I AM The LORD I Change Not

                                                                                    
Mal 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

The authority of darkness is a very real thing to us. We have experiences, and if we were to capitulate to them, that would be the end of us.

He tries to bring upon us that impingement of the authority of darkness, and if we surrender to it, capitulate to it, accept it, we are beaten.

If we are the Lord's, Christ is within, and Christ is supreme and we must go on even if we have no feeling, or if we have a very bad feeling; when it seems to be the last thing we ought to be saying, we say it because it is God's fact, and when we begin to affirm God's fact we win through.

Believers know what it is for the enemy to try to make them accept the authority of darkness. 

Stand upon the truth of God. God does not change with our feelings. God does not alter with our consciousness.

This whole life of ours is subject to variation more swift than the variation of weather, but He rules, unalterable, unchangeable.

He is "the same yesterday, and today, and for ever."

And if He is there within, He has come to stay, and victory is in faith; believing that, standing on that, holding to that; and we must carry that through to its final and full issue, that He is Lord of all, "Head of all principality and power."

Satan will sometimes try to make us believe that he is in the place of ascendancy, the place of supremacy, but since Calvary he is not, we stand there.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Waiting Is Hard

Numbers 9:19  And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD, and journeyed not.

This was the supreme test of obedience. It was comparatively easy to strike tents, when the fleecy folds of the cloud were slowly gathering from off the Tabernacle, and it floated majestically before the host.

Change is always delightful; and there was excitement and interest in the route, the scenery, and the locality of the next halting-place. But, ah, the tarrying.
     
Then, however uninviting and sultry the location, however trying to flesh and blood, however irksome to the impatient disposition, however perilously exposed to danger-there was no option but to remain encamped.

The Psalmist says, "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry."

And what He did for the Old Testament saints He will do for believers throughout all ages.

Still God often keeps us waiting.

Face to face with threatening foes, in the midst of alarms, encircled by perils, beneath the impending rock. May we not go?

Is it not time to strike our tents? Have we not suffered to the point of utter collapse?

May we not exchange the glare and heat for green pastures and still waters?

There is no answer. The cloud tarries, and we must remain, though sure of manna, rock-water, shelter, and defense.

God never keeps us at post without assuring us of His presence, and sending us daily supplies.

Wait, young man, do not be in a hurry to make a change! Minister, remain at your post!

Until the cloud clearly moves, you must tarry. Wait, then, thy Lord's good pleasure! He will be in plenty of time!

~Daily Devotional Commentary~

Forgive And Forget

Pro 20:22  Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.
 
Be not in haste. Let anger cool down. Say nothing and do nothing to avenge yourself.

You will be sure to act unwisely if you take up the cudgels and fight your own battles; and, certainly, you will not show the spirit of the LORD Jesus, It is nobler to forgive and let the offense pass.

To let an injury rankle in your bosom and to meditate revenge is to keep old wounds open and to make new ones.

Better forget and forgive.

Peradventure, you say that you must do something or be a great loser; then do what this morning's promise advises: "Wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee."

This advice will not cost you money but is worth far more, Be calm and quiet. Wait upon the LORD; tell Him your grievance; spread Rabshakeh's letter before the LORD, and this of itself will be an ease to your burdened mind.

Besides, there is the promise "He shall save thee." God will find a way of deliverance for you.

How He will do it neither you nor I can guess, but do it He will, If the LORD saves you, this will be a deal better than getting into petty quarrels and covering yourself with filth by wrestling with the unclean, Be no more angry.

Leave your suit with the Judge of all.

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Necessity For Faith

We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

Not able - paralyzing, disqualifying, incapacitating unbelief.

That means that the sooner we face this whole question and, as far as possible, get it settled, the better.

For thirty-eight years Israel was simply locked up, held up, and went round and round, so to speak, on this one question as to whether they were going to believe God.

It arose, let me say again, on all kinds of matters.

It arose on physical matters, for a life in that wilderness was a great proposition physically. 

The Lord did not change the physical conditions.

He called for a change in the people themselves first; the physical conditions were settled when He had got the change inside them.

When the matter of faith in Him was settled, then the Lord dealt with the physical.

The question arose in the circumstantial, the emotional, the intellectual, the volitional realms; the challenge was made along all those lines in numerous ways.

You can take all their experiences and see how each one was a peculiar form of the challenge to faith, and the challenge was changing almost daily in its aspect, its form, but it was the same challenge.

It came along every kind of line and the Lord never changed it, never prevented it, never allowed the whole set of conditions to be altered, but always focused on one point.

