GOD Raised Up A MAN

                                                                            
In Nehemiah´s day, the walls of Jerusalem were in ruins, the city a literal pile of stones. And the church was totally backslidden, with no witness left. The wicked powers surrounding Israel persecuted them severely, mocking every work they tried to undertake.

How did God respond in such a time of ruin? Did He send a well-trained army to help them? Did He send a palace guard to smite their prominent enemies? No, God raised up a man Nehemiah.

Nehemiah was a man with God´s burden on his heart. He spent his time praying, fasting and mourning, because he was broken over Israel´s condition. He also continually dug into God´s Word, grasping prophecy and moving in the Spirit.

Although Nehemiah served as cupbearer to the king of Persia, he remained separate from the wickedness surrounding him. In the midst of all the sensuality, immorality and godlessness taking place in Israel, he maintained a holy walk with the Lord. And, in turn, everyone who heard him preach was purified in soul.

Soon a revival of holiness swept the land. "The priests and the Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, and the gates, and the wall" (Nehemiah 12:30). 


The house of God also was purged, with everything of flesh cast out.

Nehemiah sent workers into the temple, telling them, "I want every piece of filth out of here. Don't leave anything that has to do with idolatry or sensuality" (see Nehemiah 13:8-9).

Beloved, this is God´s concept of revival! It is all about sweeping out every chamber in your heart that´s unclean and unsanctified. He wants no dark places left.

Where did Nehemiah get such spiritual authority, to cause
compromisers to tremble, and to bring back godly fear to the
temple?

The king did not give it to him. No church bishop gave it to him. He didn´t learn it from a Bible school.

No, Nehemiah got his authority on his knees-weeping, broken,
wanting to know God´s heart.

And because he was a man of prayer, he was able to confess the sins of a whole nation: "That thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night and confess the sins of the children of Israel both I and my father´s house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments" (Nehemiah 1:6-7).

~David Wilkerson~

The LORD Had A Man

                                                                                
It was a difficult time in Israel as depravity, apostasy and backsliding were rampant in the land.


At this time, the ark was gone from Israel. Eli, the nation’s high priest, was lazy and complacent, allowing his sons to debauch
the priesthood. 

Under their leadership, adultery and fornication were rampant
in the temple. But Eli had become so used to his life of ease that he would not do anything to stop them.

At one point the Lord wrote the word “Ichabod” (meaning “the Spirit of the Lord has departed”) over the whole religious system.

Once again, satanic forces had risen to great power and to the natural eye, God’s work had lost so much ground, the odds of recovery seemed improbable.

But the Lord had a man in place all along—a little child named Samuel. While all the ministers around him were indulging in fornication and gluttony, Samuel was learning to hear God's voice. As he became more and more intimate with the Lord, the Holy Spirit filled him with a prophetic word. He became a testimony—living proof of the power of God!

Scripture says that as Samuel grew, none of his words fell to the ground, meaning that he consistently spoke with power and authority. Because of his godly authority, no nation was able to lift a hand against Israel for over forty years.

And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established (found to be trustworthy) to be a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord
appeared again in Shiloh: for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (1 Samuel 3:19-21).

Once again, the Lord raised up a single man as a testimony to a whole nation. God needed no army, no human organization, no “new thing.” All he needed was one righteous man someone whose ministry was committed totally to His holy ways!

~David Wilkerson~

The REALITY Of HELL

There is such a place as hell. Let no one deceive you with vain words.

What people do not like, they try hard not to believe. 

When the Lord Jesus Christ comes to judge the world, He will punish all who are not His disciples with a fearful punishment: all who are found unrepentant and unbelieving, all who have clung to sin, all who are stuck to the world, and all who have set their affections on things below.

All who are without Christ shall come to an awful end.

Whosoever is not written in the book of life shall be “cast into the lake of fire.” [Rev 20:15]

I call on all who profess to believe the Bible, to be on their guard.

1) Some do not believe there is any hell at all.

They think it impossible there can be such a place. They call it inconsistent with the mercy of God.

They say it is too awful an idea to be really true. 

The devil of course, rejoices in the views of such people. They help his kingdom mightily.

They are preaching up his old favorite doctrine, “You shall not surely die.”

2) Some do not believe that hell is eternal. 

They tell us it is incredible that a compassionate God will punish people forever. He will surely open the prison doors at last.

This also is a mighty help to the devil’s cause.

