Absolutely Everything!

2 Peter 1
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the [true, intimate] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 For His divine power has bestowed on us absolutely everything related to life and godliness, through true and personal knowledge of Him who called us by and to His own glory and excellence.
4 For by these He has bestowed on us His precious and magnificent promises [of inexpressible value], so that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the moral decay and corruption that is in the world through lust.

THERE IS NO LACK IN GOD! There is NOTHING lacking in the Life and Spirit of Jesus Christ in a believer! If we find that we are lacking, dry or without His Joy then very simply but very sincerely we need to acknowledge that we’ve been in unbelief! We need to repent, confess and turn again to the promises and testimonies of The Word of God and take by faith the victory and provision given us in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ! Hallelujah!! Praise His precious name!! Sing again His songs of victory and declare HIS Salvation!
HE HAS ALREADY GIVEN!! He is not holding back until we are ready! He has ALREADY bestowed on us EVERYTHING that pertains to HIS LIFE and GODLINESS! We already have access to all that we need! Jesus has given us HIS LIFE, HIS VICTORY, HIS ACCESS to The Father, HIS POWER, HIS TESTIMONY!! It is for us to simply have the faith to believe!! Do we live by faith? Do we truly believe that Jesus Christ is all that He says He is… IN US!!
WE HAVE NO EXCUSE! The ONLY reason we lack is through our failure to believe! We doubt His provision, we doubt His promises, we forget all that He has done and all that is ours in Him! Have we forgotten to grow in a “true and personal knowledge of Him who called us by and to His own glory and excellence”? We have forgotten to praise and magnify The Lord!

John 16
33 I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have perfect peace and confidence. In the world you will have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

Romans 8
37 Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.

1 Corinthians 15
57 But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory [making us conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 2
14 Now thanks be to God, Who always causes us to triumph in Christ, and by us makes manifest the fragrance of his knowledge in every place.

1 John 5
4 For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith.

•⁠ ⁠Oh brothers and sisters in Christ, may we be stirred up in our faith! May we arise and leave the place of despondency and self. May we exalt The Lord Jesus and not magnify our problems! Let us rise up in faith believing that Jesus has won every victory, that He has already gone before us, that He is casting out the enemy… Let us be found ever rejoicing and giving thanks in all things, knowing that we are more than conquerors because the battle is already won! Let us fix our eyes on The Giver, not the gifts. Let is offer our sacrifice of praise, for when we offer to Jesus the little praise we have, we will always leave full of Him!!

Immersed In God

Exodus 40
34 Then the cloud [God’s visible presence] covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle!
35 And Moses was not able to enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud remained upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

1 Kings 8
10 When the priests had come out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the Lord’s house,
11 So the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house.

Acts 2
2 When suddenly there came a sound from heaven like the rushing of a violent tempest blast, and it filled the whole house in which they were sitting.
…
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other (different, foreign) languages (tongues), as the Spirit kept giving them clear and loud expression [in each tongue in appropriate words].

•⁠ ⁠Three different dwelling places of Almighty God. Each one with its own baptism (immersion) of God! Each one filled with His presence and His Glory! Each one with a clear manifestation of God’s delight to dwell among his people. God’s deepest desire and glory is that He can dwell among His people! Hallelujah, What a Saviour! What a Gospel!
•⁠ ⁠None of these experiences were continuous though. They were symbolic of God’s acceptance and delight to dwell in the place prepared! But life and service continued on after these precious moments.

John 16
13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all Truth. For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future].
14 He will honour and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.

•⁠ ⁠The immersion had come and now there was work to be done. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was to be proclaimed and that’s exactly what the apostles did! The experience of Acts 2 is never mentioned again with longing. The disciples never looked back at the physical experience of the upper room wishing they could have that again, but they walked with a forward focus, proclaiming Jesus Christ, and taught us with obedience, joy and boldness to walk in The Holy Spirit, and to be being FILLED with HIM!
•⁠ ⁠But if we find that we feel empty, if we find that we hunger for more of Him, if we find that we feel a thirst and a dryness, we can do so rejoicing in all that He has given us! If we are thirsty, PRAISE THE LORD, we can drink from the Living Waters! If we hunger, PRAISE THE LORD for we shall be filled!! OH HALLELUJAH! There is never a reason strong enough to ever stop praising The Lord!! So let us continue to bring our sacrifices of praise, for The Lord inhabits the praises of His people! And if we bring to The Lord our songs of praise and rejoicing we shall never leave empty but full of HIM!!

Standing In The Breach

Exodus 32
10 Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and that I may destroy them; but I will make of you a great nation.
11 But Moses besought the Lord his God…
…
14 Then the Lord turned from the evil which He had thought to do to His people.

What if Moses hadn’t interceded? What if Moses had simply accepted God’s word and Israel’s fate? God was not joking or merely suggesting in order to test Moses, the Israelite people were as good as destroyed!

Psalm 106
23 Therefore He said He would destroy them. [And He would have done so] had not Moses, His chosen one, stepped into the breach before Him to turn away His threatening wrath.

Moses, who placed himself between The Lord and the people, successfully interceded on behalf of God’s Glory and the people of Israel. Man moved God! But note that Moses’ primary focus in prayer was for the Glory of God, not the excusing of man! Exodus 32:11-13.
⁠Moses, who is introduced to us as a man of feeble faith, not knowing God and questioning His ability, had power with God to cause Him to repent! He had no provision that we don’t have today, in fact he had less! He didn’t have the power and revelation of The Holy Spirit. He was simply a man who had come to know God so intimately through submission and obedience, that his heart longed for and reflected The Lord’s heart. He desired, more than anything else, to see God truly known and glorified on the earth!

