BEAUTY FOR ASHES
PART II
A WAY THROUGH
THE WILDERNESS
George H.
Warnock
First Printing: June,
1986
Second Printing:
October, 1987
Third Printing:
August, 1992 (Third Printing Printed in the U.S.A.)
Printed by: Pinecrest Publications
Salisbury Center, NY 13454
“Behold, I will do a
new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a
way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19
See awaymap.jpg
Chapter 1: The Wilderness
Of The Red Sea
“Hemmed In”
Chapter 2: The Wilderness Of Shur
“Bitter And Sweet”
Chapter 3: The Wilderness Of Sin
“Bread From Heaven”
Chapter 4: The Wilderness Of Sinai
“Be Ye Holy... For I
Am Holy”
Chapter 5: The Wilderness Of Paran
“The Purging Of Our
Desires”
Chapter 6: The Wilderness Of Zin
“Tragedy And Triumph”
Chapter 7: Conflicts Of The New Generation
Chapter 8: The Heavenly Canaan
In this
writing we want to explore the wilderness areas through which the children of
Israel had to travel, as they came out of the land of Egypt, and made their way
toward the land of Canaan, the Land of Promise, the Land of Fruitfulness. Our
purpose, of course, is to discover the Way of the Lord for us; for what
happened to them, though very literal and very natural, was but a picture and
shadow of our walk with the Lord, as we too seek to come away from the old life
of sin and bondage, and enter into a fruitful walk with the Lord. In all the
way that they travelled, and in all the experiences which they had to endure by
the leading of the Lord, they were enacting a pattern of conduct that would be
recorded in holy Scripture as an example and type of God’s people today. Not
that we are supposed to follow their example, but to learn from it. For it is
clear that they utterly failed the Lord in many, many ways, so that the first
generation of the redeemed people did not enter the Land of Promise.
Nevertheless, in their conduct in the wilderness God was actually providing a
picture for us today, so that we might learn from their mistakes.
“Now
these things were our examples, TO THE INTENT we should NOT lust after evil
things, as they also lusted” (1 Cor. 10:6). And the apostle goes on to enlarge
upon this, by describing the many calamities that came upon the people of God
because of their idolatry, their immorality, their tempting of Christ, and
their much murmuring. Then he tells us that all these things happened to them
as a warning and as an admonishment to us, so that we would NOT fall into the
same tragic things that they did. And so their journey through the wilderness
was not intended to be a pattern for you and I to follow, but a warning to
God’s people of the dangers that accompany the wilderness life, and God’s
provision for making us to be an overcoming people. We are to learn from their
experiences, and so avoid making the same mistakes they made.
But we
are slow to learn from the mistakes of another. Human nature is just that way.
Usually we have to learn the hard way. But as we do, it is good that we can
look into the Scriptures, and into the wilderness episode, and discover God’s
faithfulness in and through it all, and His pattern of deliverance for an
erring people.
For we
too are on a journey. It is good if we can recognize that. We have not been redeemed
just to cross the Red Sea and sing the victory song of deliverance from the
bondage of Pharaoh. This is but the first step. It is but the beginning of a
journey, a SPIRITUAL JOURNEY, through the wastelands of our old carnal nature,
and into the fruitfulness of the Canaan life of the Spirit.
And so
Moses reminded the people: “He brought us out from thence, that He might bring
us in, to give us the land which He sware unto our fathers” (Deut. 6:23).
The wilderness, then,
becomes the place of PREPARATION, and the place of TRANSITION, as we relinquish
the old life of fleshly bondage, and enter into the realm of our spiritual
heritage. It was never intended of the Lord that we should linger all our days
in captivity to the wild, untamed nature of the old life. But in every resting
place that God has ordained on this Journey from Egypt to Canaan we are to
learn more and more of Him, and allow Him to make in our wilderness nature a
garden plot for the sowing and the planting of the good seed of the Word of God,
that He Himself might be glorified in the fruit of the Spirit that He desires
to bring forth from our lives.
Therefore
let us learn to see the Journey in this light. As we do we will understand and
appreciate the grace of God that brings us step by step through the tangled
maze of life. WE OURSELVES ARE THAT WILDERNESS. Our own fleshly, natural lives
are the wild, untamed areas that God is dealing with. And when we recognize
this, may we find grace to stop blaming God and murmuring against Him when we come
into fretful and disagreeable circumstances. Why do you do this to me, Lord? It
is for my discipline, and for His glory, that He does it. I needed it,
otherwise He would not have allowed it. In that grievous circumstance that God
allowed, He was merely revealing the wild, untamed nature that was there in my
old life, for the purpose of dealing with it and bringing forth the attributes
of His own heart. And the murmuring and the complaining that we manifest simply
reveal how deep-rooted the old life really is, and how slow we are to recognize
it.
In other
words, God intends that every situation that He brings us into will serve as a
graving tool, a chisel, a refiner’s fire, that will change us, transform us,
and consume those carnal desires that are hindering the flowing of the life of
Christ through us, and retarding our growth in the Spirit.
In the
journeyings of the children of Israel there were several wilderness areas
through which they must pass; and in each of these areas God had something
specific in mind as He sought to PREPARE their hearts for the inheritance that
lay before them. God must have a PREPARED PEOPLE for that PREPARED PLACE. He
does not thrust us thoughtlessly into some disagreeable circumstance in order
to harass and torment us. It is rather to PREPARE us for the life of victory
and of fruitfulness in the realm of the Spirit. It is our reaction to God’s
dealings with us that brings such desolation and turmoil to our hearts and
minds. What assurance and what hope this would give us if we could only
recognize that in every devastating experience of life God is simply preparing
our hearts for great conquests and fruitfulness in the days that lie ahead, in
the heritage of Canaan. And if we are prepared to truly recognize this
wonder-working principle in our lives, we are going to discover what God meant
when He said, “I go before you to search out a resting place for you...”
See
awaymap.jpg
THE WILDERNESS OF THE
RED SEA
“Hemmed In”
The Long Way Around
“And it
came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through
the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said,
Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to
Egypt: but God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the
Red sea....” (Ex. 13:17-18).
This is a day of “fast” things: fast foods,
fast trains, fast cars, fast planes, fast pleasures, fast communications. But
God’s way into the life of the Spirit is still the long way around. Many do not
think so, and there are many in the Church who deride the thought of exercising
“patience” in order to win the race that is set before us. “Let us run WITH
PATIENCE.. .” may sound a little contradictory to a man in a race; but it
remains God’s way of winning “the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1).
God’s direct route to Canaan life is the long-way-around. There may seem to be
a shorter way, a more direct way, and many continue to explore that route, only
to end up rolling in the dust. “God led them not through the way of the land of
the Philistines, although that was near...” Now the word “Philistine” comes
from a word meaning “to roll in the dust, to wallow.” And though it is a
well-beaten pathway, as it was in the days of Israel, and though it would seem
to lead in a more direct route to the land of our inheritance, it will leave
the one who travels this road wallowing in the dust. And why? Because there is
nothing in common with the way of the Philistines and the way of God. The
Philistine spirit is that spirit of the world, of the natural man, that knows
nothing of the Spirit of God. But because it is a well-worn pathway, and
because it seems to be leading in the general direction of our pursuit for God,
it is enticing to the natural mind. It is the logical approach to the things of
God. It is the positive, the most direct approach to things spiritual. But it
leaves you wallowing in the dust of the old Adamic life, rather than soaring
into the heights of the Spirit of God.
“You do
not have to take that long, uncharted, entangled way into the things of God...
We can show you a simpler way... We can point you to a shortcut... You can know
the joy of Canaan living without all the distress of becoming entangled in the
wilderness.” This is the reasoning and counsel of the natural mind.
But the
fact remains, we did not choose the wilderness way. We simply chose to go God’s
way. It is He who goes before--by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a
pillar of fire--to give direction and light for the journey. It is by the Light
of His Glory that we find ourselves entangled in the wilderness. He leads us
this way that He might have all the glory, and that our enemies might be consumed
in the very midst of our own perplexity and dismay. For it is only when we find
ourselves “hemmed in,” with no place to go, that we are inclined to go to God
for help. This is why He hems us in... that we might flee into His arms. God
knows the Enemy will say, “They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath
shut them in” (Ex. 14:3). And so God deliberately sets a trap for the Enemy by
bringing us into that place where we have no other recourse, but in God alone.
As long as there is room for the heart and mind of man to calculate and plan
his own deliverance, God is left out of the picture. We don’t really need Him,
or so we think. But if we are followers of the Cloud, God will lead us into
areas of utter hopelessness and despair, that we might prove Him to be the God
who makes a way where there is no way, and a path in the mighty waters...
“Thy way
is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not
known” (Ps. 77:19).
“The
LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters” (Isa.
43:16).
People of
God, beware of the shortcuts. There are many that are offered in this day and
age, shortcuts to true spiritual life and progress, but they will not bring you
there. You may try to find an easy way into spiritual gift and blessing. You
may learn how to get, and how to operate spiritual gifts the easy way, without
total commitment, without waiting upon God, but sooner or later they will fade
away. You may think you have discovered a secure and safe covering in some church
structure or institution, assuring yourself that you are being spared the pangs
of finding your own way in the entangled wildernesses of life. You feel that if
you trust in certain leaders, in certain apostles and prophets, in a certain
“New Testament Church Order,” that it is a much safer, much easier pathway. But
sooner or later you are going to discover that the rest and comfort you sought
in sheltered areas of this nature, are nothing less than the bondage of
Babylonish systems; and you will discover that this is far more distressing and
more captivating than the way of the Lord from which you sought to escape. When
you see the “wars of the Philistines”--the striving for lordship, the striving
for power and authority and for a place of preeminence--your hearts will become
discouraged, and you will wonder why you ever chose to walk in that kind of a
pathway. If we would examine our hearts, we might discover that what we are
really looking for is some kind of a religious system that will make it easy for
us or for our children. We want to shrug off the heavy burden that is
associated with finding God for ourselves by way of total commitment to Him. So
when someone offers us a place of rest in some kind of a structure that
promises clear direction, we are quick to grasp it. God does want us to have
fellowship with one another in Christ; but there is no true fellowship except
as “we walk in the Light.” And in our searching after God, there is no such
thing as immunity to the trials and struggles and heart-searchings and
perplexities that have always been the appointed lot of any man or woman who
seeks to come into a living, vital relationship with the Lord.
The Bones Of Joseph
“And
Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he (Joseph) had straitly sworn the
children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my
bones away hence with you” (Ex. 13:19).
Surely it
would matter nothing to Joseph as to what happened to his bones. This would
pose no problem to the God of resurrection life whom he served while he was
alive. But in the bones of Joseph God would provide for the generation yet to
be born, a living witness to the faithfulness of the covenant-keeping God.
Joseph in
his life was a testimony to the faithfulness of God--a living testimony that
the round-about-way through the wilderness was God’s direct route to the land
of fruitfulness. He had proved and manifested to the people of God that in
obeying Him and holding to the Vision that God had given, this was God’s direct
highway to the Throne. But Joseph had been dead about 360 years, and the
generation about whom Joseph prophesied when he said, “God will surely visit
you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence” (Gen. 50:25), that very
privileged generation that Joseph spoke about was now alive, and given the
privilege and the opportunity of walking in the visitation that God had
promised. He who was a living testimony to the faithfulness of God in his life,
was now a living testimony to the faithfulness of God in his death. His very
bones bore witness to the faithfulness of the God he served. Everywhere they
would travel the people of God had a “living” witness in the presence of the
bones of Joseph; for Joseph had prophesied that this day of visitation would come.
Everywhere they would travel in this “waste and howling wilderness” Joseph was
there with them: encouraging, confirming, prophesying, declaring... the
faithfulness of God. “I said this was going to happen... I told you God would
be faithful to deliver you... I prophesied that God would bring you to a land
of fruitfulness. Do not lose heart now. I proved when I was alive that in due
season the God who gave the vision would be faithful to fulfill it. Let not the
weariness of the way, the heat and the drought, the scorpions and the fiery
serpents of this desert land cause your hearts to murmur and complain. He is
faithful that promised, and He will do it.”
Is it not
strange how we can carry around with us the bones of a dead prophet, and still
not believe what that prophet said? Is it not strange that we can idolize God’s
chosen ones of a past day, and build their sepulchers, and yet not pay heed to
the Word that they spoke when they lived?
Time and
time again we are going to witness unbelief and failure in the people of God;
and yet all the while they were carefully preserving the bones of Joseph and
carrying them from one camping place to the next... a persistent reminder to
them of God’s utter faithfulness, and of their own unbelieving hearts.
Baptism In The Cloud
“And the
pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them” (Ex.
14:19).
Their
entanglement in the wilderness was very grievous to them, but God led them this
way for His own glory. One of the most glorious facts of the whole wilderness
episode was the fact of God’s faithfulness in the hour of the unfaithfulness of
His people. Their hearts were smitten with fear and unbelief when they saw
themselves entangled in the wilderness with the hosts of Pharaoh pursuing them;
and they cried to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou
taken us away to die in the wilderness?” (Ex. 14:11). But God knew what He was
doing. Suddenly the pillar of Cloud which had been leading the way moved from
the front of the hosts of Israel to the rear, passing through the host and
immersing them in the Cloud of Glory. He who was their Guide was now their
Protector and their Defense against their enemies. His glory became their Light
throughout the darkness of the night; and that same glory became DARKNESS and
NIGHT to the enemies of God.
We need
to remember these principles, in this day when fear has taken hold of all the
inhabitants of the earth... when all about us is darkness and night. God said
it would be that way. And He promised, moreover, that it would be in that very
hour of darkness that His glory would shine forth upon His people:
“For,
behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but
the LORD shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee” (Isa.
60:2).
Baptized
into the Cloud of His presence and of His glory, the people of God shall
radiate the very Light of God Himself. Not only that, but the Light in which
they dwell and in which they walk, shall make them to be totally triumphant
over all the powers of darkness that shall engulf the world about them. Why do
some people imagine that there is a safe hiding place somewhere up there in
space? Especially in this space age? Our hiding place is in God alone, and His
glory shall be our defense, and the only defense we need:
“And the
LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her
assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by
night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence” (Isa. 4:5).
The Song Of Moses
“Then
sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake,
saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse
and his rider hath He thrown into the sea” (Ex. 15:1).
It was a
song of victory, a song that bore witness to the faithfulness and the wisdom of
God who had led them into wilderness entanglements. If we could only recognize this... if we could only know... that
God has ordained a Song of Triumph for every wilderness entanglement... what
hope and assurance it would give us as we tread the unknown way! If we could
only know that every entanglement in our walk of faith is intended of the Lord
to bring defeat to our enemies, what hope and courage this would inspire in our
hearts!
And then
when God proves His faithfulness in swallowing up our enemies in the Red Sea,
what hope and confidence this ought to give us for the next phase of our
wilderness testing and trial! For let us be assured, this is but the first
phase of our spiritual journey unto the heart of God. There are many more. “How
many?” some would ask. And the answer is: Just as many as it will require for
God to tame our wilderness nature, and to till and cultivate the soil of our
hearts. Just as many as God may deem necessary to fulfill the prophecy of
Isaiah concerning His people:
“The
wilderness and the solitary place Shall be glad for them; And the desert shall
rejoice, And blossom as the rose” (Isa. 35:1).
For let
us never forget this, that the wilderness through which we are journeying is a
spiritual journey unto the heart of God; and it is through the wilderness areas
of our own natural and carnal hearts that God is leading us unto a place of
REST in the bosom of God. How then can we say, “Lord, leave us alone... we have
had enough of the wilderness and the solitary place,” if we still know not the
rejoicing of the desert, and the blossoming of the rose in our lives? Do we
really want God to leave us where we are, redeemed from the bondage of sin and
the world, but still very much in captivity to the bondage of our own fleshly
natures? And is it not a matter of great disappointment to us when we discover,
upon forsaking the world and its bondage, that we are still very much in
bondage to our own selves, our own hearts, our own ways? How hopeless and
helpless we feel when, having known what it is to be redeemed by the blood of
the Passover Lamb, we discover that we are still languishing in areas of
captivity to self, to the carnal mind, to the ways of the flesh!
And how
wonderful it is when we discover that God hid a lot of this from us, and
allowed us to consolidate our position on the redeemed side of the Red Sea,
before He began to deal with the wilderness areas of our own lives!
And so
the Song of Moses (and this is something that so few seem to recognize) gives
hope and confidence for the land of Canaan fruitfulness, even as it exults in
the God who destroyed Pharaoh and his hosts:
“Thou shalt bring
them in, and plant them
In the mountain of
Thine inheritance,
In the place, O LORD,
which Thou bast made
For Thee to dwell in,
In the Sanctuary, O
Lord,
Which Thy hands have
established” (Ex. 15:17).
So it is
that we must pass through the Red Sea of baptism as outlined in Romans 6, then
through the wilderness of conflict with the “self-life” in Romans 7, and INTO
the glorious liberty of the mountain of His inheritance in Romans 8. The solitary
place of Romans 7 gives way to the corporate expression and the corporate
inheritance of Romans 8. The “I,” “Myself,” and “Me” of Romans 7, as the
renewed man of God struggles against the tide of his own carnal desires, is
surrendered and swallowed up in the victory of the people of God in whom He
dwells in corporate fullness, in His own Sanctuary, His very own inheritance.
No longer is it the untamed wilderness of selfish, fleshly striving; but now it
is the cultivated and fruitful land of God’s own -Garden-weeded, tilled, and
ordered, and cared for by the great Husband man, to be the Garden and the
Inheritance of His own delight and pleasure: “For the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus bath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the
law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”
(Rom. 8:2-4).