3) Some believe there is a hell, but never allow that anybody is going there.

All people with them are good. As soon as they die, all were sincere, all meant well, and all, they hope, got to heaven.

Alas! what a common delusion this is!

Summary: If I never spoke of hell, I should think I had kept back something that was profitable, and should look on myself as an accomplice of the devil.

Beware of new and strange doctrines about hell and the eternity of punishment.

Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who has a heaven for everybody, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and bad in eternity.

Such a God is an idol of your own.

~J. C. Ryle~

Preserved to Work's End

The Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." (Acts 23:11)

 
Are you a witness for the Lord, and are you just now in danger? 

Then remember that you are immortal till your work is done. 

If the Lord has more witness for you to bear, you will live to bear it. Who is he that can break the vessel which the Lord intends again to use?

If there is no more work for you to do for your Master, it cannot distress you that He is about to take you home and put you where you will be beyond the reach of adversaries.

Your witness-bearing for Jesus is your chief concern, and you cannot be stopped in it till it is finished: therefore, be at peace. 

Cruel slander, wicked misrepresentation, desertion of friends, betrayal by the most trusted one, and whatever else may come cannot hinder the Lord's purpose concerning you.

The Lord stands by you in the night of your sorrow, and He says, "Thou must yet bear witness for me." Be calm; be filled with joy in the Lord.

If you do not need this promise just now, you may very soon. Treasure it up. Remember also to pray for missionaries and all persecuted ones, that the Lord would preserve them even to the completion of their lifework. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Abraham The Friend Of GOD

Abraham was the only man in the Old Testament called the friend of God. 

James says Abraham was called the friend of God. The Lord Himself, speaking through the lips of the prophet Isaiah, used this phrase"Abraham my friend" (Isa. 41:8). 

Do you see why he was the friend of God? Do you see the basis of that exclusive title - God's friend? Because of the utter abnegation of the self-life demonstrated and proved in his offering of Isaac.

Abraham knew what that meant, "If Isaac goes, everything goes. But God is God and He has made a covenant, and I can afford to offer Isaac. In some way, God will bring Isaac back again."

Paul said Abraham believed God who gives life to the dead (Rom. 4:17).

And when you get through where you can so utterly let go to God because you believe so utterly in God that no matter how much you let go, there will be no loss in the long run where God is concerned; you are not going to lose anything or be limited by letting go to God utterly and absolutely.

If we can come to that position with God and God seems to be striking at that in which everything is contained and with which everything is bound up, and say, 'All right Lord, You are the covenant God; You have covenanted concerning this. I do not know how You are going to do it or what You will do, but I am going on with You'. That is the basis of this friendship.

Now you see how it points to the Cross of the Lord Jesus. "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet" (Heb. 2:6-8). "Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands" (Psa. 8:6).

The Son of Man is Jesus Christ, as the context shows. He is made to have dominion over all things, made to have all things put under His feet, made the Heir of all things before times eternal. So says the Scripture. Very well, go to the Cross and die! He offered Himself, He laid down His life, and in so doing everything of God's covenant was put on the Cross, but He believed God.

Beyond the Cross His seed was as the sand of the desert, as the stars of heaven - all through the Cross. You see the principle. It is a very, very impressive principle.

So then, Abel establishes the principle once and for all. Noah shows how absolutely universal that principle is. Abraham shows that in relation to God's great purpose of having a great multitude which no man can number out of every tribe and kindred and tongue, God's great purpose to take out of the nations a people for the Name of His Son is by way of the Cross, by way of the closed door to the flesh.

We who are so concerned with the matter of evangelization, the salvation of the multitudes, the increase of God, the life of men, may we not be standing in the way of it all by bringing so much of our flesh in? Just frustrating it all because we come into the picture?

It will be a crucified church that lives and grows, and no other.

It will be crucified men and women who live before God and who multiply.

It will be a crucified ministry that brings Life and increase.

You hear Abraham: in the time of trial and testing, the incident in the interval with Hagar and Ishmael had taken place, when Abraham had tried to do this in his own energy, tried to bring it about, and had met a closed door with God. And he knew it, and cried, "O that Ishmael might live before thee!" (Gen. 17:18).

Ishmael does not live. I have produced Ishmael by my own energy, by my own wit, by my own effort to fulfil divine purposes.

I have brought Ishmael into being, but he is dead, he does not live! God has not accepted him.

