Sometimes

"Which holdeth our soul in life." (Ps. 66.9) 

Sometimes, looking at a verse, a statement in Scripture, one senses 
     something infinite in measure,
          something beyond what the eyes can see,
               something beyond the comprehension of the mind.
                    something which contains a never-ending "more."

Standing at the tip of South America and gazing northward there are mountains beyond mountains, extending for thousands of miles until there is no space left.
So with this verse, there is a limitlessness.
     It extends on and on through all the days of our life. 
          It starts at the beginning and knows no ending.

The inner essence of our existence is held by God Himself.
His hands, not our own, will carry us through.
     This is the ground of our confidence.
     This is the place of our rest.

Limitless Life surrounds us like an ocean which knows no measure.
He "holdeth our soul in life."
It is God's own Word, 
     "quick and powerful" (Heb 4.12)
          quickening with life, again and again -
               with that life which is infinite, and inexplicable. 

It is a dimension beyond our mind,
     beyond our emotions.
It is a  dimension which can only be known as it flows over the soul.

Light

"The entrance of Thy words giveth Light." (Psa. 119.130)

The verse doesn't say, "Thy word giveth Light," 
it says, "The entrance of Thy word giveth Light."

There is a world of difference (and distance) between hearing with the ears, and hearing with the heart.
How very few are the hearts which hear.
And how difficult it is to come to the Word of God with the ears of the soul open.

It is a conscious act, 
     starting with an awareness,
          followed by an expectation.
It is a thirst for a Reality beyond the superficial appearance of things,
a Reality which imprints itself deep within the soul.

It is a closing of the ears to the clamor of all other voices.
     It is a laying aside all our prejudices, and preconceived ideas.
          It is a bringing of the whole being, alert to hear what God is speaking. 

God never speaks empty words. 

" I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food" says Job. (Job 23.12)

Beyond all the necessary things of life, in a realm apart, stands the Word of God.

There is no other source of life than the Voice of God.
This is true in nature, and this is true in the spiritual realm.
Our human thoughts and words, make no progress in God's realm.
     We can only think from the realm of our own experience, 
          and we only achieve frustration as we travel in circles.
     Unless God speaks - death reigns,
          but when God speaks - all is made to live.
 
"The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." (Jn. 5.25)
Let's put it in a wider context: consider not just the dead lives, but the dead things within our lives.
All that is dead within me will live when the Word of God enters into my life.

May we not settle for anything less than the entrance of God's Word.
May we not settle for anything less than fullness of Life.

Bondage ... Freedom

"For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage" (2Cor. 11.20)

We would say it differently in our day.
We would use the word, "allow" or "permit."
Paul is speaking to a church which was incapable of taking a stand against the ones who brought things which limited them.

Without full freedom we cannot be fully free!

In so many areas it is possible, like Lazarus, to still be bound by the grave clothes of the past.

It is possible, in spite of having found God's Salvation, to find the life of God  choked by old structures which we have never fought to free ourselves from.
It is possible to tag the new onto the old, and live all our lives bound with "ball and chain."

It is possible for knowledge, "taught by the precept of men," (Is 29.13) 
     to supplant the quickening influences of the Spirit of God.
And it is possible for the things the brain has learned, 
     to supplant the vision that the Spirit of God would give.
It is possible for our fears to become greater than our trust.


"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (Jn. 8.36)
     What a place is offered us.
          What a place to dwell.
               Unbound!!!

Free to  "follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goeth." (Rev. 14.4)
     Free to lift ones eyes to God's horizons.
          Free to hear God's voice.
               Free, like Peter, to step out of the limited safety of a floating boat,
               and walk the waves with the Savior. 

God Working

Abraham, "Looked for a City."
     A city - with foundations.
          A city - whose Builder and Maker is God.
               A city - which is Real.

Very little in this world is built by God.
Even in what we call the church, most of what we see is man-generated and man-controlled.

Some within the church have been blinded by the call of material prosperity,
Others, it would seem, are pursuing a sort of erroneous "spiritual prosperity" 
- an abundance of blessing with a total absence of lifting the burdens of life,
- a sort of self-seeking, self-satisfying inversion of God's processes.
In both cases, one is seeking to build a place, a city, a kingdom, for oneself,
and forgetting it is God's Kingdom, not ours.
In His kingdom God wants above all to reign over ourselves,
and not merely our "things."

William Law had a statement to the effect that the greater price one payed for a spiritual blessing, the greater was the bargain he obtained.
This is very different from thinking that obstacles will be minuscule and blessings will be infinite.
Afflictions and burdens will be absent in heaven, but here on this fallen earth they are parts of life.

The trials and burdens of David, Samuel, Paul and John were not symbolic; 
they were real.
"The fiery trial which is to try you" (1 Pet 4.12) is not symbolic but real.

God is "the Lord, Mighty in Battle," (Psa 24.8) 
and it is He who "always causeth us to triumph in Christ." (2Cor 2.14)
God's call is not to complacency and comfort, but to strife and to Victory.

The God of the Bible is the God: 
     Who delivers his own, 
          not from, but out of battle, 
               not from, but out of affliction, 
                    not from, but out of weakness.

The God of the Bible is the God:
     Who quickens the dead, 
          and shows His power,
               where the night is darkest, 
                    and the battle is most intense.

The lesson of life is not about Avoidance, but about Overcoming!  

The violent, the ones who use force, the eager, the passionate, are the ones who take the Kingdom of God. (Mt 11.12)

"Revelation"

Above all other needs, our need is for a vision of God.

Without a revelation, a quickening within, we wander in darkness 
     - in spite of all our going to church, 
          and all our so-called knowledge.

What is our mind, or our imagination, to find and to express Him?
     What are our words?
          What are our thoughts?

