Fire On Your Head

“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.” -Ps. 51.1

The man who comes to the truest consciousness of his own depravity will be the one to cry out from the deepest place for a total cleansing from God. David the King and psalmist of Judah, after a massive moral collapse, was faced with the word of the prophet Nathan, and the depth of conviction was such that it resulted in a cry for mercy that brought down a speedy answer from heaven. Isn’t the grit of David remarkable? Isn’t it noteworthy how he responds and returns so wholeheartedly?

We tend to fall into one of two traps when our faults are pointed out. On the one hand, we are overcome with embarrassment and shame, and go through extended cycles of remorse and condemnation, wondering how sorry we must feel before the Lord will actually extend mercy to us. On the other hand, we stick our chests out in denial or defense, accusing the bringer of the word of some fault of his own in hopes of shirking our own responsibility before God.

David had a remarkable gift. He had a positive audacity, a repentant grit, and I’m convinced that it had to do with his own deep-seated consciousness that as a man, he could produce nothing without heavenly aid.

Spurgeon writes of David in this event:

My revolts, my excesses, are all recorded against me; but, Lord erase the lines. Draw thy pen through the register. Obliterate the record, though now it seems engraven in the rock for ever; many strokes of thy mercy may be needed, to cut out the deep inscription, but then thou hast a multitude of mercies, and therefore, I beseech thee, erase my sins.

…. The hypocrite is content if his garments be washed; but the true suppliant cries, “wash me.” The careless soul is content with a nominal cleansing, but the truly-awakened conscience desires a real and practical washing, and that of a most complete and efficient kind. “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity.”

(Charles Spurgeon, A Treasury of David; on Ch. 51, p. 450; Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1881)

David was deceived and in grave error in the committing of particular sins, and there was a haze over his heart. The prophet came and seared the veil with a burning sword, declaring “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12)

David heard the convicting word about his sins, but he heard something further and deeper than that. We could say that in his inner-ear he heard the prophet declare, “You are man.” In other words, not only are you the one who has committed offenses against God, but you are dust, your life is a vapor, and unless you cry out from that place, you may have your reputation restored among men, but you will not know the joy of My salvation.

Rather than tucking tail and running in light of this revelation, he faced the One he had sinned against. “Against You and You only have I sinned…” Rather than looking for prosperity in his political career or hoping for a restored reputation, he cried out for a cleansing of the deepest kind.

The guilt is intolerable; it must not only be softened and diminished but must be eliminated completely: blotted out, washed away, made to disappear from the sight of God. The petitioner knows “that the removal of this intolerable thing cannot be his own work but only God’s: a divine blotting out, cleansing, and washing away…” (K. Barth, CD 4/1, 579)

(PSALMS 1-59: A Continental Commentary, Hans Joachim-Kraus; Fortress Press, p. 502)

David was not content with a surface brushing. He cried out for a new heart, his spirit had been broken, and he knew that from that place of true contrition, God would not despise Him.

David experienced the Gospel before the apostles ever declared it. David experienced the cross before it had been preached. His was not a desire to have embarrassment removed or his name held high, it was a gut-cry for redemption, and he knew that he would be met with mercy in that cry, for the God to whom he turned is the One who desires ultimate restoration.

One of my friends once said, “If you haven’t cried out about being a man, you’ve yet to cry out.”

May we come into this Davidic grit, this grace to turn quickly to the God of mercy, to lean entirely into His heart, and to be transformed and made true “in the innermost parts.”

By Jerry Bolton

Recently on Facebook, I posted a video of Dr. John Piper responding to the question “How should Christian friends respond to a friend who has entered a homosexual relationship and moved to a church that accepts it?”. During the discussion that followed, I realized there’s something much deeper at stake, namely, “How should Christian friends respond to a friend who claims to know and follow Christ but has made a truce with their sin?“. Ultimately, “Holy Ostracism” isn’t about homosexuality in particular, it’s about any mode of sin that we might make habit and be unrepentant of.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 ESV
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people– not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler–not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

The answer? It depends on the person, and what they claim. In both cases, we love them.

If they don’t claim to be a Christian – to know and follow Jesus – we love them. In this case, loving them means that we (among other things) seek to propose (not impose) the Gospel; that God became Man, lived a perfect life, and was crucified by his enemies to save and deliver and redeem them… and arose again 3 days later to prove all of the above.

If they claim to be a Christian – to know and follow Jesus – we love them. In this case, loving them means that we do many things (worship together, “do life” together, bear each other’s burdens, serve Christ together, etc). It also means that, rather than sharing the Gospel with them, we hold them accountable to their claim OF it.

What does this accountability look like? Well, obviously, it’s rooted in relationship. If someone claims Christ and avoids his body (the Church), that’s a separate problem (equally grievous, but separate). So, assuming they’re in relationship with other believers – in this case, you – what does holding them accountable look like?

Simply, it looks like loving them enough to challenge them, question them, confront them, and rebuke them for their sin. Always gently, always in love, always with Truth (ie. the Word of God), always patiently and helpfully. It also looks like committing what Piper calls “holy ostracism” eventually.

Titus 3:10-11 ESV
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

Holy ostracism is something that, prayerfully, we do when someone refuses to deal with their sin (or acknowledge it as such despite the clear teaching of Scripture). It’s not something that happens overnight, it happens in response to a pattern of stubborn and selfish love for sin – a love for sin that eclipses love for Saviour and His Name & Glory. It looks like a severance of relationship because it is – it sounds like this: “We can’t be friends anymore until you either stop claiming to be a Christian, or repent and begin the process of making war with the sin you prize.”

Quite frankly, I have some friends who – because of the way they live – need to stop claiming they know and follow Jesus. They are hypocrites to the n’th degree and, much more than that, their “peace” and “truce” with their sin declares to the world that the Saviour doesn’t save. For this reason and others, “ostracism” is what scripture prescribes for that kind of circumstance.

Of course, I also have many other friends who claim to know and follow Jesus and their lives show it. Not in perfection, but in constantly moving forward and dealing with their sinfulness.

