Jer 45:5 And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not; for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD; but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.'
This is a promise given to you for the difficult places in which
you may find yourself—a promise of safety and life even in the midst of tremendous pressure.
And it is a promise that adjusts itself to fit the times as they continue to grow more difficult, as we approach the end of this age and the tribulation period.
What does it mean when it says that you will escape with your life?
It means your life will be snatched from the jaws of the Enemy, as David snatched the lamb from the lion.
It does not mean you will be spared the heat of the battle and confrontation with your foes, but it means “a table before [you] in the presence of [your] enemies” (Ps. 23:5), a shelter from the storm, a fortress amid the foe, and a life preserved in the face of continual pressure.
It means comfort and hope from God such as Paul received when he and his friends “were under great pressure, far beyond [their] ability to endure, so that [they] despaired even of life” (2 Cor. 1:8).
And it means the Lord’s divine help, such as when Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2 Cor.12:7 KJV) remained, but the power of Christ came to rest upon him, and he learned that God’s grace is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9).
May the Lord “wherever you go . . . let you escape with your life” and help you today to be victorious in your difficulties.
We often pray to be delivered from afflictions, and even trust God that we will be. But we do not pray for Him to make us what we should be while in the midst of the afflictions.
Nor do we pray that we would be able to live within them, for however long they may last, in the complete awareness that we are held and sheltered by the Lord and can therefore continue within them without suffering any harm.
The Savior endured an especially difficult test in the wilderness while in the presence of Satan for forty days and nights, His human nature weakened by the need for food and rest.
The three Hebrew young men were kept for a time in the flames of “the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual” Dan. 3:19. In spite of being forced to endure the tyrant’s last method of torture, they remained calm and composed as they waited for their time of deliverance to come.
And after surviving an entire night sitting among the lions, when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God” (Dan. 6:23).
They were able to endure in the presence of their enemies because they dwelt in the presence of their God
The wicked have always been “destitute” of the truth—despising it, trampling it, mocking it with disdain. I saw an example of this recently in The New York Post, as one writer confidently declared, “Science has now replaced faith.”
Paul's greater concern was always for those who had known the way of truth, confessing their faith in Christ, yet continued to flirt with sin.
Paul wrote of those who attempt to hold the truth in unrighteousness—an act that enrages God. “Who changed the truth of God into a lie . . . for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections” (Romans 1:25-26).
Others, held in bondage by their lustful pleasures, turned to false teachers to try to find peace. They ended up accepting “damnable heresies . . . and many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of” (2 Peter 2:1-2).
All of Paul’s messages on apostasy and the Antichrist were aimed at such carnal Christians.
They were not meant for the idolaters of Rome, the heathen
of Greece, the pagan tribes in unknown places.
Paul’s message was one of great importance to the church and he wrote it to be read in churches, directly to believers!
You see, Paul was calling God’s people everywhere to love the truth—to search it out, study it and obey it.
He wrote, in essence, “Let the truth be your guide and do not turn aside from it.
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see it, ears to hear it, and a heart to love it. Otherwise, you will open yourself to deception and end up believing a lie. Satan will be able to initiate you into the cult of Antichrist!”
If you do not believe this, simply recall the Scriptures. The Bible says that in the days just prior to Jesus’ return, Satan will bring such an overwhelming flood of seduction that he will attempt to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.
It will not matter how long a Christian has walked with Jesus; he will face temptations he has never had in his life. Even the strongest believer will be tempted to doubt God’s faithfulness and mistrust His Holy Word.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24).
~David Wilkerson~
What is this basic thought? The words are so familiar,
but I believe everything in history from the beginning to
the end in relation to the people of God turns upon this
one familiar fragment —
Whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be
conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29).
Conformed to the image of his Son—that
is the basic, all-governing thought of God where His
people are concerned.
That is what He has been at work
upon from the beginning with His people.
That is at the
very heart and root of our present experiences, our
trials, our suffering.
God is at work upon you and me
with this one thing in view—conformity to the
image of His Son.
That means many things, which we do not
now stay to consider, but we take fresh note of it as the
underlying, undergirding fact.
Going right back before
time, "foreknown, foreordained," on to
"the ages of the ages," the realization;
"conformed to the image of his Son." The
previous verse (v. 28) expresses this- God is
working all things for good with those who are called
according to His purpose.
What good? What is the good of the suffering and trial
that we go through?
It is this—that God is (may I
use the word?) reproducing His Son in us; and His Son is
His hope, and His ultimate glory is to be revealed
manifestly in the saints in terms of sonship.
It is the
hope for the whole creation—"subjected to
vanity... in hope."
We are travailing in hope. The
hope is in God's Son, and the hope is the manifestation
of that Son in the saints.
Christ in you the hope
of glory.
~T. Austin Sparks~
The whole question of
spiritual fulness is at stake.
I have spoken of what
might have been in the case of Jonathan. David came to
the kingdom in fulness, and Jonathan might have been
there at his side, his strength and support in the kingdom.
