What do we See?

It is so easy to look only at what we see around us! 

The  evil we see causes us hurt and amazement, but of far greater significance is the root from which this has sprung.

We see the moral undergirdings of the church, and of human society, blighted by an acceptance of perversions; and yet the perversions are only the fruit of something of far greater importance.

Our battle is not with the things we see, but with the unseen forces which move the things seen. Our fighting is  "against principalities, against powers." Eph 6.12

When we enter into heaven there will be an awareness of the Infiniteness of God's world.
It won't be about the golden streets, or the flowers of eternity, but the opening of our conciousness to Who God is.

Somehow this is true for us even while we are on earth.
When Peter confessed that Jesus was the Son of God, Jesus told him "I will give  unto thee the keys" - to bind and to loose with heavenly authority.
In other words, when Peter saw Who Jesus was, he was given of the same authority that he saw in Jesus.

The enemy seeks to fill our vision with earthly things, so that we may not see the things of the Spirit of God.
God calls us  day by day to lift our eyes to find the revelation of Him. 
He calls us to see our world become smaller.
He calls us to see our vision of Himself become greater.

We are invited to hear His voice saying to us also, "I will give unto thee" ... 
and to believe for the coming of His Kingdom in the days and in the circumstances of our lives.

Can we...?

"Behold, I make all things New."


     Can we see it?
          Can we begin to comprehend what it entails?

It is the outworking of a process which began in the Garden of Eden.
It is God taking back what was lost.

It is a restoration in order to form something Unbroken, Undestroyed ... something which is what He wants it to be.

It is a constant, unceasing flow of the Spirit of God overcoming all obstacles
and defeating all enemies.

The word says "all" and He would guide our spirits in all the areas of our lives.
He would show us that "all" means ... here, and here, and here.
"All" means each area which is broken, incomplete,  and incapable of sight or faith.

The question is how far will we follow?
How committed are we to lay aside the weights of life and press on through the confusion without and within, until we reach the realm where God's new creation fills all our horizons?

The rolled back stone in the garden at Easter opens before us a new world.
Old things are passed away and they will never come back.

This is the truth as it is in Him ... let us raise our eyes to "all," and reach out in faith and take it from His hand, a new and living way for the days and years of our lives.

Warfare

The apostle says, "the weapons of our warfare are ... mighty ... to the pulling down of strongholds." 2Cor. 4.10

Years ago a young man who had been heavily involved in the occult commented to my father that what the church knew as "spiritual warfare" was only warfare  on a superficial level.

There can be no major victories if we fight on a kindergarten level.

Pastor Blumhardt in 1840 prayed for two years until God came in deliverance and initiated a move of the spirit which brought people from all over Germany and other lands, even the Kaiser coming to see what was going on.

Pastor Long prayed for eight years around 1950, until there came a mighty move of God in the northern part of Argentina. 

This move was visited by a young David Wilkerson, and stirred him to believe for the moving of God in his own sphere of ministry.

     It is so easy to forget that beyond the seen lies the unseen, and the things we see are the fruits of that which is not seen. 

     It is so easy to forget that the battle is not to merely in order to cut off the visible tops of the weeds, but to do away with the unseen roots.

Paul saw, and battled against the unseen forces which produced the visible effects. For this reason he "turned the world upside down"  Acts. 17.6 

- not that he was turned upside down by the world around him! 

Any battle, any rebuking, any declaring, etc. which does not produce this kind of result is kindergarten activity.

True battle is to pray, and pray, and pray - until the spiritual strongholds are cast down and all things become new about our lives.

"Thy Kingdom Come!" Mt. 6.10

The Way to God

There is nothing that we can pass on to but that which we have glimpsed of Reality in our pilgrimage.
It seems to take far too long for the fog of this world to clear and for its noise to subside, but when a glimpse is given of Reality what a certainty is there; a foundation unshakable.

How hard it is to let go of what one thinks one knows. 
How easy it is to look for answers in the words of others who think they know.
What a loss, and what a poverty is theirs whose "fear toward me is taught by the precept of men." Is. 29.13
The enemy always tries to blind our hearts and minds to the certainties of God.

Two things come to mind as things in which the enemy has brought fear, confusion and defeat to churches and lives.

     The fear of Legalism: any word, any commandment, which is inflexible causes us terror.

     The fear of Mysticism: any inspiration of the Spirit of God which calls for us to surrender our control holds us fast in fear.