2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 ESV
If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

If someone habitually and stubbornly refuses to deal with – for example – their pride (aka self-idolatry), they need to be held accountable and consider how, and IF, that is acceptable for a follower of Jesus. We present them with loving rebuke and correction – as brothers, not enemies – and if they consistently refuse to see the problem or to move forward against it, we break fellowship (and lovingly give them the ultimatum above). The rebuke is always loving, always geared toward restoration and reconciliation with God.

To refuse to help others in this way (I believe) weakens churches, weakens believers, and gives plenty of weight to outsiders’ charges of meaningful hypocrisy amongst Christians. There is nothing to be gained by refusing to break fellowship with the unrepentant, and much to be gained from “handing them over to Satan”.

1 Timothy 1:18-20 ESV
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Obviously, one must be in a place in this person’s life to know about their habits and their patterns of living – this of course means that to be in a position to do ‘holy ostracism’, you must be in a place from which to ostracize. Of course, this is complicated by the way that things like Facebook and Twitter make friends who, in past ages, would have been more “stranger” and “acquaintance” than “friend” something much more. From the wonders of social networking, people’s lives are on display, and their attitudes and sinfulness with it. We don’t have to look far anymore to see “friends” who are pregnant (or have impregnated) outside of wedlock, or living with someone they’re not married to, or carrying on with a lifestyle of drunkenness and debauchery… all while claiming to be “Christian”. The trick with this is that although we might have the data, we don’t have the relationship and thus, holy ostracism’s goal (restoration to God) is unattainable in such loose contexts – not to mention we aren’t close enough to them to know if they’re dealing with their sin, repentant and putting themselves under spiritual discipline. It is this which leads me to believe that holy ostracism is something reserved for honest-to-goodness real life contexts where not only will it actually have meaning, but where its purpose can actually be worked out through the division of relationship. This hints at something at the heart – holy ostracism isn’t something done entirely for the sake of the person being ostracized. Why? Simply because holy ostracism isn’t always helpful for the person being ostracized. If it were, we could say that was the reason behind it. Really though, doing ‘holy ostracism’ is about God – it is always helpful for the name of Christ and for the collective integrity of those who claim His Name.

Matthew 18:15-17 ESV
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

We don’t cut off lightly, but we must do it when someone claims to follow Jesus but lives habitually in a “backslidden” state of habitually not battling the flesh, not battling pride, not battling selfishness, not battling their natural, sinful impulses. Believers are marked by war – against sin, against self, against the flesh, against pride, against lust, against everything that arrays itself against our God and Saviour. Those who claim to believe but live in contradiction need to be confronted with the witness their life gives and called to repentance – and if they refuse to agree with God and turn from their wicked ways – they need to either stop claiming to believe, or they need to be subjected to holy ostracism.

Jerry Bolton’s personal blog Resonance of Reforming can be found at http://www.jerrybolton.com

“But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.”

Malachi 3:2-3, ESV

The Bible uses lots of imagery and symbolism to describe the Lord and His ways, such as rivers of living water (John 7:38, Eze 47:1-8, Rev 22:1-2), and mighty rushing wind (Acts 2:2, John 3:8).  Scripture spends significant time talking about the fire of God, but yet, it’s not nearly as popular of preaching material as “come jump in the river“.  I’ve lived for significant amounts of time in four countries now, and I hardly ever see churches naming themselves after–or identifying themselves with–the fire of God nearly as much as rivers of living water.  And the few times I do see it, it’s usually in this cavalier manner of naming a conference after it that doesn’t have much room for the personal purifying holiness that the fire of God denotes, as much as getting Holy Ghost goose bumps, leaving people excited they flopped around on the floor but not have their lives changed by the presence of God.

I have my own ideas for why I think this is: probably because the very concept of fire is more painful than that of water. Granted, too much water results in floods, causes damage and loss of life; tsunamis take lives, or people can drown in water, and so on.  But seldom does being immersed in a fire in the natural realm ever result in anything other than destruction, loss, and death.  Images are forever etched into my mind from magazines and web pages of people who were jumping to their deaths from the Word Trade Towers on 9/11 rather than face the flames of the wreckage from the planes that hit that morning.  Indeed terrifying stuff to think of.

So what then do we make of it when the Bible talks of our God being a consuming fire (Heb 12:29)?  What do we make of the words of John the baptizer who proclaimed:  “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt 3:11).  Do we really know what we’re asking for when we sing songs of wanting to be baptized in God’s fire, realizing that baptism is a total immersion representing death and resurrection?  Are we choosing our words carefully, or carelessly?

John the Baptist and the prophet Malachi were both talking of things that need to take place to prepare the way of the Lord.  Hear this quote from the late Leonard Ravenhill:

People say to me all over the country, “I am interested in revival.” I say, “yes, so are a million other Americans.”   I find all kinds of people interested in it.  I don’t find many people burdened for it.  People are very interested in revival, but don’t start to break the fallow ground.  We don’t prepare the way of the Lord.” (A Time For Holy Fire, by Dr. Michael L. Brown p. 26)

I hear many a person refer to themselves as ‘being on fire’ for Jesus, but are they–or are we–really ‘on fire’?  One of the characteristics of fire is that the closer you get to it, the hotter it is.  When God pours out His Spirit of revival upon a land and its people, there will be this spirit of burning that I really believe way too many believers are not ready for, but asking nonetheless on some level for the revival to come.  The more we are closer to Him and his consuming presence, the less we are like this world we’re surrounded by.  And if our faith is made of substance more pure than gold (1 Pet 1:6-7), then we’re not going to melt or crumble when the fire of God is poured out in our midst over us.  Carefully consider the following as we pray for the revival we badly need in our nations and in our lives, lest we be like Nadab and Abihu whom we read about in Leviticus 10 that the Lord struck down with fire, for offering “unauthorized fire” before to Him, differently than how He commanded it, but had just accepted from their father Aaron in the previous chapter.

