Rely on God, Continued Deliverance, Prayers of Many

Please take 20-30 seconds to read this:

2 Corinthians 1:8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on oura behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

How very rich this little section of scripture is with words of life for those who believe. What are we told here? We come under great pressure, pressure far beyond our ability to endure, but WHY? So that our reliance will not be on ourselves but on our God who has the power even to raise the dead.

What else do we see? On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us....continued deliverance huh? Sounds pretty good. Sounds like getting delivered from one thing after another after another after another. Sounds kind of like this:

4I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.

and this

6This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.

from Psalm 34. See that word up there that our Lord uses ALL the time? Its the word all, and its a really big word. Why? Well, what does "all" mean?

all (ôl)
adjective
the whole extent or quantity of

The word "all" leaves nothing out does it? If I have 10 cookies and I tell you I am going to give you "all" of them, how many would you expect to receive? 10 right? That's what "all" means.
If I tell you that hell on earth is coming and there will be 10 trials and tribulations involved (just pulling a number out of thin air here), and I was going to make sure you were kept from "all" of them then how many of the trials and tribulations would you expect to go through?

We know that in this life we have tribulation:

“In the world ye shall have tribulation” (John 16:33),

but what are we told about the trouble and tribulation we have? We shall be delivered out of ALL of it. This should encourage us right? I can tell you that I have lived many years on this earth and when I think back I cannot think of one single example of this failing in my life. The Lord has a 100% track record of delivering me. Yes, I've had many troubles, who hasn't? But I have been delivered from them all. That is my testimony today, that our God is good, his word can be trusted and my soul boasts in the Lord today because of it. His praise is on my lips and on these pages because he has done in my life exactly what he said he would do.

I am a nobody, he is everything. If we will do what he tells us to do, like "live by faith not by sight" then we can expect rewards that come from obedience. Obedience is love in our Father's eyes. I have seen in my own life that we do not have to be perfect to warrant our Lord's blessings and favor, but we do have to strive for perfection. People use the excuse that we are humans and therefore not perfect (and never can be perfect) as an excuse to do whatever they want. That's a mistake. Our God is looking always at our heart. What is in our hearts?

Ro 8:27 -
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, we know it, our God knows it, but thats not an excuse to do evil. If we set out hearts and minds to do what pleases our God, it has been my experience that he rewards our effort.

shifting gears a little....

Saturday, September 19 (Sabbath day), Feast of Trumpets 2009

I remember this time last year like it was yesterday. I said it then and I'm saying it again, I have no word from the Lord regarding escape, rapture or anything else for this years feast of trumpets. When I say I have no word from the Lord that means him speaking to my heart, mind etc about it. What I do have is alot of evidence that points to a feast of trumpets escape/rapture of the true believers aka the church.

I'm not going to outline all the reasons why a feast of trumpets, rosh hashanah escape from all makes sense according to what we have been told in the bible. Other brothers have done a great job making that case already, you can find their work all over the internet. What I will say is that this year, rosh hashanah falls on a sabbath day, that makes it a little more interesting. I also see the days of Noah and Lot all around us today, another marker of the days when we should expect to see our Lord. I also see that the world (as usual) is going in the opposite direction of the Spirit of God. When the Spirit was warning the world that these days were coming, they were preaching peace and quietness, don't worry! Now the world is preaching worry, fret and fear, look at all the terrible things Satan is doing and I hear the Spirit speaking peace, quietness and don't worry, almost funny if it wasn't so tragic.

We should be ready each and every day to meet our Lord. We have no idea how many days we each get here. We also do not know when the Luke 21:36 escape from all is going to happen. We also know that it is only the fall feasts that are still waiting to be fulfilled and here we are walking into fall. It would not surprise me at all to see the escape from all rapture of the church in the coming days. On the other hand, we could be waiting for that event for years. The only wise approach to this situation is daily readiness, a daily walk of obedience, prayer and faith. Who can make a case against doing such things?

I am seeing changes in myself that are without a doubt the work of the Lord. These changes are good welcome changes to align me with the center of the narrow road that leads to life. This blog is not about me though, its about you, what do these changes in me have to do with you? If you and I are both "in Christ" then perhaps you should be seeing some changes as well, or maybe you will be seeing them. I believe we are being called into the ark, not physically (yet) but the body always lags the spirit. Spirit, the unseen is always first, the seen is second. That is why we are told to live by faith not by sight. Living by faith means living according to what we know of the unseen world. Seems kind of ridiculous to the unbeliever, the skeptic and the mocker but shouldn't we expect that?

