When The Hedge Goes Down!

(David Wilkerson / August 7, 1985–Reposted by permission)

Satan himself acknowledges that God has a protective hedge all around the righteous and that the hedge protects not only themselves but all that they have — including their descendants.

When seeking to tear Job down, Satan complained to God, “Hast thou not made a hedge around him, and his house, and all that he has on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land” (Job 1:10).

Hedge, shield, and wall are synonymous in God’s Word. Shield is from the Hebrew root GANAN, which means to cover, surround, defend. These words are interchangeable — speaking of Christ covering, surrounding and protecting His righteous ones on every side. God was Job’s shield, a covering or canopy under which he was untouchable by any enemy. God’s presence surrounded him as a wall.

Shield is a covenant word. God said to Abraham, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you” (Genesis 15:1). In other words, “I am a hedge and wall about you on all sides — you have nothing to fear from any enemy.”

How powerful were the final words of Moses as he blessed Israel. He sang out, “Blessed are you, O Israel; who is like you, a people saved by the Lord. Who is the shield of your help, and the sword of your majesty! So your enemies shall cringe before you, and you shall tread upon their high places” (Deuteronomy 33:29).

David feared no enemy — no devil, no demon, no living soul! He testified, “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me” (Psalm 3:5). Why could David sleep so well each night and wake up with such renewed strength? Because the hedge was up around him! He said, “But thou, O Lord, art a shield about me…my glory, and the One who lifts up my head” (Psalm 3:3).

Behind that shield, that protective hedge, David was safe from every enemy attack. Nothing on earth or out of the pits of hell could touch him. He could say, “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about…for thou hast smitten all my enemies on the cheek: thou hast shattered the teeth of the wicked” (Psalm 3:6,7). The demon hordes that came against him had to flee, having been shattered by the hedge about David. They could not penetrate that wall!

A Protective Hedge Is a Covenant Right To All Who Walk Blameless Before the Lord

Our almighty covenant God has placed a shield around all who walk before Him blameless and pure in heart! The hedge was not only around Job, it was around Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David — and is still round about all saints who walk in righteousness and fear of God!

In making covenant with Abraham, God commanded him, “Walk before me, and be blameless, and I will establish my covenant between me and you” (Genesis 17:1). In other words, “Abraham, walk before me blameless, and you need never again fear, because I covenant with you to be your shield and hedge against all enemies that will ever come against you or against any of your descendants.”

David testified, “For I have kept the way of the Lord, and have not acted wickedly against my God. For all His ordinances were before me, and as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also blameless toward Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity” (2 Samuel 22:22–24).

He added, “With the blameless thou dost shew thy self blameless (2 Samuel 22:26). Meaning, those who keep their part of the covenant will experience perfect and blameless shielding from all enemies.

Just how safe is a man of God who walks in covenant with God — blameless and pure in heart? What effect does Satan or his powers of darkness have upon the righteous who forsake their iniquities? David makes it most clear that victory is certain for those who are pure. “Thy help makes me great…I pursued my enemies and destroyed them. And I did not turn back until they were consumed. And I have devoured them and shattered them, so that they did not rise, and they fell under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength for battle: thou hast subdued under me those who rose up against me, thou hast also made my enemies turn their backs to me, and I destroyed those who hated me…Then I pulverized them as the dust of the earth, I crushed and stamped them as the mire of the street” (2 Samuel 22:36–43).

What a testimony of protection and victory. He could boast, “Satan and his evil hordes surrounded me, but God’s shield made me invincible. I pulverized the enemy. I trampled him to the ground. I sent him running — Idefeated every foe. The powers of darkness hate me. They tried to come against me, but they couldn’t lay a hand on me — I crushed them with God’s help! The enemy is shattered and I am safe and sound behind the hedge.”

God is a hedge about every child of His who walks in integrity and purity. “He is a shield to those who walk in integrity” (Proverbs 2:7). “For the Lord God is a sun and shield…no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11). “He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him” (Proverbs 30:5).

There is No Hedge About Christians Who Live in Sin and Rebellion

Those who are wicked and divided in heart have broken the covenant, and they are defenseless against the principalities and powers of darkness. “But to the wicked God says, What right have you to tell of my statutes, and to take my covenant in your mouth? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you…You associate with adulterers…you let your mouth loose in evil, and your tongue frames deceit” (Psalm 50:16–21).

Israel broke their covenant with God. They had been clearly warned what would happen to them if they disobeyed God. They knew they would lose the hedge and become an easy prey to every kind of enemy. “If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The Lord thy God; then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou was afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God. And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought” (Deuteronomy 28:58–67).

Israel was given a choice! Follow the Lord and be blameless — and be protected. Or, turn away and be overwhelmed by the powers of darkness. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:15–20).

Incredibly, Israel chose to walk in disobedience — turning away from the covenant to follow their lusts. What horrible disasters followed! David cried, “Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbors; and our enemies laugh among themselves” (Psalm 80:5,6).

Why did the enemy laugh now at Israel! Because the hedge was down! “Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the woods doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it” (Psalm 80:12–13).

Satan is the boar who eats away in their vineyard. Demonic powers pass through at will, devouring the fruit — because the shield is gone! The hedge is broken down. And why? Because the people of God were walking in stubborn and willful disobedience to God. “But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries” (Psalm 81:11–14).

God Has Threatened to Remove the Hedge From His Vineyard and Lay it Waste

I tremble at the prophetic word of the prophet Isaiah. It is not speculation — it is something God said He fully intends to do.

First, hear the testimony of Jesus about the wall He has built around His people, His vineyard, “Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country” (Matthew 21:33).

But God said that hedge is coming down — because of sin! “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it” (Isaiah 5:3–6).

God is telling us what He is most certainly going to do. I believe He is doing it right now. There is a harlot church on the earth today that has become the devil’s playground. It is made up of deceived Christians who wink at sin. They are self–willed, lovers of pleasure, who no longer blush over their iniquities. They have divided hearts; they are holding to a form of godliness with no power. They have their idols; they refuse to give up their secret pet lusts; and they are blinded by a false peace.