I fear we too are not ready for the fire of God…

The Fire Purifies & Purges

“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.“  (1 Peter 1:22-25)

“The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.” (Proverbs 17:3)

I think many of us–especially preachers–are fearful of preaching on the fire of God due to the very nature of the fact that a fire consumes dross (Prov. 25:4), and brings to the surface impurities of that which is being burned.  How many of us would be honest with ourselves and admit that we shrink back from the fire, and avoid it lest we may be confronted with secret sins or things we’d need to give up?  Maybe the real reason we’re not praying for revival–and note that real revival will bring the fire of God–is because we’re afraid of what we might be asked by the Holy Spirit to give up? Since the very nature of fire is that it purifies, and as such with gold, it will remove impurities so as to leave the gold in a more purified state, then naturally the result of God’s presence and dealings in our lives would be repentance, purity, and further personal holiness.

The images used in our opening passage from Malachi–refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap–both stress thoroughness and severity.  The heat of the refiner’s fire was so strong, it would separate the dross from the molten pure metal, while the fuller on the other hand washed clothes using strong lye soap, after which the clothes would be placed on rocks and beaten with sticks. The closer we get to the fire of His presence, the more impure stuff will leave from us, and though grueling as this process is, it’s more preferable than judgment.

It cannot be any other way when revival comes.  Therefore, few truly want this fire, and many if not most are content to remain as they are and be content with little spurts and trickles of it that we see and call it ‘rivers’ of revival, but we’re selling short what revival really is.

Granted, the ‘jump in the river of God‘ analogy in itself is Biblically accurate, and a valid concept of God.  But purification talked about with fire, is synonymous with trials and testing.  Both water and fire result in, or are a part of the purification process as noted in Scripture:

“Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it shall also be purified with the water for impurity. And whatever cannot stand the fire, you shall pass through the water.” (Numbers 31:22-23–read the whole chapter for the context, which is Eleazar the priest speaking to the soldiers of Israel about purifying themselves for battle).  I’m not discounting the anthropomorphism of water, it’s just over preached and I’m taking the time to talk of the fire in this article.

The Fire Distinguishes and Separates

What causes the wicked to be melted in the presence of it, causes the pure in heart to be made purer and more refined in its presence, like precious gold and silver–but yet not perish like the wicked do.  That which is is a baptism for the righteous, is destructive for those not on the right side of the flame.  Fire serves as a method of distinguishing:

John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:16-17)

Whether being baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire will be positive–involving the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit as at Pentecost–or negative–involving the divine judgment of fire–depends on the response of the individual person.

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 4:1-3)

When the chaff is separated from the wheat, it is burned up.  The same fire that falls on that day purifies, refines and is “healing’ for the righteous, but yet the wicked are turned to ashes under their feet–very different results from the same fire.

The Fire Destroys Works of the Flesh

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)  In the Old Covenant, when the priests were offering up sacrifices of many specific and prescribed kinds in the Law, they usually would take all the ‘guts’ of and ‘flesh’ of different animals, and this would be burned up and destroyed.  The same is to be of our ‘flesh’ and our fleshly works.

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each man’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” (1 Cor 3:12-15)

The Apostle Paul was careful in his life and ministry concerning what he did and ‘built’, because he knew only that which was able to withstand God’s fire would last.  What material are you building with?  How many of us today are building things that, though made of wood, hay and stubble, look large and productive to the modern church and pew warmer, but yet will not last the fire of His testing–resulting in nothing but dust and ashes?  These are works of the flesh and as already stated, don’t last (Rom 8:5-8 )Do you need to be seen by man and have his approval, or is God’s approval more important to you?  I can assure you, much of what will withstand the fire on that day, is hidden stuff nobody knows about on this side of eternity–gold silver and precious stones.  When you melt gold, you still have the same quantity of it, but just different form.  It may not look like much, but its value is great, even in small quantities.  Wood, hay, and stubble burn to nothing when the fire comes to it.  I don’t want there to be nothing left of my life and ministry when the fire comes to it. 

Oh Lord, please let it not be so on that day with my offering to you of my life’s work.

The Fire Begets More Fire…

And finally (for now), as when you take a candle to a curtain and it is ignited and destroyed–and I hope nobody reading this will go commit acts of arson!–so likewise the fire affects and impacts everything it comes in contact with.  The individual’s own heart will determine whether it’s for purifying or for destructive judgment.   Spread what you’ve got if you’re burning with this fire!  Don’t stay where you are.  Your school, your community, your nation needs this fire to burn and purge, and spread the presence of God in it!  It my next post on this subject I will cover the importance of keeping this fire burning.

______________________________________________

More stuff to stoke your flames:

A really good message from Dr Josh Peters, director of FIRE International preached at a past Fire For Life Summer School in The Netherlands.
Download mp3 (right click and save)
Download this video (right click and save)

Or watch by streaming:

By Leonard Ravenhill

The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.

Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, “No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected.” The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his “brand name.”

The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him “Man of the year” when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!

The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, “has almost always been that of recovery.”

The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally “otherworldly.”
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a “seer” who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a “thus saith
the Lord.”
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of
impending judgment.
He lives in “splendid isolation.”
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is “repent, be reconciled to God or else…!”
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with
epitaphs when dead.
He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few “make the grade” in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint
by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of
Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.
He talks to men about God.
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men.
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in
the marketplace.
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.

Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet!

I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the “seven years of plenty” are over for us. The “seven years of famine” are ahead. But the greatest famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11).

Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years. Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital contribution. “Come-outers” have “come out” and settled, too, without a nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound. Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT where, oh where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from the holy place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and sick spirituality?

GOD’S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH. They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by history.

There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable.

Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.
Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and
stagnant “churchianity.”
Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle.
Let him, too, say and live, “This ONE thing I do.”
Let him reject ecclesiastical favors.
Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting, nonself- righteous,
nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting.
Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which will move
men to God.
Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has
received the order of the day.
Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the
clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.
Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision
no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses to lead us from the
wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where
enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.

God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!

Copyright (C) 1994 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale Texas – http://www.ravenhill.org/

“The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is His name.” -Ex. 15.3

The Lord is a warrior, there is an enemy, and we are in the midst of a holy war. Do we have a consciousness of this?