The thing that matters is the inner man, and not until the issue was settled there, did the Lord deal with all the other things.

Well, that is very comprehensive.

Do not think that it is necessarily such-and-such things that account for our condition.

These may be contributing factors, they may be very testing, may bear upon us very heavily. 

Physical matters - yes, they do press, they do make the situation exceedingly difficult, they do make a difference.

Circumstances in which we have to live our lives, they do make a lot of difference, they make the situation exceedingly difficult.

We say, If only the Lord would deal with this physical matter or these circumstances or this something else!

It is all due to that, that is the cause of it, the reason for it.

That is our way of reasoning, but it is not the Lord's thought at all.

The thing is deeper down than that, and it is simply a matter of believing God; resolute faith, confidence in God.

The Lord is trying to get us out of our variable and varying soul life where we are at the mercy of all our feelings, thoughts and reasonings and all that kind of thing, into a realm where, in spirit, we are steadfast.

That is the point upon which it is all fixed in the Psalm. "Their heart was not stedfast with Him" (Psa. 78:37), and around that the whole of their forty years is gathered.

The key to this is spiritual; tested by every other line, every other means, it is a spiritual matter ultimately.

To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inward man (Eph. 3:16) is the answer to it all.

The other may then give way; at least, we shall gain ascendancy over the other if it is not removed.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Impressions

Num 10:33  And they departed from the mount of the LORD three days' journey: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them in the three days' journey, to search out a resting place for them.

God does give us impressions, but not that we should act on them as impressions.

If the impression be from God, He will Himself give sufficient evidence to establish it beyond the possibility of a doubt.

How beautiful is the story of Jeremiah, of the impression that came to him respecting the purchase of the field of Anathoth. 

But Jeremiah did not act upon this impression until after the following day, when his uncle's son came to him and brought him external evidence by making a proposal for the purchase. Then Jeremiah said: "I knew this was the word of the LORD."

He waited until God seconded the impression by a providence, and then he acted in full view of the open facts, which could bring conviction unto others as well as to himself.

God wants us to act according to His mind.

We are not to ignore the Shepherd's personal voice but, like Paul and his companions at Troas, we are to listen to all the voices that speak and "gather" from all the circumstances, as they did, the full mind of the Lord.

~Dr. Simpson~

Where God's finger points, there God's hand will make the way.

Do not say in thine heart what thou wilt or wilt not do, but wait upon God until He makes known His way.

So long as that way is hidden it is clear that there is no need of action, and that He accounts Himself responsible for all the results of keeping thee where thou art.

~Selected~

For God through ways we have not known, Will lead His own.

He Never Fails

Joshua 1:5  There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
 
This word to Joshua is often quoted; it is the basis of that New Testament word "He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

Beloved, a life of warfare is before us, but the LORD of Hosts is with us.

Are we called to lead a great but fickle people?

This promise guarantees us all the wisdom and prudence that we shall need. 

Have we to contend with cunning and powerful enemies?

Here is strength and valor, prowess and victory.

Have we a vast heritage to win?

By this sign we shall achieve our purpose; the LORD Himself is with us.

It would be woe to us indeed if Jehovah could fail us; but, as this can never be, the winds of disquietude are laid to sleep in the caverns of divine faithfulness.

On no one occasion will the LORD desert us. Happen what may, He will be at our side.

Friends drop from us, their help is but an April shower; but God is faithful, Jesus is the same forever, and the Holy Spirit abideth in us.

Come, my heart, be calm and hopeful today.

Clouds may gather, but the LORD can blow them away.

Since God will not fail me, my faith shall not fail; and as He will not forsake me, neither will I forsake Him.

Oh, for a restful faith!

~Charles Spurgeon~

I Trust In Thy Word

                                                                              
The strength of our faith is in direct proportion to our level of belief that God will do exactly what He has promised. 

Faith has nothing to do with feelings, impressions, outward appearances, nor the probability or improbability of an event.

If we try to couple these things with faith, we are no longer resting on the Word of God, because faith is not dependent on them.
 
Faith rests on the pure Word of God alone. And when we take Him at His Word, our hearts are at peace.
 
God delights in causing us to exercise our faith. He does so to bless us individually, to bless the church at large, and as a witness to unbelievers.

Yet we tend to retreat from the exercising of our faith instead of welcoming it.

When trials come, our response should be,“My heavenly Father has placed this cup of trials into my hands so I may later have something pleasant.”
 
Trials are the food of faith.

Oh, may we leave ourselves in the hands of our heavenly Father! It is the joy of His heart to do good to all His children.

