Jesus is the Living Water and Bread of Life which sustains our hungry souls
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
A Healing Word From Heaven
Jesus was drawn to an impotent man lying by the pool of Bethesda. "And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?" (John 5:5-6). This unnamed crippled man has many faces and represents multitudes of impotent Christians who feel hopeless.
Impotence comes in many forms: physical, spiritual, mental—or all of these at once. Mentally and spiritually you may be that man lying by the pool. You are in a situation that seems hopeless and you see no way out. No one really understands the depth of your suffering; not a single friend or loved one seems to have the time, love or energy to really touch the hurt in you.
Take a good look at that impotent man and think of the years of struggle, the hurts heaped upon him by uncaring, insensitive people. How often he must have lifted a withered hand to those rushing by to get their own needs met, crying, "Someone, help! Please! I can't do it on my own!"
Multitudes of Christians are spiritually helpless and impotent because of a lingering battle with some besetting sin that has robbed them of spiritual life and vitality. They lie helpless on the bed of depression and despair, always hoping for a miracle, always waiting for someone to stir things up and make something happen. They drag themselves to meeting after meeting, counseling sessions, seminars, waiting for that one great, life-changing miracle. But nothing changes.
I believe God's great love is revealed in response to a cry from the heart—and I believe Jesus came to this man in answer to a deep and agonizing cry to the Father. The Bible has much to say about this cry from the heart. "In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears" (Psalm 18:6).
A cry to God from the heart will always be answered by a merciful, healing word from heaven!
~David Wilkerson~
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Getting Back The Shout Of Victory
King David committed adultery and then arranged for a faithful soldier to be murdered so he could lay claim to his young wife. He brought shame on Israel and on his heavenly Father's name. He hid his horrible darkness for a whole year and came to the brink of total ruin. Yet, even after all this, God called David “a man after mine own heart" (Acts 13:22). How could this be? The secret is that just before David was about to fall, he humbled himself and repented.
I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin" (Psalm 38:18). Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest (Psalm 51:4).
Create in me a clean heart, O God . . . and take not thy holy spirit from me (Psalm 51:10-11).
Are you troubled and grieved by your besetting sin? Do you feel you are on the brink of falling under the heavy load of it all? If so, then you are on your way to healing and deliverance. You see, when David repented, he was finally able to glimpse the light at the end of the tunnel.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my trangressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. . . . Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance" (Psalm 32:5, 7).
Dearly beloved, you can get back your joy. Simply confess and forsake your sin and the Lord will pardon and deliver you. He is ready to kiss your neck, clothe you in a robe of righteousness, and spread before you a great feast. Then you will be able to testify with David:
Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart" (Psalm 32:10-11).
~David Wilkerson~
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
The Rule Of The Heavens
There is a great need today that there should be the
rule of the Heavens. But the Holy Spirit has got to do it, and we have
got to come to recognize the fact that what we see in organized
Christianity is not it.
The spiritual people of God are more and more
feeling separated from the old system of Christianity and churches and
ecclesiastical systems.
People are recognizing a deep dissatisfaction
with what has held the ground so long, and there is a cry for spiritual
reality.
Many sermons are clever and full of mental ability, but they
are starvation to the spirit. There is all the activity, but it is not
spiritual Life, and I believe the Lord is going to show us the nature of
the thing that is in the heavens.
The thing that man has brought down
on to the earth and taken up and perpetuated is only at best a poor
imitation of things in the heavens, but in a very large realm it is a
caricature of heavenly things.
Man has taken hold of heavenly things and brought
them down to earth and made them earthly things. That is where things
all went wrong at the beginning. At the first, things were of the
Spirit. The people gathered in their homes or anywhere. It was not the
place. It was not the ministry. It was the Lord, and they were circled
around Him.
But then the day came when they said, "We must have public
buildings," and then the architecture became a factor, and so things
developed, and they became something on the earth for men to take note
of.
They wanted man to be attracted, and that was the first step in one
of the greatest perils that has overtaken the church. For prestige,
recognition, the world to be attracted, there is the result that you get
the mixed multitudes in the church. If you can attach some big names to
it, you can attract the people, and one of the devil's greatest
measures has been popularizing the church. The preeminent thing is lost,
that the church and Christ is a mystery to the natural man and that it
is no use to expect the natural man to appreciate it.
The church is
essentially a spiritual thing according to the mind of God. What really
governs everything is God's conception of things, not ours, and if we
are going on with the Lord there is going to be a whole system of change
and we are going more and more to view things from the heavenly
standpoint. You have got to get into the heavenly system to get
heavenly results.