For ancient Israel, the wars that they fought were literally seen as acts of worship unto God. Their faith did not just provide a context for war. Holy war was itself in the character and essence of their faith. Do we know the God who is a warrior? Is holy war a part of our own spiritual consciousness, in the “character” of our faith, or are we treating life like a mere game?

“No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs…” -2 Tim. 2.4

Leonard Ravenhill used to quote Paul’s statement from Eph. 6: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities…”

His commentary on this verse, in terms that unfortunately describe the bulk of western Christianity, was this:

The problem with we western believers is that the verse stops earlier for us. For most pastors and their congregations, it can only be said, ‘We wrestle not!’

Can this be said of us? Have we lost the consciousness of the soldier, the awareness that we are in a war? I’m not speaking of a physical war, but a battle against unrighteousness, against complacency, against lovelessness, against the powers of darkness and their false value systems? Or have we bought into the lie, become entangled with “civilian affairs,” and taken the attitude of the spiritual pacifist, who criticizes from a cushy and comfortable place while others go out to the bloody conflict and crushing pressures of war?

Are we cowards, sleeping our way through the conflict of the ages, or are we soldiers on the frontlines, following the Master wheresoever He goes? It’s time to wake up and listen to the voice of our great Captain and King. The Lord of hosts is His name.

O Lord our God, arouse us; we are sleeping,
Dreaming we wake….
Hail the vain dream that stayeth us awhile.
Shame on the sloth that would our strength beguile!

What aileth us, that drowsy indecision
Hark, hark, the call to war!
Lord God of battles, fear we man’s derision?
Are we as those for whom doth shine no vision?

See o’er the hills the dawn awake. Bedew us,
O Refreshing Dew; on our long-silent lyre
Breathe, Wind of God. Forgiving Love, renew us;
Form us and discipline to Thy desire.
O Man of War, great Son of Man, endue us;
O mighty Spirit, kindle with Thy fire!

(Amy Carmichael, Mountain Breezes)

The voices beckon from every direction,
Calling, asking, tugging, pulling,
Moving the soul to voluminous reflections,
Blurring, clouding, jerking, lulling.

All the world’s claims ring out in the night,
Gripping the mind, contortions and strife,
Boasting in frivolity, “There is no fight,”
Blurting out mixed definitions of life.

Gold glistens deceptively, persistently,
Flattery rocks the ego ’til it sleeps,
Bitterness rages ‘neath the surface, vehemently,
Envy takes lordship, and it plays for keeps.

Self-consciousness dictates poisonously,
Images and mirrors take precedence then,
Souls are thus mangled, sons damaged thusly,
Exchanging simple faith for the maze within.

“Where is your God?” they keep pressing the questions,
“What is your life, but a fragmented mess?”
“All you have labored for, vanity, a weak bastion,
All dissipates like the foam of a crest.”

Endlessly, ceaselessly, down strikes the hammer,
Paradigms shift and holy dreams shatter,
Sons forsake feasts and succumb to the famine,
Clarity fades, vision is left tattered.

But You, O Captain of hosts, shine upon me,
Lifting me up from the lying floodwaters,
You, gracious, kind, speaking ever-strongly,
Crash through the darkness, “Up, sons & daughters!”

“Wallow no more in the bondage of sin,
Dwell no longer in this deathly place,
Stand to your feet, lift high your chin,
March with me now through the wilderness of grace.”

Once more, now, vigor, life bursting forth,
Fountains flow copiously, freely, and purely,
Even in dry lands, I behold the Source,
The waters that nourish, the balm that cures me.

What then of voices, what of the mirror?
What of comparisons, pressures, and blame?
Death has no sting in this newly found Era,
Life now pervades all fibers of my frame.

Glory belongs to the King of the ages,
Ancient of Days who delights in my ‘now’,
For intensely present on all history’s pages,
Is the God who loves weak ones, though we know not how.

Rise then, dear soul, rise above noise and clutter,
March through the wilderness, drink hidden springs,
Follow your Captain, look to no other,
True light will direct the sons of the King.

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24 ESV)

Every so often, I get told by individuals that they perceive me to be a “faith teacher” in a derogatory way as if studying about, living this out, and writing about it is a bad thing.  Sometimes people rightly perceive this to be my favorite topic, or that I’m not capable of writing or preaching about any other subject.  I’m hardly ever offended by such notions since the Word of God says “the just shall live by faith” (Hab 2:4, Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11, Heb 10:38) and Hebrews 11:6 says “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (King James Version)  Therefore, I don’t get how one could allegedly spend too much time finding out HOW to live like a righteous person in God’s eyes, and how to please Him in the Christian walk!

That being said, this article is born out of reflecting on things as a result of reading Watchman Nee’s “The Normal Christian“, especially the chapter early in the book called “The Path To Progress: Reckoning.“  I also decided to unofficially add this to what was a two part series on how to increase your faith, because I think this is a fitting continuation of that series.  To read them click here: part 1, part 2.

The key important thing about faith to remember is that it is always based on the promise already stated.  This is what distinguishes it from hope.  Hope doesn’t know for certain what will or could happen, but longs for the desired result.  Faith however, stands on some kind of prior knowledge, what has already been established--the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb 11:1).  One needs to stick to the Word of God, and have confidence based on what is written in it, and like the context of this particular verse states, then you will know what to speak to the mountainous problem you may be facing.  Therefore, another key to increasing your faith is changing your focus.  Instead of focusing on the problem, don’t just speak to it, but find out what exactly the Word of God already says about that situation or circumstance, and how a believer is to face it, and focus on that and only speak of the victory Christ promised, and not give any voice to any discouragement tempting you.