This harlot church is described in Deuteronomy 29 as blinded by a false peace. “…And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst” (Deuteronomy 29:19).

God warns that He will break down their hedge and single them out for adversity and curses. “The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law” (Deuteronomy 29:20, 21).

David knew what it was like to break covenant and be singled out for adversity and trouble on all sides. God had told David, “My covenant I will not violate” (Psalm 89:34). But God did not violate it — David did. Even though God never breaks off his lovingkindness — yet He still visits transgressions with the rod. “Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail” (Psalm 89:32, 33).

Take heed as you hear David tell of a plundering enemy who brought ruin into his life because of sin. “But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou has been wroth with thine anointed. Thou has made void the covenant of thy servant; thou has profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. Thou has broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin. All that pass by the way spoil him, he is a reproach to his neighbours. Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and has not made him to stand in the battle” (Psalm 89:38–43).

Is not this the reason why so many Christians are being plundered by Satan? They are not able to stand up against demonic powers and principalities of darkness because God has removed their hedge. They were once His anointed, but now they are under siege by the forces of hell — because they have no godly sorrow for sin left in them. They refuse to repent and forsake their worldly ways. Disobedience has brought upon them an avalanche of adversity and troubles of all kinds. They hide and justify their sins. True — not all suffering is a result of sin. There is a discipline administered by our loving Father. Some, like Job, are being tested so they can come forth as pure gold. Yet sin always brings down the hedge.

How terrible when God removed the hedge about Jerusalem. Jeremiah could hardly believe his eyes at the sight of swift and horrible disaster and unbelievable devastation at the hands of the enemy. He cried, “The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer” (Lamentations 1:4–6).

Jeremiah very accurately describes what happened to Israel when they broke covenant and lost their hedge. Speaking for them he said, “The enemy has come upon my neck…He has made my strength fail; the Lord has given me into the hands of those against whom I am not able to stand” (Lamentations 1:14).

That is exactly what I see happening in the church today, as multitudes are being overwhelmed by satanic attacks. So few can stand up now and resist. So few have any spiritual authority left. Satan is coming against them like an overflowing flood, and their strength fails them. It is usually directly related to the sin remaining in them. They refuse to be searched by the light of God’s Word. They are not coming to the light to have sin exposed. They instead flirt about in adultery, fornication, and lusts of all kinds. They sit passively before their idols of TV, corrupt movies and pornography. There is much fear, unbelief, gossip, slander and cursing. Others do not pray, they forget the Lord days on end, and they are no longer intimate with the beloved Savior.

Then they wonder why the enemy plunders their lives and homes. How blind can we be? Our sins have forced the Lord to remove the hedge from us.

We have completely lost the fear of God if we do not tremble at this warning — “I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. And I will lay it waste…I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it” (Isaiah 5:5,6).

God is speaking of the church, of our lives, and especially of our children and grandchildren. A famine of God’s Word — no revelation! A home trampled upon, laid waste. God promised to establish a covenant not only with Abraham, but also with all his descendants: with his children, grandchildren, and all his posterity. “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Genesis 17:7).

The importance of walking in covenant, blameless and pure in heart, is that it provides a hedge and shield for us and all our descendants. It is a safeguard for our posterity. Certainly God will visit the transgressions of our children and grandchildren upon them, but through all the troubles and adversity He will remember the covenant with the father and mother who walked blameless before Him — and He will remember mercy in wrath. We must command our children to walk blameless too so they can walk in security, protected by the divine hedge. “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off” (Psalm 37:37, 38).

Saul broke covenant and God removed the hedge. How sad to read of the tragic end of this once mighty anointed man dying with his sons by the hand of the enemy. He and his posterity were cut off.

When the Bible says the hedge is removed, it actually means the presence of the Lord leaves. Self–will and disobedience in Saul caused the Lord to reject him. “But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee” (1 Samuel 16:14,15).

God permitted Satan to get to Saul after He took His spirit from him. Satan terrorized this troubled man. It was once said of Saul, “The spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them” (1 Samuel 10:10). Compare that with 1 Samuel 18:10. “An evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved in the midst of the house.”

Preachers’ wives write to me telling of husbands who rant and rave and hit them. Others tell me of temper fits — wild outbursts, throwing them against the wall, hurting them — followed by remorse and tender apologies. It is the spirit of Satan himself. It is demonic. It happens because the Lord has departed from their lives. The wall is down, all is desolation — and the whole family suffers as a result. Ichabod is written on their hearts and mines.

Saul’s sinful heart brought disaster upon all his house! “And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, Saul’s sons. “So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armour bearer, and all his men, that same day together” (1 Samuel 31:2,6). “And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen in mount Gilboa. And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armour, and went into the land of the Philistines round about to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people. And they put his armour in the house of their god, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon” (1 Chronicles 10:8–10).

God Is Removing The Hedge From This Nation

The cry of the sins of this nation has reached into the heavens. Our cup of iniquity is overflowing. I believe the prophet Ezekiel saw the kind of judgment God will pour upon us — He will remove the hedge and leave us “an unwalled nation.” We will be vulnerable to every enemy. “After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates” (Ezekiel 38:8–11).

This is more than a prophecy about Russia invading Israel. America too is a melting pot of people who are gathered from all nations. I believe it is a dual prophecy, directed also at this nation, the greatest of all Christian nations on earth. We have millions who claim to be “the Israel of faith” — all born–again descendants of Abraham — the true seed of promise.

This nation was once God fearing, spiritual; and Christ was exalted in our midst. Now He is defamed, cursed, and cast out of our schools and courts. As many as 150,000 lesbians and homosexuals at a time parade our city streets, brazenly flaunting their perversions. Our courts legalized the murdering of millions of unborn babies — there is much blood on our hands. Yes, there is still a vocal Christian multitude — but so few of them walk in holiness and purity. There is much lip service to the Lord, but little of total surrender and separation. It is a nation corrupted by greed, materialism, lust, and violence. It is a church backslidden, weak, and plundered by Satan. A Laodicean stupor has come upon the harlot church.

