The Greatest Deception

                                                                                

The greatest deception in the modern church is the matter of using God's Word to put a badge of approval on covetousness. 

On the surface, the Jezebel doctrine works see 1 Kings 21:14-16 It got Ahab what he wanted. He possessed his rights because when a man was stoned for high treason against the king, all his possessions reverted to the king.

Naboth the Jezreelite had told Ahab that he would not give him the inheritance of his fathers because the Lord forbade him to do so.

And [Ahab] laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread? . . . Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite" (1 Kings 21:4-7).

Listen to the doctrine of Jezebel: "You are king, number one, and you have rights. Let nothing stop you from getting what you want." She said to Ahab, "Be happy! I'll get it for you." That is the false gospel in a nutshell. "Don't sweat it. Don't feel sad or condemned by those desires that eat you up. I'll get it for you." 

Like the deceptive methods Jezebel used, these doctrines twist and misuse Scripture.

But Ahab could not enjoy what he received because of a pesky prophet of God. "And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab . . . in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it.

And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? . . . In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood. 

And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord" (1 Kings 21:17-20).

Imagine Ahab walking about his new possession, saying, "Isn't life sweet? Ah, Jezebel. I may not agree with all her methods, but she certainly gets it done."
 
But dogging his every footstep was the prophet Elijah.

So it is today. God has sent prophets, crying aloud, confronting the Jezebel doctrine of materialism, making it uncomfortable for Christians to enjoy their playthings and acquisitions.

They have sold out. They cannot see it, but sin is behind all this. 

Every time I cry out against the prosperity doctrine, I sense the spirit and power of Elijah upon me.

You are going to hear more and more exposing of this Jezebel doctrine. Everywhere, prophetic voices will be heard loud and clear, crying out, "Sin! You possessed by selling out to sin."

~David Wilkerson~

The Sword Of The LORD And Of Gideon

Gideon ordered his men to do two things: covering up a torch in an earthen pitcher, he bade them, at an appointed signal, break the pitcher and let the light shine, and then sound with the trumpet, crying, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon! the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" 

This is precisely what all Christians must do. First, you must shine; break the pitcher which conceals your light; throw aside the bushel which has been hiding your candle, and shine.

Let your light shine before men; let your good works be such, that when men look upon you, they shall know that you have been with Jesus. 

Then there must be the sound, the blowing of the trumpet. There must be active exertions for the ingathering of sinners by proclaiming Christ crucified. 

Take the gospel to them; carry it to their door; put it in their way; do not suffer them to escape it; blow the trumpet right against their ears.

Remember that the true war-cry of the Church is Gideon's watchword, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" God must do it, it is His own work.

But we are not to be idle; instrumentality is to be used--"The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" If we only cry, "The sword of the Lord!" we shall be guilty of an idle presumption; and if we shout, "The sword of Gideon!" alone, we shall manifest idolatrous reliance on an arm of flesh: we must blend the two in practical harmony, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" 

We can do nothing of ourselves, but we can do everything by the help of our God; let us, therefore, in His name determine to go out personally and serve with our flaming torch of holy example, and with our trumpet tones of earnest declaration and testimony, and God shall be with us, and Midian shall be put to confusion, and the Lord of hosts shall reign for ever and ever. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Everything You Need

The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you John 14:26.

I experienced a particularly heavy attack of discouragement at a certain point in my life. It happened when I was as close to Jesus as at any other time.

One morning, as I was preparing a sermon, I was overcome by an intense despair. It came out of nowhere, weighing me down. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake it.
 
As I sat at my desk with my Bible open, I tried to continue working on the sermon but I couldn't get anywhere.

Suddenly I was bombarded with doubts about my ability to put together a true message from the Lord. My mind was flooded
with horrible thoughts that told me, "You don't understand Paul's writings. You haven't grasped the ‘old man’ and ‘new man’ concepts. You don't comprehend ‘dying to sin’ when sin still exists. How dare you presume to preach God's Word?"