O that Ishmael might live before thee!" No! No Ishmaels live with God, that is the fruit of the flesh, the work of the flesh.

Only Isaac lives with God, and Isaac bears favour. That is the mark of the Cross in Abraham's life.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Facing Down The Devil's Lies!

                                                                             
The devil comes at us with intense trials but we are not to fear him. 

John Knox, one of Britain’s most powerful preachers, is a great example of how we can face down the devil’s lies. His awesome preaching caused kings and queens to tremble and he lived a righteous life that backed up the gospel he preached, uncompromising to the end.

In Knox’s later years, when he became terminally ill, Satan faced another deadline. This man had angered hell probably as much as the apostle Paul had. So in the short time he had left, the devil set out to send Knox into eternity in fear and unbelief.

Knox wrote, “All my life I have been tested and assaulted of Satan. But my present test has assailed me most fearfully. He has set to devour me, and make an end of me.  

Before, he often would place all my sins before my eyes.

He tried to ensnare me with the allurements of this world. But the Spirit broke those attacks.

Now he has attacked me another way. This cunning devil has labored to persuade me that I have earned heaven by my faithfulness to my ministry!

Knox knew that salvation came by faith alone. 

He had preached this all his life, stating clearly that no one can be saved by his own righteousness, no matter how many good works he had done. But now Satan tried to damn the preacher by tripping him up over his own faithfulness!

Just before he died, Knox testified, “Blessed be God who has enabled me to beat down and quench this fiery dart by passages from the Scripture. 

By the grace of God, I am what I am, not I, but the grace of God in me. Through Jesus Christ I have gained the victory. 

The tempter shall not touch me again in this short time. I will soon exchange this mortal life for blessed immortality through Jesus Christ!”

Thank God for the testimony of John Knox! He used Scripture to stand against Satan, and the Lord delivered him.

He went home to glory singing God’s praises!

~David Wilkerson~
 

Roots Downward And Unshakeable

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Isa 37:31  And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:

The Lord must have something which cannot be carried away, which cannot be removed, cannot be shaken, and certainly something which cannot be rooted up. That is His remnant.

That, He must have for His own glory, and, that being so, He will take every measure with His remnant to have them after that kind, with roots downward. Of course, unto fruit upward. 

We speak much about the upward side of things, life in the heavenlies, sitting in the heavenlies, and our warfare and work – the fruitfulness of our life in union with the Lord. 

That is only possible as our roots are downward. In order that that might be so, we have to get into a place of unshakeableness where the roots have got such a grip that nothing can overthrow.

And I believe that explains a very great deal of what the Lord is doing with His own spiritual people in these days.

It is true that the true children of God are going through a time of intense trial and testing spiritually in these 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, and 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 Church will have all its work cut out in the end 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 your moving, giving up, falling down, surrendering, lowering your standard, just to stand and not be moved in your faith is the greatest possible victory.... 

We are passing through deep experiences, the enemy is doing it and the Lord is not preventing him, but we are coming to a fuller knowledge of the power of our God and a deeper rooting beyond all previous shakeableness.

And the Lord is seeking to have a people who cannot be shaken, against whom hell with all its demonstration of arrogance and pride, is impotent.

And the remnant... shall again take root downward. That is what the Lord needs.

~T. Austin Sparks~

The Blessed Provision Of The New Covenant

                                                                             
After God’s Spirit left King Saul, his halfhearted obedience had opened him up to Satan’s influence. Soon an evil spirit troubled Saul and he ended up seeking counsel from a witch
(see 1 Samuel 28).

Perhaps as you read the account of Saul’s life, you wonder, “But Saul tried his best and he didn’t do that bad of a job. Why was God so severe with him?”

God is telling us through this passage that He means what He says! He is saying, “I’m showing you how I feel about your obedience to Me. I want all your heart, all your love—not just a halfhearted obedience!”

If the Lord’s message to Saul had been foggy or unclear, we would be justified in saying He should have made an allowance. But His direction to Saul was clear and there was no doubting what He commanded. 

Likewise today, we have no doubt about what God has spoken to us. We know what His commandments are, because He has revealed them to us by His word and by His Spirit within our
hearts.

You may answer, “But what God did to Saul happened under the Old Covenant, under the Law. We live in a day of grace now. Surely the Lord won’t be as severe with us when we disobey as He was with Saul.”