~T. Austin Sparks~
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
GOD'S WORKS ARE NEVER DARKNESS
Mat 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
In
speaking of the Light of the LORD"S Heavenly people we are touching
again a very solemn, and serious, and important feature, something which
has a tremendous history associated with it.
The entire history of the
LORD'S people, and of the Spiritual Life, is one of Light and Darkness,
of Truth and Falsehood, of Purity and Adulteration or Mixture, of Clearness and Cloudiness, of Openness and Secretiveness....
Truth may be
in word, in doctrine, but there has to be a corresponding Truth in
heart, Truth in life.
Light may be a matter of doctrine, but there has
to be a corresponding state of Light in the heart.
The enemy will not
object to us having plenty of the former kind of light and truth, but,
if he can, he will seek to destroy its real value by introducing a lie
over against it, a contradiction....
Remember that God never builds in the dark; that is,
there can be no constructiveness where there is not light.
Before ever
God would bring this world back into order and fruitfulness He said:
"Let there be light."
God is out for the manifestation of the
truth.
God's works are never darkness, and we can never know
constructiveness and progress unless there is absolute light.
You know
quite well that you cannot go on with people who are not straight,
people who are crooked, people who are all the time furtive, not open,
not frank, who have somewhere in the background a secretiveness.
You
have to say, "I cannot go on with that one." God is like that. He would
say to any one of us who might be there, "I cannot go on with you until
you are absolutely out in the open, until you have come to a place where
you are going to be perfectly honest."
Reality is God's demand for any
kind of work that He will do. There may be many weaknesses, many
imperfections, but if there is genuineness, reality, and openness before
God, where the spirit is clear and pure, God can go on with His work.
But immediately we begin to lock something up inside, hold something
back, cease to be perfectly open before God, the work stops.
Light in
the sense of Clearness is an essential for the building of the city of
God, because the ultimate purpose for that city is to Shine Forth with
that Glory of GOD in Character.
With Him there is no variableness,
neither shadow cast by turning. That means that God can be relied upon.
The Lord make us like that.
~T. Austin Sparks~
Monday, November 26, 2012
Face To Face With GOD
Joh 7:18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
You and I are going to face God sometime. We are
going to come face to face with God literally in eternity and then the
question is going to arise, has God at any point failed us?
Shall we be
able, on any detail, to say, "Lord, You failed me, You were not true to
Your word"? Such a position is unthinkable, that ever any being should
be able to lay a charge like that at God's door, to have any question as
to God's truth, reality, and faithfulness.
The Holy Spirit has been
sent as the Spirit of truth to guide us into all the truth, so that
there shall be no shadow whatever between God and ourselves as to His
absolute faithfulness, His truth to Himself, and to all His word. The
Holy Spirit has come for that.
If that is true, then the Holy Spirit
will deal with all disciples in the School of Christ to undercut
everything that is not true, that is not genuine, to make every such
disciple to stand upon a foundation which can abide before God in the
day of His absolute and utter vindication.
But in order that this may be
so, you and I, under the Holy Spirit's teaching, have to be dealt with
very faithfully, and have to come to the place where we are perfectly
adjustable before God, where there is all responsiveness to the Holy
Spirit, and nothing in us that resists or refuses the Holy Spirit, but
where we are perfectly open and ready for the biggest consequence of the
Holy Spirit putting His finger upon anything in our lives needing to be
dealt with and adjusted. He is here for that.
The alternative to such a work of the Holy Spirit
being allowed to be done in us is that we shall find ourselves in a
false position, and it is far, far too costly to find ourselves in a
false position, even though it only be on certain points.
This is a
false world we are living in, a world that is carried on upon lies.
The
whole constitution of this world is a lie, and it is in the very nature
of man, though multitudes do not know it, but think they are true.
They
are trying to build the world on a false foundation.
The Kingdom of God
is altogether other. It is built upon Jesus Christ, the Truth.
~T. Austin Sparks~
Friday, November 16, 2012
BELIEVE
Believe Ye That I Am Able To Do This? Matt.(:28)
God deals with Impossibilities! It is Never too late for Him to do so when the impossible is brought to Him in Full Faith by the one in whose life and circumstances the impossible must be accomplished...If GOD is to be Glorified.
If in our own life there have been rebellion, unbelief, sin, and disaster, It is Never too late for GOD to deal Triumphantly with these tragic facts...If brought to Him in Full Surrender and Trust!
It has often been said and with Truth that Christianity is the only religion that can deal with man's past. GOD can "Restore...the years that the locust hath eaten" (Joel 2:25)
And He will do this when we put the whole situation and ourselves Unreservedly and Believingly in His hands. Not because of what we are but because of what He is.
GOD Forgives and Heals and Restores.
He is "The GOD Of ALL GRACE".
Let us Praise Him and Trust Him.
NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR JESUS NO MAN CAN WORK LIKE HIM
We have a GOD who Delights in Impossibilities
NOTHING Too Hard For HIM
~Andrew Murray~
Thursday, November 1, 2012
SOMEONE To WATCH OVER ME
Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency (Psalm 73:13).
Asaph, the writer of this psalm, was so confused by his sufferings in comparison to the easy life of the wicked that he nearly slipped into a pit of absolute unbelief. He was ready to accuse God of abandoning him, of not being concerned, and for a moment he was ready to quit the battle and give up completely.
This godly man must have thought, "I've been doing right and
enduring hardships all this time but it was for nothing. All my
diligence, my praising and worshiping, my study of God's Word
has been useless, in vain. I have done only right; yet I continue
to suffer and it makes no sense. What's the use of going on?"
Beloved, you must be careful. When calamity falls, when a trial
comes upon you, when you are grieving, you need to guard your
heart against slipping.
You may not be in Asaph's condition, suffering and being tested, but you may know someone who is going through something similar. Sudden calamity may have come upon a godly relative, friend or church member, someone you know who is doing right, and you have asked, "Why, God? How could You allow this? That person is so righteous!"
Asaph went to the temple and prayed. Beloved, when your time
of grief or suffering comes, you must go to the secret closet. Get
alone with God and cry out to Him. If you will get alone with the Father, He will give you understanding. That is when the Holy Spirit spoke to Asaph: "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction" (verse 18). Asaph realized, "I´m not the one slipping, the wicked are slipping. They´re going straight into destruction."
Asaph began to see the whole picture and he rejoiced: "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever" (verse 26). He could say, "Yes, my strength is failing. Yes, I´m enduring a great battle - but I´m not alone in my struggles. I have a loving Father in heaven and He watches over me!"
~David Wilkerson~
Saturday, October 20, 2012
The Harvest Of The SPIRIT
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? (Galatians 3:5).
Paul says that God measures out the Holy Ghost to us and He does so Not according to our Works, But according to our Faith in Him.
Jesus is the only person who ever had the Holy Spirit without measure. Yet there have been many men and women throughout history who were given a great measure of the Spirit. Such believers have always known they do not have to strive to weep over a lost, broken world, because the Holy Ghost does the
weeping in them.
Our part is to pray: "Holy Ghost, You know everyone in my circle of influence who is under conviction because You are the one who convicts them. You see every tear that falls in the quiet of the night and You know everyone who is desperate and crying for help. I am Your instrument. Fill me with Your burden and LEAD ME to Those YOU have Prepared."
God wants to EMPOWER US for One Reason — to get us into the streets, filled with His Word and led by His Spirit. He wants us to be able to speak a piercing, convicting word that has the unmistakable Fire of the Spirit!
Does something stir in your soul over the lost? Are you burdened for those in your circle of influence? Or Do YOU Focus Endlessly on Your OWN Needs?
If you don't know Christ's heart and have His burden, you can never expect to be used of Him.
For many Christians, the work of eternity may not be in a faraway land but will center on family, friends and coworkers. The requirements, however, are just the same. To reach the lost we must ask the Lord to move on them with conviction and to prepare our hearts with a timely word.
Fast and pray and then ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to those He has convicted and prepared to hear His Word. Then trust in His guidance and power to do the miraculous!
~David Wilkerson~
Monday, October 8, 2012
Divided Loyalties Issue In Disaster
Now take Jonathan. Even he can be involved at last in the awful tragedy of compromise. It is one of the saddest stories. We all want to shed tears when we read David's lament over Jonathan.
We remember the beginnings of the relationship between David and Jonathan, how their souls were knit together. Their story is always being taken as a kind of classic and model of friendship
And yet even there...there were divided loyalties in the case of Jonathan - loyalty to the realm of nature, to his father after the flesh, straining against his loyalty to David, and causing him to be a divided personality.
When he is with his father, his heart is with David. When he is with David, he feels the pull of duty to his father. He is a divided man.
What a problem divided loyalties present!
Jonathan must have known all about that Amalek episode and what Samuel did; that in the Divine intent the kingdom was then taken from Saul and passed to David; that the Lord forsook Saul and was no longer with him.
He may have known of the consultation with the witch, the touching of that realm forbidden so strongly by the Lord. And yet, on natural grounds of some kind, Jonathan did not break with that whole system of things.
What a different story might have been told if he had taken sides wholly with David and been David's right hand man for the kingdom! But this divided loyalty involved him in the ultimate tragedy.
And even good people who have been blessed of the Lord, to whom He has shown His favour and whom He has used very greatly, may in the end be involved in spiritual tragedy if for some reason compromise has entered in.