And I am
confident that as we come into this realm of abiding fullness in Christ, that
it is going to be JUST AS EASY, JUST AS SIMPLE, JUST AS NATURAL AND SPONTANEOUS
FOR US TO WALK IN THE SPIRIT AND TO ABIDE IN HIS PRESENCE AS IT WAS IN FORMER
DAYS TO WALK IN THE ENTANGLEMENTS OF OUR OWN WILDERNESS LIFE AND IN THE BONDAGE
OF THE FLESH!
Do we
question this? Then we are saying in effect that in our fleshly striving we are
able to produce more power and energy than the Spirit of God can. We are
confessing that the “law of sin and death” is really of greater power than the
“Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.”
THE WILDERNESS OF
SHUR
“Bitter And Sweet”
The Waters Of Marah
“And when
they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were
bitter...” (Ex. 15:23).
After
crossing the Red Sea, the Cloud of God began to turn in a southerly direction,
along the western edge of the Peninsula of Sinai. For three days they travelled
into the wilderness, and found no water. On and on they travelled, and suddenly
they came upon a pool of water. But soon their hopes were dashed as they
stooped to drink and found that the waters were “bitter.” Rather than quenching
their thirst, the bitter waters merely aggravated their souls more severely
than ever. One of the most tragic things about Israel’s journey through the
wilderness was the fact that they could never seem to come to that place where
they recognized the faithfulness of their God. Over and over again they
witnessed His mighty working and delivering power; but never did they learn His
ways, and have the assurance of His ever-abiding faithfulness. I think we have
all been inclined to sympathize with the children of Israel in all of their
trials, because we want to sympathize with ourselves. After all, God was
leading them this way, as a picture and as an example for us. Now let us be
assured of this: God does not give His chosen ones bitter waters to drink. Then
why does He lead them to Marah, if He does not want them to drink of its
waters? God leads His people to Marah because He must reveal the condition of
our heart if He is going to be able to deal with it. And one of the first
things we have to discover in our journey, is that by nature we are filled with
bitterness... and God wants to deal with that. He wants us to discover His way
of rooting out the bitterness that is there. The word “Marah” means
“bitterness”; and so God leads us to Marah, to a place of discovery. He leads
us to Marah so we can discover the inherent bitterness of our fallen nature,
and show us how to deal with it.
We come
into this world in a state of bitterness, and we grow up in that state. All the
while we may be quite oblivious to the fact that the bitterness, the envy, the
strife, the quarreling, the jealousies, are things that are “earthly, sensual,
devilish” (James 3:15). When we turn to God these things have to be uprooted
from our lives. Few there are, it seems, who care about dealing with the old
life once they have discovered the new. Like the people James writes about, we
think it to be normal to let the tongue remain in its wild, untamed state; and
to let the new water of life of which we have partaken, flow forth from our
lives intermingled with the bitter fountains of the old nature:
“But the
tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Out of the
same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not
so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”
(James 3:8,10-11).
We see
the sweet and the bitter everywhere, and think it to be normal. We are slow to
believe that God wants the “bitter” to be so completely dealt with that all
those jealousies, envyings, strivings, ill-feelings, resentments, and hardness
of heart, all are to be submitted to the work of the Cross, that the fountains
of our life might be wholly in God, that all our springs might be in Zion.
So let us
not be disturbed and frustrated when we come to our Marah, to the place of
Discovery, the place of Uncovering, where God begins to reveal the bitterness
of our hearts. It did not begin when we came to Marah. It began at birth... at
our natural birth. We enter this world with a cry of pain and resentment. But
now that God has brought forth a new spring of life within us, He wants to deal
with the old... that the fountains issuing forth from our lives might
henceforth be rivers of refreshing, uncontaminated with the salty waters of the
old life. What is the solution? It is in another Discovery... the discovery of
a certain Tree.
Lord, Shew Us The
Tree!
“And he
[Moses] cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had
cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet...” (Ex. 15:25).
When we
come to Marah, beloved, we need to pray this prayer, “Lord, show me the Tree!”
There is a Tree growing on the banks of every Marah, if we will but make the
effort to find it; and we will need the help of the Lord to make this
discovery. He will be faithful to show it to us, if we really want to find it.
When He does, let us be quick to cut it down, and cast it into the waters. You
will have to discover this Tree for yourself; because for every Marah there is
an individual Tree. Yet they are all of one likeness. It is the Tree of His
Cross; but for you and for me there is a very individual application of that
Cross. Your Cross is tailor-made for your needs, and so I cannot tell you
explicitly what may be involved, except that it will involve a humbling of
yourself before God or before your neighbor. It may involve a confession of
some hurt that you are nursing, You may be required to ask the forgiveness of
another. Or you may be required to forgive one who has harmed you. For if
indeed you can be harmed, there is a Marah in your nature that must be
sweetened. And you may discover that the bitterness of your heart is not
because of what another has done to you, but because you are not able to
forgive. Once you find the grace to forgive, you are going to discover that suddenly
the waters are sweetened... not because your neighbor has changed, but because
you have changed. Very likely when your neighbor sees that you have changed, he
also will be changed. Forgiveness may not be released easily, but if you seek
the Lord earnestly, you will discover the Tree.
You may
have to start praying for the one that has misused you, misunderstood you,
spoken evil against you. As you continue at this, the Lord may show you that
the bitterness you have known is the result of drinking waters our of the
cistern of your own heart... and that the more you drank of it, the more bitter
you became. And all the while you have been blaming your neighbor, or blaming
God. “God, why are you doing this to me?” Why is God doing this to you? Perhaps
it may be His way of revealing to you the bitterness of your heart, that you
might discover the Tree.
But you
will have to cut it down, and throw it into the waters. God will not do this
for you; but He will show you how to do it. You may not know how to forgive,
but you can start by recognizing your lack of grace, and asking God for help.
As you continue to pray for the one who has “hurt” you, the more you will come
to recognize the unforgiving nature that you have, so that eventually you will
think less of yourself and more highly of your brother.
This
could lead to the place where you almost forget the hurts that you have
received from your brother, and you begin to reflect upon the incurable state
of your own heart. You may soon begin to indulge in self-accusation and
personal guilt. At least, the problem has been narrowed down to the confines of
your own heart: “I am the problem.” But let the Tree continue to do its work in
the bitter waters of your Marah until you can exult in the Tree upon which our
Lord and Savior died for our cleansing.
“If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9).
“Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it
is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree” (Gal. 3:13).
He became
a Curse, that you might no longer curse your brother, or even curse yourself!
Marah Becomes A Place
Of Health
“There
[at Marah] He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved
them, and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy
God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His
commandments, and keep all His statutes, I WILL PUT NONE OF THESE DISEASES UPON
THEE, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I AM THE LORD THAT HEALETH
THEE” (Ex. l5:25-26).
It was at
the bitter waters of Marah that God came forth with the covenant of healing, of
health, and of life. How can we expect health and life to flow in the midst of
God’s people, as long as we continue to drink from bitter waters? As long as
the old nature and the new are encouraged to flow together from the Temple of
God? As long as the people of God are taught to forget these admonitions of the
Lord to purge their hearts and minds completely from every trace of the old
carnal nature, until Christ and Christ alone flows forth in life-giving streams
from the House of God?
Let me
assure you, beloved, when God’s people earnestly seek God for the Tree that
will bring crucifixion and death to the old carnal life, and the streams of
bitterness that flow from the heart are replaced with streams of forgiveness,
of mercy, of kindness, of gentleness, and of LOVE, there is going to be
released a stream of physical and spiritual healing in the House of God; and we
are going to be delivered from the diseases of this old world.
Elim, The Place Of
Strength
“And they
came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm
trees: and they encamped there by the waters” (Ex. 15:27).
“Elim”
comes from a word signifying “strength.” After the bitter experiences of Marah,
the faithful God leads His people to Elim, a place of strength, a place of
refreshing waters, a place of victory and blessing. It would be nice to camp
here indefinitely; but the journey is far from complete. We must continue on
our way farther, and farther to the south. Canaan is over there on our left;
but somehow the Lord says, “Continue to go southward...” And as we travel on,
we just know that we are getting farther and farther away from the Land of
Promise. Why does the Lord deliberately lead us the long-way-around? And why is
it that with every encampment we are subjected to more and more devastation? It
is because God is really portraying His care and concern toward His people. Our
lives are the untamed wilderness areas that He is dealing with, and we are slow
to comprehend and understand the work that He must yet perform in our lives, in
order to bring forth the Beauty of the Lord.
THE WILDERNESS OF SIN
“Bread From Heaven”
“And all
the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin,
which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after
their departing out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 16:1).
They had
been on the road one month. Their supply of food was running out. Once again
the evil of their hearts was revealed; and the faithfulness of their God during
the past month was forgotten. But God knew what He would do. “Behold, I will
rain bread from heaven for you... that I may prove them...” (Ex. 16:4). Notice
this, that in every way the Lord was leading them, He was “proving” them. He
was testing them to reveal the inherent corruption of their nature, and at the
same time to show them His way for them, and His own faithfulness. Marah was to
prove them; and now this strange bread from heaven was to prove them. To supply
their need, yes; but it was more. It was to test them, to try them, to prove
them. It is not difficult for us to get God’s blessings. God will continue to
bless His people; but He wants to test us and to prove us, whether or not we
can qualify for the Land of Canaan. There are many who experience the blessings
of God who will continue to reject any attempt of the Lord to try them and to
prove them. Yet this is required of the people who are going to qualify for the
conquest of Canaan. We will have much more to say about the Manna when we come
to the Wilderness of Paran. But right here we want to emphasize that this
miraculous bread from Heaven, this food that is called “The Corn of Heaven,”
and “Angels’ Food,” was some thing that supplied their need in spirit, soul,
and body; but it fell short of satisfying every desire of their hearts. God
designed it that way; for God must deal with the undisciplined desire of His
people to get... and get... and get, if He is going to prepare them for the
Life in the Spirit, which is a life of..... giving ...giving....
This precious food
could not be stored up, and if they tried to do so, it bred worms and stank.
Yet there was always sufficient for every need, for God sent a fresh supply
every morning. They simply had to gather it, according as they had need; and if
some happened to gather more than they needed, then the surplus was shared with
those who did not gather enough. Incidentally, it is the “Manna principle” that
has become the New Testament principle of giving and sharing:
“But by
an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their
want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: THAT THERE MAY
BE EQUALITY: as it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and
he that had gathered little had no lack” (2 Cor. 8:14-15).
God has
much work to do in His people yet, to bring us to that kind of “equality” that
He desires in the New Covenant people; and here it is set forth in the Manna
principle. God will continue to discipline the Canaan-bound people until they
have learned to use what God has provided for their daily needs, and to make
the rest available to those who stand in need. The true disciples of the Lord
must be prepared to FORSAKE ALL in order to be His disciples. And they will do
it gladly... not because there is some apostle or prophet or ecclesiastical
structure requiring it, but because in their walk with the Lord, and in their
pursuit of the Land of Fruitfulness, they are going to discover that “It is
more blessed to give than to receive.
THE WILDERNESS OF SIN
“Be Ye Holy, For I Am
Holy”
“And all
the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the Wilderness of
Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and
pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink” (Ex.
17:1).
They are
still southward-bound... still travelling farther and farther away from Canaan.
For God must prove them and prepare their hearts still further, before they are
ready to turn northward to Canaan.
Massah And Meribali
No water
at Rephidim. God provided them with food from heaven; but now they are again
without water, and ready to stone Moses. God has the answer to every physical
and spiritual need, and the only reason He keeps us waiting is to prove us and
try us, to know whether we will believe Him or not. Moses was told to stand
upon a rock in Horeb (which means “a parched place”), to smite the rock with
his rod, and God promised the waters would gush forth in refreshing, flowing
streams.
“And he
called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the
children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD
among us, or not?” (Ex. 17:7).
Why is it
that we have to make a Massah and a Meribah out of every place of God’s provision,
just because God seems to act so slowly, and to be silent when we think we need
Him most? Why do we not allow the Lord to call the experiences of life through
which we must pass by such names as “Living Waters”... “Peace and Rest”...
“Fountain of Living Streams”... Instead, we murmur and complain, and God is
faithful to come on the scene in answer to our prayers, but He is compelled to
call our place of failure by such names as these: Massah, which means “testing,
temptation” or, Meribah, which means “contention, confrontation, strife.”
And when
God says our place of failure was Massah and Meribah, He is not saying it was
the place where He tested us. He is saying rather that in the place where He
sought to test us and prove us we turned it about and TESTED GOD AND CONTENDED
WITH GOD AND PROVED GOD... and this is what saddens His heart. Massah and
Meribah have therefore become a description of their whole way of life
throughout their forty year journey in the wilderness. And when the Psalmist
lifts his voice to praise and exalt the Rock of his salvation... and then bows
his knee in worship before the LORD his Maker... very abruptly his praise and
his worship become, in a spirit of prophecy, a very solemn warning to the
people of God, who know how to praise and worship, but whose hearts are prone
to hardness and rebellion:
“To day if ye will
hear His voice,
Harden not your
heart,
As in the provocation
[as at ‘Meribah’],
And as in the day of
temptation
In the wilderness [as
at ‘Massab’]:
When your fathers
tempted Me,
Proved Me, and saw My
work” (Ps. 95:7-9).
This is a
day when the congregations of the Lord have a know-how approach to God; and
worship and praise has in many, many cases become a system, a “do-it-this-way”
approach... and when it is all over, the heart remains as hard and as cold
toward God as ever. There is an “art” in praise, an “art” in worship, an “art”
in music, and an “art” in dancing before the Lord. And how little of it leads
to true submission and worship at the feet of Him who is our Lord and Maker.
And if you feel that in being blessed, and in partaking of much spiritual gift
and provision you are somehow His specially favored people, listen to these
solemn words at the end of this beautiful Song of Praise:
“Forty years long was
I grieved
With this generation,
and said,
It is a people that
do ERR IN THEIR HEART,
AND THEY HAVE NOT
KNOWN MY WAYS:
UNTO WHOM I SWARE IN
MY WRATH
THAT THEY SHOULD NOT
ENTER INTO MY REST” (Ps. 95:10-11).
Here was
a people who were favored above all nations on the face of the earth. They
beheld miracle after miracle every day of their lives. Water miraculously
flowed forth from the Rock to quench their thirst. Manna rained down from
heaven every day to satisfy their every need. The Cloud of Glory abode upon
their Tabernacle by day and by night for forty years....
BUT IN AND THROUGH IT
ALL THEY NEVER CAME TO KNOW GOD!
AND GOD TESTIFIED
THAT THEY WERE A GRIEF TO HIS HEART!
These are
frightening observations. But we need to consider these things very solemnly in
this day and hour when the blessing of God upon His people is considered to be
His seal of approval. This is not Old Covenant theology. This is New Covenant
teaching, hidden away in the types and shadows of the Old. Listen to Paul’s
commentary on this episode in the wilderness: “Moreover, brethren, I would not
that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the Cloud, and
all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and
in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same
spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and
that Rock was Christ. But with many of them [or, ‘the most of them’] God was
not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (1 Cor. 10:1-5).
They were
“overthrown in the wilderness” despite the fact that they had partaken of all
these manifold blessings. In the very midst of their blessings, they failed to
walk in obedience, and failed to enter the Land of Promise. And the apostle
Paul admonishes us to learn from their mistakes, for they were types and
shadows of the people of God living in this New Covenant era. (See 1 Cor.
10:11-12.)
Sinai, The Holy
Mountain Of God
“In the
third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of
Egypt, the same day came they into the Wilderness of Sinai” (Ex. 19:1).
Here they
must abide approximately eleven months, camping at the foot of the holy
mountain of God, and becoming acquainted with His righteous and holy laws and
ordinances. Here they would build the Tabernacle, that God Himself might dwell
among them. Canaan lay before them, and there was much warfare to be
accomplished, but God must have a holy people to war against the unholy
nations, and to enter that holy realm which Moses had already described as “the
mountain of Thine inheritance... the place, O LORD, which Thou hast made for
Thee to dwell in... the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established”
(Ex. 15:17).
In this
day and age this matter of holiness is usually equated with “legalism.” We know
that we are living in the Day of Grace. But what is often overlooked is that
the Grace of God came into being in order that the righteousness and the
holiness which God required in the Old Covenant, might now be PROVIDED in the
New. The reason God did away with the Law was because it didn’t work. And the
New Covenant came into being to work into the hearts and lives of God’s people
that quality and character of life that the Old Covenant was helpless to
produce. It was “because they continued not in My Covenant” that God saw fit to
change it (Heb. 8:9). And the reason we can walk in holiness and righteousness
in the New Covenant is simply because God comes into the heart and mind and soul
to write His requirements there in the heart and in the mind... once again with
a finger of fire, but this time “in fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:3).
The New Covenant is not just a new “position” in Grace; it is a WRITING ON THE
HEART, AND A WRITING ON THE MIND, AND A KNOWING OF GOD IN INTIMATE
RELATIONSHIP. It is not just a declaration of what we are in Christ; it is a
TRANSITION from the place of condemnation and death into a place of
righteousness and life. It is a TRANSFORMATION from a state of spiritual death
and darkness into a new state of spiritual life and light. Was God indeed
concerned about sheep, and goats, and oxen, and turtledoves, and pigeons, and
holy days, and sabbaths, and religious rituals of one kind or another? “Doth
God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes?” (1 Cor.
9:9-10). Was He really concerned that we wear a garment of only one kind of
material? Or planting our garden with two kinds of vegetables? Not really. But
He was giving us principles of New Covenant truth in an Old Covenant setting.