Church of God — wake up! Our walls have crumbled! The hedge is being removed. The shield is gone! We are that nation without bars and gates. That is why even the smallest and weakest of nations can badger and hold us hostage. Our enemies laugh at our impotence to act. America is now an unwalled nation!

Each passing year the evidence piles up that God has removed the hedge He once had around this nation. Droughts get worse. Locust and grasshoppers destroy our crops. Floods are becoming more numerous and more destructive. Volcanos, long dormant, now erupt. Fires sweep entire states. Storms are becoming more sinister and threatening. Strange diseases are spreading, killing thousands. National and international debt keeps piling up. Trade balances are frightening. Everywhere you turn now people ask, “What’s going on? Why so much disaster? Why are so many things going wrong?” The hedge is down! The shield has been removed! The walls are crumbling! It is the Lord’s doing — because this nation has broken covenant with a holy God!

I receive word now almost daily from dear believers who tell me, “Our pastor, our elders, don’t believe what you are prophesying. They say you are just a doomsday preacher trying to scare people. They say you have not received this hard message from the Lord.”

So the pastors (though they are few) and the elders get up before the people and give forth their soothing messages and glowing, comforting prophecies of peace and blessing. One elder prophesied, “American will not be judged because we are praying! We will not see trouble or adversity. Be not alarmed.” And the crowd loved it — loudly applauding.

I don’t need to answer that. The prophet Jeremiah already has. “And the Lord hath sent unto you all her servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever. And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt” (Jeremiah 25:4–6).

This is the promise if we repent — all of us, and forsake all our idols and turn to the Lord with all our hearts. But there is a further word from God that these prophets of peace and blessing had better take heed to — or they will be held accountable for counseling rebellion and blinding the eyes of the disobedient. My Bible says there will be no peace, no blessing, but only adversity when there is sin and rebellion. I don’t care what they prophesy — the Bible says this:

“To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken. Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish” (Jeremiah 6:10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21).

“For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; where there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 8:11,12).

Ezekiel makes it even stronger. Hear it — all you prophets crying “Peace, don’t be alarmed, all is well, God is not a God of judgment, but only mercy.” “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith: and the Lord hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken? Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God. And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord God. Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar: say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall: and a stormy wind shall rend it. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it? Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be a overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it; to wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord God. Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of my people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them” (Ezekiel 13:1–17).

Read it and tremble, saints of God! “So I shall tear down the wall…The wall is gone…I shall spend my wrath on the wall” (Ezekiel 13:14, 15). These are liars, Ezekiel said, who prophesy falsely because of monetary reasons. To keep money flowing! To promote giving! “And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies? Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life: therefore ye shall see no more vanity, no divine divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 13:19, 22, 23).

God Has a Holy Remnant Who Are Walking in Covenant — Hedged About With a Wall of Fire!

The Lord has a holy people in these last days — apeople who are forsaking this world and its lusts. A people separated, pure in heart, who prepare themselves as a bride awaiting her groom. This world is not their home anymore — they long to be with Jesus their Lord. This world has no charm for them — it has lost its hold. They are not wrapped up in seeking success, or money, or prosperity, or fame, or power! Christ is all to them. For these, Christ Himself has promised to be to them a wall of fire round about! “For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her” (Zechariah 2:5).

The remnant who walk in covenant, blameless, pure in heart, will heed the words of the watchman the Lord has placed on their walls — and they will be delivered from all the powers of hell and darkness. “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their piece day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured: but they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord: and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness” (Isaiah 61:6–9).

I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies! God is still a hedge about the righteous.

Copyright © 2002 by World Challenge, Lindale, Texas USA

~ Reposted by Bryan


First (and Last) Responder

Can you think of a more idyllic photo subject than a dad, a mom, their young daughter, and the family dog stopping by the roadside to pose for a group photo on a spring day against a lush backdrop of gorgeous south Texas wildflowers and other native flora?

But at the exact same instant that grandma snapped the family photo in 2016, there was something very wrong transpiring in the lower frame of this lovely tableau…

Sometimes, the most placid and seemingly innocuous environments can harbor things sinister and even deadly if we are not both aware and discerning of our surroundings. Imagine Eve in the garden of Eden!  Could there have been a more beautiful setting within the protective confines of this harmonious, sinless paradise than beneath the shade, foliage, and luscious fruit of the tree of knowledge? Right now, the world is learning how something as unseen and even submicroscopic as the coronavirus can have deadly consequences for human life.

Today, we speak often of “safe places”; places of quiet refuge where one need not be afraid of physical threats or harm. We may even think of “the church” as always being one of those safe places, at least in a spiritual sense. We know in reality and from scripture that in some cases this can be far, far from the truth. Satan, after all, can manifest himself as a “minister of righteousness” (II Cor. 11).

In particular, the old satanic lie, “you shall not surely die” was with us in the beginning (Genesis 3). It was there when Ahab and Jehoshaphat consulted with the “prophets of the Lord” about their disastrously doomed plan to join forces together in battle (I Kings 22 *Note: these were not Jezebel’s Baal prophets; Elijah had already dispatched those with the sword). The lie, or more accurately, the Laodicean lies, are tragically still demonic traps and spiritual stumbling blocks for many persons who, at least outwardly, profess Christ today. “You say you are rich, and have need of nothing…” (Revelation 3).

It is possible to sit even in a “Bible-based” church for an entire lifetime when you might just as well be ensconced somewhere in a spiritual mausoleum because God’s Word has never penetrated your conscience to the point that sin has become “utterly sinful” (Romans 7), or you have become hardened over years of no real heart change. Paul warned in his epistles about spiritual leaders who have all the right “words” but no “power” (I Cor. 4). Be on the alert then, whether in ornate or unadorned religious settings, where there is no real, life-altering conviction of sin, no crying out for God’s mercy, no sign of anything supernatural outside of human understanding or interpretation. Why? Because we already have everything!

