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~



 

The Devil's Business To Keep Christians In Bondage

The devil makes it his business to keep Christians in bondage, bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in their own grave clothes!

Why doesn't the old devil, Satan, give up and bow out of the picture when a person becomes a believing Christian? 

Although he is a dark and sinister foe dedicated to the damnation of humans, I think he knows that it is no use trying to damn a forgiven and justified child of God who is in the Lord's hands.

So, it becomes the devils business to keep the Christian's spirit imprisoned.

He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in our own grave clothes.

He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage, we will never be able to claim our rightful spiritual heritage.

He knows also that while we continue bound in this kind of enslavement we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead.

This is one reason why the Christians in today's churches are behaving like a flock of frightened sheep - so intimidated by the devil that we cant even say "Amen"!

I admit that occasionally you find a few who are just childishly happy about everything, but that is not what I mean. Often these are just like children playing in the market places, having never been seriously engaged in the conflict on the spiritual battlefield. 

Show me an individual or a congregation committed to spiritual progress with the Lord, interested in what the Bible teaches about spiritual perfection and victory, and I will show you where there is strong and immediate defiance by the devil!

~A. W. Tozer~

Have To Lose Reputations

So it has been with all of God's saints who have pleased Him and praised Him through the centuries.

At some time in their witness and expression of the living Christ they have had to lose their reputations among those who have been traditionally pious and somber, dogmatic and cautious. This is still happening in our day, and with glorious results.

A young man who is director of one of our American Bible conferences has given me his testimony of great and radical things which the Lord has done for him in recent months.
 
I realize now that in my service for God I was one of the most self-assured, conceited and horrid young fellows you could ever meet" he told me frankly. "I could raise money, I could put on a great program, and I figured I was a great success in the Lord's work.

But recently on a trip to Wales, I had the opportunity of talking to some older folks who remembered Evan Roberts and the great Welsh revival. They told me about the true working Of the Holy Spirit in Christian renewal and revival - and I didn't really know what they were talking about. 

Somehow, and they did not realize it, it was just as though they were burying me under a great load of crushing bricks, and God spoke to me about my own great spiritual lack.

He told me that he made his way to the little cottage where he was staying and got down on his knees and began to sweat it out before God.

Do you know what this was?

It was the act of dying! It was the end of self. 

That man died to reputation, ability, presumption, success, conceit, personality - all of that stuff!

He said to me, "Mr. Tozer, I was filled with the Holy Spirit and my whole life has been transformed. Now I only want this cheated and betrayed generation to see the glory of God once more!"

I said to him then, "Brother, do you realize that if you carry through with this message and this blessing that you will lose some of your best fundamentalist friends? You will be described as having gone off your rocker."

I am not worried any more about my reputation. he replied. "I am perfectly willing because I am going to let the Lord have His way in the whole operation."

The interesting thing is that he hasn't had to switch or change his doctrines around at all-he just found out that he needed the fire of God on his doctrine, and he got it!

~A. W. Tozer~

Fear Of Fanaticism

Also related to reputation is the fear of many Christians that they will be considered fanatical or extreme for their Christian faith.

I think it is ironic that the devil gives the world all of its extremists in every realm -entertainment, politics, society, education, anarchy, intrigue-you name it! Yet it is the same devil that frightens believers about the great danger of becoming "extreme"

I passed an auditorium recently where one of the young crowd of singing stars was appearing. Police were having great trouble with the crowds and in the erotic fury of that concert, girls began to tear off their clothes; many were weeping and screaming. Those who had fainted were being carried out. It is the same devil, but he uses different tactics in dealing with Christians. 

Should a Christian get blessed and say, 'Amen," the devil quickly intervenes and whispers, "Don't be a fanatic-you ought to stay quiet and stable in the faith!"

Oh, what a devil the devil is! He frightens us first and then sells us a bill of goods about caution, caution, caution in the church. 

Some Christians also are greatly awed by the fear of ostracism. The devil says to them, "Be careful about religion - you will be lonely. You will have to go it alone!"

I have heard one of our preachers tell about the experience he had years ago in coming to a decision concerning the claims of Christ on his life. It was at the close of a service, and he was standing with the rest of the congregation while an invitation was being given to come forward in submission to the will of God. 

There was a struggle going on in his own soul, and he knew that the Spirit of God was pressing him to make the decision to sell out completely and to become a real Christian in commitment to the Lord.

But the devil knows how to join in these arguments, and he whispered, "Charlie, you must be careful at this point. You know how easy it would be to break up your marriage and break up your home. You know how staid and strait-laced and conservative your wife is about religion. Don't do anything that would break up your home, Charlie!"