In other words, God hates a mixture. He is after heart purity... purity of
mind, purity of attitudes. That’s what the Law is all about; and that’s what
the wilderness is all about. It is a revelation of the heart of His people that
God is after... that in seeing ourselves in our total helplessness and
hopelessness, we might draw close to Him and partake of His grace. They
confidently promised God that they would do everything He said. God knew it
wasn’t in their heart to do it, and we hear Him lamenting... “O that there were
such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments
always...” (Deut. 5:29). But even before Moses passes off the scene he foresees
the day when God would bring forth the New Covenant:
“And the
LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love
the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest
live” (Deut. 30:6).
This is
the whole substance and intent of the Law, as Jesus observed. (See Matt.
22:37-40.)
God’s Peculiar
Treasure
“Ye have
seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and
brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and
keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all
people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of
priests, and an holy nation” (Ex. 19:4-6).
Israel
could not attain to this; but it has been reserved for the New Covenant people:
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar
people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of
darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).
Who are
these people who are God’s special treasure, His peculiar people?
“Then
they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened,
and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that
feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name. AND THEY SHALL BE MINE, saith
the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels [or, ‘my special
treasure’]...” (Mal. 3:16-17).
They are
the ones who have a wholesome, godly fear of the Lord of all creation... a fear
that inspires love and devotion and commitment, even unto death. When God
speaks they listen. But they do more--they obey. They seek to walk in His ways.
They tremble at His Word. They speak often one to another, not in idle
chitchat, but in fellowship, thinking upon His Name, meditating of His wondrous
works, encouraging and edifying one another--teaching, exhorting, admonishing
one another in the fear of the LORD. They are wholly occupied with Him, and
therefore He is wholly occupied with them:
“If a man
love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come
unto him, and make our abode with him” (Jn. 14:23).
The
“peculiar people” are not “peculiar” because they do foolish things or unseemly
things. The word has the sense of a “hidden treasure”... something so precious
it is concealed, and hidden from the eyes of men... something special,
something superlative. They are people that are unknown, and yet “well known.”
For they may pass their days in this life in obscurity, scarcely known or
recognized in the affairs of men. But they are “well known” in heavenly places,
the subject of conversation and wonder among the celestial hosts. They are weak
and insignificant in themselves... can boast of no special endowments in the
natural... very ordinary and unassuming. Yet somehow without great natural
ability and with no claims to any particular achievements, they love God with
an intensity that sets them apart in a special place in His heart... a special
habitation for the abode of Father and Son.
“Leviticus”... Before
“Numbers”
We are
always in a hurry to get to our destination; and God is much more desirous to
bring us there than we are. But He has taught us that...
“An
inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall
not be blessed” (Prov. 20:21). And so for almost a year the Lord keeps the
children of Israel at Sinai, to prepare them for the journey NORTHWARD to
Canaan. This is what the book of Leviticus is all about. It is the book of the
Holiness of God, and the Holiness of His people. The word “holy” and “sanctify”
are used well over one hundred times in Leviticus alone. In all the sacrifices,
in all the ordinances, in all the judgments that God decreed, He is reflecting
the holiness of His nature, and the desire for holiness in His people.
“Numbers”
follows Leviticus; for in the book of Numbers the people of the Lord are
numbered and set in orderly array, in preparation for the conquest of Canaan.
But we must become acquainted with the awesomeness of our God, and learn to
“tremble at His word” if we are going to be a conquering people. Would to God
that the Church of this hour which is so zealous for warfare could understand
this. The Battle is not ours but God’s; and if we do not learn to fear before
Him, and partake of His Holiness and of His character and nature, we are not
going to war a good warfare against the hosts of evil that are arrayed against
us. Would God that His people could understand that the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal but spiritual, and that...
We overcome evil with
good...
We overcome hatred
with love...
We overcome
lawlessness with obedience ...
We overcome error and
deceit with Truth....
If we
understood this, then we would concentrate on these kinds of weapons, rather
than upon all manner of humanly devised strategies and gimmicks and forms of
entertainment. And so we must remain here at the foot of the Holy Mount, to
learn His ways, before we are going to be numbered for Battle.
To learn
about the Covenant that is written upon our hearts with God’s holy finger of
fire...
To know
God’s wrath against the golden calf, and have our idolatrous hearts smitten
with His righteous judgments...To know the zeal of the Lord, and the zeal of
His priests, to cleanse the camp of God from all its idolatry...
To
partake of priestly concern for God’s people, that we might, as Moses did,
prevail upon God to “turn from His fierce wrath, and repent of the evil” that
He has purposed, and in the midst of His wrath, to remember mercy...
To set
our hearts upon building the Tabernacle of God; yet even as we do, to know that
“Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that; build it”...
To cry
unto God as Moses did, “I beseech Thee, O LORD, SHEW ME THY GLORY.” For it is
only in beholding His glory, and radiating His glory, that we shall be able to minister
life and truth to the people of God.
Then does
the LORD say, “Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your
journey...” (Deut. 1:6-7).
Time To Turn North
The song
writer speaks of the “north wind” and the “south wind” that God sends upon His
people. And so after coming out of Egypt the north wind, as it were, drove them
farther and farther away from their goal. But now it is time for the south wind
to blow, and to urge them northward to the land of their inheritance:
“Awake, O
north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof
might flow out” (Song 4:16).
The rule
of the Cloud is still the rule by which they must move forward into Canaan. But
now the holy fire of God rests upon the Tabernacle. Now the holy fire of God is
associated with the people of God, to consume their enemies.
THE WILDERNESS OF
PARAN
“The Purging Of Our
Desires”
“And it
came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that
the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony. And the
children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the
cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran” (Num. 10:11-12).
The
people of God had been “numbered” for battle, and set in battle-array, and were
now moving forward to take the Land and to destroy the enemies of God. For the
journey northward there was a new song, a Battle Song... “Rise up, LORD, and
let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee”
(Num. 10:35).
Three
days they travelled forth into the Wilderness of Paran, the Cloud of God going
before them, “to search out a resting place for them” (Num. 10:33). Let us bear
this in mind: it was a place of Rest that God had prepared for them; but once
again, because of their disobedience, the place of Rest became a place of
desolation.
Taberah... Judgment
By Fire
“And when
the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and His
anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them” (Num. 11:1).
God’s holy fire was going before them to consume their enemies; but their
complaining hearts caused the “fire of the LORD” to burn the people in the very
camp of God.
John the
Baptist tells us that the “Fire of God” has been reserved for the chaff of the
threshing floor: “Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His
floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:12). God grant that His holy fire will remove all
the chaff, all the dross, from our lives, that we might be spared His fiery
judgments in the Day of His wrath.
“For,
behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and
all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them
up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch”
(Mal. 4:1).
God had
gone on before His people in His holy fire, to prepare for them a resting
place. But to many of them it meant a burning and a consuming, because of their
complaining hearts. And the place was called “Taberah,” which means “Burning.”
We
earnestly desire that God’s holy fire comes into our midst, to consume the
dross and the chaff; but let us understand it is a very serious thing to have
the fire of God in our midst if there is no earnest longing to walk in
obedience. Nadab and Abihu discovered that. So did Ananias and Sapphira. We are
going to witness some awesome judgments in the House of God, when the Fire of
God comes to abide in His Temple.
Tired Of The Manna
“And the
mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel
also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?... But now our soul
is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes”
(Num. 11:4,6).
The
children of Israel had been eating of the Manna for about a year... ever since
they came into the Wilderness of Sin. It kept them healthy and strong and
vital. But now they wanted something more substantial, something like they had
in Egypt. Why was it that this wonderful Bread of God, prepared in Heaven, no
longer satisfied them? It was because there was a certain ingredient in the
Manna that caused them to hunger, so that in their hunger they might set their
hearts upon knowing God, and eating of His living Word.
The Nature Of The
Manna
(1) The Manna Raised
Many Questions
When the
Manna first fell in the Wilderness of Sin the people looked at it in amazement,
and said one to another, “What is that? What is that?” And because they never
did discover a satisfactory answer to that question, this is what they called
it. “Manna” simply means, “What is it?” Moses’ reply was simply, “This is the
Bread which the LORD hath given you to eat” (Ex. 16:15). Dr. Strong calls it a
“Whatness,” and says the word includes the thought of What? How? When? Why? We
who have partaken of the Manna can fully understand these unanswered questions
that come to us from time to time:
“HOW long, O Lord,
must I suffer this way?”
“WHAT is this all
about, Lord?”
“WHY, Lord, do You do
this to me?”
“WHEN, O Lord, are
you going to hear my prayer?”
These
questions, and many like them, are constantly arising from the hearts of the
Manna-eating people, and they are valid questions. But we have to be content
with God’s reply, which may not answer the question, but it will give us true
nourishment and sustain our wilderness life, if we have set our hearts aright.
It is the same answer that God has given to the saints of all ages:
“What I do, thou
knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter....
“Yet a little while,
and he that cometh will come, and will not tarry....
“Ye have need of
patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the
promise....”
God’s
tardiness in coming to His own in their time of need has been the most grievous
thing His chosen ones have ever had to suffer. We eat of the Bread of God, and
walk in His ways, only to find that delightful as that Bread might be, it
leaves us with so many perplexing thoughts, so many unanswered questions, so
many unanswered prayers. There is an ongoing “WHATNESS” about the ways of God.
But we have to know that the Manna always falls in the camp of God’s choosing,
in the place that He Himself set apart and chose to be our resting place. For
true rest is ours even in the time of storm, when we are prepared to forsake
our many questions, and confess...
“He
knoweth the way that I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold”
(Job 23:10).
(2) The Manna Was
Prepared In Heaven
Jesus
said, “Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the
true bread from heaven” (John 6:32). Jesus is the true Bread. The Manna in the
wilderness was in no sense an ultimate provision. It was a temporary provision
for a wilderness people. It was nevertheless sent from heaven to prepare their
hearts, that eventually they might partake of the true Bread, the “Hidden
Manna,” the incorruptible life in the Spirit.
And so it
was called “the corn of heaven,” and “angels’ food.” Or, as some translate
this, “the bread of the mighty.” (See Ps. 78:24-25.) For even in that glorious
realm of the celestial the heavenly hosts need to partake of life from God.
They were created to draw life from Him; and when Lucifer said, “I will be like
the Most High,” he there and then cut himself off from the source of his glory,
the source of his beauty, the source of true life. It is only in utter
dependence upon God that any creature in all of God’s creation shall find the
strength and the sustenance that will support and sustain his life. In giving
them Manna, God was saying, “I must impart to these poor ones in the earth that
I have chosen the same kind of food that my celestial hosts are feeding upon. I
must give them angels’ food because they must draw strength from Me, the
fountain-head and source of all life and truth. I must give them the ‘bread of
the mighty.’ I must give them ‘the corn of heaven.’”
(3) The Manna Was
Small, Insignificant
And so
like the One it represented, it was humble, unassuming, pure, white, and clean.
It is spoken of as being like a certain “seed” and like the “hoarfrost.” Each person required approximately an “omer”
of it for his daily needs, roughly about seven pints. It must have required a
lot of hard work to gather it, all those little kernels spread out on the
ground like the hoarfrost. They must stoop low in order to gather it. God said
the purpose of the wilderness life, and the purpose of the Manna, was to humble
them and to prove them. For God was preparing for Himself a special people, and
God cannot walk with the proud and the scornful.
(4) The Manna Was
Fresh Every Morning
It wasn’t
something they could store up. It was bread they must gather daily, and bread
they must eat daily. It must be gathered in the morning, because the heat of
the sun would cause it to melt away. If they tried to store it up, it would
breed worms and stink. If God’s Word is to be to us a living Word it must come
to us fresh every morning. It is not enough that I can prove it’s in the Bible,
and that God SAID it. We are thankful He SAID it. But we are not going to
derive any life from it unless He is SAYING it today. It must be a Word that
“proceedeth” out from the mouth of the Lord, if we are going to live by it.
Jesus said we were to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” the bread I
need for today. I can only partake of His life when He SPEAKS. “To day if ye
will hear His voice, harden not your hearts...” (Heb. 3:7-8). There are many
things in God’s Word that He SAID; and many of these things He WILL SAY again.
But if He is not SAYING it, I had better leave it alone. If He is not
unfolding, revealing, and bringing life to His people through it, I had better
leave it alone.
(5) The Manna Was Not
Prepared On The Sabbath
There was
no one in Heaven preparing Manna for the people on earth on the sabbath day;
and so on the sixth day they were to gather a double portion. Paul says, “There
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Heb. 4:9). And the word
“rest” here is “sabbath.” The people were not to go looking for it, because
there would be none. God was “resting” on that day; and because God’s people
were partaking of His rest, the manna of the sixth day would be living and
vital and healthful. Our Manna is a spiritual food; and our Sabbath is a
spiritual Sabbath. Man’s working day draws to a close, and the people of the
wilderness way must partake of the “double portion” that we might have it for
the people of God when they go looking for Manna in the day of God’s rest, and
find none. The “double” portion is really for others. Elisha received the
double portion, but it was for others. It was for the healing of the waters at
Jericho; or to supply refreshing streams of water for the armies of God when
they were attacked by the enemy; or it was to multiply the oil for the poverty
stricken widow; or to heal the poisoned soup; or to multiply the bread and corn
for the sons of the prophets; or to heal the leper; or to cause the borrowed
axe to swim; or to bring the dead back to life. Of course it is true that as we
give the sabbath bread to others, we partake of it ourselves. For it is in
ministering unto others and helping others that we ourselves are fed. Because
Jesus was doing the will of the Father as He ministered to the woman of
Samaria, He was able to say to the disciples: “I have meat to eat that ye know
not of... My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His
work....”
(6) The Manna Tasted
Like Fresh Oil... Like Honey Wafers
Lord give
us of that “fresh oil”--oil that is pure and fresh and clean. How much
staleness, how much corruption we find in the Bread of God today! “Dead flies
cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour...” (Ecc.
10:1). David said, “Thou hast anointed me with fresh oil....” Honey wafers?
Bread with the taste of honey? Honey speaks of true knowledge and wisdom... “My
son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to
thy taste: so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast
found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut
off” (Prov. 24:13-14).
We need
the honey of God’s Word. We need that spiritual wisdom and understanding that
will cause us to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.” We need to have spiritual wisdom and understanding. In the true
wisdom and knowledge that God gives there is a reward, there is hope, there is
expectation. That’s what it is for. It is not some far-out doctrine that is not
pertinent, not relevant to what God is doing. It is a wilderness provision, to
give us hope and expectation, a foretaste of the Promised Land that “flows with
milk and honey.” But we do not want too much of the honey--not right now. I
wish God’s people, especially His teachers, could understand this. You cannot
gorge yourself on wisdom and knowledge, and not suffer the consequences. “Hast
thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled
therewith, and vomit it” (Prov. 25:16).
I think
there is an awful lot of vomit around these days as men gorge themselves on
so-called wisdom and knowledge and understanding... all in the name of deeper
truth, confidently presuming to know all about God’s plans and purposes in the
kingdom to come... and really there is no life in a lot of it. Too much honey
will make you sick.
But we do
need a little, for illumination, for expectation, and for hope. Jonathan dipped
the end of his rod in the honey that dripped from the trees, and it brightened
his eyes, so he could see clearly. Perhaps it would be satisfying to our
curiosity and to our egos if we knew what God was going to do in the ages to
come. But God give us a living Word for the wilderness people of this hour,
that there might be an expectation and a hope for the Land of Promise, as we
pursue this wilderness pathway.
(7) The Manna Settled
On The Dew
Moses
said, “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the
dew...” (Deut. 32:2).
During
the long wilderness nights, when the children of Israel were fast asleep, God
was preparing their food for the new day that lay before them. We mentioned
that there was a lot of tedious, hard work gathering the Manna. But we must
know that there is nothing we can do to produce this life-giving bread from
heaven. But in the darkness of the night when we are fast asleep, then it is
that God prepares our way before us, and marks out our provision for the coming
day. There is the sleep of death, we know. There is the sleep of lethargy, the
sleep of unpreparedness, the sleep that comes to His people who have partaken
of the sleeping pills of pleasure, and are pursuing this world’s failing joys.
But to the people of God who are hungry for Him, open to His Word, and
diligently seeking the Lord with all of their hearts, there is that SLEEP of
the Lord that God puts upon us when He would perform those sovereign, mighty
acts that are entirely beyond our ability and our resources to produce. When
the Lord builds His House, He will not let you and I tamper with it. When He
keeps the city, and we are simply moving in union with Him, we cannot come
forth with our own strategies. And so the Psalmist says,
“It is vain for you
to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of
sorrows:
For [or, ‘So’] He
giveth His beloved sleep” (Ps. 127:2).
Or, as
one has translated it, “So He provides for His beloved ones while they are
asleep.” This is not an encouragement to slothfulness. It is simply God’s way
of telling us to stop meddling with the beautiful work that He is doing in His
House, and to cast our cares upon Him. Our anxiety and concern that come with
“much serving,” only increases the frustration. While we are attempting to
produce “the bread of sorrows,” God is saying, “Leave it to Me. I am preparing
your Bread in the darkness of the Night. I cannot tell you what I am doing, and
how, and when, and why. Because you would not understand right now. But you
will understand afterward....”
Like
Jacob of old, having fled from his brother Esau, and having eaten of the bread
of sorrows... he falls asleep on the open fields, and it is there that God
begins to work... and to reveal to His chosen one His plan for the House of
God. And Jacob arises from his sleep saying, “Surely God is in this place and I
knew it not.”
Daniel,
likewise, was in a deep sleep, with his face to the ground, when he saw the
vision of this One who spoke with “words like the voice of a multitude.” For he
too saw the vision of something only God could perform, the vision of the
corporate Man... of Christ in union with His many brethren.
