Troublesome times are here. Many truths we hold dear and in which we have firm convictions are under all-out assault. A new order battles to usurp established beliefs founded in the realities God has revealed through His Word and Holy Spirit. The epicenter of the attack of the enemy is aimed at the very foundation of our faith. The enemy’s strategy is that we lose heart. He wants us to give up the good fight of faith. The world system and demonic powers threaten to shake our composure with the objective to trample the salt of the earth, the Community of the King underfoot. Iniquity is abounding, and for many, their love has become cold. Those who aren’t caving to societal pressures of conviction and position regarding creation, morals, and right and wrong have instead become intimidated and filled with anger. As pressure mounts upon world cultures to reject Christ and Christianity, the enemy is determined to wage war against the saints anticipating many will deny Christ and abandon the faith. At the least, Satan is determined to shake our composure and thwart our destiny in Christ.
But wait a minute! God in His Spirit seeing times of tribulation and having the foresight of the worst of times in the coming great tribulation declared a prophetic reality establishing it as a promise of God. In this Word, we find refuge in His promise and lay hold of the tangible hope knowing that God declares comes to pass. We need not abandon hope, doubt the faith God has established in our hearts, or become filled with anger embracing a cold love. We need not be shaken by the world, nor allow the enemy to shatter our composure for “in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37 NASB)! As New King James translates, “…in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
Repentance – From What Do We Need To Repent?
Most of what we are facing is because the sin in the church has allowed the sins of society to take hold. The move of God at Asbury University declares the mood of God’s Spirit where we are concerned: It is time to repent and be renewed in the purity of devotion to Jesus. Is this just for student bodies at various colleges and universities? Plainly, no! Tens of thousands were drawn by God’s Spirit from all over the United States and from many countries overseas. The intention of God is revealed by the way His Spirit has been moving. But hear this, we must take seriously the issue of repentance and the renewal of the purity of devotion to Christ! The condition of the church is directly responsible for the communities, cities, and nations in which she dwells. Jesus warned about what would happen “If the salt has lost its savor” (Matthew 5:13 KJV), and we see it happening in our society today.
The word savor means much more than just flavor. In fact, in Greek, it means to become insipid. This means the church would become lacking in vigor and interest. This word also means to passively act, not having strength. Sadly many of our religious ideas have caused us to fold our hands and do nothing on the false premise and false conclusion that the world is destined to grow evil, so let’s just wait until Jesus comes, or let’s just do our thing provided it has a spiritual feeling to it.
We have become rich and increased with goods. But sadly we have traded the material things of this world along with its gospel of temporal prosperity for the eternal riches of God’s grace in Christ. Let us not relegate the Holy Spirit and limit Him to only producing special effects when the music is “right” and the crowd is gathered in an auditorium. God is capable of so much more. The working of His Spirit is not confined to the guy or woman with the microphone. God will be glorified through the many-membered body of Christ in the marketplace and the streets. Oh, beloved, we have willingly become poor, blind, and naked in trade for acquiring status, wealth, and comfort.
We also must recognize that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God.” But why did we put them away taking up the fight according to worldly methods? Protests make statements. They don’t produce converts. We must protect the unborn. But we must not hate those who are lost and let loveless attitudes motivate our actions and speech. What if the church were more like the church should be – as we see her throughout the Book of Acts? What if we were sharing God’s love as we share Jesus Christ for the last several decades? This would change things that laws, politicians, and protests can’t. The power of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ can save anyone from any sin, set them free from sin, and transform their life! Our weapons are not weapons of hate, they are not the same tools the world uses, and they are mighty through God.
This same message of God’s love, the power of Jesus’ death on the cross, and the hope of new life in this life through His resurrection is a very valid prescription for today’s societal ills. Many people today don’t even know who they are, they are truly lost to an extreme we’ve not seen in the history of the world. Yet, the answer isn’t anger. It isn’t hate. We must repent of cold love and stand in the gap and become the intercessors God has called us to be filled with the very love that dominates the heart of Jesus for those who are lost! We must repent of our loveless attitudes and from surrendering our rich inheritance in Christ. Let us repent of closing our hands and becoming a light hidden under the bushel, becoming salt that lost its savor, and repent of our monastery mentality where the world is concerned! Then we can be renewed in the purity of devotion to Christ and in His righteousness, we can be clothed with the power of God unto the salvation of the lost as each one of us personally brings the substance of heaven – the very life of Jesus – to the streets and marketplaces of our communities!