Faith looks at something as if it is already done, because it knows that it is, and nothing shakes that.  However, hope has no such specific assurance but flows out of faith–it can only hope for the desired outcome because it relies on what has been promised.  Faith is the acceptance of God’s fact.   Hope trusts in something still future because of what it already knows and accepts as fact.  For example, in the referred to chapter, Nee goes on to teach that just because the Christian might still struggle with sin or be living in lifestyle of sin doesn’t contradict that he has (past tense) been purchased with the blood of Christ and is made a new creation.  The way faith would be applied to this significant fact, is to look at the word “reckon”–or as other translations like the ESV tell us– “consider”–as used in in the following context:

“For the death he died (past tense) he died to sin, once (past tense) for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead (past tense) to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” (Romans 6:10-12 ESV, emphasis and parenthesis mine)

You cannot reckon or consider anything without first having had the concept or idea introduced to you to be able to ponder it or think of it, or act on the knowledge you’ve been given.  ’Reckon’ or ‘consider’ are words that only relate to the past in this regard, and give context to the word ‘therefore‘ which leads into what is to take place now in the present for the believer: not letting sin reign in your mortal body, based on the act that has happened–you have died to sin, because of what Christ has done.  The way to overcoming sin is to consider or reckon what the Word of God has already stated, concerning what has already been accomplished at the Cross of Calvary–in this case, that Christ died and overcame sin, and that you, if you’ve given your life to Christ, you were hidden in Him, and by that, died with him when He hung on the cross.  Therefore, you substantiate that into existence in your own life as a Christian.  But how you ask?  Past posts of mine tagged ‘faith‘ go into significant detail on this, but to give a concise answer, I say focus on the promise from His Word and do not let the circumstances distract you:

All temptation is primarily to look within; to take our eyes off the Lord and to take account of appearances.  Faith is always meeting a mountain, a mountain of evidence  that seems to contradict God’s Word, a mountain of apparent contradiction in the realm of tangible fact–of failures in deed, as well as in the realm of feelings and suggestion–and either faith or the mountain has to go.  They cannot both stand.  But the trouble is that many a time the mountain stays and faith goes.  That must not be.  If we resort to our senses to discover the truth, we shall find Satan’s lies are often enough true to our experience; but if we refuse to accept as binding anything that contracts God’s Word and maintain an attitude of faith in him alone, we shall find instead that Satan’s lies begin to dissolve and that our experience is coming progressively to tally with that Word.” Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life, p 72.

Hanging on To The Promises of God

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called (past tense promise) to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going…For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Heb 11:8, 10, emphasis & parenthesis mine)

Despite the decades that passed before Abraham and Sarah would see the promise fulfilled and give birth to their son Isaac, they had the promise of the word of the Lord when He told him “Look up at the heavens and count the stars –if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be” (Gen 15:5) They hung on to this promise given them in order to have the hope that it would be fulfilled. “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised” (Rom 4:20-21) By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered (or reckoned) him faithful who had promised. (Heb 11:11, parenthesis mine).  There’s much more we could learn from the life of Abraham, but for brevity’s sake we’ll leave out of today’s post.

Despite the dreams given to him years earlier in his youth of leadership, Joseph did not look like he’d be ruling anybody or anything while he was locked away in a dungeon. I have always imagined these dreams and the promises they meant would go through Joseph’s mind many a night as he lay shackled in a dark dungeon forgotten by the very people he’d helped.  He reckoned that God would do what He said He would with his life.  Or what of the promise the Lord made Moses concerning leading the people out of Egypt?  It didn’t look like it was about to come to pass when immediately after speaking to the Pharaoh, who increased their work quota, and it took ten plagues before he finally had enough and released the Israelites to go on their way. But I’m sure Moses reckoned that God would do what He said, and could cling to that promise despite the natural circumstances looking like they were getting more and more difficult.

Despite the prophecies, Jesus Christ, our example and savior, it didn’t appear to the pharisees standing watching and mocking that He was going to save or rule anybody, let alone live when He hung bloody, naked, and twisted on a wooden cross.  But yet what was spoken would come to pass.  Oftentimes, the promise is the most difficult to believe in right before its eventual fulfillment.  We could go on with many more examples from Scripture of people receiving that which they were promised, and if you read through Hebrews 11, you’ll notice the same pattern written of a promise made, followed by an expectation of fulfillment by most of the people mention there.

Also consider how Isaiah 55:11 says  “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

God’s written and spoken Word will be accomplished, since God is not a man that He can lie (Num 23:19), and if He has spoken in it in the Bible, you can rely on it and put your confidence in the Lord about the matter.  What He has already spoken, will come to pass.  If He has spoken to you in the prayer closet, you can rest assured He will perform what He said He would, for the very word He gave you often times was to give you an anchor to hang on to when the circumstances immediately following it test your confidence in the matter,  so believe that you have received it.  It is done.  If you need healing in your body, then learn from these figures in the Bible who were put there as our example and take courage.   Be like Abraham who did not consider (or reckon) in his old age that producing a child with his wife was impossible.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And let the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7)

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Apostolic definably seems to be a subject of consideration and criticism as of late in the Body of Christ. In some Christian circles it is rejected, thought  to have “died out” with the last of the 12 apostles, and in other circles the apostle is the metonym motivational speaker and therefore deemed the new “conference” superstar. With all that is being taught about apostles today, specifically in Charismatic circles, my pastor, Greg Tankersley, has written this article with a view of finding and identifying the purpose or production of the apostolic, which is the equipping of the Body of Christ.

I have been wondering what the term “Apostolic” really means in our day and time.  I hear many in the Body of Christ talking about the subject.  Some are even getting together, appointing each other as Apostles, and having conferences where they gather with others like themselves, and primarily minister to each other.  They are using the titles in their names as though they are deriving their identity from the term.  Some of this is concerning to me.

As far as I can tell, the term “Apostle” came from Rome. As they conquered new regions, they would send an “Apostle” to that region to change the culture from what it once was, to “Roman Culture.”

I believe that the mark of the Apostolic in our day and time is the intrinsic desire to be spiritual fathers and raise a generation that will go and change the culture.  Isn’t that what the true goal is, even when fathering our natural children?  We want to raise children that will grow up and then go out to change the world.

A week or two before I started to ponder all of this, I was at a prayer time at our Capitol.  Out of nowhere I started to see a picture of the battle line between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.  As I looked, I saw that all of our prayers were advancing the Kingdom of God,  but then the line would drift back to the same place that it was before.  It didn’t seem to be gaining ground for very long before being pushed back to the same place.