Matthew 9
37 Then He (Jesus) said to His disciples, The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the labourers are few.
38 So pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest to force out and send labourers into His harvest.

It takes faith to believe that you can move the heart of God. Faith doesn’t pray in uncertainty but with assurance and confident rejoicing and rest. Oh let us pray with faith! Let us pray for The Lord to restore His Glory in His name. Let us pray for the chaff to be removed. Let us pray for The Lord’s testimony to be great amongst His people, and in us! Let us pray for there to be a shout of praise in the camp, a song of joy in the hearts of the redeemed and HIS rest/victory in our daily lives! Let us pray expectantly for the lost and for the labourers who share the Good News. Let us pray that more labourers be sent out into HIS harvest. For the field is HIS and it is HIS plentiful harvest! So many lives depend on our intercession. Consider the consequence if we do not!
May we yield to the life of Christ within us and allow His desires to be ours. We have the power available to us, in Jesus, to move the heart of God for those who are destined for destruction! May our hearts be stirred and our faith fortified to beseech God for His glory and that He might, by our intercession, receive the reward of His suffering.

I Shall Yet Praise Him

Psalm 42
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God.
6 O my God, my life is cast down upon me [and I find the burden more than I can bear]; therefore will I [earnestly] remember You…

THE QUESTION: Why?! Why are you cast down? Why are you fretting? What is wrong with you?! Why are you looking at yourself, or the enemy, or the storm? “Consider your ways”, analyse/understand your battle. Answer the question accurately and specifically… Why are you cast down?
The question suggests that it is unreasonable to be downcast. Sin is no cause or reason, because we are promised it shall not have dominion over us and, upon repentant confession, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from ALL sin; Satan and his temptations are also no reason to be cast down. God is mightier than the devil! The Spirit of Jesus Christ, who abides in the believer is greater than he that is in the world! Satan can go only as far as God allows. There is no justifiable reason for the believer’s soul to be cast down! We have every reason to look up and wait expectantly in hope!
The implied answer is that we are downcast because we have moved our eyes from looking at our Saviour, Jesus Christ. We have taken our eyes off of all that He is, all that He has done and all that He has taught and promised! And we have started to perceive by our own logic and lean on our own understanding. We have magnified the problem/flesh and not The Lord!
THE RESPONSE: I shall yet praise Him! I will praise Him anyway!! Despite my circumstance, despite the enemy, no matter the storm, I will yet continue to praise The Lord with a set and determined heart of faith and trust. I will not let the enemy, the world or my flesh take me from abiding in Christ, the secret place of The Most High! I will not heed distraction but cling to The Lord, His promises and His faithfulness.
But also, I will yet have a testimony of paise in this situation so don’t be cast down… For praise is coming! Victory is coming! Joy is coming in the morning! A testimony of The Lord’s sustaining grace; providence; provision; goodness and mercy is coming! I will yet praise Him because I know that “surely” I will always look back and see His goodness and mercy following me. His Glory shall be my testimony!
I shall YET PRAISE HIM!! I will remember Calvary! I will remember that victory is already won! I will remember that we have been delivered by a Mighty Hand! I will remember that my name is written in Heaven! I will remember His So Great Salvation! I will remember His complete deliverance from Egypt; His promise to never leave me nor forsake me; His loving kindnesses and tender mercies… I will remember my Redeemer, my Saviour, my loving Heavenly Father and that Almighty God lives within me!! And then I will ask myself… Why are you cast down??

Matthew 28
20 “I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.”

⁠If we have the faith to really believe that this is true then how/why are you downcast oh my soul, my brother, my sister? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for we shall yet praise Him, our Help and our God!

No More Sad

1 Samuel 1
15 …I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I was pouring out my soul before the Lord.
16 Regard not your handmaid as a wicked woman; for out of my great complaint and bitter provocation I have been speaking.
17 Then Eli said, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.
18 Hannah said, Let your handmaid find grace in your sight. So she went her way and ate, her countenance no longer sad.

•⁠ ⁠There was no sudden and miraculous change in Hannah’s circumstance. When she left the temple that day she had to go back to the same bitter enmity and ridicule that she had been dealing with for so many years. In the flesh there was no immediate comfort, support or remedy to her pain. The storm still raged, the enemy did not draw back…
•⁠ ⁠The only change to be seen that day was in her face, meaning her disposition or her attitude. She was no more sad. She was no more in defeat and shame. She was no more hopeless and sorrowful. She was no more overwhelmed, exasperated, frustrated or weary.
•⁠ ⁠So what did change for Hannah? She lifted her gaze. She was no longer looking at her self through eyes of flesh but seeing, by faith, the loving kindnesses and tender mercies of The Lord. She was no longer looking earthward but Godward, to the promises and testimonies of The Lord. She looked beyond her self and saw The Lord. Hanna cast ALL of her care upon The Lord. She lay all of her burdens down at His feet. She cast herself upon His goodness and mercy and she truly trusted in Him. She cried out and vowed that the fruit/blessing of The Lord would be HIS testimony and for HIS glory and honour. She was no longer lusting for the blessing but found comfort, peace and rest in the one who blesses.
•⁠ ⁠We only know Hannah’s name because of the fruit of this faith. There was nothing royal or powerful about her. She was just a woman longing for a child, longing to be fruitful. But as she cried out to The Lord and poured out her complaint to Him, as she yielded to His will and glory, she became a woman of quiet, confident, assured faith. The testimony of The Lord came from that faith. It was not until Hannah rose up no more sad that fruit and testimony came. A Mighty work, far more than Hannah prayed for or could have imagined!
•⁠ ⁠May we learn to have such faith as Hannah. May we be like Moses, “for he had respect unto the rewarder of the reward… for he never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him Who is invisible.” Hebrews 11:26-27

Romans 15
13 May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.