Adam
longed for one his likeness, his counterpart, his helpmate... one who would be
in corporate relationship with him. But God had to put him into a deep sleep.
For Adam could not even co-operate in this great work. He would only spoil what
God had in mind. Then out from his wounded side there came forth Eve, beautiful
to behold... like Adam, and yet so different: his counterpart, his bride, his
very body... “bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.”
Our Lord
Jesus likewise was put into a deep sleep, that out from His wounded side there
might come forth a Bride, one who would be joined unto Him in corporate
relationship-ship like unto Him, and yet different: His counterpart, His
fullness... “bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh”... totally compatible
with Him, yet totally dependent upon Him.
As Abraham stood
ready to “cut” the covenant with God (for God had told him to prepare the
sacrifices for the covenant), all he could do was to be watchful and obedient,
driving away the birds of prey as they would swoop down upon the carcasses.
Waiting, waiting, and waiting, for God to come on the scene so that they could
walk between the pieces together, and thus confirm the covenant. And God kept
him waiting, as usual. But when the fullness of time came, God put Abraham into
a deep sleep... and God alone walked down between the pieces as a “smoking
furnace” and as a “burning lamp.” There was no way that God would let Abraham
meddle with this beautiful work that He was doing... no way that Abraham could
have any part in God’s sovereign working in the holy nation that would go into bondage
in a strange land, and after 400 years come forth as a corporate people, out
from the land of bondage, and into the Land of Promise. All Abraham could do
when he was awake was to drive the birds away; and God would do the rest while
Abraham slept.
We are
talking about the Manna... and how this wonderful Bread of God would settle on
the dew in the darkness of the night ...unhelped, unaided, untouched, unspoiled
by the hand of man.
And then with fretful
hearts we arise in the morning, and we say... Why, Lord? How, Lord? When, Lord?
What, Lord? All the while being totally ignorant of what God is doing but
somehow knowing that all is well, and somehow being able to confidently
proclaim, “I know that all things are working together for good, because I love
God... and I know I am called according to His purpose.”
(8) The Manna Was
Totally Sufficient
There was
ample provision for every need. In fact, there was far more than they needed.
The excess manna simply melted away in the heat of the sun. God always provides
much more than we need, much more than we can digest. Not so we can waste it...
pollute it... mismanage it... pervert it. But God will not let it be said of
Him, “God, you haven’t given me enough.” It is the measure of our hunger that
determines the measure of our eating. And what is left over simply goes back to
the heart of God, to come to us again on the morrow, as we are ready to receive
more.
But there
is more to the sufficiency of the Manna than that. It also provided every
ingredient that was needed to keep the children of Israel vital, strong, and
healthy. Moses tells us that after 40 years in the wilderness there was such a
miraculous provision in the Manna, such strength, such life, that “Thy raiment
waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years” (Deut.
8:4). The journey was long and wearisome, and they travelled over rough,
wilderness terrain. But God kept them healthy and strong, maintained their
footwear, and protected their feet from swelling. They were a healthy people,
with not one feeble one in their midst, except as they disobeyed the Lord, and
God sent evil diseases into their midst. God had given them the Bread of the
Mighty, a food that made them utterly dependent upon God, for He wanted to
demonstrate in their lives and in their wilderness journeyings, the fact that
He was the God of provision and supply.
(9) The Manna Left
Them With Unsatisfied Desires
This, and
this alone, was the cause of all their fretting: “And He humbled thee, and
suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with Manna, which thou knewest not,
neither did thy fathers know...” (Deut. 8:3). God humbled them, and suffered
them to hunger, and fed them with Manna! They got weary of it because it did
not give them that satisfied feeling. They ate and ate till they were full, but
still they felt hungry. They murmured, “We loathe this light bread... there is
nothing before our eyes but this Manna.” It did something for them that none of
our modern foods can do: kept them healthy, and strong, and free from physical
pains, diseases, and afflictions. But because it left them hungry, they loathed
it. But God designed it for that purpose. “He humbled thee, and suffered thee
to hunger, and fed thee with Manna... THAT HE MIGHT MAKE THEE KNOW THAT MAN DOTH
NOT LIVE BY BREAD ONLY, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF
THE LORD DOTH MAN LIVE” (Deut. 8:3). The lesson in the Manna is simply this:
that if our hearts are not set on knowing God and becoming acquainted with His
ways, this Divine provision that God intended to drive us to the heart of God
will leave us vulnerable to the cravings and desires of our own fleshly hearts.
If we do not learn to find our true joy and delight in God, we are going to try
to find delight in our own carnal ways. This fully explains why the Church in
our generation, especially the Church in areas of abundance and prosperity and
wealth, has been almost totally captivated with carnal desire and pleasures and
appetites-THEY HAVE NEGLECTED OR REFUSED TO LET THE HUNGER-PRODUCING MANNA LEAD
THEM TO THE HEART OF GOD. Let us not imagine that a little diversion from
spiritual things, a little more indulgence in carnal pleasures, can in any way
alleviate the hunger that God put in our hearts. It is only as we drink of God’s
spiritual drink, and feed upon God’s spiritual food, that we are going to
remain spiritually alive and well. God allows the hunger to remain, that we
might learn to rely wholly upon God, and to know “that man doth not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” It is
in the continual feasting, the continual eating, the continual digesting of
Truth that our hunger is satisfied. And that is why the Manna leaves us
hungry... that we might CONTINUALLY feast upon the Bread of Heaven.
The Purging Of Our
Desires
We have
spent a lot of time talking about the Manna
because the people of God are headed northward into Canaan, northward
into areas of spiritual warfare... and God would emphasize that for survival,
and for conquest, we must partake of the virtues of His living Word, and
overcome the desires of our own hearts. And that is why right here, just three
days journey north of Sinai, once again God emphasizes the virtues of the
Manna. But they said, “We are sick and tired of it... give us flesh to eat.”
And God answered their prayers!
Not only
did He answer their prayers, but in the midst of their carnal cravings God
released a further portion of His Spirit upon the elders of Israel. Prophetic
utterances came forth through the elders of Israel while God was preparing a
feast of quail for the disobedient people of God. Two men in particular are
singled out as being especially blessed of the Lord with prophetic utterances:
Eldad and Medad. “Eldad” means “God has loved,” and “Medad” means “Loving,
Affectionate.” They didn’t even come to the church to prophesy, much to the
dismay and concern of some of the leaders . . . but they prophesied right there
in the camp. But Moses was quite undisturbed: “Would God” he said, “That all
God’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them.”
But what we want to emphasize is this: that in the midst of a great spiritual
revival in the Camp of Israel, where God was manifesting His love, His
affection, where the Spirit of prophecy was poured out in copious showers,
right there God was answering the prayers of a carnally minded people, a people
who hated the Manna, a people whose hearts were alienated from God. God sent
the quail in such abundance that they had only to reach out at arm’s length to
grasp them (they didn’t even have to stoop low like they did to gather the
Manna). Right there at arms length the quail were flying, about a yard high
above the face of the ground, so that “he that gathered least gathered ten
homers” (Num. 11:32). Some calculate this to be about 100 or 110 bushels.
Whatever would a man in Israel do with 110 bushels of quail? To answer that
question, let me ask another. What are people hoping to do with their fortunes
of stocks and bonds and their silver and their gold in a world that is
teetering on the brink of financial chaos and nuclear desolation? Answer that,
and then perhaps we can find the answer to the first question. It is simply
unexplainable madness. Now where was God leading His people as they proceeded
on the three day journey northward from the holy mountain of God? He was
leading them to a “resting place” in the Wilderness of Paran (Num. 10:33). It
ought to have been called something like this: “Haven of Rest,” “Valley of
Contentment,” or “Plains of Refreshing.” But because the people had been
overtaken with carnal desires they were smitten with a plague, and the name of
the place was called: “Kibroth-Hattaavah,” which means, THE GRAVES OF LUST, THE
GRAVES OF UNHOLY DESIRE, THE GRAVES OF CARNAL CRAVING (Num. 1l:33-34).
The Root Cause Of
Dissatisfaction
Don’t
blame God for your fretful, disgruntled heart. Don’t blame your mate, your
children, your job, your employer. Let us learn to put the blame for unholy
desire where it belongs. Listen to God’s commentary as to what really happened:
“They set not their heart aright...”(or,
“they prepared not their heart”). “Their spirit was not steadfast with God...”
“They refused to walk in His law...” “They forgat His works, and His wonders
that He had showed them...” “They tempted God...” “They spake against God; they
said, Can God...? Can He give bread? Can He provide flesh?” “They believed not
in God...” “They trusted not in His salvation” “They did flatter Him with their
mouth...”, “They lied unto Him with their tongues...” “Their heart was not
right with Him...” “They tempted God...” “And limited the Holy One of
Israel...” “They tempted and provoked the Most High God...”
These are
just a few excerpts from Psalm 78, which the Psalmist, by inspiration of the
Spirit, charged God’s people to read to every generation that was yet to
follow, in order that the people of God MIGHT SET THEIR HOPE IN GOD AND NOT
FORGET!
But what
we want to emphasize in particular in this whole episode is the fact that GOD
ANSWERED THE PRAYERS OF THIS KIND OF A PEOPLE, and ALL THE WHILE HIS HEART WAS
FULL OF GRIEF BECAUSE OF THEIR WAYWARD, DISOBEDIENT HEARTS. AND EVEN WHILE THEIR PRAYERS WERE BEING
ANSWERED THEY WERE SUBJECTING THEMSELVES TO EVIL DISEASES... DISEASES FROM
WHICH GOD PROMISED DELIVERANCE TO AN OBEDIENT PEOPLE WHO WOULD WALK WITH HIM.
God heard their cries, we are told, and gave them their request, “but sent
leanness into their soul.” The New American Standard Version reads, “He... sent
a wasting disease among them.”
I wonder
how many people there are, how many ministers there are, whose spiritual bones
are bleaching on the fields of Kibroth-Hattaavah... and all the while they are
telling God’s people that they are rich and prosperous and happy because they
have found the secret to success and prosperity... and that God has heard and
answered their prayers for riches and wealth! It is what one minister described
as “God’s Silent Judgment.” Here they are, wasting away with an evil disease on
the fields of Kibroth-Hattaavah, and boasting that they are the King’s kids,
and feasting upon the good things of Canaan!
God help
us, while yet it is called “TODAY,” to eat of the Manna, and to discover the virtues
of that spiritual, secret ingredient that makes us to know “that man doth not
live by bread only, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the
LORD.” For this is why God gave us the Manna.
On To Canaan!
From
Kibroth-Hattaavah the children of Israel moved forward to the borders of the
Land of Canaan. But before the final attack they were to send out spies from
the Wilderness of Paran, to search out the Land...
“And see
the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be
strong or weak, few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether
it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in
tents, or in strongholds; and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean,
whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of
the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes” (Num.
13:18-20).
An Unprofitable
Report
The
apostle Paul comments on this episode in his epistle to the Hebrews, using the
reaction of the spies to this investigation as an illustration of that inherent
tendency in the hearts of God’s people to FALL SHORT of God’s desire for them.
None of the twelve spies denied the abundant fruitfulness of the Land of
Promise. Their only argument was that it was just an impossible situation for
them to handle. To talk about our heavenly heritage with eloquence might stir
up a lot of enthusiasm among God’s people. But God says it is an “unprofitable
report” if there is no desire, no faith, no hope, no expectation, TO ENTER IN
AND POSSESS THE LAND. “Yes, we all believe that truth, but you know very well
that we can’t appropriate it NOW.”
We want
to deal a little with the Canaan life further on; but it is apparent all over
Christendom, and especially in the people who profess to have spiritual gifts
and blessings, that there is no intention whatever to take the Land, and to
completely subdue it for God. Canaan is presented either as something you die
and go somewhere to attain; or it is so minimized that there is really no
living hope presented for anything more than somewhat of an enlargement of
certain gifts or blessings that we already have. Perhaps they would agree we
need to make another excursion into Canaan, and bring back a few more pomegranates
and grapes. Songs and sermons may be written about that. But this is nothing
compared to what God has in store for His people. God wanted His people to go
in and DWELL THERE. Special gifts, visions, and revelations concerning the
realm of the Spirit, these we enjoy listing to, and we like to admire those
great ones who have such visitations... but to GO IN and LIVE in that realm, of
course that is entirely out of the question.
There has
been in all ages an inherent tendency in God’s people to draw back from the
fullness of the Promise, in view of the obstacles that lie before them; and to
add to the problem, there are always those teachers capable of presenting an
“evil report” convincingly enough that God’s people are quick to draw back if
they have not “set their hearts aright.” And so the apostle admonishes us...
“Let us
therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of
you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as
well as unto them: but the word preached [‘the word of the report’] did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Heb. 4:1-2).
Others
translate it something like this: “Not being united in faith with those that
heard it”... the thought being that those who heard the Word did not have faith
and confidence to be JOINED unto the Word they heard... and especially unto
Caleb and Joshua who brought back a “good report.”
The Good Report
God sends
forth His Word to bring into being this kind of a spiritual “joining.” Paul
tells us that the things of the Spirit that God has freely given us are spoken
forth...
“Not in
the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;
comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Cor. 2:13).
But other
translations bring out the thought not only of “comparing” one with the other,
but of actually “combining” the one with the other. “Combining spiritual things
with spiritual.” As born again, regenerate people of God, we receive a new
Spirit; and as we are filled with that Spirit, and drink more and more into
that Spirit, our capacity to receive and to appropriate spiritual things
becomes more and more pronounced. As God sends forth a living, anointed Word,
it is the work of the Holy Spirit to take that Word, and to “join” it to the
spiritual heart and mind within us, that entity that has come into “hearing”
and into new life; and to make a deposit within the spiritual man from the
heart and mind of God. The Spirit reaches forth into the heart of God and takes
that spiritual life, that spiritual grace, that spiritual virtue that God seeks
to impart to His own... and then joins it to that spiritual heart, that
spiritual entity, that God has provided in His people. It is an ongoing
appropriation of things spiritual into our lives, as we drink into His Spirit,
walk in His ways, hear His voice, obey, submit, yield... and allow Him to build
within us and implant within us those hidden resources of grace and wisdom and
truth that abound in the heart of God. This is why the Spirit of God comes into
our hearts to abide: “He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you”
(Jn. 16:14). He speaks only what He hears from God. And what He speaks, His
obedient children are quickened to hear and to obey... and that spiritual capacity
that God has placed within us will lay hold upon it, and grasp that new measure
of SPIRIT that God has been pleased to bring nigh to our hearts-so nigh that we
can be joined to it, and it becomes OURS. Not only “joined to it” but there is
a joining to the Christ from whom the Word came; and therefore a joining to
those vessels in the earth THROUGH whom the Word came.
We know it is all
ours now. .. out there “in the heavenlies.” “Our life is hid with Christ in
God...” And that is where we are to “set our affections”; so that little by
little, here a little and there a little, there is an appropriation of it in a
people who are being joined unto Him, filled with Truth, walking in Truth,
walking in fullness. “When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you
into all [the] Truth...”( Jn. 16:13). It is an ongoing work, but it will come
to fullness. God has promised that. Our failure in the matter does not cause
God to change His heart and mind. The Word has gone forth, the Spirit of Truth
has come, and will not return to the heart of God until He has brought abundant
fullness unto God’s people, and He the Spirit of Truth returns to the heart of
God with His fruitful people, bearing precious fruit, to delight and rejoice
the heart of God.
And so we
spy out the land; not just to get sermons, and have something to talk about. If
that’s all it’s for, it’s an EVIL REPORT we are bringing to the people of God.
Rather, it is something that gives assurance that it is our Land, that God has
given it, and that He is leading us into it. And as we search it out, that
spiritual capacity we have for more of SPIRIT, more of GOD’S SPIRIT, also takes
on enlargement, as God COMBINES SPIRIT WITH SPIRIT.
“For the
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things [or, ‘THE DEPTHS’] of God” (1
Cor. 2:10). Actually the apostle is not talking about “things” as such, but
about the heart of God Himself--THE DEPTHS OF GOD.
Now if
the Spirit is searching out the heart of God, He is doing so in order to JOIN
SPIRIT TO SPIRIT. He is doing so in order that what is there in the heart of
God might be joined to our spirit, till, in the fullness of God’s great work in
His people, we are FILLED UNTO ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD (Eph. 3:19).
This kind
of teaching is presented in the churches as an EVIL REPORT, FALSE DOCTRINE,
etc. In reality it is those who say that the doctrine of our position in Christ
Jesus in the heavenlies is not for attainment that God considers to be an EVIL
REPORT. The whole purpose of the Gospel, the whole purpose of Redemption, is to
COME OUT of the old life, and to COME INTO the new. “I have brought you OUT...
that I might BRING YOU IN.”
Confrontation And
Strife
Certainly
God wants His people to walk in love, to walk in harmony, to walk in unity. But
when God speaks, and some say YES and others say NO, there is no virtue in
siding with those who say “NO” for the sake of UNITY. As surely as there is a
people who refuse to go on with God we are going to have confrontation and
strife in the congregation of His people. Do you hear Caleb and Joshua saying,
“All right brethren, we must have no division here... Let’s just forget that
far-away Land, those far-out things... Let’s just walk together here in the
Wilderness of Paran, and somehow hope that when we die we will all go to the
same place…”
Truth,
living Truth, brings contention and strife to people with divided hearts, as
truly as it brings peace and harmony to the people whose hearts are set aright,
and bent upon doing His will.