I sat there for three hours, determined to dig out a message but nothing came. By mid-morning, all the words on the pages of my Bible seemed to run together. My mind was confused and my spirit was dull, unable to hear anything from the Lord.

I sank deeper into despair and became convinced I had nothing to give the people in our church. So I closed the Bible and left my study.

As I walked around the house, my discouragement only grew. I tried to figure out why it had come upon me in the first place, but I didn't have a clue.

Finally, I went into my prayer room and sat on the floor. I couldn't even muster up a word to say to the Lord. Instead, I cried out to Him from my spirit: “Lord, I don't know what to do. I feel so down I can't even reach out to You, yet I know I've never loved You more than right now. Please help me."

When the devil comes with his spirit of discouragement, he bombards you with one lie after another. By the time he's finished, you're crying, "Oh, God, I'll never make it!"

This is just what the devil did to me. While in prayer, I endured his bombardment of hellish lies for about half an hour. Then God's still, small voice broke through to my spirit with these loving and compassionate words: "David, you're greatly loved. Don't worry, My hand is upon you. You are under severe attack, but do not fear. You don't need any strength of your own for this battle—I have everything you need!"


~David Wilkerson~
 

I Will Make You A New Sharp Threshing Instrument

Isa 41:15  Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, a bar of steel was worth about $5.Yet when forged into horseshoes, it was worth
$10; when made into needles, its value was $350; when used
to make small pocketknife blades, its worth was $32,000; when
made into springs for watches, its value increased to $250,000.
 
What a pounding the steel bar had to endure to be worth this much! 

But the more it was shaped,hammered, put through fire, beaten, pounded, and polished, the greater its value.
 
May we use this analogy as a reminder to be still, silent, and long-suffering, for it is those who suffer the most who yield the most.

And it is through pain that God gets the most out of
us, for His glory and for the blessing of others.  

~Selected~
 
Oh, give Your servant patience to be still, And bear Your will;
Courage to venture wholly on Your arm That will not harm;
The wisdom that will never let me stray Out of my way;
The love that, now afflicting, yet knows best When I should rest.
 
Our life is very mysterious. In fact, it would be totally unexplainable unless we believed that God was preparing us for events and ministries that lie unseen beyond the veil of the eternal world—where spirits like tempered steel will be required for special service.
 
The sharper the Craftsman’s knives, the finer and more beautiful His work.

We Have A House Not Made With Hands

2Co 5:1  For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 

The owner of the house I have lived in for many years has notified me that he will do little or nothing to keep it in repair.

He also advised me to be ready to move. 

At first this was not very welcome news. In many respects the surrounding area is quite pleasant, and if not for the evidence of a somewhat declining condition, the house seems rather nice.

Yet a closer look reveals that even a light wind causes it to shake and sway, and its foundation is not sufficient to make it secure.Therefore I am getting ready to move.
 
As I consider the move, it is strange how quickly my interest is transferred to my prospective new home in another country.

I have been consulting maps and studying accounts of its inhabitants. 

And someone who has come from there to visit has told me that it is beautiful beyond description and that language is inadequate to fully describe what he heard while there.

He said that in order to make an investment there, he has suffered the loss of everything he owned here, yet rejoices in what others would call a sacrifice.

Another person, whose love for me has been proved by the greatest possible test, now lives there.

He has sent me several clusters of the most delicious grapes I have ever eaten, and after tasting them everything here tastes very bland.
 
Several times I have gone to the edge of the river that forms the boundary between here and there and have longed to be with those singing praises to the King on the other side.

Many of my friends have moved across that river, but before leaving here they spoke of my following them later.

I have seen the smile on their faces as they passed from my sight.

So each time I am asked to make some new investment here, I now respond, “I am getting ready to move.”

~Selected~
 
The words of Jesus during His last days on earth vividly express His desire to go “back to the Father” (John 16:28).

We, as His people, also have a vision of something far beyond the difficulties and disappointments of this life and are traveling toward fulfillment, completion, and an enriched life.

