Oh to Stay in the WAY!

My brother Oswald has done it again! Wow, such profound words! He says, "If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do."

This profound bit of truth comes from this devotional today, and jumped out of the middle of it at me with such force that it left me winded in wonderment! Most of what is being preached today only produces, as Brother Oswald states, "a refined religious lifestyle", in the original he actually said, "a refined spiritual culture"! Rather than God's desired product of a wholly transformed life! A supernatural life, filled with victories in impossible realms! He did not make us for the everyday mundane limited lives that we live! He made us for the great beyond - for a life of wonder beyond all we, in our infinite - spiritually numb or dead state - can not even imagine!

We are called to MORE in HIM! But to access that MORE we must access the WAY to it, which He provided in the Atonement of the Anointed One! There is no other way to the to supernatural life in God! To the life of Holy, sinless, righteous, pure, good, faithful, believing, powerful, anointed life in HIM that He created us to live! I don't know about anyone else, but I am tired of sort of floating in and out of it! I am tired of feeling like it is so hit and miss! I am tired of being the tail more than I feel like the head! I am tired of the emotional and spiritual roller coaster to which my fallen flesh (which is supposed to have been buried with Messiah) subjects me - still too often, after all these years of hard work to put it down!

There has to be a time when we push through, when we get over, when we top the crest and see the victory and know that we have made it! There has to be a place of rest in Him - that does not fluctuate so wildly! There has to be a solid place to stand, though all the earth be churned up with strife and violence! There has to be a "Secret Place of the Most High" that we can stay in, dwell in! Because He said there was! Yeshua issued the invitation, "Come unto me, all you who are burdened and heavy laden, and I WILL give you rest for your souls, for MY yoke is easy, and MY burden is light..." And yet I find myself, too many times, dragging the burdens which I tend to collect along, and having a pity party the whole way! What part of "Come unto ME" do I not get?! How hard is that?! What the heck is going on here! I feel like the poster child for stupid! lol

I know that we have an enemy who works constantly to distract us away from what God is doing, so that we will miss it, so that we will give him our attention, our focus, and then he can weasel us out of our power! What bothers me is how effective this strategy still is, and how well it still works on me! Will I never learn?! I have to say with what faith I have allowed the Ruach to develop in me that I WILL learn! In fact I am learning right now! "He awakens me morning by morning as one being taught"! I CAN be taught! I WILL get this! Hopefully before it is too late to help others to get it! Today, as I set myself to enjoy another Shabbot in His presence, as I set myself to meditate on what HE is doing, instead of the incessant roaring of the enemy through his various media assistants, I am determined to get into that Secret Place and batten down the hatches! I am determined to stay, and to live in His peace and in His power!

But if I succeed it will be because I have maintained my focus on Him! On the cross, the blood and the resurrection of Yeshua! On the Ruach and the Word! On HIS will for my life, versus the cruel plans of the ever destructive enemy - who for some reason really wants me out of here! I will seek, as brother Oswald has so eloquently stated, to stay so closely identified with my LORD, my Redeemer, the Shepherd Ha Gadol - the Great Shepherd of our souls - that He can continually bring His creating life through me! That is our mission, if we choose to accept it, and with all my heart I do so choose! All prayers appreciated in this effort, it has been a bumpy ride, I do not see that changing! But I can still expect Him to calm the storms as the come, or to bid me walk out over top of them!

Selah.

Sacred Service

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . . —Colossians 1:24

The Christian worker has to be a sacred “go-between.” He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual’s personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker’s life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.

When we say, “What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!” then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).