And so
there was weeping, and striving, and confrontation, and rebellion: the one side
saying, “We can’t go in . it is too
much to expect of our children”; the other side saying, “We are well able...
for God’s delight is in us, and we can take the land.” And the side who said,
“We can’t go in,” won out.
And God
turned them back into the wilderness, to wander about another 38 years until
the older generation, represented by the ten spies, had completely perished in
the wilderness.
God was
ready to destroy the whole nation, and if He had done so, He would not have
abrogated His promise. He promised Moses that He would fulfill the promise in
Moses’ own family, and make them even greater and mightier than the generation
that he was even then seeking to bring into the Land.
But Moses
was not an opportunist. He had a true priestly heart; and he literally warned
God that if He were to take any such drastic action as that, He would end up
with a very bad name, and His enemies who had heard of His fame would be able
to mock and to say, “The LORD was NOT ABLE to bring the people in” (Num.
14:16).
God rid
us all of “opportunism.” If it may seem that God is bringing us into some kind
of favor with Him or with the people of God, God search our hearts lest
unknowingly we begin to delight in the downfall of others, and to take
advantage of their downfall for our own enlargement. It might even seem that
the Lord is leading that way. It could be a very severe test that the Lord is
subjecting us to.
God
search our hearts lest we be deceived by our ambitious hearts, and then seek to
give God the glory for our lack of mercy and our lack of priestly character and
concern for His people. Moses said, “Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of
this people... And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word” (Num.
14:19-20).
But God
said something else very significant; for God is a righteous God, and no
respecter of persons or nations. If He is going to pardon such an undeserving
people as this perverse generation, then He declares...
“BUT AS
TRULY AS I LIVE, ALL THE EARTH SHALL BE FILLED WITH THE GLORY OF THE LORD”
(Num. 14:21).
God will
yet arise and judge the whole world for their iniquity. But in view of the fact
that He has been so patient and gracious and longsuffering with His people in
the so-called “Christianized” nations, THIS IS GOD’S GUARANTEE THAT HE WILL
FILL THE WHOLE WORLD WITH HIS GLORY! As long as God continues to extend grace
and mercy toward a disobedient people who are called by His Name, then the
righteous God swears with an oath: “AS I LIVE, ALL THE EARTH SHALL BE FILLED
WITH THE GLORY OF THE LORD”! His righteous judgments require it. It is not that
the other nations of the earth deserve it. But when those who were bidden to
the marriage feast of His Son spurned the invitation (as church people are doing
today), the Master said, “Go out into the highways and the byways and compel
them to come in... whether they be good or bad... that My House might be full.”
In this
day and hour when the call to come into total abiding union with His Son is
being spurned, we can expect that God will begin to reach out and embrace the
poor, and the needy, and the despised, and the rejected here in our own land...
and especially in those nations of the earth that have not known too great an
impact of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the past. God’s righteous judgments
demand that this be so.
Faith Or Presumption
This
matter of walking by faith has been greatly misunderstood by God’s people. The
children of Israel had received a clear call from God to go forth into the Land
of Promise, and possess it. Through fear and unbelief they rejected the Word of
the LORD, and God’s anger was kindled against them. BUT ONE DAY LATER the
people decided they had made a mistake, and they hurriedly mobilized their
forces to go against the enemy. Moses said, “Don’t do it... God is not with
you.” They said, “Yes, we were wrong... we will go and fight our enemies.” But
as they went against the enemy they were routed in battle and utterly defeated.
“Why?” we might ask. The answer is clear. God was not speaking on that day, as
He was the day before. Their “TODAY” of God’s promise was now a “yesterday.”
There is no tomorrow for those who spurn the call of God today. That is why the
apostle warns us to pay heed to God’s Word, “AS LONG AS IT IS CALLED ‘TODAY.”
We do not know how long that will be; but in vain will we try to fight the
LORD’s battles on yesterday’s faith. “But they PRESUMED to go up unto the hill
top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not
out of the camp” (Num. 14:44). There are so many of God’s people who have this
perverted idea of walking by faith. Anything they want to do... any time they
want to do it... they are encouraged to go and do it, and to do it “by faith.”
FAITH acts upon THE REVEALED WILL OF GOD. Talk about the heroes of faith all
you will... go examine the scriptures, and you will discover that invariably
the heroes of faith were those who walked in the REVELATION OF GOD’S WILL. It
wasn’t just a notion that Abraham had that perhaps they should move out of Ur
of the Chaldees “by faith.” God told him to do it. It wasn’t just a good idea
Noah had, that in view of the great wickedness of men perhaps he had better
build an ark to shelter them from the wrath of God. God told him to do it. It
wasn’t just the zeal and the enthusiasm of Moses that prompted him to lead the
people of Israel out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. God told him to do it.
And therefore he did it “by faith.” Because he was walking “by faith” he was
able to know and to understand the will of God, and God’s desire for His
people, and he acted according to the revealed will of God. Today a “walk of
faith” is considered to be what you do when you quit your job, and “go forth in
ministry” with no guaranteed support. Are the rest of us, then, walking in
unbelief? It could be a step of faith if you quit your job and went forth, if
God wanted you to do that. Otherwise it is mere presumption. If God wants you
to become involved in some menial occupation, you must stay at your post of
duty, if you truly want to “live by faith.” True faith comes out of such a
relationship with God that you just know, you are assured, that God wants you
to do this. The knowledge of His will might come suddenly, or dramatically, or
it might come after much seeking and heart-searching. We might have to learn
from past mistakes and past experiences of failure. But the knowledge of His
will, and of His timing, are prerequisite to a genuine WALK OF FAITH.
“Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). It is not
something that you can manufacture any time you feel impressed to get involved
with some worthy project. It “cometh” as you wait upon God, and find direction
from Him. It is the Kadesh-Barnea principle, and one the people of God had to
learn the hard way:
“TO DAY if ye will
hear His voice,
Harden not your
hearts...” (Heb. 3:15).
His
“todays” may linger for many days, but we have no guarantee of that. If we
refuse His voice TODAY, we have no assurance of hearing His voice tomorrow.
The Promise To The
New Generation
God
promised with an oath that their children, whom they feared would become a prey
in a strange and difficult land, would enter in and possess it. God said, “You
are going to disobey Me, because you fear for your children? I swear by Myself,
I will bring your children in, and you shall die in the wilderness...” We would
be more honest to tell the Lord, “Lord, I know you want this, but I refuse to
obey”... than to try to flatter God, and say, “Lord, you know I would like to
do what you said, but Lord, what will my wife say? What will my husband say?
What will my children say? I am really concerned about them...”
When God
calls for an act of obedience, there is no valid excuse for disobedience, in
the sight of God. Saul would excuse himself on the basis that the people put
pressure on him. That may have been true. But he knew God’s will in the matter,
and he suffered the loss of his kingdom for his act of disobedience.
Israel
was condemned to walk forty years in the wilderness with no hope whatever of
entering into the Land of Promise. But this decree of judgment and this state
of hopelessness was to the new generation a promise of watchcare and
protection. For the new generation the rest of the journey would be PREPARATION
to enter the Land, and God would be their Guide all the way:
“And thou
shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in
the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine
heart...” (Deut. 8:2).
The Rebellion Against
Authority
The time
is at hand when God will begin to vindicate those who have His Word and His
authority, and reveal those who are acting and ministering in presumption. This
persistent conflict as to who is right and who is wrong is going to end. God
Himself with His own Glory and Presence, will vindicate those who have His
Word. Two hundred and fifty men of the band of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram gathered
at the door of the Tabernacle, swinging their censers; and God told Moses He
was going to do something new, something different. The earth itself would open
her jaws and consume the rebels. Moses ordered the people of God to stay away
from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, lest they perish with them.
Suddenly the earth opened her mouth and swallowed alive all that belonged to
the households of these rebels; “And they went down alive into Sheol, and the
earth closed upon them” (Num. 16:33). This was one of the most calamitous forms
of judgment ever visited upon the people of God in Old Testament times; and it
all happened because of the abiding presence of the Glory of the LORD in the
midst of His people. Let us fully understand the implications of this hope and
this desire that we have for the return of God’s glory to His temple. In that
day, great and awesome will be His judgments upon the people of God who are
walking in rebellion. God is going to put an end to the strife of tongues, and
the clamoring of apostles and prophets for a place of pre-eminence. He is going
to settle the issue... not by debate and confrontation, BUT BY THE FIRE OF HIS
PRESENCE. And like Moses and Aaron, the true priests of God will cry out to God
in that day to show mercy, and to cut His judgments short. No amount of
argument over the meaning of scripture will avail anything. But by the Glory of
His Presence, and the Fire of His Word, the Lord Himself shall declare His
Truth, and make known in the midst of His people who it is that has His living
Word abiding in them.
The Rod Of Aaron
How did
Moses settle this whole argument? He commanded that each tribe in Israel
present their rods before the LORD, and to be laid up in the Tabernacle over
night. In the morning Moses brought forth the rods out of the Holy of Holies,
and gave to each man his rod. There was no change in the eleven rods. but the
twelfth rod, the rod of Levi (which had Aaron’s name on it) had been vindicated
in the power of resurrection life. Just overnight it had not only budded, and
blossomed, but it yielded ripened almonds. This, of course, has already
happened in our Lord Jesus. But the “Rod of Aaron” is going to bud again, in
the lives of His chosen ones; and this is going to put an end to the conflict
that has raged through the centuries as to who is right and who is wrong. ONLY
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS RIGHT; and the “power of His resurrection” working in
His own, will vindicate them in the sight of God and of man. Coming together in
an ecumenical sort of way, and trying to come to a consensus--yielding a little
here and a little there for the sake of unity-will have no place in that day.
God’s way alone is RIGHT, and He will not alter His Word, His Truth, His way,
for the sake of “unity.” The people of God who have known the Way of the Cross,
the Way of humiliation and suffering, and who have followed in His pathway,
seeking not their own glory, but the glory of Him who sent them... in them God
is going to reveal the POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION. And when they speak, all men
will know: This is the Word of the LORD.
THE WILDERNESS OF ZIN
“Tragedy And Triumph”
“Then
came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of
Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh...” (Num. 20:1).
God had
planned that the children of Israel would spend approximately a year at Sinai,
to learn His laws and judgments, build the Tabernacle, and then proceed north
into Canaan. Moses tells us that it was only “eleven days’ journey” from Horeb
to Kadesh... but they wandered about in this area for another 38 years until
the old generation had wasted away.
People
ask, “How long is it going to take for us to enter into the fullness of God’s
rest?” In many respects, it is you and I who are mostly to blame for the way we
prolong our wilderness journey. God said,
“Oh that My people
had hearkened unto Me,
And Israel had walked
in My ways!
I should soon have
subdued their enemies,
And turned My hand
against their adversaries” (Ps. 81:13-14).
On the
other hand it is true that we in this generation of the Church are suffering
the consequences of the sins of former generations; just as Caleb and Joshua
had to linger another 38 years in the wilderness because of the sins of the old
generation. But what God decreed as judgment for the old generation, became
PREPARATION for the new one. Let us take courage in this. Even in the midst of
this “waste and howling wilderness,” God is PREPARING a new generation to take
the Land.
We
recognize that there is a very individual and personal appropriation of Canaan
Life, and we would not minimize that. But what God is about to do in the earth
is so vast, so mighty, so terrible, so awesome, that no individual could
possibly appropriate it in any sense of fullness. Caleb and Joshua must wait
for the new generation to be trained and disciplined of the Lord, before they
themselves could go in. In the meantime they could walk before the Lord in
faith, in hope, in expectation. But Canaan Life in its fullness is for a
corporate people. It is simply too vast for any individual to apprehend or
appropriate:
“That YE,
being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend [or, better
‘apprehend’] WITH ALL SAINTS what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and
height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that YE MIGHT
BE FILLED WITH [or, ‘UNTO’] ALL THE FULNESS OF GOD” (Eph. 3:17-19).
The Old Way, And The
New
As we
have emphasized in previous writings (Evening and Morning), when human failure
hinders or forestalls the purposes of God, and God comes on the scene to remedy
the situation and bring the people back to Himself... HE INITIATES A NEW WAY
AND A NEW ORDER. If we understand this principle it will save us from a lot of
frustration that we otherwise will have to suffer, as we seek to rebuild the
order of a past day. God does not repeat Himself, in like manner as He worked
the first time. He does not “try again” where man has failed. The second
time-around is always different, always of a higher order, always a new way. We
must know this if we are going to be spared the frustration and the sense of
futility that so many have experienced as they sought to convince God that He
must come forth and “do it this way” because this is the way He did it before.
I know God is forever “the Same”; and because He is THE SAME He always does
things differently the second time around. Because He is THE SAME He will
continue to do “new things” in the midst of human failure. Because He is THE
SAME, when man has failed He will rectify the situation through His righteous
judgments, and will do something greater than the thing that man has spoiled.
Because He is THE SAME He will consistently move forward, and upward, and
onward with His people into new areas of revelation and Truth.
This
teaching is certainly annoying to the theological mind, because it places man
in a position where he cannot, even with all His knowledge of Scripture or of
history, come up with a plan for revival, or a plan for the furtherance of the
Kingdom of God in the earth, from all his storehouse of accumulated knowledge
concerning past revivals, and past dealings of God with His people. Because God
is forever THE SAME, and changes not, He always seeks for Himself a people who
are dedicated, consecrated, humble, lowly, and obedient to His will. But
because He is THE SAME, when He has found such a people, and has prepared such
a people, He will do a “new thing” in the earth, and the old is seen to be the
seed-plot and the preparatory way for the new thing that God has in mind.
This is
nothing less than the operation of a Divine Law--THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
IN CHRIST JESUS. There is no way that man can come up with methods and
procedures to bring it into being, or to control it. It leaves man totally
helpless and hopeless in himself, with no other recourse but to find himself
carried along, moved along, and motivated by the Spirit of God... which, like
the wind, YOU CAN HEAR HIM WHEN HE SPEAKS, BUT YOU CANNOT KNOW WHERE HE COMES
FROM AND TO WHERE HE IS LEADING. The Spirit of God blows softly from the heart
of God, and no man can predetermine the course of the Spirit, nor can he
structure and mould the substance that God will bring into being. Man has
tried, and will continue to try, to reproduce something that God did in the
past ... but he is sure to fail, even as he has always failed in the past.
Every time God moves afresh in the earth it is a NEW THING that He brings
forth, and therefore He always catches man by surprise.
“Behold,
I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will
even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isa. 43:19).
Let man
cease his efforts to structure and form and plan and connive to bring into
being the New Testament Church, or the glorious Church that Paul spoke about...
it is doomed to utter failure. But God will do it through a humble people... a
people who are conditioned to hear what the Spirit is saying, and who will
simply move along with His Wind, which bloweth where He will. What about the
Scriptures? What about the Word? We need have no fear of being unscriptural, if
the Spirit of God is in control. He is the Spirit of Truth. He knows the
Scriptures... for He it is who inspired His holy apostles and prophets to write
the Scriptures. And when He speaks, He speaks not “from Himself” as man does,
He speaks only that which He hears from the heart of God, who is the Source and
the Author of the holy Scriptures.
All man
can do is patch up the old, for he is of the old creation, and knows not the
Spirit of the New. But God readily discards the old, for there are new things
in His heart, bursting to come forth... and human failure is a challenge to His
heart to come on the scene, and to judge and bring to nought the old order, and
to prepare the ground for the sowing of a new seed. He simply does not go about
patching up the old, or helping man to do it. Let us observe this principle
from a few examples of Scripture:
(1) The Old
Wineskins, And The New
“And no
man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the
bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish” (Luke 5:37).
You who
feel that God gave you His Holy Spirit to make you a better Baptist, a better
Presbyterian, a better Episcopalian, a better Catholic... a better
Something-of-a-Past-Day... prepare your hearts for the bursting of the bottles!
God gave His Spirit to bring you further and further into realms of New
Creation life... and not to perpetuate something of the old.
(2) The Old Vessel
And The New
“And the
vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it
again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it” (Jer. 18:4).
God
simply refuses to patch up a “marred” vessel. He simply crumples it up in His
hand, and starts over again. He uses the same human clay, but the vessel is
brand-new from His own creative hands.
(3) The Old Man, And
The New
The first
man Adam was not the exalted heavenly being that some make him out to be. He
was but a type, or shadow, or “figure of Him that was to come” (Rom. 5:14). He
was “of the earth, earthy” (1 Cor. 15:47). He was made “dust of the earth.” Now
our Lord Jesus came forth from the seed-plot of the old, but He was the true
and perfect image of God, the “heavenly” man, the “Lord from Heaven,” the
Light, and the Glory of God.
(4) The First And
Second Tables Of The Law
The first
tables, written with the finger of God, were smashed by the great law-giver
when he came down from the mount and beheld the idolatry of the people of God.
The second tables of the Law were also written with the finger of God, but were
brought down from the mountain to be placed in the Ark of the Covenant. Man was
not permitted to meddle with the second tables. This, of course, portrays to us
the nature of the Two Covenants....
(5) The First
Covenant And The Second
When God
speaks about a New Covenant, He obviously implies that the first covenant has
become old: “In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old”
(Heb. 8:13). The reason God did away with the old was because of human failure.
“Because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the
Lord” (Heb. 8:9). The New Covenant, therefore, was not one for man to fulfill,
but one that would be “written on the fleshly tables of the heart” enabling him
to do what the Law could not do to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, and
strength.
(6) The First
Tabernacle, And The Second
The First
Tabernacle, erected in the wilderness at the foot of Mount Sinai, was but a
pattern and type of heavenly realities. But the second tabernacle was the
“greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands...” (Heb. 9:11).