It may have come in because of policy. What a snare policy is! We tell ourselves we must be very careful that we do not do this or that because it may have such and such a result. It is all policy and diplomacy. 'We must be careful to avoid...what?
Just what we seek to avoid betrays the whole case. Are we afraid of losing prestige with men, support, friends, position, opportunity? Do these things weigh with us as over against implicit obedience to the Lord?
If so, there is divided loyalty; and if we allow it, we may at the end pass into terrible tragedy; the tragedy that always follows compromise.
~T. Austin Sparks~
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Without Faith There is NO Pleasing GOD
Heb_11:6 But 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.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Becoming A GIANT With GOD
Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us (Psalm 62:8).
You must consider your daily appointments with God more sacred and important than appointments with any other people no matter who they are.
How embarrassing it must be for heaven to see the way we Christians fail to highly regard the majesty of our God, the King of Glory. We are often flippant in the way we keep Him waiting. And at the drop of a hat, we will suddenly cancel plans to meet with Him in His courts, all for the most trifling thing!
Can you imagine someone keeping the Creator of the universe waiting while he lingers to view his favorite TV program? Yet that is what many of us do! Even worse, we often do not bother to show up in God's presence at all. It is not that we forget our appointment with Him but we willfully refuse to appear before Him!
Isaiah lamented, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not" (Isaiah 53:3). When I allow interruptions to come between me and my appointments with the Lord, I am hiding my face from Him and not appreciating Him as I should.
The truth is, it is impossible to waste time when you are seeking God in prayer. Furthermore, outside the secret closet, the praying man or woman accomplishes more in less time, with less hurry and less effort and sweat.
The most effective work for God we will ever do is on our knees. While the prayerless run helter skelter, to and fro, attempting great things, the praying Christian is hard at work moving kingdoms, shattering strongholds, doing great things and, in the process, becoming a giant with God.
~David Wilkerson~
Saturday, September 8, 2012
LAMB
Rev 5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
Rev 5:3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Rev 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
Rev 5:7 And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
Rev 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Rev 5:11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
Rev 5:12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
Rev 5:13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
Rev 5:14 And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
When The LORD Moves The STONE
When the Lord moves for His own Son's sake, and has those interests governing, and when those interests have brought us into such a relationship with Him that we can say there is no stone so big to be removed, no problem so great for solving, no difficulty so intense, but the Lord will do what is necessary for His Son's sake.
When we have come to a position like that, the Lord is free to do a lot of things very quietly. As we say, they just 'happen'. Ah, but they have been the objects of the exercise of exceeding great power.
There was a great earthquake (Matt. 28:2). But here, in this aspect of the situation, it does not seem to be an earthquake at all. It has just happened. We must recognize that there is an aspect of activities in which the secret, quiet working of His immense power dismisses the greatest difficulties as though they had never existed.
Sometimes He may bring us into the presence of the working of His power that is manifestly terrific, but not often and certainly not always. For faith it is more like this: there is such power at work as to make possible the setting aside of the obstacle very quietly, so that we afterward wonder - "And they were amazed". And the angel said, "Be not amazed". It is good to have amazement, but let us recognize that a certain amount of our amazement is because we have not sufficient faith.
~T. Austin Sparks~
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
GOD CHOSE TO BE A FATHER TO ME
I have chosen who I want to be to you, how I want you to see Me. I want you to know Me as your loving heavenly Father." I did not choose Him. Rather, this is the role He chose to be to me a Father.
Is God ruler of heaven and earth? Is He Almighty? Is He Omnipotent? Does He sit King of the flood? The answer to all these questions, of course, is yes. But in these last days, God wants us to have another revelation of Him: "I want to be a Father to you and I want you to be a son or daughter to Me."
Jesus walked the earth His whole lifetime knowing who the Father was, knowing His will, hearing His voice. He lived every hour under the sunlight of His love, never in confusion or doubt. Therefore, He could face anything the enemy threw at Him any trial, any hardship because He knew His Father was with Him. He could say, "I know I have a Father who sent Me. He chose Me and appointed Me. And He is with me always. I am never alone!"
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me (John 17:21).
Jesus was saying, "You say you want to know Me, and that is right and good. But now I want you to know My Father. I want you to know Him as I knew and enjoyed Him as Father!"
The Father tells us, "I want to hover over you, to be your protector, to drive out all demonic attacks, to supply every need, to see you through all your trials. Let Me be your Father!"
Think of it: He chose you out of all the hundreds of millions of people on the face of the earth. Yet He not only chose you, but He adopted you as His child. His Spirit tells you to cry, "Abba! You are my Father. You are not just Abraham's Father, or Peter’s and Paul's, but mine.
~David Wilkerson~
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