1 Corinthians 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

The very core of our faith is foolishness to the Gentiles.

In closing today, let me say that I have no idea, not even the slightest inkling of what the Lord has in store for this world in the days ahead. We know whats coming because we have the bible but as far as prophetic word or impression or whatever else you might want to call it I am a blank right now. The Lord has my heart and mind focused 100% on readiness for the day, not the day itself. If we are ready for the day of the escape when it comes, then that day will take care of itself, no need for predictive prognosticating, prophetic words, fortune telling or anything else.

Let us be ready today. We are dearly loved children, grace and peace

The Days of Noah and Lot

This morning as I was in prayer, I asked the Lord if I could write on the days of Noah and Lot and I have been granted permission to do so. Let us refresh our memory:

22Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23Men will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. 24For the Son of Man in his dayc will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. 25But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
26“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
28“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
30“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32Remember Lot’s wife! 33Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.d”
37“Where, Lord?” they asked.
He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

Some key words to notice there are: the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all....

The day Noah went into the ark...the day Lot left Sodom....then destruction came. I have a heavy heart this morning about the future. Asking the Lord about this the answer was this:

Our solutions and answers do not lie in the problems...the solution and answers we need are "in Christ." We are quickly approaching Sept 19, 2009, which once again marks out the Feast of Trumpets for us. Of all the days on the calendar, that day each year should have a big glowing neon sign hanging on it that says ESCAPE FROM ALL. Could the escape from all, rapture of the church occur this year on the feast of trumpets? It is very possible. This is the time of year every year that we should be especially watchful for the Lord's end time activity. Why? It is the FALL FEASTS that have yet to be fulfilled prophetically and guess what time we are quickly approaching? FALL....

Just as I said last year, I am not predicting anything. The probability is low that anything will happen, but the probability will always be low that the escape from all or beginning of Jacob's troubles will start, but one day they will happen, there is a 100% guarantee they will happen. All outward appearances point to tragic events coming to this world. I do not believe our Lord wants our focus there. He wants our focus on him.

For the first time in many years, going into the fall of the year, the Lord has not had me writing about the escape from all/rapture/beginning of Jacob's troubles. That in itself is a marker or signpost that we should be especially aware this year. His focus over the last 2-3 months has been on one thing really, separation from the world and complete unity with him and focus on him. Why would the Lord be on that topic so heavily for the past 2-3 months? Has he been sending out a signal to anyone who would listen that he is coming back for a holy people, a spotless bride? That he is coming back soon are the key words in there.

The Lord always warns first and he has warned the people of this earth now for many years in many different ways. Lately, the warning bells have gone silent and a loving, grace filled message of encouragement and comfort has taken its place. What does all this amount to?

When I think of Noah loading the ark, and Lot being led out of Sodom, I see a parallel with what I am hearing from the Spirit today. I see the Lord holding our hands as a loving father and leading us out of the world, first in heart mind and spirit, then bodily......The unseen always takes precedence. Spirit, heart mind leave first, then the body. Remember this: 33Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. When your spirit heart and mind have already been "lost" to this world, you have "lost your life" to the world. Only those who "lose their life" will preserve it.

I believe the Holy Spirit's message to me over the past 2-3 months have been an ongoing process of "losing our life" to the world and diving deeper and deeper "in Christ" in preparation for something....The Spirit's message to you and me this morning is grace and peace to all who are far and near. Find rest for our souls "in Christ." Separate ourselves from the world, not conforming to its patterns or thoughts in any way. We are in the world but we are not of it.

I cannot be sure that the Lord is going to do anything as magnificent as the escape from all (Luke 21:36) or the beginning of Jacob's troubles this fall. What I am sure of is that we are being called away from the world and deeper into Jesus. To those being saved, we are the fragrance of life and to those perishing we are the smell of death:

2 Corinthians 2 :14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? 17Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.

I believe the Lord's hand is outstretched right now in grace, tenderness and mercy to this world. I am hearing words of encouragement and grace from him today. Who knows how much longer the Lord's mercy will extend to this world? Know that we who are "in Christ" are dearly loved.

grace and peace