But the Spirit of God persisted, and Charlie found himself answering the call. He went forward and knelt at the altar for heart-searching and prayer. 

Suddenly he thought he heard someone weeping at his side. Then he was sure that it sounded like his wife. Turning, he found that it was his wife, for she had been just a few feet behind him when he made his way to the altar. Together they made their commitment to Christ and to His service.
 
For a long time, you see, Satan had been telling Charlie that his wife would never be willing to yield to joyful Christian dedication.

But the devil is a liar and the father of lies! He never tells the truth unless he can use it to whip you and embarrass you ? unless he can use it in his attempts to ruin you!

~A. W. Tozer~ 

Satan Loves To Intimidate

Satan has been in this business of  intimidating and silencing and oppressing the people of God for a long, long time.

The armies of Israel experienced this kind of fright in the valley of Elah when Goliath and the Philistines were camped on the opposite mountain.

King Saul was leading Israel, but he was sour, fearful, intimidated because of Goliath, that giant of a man who daily shouted his taunts, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel!" (1 Samuel 17:10). So the army cowered in fear.

But a little fellow by the name of David came along, and he was in right fellowship with the Lord.

We are told that the spirit of the Lord came upon David, who said to the Israelites, Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight with him!
1 Samuel 17:32.

This was the first word of encouragement to come to these ranks of soldiers who had been able only to gaze in fascinated fear at that great giant who taunted them daily. 

David was confident and serene because he knew and trusted the Source of all strength. 

The recorded result was one of the great, miraculous turn-arounds of history, David and his sling disposing of Goliath in a way that brought glory to the God of Israel as well as victory to the armies of Israel.

I am sure that it is not glorifying to our God that Christian's should be so intimidated and silenced in our day.

It was Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, who came down and took our human body for Himself. He was a man, born of a woman, a man wearing our own nature - but He was also God!

He went to the cross and they sacrificed Him there. The Father, God Almighty, accepted His sacrifice as the one, last, final fulfillment and consummation of all the sacrifices ever made on Jewish altars.

After He had been dead three days, He came forth raised from the dead and out of the grave.

After a few days He ascended as Victor over all the forces of death and hell and sat down amid the acclamations of the heavenly hosts!

There He sits at God's right hand~a living man, our representative and advocate and great, high priest.

Believing this, we ought to be the most fearless, the most relaxed, the happiest and most God-assured people in the whole world!

But Satan is an old dragon who defies us to this hour. He is saying to Christians, "I defy you - what can you do about it?"

~A. W. Tozer~

To Be Understood, TRUTH Must Be Lived

 Being Participants in Truth

 

Truth cannot aid us until we become participators in it. We only possess what we experience.

 

St. Gregory of Sinai, who lived in the fourteenth century, taught that understanding and participation were inseparable in the spiritual life.  

 

He who seeks to understand commandments without fulfilling commandments, and to acquire such understanding through learning and reading, is like a man who takes a shadow for truth.

 

For the understanding of truth is given to those who have become participants in truth (who have tasted it through living). 

 

Those who are not participants in truth and are not initiated therein, when they seek this understanding, draw it from a distorted wisdom.

 

Of such men the apostle says ‘the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit,’ even though they boast of their knowledge of truth.” Here is a simple but neglected doctrine that should be restored to its rightful place in the thinking and teaching of the Church. It would work wonders. 

 

Lord, teach me what it means to participate in Your truth that through it I may be free.

 

The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is made up only of rules taught by men.' — Isaiah 29:13

 

Some of us measure our commitment to Christ by the truth we mouth and the rules we keep - rules which may be man-made and not from God. But truth must be tasted through living if we are to be participants in it.

 

~A. W. Tozer~

                                                              

 

Wrong Judgment

Spiritual Warfare and Sin

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Galatians 6:7

Sin, I repeat, in addition to anything else it may be, is always an act of wrong judgment. To commit a sin a man must for the moment believe that things are different from what they really are; he must confound values; he must see the moral universe out of focus; he must accept a lie as truth and see truth as a lie; he must ignore the signs on the highway and drive with his eyes shut; he must act as if he had no soul, and was not accountable for his moral choices.

Sin is never a thing to be proud of. No act is wise that ignores remote consequences, and sin always does. Sin sees only today, or at most tomorrow; never the day after tomorrow, next month or next year. Death and judgment are pushed aside as if they did not exist and the sinner becomes for the time a practical atheist who by his act denies not only the existence of God but the concept of life after death....