As Blake said, we "believe a lie" because we "see with, not through the eye."
The heart goes far beyond the mind.
Feelings go far beyond expression.

The horizons which exist in God are barely perceived here on earth.
We live too much in this world, and are too little aware of God's world.
Is it not an insufferable pride to think that the Infinite God can be understood within the limits of man's finite mind,
and that mere words can transmit true knowledge of Him?

Job, in his search for God declares, 
"Lo, these are parts [outskirts, fringes, edges] of His ways." (Job 26.14)
As Job, we need a revelation of the Infinite because the little realities of earth pile up until they become like mighty mountains.

A Vision of God is beyond all price.
     He is the One whose years have no end, 
          whose power has no end,
               whose love has no end.

God promised to show Jeremiah "great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." (Jer 33.3)

Beyond human knowledge are the "great," and the "mighty" things, 

and they extend infinite - and eternal.

In this world of mortality, we come to the end of our resources and hope dies. 

     We need desperately another Light 

          - the unveiling of another world;

               a world of Light and Faith. 

Oh, that we might, each of us, find in the depths of our being a cry, 

"Lord, open mine eyes to see You - Present and Infinite, in the Here and Now."

Faith ... Prayer ... Substance

"Thy Kingdom come." (Mt 6.10)

What does the phrase mean here?

Can a Supplication become a Proclamation? 
Can a Prayer become a Prophesy? 

Why did Israel have to march around Jericho for seven days?
     Why did they surround the city seven times the last day of march?
          Was it because God is capricious?
              Or was it a process of finding an ever-increasing faith -
                   a Journey to a Fulfillment?

Why did some of the men God used in revival have to pray for years until one day, in one instant, everything changed?

Years ago in the north of Argentina the power of God descended while the scripture was being read, and throughout the gathered congregation there was a generalized cry as God met and answered people's needs?

Who could explain the amazement, the overwhelming of the senses when in a moment all of life was changed? 
What did the preacher feel as he saw his prayers answered?
What did the people feel when one reality was submerged beneath a Greater Reality?

Somehow in the midst of the process of prayer there is sometimes a quickening and the asking is changed to a declaring.

     Spiritual eyes are opened, faith takes hold, and nothing is impossible.

To Pray

Years ago I used to travel to an area in the north of Argentina,
an area covered with dry forest - scrub trees, thorn trees, and giant cactus.

The whole district was known by a simple, descriptive title, "The Impenetrable,"
and if one left the beaten paths, progress was made by threading one's way among the untamed scrub.

Many times our pathway of prayer, our pathway to God, seems so similar to finding a path through the forest,
     nothing is clear.
          nothing is simple.
               obstacles abound,
                    hurt is plentiful, 
                         and no horizon is to be seen.

The obstacles of the forest could not  alter the fact that there was a destination awaiting at the end of the path.
Neither can the battles within and without change the fact that God awaits us at the end of our seeking Him.

The mind, and even the emotions, are merely points along the way, 
the journey is of the spirit, deep within. 
"I was in the Spirit" says John. (Rev 1.10)
All outside the Spirit is (like the law) a mere teacher, or "way-pointer" to help us to our goal.

Jesus word stands forever, "Seek and ye shall find." (Mt 7.7)
     Prayer, sometimes is about keeping on and on
          through countless obstacles, until we find.

Truth

Truth in the inward parts." (Ps.51.6)

Eyes that cannot see, are the rule of our world, not the exception.
Truth dwells in a deep place,
     - it is of the heart,
          perceived by the spirit,
               and God wills to bring us there.

To see without seeing seems to be the state of all mankind - not exception but rather the norm.
And to see is a gift of God which is rarely embraced.

How can one show that something which cannot be put in words?
It is impossible - but perhaps words can point the way toward that reality.

Sometimes reading the Bible, 
one is overwhelmed by the certainty of the message.

Sometimes in reading a book about God's working, 
one gets a glimpse of the essence,
a glimpse of the reality of the working.
It does not happen with every book - even with "good" ones,
but sometimes, the Spirit-quickened writer takes us to a place where we see for ourselves what he is pointing to.

The words did not cause us to experience the situation, 
but they were able to bring us to a contact with Truth.
     Something deeper than the mind was quickened,
          and something more important that the understanding was awakened. 

The truth God wants reveal to us is more profound than "understanding."
     It is the sudden opening of the eyes of the soul.
          It is what happens when the fog of earth is taken away,
               and one sees beyond all that surrounds,
                    and all that has to do with the appearance of things.

Truth is when Eternity melts the things of time, as the heat melts the ice,
- and deep, everlasting things are made bare.

Truth is in the inward parts -  Truth is the moment when Eternity stamps itself over all that is not eternal.
                   And Life is quickened beyond all earthly measure.

A River Uncrossable

The years pass, and life like the sand in the hour-glass, passes.
This is why I try to pass on some of what I dimly glimpse, and can insufficiently express, of the immeasurable realm of God and His eternity.

Today:
"A river that I could not pass over."
"Waters to swim in."   (Ezek 47.5)

This is our God!
This is His river!

We have looked at the figure of the swimmer, but let us see the waters ... 
     here are Waters beyond waters. 
          Let us stand and wonder ...

Our swimming cannot exhaust the possibilities of the river.
Ezekiel says that he could not pass the river,
and further says , "A river that could not be passed over." (Ezek 47.5)
Now everyone is included - that is to say that no one could pass the limitless waters.

Words fail before the Infinite, the Measureless.
The limits of the flowing river of God's Life can never, ever be reached.

Sometimes from a height we can look all the way to the horizon, but always there is another panorama beyond ... and beyond.

      So it is when God illuminates the Word He has spoken.