Here is God’s word on the matter under the New Covenant, a covenant of grace:

[God] will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:6-11).

Let me spell out the difference for you between Saul in the Old Testament and all believers under the New Covenant: Whenever a person truly has a desire to obey God’s commands—when that person loves and respects God’s Word—the Holy Ghost supplies him with all power and ability to fulfill those commands. That is the blessed provision of the New Covenant.

~David Wilkerson~

What GOD Is Waiting To Hear!

A human being can go for weeks without eating, but only a few days without water. When Israel came to Rephidim, there was no water in sight (Exodus 17). Before long, children were crying and families were growing faint from thirst. It was a critical situation.

Moses understood the ways of the Lord and he knew just what was happening with Israel. He realized that God was letting His people be stretched beyond measure. Why? Because He wanted them to cast themselves completely into His care. He longed to see them rise up in faith and say, “God is able!” 

Scripture then tells us, “[Moses] called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?” (Exodus 17:7).

The words “Massah” and “Meribah” both mean the same thing: “a place of trial and testing.” Moses ran through the camp crying, “This is Massah—a test, a trial! It isn’t the end. God hasn’t forsaken us, so keep holding on! 

The Lord is looking for faith, wanting to know what’s in our
hearts. He knows how to meet our need—He only wants us to trust Him!”

Tragically, Israel did not trust the Lord, so God instructed Moses to pick up his rod, go to Horeb, and strike a certain rock there. When Moses hit the rock, water came gushing out to meet Israel’s thirst. The Lord proved once again He was with His people in spite of their unbelief.

How did Israel tempt the Lord in this episode? Was it in their anger toward Moses? Was it in their murmuring? Or was it in their idolatrous fornication? None of these things was the real issue. Here is how Israel tempted God: “They tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?”

God had that water in storage all along. He could have supplied it to Israel at the first pangs of their thirst but He waited. His heart yearned for His special, chosen people to recognize His love for them and cast themselves into His faithful arms. But once again, they failed!

So, God tried them yet again, this time by allowing them to hunger. Moses later said, “The Lord thy God . . . humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger . . .to prove thee”
(Deuteronomy 8:2-3).

Here was another test of faith. Would Israel hold their empty stomachs and wait for God to send them bread? Would they encourage one another toward faith? All God wanted was to hear, “God, You opened the Red Sea for us and sweetened the
bitter waters of Marah. We trust You to feed us. Live or die, we are Yours!”

That is all God was waiting to hear!

~David Wilkerson~

When GOD Is Silent

Are you a child of God who is experiencing a crushing sorrow, a bitter disappointment, or a heartbreaking blow from a totally unexpected place?

Are you longing to hear your Master’s voice calling you, saying, Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid (Matt. 14:27)? Yet only silence, the unknown, and misery confront you—“Jesus did not answer a word.”
 
God’s tender heart must often ache listening to our sad, complaining cries. Our weak, impatient hearts cry out because we fail to see through our tear-blinded, shortsighted eyes that it is for our own sakes that He does not answer at all or that He answers in a way we believe is less than the best.

In fact, the silences of Jesus are as eloquent as His words and may be a sign not of His disapproval but of His approval and His way of providing a deeper blessing for you.
 
Why are you downcast, O my soul? . . . I will yet praise him
(Ps. 43:5).Yes, praise Him even for His silence.

Let me relate a beautiful old story of how one Christian dreamed she saw three other women in prayer.
 
When they knelt the Master drew near to them. As He approached the first of the three, He bent over her with tenderness and grace. He smiled with radiant love and spoke to her in tones of pure, sweet music.

Upon leaving her, He came to the next but only placed His hand upon her bowed head and gave her one look of loving approval. 

He passed the third woman almost abruptly, without stopping for a word or a glance.
 
The woman having the dream said to herself,“How greatly
He must love the first woman. The second gained His approval but did not experience the special demonstrations of love He gave the first. But the third woman must have grieved Him deeply, for He gave her no word at all, nor even a passing look.”
 
She wondered what the third woman must have done to have been treated so differently. 

As she tried to account for the actions of her Lord, He Himself came and stood beside her. He said to her,“O woman! How wrongly you have interpreted Me! The first kneeling woman needs the full measure of My tenderness and care to keep her feet on My narrow way. She needs My love, thoughts,and help every moment of the day, for without them she would stumble into failure.