The notion that the careless sinner is the smart fellow and the serious-minded Christian, though well-intentioned, is a stupid dolt altogether out of touch with life will not stand up under scrutiny. Sin is basically an act of moral folly, and the greater the folly the greater the fool.

Keep me from sin today. To sin is indeed so foolish, and yet the tendency is so strong! Deliver me from 'moral folly,' again in the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

~A. W. Tozer~

God Will Make Our Obstacles Serve His Purposes.

                                                                             

I will turn all my mountains into roads. Isaiah 49:11

God will make our obstacles serve His purposes.We all have mountains in our lives, and often they are people and things that threaten to block the progress of our spiritual life. The obstacles may be untruths told about us; a difficult occupation; “a thorn in [the] flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7); or our daily cross. And often we pray for their removal,for we tend to think that if only these were removed,we would live a more tender, pure, and holy life.

How foolish you are, and how slow of heart . . . ! Luke 24:25. These are the very conditions we need for achievement, and they have been put in our lives as the means of producing the gifts and qualities for which we have been praying so long.

We pray for patience for many years, and when something begins to test us beyond our endurance, we run from it. We try to avoid it, we see it as some insurmountable obstacle to our desired goal,and we believe that if it was removed,we would experience immediate deliverance and victory. This is not true! We would simply see the temptations to be impatient end. This would not be patience.

The only way genuine patience can be acquired is by enduring the very trials that seem so unbearable today. Turn from your running and submit. Claim by faith to be a partaker in the patience of Jesus and face your trials in Him.

There is nothing in your life that distresses or concerns you that cannot become submissive to the highest purpose. Remember, they are God’s mountains. He puts them there for a reason, and we know He will never fail to keep His promise.

God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens (Job 28:23–24). So when we come to the foot of the mountains,we will find our way. from Christ in Isaiah,
~F. B. Meyer~

The purpose of our trials is not only to test our worthiness but also to increase it, just as the mighty oak is tested by the storms as well as strengthened by them. 

'TROUBLE' INEVITABLE WITH SPIRITUAL SIGHT

                          

Act 7:56  And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
 

Act 7:57  Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
 

Act 7:58  And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

You and I, on the broadest basis of the Christian life, are here... to represent a check; and because we are here for that, we shall be called "trouble makers."

In a very real sense we shall be trouble makers. The trouble will focus itself upon us, and we shall have to suffer for it.

The very fact that you are jealous for the Lord will bring you into conflict with that trend that there is in this world, in man.... 

When there is the purest testimony, the fullest expression of what is of God, the heavenly over against the earthly, the spiritual over against the carnal or the natural, the enemy gives a turn to things, a twist to things, and lays the responsibility at the door of a spiritual and a heavenly ministry.

He says: "You are the cause of all the trouble – you are the troubler!" 

But no. The trouble lies deeper than that, and in another realm. The truth is, there is something here that, in its very nature,  must create trouble, must be a source of trouble, so long as God's known will, His revealed mind, is being violated; while the full expression of God's purpose is being withstood. 

To bring in something that stands for that, there is going to be trouble. It is a costly thing to have seen God's full purpose and thought concerning His people. It is always a costly thing.

The Lord Jesus set a very vivid example and object lesson of this truth right in the foreground, in the incident of the man born blind (John 9).

There is no doubt that the Lord intended that man to represent Israel and Israel's condition at the time. 

He gave that man sight – and what happened to the man? "They cast him out," that is all; they cast him out, they excommunicated him (v. 34). That is an object lesson, an instance of this very thing.

If eyes have been opened; if, in any sense – not officially – you have become a 'seer' – one who sees: it is going to cost you a lot, it will involve you in a lot of trouble. This matter of 'seeing' does that.

It was Elijah the Seer, over against the blindness of Israel. It is a costly thing to be a spiritual man or a spiritual woman in this universe. It is a costly thing, yes, very costly, to hold to a heavenly and spiritual position. 

It is a costly thing to hold for Christ's full place; it involves you in trouble. It is a costly thing to have light – if it is true light, God-given light.

It is a costly thing to have Life. But remember, it is here, in this, that the power is resident.

~T. Austin Sparks~

A Soothing Seduction

Let me show you what happens to every child of God who enters into a relationship with a bitter, unrighteous, rebellious person. There are awful consequences.

The fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat 2 Chronicles17:10. Jehoshaphat’s kingdom, Judah, was blessed and prospered abundantly, and nobody dared come against them.

