" I Have Finished the Work"

 "I have finished the work."

 

What words!

    Thirty three years of life lay behind,

        three years of ministry,

            adulation and rejection,

                rest and weariness,

                    callings of mercy,

                        works of healing,

                            declarations of judgement. 

 

And now we have the summing up,

    now the final declaration.

He knew the Father's will and He did it -

    "I have finished the work." 

For us, time yet stretches before us.

"The evening bringeth all things home,"

-but not yet.

 For us who read these words there is yet time,

     there are yet more days.

        And over all there is still a Responsibility.

 

There are days to end with, "I have finished the work."

    There are weeks that await for us to fulfill God's call to us.

 

    Someday, we know not when, will be our last day on earth

        and what may it be to reach heaven and proclaim,

            "I have finished the work."

 

Our ONE Need in 2022

 As we enter into this New Year,

    and as all that can be shaken is being shaken,

        as the light goes out over the nations, 

            as the darkness deepens all around,

                we need an answer.

As the earthly shows its true nature of impermanence,

    there is One Thing alone that remains.

We have heard much, and spoken much about the KINGDOM OF GOD.

    But as a people, as a church, we have never seen it.

 

Let me say it again;

I am certain that this generation has never seen the real Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom is not about the outward:

    the observances, the laws, the forms.

        It is something infinitely beyond these things.

An eagle, if it is to fly must take to the air.

    Imagine for a moment an eagle unwilling to commit itself,

        unwilling to step off the crag where it is perched,

            unwilling to abandon the visible 

                and give itself to the invisible winds.

What would be the end of that bird?

    It would die trusting the "safety" of its rock.

So it is with us unless we find the sphere of the Holy Spirit, 

    unless we find the dimension of the Kingdom of God.

        All the outward things that we call the church, the Kingdom,

            are NOTHING if the Spirit of God does not quicken.

As I look at the Scripture, verse after verse marks this difference:

We are DELIVERED from the power of darkness,

and TRANSLATED into the Kingdom. (Col 1.13)

 

It is a place where the past has vanished away.

    It is another plane where all is infinite, because it is the realm of God.

 

How much do we really know of this Deliverance?

How much do we know of this Translation?

    Simply... where do we live?

        What world surrounds us?

            What things matter to us?

 

Would that we could feel "the intolerable craving."

    Would that, like Francis Xavier, we would be moved

        "to shout as a madman" to the blind who 

            indifferent to reality think themselves to see.

 

Friends, this year can be, must be, if we are not to drink of death,

    a year of coming into an understanding of what Jesus came to bring.

        It must be a year of stepping out of mere human construction

            into the freedom of that Kingdom which is a Spiritual Realm.

 

God calls us,

    and as we dare to spread our wings, He will not allow us to fall,

        rather we shall know the joy of the Limitless -

            the Infinite reaches of God's land of "far horizons."

 

         "I will never leave thee" - His Spirit is there sufficient,

          in every need, for every day, for every circumstance.

 

THE CLOCK IS TICKING ...

The clock is ticking on our new year...

    one percent of its span has receded behind us already

        the remaining percentage advances,

            and we cannot delay its march.

Everything goes back to the spiritual...

    The spiritual forces are the real forces which rule.

In the midst of the tumult the question is,
    can we read the writing on the wall for our generation?

If God allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed,
    and not one stone of the temple was left upon another,
        can we escape the same fate?
Are our sins less than theirs?
    Is our self delusion less than theirs?
        Is our spiritual blindness and pride too great for us to see what awaits?

World peace came to an end with the first worldwide war

 - and turmoil has roiled the world in the century since.

    Now in the the ocean of time another wave rolls in upon us all,

    and we need the God given gift of sight for the days which await us.

 

Three things we need:     

    To read the writing on the wall regarding the world. 

        To read the writing regarding our own selves.
            To know the Word and will of God for ourselves.

 

    Now is the time to make the Lord's prayer our own

        and to seize hold of the words "Thy kingdom come" 

            until they resound within us,  and rise to heaven 

                as the cry of creation for its God.

Today...Tomorrow...2022?

A New Year!

A God Who makes all things New!

And where are we?

"Thy Kingdom come."

    When God comes His Kingdom comes. 

 

God came to Wales in 1904.

 

After a time of intense seeking of God a pastor, Joseph Jenkins,

    was conscious of a a quickening visitation of the Holy Spirit

        which changed his awareness of God and changed his ministry.

Later, at the beginning the year 1904, a teen-age girl was converted

    and when in a youth meeting the pastor asked 

"What does Jesus mean to you?"

    she rose to her feet and with trembling emotion said,

"I love Jesus  with all my heart" 

    and with those words earth felt the impact of heaven.

 

In that chapel the presence of God became real,

    tears began to fall,

        and from that chapel revival streams began to flow -

            until Wales was shaken by the power of God,

                until meetings were alive with the convicting power of the Holy Spirit,

                    until lives were changed 

                        and the glory of God was revealed in hearts.

 

I am afraid that in our time 

most of those who speak of revival

have little or no idea of what they are talking about

- neither in the pew nor the pulpit.

 

Beyond the subject of revival,

    even among those who give it lip recognition,

        it seems that 99% of us

            have barely the slightest idea of the place 

                which the enduement of the holy Spirit should have in ministry

                    and in life.

 

Let's forget our words and terminology,

    and let us in this new year seek the Lord

        until He meets us - in fresh revelation and fresh enduement. 

 

            May we be able to say at the end of the year,

                       "I have found something New -

                               I have found God"