I saw that there was a need for the “Apostolic and Prophetic” ministries to come and “slam down” a Godly structure to hold that line from drifting backward.

Ephesians 4 says that we are being built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets.  The word “foundation” there is a derivative of the word “tithemi “,and means:  ”something put down, i.e. a substruction (of a building, etc.)”

I saw the need for the Apostolic and Prophetic ministries to partner with the local church to “slam down” or establish those Godly structures.  Just having conferences and speaking into one another’s ministries is leaving the local church behind.

A few weeks later,  as I came home from another prayer time at the Capitol, I believe the Lord gave me the blueprint for the Godly structure.

I saw what looked like a river with people flowing along in it.  As I looked, it reminded me of times when I had been prayed for in a “fire line”; people lined up on each side, and those being prayed for walking between the two lines.

As people went along in the river; there were those on the side of the river that were pouring ministry into the ones going through.  I saw that they represented the five gifts to the church that are mentioned in Ephesians 4.

As the people went through the river, it opened up a little farther down stream and got bigger.  The shape reminded me of a trumpet; the way it got wider and fanned out.

I realized that what I was seeing was an Equipping Center.  As the people came through, they were equipped, then they fanned out into the region and changed the culture.   I saw the Apostles and Prophets going into different cities and regions to establish these Equipping Centers.

I saw these things as I was driving home from prayer, so I decided to pull off the road and draw a diagram of what I was seeing.  As I did, I realized that the Apostle and Prophet were the “Foundational” part of the structure. They would travel from place to place establishing the Godly Structures, and then check back to make sure they were doing OK, thus overseeing the work.

I saw the Evangelist as the “Motivational” part of the structure.  He too would travel to each structure, encouraging and motivating them to reach out to the lost, and keeping them fired up in the things of God.

I saw that the Pastors and Teachers would stay at each Godly Structure to love on the people and make sure they were ok.  Their role in the structure was to get the people grounded in the Scriptures,  learn who they are in Christ,  develop Godly Character,  determine their gifts  and calling, cultivate an intimate walk the Lord, and learn to walk in authority and power in the Kingdom of God;  in general, to make them dangerous to the kingdom of darkness.

If there has ever been a time in history that our culture needs to be changed, it is now.  When you look at the things that are plaguing our society, the statistics on those things are the same in the church as they are in the world.  It doesn’t take 20/20 vision to see that the way we have been doing things is not working very well.  I know that there are a lot of good churches out there doing a lot of good things, and I am grateful for that.  I am just saying that maybe we should take additional steps in order to effect lasting change in our culture, and in the lives of those the Lord wants so desperately to love and minister to.

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[This article is just one angle that probes into the meaning and understanding of a vast subject that God is shedding more and more light on as the days go by, and as we dare to consider and long for such mysteries to be unveiled, even in our generation. The above article is Greg's own journey and personal discovery in such a search that looks even deeper than the meaning, which is reaching into the heart of the matter, and the way God spoke to him about it. I hope this perspective adds to the one you have and opens the door for further apostolic enlightenment. Thanks-Dave!]

Other articles on the subject of the Apostolic and Apostles:

Reclaiming the Genuine Apostolic Anointing, by J. Lee Grady

True and False Apostles, by Bryan Purtle

Apostolic Essence, Prophetic Essence, by David Edwards

Fire On Your Head Podcast: Are Apostles For Today?

Download this episode (right click and save)

“Alas! That day is so great
there is none like it;
it is a time of distress for Jacob;
yet he shall be saved out of it.
…. For I am with you to save you, declares the Lord;
I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you,
but of you I will not make a full end.
I will discipline you in just measure,
and I will by no means leave you unpunished.” -Jer. 30.7, 11

The prophets of Israel have spoken about a time of distress which will befall the Jewish race at the time just preceding the return of their Messiah (Ps. 2, 83; Is. 10; Jer. 30; Ez. 35-38; Zech. 12-14; Am. 9). As dark as Israel’s history has often been, the prophets indicate that a time is coming that will transcend every past event in the measure of trial, suffering, tragedy, and breaking experienced. The salvation that Jews will experience both now and at the end of the age has everything to do with the cross of Christ, as it is revealed through the Church.

The history of the people Israel is simultaneously the most glorious and the most tragic history of any nation. The Lord’s activity in Israel’s history is like a precious coin that we are able to hold high and behold in wonder. One side is that of His merciful acts of deliverance and salvation, and the other side shows us His disciplinary acts, His holy judgments, and His chastening of the same nation. Our unwillingness or ignorance in seeing this “coin” has played a significant role in maiming the Church, and keeping her from the character and nature that she is called to bear.

Israel is a unique witness. No other nation has seen the magnitude and majesty of God’s Divine and miraculous works in its midst. A brief survey of the scriptures leaves us dumbfounded at the display of Yahweh’s hand in the midst of, and on behalf of, His people Israel.

From the appearances of God to Abraham and the patriarchs, to the angelic activity so frequent in the Old Testament. From the strong hand of deliverance openly manifested against Pharoah and Egypt, to His mighty appearance and speaking in a thunderstorm on Sinai. From the pillar of coud by day to the pillar fire by night. From the manna which fell from heaven to the water which sprung out from the rock. From Elijah’s raising of the widow’s son, to the falling of fire from Heaven. From an endless list of signs and wonders, to the fiery oracles of the prophets. The list goes on and on and on, and the historical accounts of these events are shocking, breathtaking, and beyond our ability to fathom.

As remarkable as the revelation of God is in the OT, the Lord took it to a permanent climax in the revelation of Himself through His Son in the NT. John the apostle wrote, “we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn. 1.14b)

The miracles He performed were too vast to number, and they extended into the book of Acts and beyond. This is all a part of Israel’s long history, and the glorious activity of God in Her midst. Consider now the cross, the greatest display of God’s nature and power in history! It took place in the land of Israel, and in the midst of a predominately Jewish crowd.