But no; instead of that, he passes out in this
tragic way. In a sense, there is nothing wrong with
Jonathan; but he has become involved in compromise with
another one and another instrument and another order of
things, because he did not make a clean cut.
It is not
for us to judge why, but it does seem that it must have
been that he argued on the ground of natural reasoning
about this thing.
What does it all amount to? If
spiritual fulness is to be reached, we have to be
governed by Divine and heavenly principles, and not by
human considerations.
Divine principles; not, What will
the consequences be? not, What shall we lose? not even,
What will the Lord lose? - because that is a very subtle
argument.
The Lord does not ask us to reason this thing
out on that level at all. He says, 'What is the Divine
principle? Let that principle govern and guide.'
You may
not see at all how it is going to work out.
If you are
governed by Divine principles you may seem to lose a lot
here; you may, for a time, have to go out with David and
wait.
But in the end the principles will be vindicated.
You have to recognise that compromise on principle only
brings disaster. You see it everywhere.
~T. Austin Sparks~
Rom 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
Abraham’s faith seemed to be in complete agreement with the power and constant faithfulness of Jehovah. By looking at the outer circumstances in which he was placed, he had no reason
to expect the fulfillment of God’s promise.
Yet he believed the Word of the Lord and looked forward to the time when his descendants would be “as numerous as the stars in the sky” (Gen. 26:4).
Dear soul, you have not been given only one promise, like
Abraham, but a thousand promises.
And you have been given the example of many faithful believers as a pattern for your life.
Therefore it is simply to your advantage to rely with confidence
upon the Word of God.
And although He may delay in sending His help, and the evil you are experiencing may seem to become worse and worse, do not be weak.
Instead, be strong and rejoice, for God usually steps forward to save us when we least expect it, fulfilling His most glorious promises in a miraculous way.
He generally waits to send His help until the time of our greatest need, so that His hand will be plainly seen in our deliverance.
He chooses this method so we will not trust anything that we may see or feel, as we are so prone to do, but will place our trust solely on His Word—which we may always depend upon, no matter our circumstance.
~C. H.Von Bogatzky~
Remember, the very time for faith to work is when our sight begins to fail
And the greater the difficulties, the easier it is for faith to work, for as long as we can see certain natural solutions to our problems,we will not have faith.
Faith never works as easily as when our natural prospects fail.
~George Mueller~
This is God’s loving challenge to you and me each day. He
wants us to think of the deepest, highest, and worthiest desires
and longings of our hearts.He wants us to think of those things
that perhaps were desires for ourselves or someone dear to us,
yet have gone unfulfilled for so long that we now see them as simply lost desires.
And God urges us to think of even the one thing that we once saw as possible but have given up all hope of seeing fulfilled in this life.
That very thing, as long as it aligns with what we know to
be His expressed will—as a son was to Abraham and Sarah—God intends to do for us.
Yes, if we will let Him, God will do that very thing, even if we know it is such an utter impossibility that we would simply laugh at the absurdity of anyone ever suggesting it could come to pass.
Is anything too hard for the Lord? No, nothing is too difficult when we believe in Him enough to go forward, doing His will and letting Him do the impossible for us.
Even Abraham and Sarah could have blocked God’s plan if they had continued to disbelieve.
The only thing “too hard for the Lord” is our deliberate and
continual disbelief in His love and power, and our ultimate
rejection of His plans for us.
Nothing is impossible for Jehovah to do for those who trust Him.
At one time Ahab did repent at the preaching of Elijah: “And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me?" (1 Kings 21:29).
From that day on he could look back and say, "Repentance? Yes, under the preaching of that great prophet of God, Elijah."
But to Ahab it was a one-time experience, not a daily walk. The problem was that he had become a friend and brother to the world. Brother, meaning "affinity, one just like me, one I respect." He was in covenant with what God had cursed. Ahab claimed to love the truth, but deep inside he hated reproof.
Many today say, “We want only the truth. Preach it like it is!” But in their hearts they are saying, "Too much gloom, it’s too hard. I can't stand anymore of this."
Ahab was blind to the terrible fact that he was being guided by a lying spirit. This lying spirit caused Zedekiah, a false prophet, to boast that the Spirit of God was upon him (see 1 Kings 22:24). Ahab was now fully persuaded he was hearing God's voice and that he would come back victorious.
Christians bound by the Jezebel doctrine are 100 percent sure they are right. They cannot see the deception. Ahab did not go up thinking, "The four hundred are false; they have no word from God.” No, he went up fully convinced—fully deceived totally seduced.
Why do some Christians fall into deception? "Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?"
Jeremiah 7:8-10.
There is the answer. A clinging to some pet sin, some secret idol in the heart. A justifying of sin, a brotherhood with the world. Then they come to God's house boasting, "I'm not convicted." This is an open invitation to lying spirits.
~David Wilkerson~
