbers 13:33 KJV)

Yes, the Israeli spies saw giants, but Joshua and Caleb saw God!

Those who doubt still say today,“We can’t attack . . .they are stronger than we are” (v. 31). Yet those who believe say, “We should go up and take possession . . . for we can certainly do it” (v. 30).

Giants represent great difficulties, and they stalk us everywhere.

They are in our families, our churches, our social life, and even our own hearts. 

We must overcome them or they will devour us. 

Just as the ancient Israelites, fearing those in Canaan, said,“The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size” (v. 32).

We should exhibit faith as did Joshua and Caleb, who said,“Do not be afraid . . . because we will swallow them up” (Num. 14:9).

In effect, they told the others,“We will be stronger by overcoming them than if there had been no giants to defeat.”

In fact,unless we have overcoming faith,we will be swallowed up consumed by the giants who block our path. 

With that same spirit of faith” (2 Cor. 4:13) that Joshua and Caleb had, let us look to God, and He will take care of the difficulties.

We encounter giants only when we are serving God and following Him.

It was when Israel was going forward that the giants appeared, for when they turned back into the wilderness, they found none.

Many people believe that the power of God in a person’s life should keep him from all trials and conflicts. 

However, the power of God actually brings conflict and struggles. 

You would think that Paul, during his great missionary journey to Rome, would have been kept by God’s sovereignty from the power of violent storms and of his enemies.Yet just the opposite was true.

He endured one long, difficult struggle with the Jews who were persecuting him. He faced fierce winds, poisonous snakes, and all the powers of earth and of hell.

And finally, he narrowly escaped drowning, by swimming to shore at Malta after a shipwreck nearly sent him to a watery grave.

Does this sound like a God of infinite power?  

Yes, it is just like Him. And that is why Paul told us that once he took the Lord Jesus Christ as his life in his body, a severe conflict immediately arose. 

In fact, the conflict never ended.

The pressure on Paul was persistent,but from the conflict he always emerged victorious through the strength of Jesus Christ.

Paul described this in quite vivid language:“We are hard
pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body”
(2 Cor. 4:8–10).

What a ceaseless and strenuous struggle he related! It is nearly impossible to express in English the impact of the original language.

Paul gives us five different images in succession.  

In the first, he has us picture enemies completely surrounding and pressuring but not crushing him, because the heavenly “police” have protected him and cleared a path just wide enough for him to escape.

The literal meaning is,“We are crowded from all sides, but not defeated.”

The second image is that of someone whose way is completely blocked or thwarted by the enemy. Yet he has persevered, for there is just enough light for him to see the next step. 

Paul said, “Perplexed, but not in despair,” or as one literal translation put it,“Without a road, but not without a ‘side road’ of escape.”

The third picture, “Persecuted, but not abandoned,” is one of the enemy in hot pursuit of him while the divine Defender stands nearby. He is pursued, but not left alone.

The fourth is even more vivid and dramatic.The enemy has
overtaken him,struck him,and knocked him down.But it is not a fatal blow—he is able to rise again.

He has been “struck down, but not destroyed,”or literally, “overthrown,but not overcome.”

In the fifth and final image, Paul advances the thought still
further, giving us a picture that appears to be one of death itself:

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus. Yet he does not die, for “the life of Jesus” comes to his aid, and he lives through Christ’s life until his lifework is complete.

The reason so many people fail to experience this divine principle is that they expect to receive it all without a struggle.

When conflict comes and the battle rages on, they become discouraged and surrender. 

God has nothing worth having that is easily gained, for there are no cheap goods on the heavenly market.

The cost of our redemption was everything God had to give, and anything worth having is expensive.  

Difficult times and places are our schools of faith and character.

If we are ever to rise above mere human strength, and experience the power of the life of Christ in our mortal bodies, it will be through the process of conflict that could very well be called the “labor pains” of the new life.

It is like the story of Moses,who “saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up” (Ex. 3:2); although Satan’s demons tried to extinguish the flame in Moses’ life by continually pouring water on his plans, they could not, because God’s angels were ever vigilant, pouring oil on the flame to keep it burning brightly.

Dear child of God, you may be suffering, but you cannot fail if you will only dare to believe, stand firm, and refuse to be overcome.

~Selected~

Shallow!

                                        

Mat 13:5  Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

Shallow! From the context of the teaching of this parable, it
seems that we must have something to do with the depth of
the soil.

