A Newsletter from IN HIS GRIP MINISTRIES
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In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem. Fear not, O Zion, let not your hands
sink down or be slow and listless. The
Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior (Who saves)! He
will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest (in silent satisfaction) and in
His love He will be silent and make no mention
(of past sins, or even recall them):
He will exult over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3: 16-17) Zephaniah whose name meant “he whom the Lord has hidden” was
a prophet during the reign of Josiah and of the same era of Jeremiah. He forewarned God’s people of the coming
destruction of their nation, but unfortunately like us today they hardened
their hearts and refused to listen and repent of their sins. However God always has a remnant that
listens and obeys. The Lord never
leaves us in the dark to figure out what is happening around us, NO He
continually warns us ahead of time, if we would but ask Him, then He would
reveal His purpose and intent. Many Christians are under the false assumption that only a
pastor or leader can hear and understand what God is orchestrating in the world
today, and so therefore we can’t possibly have any comprehension of His purpose
and intent. Yes God did speak through
the prophets in the Old Testament but in Hebrews 1:1&2a “In many separate
revelations (each of which set forth a portion of the Truth) and in different
ways God spoke of old to (our) forefathers in and by the prophets. (But) in the last of these days He has
spoken to us (in the person of a) Son…” Jesus desires us to ask Him questions and seek His desires
in everything we do. Many times we
don’t think we hear His voice because we are not still long enough to hear the
answer. “Call to Me and I will
answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which
you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and
understand).” Jeremiah
33:3 Many times Jesus has spoken to me when I was in a position
to not talk, one example was as I was
brushing my teeth one day, He just gave me the answer to something that had
been puzzling me for days then told me that because my mouth was SHUT He could
speak. When we stop seeking the
answers to our questions and start presuming what the will of God is then we
find ourselves in trouble and on the wrong track. Many times Jesus said in the Gospels “He that has ears to hear let him
hear”
Quite often there is nothing wrong with our physical hearing it is our
spiritual hearing that gets blocked up!
Then fear and doubt enter the picture. Zephaniah encouraged
God’s people by telling them not to fear because the Lord was in the midst of
them; in fact He was right in the middle of them. Just like the eye of the storm is in the middle of the bad
weather so is our Lord right there and always in control. We may feel the effects of the storm all
around us and get scared and anxious yet the Lord is still there in the middle
and His words are “Peace
be still”. Our faith always reaches a low point when we see the “storm”
headed our way! Yet we can always have
faith for other people and encourage them that God will see them through. However we doubt and mistrust that anything
good will come out of our situation and wonder like the disciples did on that
storm tossed sea that maybe Jesus is sleeping and does not see the impeding
disaster rolling upon us. Our prayers
seem channeled towards waking Him up to get His attention to this matter. We so easily forget the words of Zephaniah
that God is in the midst of us a Mighty One, a Savior the Rescuer. The days we are in certainly qualify for ‘storm-tossed’, the
state of the stock market alone is enough to have you confused and perplexed,
plus all the other crazy things that are happening all over the world: Foot
& Mouth disease, war in Israel, hostages taken in China, and what about all
the shootings in our schools? “But
understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of
great stress and trouble (hard to deal with and hard to bear) For people will
be lovers of self and (utterly) self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by
an inordinate (greedy) desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous
boasters. They will be abusive to
parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane.” 11 Timothy 3:1&2 The list in
the third chapter of second book of Timothy extensively lays out the state of
the world in the last days. It is not
surprising to witness first hand many of these attributes mentioned in this
chapter. Gone are the days when
everyone including the non-Christians behaved in a Godly manner towards each
other, unfortunately even Christians are manifesting many of these traits today
and then acknowledge to all that they are God-fearing born-again Christians. How can we judge and criticize the world for
its sin and condone the iniquity of our so-called brothers and sisters? We all have sins in our past that we are not
proud of, but when we boast of them and relive the excitement of each act then
that is just a slap in the face of Jesus.
Only genuine repentance before a holy God will do. As a result as the scripture in Zephaniah
states that God will make no mention of our past sins. Those are
the sins that the devil constantly reminds us of, and batters our mind with, to
prevent us from moving on, and accomplishing what the Lord wants us to. That is why there is a daily battle of fear
verses faith. Fear comes from
the constant barrage of “look what you did, the Lord can’t use you, and your
past sins are too great for God to forgive.”
Faith says “ I believe what the Lord says about me, despite how I
personally feel and therefore there is now no condemnation for those who
live and walk in the Spirit. And I can do all things through Jesus who is my
strength”. When it
comes to that intimate side-by-side spiritual union with our God, just as Adam
and the Lord walked together in the garden, so He longs for us to yearn after
Him in the same manner. In these days
we are in we will have to lean more and more on not what we know but Who we
know, just to make it every day. If you
are going through a real struggle and have no one or thing to rescue you-
rejoice because you are cultivating the only “survival” technique you require! The Church of Jesus Christ will soon come to
a definite separation between those who hold that form of religion mentioned in
2 Timothy3: 5 and those who are more and more dependant on the Lord. The wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:29,30)
both look alike as they grow but only wheat produces wheat germ but the other
is a phony and produces nothing. The
fruit is the evidence of the true product! “For although they
hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to
the power of it (their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession).
Avoid (all) such people (turn away from them).” Don’t be
surprised to see the Lord more and more expose these people for what they truly
are! Our job is not to pass judgment
only to discern when the Lord warns us to not get involved and to turn
away. We cannot fathom what is taking
place in the spiritual realm on our behalf, but as we progress to go deeper and
deeper into the things of God then, and only then, can we see manifest in our
lives the outgrowth of a totally yielded life. Consequences
of continually turning our back and ignoring the Lord will soon prove to be
hazardous to our spirits. The Lord
requires for us to love Him with ALL our heart, mind, and soul. That leaves no room for our desires and
selfish motives! No longer can we
afford to walk in and out of the world and expect to maintain any degree of
intimacy with Jesus. Even as we
desire to move closer to Jesus and further from the world, we will still
encounter hardships as we take a stand against the works of the enemy! We are not
defeated, although we may have momentary setbacks but as Paul wrote in 2
Corinthians chapter 4:8 & 9, “We are hedged in (pressed) on every side (troubled and
oppressed in every way), but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and
are perplexed and unable to find a way out, but are not driven to despair. We are pursued (persecuted and hard driven),
but not deserted (to stand alone); we are struck down to the ground, but never
struck out and destroyed.” All scripture are used from the Amplified Bible Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. |