“You shall not surely die…because we have collected scriptures with which we are able to comfort you in the knowledge that Paul’s warnings of apostasy written to the churches do not literally apply to us “true” saints [see Romans 11]; that when you were saved you were also baptized “by default” by the Holy Spirit, even though there has been an absence of any real, tangible evidence (maybe even love itself) in your life; and that the “sign of Jonah” was irrelevant to the understanding of our salvation because Jesus’ human soul [not His spirit] never actually descended as a prisoner of death into the depths of Sheol, only to be released, empowered, and reunited with His glorified body and His spirit [the Holy Spirit] at the thunderous, resurrecting voice of God. [see Psalm 18].”

My brother-in-law was the attending ER physician when the man mentioned in the first paragraph was first admitted to the hospital; obviously he heard the snakebite story firsthand and would later receive an unedited digital copy of the photo (he is not at liberty to share the original version with faces for publication without permission, but on the internet the curious can find the exact same photo with the family faces blacked out).

There is nothing photographically “flawed” about the picture other than the man looking downward instead of at the camera, but if you zoom in to the bottom of the picture, there is a rattlesnake in the act of striking, fangs visible, in the apparent direction of the wife, whose hand is directly above the serpent. Amazingly, the family dog somehow distracted and deflected the strike, but the woman’s husband was envenomated in the leg by one fang, oddly, at the same instant that the dog was stricken in the face by the other fang. The man would be treated and later transferred to an urban hospital. He recovered fully. The faithful dog did not survive.

According to Paul, God has much better things in mind for us than being sidetracked by Satan or shipwrecked in our faith! (Hebrews 6). It is through a love of the truth and the consistent faith exercise of God’s Word that we gain spiritual discernment into things that could otherwise be harmful to us and our families (Hebrews 5). God’s great love is able to keep us and protect us in every circumstance, but He expects us not only to “deflect” satanic attacks, but to defeat the enemy of our souls with the spiritual weapons of warfare He has given us through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 6).

The Alpha and the Omega. Jesus is our first, and last, responder!

Bryan

Must reading for any believer desiring to enter into a deeper faith relationship with God and to learn more about miracles and answered prayer: G.C. Bevington biography / Kingsley Press (compiled in part during the 1918 “Spanish Flu” epidemic).

Birthing Babies

A hospital delivery room is not for the fainthearted. I blacked out when one of our five children was being born (not quintuplets; it would have been far worse!). I was seated and didn’t fall over or pass out, but for a few seconds it was like someone had turned out all the lights, like one of the times I donated blood. Many are those who will bear witness that these venues are regularly characterized by a lot of yelling, blood, and gore. Until the process is complete, “birthing babies” can be very stressful, in particular for the mom giving birth and sometimes for the dads in attendance, who have been known on occasion to literally pass out during this miraculous phenomenon.

Spiritual birth can also be a painful experience. It is true that there are those who come to Christ at an early age in life and never look back. But even these must have their own “mini-Gethsemane” in the act of surrendering their (perhaps pliable, yet) still independent wills to Jesus, and the process doesn’t stop there. But for a large percentage of us, getting to, upon (“I am crucified with Christ”), and beyond the Cross of Jesus Christ can be a real life-and-death struggle because our own wills have been in in the ascendancy for so long.

There is a very real danger in the church when well-meaning (or at times self-serving) clergy and others try to inject their own “epidural” into those struggling to find God by providing misguided and human-inspired words of comfort and enablement instead of interceding and trusting God to save them, no matter how difficult and painful the “delivery.” I sat in a church “stuck in the breach” for a full year knowing that I was in a lost spiritual condition, but was absolutely unable to do anything about it. There was a hindrance and I was helpless to do anything except to ask for prayer and to hold on to hope as if my life depended upon it, which it did.

You may lose your grip on faith for a time, but you can never, ever abandon hope!

People who give up all hope are the ones who take their own lives, or are overpowered by Satan and consciously reject the claims of Christ for eternity. I could have prayed a thousand “sinner’s prayers” during my time of crisis and nothing would have changed, because God had a perfect plan for redeeming my soul, and that plan would unfold only in His timing and through His means. But when it was fulfilled, it would be real. It would be, not by reason, but by revelation. My pitiable portion of faith would become alive.

Our flesh, even without Satan’s added prompting and deception, can be the biggest deterrent to a genuine salvation experience. There are many things that can hinder salvation and then being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is often said, “Jesus doesn’t clean His fish before He catches them.” Much more accurately, Jesus doesn’t catch His fish until they “come clean.” Jesus doesn’t deliberately go around looking for rocky ground to sow His seed. There may be many obstacles in my heart that prevent me from seeing the true Gospel. Perhaps it is a root of bitterness or unforgiveness against someone that I, in reality, have no intention of surrendering. Perhaps it is a private addiction or some other sin that I consciously try to conceal from the piercing, convicting laser-light of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps I am expecting to come to Christ, but only as long as that doesn’t mean giving up any of my idols in the process.

As a friend of mine often says, “We need to let GOD save people!” That is not to say that God does not want to use us to sow, water, feed, and cultivate. That is a huge part of our mission during our stay here; to make disciples for Christ. But if a person doesn’t recognize they are lost and are in danger of eternal judgment, what are they going to be saved from? In the scriptures, repentance always precedes salvation. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to reveal our lost state, and then to bring us safely and methodically through the delivery process.

That process will inevitably involve a Gethsemane of our own will, but one of God’s making, with the loving objective of our eternal adoption as His children!

 “Then he said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts.’” (Zechariah 4:6 NASB)

What Do YOU Have In The House?

