The Discipline of Spiritual Perseverance - Part 2

Something Oswald said in his February 22 devotion that brought it all back so vividly, prompted me to wonder if God taught him in the same way too. “But one of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God. He brings fulfillment, “because you have kept My command to persevere . . .” (Revelation 3:10).Continue to persevere spiritually.”

To me, it was strange to see how Oswald just ended with Revelation 3:10 at the end. In going through my trials to learn spiritual perseverance and endurance, the Holy Spirit kept reminding me of revelation 3:10. It was like the goal of this season of my hardships was to teach me how to get there. It was strange to see that my life was falling apart, I was experiencing loss that I could never recover from, the waiting, the uncertainty, and the pain of it all that were ravaging my soul, yet none of it was as big as the outcome that was revelation 3:10. Every time it was too hard for me to continue, my mind started fidgeting, the Holy Spirit would bring to mind this verse. Instantly and every single time my reaction to the remembrance was like a fussing baby getting his pacifier.   

As I watched myself now and how I am equipped to endure the challenges of my daily Christians life, I knew all I went through was worth it to get there. If you ask me if I would go through it over again, my answer to you would be no and no.  But was it worth it knowing what I know now? Then yes it was worth every moment.  

God does not make such a drastic statement in Revelation 3:10 without equipping us for the journey. As I was going through my spiritual preparation to learn perseverance and endurance, I also knew this was one more verse in the Bible that we Christians misunderstand terribly. While the true possessors of the faith need not to worry about this verse, but anyone else in the Church who simply professed to be Christians are included in that lump.  As professed Christians, we cannot make out that He would impose such conditions on us. 

So, when our explanations and our own false beliefs cannot quite explain why certain verses are in the Bible, we tend to ignore them, minimize them and eventually we put them all in the back of our mind and act as if they do not matter. But, it is precisely because we feel the need to act in this manner towards God’s Word we should worry about who we are in Him. God will not forget. In this same Bible that some of us insist that our explanation suffice, He did say in Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”. This strong verse is as valid for the unbelievers as it is for the believers.

When you feel there are verses in the Bible that do not work well with your idea of Salvation, do not question the verses or God.  You should not ignore those verses either. If you were not blinded by ignorance, pride and disobedience, you would understand these verses are there to differentiate the real things from the impostors. God will use His own Word to show you why you did not make the cut like He did to rebuke Satan in the wilderness. So, a rule of thumb should be to question your understanding and release yourself in the hands of God with an open heart and mind to help you put the pieces together. If you insist on redefining the word to suit your explanations, you might find out it was a foolish attitude when it is too late.

The reason that He can make such statement like Revelation 3:10 is because He knows He who began a good work in us will see it to completion. What He asks of us, He always equips us through grace. Learning to endure is the mark of the true child of God. As you learn to endure you also learn to live the faithful and the abiding life.

Stop repeating history over and over again. Adam & Eve got too comfortable, took God for granted and disobeyed, what was the result? Did they expect it? No - The Israelites did the same thing too when they were in the wilderness, did they see God promises? No. Cultivate the habit of not readjusting God but yourself. Do not be too rigid in your false beliefs. Satan has trained some of us so well, that we see him where he has nothing to do with our situation but only our stubborn and prideful self. Yet, places where we should see him, we don’t. When we cultivate this kind of attitude where we readjust God’s word instead of ourselves, Satan does not even bother to assign more demons to you because there is no threat of losing you. He knows your pride and harden heart will get you there on your own.

Never mind how long you have been roaming in the Church. Never mind your status there. Do not get caught up in your own hypes. Do not get too comfortable with your Christianity. Take the habit of examining yourself. Ask yourself what has Christianity brought into your life beside traditions, rituals, feeling good about myself, and repetitions? Then find out what it means to be the reverse of a steadfast Christian. Ask yourself what has changes in you inwardly?  Even if you do not experience God and even if it takes time to get there, but after twenty, thirty years and more, you should be aware that inside of you, you are made of a different fibre by now.