The fruitful seed fell on “good soil” (v. 8), or good and honest hearts. I suppose the shallow people are those who did not have much soil — those who have no real purpose in life and are easily swayed by a tender appeal, a good sermon, or a simple melody.

And at first it seems as if they will amount to something for God, but because they “ do not have much soil,” they have no depth or genuine purpose, and no earnest desire to know His will in order to do it.

Therefore we should be careful to maintain the soil of our hearts.
 
When a Roman soldier was told by his guide that if he insisted
on taking a certain journey, it would probably be fatal, he
answered,“It is necessary for me to go—it is not necessary for me to live.” 

That was true depth of conviction, and only when we are likewise convicted will our lives amount to something.
 
But a shallow life lives on its impulses, impressions, intuitions, instincts, and largely on its  circumstances. 

Those with profound character, however, look beyond all these and move steadily ahead, seeing the future,where sorrow, seeming defeat, and failure will be reversed.

They sail right through storm clouds into the bright sunshine,which always awaits them on the other side.

Once God has deepened us, He can give us His deepest truths, His most profound secrets, and will trust us with greater power.

Lord, lead us into the depths of Your life and save us from a shallow existence!

On to broader fields of holy vision; On to loftier heights of faith and love; Onward, upward, apprehending wholly, All for which He calls you from above.
 
~A. B. Simpson~

Heaven Is Not A Retirement Center

                                                                             

                                                                           

You may be wondering, "Lord, why is my job so upsetting to me? Why do I always feel like an outsider? What's wrong with me?"

There is nothing wrong with you. God is at work! He is keeping you sick and tired of this dying world. He is saying, "You can't get too involved in 'making it' here because it is all going up in smoke. Set your affections on things above—on the new world that is coming.”

You answer, "But what a waste. I'm so full of energy. I have talent, ideas, a sharp mind, a desire to accomplish much. Yet I feel stifled, stymied. It's so frustrating.”

I have good news for you: When it all ends and your scoffing friends are cut off—their work melted to nothing, their careers dissolved, their money burned—your work is just about to begin.

You see, heaven is not a retirement center. Rather, our eternal home is a place of great action, full of new horizons and incredible plans. God is going to fully use all your gifts, talents and desires there. He is not going to waste a thing He has given you. On the contrary, your gifts will be magnified many times
over. He is going to use you for His glory in eternity!

Jesus gives us several hints as to what this experience will be like:

Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods (Matthew 24:46-47). The Greek word for ruler here suggests "an eternal appointment." We are going to be appointed by God as keepers over His goods throughout all eternity!

His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things
Matthew 25:21.

And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities" Luke 19:17.

Eternal appointments . . . ruling over His household . . . ruling over His goods . . . ruling over cities. We are going to rule and reign with Jesus in His kingdom—as kings and priests!


~David Wilkerson~
 

THE FALL A FALL INTO THE HANDS OF SATAN

                                     

Surely Israel has a many-sided testimony, and this is one side. God has written the story of His willingness to be toward man. That story is written very fully in the life of Israel.

If ever a people might have been fully and finally forsaken, Israel might have been.

I think there is nothing that proves the fall more than Israel - proves the fall not in a general but in a specific way.

We say of Adam that the fall took place, Adam fell. How did he fall? Where did he fall? Into what did he fall? He fell into the hands of Satan, to be used as Satan's instrument against God, and his fall developed in Israel.

They fell into Satan's hands. "Ye are of your father the devil" (John 8:44), said the Lord Jesus.

They fell into Satan's hands to be his instruments against God to crucify His very Son. 

There is nothing deeper than to be the instrument of Satan to kill God, to put God out of His place. 

That is why the record of Israel's spirit and attitude is given us so fully in the Gospels, leading up to Israel's crucifying of Christ.

Their attitude is all brought out by Christ, and He focuses upon this - that what they did to Him they did to God.

And so in the Cross of the Lord Jesus we see a people, a nation, held by Satan, having sold themselves into the hands of Satan to crucify God and put Him out of His place.

That is not too strong, to speak of Satan's instrument against God. That is the fall - into the hands of Satan. That opens up the Word of God in many ways, from many angles. It is a terrible thing.
 
When the Lord Jesus came, there was one who, looking upon that infant, said, prophetically, "to grant unto us that we ... being delivered out of the hand of our enemies" (Luke 1:74) - and that went far beyond any earthly enemies.