Yet trials and difficulties are not the only way faith is exercised and thereby increased.

Reading the Scriptures also acquaints us with God as He has revealed Himself in them.
 
Are you able to genuinely say, from your knowledge of God and your relationship with Him, that He is indeed a beautiful Being?

If not, let me graciously encourage you to ask God to take you to that point, so you will fully appreciate His gentleness and kindness, so you will be able to say just how good He is, and so you will know what a delight it is to God’s heart to do good for His children.
 
The closer we come to this point in our inner being , the more willing we are to leave ourselves in His hands and the more satisfied we are with all of His dealings with us.

Then when trials come, we will say, “I will patiently wait to see the good God will do in my life, with the calm assurance He will do it.”
 
In this way,we will bear a worthy testimony to the world and thereby strengthen the lives of others. 

~George Mueller~

To Grow Bitter Is to Be Beaten

Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
 
He who is able to endure has learned one secret of the overcoming life.

To endure is to bear patiently whatever the revolving years may bring us.

It is to accept quietly and cheerfully the intractable elements of life.

It is to pass through difficult or tragic hours free from any embittering of spirit, for to grow bitter is always to be beaten. 

We say "what can't be cured must be endured"; but that is scarcely the endurance of the Scriptures.

Such endurance is a joyless thing. It is forced submission to necessity.

The endurance of which the Bible speaks is of a happier character than that; it is a glad and even grateful acquiescence. 

Paul and Silas, in the prison at Philippi, did not accept things in a joyless way. They were happy; there was a lilt within their hearts; they sang so loudly that the prisoners heard them.

And that is the endurance of the Scripture the bearing of things in a happy kind of fashion; an acceptance with the note of triumph in it.

Of that gracious and beautiful endurance the New Testament indicates three sources.

~George H.Morrison~

The Bible's Supreme Place

Psa 119:165  Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
 
Yes, a true love for the great Book will bring us great peace from the great God and be a great protection to us.

Let us live constantly in the society of the law of the LORD, and it will breed in our hearts a restfulness such as nothing else can.

The Holy Spirit acts as a Comforter through the Word and sheds abroad those benign influences which calm the tempests of the soul.

Nothing is a stumbling block to the man who has the Word of God dwelling in him richly. He takes up his daily cross, and it becomes a delight.

For the fiery trial he is prepared and counts it not strange, so as to be utterly cast down by it. He is neither stumbled by prosperity -- as so many are -- nor crushed by adversity -- as others have been -- for he lives beyond the changing circumstances of external life.

When his LORD puts before him some great mystery of the faith which makes others cry, "This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" the believer accepts it without question; for his intellectual difficulties are overcome by his reverent awe of the law of the LORD, which is to him the supreme authority to which he joyfully bows.

LORD, work in us this love, this peace, this rest, this day.

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Cockatrice Must Be Crushed

James 1:15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

First, sin has its conception-which is its delight; and then sin has its birth-which is its action; and then sin has its growth-which is its custom; and then sin has its end-which is its damnation!

The very thought of sin, if but meditated on, will break forth into action; action into custom; custom into habit; and then both body and soul are irrecoverably lost to all eternity!
 
If the subtle Serpent can but wriggle in his tail by a sinful thought, he will soon get in his head by a worse action!

The cockatrice must be crushed in the egg, else it will soon become a serpent!

~Thomas Brooks~

The King's Highway

Isa 35:8  And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
 
The way of holiness is so straight and plain that the simplest minds cannot go astray if they constantly follow it.

The worldly wise have many twists and turns, and yet they make terrible blunders and generally miss their end. 

Worldly policy is a poor, shortsighted thing, and when men choose it as their road, it leads them over dark mountains.

Gracious minds know no better than to do as the LORD bids them; but this keeps them in the King's highway and under royal protection.

Let the reader never for a moment attempt to help himself out of a difficulty by a falsehood or by a questionable act; but let him keep in the middle of the high road of truth and integrity, and he will be following the best possible course.

In our lives we must never practice circular sailing nor dream of shuffling.

Be just and fear not, Follow Jesus and heed no evil consequences.

If the worst of ills could be avoided by wrongdoing, we should, in the very attempt, have fallen into an evil worse than any other ill could be.

GOD'S way must be the very best way. Follow it though men think you a fool, and you will be truly wise.

LORD, lead Thy servants in a plain path because of their enemies.

~Charles Spurgeon~

It's A Warfare

It's a Warfare...Most of you don't need to be told that, or to be reminded of it.

Many of you are here, really war-scarred warriors, you've been in the fight and the battle has left its marks on you.