Just in case you wonder why it is important to God to make perseverance and endurance such an important part of the Christian life and why He wants nothing to do with idleness and laziness you should check out this. One search in the thesaurus for the word perseverance brought the definition “constancy” and the synonym of the word constancy is:

abidingness, adherence, allegiance, ardor, attachment, certainty, decision, dependability, determination, devotedness, devotion, doggedness, eagerness, earnestness, endurance,faith, fealty, fidelity, firmness, honesty, honor, integrity, love, loyalty, permanence, perseverance, principle, regularity, resolution, stability, staunchness, steadfastness, steadiness, surety, tenacity, trustiness, trustworthiness, truthfulness, unchangeableness, unfailingness, uniformity, zeal

The opposite of someone who persevere is: 

apathy, idleness, indolence, laziness, lethargy

John Maxwell said:  “A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose – a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.”

Are you going through a hard time right now? Know that when you are in a position where you are experiencing hardships, whether you brought it on yourself through unwise Choices, or it is brought on by God is not really the point. Go through it with Him in mind and purposely live for Him. Do not try to surround yourself with people and things just to keep your mind busy. Make Him the center of your life. Give Him your undivided attention. Persevere through it all with Him in mind then you will find all that Maxwell mentioned in the quote above, by grace has become yours. Through His grace you will find those words that make up the synonym of the word “constancy” have become part of the fibre of who you are within. 

Show Me Your Ways Lord -- Part 2

Charles Templeton was a major figure in the Church and a very good friend of Billy Graham. After I heard a sermon about him where my pastor mentioned that he was not a saved man, I remember how the Church was divided on the issue of his Salvation. I was not deep enough in the Lord and I had my own problem that I was dealing with in terms of making Salvation real in my soul. So, I listened to all who approached me and I never made a comment.

About two years ago I decided to investigate this guy. After I read his biography I decided to listen to his sermons just because I wanted to understand why people were flocking to him like a herd. I was able to put my hands on some of his sermons and to my disappointment, his sermons while beautiful were hollow and I felt I was dealing with a slick marketing VP kind of thing. From the emptiness and the absence of the Holy Spirit in his preaching, I concluded this man had head knowledge but the Gospel never made it to his heart mind and soul.  I sadly concluded like my pastor, this man has never been saved. The man was charismatic and a great business man, so all the time he was in the pews preaching, he was selling himself.

 He was sought after by the evangelical associations and climbed fast and high. Isn’t sad that all those leaders of Christianity wanted him, but none could see he was an empty shell. This was not a question of not knowing his heart.  As you read his sermons, even the four gospels kind of commentary he wrote, there is nothing but complete emptiness. The only way you could not grasp the emptiness in him is if you yourself lack the Holy Spirit inside you.

 But while Templeton was going through the crisis of unbelief, he felt it was wise to seek out a pastor who believed in God knows what. Templeton got access to his library and found books like: Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason, Voltaire's The Bible Explained At Last, Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian, as well as speeches by Robert Ingersoll, well-known atheist of the late 19th century in his library.  So, of course Templeton studied these books like there was not tomorrow. Needless to say he got out of there, weaker than ever and convinced Christianity was a hoax, until finally he resigned from his thriving ministry in 1957

 When doubts plagued our minds, it is okay to hash it out with God, but resolved to stay the course. What Templeton did could have happened to anyone of us in the Church. Very often you will find those that are sitting in the pews and after years never manage to make Christianity real to them; they do not like anyone singing a different tune. The reason is that if they listen to you, they would have to start examining themselves and actually make a decision. So to make things easier for themselves, they rather seek the company of those in the same comatose relationship with God. (Misery loves company)

I would like if I say that being a Christian is not frustrating sometimes. The reason is that we serve a God who is real and not dead. We serve a God who is GOD and every time you think you got close enough, you realize, you know nothing about Him. The vastness between us and Him will never end, even when we are in heaven. Yet, as a human being it does a number on us and we struggle, especially when life is messy, when we feel like a rat in a cage and there is no way out.

 In fact, just last week I had to wrestle with doubts in my heart just for a couple of hours. They lasted that long because I entertained them and secondly, my doubt is never about God’s Word. I BELIEVE in His Word and I KNOW the Word is Christ Himself. I love this God of mine with everything I am and I cannot imagine my life without Him. But, time like that, even through my doubts, I know that I am blessed beyond measure. And whenever I make things right with Him, I always break down in tears for the lack of gratitude I allow myself to indulge in, even for a few moments.