Consider His resurrection and subsequent appearances, all to a group of faint-hearted, disoriented Jewish disciples! Consider the fact that He preached, in a resurrected body, for forty days on matters concerning the Kingdom of God! Glorious time! And the apostles recorded none of it for us to hear? But there He was with a remnant from within Israel.

Consider His ascension before approximately 500 Jewish souls. Consider the 120 and the thousands that would encounter Him through them, when the Spirit of Holiness was copiously poured out on the day of Pentecost. This all took place to Israel, and to a group made up mostly of Jews. Remarkable!

It goes without saying that Israel, more than any other nation, has had the greatest opportunity to see and behold the glory of the One true God, for bursting from Her chronicles come the words of the prophets and the acts of the Lord, which reach their fulfillment in the great Prophet and Priest, the Son of God Himself.

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son…” -Heb. 1.1-2a

As we flip the coin of His presence in Israel’s history, we see the tragedy of a people who respond, more often than not, in unfaithfulness to the One who has revealed Himself to them. Their disobedience and unbelief have left them in the most precarious and horrendous of places.

Roughly 400 years in Egypt as slave laborers; Decades in wilderness wanderings because of their unbelief; Over 50 years of exile and homelessness under the heavy hand of Babylon in the 6th century B.C. Devastation, mass slaughter, and displacement under the hand of Rome in 70 A.D. Centuries of diaspora and unsettledness. Temples and synagogues have been destroyed. Homes have been plundered and families broken up. Holocausts have rocked world Jewry, not the least of which was that of WWII, where over 6 million Jewish souls (including more than a million children) were wiped off of the face of the earth through a demonically inspired season of systematic annihilation. How can we put words to the depth of anguish that has been Israel’s experience? We agonize when we see the photos and hear the stories, and we haven’t a clue as outsiders how profound the distress really is.

Yet God, in His overarching wisdom, was ever-present in the midst of these unfathomable days of horror, confusion, and genocide.

As unspeakably tragic and dark as these historical details are- and we haven’t got the words to define the depth of their darkness- they only make up a small glimpse of Israel’s historical sufferings.

Though not many would make note of it, the internal devastation of Israel is much profounder, for She is destined to be a “nation of priests” and a “light unto the world,” setting forth the knowledge of God to the nations. This She has been mostly ignorant of, or outright opposed to, and this has not only caused the perishing of many in Her midst, but the apostasy of the nations has been further enflamed by Her lack of Priestly function in the earth.

I have yet to mention the stark reality of Hell itself, which is not only populated with evil dictators and mass murderers, but with millions of Jewish souls as well. Has this stricken our souls as believers in the Scripture?

The fact that we have been unwilling to consider the absoluteness of Hell is a statement that we have not known God as He is. We prefer our own comfort and ease over against the burden which caused prophets to weep, apostles to preach, and Jesus to bear the cross. The proof that we are unwilling to consider the reality of Hell is in the fact that we are not weeping, praying, and laboring to see men redeemed in the present, while they still have opportunity to be saved. The Church is especially guilty of this with regard to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

O, the horror of thinking that so many have been cut off from the very communion that He had desired them to be the heralds of! The horror of their eternal separation from the experience of grace, the Spirit which set David to dancing and the prophets to prophesying! It was meant for Her national experience, and yet how small of a remnant has actually tasted His goodness!

Do our hearts remain comfortable and well-primped in the face of their eternal death? Have we no tears for them? Have we no tears for Jerusalem? Though the external sufferings have been overwhelmingly dark, the greater cataclysm is that by and large, for the majority of Her existence, that nation whose history has seen more Divine mercy and grace than any other has spent the bulk of Her years totally removed from a vital union with the God Who has so persistently sought Her out.

“Your holy people held possession for a little while;
our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
We have become like those over whom You have never ruled,
like those who are not called by Your name.” -Is. 64.18-19

All of Israel’s “little while” possessions have been so fleeting, like vapors which rise and dissipate with a brevity that only magnifies the seasons in which Yahweh’s “adversaries have trampled down” His sanctuary. The nations are perishing, and the people of God are languishing for want of a true revelation of God, and it can only come in the fullest sense when Israel steps into the priestly/national role for which reason She has been set apart.

When I speak of Israel on these terms, I am not speaking of the modern State of Israel, but the remnant from within the people Israel, who are presently scattered abroad throughout the nations of the earth.

As the prophets have declared, Israel’s entry into Priestly destiny will not occur without the most immense and trying events she has ever known. A time of distress is coming, “such as never has been since there was a nation till that time.” (Dan. 12.1) She is going to come into a national experience of death, the likes of which we cannot describe or categorize. It is simply said by Jeremiah, “That Day is so great, there is none like it.”

Israel, residing in various nations, will experience the greatest opposition and distress that she has ever known. The prophet Amos calls is a “sifting” through which those who reject God’s glory, “the sinners of my people,” “shall die by the sword.” (Am. 9.10) But in the midst of that great shaking, “no kernel shall fall to the earth.” (v. 9)

In other words, those who are ‘kernels’ of the pure wheat of God- which is to say, those who open themselves to the mercy He is extending to them- will pass through this time and make up a nation of priests that will convey the nature of God to the nations of the earth in a manner theretofore unseen. They will be a nation of priests, filled with the knowledge of God, and witnessing to other nations as to how they ought to function within the Messiah’s cosmic Kingdom rule.

“I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them.” (Am. 9.15)

This is a description of things yet to come. We are attempting to hold up the “coin” of God’s involvement in Israel’s history, to behold His merciful acts of deliverance, and on the other side, the chastening and disciplining which His hand has effected or permitted for their purification. It’s all one “coin,” and we have yet to see every aspect of either side. The Day of the Lord will shed indescribable light on it all, and they will know that He is their God, and that they are His people.

You may say, “I’m a gentile believer in the 21st century. What has this got to do with me or my career? What has this got to do with our Church and our ministries?”

Everything, dear saint, and the fact that you have disregarded it as peripheral is a statement of how far we have fallen from the apostolic Gospel.