Have you really felt the force of what I have just been saying? Have there not been times when, through duress and suffering and oppression, through spiritual trial to the depths, Satan has got so near to your soul or has been so bound up with your soul that it has seemed he would turn you against God, make you bitter toward the Lord, make you the enemy of God, bring up such feelings in you?

These things are real. That is what he is trying to do all the time - to get man back into his power, to get the believer into his power, to use him against God.

There is no instrument more useful to Satan against God than a Christian.

You expect unbelievers, men of the world, to be against God; but see a Christian revolting against the Lord, and that gives Satan just what he is after - one who is supposed to know the Lord, in rebellion against Him.

What a battle there is over that! - but what a triumph our Lord has secured to get us right out of that realm, to destroy all the impingement of Satan's insinuations and suggestions.

If you do ever know the cloud, the temptation, remember Calvary: remember that the Lord Jesus has established forever the ground upon which God will never forsake you, never leave you, never withdraw His face from you.

Believe that. That is the faith which overcomes and it is a mighty overcoming, going right back to the beginning. 

~T. Austin Sparks~

God Does Not Tell Us What He Is Doing

                                      

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

God does not tell us what He is doing when taking us through dark experiences. If He did, it would be all right.

If He said, "I am going to lead you into a bad time, it is all going to be dark and strange and perplexing and bewildering and helpless, but it is all right, I am working a tremendous thing, this is what I am going to bring out of it," if He said that, the faith element would fade out.

If only He would tell us He is doing something, and what He is doing, instead of leaving us in the dark and seeming to be so far away and without any interest in us!

If only! Ah yes, but He did not do that, and we know He does not do that, He does not explain. But here is the challenge.

This is what is meant by Hebrews 11 and the men of faith, that is what it means. And thank God we have the heritage, we have a great heritage, we have more than they had.

These men did not have a Bible, it was not written when they were going through it. We have their story and so many more. We see the issue, we have the sequel, but is it really helping us?

When you are having a bad, dark time and feel that all has gone wrong, read the story of Joseph again... starting on it you will not want to put it down. Take its great lessons.

The God of Joseph is our God and He is doing the same thing, and we know that that is true to life.

What I have been saying is so true to life. We have that evidence. That, at any rate, is very much like my experience, and therefore I have reason to think and believe that the same thing is involved. 

The God of resurrection is working this to glory.

~T. Austin Sparks~

God's Ways Of Enriching~Spiritual Seed Plot

                                      

Shame, reproach and limitation are often God's ways of enriching the whole Body of Christ.

This has always been so. The measure of approximation to the fullness of the revelation has always been accompanied by a relative cost. 

Every instrument of the testimony has been laid under suspicion and reproach in a measure commensurate with the degree of value to the Lord, and this has meant that, humanly, they were limited to that extent.

Many have withdrawn, fallen away, held aloof, doubted, feared, and questioned.

But as Paul could say "my tribulations for you, which are your glory" (Eph. 3:13), or "The prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles" (Eph. 3:1), so the measure of limitation in the Lord is the measure of enrichment in His people.

The fuller the revelation, the fewer those who apprehend, or the greater the number of those who stand aloof.

Revelation only comes through suffering and limitation, and to have it experimentally means sharing the cost in some way.

But this is God's way of securing for Himself a spiritual seed plot.

A seed plot is an intensive thing. There things are narrowed down to very limited dimensions. 

It is not a great extensive show that is immediately in view, but things are all considered firstly in the light of seed.

The real meaning of things is not always recognized there, but you can travel the world over and find a great many gardens which are the expression of that intensive and restricted seed plot. If ever there was such a seed plot it was Paul's prison in Rome.

All this may apply to individual lives in relation to the Lord's testimony. There may often be a chafing against limitation, confinement, and a restless hankering after what we would call something wider or less restricted.

If the Lord has willed us to the place where we are, our acceptance of it in faith may prove that it becomes a far bigger thing than any human reckoning can judge.

I wonder if Paul had any idea that his prison meant his continuous expansion of value to the Lord Jesus through nineteen hundred years? 

What applies to individuals also applies to corporate bodies, assemblies, or companies of the Lord's people scattered in the earth but one in their fellowship in relation to the Lord's full testimony.

May the Lord be graciously pleased to cause the merely human aspect of prison walls to fall away, and give the realization that, far from being limited by men and circumstances, it is imprisonment in the Lord, and this means that all ages and all realms are entered through that prison.

~T. Austin Sparks~