 Even Moses who was so obedient and so meek ended up displeasing God and his sin was actually, disobedience to God and a lack of meekness (Numbers 20:9-11) As a human being, I understand Moses and the reason he lost it for a minute which cost him dearly.

 In my experience when I deal with doubt, you can be sure three things are present

1)     I am going through something that requires faith and God is testing and stretching me beyond measure

2)     Whenever I feel I have doubts that I cannot ignore, it is because I am in the flesh

3)     Whenever I have doubts, Satan’s presence is so near that I have to be mindful of him and also make it right with God right away because out of Him, I have no power to deal with Satan and if I do not make things right with God to remain in Him, I am giving Satan a foothold in my relationship with Him.

 In my case I found the gratitude I have in my heart for having experienced Him more than the average Christian. Knowing that I have come to know Him so well because He chose to make Himself so real to me, a puny being deserve that I continue the path even if the road is hard and circumstances insurmountable.

 Will we have doubt in this journey? You bet we will.  In fact the lack of doubt would be a good indication that you are not growing in faith at all.

What we do with them will make us or break us.

Faith, Our Stumbling Block

Faith is not an abstract thing. As Christian we must move forward with God until our faith becomes genuine, authentic, with not a shred of doubt. Faith will always be a mystery to unbelievers and we cannot blame them because they are in darkness. It becomes an alarming problem that needs to be addressed when we have been Christians for a while, yet faith is still elusive to us. Without faith, we cannot please God. Faith is a gift from God and He will never give you more until you use what you possess. Thus, faith will always be tested by God. The Israelites never understood that. You see, God has never changed, in the same way He tested the Israelites, He does the same for each one of us as well. Until God tests our faith to make it personal to us, we do not realize that what we call faith is more like “faith in our own beliefs” instead of faith in Him. Faith in our own belief is so strong and real that we can live a lifetime as Christian, never possessing the real thing yet we are not aware of it. But, once faith is tested, it becomes tangible; it is no longer an abstract or just sentimentality. Faith really needs to be anchored down in the person of Jesus Christ. Every time He increases our faith, three things will happen. The first one is that we know him more intimately. The second thing is that we know ourselves better, though His eyes. The third thing is that there will be another hurdle few months that the road to increase faith once more.  

When we read the Israelite’s story from Exodus to Joshua specifically, if you pay close attention you will notice that God would take the Israelites to a mountain top experience, then He would put them through a test. In essence what He was saying is this: “guys, I just revealed more of me to you, now show me that you believe that I am who I say I am”. Our problem which was also the problem of the Israelites, to pass the test of faith God put us through we need to step out of ourselves and it is hard to do when you are hurting and uncertain of what the next step is going to be. In the case of the Israelites, they knew God provided for them, but whenever difficulties aroused all they could think about what was going to happen to them. What God wanted from them was so they would say, “okay, we know you are God, so we are going to trust you and even if it means you are taking all that we possess but because we know who you are, it is well with our souls”. While it is hard to be in this frame of mind when you are being tested, however, it is not impossible.  

This is why this life we have in Him is a life that needs to be lived intentionally for Him. If not, we miss out on almost every cue that He presents to us. For us Christians, our faith is anchored in Christ and His Cross. It is Christ that has to keep getting bigger and bigger in our lives and as He gets bigger, our faith increases too. Answers for faith cannot be provided to us unless we go forward, possessing Him in every fiber of our being. There is no other way about it. We cannot know what is spiritual with common sense and spiritual blindness comes from disobedience. Christ cannot reveal anything to our soul, unless we are ready and have been prepared for it.

Please visit my website www.apprehended.ca 

Oswald Chambers Devotion for today

Faith or Experience?

. . . the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me —Galatians 2:20

We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, “I haven’t had this experience or that experience”! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:30). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!
We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ— not a “prayer meeting” Jesus Christ, or a “book” Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.
It is because of our trusting in experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.