The second woman has stronger faith and deeper love than the first, and I can count on her to trust Me no matter how things may go or whatever people may do.

Yet the third woman,whom I seemed not to notice, and even to neglect, has faith and love of the purest quality. I am training her through quick and drastic ways for the highest and holiest service. “She knows Me so intimately, and trusts Me so completely, that she no longer depends on My voice, loving glances, or other outward signs to know of My approval. She is not dismayed or discouraged by any circumstances I arrange for her to encounter. She trusts Me when common sense, reason, and even every subtle instinct of the natural heart would rebel, knowing that I am preparing her for eternity, and realizing that the understanding of what I do will come later.

My love is silent because I love beyond the power of words to express it and beyond the understanding of the human heart.

Also, it is silent for your sakes—that you may learn to love and
trust Me with pure, Spirit-taught, spontaneous responses.

I desire for your response to My love to be without the prompting of anything external.”
 
He “will do wonders never before done” (Ex. 34:10) if you
will learn the mystery of His silence and praise Him every time
He withdraws His gifts from you.Through this you will better
know and love the Giver. 

~Selected~

Distinguishing Love

Sardis - what is the upshot of things in Sardis? Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.  

You look at the message to the church at Sardis and try to put it all into one word. What is the word that sums it up? Well, you have to say it is indefiniteness.

So we can say again, in the light of the whole standard, that first love, ultimate love, the love of Christ, the love which He is seeking, is a distinguishing love that marks you out as clearly defined for the Lord and all that is of the Lord.

Distinguished,different,outstanding, defined,unmistakable by the love that characterizes and governs. 

The thing that distinguishes from all else is this great love, and this great love brings about a distinctiveness of life.

You cannot be indefinite if you are mastered by this kind of love. 

First love does not care one little bit what people think or say.

Oh, everybody is saying this and that about the lover in the grip of first love. They may be using all sorts of language - He is a fool, he is mad! - it does not matter.

This love is making them clear-cut - one object, one design, one thought, one intent. 

They are people marked by one thing and not two. There is no doubt about it.

We have our humorous ways of speaking of people who are in that state. He is in love, you cannot get away from it, everything goes by the board! There is one thing and one thing only in that life. That is, of course, how it ought to be. 

You young people, never have any relationships in the beginning that are not like that. First love is like that, and the Lord says, "I want you where you were at the beginning."  

Or shall we say, I want you where I have ever been. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end; I am like that from first to last.

I want you back there in a distinguishing love.

~T. Austin Sparks~

More Than Conquerors

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us

The gospel and the gift of God are structured so wonderfully
that the very enemies and forces that are marshaled to fight against us actually help pave our way to the very gates of heaven and into the presence of God.

Those forces can be used in the same way an eagle uses the fierce winds of a storm to soar to the sky. At first he sits perfectly still, high on a cliff, watching the sky as it fills with darkness and as the lightning strikes all around him. Yet he never moves until he feels the burst of the storm, and then with a screech he dives toward the winds, using them to carry him ever higher.
 
This is also what God desires of each of His children. He wants us to be “more than conquerors,” turning storm clouds into chariots of victory.

It is obvious when an army becomes “more than conquerors,” for it drives its enemies from the battlefield and confiscates their food and supplies. This is exactly what this Scripture passage means.There are spoils to be taken!
 
Dear believer, after experiencing the terrible valley of suffering, did you depart with the spoils? When you were struck with an injury and you thought you had lost everything, did you trust in God to the point that you came out richer than you were before?

Being “more than [a] conqueror”means taking the spoils from the enemy and appropriating them for yourself.
 
What your enemy had planned to use for your defeat, you can
confiscate for your own use.
 
When Dr. Moon,of Brighton, England,was suddenly struck with blindness, he said,“Lord, I accept this ‘talent’ of blindness from You. Help me to use it for Your glory so that when You return, you may receive it ‘back with interest’ [Matt. 25:27].”
 
Then God enabled him to invent the Moon Alphabet for the blind, through which thousands of blind people were enabled to read the Word of God and thereby come to the glorious saving knowledge of Christ.

~Selected~
 
God did not remove Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” Cor.12:7KJV
The Lord did something much better—He conquered it and made it Paul’s servant.The ministry of thorns has often been a greater ministry to humankind than the ministry of thrones. 