We too are going “to the Father.”

Much of our new home is still unclear to us, but two things are certain. Our “Father’s house” John 14:2 is our home. And it is in the presence of the Lord. 

As believers, we know and understand that we are all travelers and not permanent residents of  this world.

~R.C. Gillie~
 
The little birds trust God, for they go singing
From northern woods where autumn winds have blown, With joyous faith their unmarked pathway winging To summer lands of song, afar, unknown.
 
Let us go singing, then, and not go crying: Since we are sure our times are in His hand, Why should we weep, and fear, and call it dying? It’s merely flying to a Summer Land.

Let Us Run The Race Set Before Us

Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,          

Heb. 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

There are certain things that are not sins in themselves but that tend to weigh us down or become distractions and stumbling blocks to our Christian growth.

One of the worst of these is the feeling of despair or hopelessness.

A heavy heart is indeed a weight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness.
 
The failure of the children of Israel to enter the Promised Land began with their complaining, or as the Word says it, “All the Israelites grumbled” (Num. 14:2). 

It may have started with a faint desire to complain and be discontent, but they allowed it to continue until it blossomed and ripened into total rebellion and ruin.
 
We should never give ourselves the freedom to doubt God or His eternal love and faithfulness toward us in everything.
 
We can be determined to set our own will against doubt just as we do against any other sin.

Then as we stand firm, refusing to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid, giving us the faith of God and crowning us with victory.
 
It is very easy to fall into the habit of doubting, worrying, wondering if God has forsaken us, and thinking that after all we have been through, our hopes are going to end in failure.
 
But let us refuse to be discouraged and unhappy!

Let us “consider it pure joy” (James 1:2), even when we do not feel any happiness. 

Let us rejoice by faith, by firm determination, and by simply regarding it as true, and we will find that God will make it real to us.

~Selected~
 
The Devil has two very masterful tricks.

The first is to tempt us to become discouraged, for then we are defeated and of no service to others, at least for a while.

The other is to tempt us to doubt, thereby breaking the bond of faith that unites us with the Father.

So watch out! Do not be tricked either way.

~G. E.M.~
 
I like to cultivate the spirit of happiness! It retunes my soul and keeps it so perfectly in tune that Satan is afraid to touch it.

The chords of my soul become so vibrant and full of heavenly electricity that he takes his fiendish fingers from me and goes somewhere else!

Satan is always wary of interfering with me when my heart is full of the happiness and joy of the Holy Spirit.
 
My plan is simply to shun the spirit of sadness as I would normally shun Satan, but unfortunately I am not always successful.
 
Like the Devil himself, sadness confronts me while I am on the highway of usefulness.

And it stays face to face with me until my poor soul turns blue and sad!

In fact, sadness discolors everything around me and produces a mental paralysis.

Nothing has any appeal to me, future prospects seem clouded in darkness, and my soul loses all its aspirations and power!
 
An elderly believer once said,“Cheerfulness in our faith causes any act of service to be performed with delight, and we are never moved ahead as swiftly in our spiritual calling as when we are carried on the wings of happiness.

Sadness, however, clips those wings or, using another analogy, causes the wheels to fall off our chariot of service.

Our chariot then becomes like those of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, dragging heavily on its axle and slowing our progress.

                             

A Lesson On Listening

                                                                            
God had to teach Elijah a lesson on listening so He took him to the top of Mr. Horeb and gave him an illustrated sermon.

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13).

When that wind began to howl, I think Elijah thought, “It’s about time, Lord. Blow Jezebel right off her throne and throw her and her sinner friends to the winds. Blow them all away!” But God was not in the wind!

Suddenly, there was a great earthquake and Elijah said, “That ought to scare them good. God will get even. He will shake them right out of their shoes.” But God was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake, a fire! The heavens were aglow with white-hot flames! Elijah said in his heart, “Lord, they didn’t accept the fire that fell on the altar so burn them out! Burn out wicked Ahab! Fry Jezebel. Cause your fire to consume the wicked.” But God was not in the fire!