2 Kings 4:1-2 NASB: “Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, ‘Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.’ Elisha said to her, ‘What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?’ And she said, ‘Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.’” You know the story.

God’s glory and His power to perform spectacular miracles far exceeds anything we can wrap our finite little minds around, but He often prefers to choose very simple (and simple-minded) things to bring His Word and purposes into reality. Perhaps you are a “McGuyver” type who is very resourceful at repairing things or solving problems. That is a gift from God (although we’re sometimes guilty of taking credit for our gifts). God’s resourcefulness is – more often than not – manifested through subtle methods, using small, insignificant, common, and sometimes, unusual things. Think about some of them…

Isaiah puts a “fig newton” on Hezekiah’s boil and heals him. (Isaiah 38:21)

Elisha uses a stick to make an ax head float and throws some salt in a bad well to purify the water. (II Kings chapters 2 and 6).

Jesus tells Peter to use a fish hook to pay the taxes (Matthew 17:27).

A cup of water given in Jesus’ name has eternal significance (Matthew 10:42).

Spittle and clay is used to restore eyesight (Mark 8:22).

Elijah is fed by ravens, then preserves his life and others with a little flour and some oil (I Kings chapter 17).

Thousands are fed with a few loaves and some small fish (Mark chapter 8).

A (not so dumb) donkey speaks to a wayward prophet (Numbers chapter 22).

God has chosen the “weak and foolish things” to baffle the wise (I Corinthians 1:27).

The Son of God makes His earthly debut as a little baby (Luke chapter 1).

God delights in using what is available, and that includes YOU. He is not so much interested in your talents and abilities as he is in those areas in which you are lacking; those things for which you cannot possibly take the credit when God moves. God is much more concerned with availability than talent. There are often times when God is waiting for us to exhaust our own resources so that He can glorify Himself in our struggles and our crises.

As T. Austin Sparks said regarding Jesus’ dead friend Lazarus:

“…the Holy Spirit is very careful to stress and emphasize one thing, namely, that the Lord Jesus will not touch the thing until it is far, far removed from any human remedy. He will not come on to the scene, or into association with it, until from all human standpoints it is bankrupt, it is at zero”…”The glory of God is in resurrection, and therefore love demands that everything shall come to the place where only resurrection will meet the situation; no curing of things, no remedying of the old man.”

Jesus did not put on a show. He just cried out three simple words: “Lazarus, come forth!”

Help Me to Be A Good Neighbor!

My next-door neighbor’s little Yorkie died today. Seems it escaped from the backyard and was likely killed by a larger dog, according to animal control. I helped in the search for the pet and tried my best to comfort my brokenhearted neighbor, who has a young daughter and just lost her husband a few months ago. She moved in only recently.

I feel blessed to live in a culturally diverse area of the U.S. and I know virtually all of the neighbors on my street, at least on a first-name basis. We live at the very top and center of a long, steep, wooded cul-de-sac with a big sky and an open view, so I have a visual reminder of all of my neighbors on the block each time I go out the front door. Most of my immediate neighbors are white or hispanic, but there are many different ethnic groups represented locally.

It has occurred to me recently how even just my little neighborhood is such a microcosm of a hurting world…

Three people on my block are caregivers for parents, spouses, or a mentally disabled child. One of them lost his disabled father just three weeks ago and continues to care for his aged mother. He also sends food support to impoverished family members in Venezuela, but only when they can obtain the gasoline to travel to the border to collect it. At least two of my neighbors suffer with depression. One of them was just laid off from his job and worries that his age is a disincentive to potential employers. Some of my neighbors subscribe to “alternative” lifestyles. ALL of my neighbors, like us, simply need Jesus. We would not have known that any of these things were going on around us if we had not taken the time to reach out to a perceived need, or at least, to introduce ourselves.

This post is just to ask for PRAYER that God will help me and my wife be TRUE neighbors and that our influence will go well beyond just delivering handmade chocolates at Christmas, giving out sweets and tracts to trick-or-treaters at Halloween, or taking food if someone dies. Please pray that our neighbors will see JESUS, and not us. It’s only when people see Jesus that miracles can happen, lives and hearts can be changed, and people can be introduced to the only true source of comfort, peace, and eternal life!

Matthew 22:37-40 NASB “And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.’ ”

You may well be the only person reading my posts, but I would write them anyway in the hope that they might be of some encouragement, if only to YOU, my neighbor!

God, T-Rex, and Black Holes

As I write this post, cosmologists, astronomers, astrophysicists…and just regular folks like me who would be hard-pressed to distinguish between quantum entanglement and a bad hair day…are in giddy anticipation of the imminent release of the first ever photographic “images” of a black hole. Of particular interest: the “supermassive” black hole believed to anchor the center of the vast, spinning Messier 87 Galaxy, about 55 million light years from earth! Well, of course you can’t actually see black holes because they’re invisible, but what you might expect to see based upon computer simulations is a boundary, a shadow, evidence of an event horizon defined by the shape of super-heated plasma swirling at near light speed around the periphery of many of these unimaginably dense objects (but only until that matter, including light, gets devoured by the inexorable force of gravity, never to be seen again…except in Hollywood).

If seeing a black hole is on your bucket list, the soon to be released images are probably about as close as you would ever want to get to one!

In principal, there is a rather unremarkable, “Jewish-looking” fellow (if kosher labeling is still permissible) sitting at the very back of the cosmology classroom, who would love to contribute to the discussion, but the professors simply never call on him. (Would it be different if his surname was something else, like Einstein, perhaps? Hmm).

John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word [gr., logos; aka, Jesus Christ], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

Ecclesiastes 1:9 “That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.”

Every new scientific discovery; every new innovation; every new breakthrough in medicine, physics, engineering, technology, and cosmology…not to mention the elegant toolbox of mathematics for their description and the capacity for their observation…all these things have already existed in the mind of God since before time was even initiated. For us, these increasingly rapid developments are just incremental insights and progressive revelations into the eternal nature and consciousness of an infinitely wise and powerful Creator!