But after Jehoshaphat entered into a relationship with Ahab, Scripture says, "Ahab . . . persuaded [Jehoshaphat] to go up with him to Ramoth-gilead. . . .And he answered him, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war" (18:2-3). Jehoshaphat willingly got sucked into a
hopeless war, one that God had no part in.

The Hebrew word for persuaded in this passage means "a soothing seduction."Jehoshaphat allowed himself to be seduced into war by Ahab, answering, "I am as you are." In other words, I'm your friend, so I'm with you all the way. I won't let you down. You can count on me!

Is your close friend full of bitterness, hatred, anger—and pursuing a war of some kind? Is he involved in a marriage war, a family war, a personal war? And are you like a Jehoshaphat to him, offering help and encouragement? If so, look out, because you are about to be seduced into it all.

That's right, very soon you will find yourself smack in the middle of your friend's mess and you will be asked to take a stand. If your friend is in a troubled marriage, for example, you are going to be forced to take a side. And you will end up sympathizing with him—all the way through his divorce!

Beware, Christian, because whenever you extend comfort or encouragement to someone who is in rebellion, you take sides against the Holy Spirit. And that makes you are a partaker in that person's sin. Tragically, when Jehoshaphat joined Ahab's war, he only hastened his friend along the path of destruction!

~David Wilkerson~

They LAID DOWN Their ARMOR

                                                                                 

                                                                             

And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me" (Exodus 32:25-26).

The Hebrew word used here for naked is para, meaning "to loosen, expose, dismiss." It also implies "a new beginning."

A modern beer commercial admonishes this generation to "turn
it loose tonight." It simply means to throw off past moral inhibitions, shake free of all law, begin pleasing yourself. Do your own thing, whatever makes you happy.

Merely taking off their clothes was not corruption; it was the signal, the message they were sending to the heathen looking on. Can you see the Amalakites on the surrounding mountains, far off, looking on this peculiar scene? These enemies, who had trembled when they saw God at work among them, now laughed and mocked, "Look at them. They are just like us! Their God has no power. They don't even trust in Him! They want to lust and party and play just like all the rest of us. What hypocrisy!"

In that one act of nakedness they belittled their God in the eyes of the ungodly! They made God seem heartless, cruel, uncaring and helpless. They besmirched the honor and majesty of an omnipotent God. They were no longer an example, no longer admired or feared or respected.

They had laid their armor down to party! They put in jeopardy God's plans for their salvation. They were saying to the world, We don´t want to fight any more enemies! We don´t want to resist! We have had enough of rejection, of sacrifice, of future hopes and far-off blessings. We want to live now! We want to enjoy ourselves! We want the good times to roll."

The corruption was this: This was to be their new beginning. No
more combat! If they were going to have to exist in a hard, cruel
wilderness, then they would quit the struggle and make do the
best they could-on their own.

~David Wilkerson~

Waiting On The LORD

I waited patiently for the Lord. (Psalm 40:1)
 
Waiting is much more difficult than walking, for waiting requires patience, and patience is a rare virtue.

We enjoy knowing that God builds hedges around His people, when we look at the hedge from the aspect of protection. But when we see it growing higher and higher until we can no longer see over it, we wonder if we will ever get out of our little sphere of influence and service, where we feel trapped. 

Sometimes it is hard for us to understand why we do not have a larger area of service, and it becomes difficult for us to brighten the corner where we are. But God has a purpose in all of His delays. 

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” (Ps. 37:23 KJV). Next to this verse, in the margin of his Bible,George Mueller made this note: “And the stops too.”It is a sad mistake for someone to break through God’s hedges. It is a vital principle of the Lord’s guidance for a Christian never to move from the spot where he is sure God has placed him, until the pillar of cloud (Ex. 13:21) moves.
~from Sunday School Times
 
Once we learn to wait for the Lord’s leading in everything, we will know the strength that finds its highest point in an even and steady walk. Many of us are lacking the strength we so desire but God gives complete power for every task He calls us to perform.
 
Waiting—keeping yourself faithful to His leading—this is the secret of strength.And anything that does not align with obedience to Him is a waste of time and energy. Watch and wait for His leading. 
~Samuel Dickey Gordon
 
Must life be considered a failure for someone compelled to stand still, forced into inaction and required to watch the great, roaring tides of life from shore? 

No—victory is then to be won by standing still and quietly waiting. Yet this is a thousand times harder to do than in the past, when you rushed headlong into the busyness of life. 

It requires much more courage to stand and wait and still not lose heart or lose hope, to submit to the will of God, to give up opportunities for work and leave honors to others, and to be quiet, confident, and rejoicing while the busy multitude goes happily along their way.
 