Destined To Be More Than Conquerors
Tribulation? We are facing some very troubling times. Distress? Calamities and persecution have been mounting against the body of Christ swiftly and fiercely. Famine? I’ve been to many congregations that are starved for a real moving of the Holy Spirit. People are starved for the straight Word of God and a pure Word from God. No gimmicks. No compromises. There are dangers when the Word of God is stifled, and the Spirit of God is quenched. And the condition of the church at large is a condition of being destitute, and truly the shame of our nakedness is clear. But God loves us. His love is ever constant toward us in all these things – even in our shame. We have a high priest who is easily touched by the feelings of our infirmities. We can cast all our distresses and anxieties upon Him, and in love, He calls, “buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear” (Revelation 3:18).
He calls us to repentance. He seeks to purify us and renew us in the purity of devotion to Jesus. He has destined us to be a people who are victorious in the midst of all these things! Even where sin and compromise in our lives are concerned. He has predestined us – marked a predetermined course for us and has made predetermined arrangements for us. God has ordained that we become more than conquerors through Jesus Christ!
The status of our victory need not be in scarcity. There is an abundant victory that is ours that is contained in the abundance of the life of Christ. In tribulation, we need not be barely peaceful, but abounding in peace and blessed assurance. We need not be satisfied with crumbs at the Lord’s table or a few sprinkles for an outpouring. God has prepared much more than we could even imagine!
And what of the shame of our nakedness – our sins? We encounter in this occasion the capacity to love in a greater capacity, for he who is forgiven much, loves much! In our shame, in our condition, as we repent from our sins and turn towards God seeking the power of His grace to change us, we are not met with condemnation, but His love and powerful transforming grace! You and I are destined by God to be more than conquerors through Jesus’ love!
Our composure need not be shaken! The life of the church that is strong in the Lord and in the power of His might which was revealed in the Book of Acts is the life that God will breathe into us again as we pray, seek His face, and enter into repentance and renewal. He does not want to revive us to what we were, but to the standard of what we as the Body of Christ should be. God desires to revive us with the life of Christ and restore us with the fresh oil of His Spirit. Our congregations need not be monasteries of seclusion from the world. As we repent of our sins, He will restore us to our position as a city set on the hill. We will become salt restored! We will make intercession on behalf of our communities in the love of Christ, and we will speak the Word of God with boldness as we follow through in intercession praying personally with those that are lost. Let us renounce our ways and return unto the Lord with our whole hearts, for He will revive us, and He will raise us up!
Being The People Of The Destiny Of God
What must become the seat of our passion is found in a passage a few verses before Romans 8:37 if we are to be the people who live in the destiny of God. People who will live in the destiny we have described are identified by God’s Word. This group of people is defined in Romans 8:29a,b: “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son…”
When we line up with and submit ourselves to God’s eternal purpose, we put ourselves direct-center in the mainstream of Divine destiny. Before the foundation of the world, Christ was slain as the lamb of God. It was a done deal. And God foresaw a people who would become His through Christ. God determined then, before the foundation of the world, that these people would be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. That is the destiny of God for your and my life!
This destiny – how we get there and what we must go through in the process – is made more clear. He would call us, justify us, and then glorify us (see Romans 8:30). Truly these details deserve much, much more than the sentence I just gave them. But for now, they are identified to help you see the order and arrangement God has in mind. If we are to be a people of destiny – the destiny of God in Christ, we must align our determination with God’s determination and His eternal purpose in being conformed to the image of Christ. Period.
When we do so, we please our Heavenly Father by offering Him genuine worship (see Romans 12:1 NASB). The life of Christ, the only begotten Son, always pleased the Father, and when we are being conformed to the image of His Son and our life is transformed in the likeness of the life of Christ, we also bring pleasure to the Father as well. It is the eternal purpose of God and His passionate desire that our lives reveal the life of Christ. Why? So that as others see us, they’ll see Jesus, and when they see Jesus, they’ll see the Father. This is the alignment to which we must submit – and through this, we will live in the destiny of God for our lives. His destiny, His will for you and me is that we are more than conquerors – that we overwhelmingly conquer the sin that does so easily beset us, overcome the pitfalls and strategies of the enemy, and that we “earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude v3 NASB) we reach toward the mark and high call of God obtaining the fulness of Christ. Steadfastly holding this resolve, we will be anointed with a composure that cannot be shaken as we live in God’s destiny for our lives!
Heavenly Father, I pray that we become sensitive to the drawing of Your Spirit, and to the call of Your Word. I thank you for Your assurance that Your love abides with us through tribulation, distress, persecution, and even when we sin, and that Jesus is with us always. Forgive us our sins, as we repent of our compromises and the areas of sin in our lives. Restore us to the standards of the church that reveals the life of Jesus, revive us in the life of Christ, and empower us to share Your love and be your witnesses to the lost of this generation. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Hal Garms eWord Messages 