You know it quite well. And yet, it needs to be said - perhaps firstly to those who are newly, who have newly donned the armor, who have newly come to the LORD:

Understand that you have been enrolled in a spiritual army!

And your life business is war. You're going to find that out sooner or later whether you like it or not, but there's the fact.

And that is a very responsible position. One, by failure in this warfare, may let down many and affect the whole campaign.

But, dear friends, although you and others may know it so well, and feel that you do not need to be reminded, are you sure that you don't?

Well I think I know something about it in experience; and yet, and yet there's this subtle truth, this subtle fact...

That very often we are in situations, things are going on, and we begin to blame people and circumstances and get all worked up about things that are happening, and look for scapegoats, and forget, forget the reality of this thing.

Why, the devil's after something!

Here the battle is on, there is no doubt about it; the air is thick with conflict; and we get our eyes on people, and things, and forget.

And we are defeated, we are defeated, we are just beaten, and rendered casualties, put out of the fight...

Simply because we have lost sight of the fact, the abiding fact, that we are in a spiritual warfare, and behind 'things' there are other forces.

And we all need to be reminded. 

It is no small thing, you know, when we are really in a situation like that, and things are getting worked up to a fine pitch of stress, when someone comes along and says, "Look here, the enemy is in this.

The enemy's in this, he is trying to get you, he knows something or other, he's on your track; let's have some prayer about it" and we get to prayer, and the whole thing goes.

So sometimes just to remind one another of the fact is a tremendous deliverance: we find that it is, it IS a fact.

We've been attributing it to things and people, and there's something deeper than that behind it.

But we do need to be reminded continually that we are in a warfare - we are.

Well, that's the first thing here...the conception of the Christian life-we must just get a hold of it and settle it.

And, although I don't like saying it, I don't think we are ever going to be out of this warfare here!

No. Well, let's go on.

The second thing that is in these statements is that, if you are going to wage triumphant spiritual warfare, you must be all in it.

No soldier on active service (for that's the literal wording) entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.

~T. Austin Sparks~

The Care Of The Poor

Psa 41:3  The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
 
Remember that this is a promise to the man who considers the poor. Are you one of these? Then take home the text.

See how in the hour of sickness the GOD of the poor will bless the man who cares for the poor!

The everlasting arms shall stay up his soul as friendly hands and downy pillows stay up the body of the sick.

How tender and sympathizing is this image; how near it brings our GOD to our infirmities and sicknesses!

Whoever heard this of the old heathen Jove, or of the gods of India or China! This is language peculiar to the GOD of Israel; He it is who deigns to become nurse and attendant upon good men

If He smites with one hand, He sustains with the other.

Oh, it is blessed fainting when one falls upon the LORD's own bosom and is born thereon!

Grace is the best of restoratives; divine love is the safest stimulant for the languishing patient; it makes the soul strong as a giant, even when the bones are breaking through the skin.

No physician like the LORD, no tonic like His promise, no wine like His love.

If the reader has failed in his duty to the poor, let him see what he is losing and at once become their friend and helper. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Cross And The Flesh Cannot Exist Together

And that “One died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him” 

2Co 5:14  For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

2Co 5:15  And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

So far as GOD was concerned the history of the fallen race was concluded at Calvary.

From that time onward, GOD'S entire concern was the new creation.

It is no use our trying to bring some of the old creation life into the new creation, for GOD will not accept it.

Our human capabilities as well as our infirmities; what we call our better side as well as what we recognize to be our worst side; our goodness and our badness have all been included in that death.

Henceforth we are called to live not on a human level but on a divine.

In ourselves we possess nothing which is acceptable to GOD.

So often it is the assertion of some human element, some like or dislike, some ambition or some personal interest which paralyses the work of GOD in and through us.

To regard not only our sins but ourselves as having been taken to the Cross by Christ is the only way by which those purposes of GOD can be wrought out through our lives.

It may seem strange that while we so often deplore our lack of spirituality, we are so slow to accept the verdict of the Cross on our natural lives.

We find it humiliating to accept the same verdict on ourselves as has been passed on the world, namely that of death by crucifixion.

Nevertheless there is no other basis for a really spiritual life and witness: the Cross must work out death in us in order that the life of Christ may be released in full expression through us. 

So there may be a sense in which the Christian also has to face the offense of the Cross.

Only by really knowing the power of the fact that he is crucified with Christ can he know the blessedness of the new life.

When it is truly “no longer I”, then the way is opened for the affirmation: “but Christ that liveth in me”.

The end is glorious but the way is the painful way of the Cross.

~T. Austin Sparks~