The traditional fundamentalist church fears the way of the Spirit.
And the charismatic church fears the absoluteness of God's law.
Fundamentalists cling to the way of the law alone. 
Charismatics seek only the "untethered" flow of the Spirit.

People are terrified to open themselves to more than they have been taught.

Sometimes we seem to be more occupied fighting certain aspects of God's truth than we are in fighting sin.
We either use the Law to fight the way of the  Spirit, or we look to the Spirit to annul the demands of the law.

For those who look to the Spirit free us from the law:
We must know that the laws and principles of God are eternally fixed -the Word will judge us and we cannot by any fancy "interpretation" change this. 

For those who look to the law to be the only guide to the spiritual life:
We must know that the Law without the Spirit is dead, and without the Spirit's constant quickening we are also dead. 

The bottom line is that the enemy succeeds in making us afraid to believe God...
     We are afraid that God's law will bind us and take away our liberty.
     We are afraid that the Spirit of God would carry us to an uncontrolled    extremism.

Let us embrace what some fear.
Let us hold fast the words God has spoken.
Let us open ourselves to the Spirit of God.
This is the Way ...

Let us rest in this: it is the law and the enduement of the Spirit of God that brings Life into focus, 
It is this which enables us to walk, to advance in that Life, and "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our...Lord and Savior." 2 Peter 3.18

Freedom

In Jeremiah 15.19 God speaks of a condition, "if thou take forth the precious from the vile."

Some things are so simple if we could only believe them ... "if" and again"if."

It is interesting to reflect on the fact that our modern world is run by computers which are themselves run by the simplest of mathematics;
an area of mathematics where there are only two alternatives: yes or no ... True or False, represented by the numbers 1 and 0.

In our world everything is relative, everything, and every opinion has some value.
Yet if we want the right answers, we have to leave behind that which is relative, and go back to the "yes" and "no" of Truth to find our solution.

So it is in the Kingdom of God ... 
     we cannot alter it , 
          nor "interpret" it to fit our wishes, 
               or call it "legalism" if it doesn't suite us.

The Word must judge all things, and not we judge the Word.
     "Yes is "Yes," and "No"is "No."
          There is no middle ground.
               There are no shades of gray.

The Way is still strait, and there is not enough room in this Way for earth's extravagances, man's conditioning, or man's pride.

In God's Kingdom everything is Absolute, and that which is not Precious is Vile,
     and everything which is not Life is Death.
          As someone said, "Only that which comes from heaven will return to heaven."

The separating of the precious from the vile is not a painful thing for the child of God - God is not taking anything from us except our chains.
It is the Joy of leaving weights and burdens which would sap our strength and bind our feet.
It is the Joy of Freedom, of increasing Light, and Strength.

It is Life abundant - unalloyed with portions of death!

It is the fullness of God's Presence.

Come Away...

Two little words, "Come Away," (S. o. S. 2.10) ... and a world of significance.

I feel a Call...

In our Day, in this little hour of our existence, what a weight is in these words.
     We live amidst the sordid mess of a world gone mad...
          and a church which so many times seems to follow along.

In the midst of it all there is a sweet yet powerful Voice which calls us away from all.
    Away from all the Earthly,
          Away from all the things which distract the mind.

There is a "here" of this world, and there is a "there" of the world of  God.

     There is an invitation to come to the One Who awaits,
             to come from the shadows to the Light.
                     to come to His Presence,
                             to come to His Surrounding Love.

To come away from all else, and let our spirits find the One who is the Anwer to all of life's needs.

"Come" just to be there with Him... 
     away from all that would destroy ... 
          away to be renewed and quickened with Life and Vision within ...  
               there, is "rest unto your souls". (Mt. 11.29)

Coming

"Oh Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come." Ps 65.2

The verse says "all flesh"...

Think of "All Flesh" not just as "all mankind."

     Think of "all flesh" as in every bit of my being ... all that I am.

Include every single atom that comprises my being...

      Include every thought, 

          every action, 

               every fear, 

                    every hope

                         and every longing.

All that I am, with all my past and all my future, is invited.

All I bring He takes and I am made welcome.

It is not a case for our human striving but of recognising that our mind cannot take us to the realm of the Spirit.

It is a coming to God with an open heart that He may do for us what we could never do for ourselves.

May He find us bringing our all before Him in longing - that as His Spirit-born creatures we may find Completion in Him.