~Selected~

Poison Gas From The Enemy

Whenever God raises up an instrument by which He intends to bring His Testimony into greater clearness and greater fullness, the object of which in His desire and thought is to reveal the nature of His Son more clearly, more perfectly, then the concentrated attention of all the powers of evil is to bring that thing under suspicion, and to put over it a great question mark in the eyes and minds of everybody. 

Why are not the Lord's people alive to that fact? 

For a fact which runs parallel with that, and which is just as mighty a fact itself, is that when you really investigate that thing you find you have no reason for question at all.

It was all an unfounded suspicion.

This is clearly the Devil's work, to cast over something which the Lord would use for a fuller revelation of His Son, and of what He desires for His people, this film of questioning, suspicions, doubts, so that it is forced into a realm where it is regarded as dangerous, suspicious.

Would to God that the Lord's people would obey the injunction to "prove all things"!

You see what the enemy is after, and how he goes to work. 

It is helpful to know sometimes what the enemy is after, and how he does operate.

We may be saved from much if only we are aware of it.

This is a message to our hearts, not only of helpfulness in an objective direction through our being informed as to the danger, the peril, the devices of the enemy, but it sheds light upon the inward experience, and shows that all the Lord's dealings with us are intended to bring us to this state of crystal clearness. 

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts (Psa. 51:6): and what the Lord desires He will get.

The dealings of the Lord with His own are purifying dealings, in order to have this crystal clearness, this pure gold, this stone most precious.

They are for the getting rid of the dross, getting rid of the film, getting rid of all those secret and secretive elements which work in the direction of deception. Those are like unto a lie, a falsehood.

The Lord wants to root all that out of us. He is against everything that is shadowy.

He is for everything that is perfectly clear, and so to get rid of the dark substances He puts His fires to work in our lives to purify them.

He does not allow such to be out of the fire for long. He is after this state of utter purity.

God is not cleansing, purging, chastening you and me, and causing His fires to work to our purifying, just for the sake of doing it, and He is not doing it just for our own sakes in as much as He wants us individually to be good and not bad. I suppose He wants that, but that is not all. 

God has a mighty, universal purpose in view, an eternal vocation, and that is what He is after, and it requires a condition.

That is one of the governing conditions of Zion, namely, the full expression of the Lord's mind. 

The Lord is always motived by things so much greater and vaster than we understand in the day when we are passing through the trial.

We bring it down to a personal matter, and ask questions: Why should the Lord deal with me like this? 

We narrow down the range of His thought, His purpose, His intention.

Because we make it so local we lose the strength and helpfulness which would come to us if we could see the great eternal vocation for which we were being prepared. 

~T. Austin Sparks~

Bring Life!

I wish I could have met Paul in the final, mature days of his walk with the Lord. I would have asked him, “Brother, what kept you from fainting and giving up? You were constantly pressed down on all sides.”

I believe Paul would have answered, “Yes, I was pressed down, but I wasn't distressed by any of it.”

But you write so often of being perplexed by your trials, I would say.

True, but never once did I give up in despair, he might answer.

You were also persecuted more than anybody.

Yes, I was. But the Lord never forsook me through it all.

You were struck down often, with infirmities and troubles.

Sure. But none of it destroyed me.

Today Paul testifies to the whole world, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).


He wants God’s people to know, “All your troubles are light, momentary afflictions. And they are producing in you an eternal weight of glory, far beyond your comprehension”
(see verse 17).

Paul tells us, “Death worketh in us, but life in you” (2Corinthians 4:12).
 
The apostle states very plainly, “Here is the reason God hands us over to death. He does it so the life of Christ will flow out of us to others! 

If we allow death to complete its work, a manifestation of the Christ-life will come forth in us. And our testimony will produce life in all who hear it!”

Remember that when financial problems hit, when physical pain strikes, when your name and character are being defamed, all eyes are on you. Your co-workers, your family members, your brothers and sisters in Christ, even strangers are watching and waiting for your reaction.

What do they see flowing out of you in such times? Do they see faith, trust, surrender? Or do they see a despairing, murmuring Christian who will not entrust himself to the resurrection power of Jesus?

Beloved, let death finish its work in you! Let it remove everything that hinders the flow of Christ’s life out of you to others.

Say to the Lord, “Father, I know these troubles aren’t happening to me because You are angry with me but because you are trying to get at something in my soul. Deal with it, Lord. Bring it to death, and out of that death, bring life!”

~David Wilkerson~