Job 38:31-33 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, Or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, And guide the Bear with her satellites? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, Or fix their rule over the earth?”

Like the expanding universe itself, God is forever filling all things with the knowledge of the glory of Himself, which Jesus also shared before time began.

John 17:1-5 “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

Isaiah 9:7 “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”

Imagine two equally passionate paleontologists in this present life who both – upon being interviewed for a documentary science program about theropods – unashamedly “gush” over the fossil remains of, let’s say, the formidible, terrifying…and thankfully, extinct…Tyrannosaurus Rex. One “digger” cares nothing about the claims – either upon his soul or upon his bone pile – of some obscure Creator-God. His peer, on the other hand, has “eternity in his heart” and is growing to know his Redeemer intimately. The one will never experience anything pertaining to his passion beyond dead, dry bones. But the other might well be in for some surprises in the New Heaven and the New Earth, where things won’t be eating other things in order to survive, i.e., (formerly) predator and prey will coexist peacefully along with the (glorified) children of God:

Isaiah 11:6-9 “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.”

“You have a T-Rex?”

“We have a T-Rex!” (famous movie quotes).

1 Corinthians 2:9 “But just as it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ ”

Of course, only eternity will reveal the still hidden mysteries of God and our passion and our focus in heaven will not be upon the creation, but upon our “betrothed,” our precious Savior and Redeemer who was willing to pay the ultimate price, forfeiting His own life and blood in exchange for our salvation, to deliver us forever from the power of sin and death!

God gave mankind an innate curiosity about our amazing cosmos. There is nothing ignoble per se about the search for intelligent life on other planets and in other solar systems. But if the “spark” of life as we know it does indeed emanate exclusively from a (largely disavowed and discredited) deity commanding an invisible spiritual dimension that parallels our own, then there may be a very, very long wait, depending on God’s timetable. Could it be that a diminutive, watery blue marble hung in space, literally bursting with life in every conceivable form, is the singular oasis of bio-diversity in an incomprehensibly vast physical universe? Again, only eternity will “tell.”

Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”

Even throughout eternity we, as glorified believers in heaven, will continue to grow and progress in our knowledge of the immeasurable depths of God in Christ Jesus. Why can we never completely “catch up” with God? Because He had a really, really big head start! How big?

As big as INFINITY!

In the gospel of Luke chapter 16:19-31, Jesus tells the parable of two deceased men who awaken to find their souls on opposite sides of eternity; one died rich and the other died poor; the one is forever receding from the glorious presence of God; the other is forever drawing closer to Him.

Which side of eternity will you be on?

-∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ (?) ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

(All scripture quotes NASB; some Bible verse punctuation and bold italics, mine).

Salvation and sexual reproduction? The new, revised 2019 paperback edition of my (ghost-written) book, Born of the Water Born of the Spirit, can be found at the following link. It is also available as a Kindle ebook download:

What Is “The Anointing?”

*In a previous post, I forewarned that I would be quoting from my favorite writers from time to time. This is one of those times; when someone else expresses thoughts and ideas from God’s Word so much better than I can! (Several paragraphs, but well worth the read).

“The Meaning of the Anointing” ~ excerpt, T. Austin Sparks, The School of Christ. (bold italics and some paragraph breaks, mine):

“‘You shall see the heaven opened.’ ‘He saw the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descending on him.‘ What is the meaning of the anointing of the Holy Spirit? It is nothing less and nothing other than the Holy Spirit taking His place as absolute Lord. The anointing carries with it the absolute lordship of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit as Lord. That means that all other lordships have been deposed and set aside; the lordship of our own lives; the lordship of our own minds, our own wills, our own desires; the lordship of others. The lordship of every interest and every influence is regarded as having given place to the undivided and unreserved lordship of the Holy Spirit, and the anointing can never be known, enjoyed, unless that has taken place.

That is why the Lord Jesus went down into Jordan’s waters, into death and burial, in type, taking the place of man in representation, from that moment not to be under the government of His own life in any respect as He worked out the will of God, but to be wholly and utterly subject to the Spirit of God in every detail. Jordan’s grave set forth the setting aside of every independent lordship, every other lordship, every other influence, and if you will read the spiritual life of Christ in the Gospels you will see that it was to that position that He was every moment adhering. Many and powerful were the influences which were brought to bear on Him to affect Him and govern His movements. Sometimes it was the full force of Satan’s open assault, to the effect that it was necessary that He should do certain things for His cause, or for His very continuance in life physically. Sometimes it was Satan clothing himself with the arguments and suasions [sic] of beloved associates, in their seeking to hold Him back from certain courses, or to influence Him to prolong His life by sparing Himself certain sufferings.

In various ways influences were brought to bear on Him from all directions, and many of the counsels were seemingly so wise and good. For example, with regard to His going up to the feast, it was urged, in effect: It is the thing that everybody is doing: if you do not go up you will prejudice your cause. If you really want to further this cause, you must fall into line with the accepted thing religiously, and you only stand to lose if you do not do that; you will curtail your influence, you will narrow your sphere of usefulness! And what an appeal that is if you have something very much at heart, some cause for God at heart, the success of which is of the greatest importance.

Such then were the influences that were beating on Him. But whether it be Satan coming in all the directness of his cunning, his wit, his insinuation, or whether it be through beloved and most intimate disciples and associates, whatever the kind of argument, that Man cannot be caused to deflect a hairsbreadth from His principle. ‘I am
under the anointing; I am committed to the absolute sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, and I cannot move, whatever it costs. Cost it my life, cost it my influence, cost it my reputation, cost it everything that I hold dear, I cannot move unless I know from the Holy Spirit that that is the Father’s mind and not another mind, the Father’s will and not another will, that this thing comes from the Father.’ Thus He put back everything until He knew in His spirit what the Spirit of God witnessed. He lived up to this law, this principle, of the absolute authority, government, lordship of the anointing, and it was for that that the anointing had come.