There were many tabernacles and temples in Israel’s history, as human failure
brought the old one into ruin, and Divine intervention brought forth the new.
But never did God ordain the reconstruction of the old one, in exact likeness
to the one that preceded it (dealt with in writing From Tent to Temple). If we
understood these principles we would drop those notions about God restoring the
Church to her early apostolic likeness... or about the rebuilding of a temple
in Old Jerusalem. When the first becomes old, Paul says it is “ready to vanish
away” (Heb. 8:13).
(7) The Rock-First,
Smitten; Then, Spoken To
When the
people came to Horeb, they were famishing for water, and God told Moses to
stand there by a certain Rock and smite it with the rod. As he did the waters
gushed out from Horeb, which means a “dry, parched place.” The waters flowed
down the mountain in a gushing stream of pure, refreshing water. Paul tells us
that the Rock was Christ, smitten that we might partake of the pure water of
Life (1 Cor. 10:4).
But on a
second occasion when they needed water, God told Moses to “speak unto the Rock”
and that it would send forth its water (Num 20:8). For Christ once smitten must
not be smitten again. Thereafter we walk in obedience and speak to the Rock.
Moses discovered that the old method seemed to work, for he smote the Rock
twice, and the water gushed forth. And sometimes we may think that the old
methods can be repeated over and over again, and the results seem to prove it.
But disobedience brings judgment, even though the immediate response of the
Lord may indicate His blessing. Let us not forget that. For this error on
Moses’ part he failed to enter the Land of Promise.
(8) The First Attack
On At, And The Second
When
Joshua began the conquest of Canaan, he took Jericho, and then proceeded the
much easier task of taking Ai. But the people of God were totally routed and
defeated. Joshua sought God earnestly and God revealed that there was sin in
the Camp. One in their midst had taken of the “accursed thing” during the
conquest of Jericho, and hid it in his tent. Achan the culprit was taken and
stoned to death in the Valley of Achor, and then they were assured of victory.
But God did not
authorize a full-scale frontal attack on Ai, like Joshua attempted at first. If
there is human failure and Divine intervention, there is always a NEW WAY.
Their past failures, because of true repentance, would now be interwoven with
God’s NEW WAY. And so Joshua and his men pretended defeat, ran from the enemy
as they did at first, and drew them out of the city. Then Joshua lifted up his
spear and the ambush which he had hidden behind the city arose, entered into
the city, and burnt it with fire. Then Joshua and his men turned on their enemies
and caught them in a trap and utterly destroyed them. (See Josh. 8:1-29.)
God would
have us know that, defeated though we may have been in the past, as we rid
ourselves of the “accursed thing” in our midst, He is able to turn our defeats
into victories. But more than this: after there is true repentance, and after
God has caused us to forsake the idols of our heart, OUR PAST FAILURES AND
MISTAKES MAY BECOME STEPPING-STONES TO VICTORY AND ENLARGEMENT. The manner in
which the men of Israel were routed and defeated BECAME THE PATTERN OF VICTORY
when God turned the curse into a blessing and gave “beauty for ashes.” As the
enemy gloated over the men of Israel running away from the battle as they did
at first, God actually used that strategy to draw the enemy into a trap for his
own destruction.
Many
times in our walk with God, and in spiritual warfare, we may present an image
of defeatism to the world about us, or to the Church. We just have to recognize
that, and bear the reproach of it all. We are not really defeated... we are
just projecting that image in the purpose of God for the eventual defeat of the
Enemy:
“We are
troubled on every side, yet not distressed; We are perplexed, but not in
despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; Cast down, but not destroyed; Always
bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, THAT THE LIFE ALSO OF
JESUS MIGHT BE MADE MANIFEST IN OUR BODY” (2 Cor. 4:8-10).
Knowing
that we are in the pathway of victory... knowing that we are drawing the Enemy
into a trap... we bear the reproach of it all. We know God has led this way. We
just know that we are “delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:11). Satan never
seems to understand the tremendous working of the resurrection life of Jesus in
a people who are delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake... and he is trapped in
his own devices.
(9) Jonah’s First
Call, And The Second Call
It may
appear, of course, that Jonah failed the first time, and so now God was simply
giving him another chance. We thank the Lord for the second, or the third
chance... and for His utter faithfulness in the time of our failure. But there
is more to the story of Jonah than that. And there is more to our many failures
than that.
AFTER
REPENTANCE, AFTER THE ROOTING OUT OF THE IDOLS OF THE HEART... GOD’S
INTERVENTION IN OUR LIVES PRODUCES SUCH A WORKING OF GRACE THAT THE FAILURE
ITSELF IS ENTWINED INTO HIS PURPOSES, AND GREATER IS THE GLORY THAT MAY COME
FORTH FROM IT!
Let us
picture Jonah walking through the streets of this sin-hardened people and
crying, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall perish!” I wonder if anything would
have changed; and God would then have to destroy the city. But the
second-time-around was quite different.
Here was
a man who had become a “sign” to the wicked inhabitants of Nineveh. He had been
severely judged of the LORD. He had known the agonies of Sheol as he cried unto
the LORD from the belly of the whale. He did not go into Nineveh performing a
few signs and wonders in an attempt to get them to believe. He himself became A
WALKING TESTIMONY, A LIVING SIGN THAT GOD IS A GOD OF JUDGMENT, A GOD THAT
REQUIRES OBEDIENCE FROM THE PEOPLE WHOM HE HAS CREATED, AND THAT HE IS A GOD OF
RESURRECTION LIFE.
Beloved,
we are going to behold scenes of repentance such as this when God’s prophets
are “delivered unto death,” and become the humble, broken, and devastated
vessels of truth that God would have them to be.
(10) First, The Front
Door To Canaan; Secondly, The Back Door
The first
generation was to have taken the easier way, a more direct way to
Canaan-through the front door. But the first generation failed God, and a new
generation was on the scene, that would not fail. Not because they were any
better but because God had sworn with an oath that they would take the Land.
Through the first generation God had planned a frontal attack on their enemies
from Kadesh; but the second generation would wander about in the Wilderness of
Zin for approximately 38 years, and then make a round-about journey into Canaan
through the back door. It was a more complicated, a more difficult route. And
as we shall discover, God would deliberately add to their difficulties, to
bring forth greater glory to His Name. God does not repeat Himself; and vain is
our attempt to take our history books as a map for future conquests in the
Lord. True, we look into history to learn God’s ways, to know God’s
faithfulness, and to learn from the mistakes and errors of our fathers. But we
cannot take “history” as a blueprint for future conquests. We are going to
discover as we follow on to know His ways that His path is always through an
uncharted wilderness, always through the mighty waters, always through pathways
that are so strange and perplexing that it will require great dedication and
commitment and heart-searching and crying out unto God for clear direction and
guidance. We cannot go about seeking to discover the pathway through the mighty
waters, because the waters have returned to their course, and the path is no
longer to be seen. The wilderness pathway through which men have walked in the
past is now quite grown over, so that no longer can the way be seen with the
natural eye. God has planned it this way in order that in our walk with Him we
might learn faith, obedience, submission, dedication, humility, brokenness, and
in that way be READY for the new Way in which He would lead us today. And this,
of necessity, means forsaking our well-intentioned plans for re-establishing a
“Church” according to some blueprint we think we have discovered in the Word.
Let that Word rather break us, humble us, lead us, guide us, chasten us, and
make us hungry for God (as the manna did to the children of Israel) that we
might know and see the way in which we are to walk in this hour.
For the
Second Generation there is a Second Pathway that leads to Canaan. It is a much
more difficult route; and when they are about to enter the Land, they face a
much greater obstacle: fortified cities, powerful enemies, strong bulwarks...
to hinder or to frustrate the attack of the people of God. But once again there
is Divine intervention. There was the Oath of God that guaranteed their
success. And along with the Oath there would be more grace and more power to
bring greater glory to the God of Israel. When the first generation had failed
God, He commanded: “But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the
wilderness by the way of the Red Sea” (Deut. 1:40). (This was the eastern fork
of the Red Sea, not the one they had crossed over after leaving Egypt.) Here
they wandered about for another 38 years. They seemed to have made a complete
circle in their travels, returning almost to the same place from whence they
had started at Eziongeber. (See Deut. 2:8.) Thirty-eight years of wandering for
the old generation; but 38 years of preparation for the new one.
It may
seem awfully discouraging at times to discover, after many years of frustration
and futility, that we are back where we were many years before. Often it seems
to be that way. But the circles of God’s purposes are not in vain. The sun rises...
and sets... and rises again. It is not mere repetition. God is doing something
new in each and every season. And God was leading the NEW generation, even as
He was judging the OLD. Their difficulties and their trials would increase. But
so would God’s faithfulness and His grace increase. God had sworn that He would
bring them in. And He did.
CONFLICTS OF THE NEW
GENERATION
The Long Journey
Around Edom
The
people of God tried to make a shortcut through the Land of Edom, but the
Edomites would not permit it. Edom was another name for Esau, Jacob’s twin
brother. He was the firstborn of the twins, and as the firstborn he should have
had the inheritance. But God’s purpose was in Jacob, the second-born. Esau was
called Edom (which means, “Red, Ruddy”) after he had bartered with Jacob and
sold Jacob the birthright for the red pottage. The word Edom is from the same
root word as Adam, “to show blood, rosy.” Now Paul tells us that the natural
man “receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him.” Edom forced the people of God into a long journey around his
borders. The Adam nature waxes more and more corrupt. The natural mind is not
subject to the law of God, “neither indeed can be.”
Finally
they encompass the Land of Edom and cross over the brook Zered. “Zered” means
“to be exuberant in growth.” It is somewhat of a turning point in the
journeyings of the new generation. For them it is a day of new growth; and it
is the end of the old generation: “And the space in which we came from
Kadesh-Barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight
years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among
the host...” (Deut. 2:14).
Conflict With Moab
God would
not let Israel attack Moab, even as He would not let them attack Edom. But the
presence of the people of God dwelling so close to their borders filled the
Moabites with great fear, and they hired Balaam the sorcerer to come and curse
the people of God. Israel’s conflict through the main part of their wilderness
life was really with their own hearts. But now as the people of God begin to
emerge from the wilderness way, there is a new conflict: a conflict with false
gods and with evil spirits. We are in that day right now. What was once but a
human attack, a war of reason, an attack of the flesh, is quickly becoming a
war against spirits. Evil spirits are assuming control in many areas of society
and of the Church, and God’s people are finding it increasingly difficult to
know what is right and what is wrong. The time is now here when those demonic
forces which once operated in the East (in gurus, medicine men, etc.) are now
beginning to take up strong positions in the Church; and Christians are unaware
of it because it is nicely clothed in “Christian” language. When the people of
God are misled into thinking that the Kingdom of God is related to power and
authority over this world’s resources, over its governments, over its political
and economic forces... when the Kingdom of God is presented as something
synonymous with success, prosperity, and wealth... there and then Satan has
found a fertile soil into which he can plant the seeds of deception. Even physical
health can be a deceptive thing if we use questionable powers to tap into it.
For why would Satan deny us physical health if we use Satanic methods to get
it? Is it a real healing if Satan should withdraw his attack on our body, so
long as he can retain control of our spirit? And is it, in fact, a real
healing? The alleviation of pain and deliverance from certain physical
afflictions has long been associated with the practices of the occult. Is it
healing? No! It is but a sedative that the Enemy imparts, in order that he
might take control of the minds and spirits of people.
Our Lord
Jehovah declares, “I am the LORD that healeth thee,” and this is the heritage
of the people of God. But it is a covenant promise, and for its appropriation
God requires an obedient, covenant-walking people. The fact that this present
generation of the Church is afflicted equally with the people of the world is
proof that we have not walked in covenant-relationship with our God. Truth has
been so perverted that if we find wealth, health, prosperity, and happiness,
the means by which we find it are incidental to most people. If the results are
“good,” this must prove that the methods are of God.
God
forbid that we should find gain without godliness, physical healing without spiritual
healing, prosperity to the natural man without prosperity to the spiritual man,
peace of mind without the peace of God. Is this disturbing to some of you who
believe that anything that produces happiness and peace and blessing must be of
God? I hope it is disturbing. Because true blessedness has nothing to do with
that at all. The teaching of Christ concerning the Kingdom of God speaks on
this wise:
“Blessed are the poor
in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that
mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek:
for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the
merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure
in heart: for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:3-8).
The Doctrine Of
Balaam
The most
distressing thing about Israel’s conflict with Moab, and with Balaam the
sorcerer, was this: God would not allow any enchantment from the false prophet
to come upon the people of God, and yet Balaam got what he wanted through
deception and guile:
“Surely
there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against
Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob... What hath God
wrought!” (Num. 23:23).
BUT...
the people who could not be cursed by Balaam’s enchantments, were allured and
deceived by his teachings. Balaam encouraged the king of Moab to suggest
fraternization with the people of God, and to invite them to one of their
socials and the people of God were ensnared by the gods of Moab; and through
“the counsel of Balaam” there fell a very great plague among the congregation
of Israel. (See Num. 31:16.)
“And
Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the
daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their
gods...” (Num. 25:1-2). The word “they” is feminine in the Hebrew, and refers
back to the daughters of Moab. Twenty-four thousand valiant men of the new
generation fell under the wiles of the daughters of Moab and perished in God’s
judgments, when God rose up to take vengeance on every man who had been seduced
to worship Baalpeor, the Moabite deity.
Who Is Baal, The God
Of The Moabites?
Baalpeor
was the Moabite deity that was worshipped on Mount Peor with all manner of
immoral rites. According to historical and archeological discoveries, Baal is
seen to be the god of fertility, the farm god, the god of agriculture, the god
of increase ... the god of prosperity. The cult was rampant in Canaan, and throughout
her history the people of God fell victims to the lure of Baal worship. Baal
worship was conducted by priests in the temples of Baal, or in the outdoors, or
in certain “high places” in the land. Animal sacrifices were included in their
rituals, along with licentious dances, and immoral practices. The female
associate goddess was called “Ashtoreth”... and all manner of immorality was
practiced. There were male prostitutes and female prostitutes, all associated
with temple worship. The cult was rampant in Canaan, and when Israel failed to
completely wipe out the seven abominable nations of Canaan (as God had
commanded them), they soon succumbed to the subtle attractions of this kind of
worship; and it remained a curse in their midst, and a grief to the heart of
God, throughout much of their history.
It is not
difficult to see in the land today, not just a similarity to what they had in
ancient Canaan, but almost a reproduction of the same licentious rites and
practices as they had then. We can expect such things in the world about us,
for Jesus said it would be as it was in the days of Sodom. But little by little
the doctrine of Balaam is being incorporated into the doctrine of the Church.
It all starts with an avowed worship of the “God of prosperity and
happiness”... the God who gives success, achievement, gain, wealth, happiness.
What has this got to do with immorality and licentiousness? Very much. What
were the chief sins of Sodom? What was the basic sin of Sodom? God pin-points
it very clearly. He says it was... “PRIDE, FULNESS OF BREAD, AND ABUNDANCE OF
IDLENESS...” (Ezek. 16:49).
It was
their high standard of living that led to all the other things that we
particularly associate with Sodom. And it is no wonder that in our land where
we have such wealth and abundance that we are reaping an unspeakable harvest of
immorality, licentiousness, adultery, divorce, unfaithfulness, and so forth.
Not only out there in the world, but now, right in the Church. Not only that,
but all the while we are reaping such a harvest, the seeds which produced the
harvest continue to be sown by men in the pulpit, who are presenting success,
wealth, prosperity, and happiness as the fruit of faith, as the fruit of
Christian achievement.
The real
tragedy is not just the fact that people in the Church are becoming immoral
like the world about them. The tragedy is that the spirits of Baal are actively
involved in this seductive kind of teaching, and the people of God are not
aware of it.
God has a
controversy with this world-conforming church at Pergamos, which dwells where
Satan’s throne is, and He is going to purge the “doctrine of Balaam” (who
promotes Baal worship among the people of God) out of our midst; not with the
javelin of Phinehas as in Moses’ day, but with “the sharp sword with two edges”
that proceedeth out of His mouth (Rev. 2:12-14).
Conflict With Sihon
And Og
“Rise ye
up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into
thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess
it, and contend with him in battle. This day will I begin to put the dread of
thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven”
(Deut. 2:2~25).
In the
crossing of the Arnon they entered for the first time the borders of their
inheritance. “Arnon” means “a rushing stream,” and is from a root word meaning
“to shout (for joy).” Here they would “begin to possess” the Land that God had
promised them. It was just a beginning... a very small beginning, in fact. The
real measure of their inheritance lay across the Jordan. But some of the people
were ready to settle for this land, and desired to go no further.
The Inheritance Of
Reuben, Gad, And Half Of Manasseh
When
these tribes saw the fertility and abundance of the land that they taken from Og and Sihon they were anxious to
lay claim to it and settle down. They came to Moses and said, “If we have found
grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession,
and bring us not over Jordan” (Num. 32:5). At first Moses was angry with them,
for their seeming desire to proceed no further into the conquest of Canaan. But
when they assured Moses that they would “go ready armed” into battle against
the Canaanites, until the rest of the tribes had received their inheritance,
Moses relented. He commanded Eleazar the priest and Joshua the new leader, to
give them their request, as long as they were faithful in helping their
brethren to enter into their inheritance west of the Jordan. We must have no
condemnation for those who desire to set up camp on the eastern banks of the
Jordan. We know the inheritance they have there is only partial, and very
limited; but it is nevertheless the beginnings of fruitfulness. If some find
true delight and fulfillment there, who are we to accuse them of failure... or
of disobedience? As we look about us we can see many of God’s people who are
finding joy and delight in the pasture lands of Gilead, and sometimes we may be
inclined to envy them. They have found the desire of their hearts. They are
happy and contented right where they are. And God is blessing them abundantly.