And after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle verses 12 and 13.

Can you imagine this? A prophet who was not afraid of a hurricane or an earthquake or heavenly fireworks is frightened by a still small voice!

Elijah covered his head with his coat. Why? Had not this prophet talked to God many times? Was he not a great man of prayer? Hadn’t God used him mightily? Yes!
 
But Elijah was a stranger to the still small voice! When he finally allowed that voice to speak—alone, quiet, away from all the power displays—he got the most specific directions in all his ministry.

Go to the wilderness of Damascus; anoint Hazael king over Syria; anoint Jehu king over Israel; and anoint Elisha to be the prophet to follow you (see 1 Kings 19:15-16).

How many busy children of God today have never had the voice come to them?

They are busy witnessing—doing good—praying for a spiritual awakening—fasting.
 
So intense—so dedicated. Yet, they have heard everything but the voice of the Lord.

~David Wilkerson~

He Opened Not His Mouth

Isa 53:7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.  

What grace it requires when we are misunderstood yet handle it correctly, or when we are judged unkindly yet receive it  in holy sweetness!

Nothing tests our character as a Christian more than having something evil said about us. 

This kind of grinding test is what exposes whether we are solid gold or simply gold-plated metal.

If we could only see the blessings that lie hidden in our trials, we would say like David, when Shimei cursed him, Let him curse. . It may be that the Lord will repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today.
2 Sam. 16:11–12.
 
Some Christians are easily turned away from the greatness of their life’s calling by pursuing instead their own grievances and enemies. 

They ultimately turn their lives into one petty whirlwind of warfare. 

It reminds me of trying to deal with a hornet’s nest.You may be able to disperse the hornets, but you will probably be terribly stung and receive nothing for your pain, for even their honey has no value.
 
May God grant us more of the Spirit of Christ, who, when they hurled their insults at him, did not retaliate.

Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly 1 Peter 2:23.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart Heb. 12:3.
 
~A. B. Simpson~
 
For you He walked along the path of woe,
He was sharply struck with His head bent low.
He knew the deepest sorrow, pain, and grief,
He knew long endurance with no relief,
He took all the bitter from death’s deep cup,
He kept no blood drops but gave them all up.
Yes, for you, and for me, He won the fight
To take us to glory and realms of light.
 
~L. S. P~

The Cloud Of His Presence

                                                                          
When Israel was in the wilderness, God showed His presence to them through a cloud. This cloud was the manifestation of God's promise to be with His people.
 
It came down and covered the tabernacle night and day and acted as their guide for every undertaking. When the cloud moved, they moved, and when it stayed, they stayed.

The people did not have to hold committee meetings to try to
figure out their direction or future. They put their confidence in that visible cloud of God's presence.

Today, that same cloud of His presence hovers over your secret closet of prayer. It waits every day to envelope you in its peace. It will lead you, empower you and give you peace. And it will give you detailed guidance for your home, work and relationships.

Your secret closet can be anywhere—in the shower, on the bus or subway, or during your commute to work. You can shut out everything and say, "Lord, I've got half an hour right now. I love You, Jesus, and worship You. This is my closet time with You!"

It's a wonderful thing to be shut in with God, developing a consistent prayer life. God promises that as you become a seeking, praying servant, His presence will break forth in your life, closing and opening doors and working His divine order all around you. Yet something even greater than this will happen: God's presence will lead you into a revelation of His glory!

There is a difference between God's presence and His glory. 

Most Christians know His presence—His great works in their lives—but few know His glory.

In Exodus, we are given a glimpse of this difference: "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle" (Exodus 40:34).

The apostle Paul writes that all believers’ bodies are the tabernacle of God: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 
1Corinthians3:16.

Like the Israelites who lived under the cloud of God's presence, we are constantly under the covering of God's grace. Yet, what is the difference between beholding God's presence and beholding His glory?

~David Wilkerson~