That is the meaning of the anointing. Do you ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit? Why do you ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit? Is the anointing something that you crave? To what end? That you may be used, may have power, may have influence, may be able to do a lot of wonderful things? The first and preeminent thing the anointing means is that we can do nothing but what the anointing teaches and leads to do. The anointing takes everything out of our hands. The anointing takes charge of the reputation. The anointing takes charge of the very purpose of God. The anointing takes complete control of everything and all is from that moment in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and we must remember that if we are going to learn Christ, that learning Christ is by the Holy Spirit’s dealing with us, and that means that we have to go exactly the same way as Christ went in principle and in law.

So we find we are not far into the Gospel of John, which is particularly the Gospel of the spiritual School of Christ, before we hear even such as He saying, ‘The Son can do nothing of himself”. ‘The words that I say to you I speak not from myself.’ ‘The works that I do are not Mine’; ‘the Father abiding in me does his works’.

‘The Son can do nothing out from himself.’ You see, there is the negative side of the anointing; while the positive side can be summed up in one word – the Father only. Perhaps that is a little different idea of the anointing from what we have had. Oh, to be anointed of the Holy Spirit! What wonders will follow; how wonderful that life will be! The first and the abiding thing about the anointing is that we are imprisoned into the lordship of the Spirit of God, so that there can be nothing if He does not do it. Nothing! That is not a pleasant experience, if the natural life is strong and in any way in the
ascendant. Therefore Jordan must be there before there can be an anointing. The putting aside of that natural strength and self-life is a necessity, for the anointing does carry with it essentially the absolute lordship of the Spirit.

You notice the issue of that in 2 Cor 3:16. ‘When it shall turn to the Lord’, when the Lord is the object in view, ‘the veil is taken away, and we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image . . . even as from the Lord the Spirit‘, or ‘the Spirit which is the Lord’. You are in the School and you can see Christ and learn Christ; which is being transformed into the image of Christ under the lordship of the Spirit. ‘When it shall turn to the Lord’, when the Lord is our object in view! But with us, with us Christians, with us very devoted, very earnest Christians, what a long time it takes to get the Lord as the sole object. Is that saying a terrible thing? We say we love the Lord; yes, but we do love to have our own way as well, and we do not love to have our way thwarted.

Have any of us yet reached that point of spiritual attainment where we never have a bad time at all with the Lord? Oh no, we are still found at the place where we so often think it is in the interests of the Lord that our hearts go out in a certain direction, and the Lord does not let us do it, and we have a bad time; and that has betrayed us absolutely. Our hearts were in it. It was not easy, absolutely easy and simple for us to say, Very well, Lord, I am just as pleased as though you let me do it, I delight always to do Your will! We are disappointed the Lord does not let us do it; or if the Lord delays it, what a time we go through. Oh, if we could only get at it and do it! The time is finding us out. Is that not true of most of us? Yes, it is true. We do come into this picture, and that just does mean that, after all, the Lord is not as truly our object as we thought He was. We have another object alongside and associated with the Lord; that is, something that we want to be or to do, somewhere we want to go, something we want to have. It is all there, and the Holy Spirit knows all about it. In this School of Christ, where God’s objective is Christ, only Christ, utterly Christ, the very anointing means that it has to be Christ as Lord by the Spirit. The anointing takes that position. Well, so much for the moment for the meaning of the anointing. It was true in Him, and it has to be true in us.”

________________________________

MY NAME IS IN HIM

God is not so concerned about the escalating partisan hatefulness of America’s political and social dialogue; the once unthinkable level of bloodshed through mass murder and abortions; the insatiable appetite for new and sensual entertainments to a level of “idolatry”; the ever-expanding lgbtq-xyz acronym; the greed causing a growing scarcity of livable and affordable habitation for the less prosperous; the disturbing epidemic of substance addictions, pornography, and suicides; the declining respect for authority and family and human life in general…as He is about something else:

His Holy NAME.

Obviously, that is not to say that the heart of God is not broken over the terrible toll sin has taken on our nation and on the world, with all of its violence, poverty, and disease; that has always been the case. That is why Christ came! But God is more concerned about what has become of the “light” and the “salt” that His Son’s bride, the Church, was intended to be. Those aforementioned “effects” of sin in all societies are only symptoms.

Exodus 23:20-21 nasb “Behold, I am going to send an angel before you [Israel] to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My NAME is in him.”

I Corinthians 10:3-7 nasb “…They [Israel] were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.”

The same “Rock” who preceded, guarded, and followed Israel is the exact same Rock who guides, protects, and nurtures true believers today. Our Rock is the eternal Source of spiritual light (life) and salt (preservative) meant to show hurting people the way to God! What is the world to think of a “church” that is daily rocked by reports of child sexual abuse, immorality, corruption, scandal, and an ever-growing compromise of God’s Word? In what circumstances does God refuse to “pardon” sin? Is it the degree or the category of sin. No! The answer is simple. Sin is not forgiven when it is not acknowledged and repented of. Israel crossed a “threshold” of committing bloodshed during the time of King Manasseh. Manasseh himself was punished by God but was later redeemed when he repented, but the people would go on to experience terrible judgments “for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord would not forgive” (II Kings 24:4 nasb).Their leader turned from his own sin, but his subjects refused!

On two occasions many years ago I tried to reach out to a man who was married and had several children. This man had an often volatile temper and was a spouse abuser. Both times I visited him I found him alone and sitting in a dark room, fighting depression. The problem was, his family had been faithful members of a megachurch which specialized in “praise”, “prosperity” teaching, and claiming God’s “blessings”, but had never addressed or dealt with the sin problem in his life. Upon my invitation, this man attended two consecutive services at our church. At the end of the second service he went to the altar and confessed, “There is no fear of God in my church.” The man went back to his megachurch and we never saw him again. The last report I had of him was that he had abandoned his family, committed theft and assault, and sounded like a man “demon-possessed”, although he exuded a form of religion and spoke often and passionately of spiritual matters.