Believing the Truth Does Not Make It True

Time To Put A Context To It

To put my writing into context one must understand what my ministry is about. Prior to entering in the wilderness with God, I heard the call of God and He wanted to send me. God calls us in different ways. But, there is another call by God that is so personal and beautiful that it puts you for a while in a state of awe and you feel you are living life kind of suspended for a while.  After I heard my call, my heart could not come down to earth and all I could sing is this song by Daniel O'Donnell of 2004 and the title of the song is "here I am Lord."  At the end of this post, I will provide the lyrics for you. I was not sure what to do with the call and I was one of those people, God restrained me right away. So, even if I wanted to move ahead on my own, I would not have been able to. 2 years have passed I enrolled in an evangelism training. Through it, God overwhelmed my heart with the darkness that existed right there in a small corner of Toronto. Because I was spending weeks amongst people involved in Evangelism, I thought it was a great opportunity to tell them about my calling. Needless to say that most people were surprised that I did not set sail and "go."  While I was urged to be obedient to the call, I was so torn inside, the wilderness was raging on in my life, and everything was falling apart. Meanwhile, God was restricting me from making what would have been the biggest mistake of my life with Him. 

Surprisingly, while I felt there was a call to go and evangelize the world, mainly the South Asia, God was at work in me working in the background and preparing me to be 'His'  first and foremost before I could go. Through the process of preparation that lasted years I found out so much more. Yes, I needed to learn evangelism, I needed to learn God's Word, I needed to learn to be broken by Him, so that my will would be His first before handing it back to me. While there is a whole list that I needed to learn from Him, most of all, I needed to understand His standards. Through the wilderness, the vision took shape and my identity and spiritual life in Him have catapulted to an unimaginable level. It turns out God was raising me to be a prayer warrior. A real one. But the true vision did not take shape until 2012. More than seven years after I heard the call. 

While my spiritual maturity in Him, and the knowledge and boldness I have received from being with Him could be beneficial to anyone with a heart set on living for Him, my true calling is to reach those who do not understand that believing the truth does not make it true, Satan believes the truth as well. Most of these people are very active in the Church and a lot of them are in leadership positions. These people are so hard to reach and they make it their mission to resist any changes you call them to. They have accumulated just enough Christianity to become Satan's personal favorites. Beside the stubbornness of their hearts two major things they  also have in common is that they do not want to go to Christ to be changed and they are all carnal. They are the perfect picture of the reverse of John 6:65 meaning they have no willingness to go to Him to be transformed. There is lots of frustration in this ministry, the only thing that keeps you going is knowing who God is and He is able to do the impossible. So you keep praying and keep calling for changes.

 Through my training, and also my daily walk with Him, God has given me wisdom and discernment to unmask these Christians no matter how many masks they are wearing, their gender, rank etc. Make no mistake this is hard ministry. God has to teach you humility which is painful to learn from Him. I am not sure how to explain the other major component of this ministry. It is something you possess in your heart, where you automatically know certain insights you have on someone has to remain confidential. It is funny, because God does not have to tell you not to say anything about it. The other thing I find out is that God keeps you on a need to know basis. 

PRAY: Father God I pray that my brothers and sisters would learn to serve you wherever they are.  I pray you would pour out Your Spirit Lord on those sitting in the pews that are blind, my heart's  desire is for them to see you. I pray hearts would be softened and people would respond to your invitation to  "come to me!" 

Here is the lyric of the song I mentioned in the post

Here I Am Lord

I, the Lord of sea and sky

I have heard my people cry

All who dwell in dark and sin

My hand will save.

I who made the stars and night

I will make the darkness bright

Who will bear my light to them

Whom shall I send?

Here I am Lord

Is it I Lord?

I have heard you calling in the night

I will go Lord

If you lead me

I will hold your people in my heart.

I the Lord of snow and rain

I have borne my people's pain

I have wept for love of them

They turn away.

I will break their hearts of stone

Fill their hearts with love alone

I will speak my word to them

Whom shall I send?

Here I am Lord

Is it I Lord?

I have heard you calling in the night

I will go Lord

If you lead me

I will hold your people in my heart.

I will hold your people in my heart...