They are fruitful in ministry and in service for the Lord. They have large
flocks and herds. Why can’t we be like that? The fact is, the vision that God
has implanted, and the hope that burns within, will not permit us to settle on
the eastern plains of the Jordan. We just know there is more, much more than we
can see here. It is not that we are unthankful, dissatisfied, or disgruntled...
as some may think. What was wrong with Abraham anyway? There he was dwelling in
Hebron, the choice part of Canaan. Why did he always insist that he was but a
“stranger and pilgrim” in the earth? Are you not at home, Abraham? Abraham
could never feel “at home” because in following on to know the LORD, and in
touching the heart of God, he had become increasingly aware that there had to
be something better, something more enduring, than a beautiful country such as
he had discovered there at Hebron. This is what the Spirit revealed to the apostle
Paul. If Abraham was a “stranger and pilgrim in the earth, then he was
declaring plainly that he looked for a “better country”... he “looked for a
City which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God” (Heb. 11:10,16).
Your desire for something better, something more fulfilling, something more
enduring, is related directly to your walk of obedience before the LORD. For in
measure as God has enabled you to walk in obedience before Him, so in like
measure has He been able to draw nigh to you, to walk with you, and to cause
you to become more and more aware of that great longing that He has in His
heart for a permanent HOME in your heart. What He has revealed and what He has
given, you recognize as being good and wonderful. But what He has BECOME to you
means much more than His gifts. And the glory of His Being, His character, His
nature, His love, His Truth... all these reflect more and more of that
inheritance on the other side of Jordan for which your heart longs and for
which your spirit yearns. And whereas at one time we may have gloried in what
He DID for us; now we glory more in what He IS to us. Once it may have been
great in our eyes to be USED of the Lord; but now we desire only to WALK with
Him. Once it was much service, much activity, much ministry, that filled us
with a sense of gratification and fulfillment; now it is rather in simple
abiding relationship with Him that we find our delight; and if this be not so
yet in actual experience, it is nevertheless our abiding and constant hope.
If we do
not know the difference between service and relationship, perhaps we should ask
the Lord to test the motives of our hearts.
Is it
enough that we should walk with Him, and know His voice? Or do we have that
uneasy feeling that if our ministry lags, and we are becoming less and less
active in our service for Him, that somehow we are losing ground? Was Jesus
more spiritual when He healed the sick and raised the dead than He was when He
set His face as a flint for Jerusalem, and walked the rugged pathway up
Golgotha’s heights? Was it not all the same to Him, to know that in either case
He was simply doing the will of God?
“Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God....”
“My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His
work...”
New Expectation On
The Plains Of Moab
As
Reuben, and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh took their inheritance on the
eastern side of the Jordan, they must have felt a certain satisfaction in
knowing that God had been faithful in giving them the desires of their heart.
Their part in any future conquests would not in any way enlarge their borders,
it was just part of the deal they had made with Moses. When the battle was
over, they would return to the beautiful plains of Gilead, and there establish
their homes. In any future battles, in any future conquests, theirs would
always be the backward look.
But with
the other nine and a half tribes in Israel there was expectation and hope for
something they did not have on the plains of Gilead. Theirs was a living hope
in every conquest they would make. “For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope
for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it”
(Rom. 8:24-25).
The nine
and a half tribes belonged to the western side of the Jordan. They were bent
upon new conquests, new areas of triumph in God, new explorations in the Land
of Promise: new heights, new lengths, new breadths in God that must be
appropriated. It is the forward look, the upward call, that urges us on. We
have not yet come to the Rest, and to the inheritance that God has promised.
There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.
The Conquest Of
Canaan Becomes Increasingly More Difficult
With
every delay to the conquering of the inheritance that we experience because of
human failure, the task becomes that much more difficult. Every time God moves
mightily by His Spirit, and the people of God for one reason or another are
defeated and turned back into the wilderness, the next attempt at conquering
the Land seems to become more and more remote. But there is a principle in God,
and one that we have emphasized over and over, and it is this: When God has
sent His Word into the earth concerning His purposes for His people, HE WILL
NOT TAKE THAT WORD BACK unfulfilled, unfinished, uncompleted. That Word will
remain in the earth, until it has accomplished the desire of His heart: “For as
the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but
watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to
the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall My Word be that goeth forth out of
My mouth: it SHALL NOT RETURN UNTO ME VOID, but it shall accomplish that which
I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isa. 55:10-11).
Some may
confess that God has seen fit to take back that Word, because we have come to
the end and it’s too late now for God to do what He had planned. Some may
confess that there is nothing to be expected but a sudden removal of the Church
from the earth... like a farmer would reap his green fields of wheat when it
appears that a devastating storm is on its way. At least, then, he would have
fodder for his flocks.
But Our Confession Is
A Living Hope
We
confess that His Word is in the earth concerning a harvest that is coming forth
that will be ripe, that will be full, that will be like the good Seed that was
planted: some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, AND SOME ONE HUNDRED-FOLD... We
confess that we hear that Word, and therefore we speak it .
We
confess that we have a living hope that His Church will yet become a “glorious
Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or blemish, or any such thing”...
We
confess that the Lord has delayed His coming, as He intimated He might have to
do, that with “long patience” He has waited “for the precious fruit of the
earth”; and that the Day of Harvest is now very nigh at hand...
We confess
that the Judge now stands at the Door, to purge His Church, and then to judge
the world...
We
confess that the Husbandman is preparing laborers for His harvest field... and
that shortly they will reap the fields that are fast coming to maturity... and
that very soon He will say to the reapers: “Thrust in thy sickle, and reap...
for the harvest of the earth is ripe” (Rev. 14:15). Notice in this passage that
the word “ripe” is from a Greek word that means “more than ripe, dry, mature,
withered.” Is this the way you feel sometimes? Think it not strange; in the Day
of Harvest the fields of grain must become very dry, in order that it may be
threshed, and the chaff driven away.
Yes, it
is going to become increasingly more difficult for God to bring His people into
the inheritance; it is more difficult now than at any time in the history of
the Church. This simply means that the God who promised must give more and more
grace, and more and more of His Glory, to accomplish the task.
In a
previous writing (“Feed My Sheep”), we dealt somewhat with the flooding of the
Jordan at the time of Israel’s passage across the river into Canaan... God
making it even more difficult for their entry into the Land. We mentioned how
the priests bore the Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders and led the way;
how they dipped their feet in the waters, and saw the waters cut off before
their eyes; and how they stood with the Ark in the bottom of the river while
the people of God passed over. We spoke of their encampment on the western side
of the river, in preparation for the attack on Jericho; and of the circumcision
of the new generation on the plains of Gilgal and how God was making it
increasingly difficult for the new generation to survive, incapacitated for
battle in the presence of their enemies. And now the man Moses had just died;
the man who had the authority for leadership, and the expertise for battle. In
all the way that the Lord led the new generation we can see less and less
likelihood of a successful conquest of the Land. Everything was against them.
Weakened by the wiles of the daughters of Moab and their forces decimated by
God’s wrath as He slew 24,000 men, and then at Gilgal totally crippled before
their enemies.
What was
God doing anyway? He was making it utterly impossible for them to attain to the
promise EXCEPT BY A MIGHTY AND MIRACULOUS DISPLAY OF HIS OWN POWER AND GRACE
AND GLORY. For He alone was to be glorified in the sight of the chosen nation;
and He alone was to be glorified in the sight of the wicked nations of the
land.
When we
see and understand how Jealous our God is for the Glory of His great Name,
these things that we are talking about ought not to be considered some far-out
teaching... something we can just lay aside as irrelevant to the purpose of God
in this hour. It is in a day and hour such as this, when apostasy is rampant,
and the Name of our Lord is blasphemed among the nations, that we can expect
and anticipate the Jealous God to rise up and vindicate His great Name in a
holy, conquering, godly remnant in the earth.
THE HEAVENLY CANAAN
Many of
God’s people do not understand why, after spending perhaps many years in
comparative ease and contentment in their little corner of church activity and
involvement, suddenly they are no longer satisfied with the monotonous routine
and they are raising questions of concern. Why, Lord? When? How? What? As we
mentioned, these are the questions that pertain to the Manna; and all we can
say is, the Manna is having its effect in their lives. They have been eating of
the wilderness food, and as a result there is an increasing hunger for a
greater reality in their lives. This is God’s ongoing work in the wilderness
people, and we just want to encourage the people of God who are somewhat
discouraged, disillusioned, or perplexed about the state of things in their own
lives or in the Body of Christ, to lift up their eyes and see the Glory of
Beulah Land:
“Thou
shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed
Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah [My delight is in her], and thy
land Beulah [Married]: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be
married” (Isa. 62:4).
Let us
not get excited about the little excursions that people are trying to make into
the land these days as they try to grab another branch of grapes from the
valley of Eschol, or fill their sacks with a few more pomegranates. The time is
here when God would mobilize a new generation for conquest of the whole land,
and we cannot settle for anything less.
Canaan, A Place Of
Victory
“He...
brought thee out in His sight... to drive out nations from before thee greater
and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an
inheritance...” (Deut. 4:37-38).
Canaan is
that heavenly heritage that God wants His people to begin to explore and to
appropriate; and therefore it is a place to be conquered, because it is in this
realm that the forces of evil would seek to maintain their strongholds over the
hearts and minds of people. The “heavenlies” in Christ Jesus are those realms
in the Spirit that belong to God’s people (Eph. 1:3, 20); and that is why our
warfare is in that realm, and not in realms of the earth (Eph. 6:12). Yes, we
are in the earth, and we are concerned about the state of affairs in the earth;
but if our warfare is THERE we will accomplish NOTHING for the inhabitants of
the earth. We must war “in heavenly places” with spiritual armor, and with
spiritual weapons, or we accomplish absolutely nothing. Nor can we mix the
carnal with the spiritual in order to strike a balance. Spiritual warfare in
the heavenlies and carnal, political maneuvering in the earth will not bring a
balance, but a stalemate. God grant unto His people in this hour such a
confrontation with Himself that we will take our shoes from off our feet, like
Joshua of old, and step into the shoes of “the preparation of the gospel of
peace.” Only then shall God’s people know how to go forth against their
Jerichos, with the trumpet blasts of the rams’ horns, and the Ark of His
presence, and see the strongholds of the Enemy crumble before Him.
The
Church for many years now has wanted to be “caught up” to be with the Lord in
the air... but actually it has been a desire to escape from the Battle. We know
that Day is coming; and not only in our spirits, but in glorified and
resurrected bodies we shall be “caught up to be with the Lord in the air. And
so shall we ever be with the Lord.” We earnestly anticipate that Day; but we
must continue to emphasize that this is to happen at the “last trump,” and not
at the first, or the second one. First of all there is the Day of Battle; and
for that God has provided for His people NOT WINGS BUT ARMOR!
“The night is far spent,
The day is at hand:
Let us therefore cast
off the works of darkness,
And let us put on THE
ARMOUR OF LIGHT” (Rom. 13:12).
Any
doctrine that says the Lord must delay His coming because certain events have
yet to take place, is not scriptural . for the “Coming” of the Lord certainly
involves many aspects of His appearing that are without warning, without
imminent signs, without universal recognition. We are not talking about “Many
Comings,” for the Bible says He will “appear the SECOND TIME”-- not a second,
third, and fourth times. But we speak of aspects of His Appearing. The same
scripture that says He will appear “the second time” also states that He has
already appeared ONCE (Heb. 9:28). But in that ONE appearing, were there not
many, many aspects of His appearing? First to Mary and Joseph; then to the
shepherds; then to the faithful in the temple, Simeon and Anna; then to the
wise men from the East; then to John the Baptist in the Jordan; and then to
Peter and to the other apostles as God granted revelation to “see” Him, and to
“know” Him. And finally He was “declared to be the Son of God with power by the
resurrection from the dead.” But it was all ONE APPEARING. And so we are
confident that in His SECOND appearing there will be many aspects of it: as He
comes suddenly to His Temple to purge the sons of Levi, as He appears in
refining fire, in fullers’ soap; as the wise virgins enter in behind closed
doors, and the foolish stand without knocking; as He appears to His own,
“comes” and takes up His abode in those who love Him, and have made for Him a
habitation; as He “comes” to the unrepentant in Ephesus and removes their
candlestick; as He “comes” to Pergamos to fight against them with the sword of
His mouth; and as He “comes” as a thief to Sardis and finds them unwatchful and
asleep. (See Mal. 3:1-2; Matt. 25:6-11; Jn. 14:21,23; Rev. 2:5, 16; 3:3.)
I know it
would be nice if we could come up with a sound, scriptural schedule for all the
events that are to take place relative to the Second Coming; and there are many
who attempt to do that very thing. I personally would not waste my time trying
to do this; because I know there is only one way we are going to be prepared
for the Second Coming... and it is not by knowing the time-table, but by being
“watchful” and “sober.” To such the Lord does not appear as a “thief in the
night.” To all others He will, regardless of their understanding of end-time
events. (See 1 Thess. 5:4; Mark 13:35-37.)
And so
while many are hoping to be translated physically to heavenly places to escape
the Battle that lies before us, there is a holy, conquering remnant who will
“see” Him and “know” Him, and rise to “heavenly places” in the Spirit to war a
good warfare in the Day of the LORD, and emerge from the Battle in total victory.
There is absolutely nothing lacking in the “Armor of Light” that we require for
total conquest over the evil hosts of Satan. Notice that when Paul tells us to
put on the “whole armor” he specifically tells us that it is for “THE EVIL DAY”
(Eph. 6:13). Can you conceive of any day that is more “evil” than this Day,
this Day of His Appearing?
Most of
our weaponry is defensive; because the Enemy can defeat us in our own territory
if we do not realize that WE ARE THE INHERITANCE that he wants to keep for himself,
and which God would overcome for Himself. We are that battle-ground which the
Enemy will continue to war; and God has given us the battle-dress that we need
to maintain our position in God’s righteousness, truth, and grace.
But we do
have one “offensive” weapon... and one is all we need. How we wish God’s people
could understand that! “The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God...”
And it is not the Bible, nor our many quotations of Scripture that we toss
about to prove our doctrines... IT IS THAT LIVING WORD THAT PROCEEDETH OUT OF
THE MOUTH OF THE LORD AS A SHARP TWO-EDGED SWORD, that will slay and cut
asunder, dividing soul and spirit, and discerning, uncovering the thoughts and
the intents of the heart.
“God,
hide us in Your mighty hand, that when You see fit to draw us forth in the Day
of Battle, You may be able to speak through us a quickened Word that will
strike unerringly in the hearts of Your people, and deal a death-blow to the
hosts of wickedness that are arrayed against Your Church.”
Canaan, A Place Of
Flowing Waters
“A good
land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of
valleys and hills” (Deut. 8:7).
God said
He would bring us OUT to bring us IN. Out from the land of Egypt where they had
to water their land with their foot, with the crude irrigation pumps they had
in those days... pumping, pumping, pumping, and wearing themselves out to get a
trickle of water. “But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of
hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven” (Deut. 11:11).
How we
long for those days when the Spirit of God comes into our midst in abundant
fullness, and flows in our midst. Instead of God’s ministers trying to “pump”
up a little water with the sweat of their brow. Better to have a little trickle
of water than none at all... Yes, that may be true; but Jesus has promised us
in the heritage of the Spirit, “Out of his innermost being shall flow RIVERS OF
LIVING WATER.”
“I will
even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert... to give drink to
my people, my chosen” (Isa. 43:19-20).
“I will
open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will
make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water” (Isa.
41:18).
“And the
parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water...”
(Isa. 35:7).
Canaan, A Place Of
Fruitfulness
“A land
of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil
olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou
shalt not lack any thing.” (Deut. 8:8-9).
Isaiah
prophesied that when the Spirit was poured out upon God’s people, that “the
wilderness” would be “a fruitful field, and the fruitful field” would be
“counted for a forest” (Isa. 32:15).
In
Israel’s feast days, when all the people were to come together to keep the
feasts of the LORD in their season, God promised: “They shall not appear before
the LORD empty” (Deut. 16:16). Every man would have something to bring before
the LORD, as God enabled. Let the ministers of the Lord everywhere begin to so
nurture the people of God that they shall have something to bring to the House
of God when they assemble together. You wonder about the divisions and the
schisms that are so prevalent in the House of God? God says it is because there
are members in the Body that are considered to be “less honorable,” and that as
He bestows more abundant honor upon them, the schism will disappear. (See 1
Cor. 12:23-25.) Keeping the people under control and in their place will sooner
or later lead to a “schism.” But as God’s people are fed and nourished, and
encouraged to function as a vital contributing member in the Body of Christ,
the schisms will disappear; because all the members will have mutual concern
one for the other. The day of Saul’s over-lordship in the House of God is
coming to an end; and God is going to raise up a David-Shepherd ministry that
will feed His people with Truth and Knowledge, and make them to be mighty in
God:
“And he
that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David
shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them” (Zech. 12:8).
True
fruitfulness is not mere church activity and church involvement. It is a life
that has come into union with the Lord, and that delights the heart of the
Husbandman. Ephraim was that tribe in Israel that was to be especially
“fruitful.” The word means “double fruitfulness.” The anointed people, the
“double portion” people, are to be doubly fruitful unto the Lord. Joseph was to
have a double portion through Ephraim. (Manasseh was firstborn, but he must
give way to Ephraim, the second-born. Manasseh means “caused to forget,” and it
is only as we are prepared to “forget those things which are behind,” the life
of the desolate wilderness, that we are going to reach forth unto those things
which lie before.) Of Joseph it was said, “Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a
fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall” (Gen. 49:22). But
God complained about Ephraim in later centuries, “Israel is an empty vine, he
bringeth forth fruit unto himself...” (Hos. 10:1). How many of God’s people
today, how many of His ministers, are bringing forth fruit unto themselves? Very
active, yes; very busy for God, yes; but like Martha, “careful and troubled
about many things” rather than the ONE THING THAT IS NEEDFUL, to sit at the
feet of Jesus and hear what He has to say.