2 Corinthians 6:17 kjv “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”

When the Church becomes all about entertainment, self-indulgence, and soothing the social conscience of mankind, we have completely lost sight of our standard:

The Cross of Jesus Christ!

A worthy quote:

“Regardless…of the conditions or difficulties you face in life, see in each one ‘a chance to die.’ For die, to yourself, you must if you would live unto God. Your wishes have been crossed? your likes and dislikes disregarded, your wisdom discredited, your sensibilities provoked, your opinions ridiculed? You have been falsely accused and your name has been cast out as evil? Take any or all of these up, as your cross, and see, in each of them, a chance to die to your vainglory and pride. You will learn little by little to be led as a lamb to the slaughter. Self-will and self-justification and self-defense are indeed your greatest foes. Someone says, ‘Welcome anything that calls you to your only true position, crucified with Christ.’ You will then experience the glorious truth, ‘Christ liveth in me’…The life that He imparts is a crucified life. It is a life centered upon God, fixed upon God, a life lived in the will of God. This Christ-life, mark you, is the life of Him who, on the eve of His passion and death, spoke for the first time in His earthly career of ‘My peace, My joy’; and in prayer for His own: ‘that my joy might be fulfilled in them.’ Christ’s joy in life’s darkest hour was in the will of His Father.” ~ L.E. Maxwell, Born Crucified.

Is Christ’s joy being fulfilled in you?

A Slippery Slope

A retired pastor, veterinarian, and good friend of mine was often quoted as saying (paraphrased):

~ “Some Christians treat Jesus like a man who marries a wife at the altar, kisses his new bride, and then leaves! But before he walks out of the church he turns around and says to her, ‘Oh, by the way, I’ll meet you back here next Sunday morning at 10:45!’”

~ “Put the blinders on after you get married, not before!”

~ [My friend quoting another medical professional friend; a prominent psychiatrist]: “If preachers would go back to preaching against sin, you could probably empty out half of the mental health institutions.”

~ “Your heart can become like a callous that gradually builds up on your hand after repeatedly using a shovel. Eventually it becomes so thick and hard you can stick a pin through it and feel nothing.”

Each time Israel tested God with their murmuring and complaining in the wilderness, their faith waned a little and their hearts – just like that of the Pharaoh who had enslaved them – became a little more hardened. It did not happen all at once. The same thing happened to King Saul. Over time, his initial humility and zeal for God turned to pride, self-will, and finally, outright rebellion…to the point that he could order the slaughter of scores of Levites and not even feel a pang of conscience!

The crossing of the Red Sea was an Old Covenant “type” of salvation and baptism for our generation under the New Covenant. But that first generation of Israelites (save two over the age of twenty) who came out of Egypt were destined (not predestined) to die in a parched, desolate wasteland. After their tenth documented rebellion and God’s declaration through Moses that the nation would not enter into Canaan for thirty-eighty more years, they finally “got it!” By then it was too late, and when a number of them presumptuously rose up the next morning and strapped on their swords to “take” the land of promise, they were soundly defeated and humiliated by their enemy. God had rejected that generation from crossing the Jordan river. Again, a type; this time of entering into a promised place of spiritual rest, blessing, and empowerment through Jesus Christ.

Oh, those poor, stubborn Jews! It’s a good thing I’m living under grace in my generation. That could never happen to me under the New Covenant. I could never possibly become God’s adversary, much less an enemy of the Cross!

1 Corinthians 10:12 NASB “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”

Consider a newly-married Christian couple…”Until death do us part.” Their relationship starts out on a solid footing. Their respective walks with Christ are also, at first, characterized by a degree of intimacy. But over time, they become more concerned with their own needs and interests than those of their spouse, not to mention those of Jesus. That small, quiet voice of conviction repeatedly says: “I know I really shouldn’t say that to my spouse”, but the words “slip” out of their mouth anyway, and there is a subtle, but prideful sense of gratification and empowerment in it. Little by little, day after day, month after month, there is a gradual, reciprocal escalation of selfishness and anger until, inevitably, the word “divorce” pops up in the conversation. From that point, it may be only a matter of time until bitterness has resulted in another broken marriage and family, and the name of Christ is once again dishonored.

Like it our not, my marriage is probably the best barometer of my relationship with Christ…OUCH!

Hebrews 4: 1-3 NASB “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, ‘As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,’ although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

Remember, as the writer James took great pains to explain and clarify in his epistle, true faith, or believing, is inextricably and invariably linked to a conscious “action” response on our part whenever God’s Word is spoken or revealed to us. That response can only be ONE of two things; either (1) obedience OR, (2) disobedience.

A child can understand this basic principle, just like when Dad orders you to take out the trash (or when your boss tells you to stay late to meet a deadline).

The choice is OURS, just as it was with Israel!

That choice we make can, over time, become either a positive or a negative pattern of behavior, a good or a bad heart habit that can have not only temporal, but eternal consequences. Beware of teaching that tries to convince you that a Christian’s conscious, deliberate choice of obedience to a direct command from God (or from God’s Word) is equivalent to – or translates to – “works”, i.e., the same thing as charitable, or good “deeds” or “effort” (gr., ergon) and that therefore, as we all know, our “works” of obedience (by that out-of-context definition) “can have no bearing whatsoever on our salvation, as per Ephesians 2:8-9.” This is a very unscriptural leap of flawed logic and interpretation.

Hebrews 4:11-16 NASB “Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Romans 15:13 NASB “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The following is a Youtube link to the sermon that finally broke through my thick, pharisaical skull and opened my blinded eyes back in 1993; it became the catalyst for my own personal “Gethsemane” and my salvation experience. WARNING: It is not an “easy” message to listen to, but it was exactly what I desperately needed to hear from God. It may be what someone else (a serious seeker perhaps or someone who is spiritually “stuck in the breach”) needs in order to get a “breakthrough”…

🙂 Bryan