The remarkable thing is here shown: Similar to the adding of new information or art in the engraving of a coin when it is updated, the Church which is mostly made up of gentile believers has been grafted into the awesome “coin” of Israel’s history. The “coin” which we have sought to behold has your own soul engraved alongside Israel, and though the majority of the saints in the earth are oblivious to the mystery of Israel, we have all been intimately included in the unfolding plan of the ages. If you hold the coin up rightly, and allow the Light of Christ to shine upon it, you can see that there is a carving of your own life and faith upon it.

You see, unless the Church comes into the fullness of Christ and the reality of priestly obedience ourselves, when this time of ultimate distress rises, Israel will have no hope of salvation. So it’s the presence of an apostolic, Jesus-centered people in the midst of the shakings which gives a demonstration of mercy to Israel, though the nations have “raged” against Her. Paul has stated that “by your mercy they will obtain mercy.” (Rom. 11.31)

But how shall they obtain mercy through a people who are not merciful themselves? If we are self-righteous, promoters of our names and our ministries, jealous and envious men, we will be more concerned with saving our lives than we will with extending mercy at great cost to ourselves. We have got to be delivered from the power of self and brought onto the grounds of meekness and mercy, or else the offense that comes in times of trial and threats that emerge in the midst of persecution will be too much for our threadbare faith, and we will be unwilling to extend mercy to the lost sheep of Israel. A sentimental love for the state of Israel is insufficient. A class on Jewish roots, as wonderful and insightful as it can be, is not enough to fit us for the day of distress. We are being required to die to our self-preferences, even ones we think are spiritual, to turn to the Lord entirely, and be immersed in His Spirit.

Are you living by the “power of an indestructible life” (Heb. 7.16b), or are you living an uninspired religious life, mingled with hollow entertainment and a preoccupation with the things of this world? Our only calling is to be so enwrapped with the nature of God, so infused with the power of His grace, so aligned with the ways of His Kingdom, that we ourselves have become a demonstration of the kind of priesthood that will be Israel’s national experience after the smoke of judgment and purging has cleared, and She finds Herself passing through the womb of eschatological restoration.

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over Him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
…. The land shall mourn….
…. and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.” -Zech. 12.10, 12a, 14

The people of Israel, as a majority, are not aware of their need for mercy. They are like other nations of the earth, thinking themselves to be “good people,” optimistic and hoping for prosperity and looking for their personal destinies. The prophets declare that in the time of greatest shaking, Israel will be brought to a place of brokenness as never before.

Out of Israel’s most acute awareness of Her need for mercy and cleansing, the Lord will pour out the Spirit of grace, breath and life and substance will come to Her “dry bones,” and She will be raised up, a mighty and vast army.

We settle for casual considerations of Israel, and have sentimental attachments to Jewish things and the State itself, because we are not willing to reckon with God as He is. The way you view Israel is the way you view the Gospel itself. If you think Her salvation will come by some kind of happenstance, or by some good of Her own, inherent in Her lineage, and that the land is sacred and the State is invincible, you have not rightly considered the depravity of the human heart.

“Look upon the nation Israel….
…. these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come.” -1 Cor. 10.18a, 11

Israel is not an anomaly or a strange phenomenon. Their moral failures and disloyalties to God are simply a statement of the spiritual condition of the nations, and of men altogether. If we have not seen ourselves in that same darkness, an utter hopelessness, a depravity beyond description, we have not been saved.

I want to say in all humility, yet without mincing words, that these ministries who are touting a new and false gospel to the Jew- namely, that Israel will be saved without repentance and faith in Her Messiah- are more despicably deceieved than the Judaizers of Paul’s day. If Israel receives anything less than the apostolic Gospel of Christ from the Church in these last days, She will have no hope at all.

She doesn’t need a rally of American Evangelicals for Israel, who relish in bringing back a jar of water from the Jordan, and a stone from the holy land. She doesn’t need a group of believers who are merely passionate about seeing democracy flourish in the Middle East. She needs an apostolic witness, a people who have been filled with God, and who are setting forth His Son in the earth in bold and loving proclamation, demonstrations of His power, and a singular burden for the breaking in salvation in the Land and abroad.

Have we any burden for Israel’s salvation?! Is Israel to us a cute trinket that gratifies our religion, or do we ache inside that by and large, a veil still covers Her eyes? Have we tears for Israel, saints? Have we an apostolic faith as the men of old, who prayed and fasted and allowed their bodies to be broken in hopes of bringing the Light of the Son to the lost sheep of the House of Israel?

How slap-dash and flippant has our Christianity become? Have we taken it to ourselves and fashioned a religious sub-culture which is devoid of true mercy and meekness, and unable to demonstrate the power of His indestructible life in the midst of an unbelieving generation? We will not be able to set forth the Son of God in a time of extreme turbulence and shaking, unless we have ourselves received a “spirit of grace and please for mercy,” having looked upon Him, the One that we ourselves have pierced.

Many who bear the name of Christ in the West are still in need of a great conversion, by which we would mourn over the depravity which necessitated the cross, look upon Him, and cry out for salvation from the spirit of this age. We cannot look to men or to our closest kin. We must face Him with our own human depravity, repent of sin and believe the Son, follow Him wheresoever He calls us to, or else we have not been saved, and the life of God will not be extended to Israel in the time of Her greatest trial.

When we have been brought onto those grounds of an inward, tender, and radical experience of mercy, we shall be fit to extend it to Israel in that awesome Day.

You are a vital part of the “coin” we have been holding up, dear saint. Do not settle for a lackluster, earthbound view of life. If you don’t come into an adequate death to your own self-life, your resurrection experience will also be found wanting in the day of God’s power. Do not be as the foolish virgins, who lacked adequate oil at the Day when the Bridegroom returned.

What then? How do we respond? Turn from childish things, O man of God. Turn from the table that this world and its systems have spread before you. Look upon the One Israel has pierced. Look upon the One you have pierced.

O, how He has loved Israel! O, how He has loved us! O, how jealous He is for His Kingdom to break into the earth once and for all!

Let us cry out to Him, and give Him no rest “until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” (Is. 62)

Amen!