The greatest life is: “after you have done everything, to
stand” (Eph. 6:13). 
~J. R. Miller

The Holy Spirit Will Prohibit Your Movement If You Attempt To Take A Wrong Course

Act 16:6  Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia

It is interesting to study the way God extended His guidance to
these early messengers of the Cross. It consisted mainly in prohibiting their movement when they attempted to take a course other than the right one.

When they wanted to turn to the left, toward Asia, He stopped them.When they sought to turn to the right, toward Bithynia in Asia Minor, He stopped them again. In his later years,Paul would do some of his greatest work in that very region,yet now the door was closed before him by the Holy Spirit.

The time was not yet ripe for the attack on these apparently impregnable bastions of the kingdom of Satan. Apollos needed to go there first to lay the groundwork.

Paul and Barnabas were needed more urgently elsewhere and required further training before undertaking this responsible task.
 
Beloved,whenever you are in doubt as to which way to turn, submit your judgment absolutely to the Spirit of God, asking Him to shut every door but the right one.

Say to Him,“Blessed Spirit, I give to You the entire responsibility of closing every road and stopping every step that is not of God. Let me hear Your voice behind me whenever I ‘turn aside to the right or to the left’ [Deut. 5:32].”

In the meantime, continue along the path you have already been traveling. Persist in your calling until you are clearly told to do something else. O traveler, the Spirit of Jesus is waiting to be to you what He was to Paul. Just be careful to obey even His smallest nudging or warning.

Then after you have prayed the prayer of faith and there are no apparent hindrances, go forward with a confident heart. Do not be surprised if your answer comes in doors closing before you. 

But when doors are shut to the right and left, an open road is sure to lead to Troas.
 
Luke waits for you there, and visions will point the way to where
vast opportunities remain open, and faithful friends are waiting. (from Paul)

~F. B. Meyer~

Is there some problem in your life to solve, Some passage seeming full of mystery?
 
God knows, who brings the hidden things to light. He keeps the key. Is there some door closed by the Father’s hand Which widely opened you had hoped to see?
 
Trust God and wait—for when He shuts the door He keeps the key. Is there some earnest prayer unanswered yet, Or answered NOT as you had thought ’twould be?
 
God will make clear His purpose by and by. He keeps the key.
Have patience with your God, your patient God, All wise, all knowing, no long lingerer He, And of the door of all your future life He keeps the key.
 
Unfailing comfort, sweet and blessed rest, To know of EVERY door He keeps the key. That He at last when just HE sees is best,
Will give it THEE.
 
~Anonymous~

Troublers Of Israel

Who are the real troublemakers in the house of God today? 

It is not the Elijah company, who sigh and cry over the abominations of the church. It is not those who expose sin and testify against the wicked deeds of religious leaders and those at ease in Zion.

No, all division is caused by compromise.

All trouble in God's house is the result of apostasy and the forsaking of the Lord's commandments.  

For where envying and strife is, there is disorder and every evil work" (James 3:16).

Paul warns the brethren to "mark them which cause divisions  and avoid them (Romans 16:17). 

But who were these who caused offenses contrary to the doctrine taught?

They were none other than a self-centered, backslidden group who "served their own belly" (verse 18).

This proves that division is caused by proud, arrogant catering to self-interests. 

Paul said, "By good words and fair speeches [they] deceive the hearts of the simple (unsuspecting) verse 18.
 
Those who are soft on sin, overlooking evil deeds and crying unity, are the real divisionists.

The true body of Christ has never been nor ever will be divided. Those in holy union with Christ are already united to each other. Sin is the divider!

Paul and Silas were brought before the magistrates of the city of Philippi, having been accused of "exceedingly troubling" the city (Acts 16:20). They were beaten and cast into prison as a result of the trouble they had caused.

What was this exceeding great trouble? 

Paul and Silas had cast a fortune-telling spirit out of a damsel who had "brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. . . And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas" (Acts 16:16 and 19).

When self-interest is threatened in any way, the cry goes up, "Troublemakers!
 
Division! Threat to unity!" Paul and Silas had uncovered a religious con game,a demonic deception under the guise of religion. 

It was a very profitable scheme for a select few who knew how to manipulate undiscerning crowds. 

What raised the cry, "Division"? 

It was a revival of cleansing. 

Those who accused Paul and Silas of causing dissension had ulterior motives and they refused the call to repent and walk in holiness.

God, give us more troublers of Israel who are not afraid to stand up against religious hypocrisy and disobedience!

~David Wilkerson~