Then as
we sit at His feet, and learn of Him... as our roots go down to the waters of
the well where we are planted... then will our branches go “over the wall” for
OTHERS. God will take care of that if we but abide faithful, rooted and
grounded in Him, who is the true spring of Life by which we are planted.
“But the
fruit of the Spirit is...” The apostle
is about to name many kinds of fruit, but it is all ONE FRUIT, and so he uses
the singular verb ...
“The fruit of the
Spirit IS:
Love, Joy, Peace,
Longsuffering,
Gentleness, Goodness,
Faith[-fulness],
Meekness, Temperance. .(Gal. 5:22-23).
All this
is first and foremost for the delight and joy of the heart of the Husbandman;
but as it delights His heart, so will He long to share the fruit He has found
with others.
God has
always desired the “firstfruits” for Himself. God was consistent in this in His
relationship with Israel. The “firstborn” was to be His. The “firstfruits” were
to be His. “My soul desired the firstripe fruit” (Mic. 7:1).
If we
truly love God, then we will show our love to others; but God desires that we
give Him the firstfruits. He must have His portion before all others. Jesus
said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23). We cannot say,
“Lord, I love you so much... I must go forth in ministry... I love you so much
.. I must preach, I must build churches, I must be a missionary... I will give
you my money...” These and many more acts of service that we may come up with
could proceed from the longing of our own heart for some kind of gratification,
some kind of fulfillment. True love will say, “Lord, I love you so much I give
you myself.” And this could lead to many different areas of outreach. But it
could also lead to a life that is very unobtrusive, insignificant,
self-effacing, unrecognized in the affairs of men or of the Church. You may
never become “known” and “recognized” as having any worth to God or to the
world about you, but you will be known in heavenly places. Your work may be
considered of little or no value in the eyes of men, and oftentimes in your own
eyes, but it is something you must do because of your love-relationship with
the Lord, and it is of great value in His sight. Your love for Him may bring
you into areas of reproach and criticism that may be difficult for you to bear.
But if it is because you “love HIM” and are “keeping His Word,” then that fruit
that you are bringing forth unto Him is not the fruit of an empty vine, but a
special kind of “firstfruits” that brings great delight to His heart. In God’s
sight it is far more precious than the “fruit” you endeavor to produce as you
do your own thing, go your own way, initiate your own plans, and bring forth
some kind of a product that is acceptable and pleasing to men, but disapproved
of God.
Only
those who themselves have learned the ways of God will approve of the ways of
those who walk in relationship with Him. We need to be delivered from the
inherent desire that is in all of us to be “approved of men”.
Then as
we are planted “by the Well,” and confined within the Wall of His Will, God in
His own time and way will see to it that our branches “run over the wall.”
These are the branches that bring forth fruit unto others. Others will then eat
of the fruit and rejoice in the strength and the life and the joy that it
brings to their hearts. Perhaps they do not know... perhaps they shall never
discover... that it is from the vine of Joseph they are eating, “whose feet
were hurt with fetters... whose soul was laid in iron.” But God knows that it
was He who caused that wall to be built, and that He did it in order to shut
the man Joseph in unto Himself. And God Himself was the first to partake of the
pleasant fruit from the vine of Joseph. The fruit inside the wall was for God
alone. God delighted Himself in the fruit of Joseph’s love, his patience, his
longsuffering, his faithfulness, his meekness, his gentleness, his goodness,
his self-control. And because these virtues caused His heart to rejoice He
said, “I must share this fruit with others... I must share this fruit with the
people of Egypt... I must share this fruit with the children of Israel.”
But how
can mortal man bring forth fruit to delight the heart of God? Only if that
fruit is from the Seed that came forth out of the heart of God Himself. Only if
it is the reproduction of the nature and likeness of God Himself. For then it
is not the work of Man but the “fruit of the Spirit.” Mortal man is merely the
garden plot, only the dust of the ground, out of which God is able to bring
forth “Fruit after His kind.”
Canaan, A Land
Prepared
“Great
and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things,
which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards
and olive trees, which thou plantedst not...” (Deut. 6:10-11).
Cities we
do not build; storehouses we do not fill; wells we do not dig; and vineyards we
do not plant... because it is a PREPARED PLACE FOR A PREPARED PEOPLE. Canaan is
the realm of the Spirit; and it is here in the wilderness areas of our lives,
and in the lives of men, that God would bring forth and manifest this
fruitfulness. God will give our enemies no credit for having built the cities,
filled the storehouses, dug the wells, or planted the vineyards. And when men
say “It is good that there is evil in the world, and God actually designed it
for His glory,” they are actually heaping condemnation on themselves. Paul did
teach that God was able to bring forth GOOD out of EVIL, and some misconstrued
this to mean, “It is good that we have evil, so that God can be glorified.” But
Paul would not so much as argue the point. He simply replied, “Their
condemnation is just who say such things” (Rom. 3:7-8). It is a perverted
concept of God that says, “God made the evil.... God created the Devil just as
he is... because He needed such a one to fulfill His purposes.” Paul refuses to
even argue against such perversion of Truth.
And so
there are vast areas out there in the wilderness of life that are ready and
waiting for the people of God to subdue. And we are going to discover, if we
follow on in the ways of the Lord, that what the Enemy planned and subdued for
his own dominion and for his own glory, these areas are going to be conquered
and subdued for God. Men and women who hated God with a passion are going to
love Him with as great a passion. The bondage they once knew in servitude to
Satan will cease; and many who were captives and slaves to Satan will become
equally captivated and enslaved to the will of God. Yet in partaking of this
new kind of captivity, captivity unto their Lord who redeemed them, they are
going to discover true freedom, and true rest, and true joy. For he who once
enslaved them is master of lies and deceit and murder and hate; whereas He who
liberated them is Master of Truth, and Faithfulness, and Life, and Love. Can we
conceive of any higher form of liberty and freedom than to be enslaved and made
captive unto Him who is TOTAL LOVE AND TOTAL TRUTH AND TOTAL LIFE? In vain are
we going to discover any kind of real liberation in coming to KNOW ourselves,
and exploring the hidden resources of our own talents, our own natural, soulish
natures. This kind of research and exploration merely increases the bondage.
And as we seek to explore our own hidden resources, our own inward deity, all
the while thinking to discover the key to life and freedom and power, we are
becoming more and more enslaved to the “Prince of Darkness.”
Do you
want to find the true “key” to happiness and freedom? There is only one way.
Like the Hebrew servant of old, having served his time in bondage and having
been liberated according to the law of God, then out of love for his master he
came and submitted his ear to be pierced at the door-post of his master’s
house, and saying through that act of committal to the one he loved: “I love
you so much, I want to be your bondservant forever... My true freedom and joy
is in serving you...”
Canaan, A Life
Prepared
We
mentioned that Canaan was a prepared place for a prepared people. This is what
the wilderness was all about: to prepare our hearts through entanglements,
through tasting of bitter waters, through knowing hunger and thirst in a dry
and barren place, through the purging of our desires... until we come forth as
the PREPARED PEOPLE for this PREPARED PLACE.
If Canaan
speaks of a Land in the Spirit that has to be subdued for God, then how can we
expect to partake of it if our own lives are ruled by self and the carnal
nature? We must first allow the Lord to subdue our own wilderness if we are
going to subdue the hearts of men, and overthrow the principalities and powers
that dominate them, and bring them into the liberty and the freedom of Christ.
This is why the weapons of are warfare cannot in any sense be earthly and
carnal. This is why our weapons consist of such virtues as Truth about our
loins, Righteousness as a breastplate, the preparation of the Gospel of Peace
for our shoes, Faith as our shield, Salvation as our helmet, the Word of God as
our one and only offensive weapon, and PRAYER--continuing prayer--that causes
all these other weapons to be effectual and mighty. Seven spiritual weapons to
overcome the seven powerful nations of Canaan! And Paul tells us that these are
all we need: he says our weapons constitute the “whole armor,” a complete
battle-dress, with nothing lacking.
Many
ministers will admit, “Yes, we need Truth and Righteousness and all that”--but
their thought is--”Let’s get on with the Battle.” They completely fail to
understand that there is no getting on with the Battle until these virtues are
wrought in the hearts of God’s people. We hear much of the necessity of
“preaching the Gospel” and scarcely anything about the SHOES OF PREPARATION.
Unless our feet are shod with the shoes of preparation there will be no
effective Gospel preached to the nations. O, the gimmicks that men in the Church
have come up with to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Drama, and musical
entertainment, and dance troupes, mime and make-believe and clowns... and the
blessed Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ has become a sad, polluted mixture. But
there is a people in the earth who are putting on the Shoes of Preparation, and
when they are sent forth into the earth with the everlasting Gospel on their
lips, they shall walk in the prepared ways of the Lord, bringing deliverance to
the captives.
The Walk
in the Spirit is a walk in the Prepared Life. And when we know this we are
relieved of any responsibility as to the Way we are to take, or the work that
we are to accomplish. We must recognize this, and not seek in any way to get
involved with our own strategies, our own thoughts. The prophet tells us that
these are as far below God’s thoughts, as the earth is below the heavens. Paul
tells us that the mind of the flesh is “enmity against God” and that it is “not
subject to the law of God.” He tells us that the natural man “receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God,” that they are foolishness unto him.
If we
pursue the Life in the Spirit we are pursuing an unknown pathway. Yes, some
have travelled it before, but it remains an unknown pathway. I mean, though we
read about it and know about it, we must discover it for ourselves. This is
what we are to learn in our wilderness walk. It is a way that God prepares in
the entanglements of life. We cannot mark out for ourselves a smooth and a
plain pathway. But as we learn God’s way in this realm, we are going to find
that God is by His Spirit seeking to lead us out of the old way of life, and
into a new prepared way of the Spirit. It is not in man to know it, or to
search it out...
“There is
a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen: the
lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it...
“Man
knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. It
cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price
thereof...
“Whence
then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid
from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air...
“Then did
He see it, and declare it; HE PREPARED IT, yea, and SEARCHED IT OUT...
“And unto
man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from
evil is understanding.” (See Job 28:7-28.)
It is a
Way that God has PREPARED for them that fear Him ... fear Him enough that they
will fear to go their own Way or do their own thing.
We come
to God as helpless, hopeless sinners and find mercy, and He sovereignly brings
us into a realm of New Creation. And then it seems the people of God are
encouraged to go their way, and do the best they can with God’s help. But Paul
exhorts us to walk by the rule of New Creation life. (See Gal. 6:15-16.) It is
the Rule of the Cloud... the Law of the Spirit... a Law of Life... and
therefore it is not in the heart of man to comprehend or understand it.
This was
Nicodemus’ problem. He was a man of great wisdom and understanding as far as
this world goes, and as far as the “Church” of his day was concerned. He was a
teacher in Israel; but Jesus would show him a way into a totally new kind of
life:
“The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not
tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of
the Spirit” (Jn. 3:8).
Evangelical
Christianity has no problem with that. We know it means the Spirit has moved
upon our hearts very sovereignly we don’t know how... and brought us to new
birth in a manner far beyond our ability to comprehend. BUT WE MUST WALK BY THE
SAME RULE! WE MUST LIVE BY THE SAME LAW OF THE SPIRIT!
We do not
know where the Spirit comes from and whither He would lead us. O yes, we know
He comes from the heart of God but here in our daily lives, here in the Land
that has to be subdued for God, we fail to recognize this principle. We do not
know the course that the Wind of His Spirit will take. We do not know what He
has planned and devised. We do not know whither He would lead us. And this
causes us to feel very insecure. We want a charted course. But it is a path
which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen. And so we
would yield so readily to the temptation to chart our own course... or more
likely still, to get involved with some kind of religious structure that will
do it for us. They are more experienced, so we would find safety under their
canopy, under their covering, under their shelter. And so we read their
history, how their movement started, and try and convince ourselves that the
goals which they hope to reach are valid and scriptural. We think in this way we
might discover “from whence the Wind cometh... and whither it goeth.” And this
may give us a certain sense of security and safety.
But the
man of the Spirit Way cannot become fettered with rules and regulations. He
must walk in the Spirit. He must find himself in the Wind of the Spirit... in
the flow of the River of God. At first, like Ezekiel of old, he will walk
hesitatingly into the waters. It is a vast River, and he must tread carefully.
A step or two... Then he finds himself in water up to his ankles. The stream is
getting more forceful as he moves on, and fear grips his heart. Now the water
is up to his knees... now up to his loins. But still he hears the words: “Keep
walking... Keep coming to Me... Do not be afraid...” Suddenly he finds he can
no longer touch bottom; they are waters “to swim in” and he is swept along in
the current.
He has
lost control! He is carried along in the current of the River of the Spirit of
God! He does not know whence it cometh, and whither it goeth!
But as he
is carried along in the flow of the Spirit he begins to lose his fear. He
discovers that it is a River of Peace, and that all fears have been swept away.
For this River flows out from the heart of God, and will return to the heart of
God... and he will return with it. He has found all his springs are in Zion. He
has not yet seen the City, except by faith, like Abraham of old, who saw it
afar off: a City which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. But
though he sees it not, he knows the River is flowing out from the City, and
unto the City.
Ezekiel
lost his footings when he found “waters to swim in.” And so it must be with the
people who come into the realm of the Spirit. No longer can we calculate, and
plan, and devise, and arrange, and order, and organize, and control...
It is the
Way of the Spirit! It is the Way of New Birth! It is the Way of the Wind! We
hear the “sound” and that is enough. We know the Voice, and the Voice is
assuring. We have not gone this Way before, but He has... and He wants us to
walk in the Way that He has prepared.
Do I
sense a certain fear in hearts when I say the man of the Spirit has “lost
control”? I did not say he is out of control, or that he is not under control.
Rather, the Spirit of God is now in control. Is that to be considered
dangerous? Or would you feel a little more secure if your carnal mind were to
remain in control? Or is some religious organization was to remain in control?
Or if some outstanding apostle or prophet was to have the control?
There are
so many in the religious world who feel comfortable and secure in the systems
of men, and they fear the unknown Way. But the people who have committed their
whole way of life to Him, and into the care of the Spirit of our Lord Jesus,
shall know the joy and the peace and the rest of the River of God when the
heavens and the earth are shaken, and when the mountains are dissolved in the
depths of the sea:
“Therefore will not
we fear,
Though the earth be
removed,
And though the
mountains be carried
Into the midst of the
sea....
There is a River,
The streams whereof
shall make glad
The City of God,
The holy place of the
tabernacles
Of the Most High”
(Ps. 46:2, 4).
We do not
understand all the implications of this. But we do know that when the heavens
and the earth are shaken, and the mountains are dissolved in the sea... whether
by the devices of men or by the fire of God... there is going to be a people
flowing in the River of God, making glad His City, “the Holy Place of the
Tabernacles of the Most High.”
There is
a spirit that controls the course of this world. It is the spirit of Satan,
“the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in [activates,
energizes] the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). He has succeeded in
totally captivating the spirits and souls and bodies of men and women, making
them to be the “bondslaves of sin” (Rom. 6:17). They think they are FREE but
they are not. They are prisoners to the spirit of the world and of Satan. They
are totally under his control. Only the Light of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ can set them free.
Let us
fear that kind of control; and having been delivered from it, let us “stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath set us free.”
But never
let us fear to be caught in the flow of His cleansing, purifying, life-giving
River; for it is the River of God, the River of Truth, the River of Freedom,
the River of Joy, the River of Wisdom, the River of Knowledge, the River of
Life, the River of Love that flows ceaselessly from the heart of God and
through the Land of our Inheritance!
PUBLICATIONS
AVAILABLE
(1) THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.
A
Study of the 3 annual feasts in Israel, and their fulfillment in the Church.
(2) EVENING AND MORNING.
How
God brings us back to fundamentals, but forward to new realms in God.
(3) FEED MY SHEEP.
Deals
particularly with the nature and responsibility of ministry in the Church.
(4) THE HYSSOP THAT SPRINGETH OUT OF THE
WALL.
A
lesson in God’s ways. The lowly Hyssop..always related to sacrifice.
(5) FROM TENT TO TEMPLE.
How God
has progressively moved from one tent to another, finally taking up His
Habitation in man.
(6) WHO ARE YOU?
About the
Victory of the Cross, and a challenge as to our identity with the overcomers in
Zion.
(7) CROWNED WITH OIL.
God’s
people a Royal Priesthood, in virtue of the Anointing.
BEAUTY
FOR ASHES series--
(8) PART I. The Family of God.
God’s
dealings with His chosen family, illustrated in the lives of Joseph and his
brethren.
(9) PART II. A Way Through the Wilderness.
How
God leads His people through the Wilderness, and into Canaan.
(10) PART III. The Journey of the Bride.
The
Bride of Christ..based on the story of Isaac & Rebekah.
(11) PART IV. Chain Reaction in Realms of the
Spirit.
The Law
of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus..God’s only Way for His Church, and the
only Way to reach the nations.
(12) PART V. The Garden of God.
The
Gardener waits for the fruit.
All Writings Free as
God Enables.
Address all
communication to:
George H. Warnock
Box 652, Cranbrook,
B.C.,
Canada V1C 4J2