The Season of Recall!! 2006/20 09/10/06
I believe that I told you last week, that we need to build a library of our testimonies of God’s revelations to us, when He has come upon the scene, in the manifestation of His love, to deliver us, in the midst of circumstances that we had no way out of, and this is the season that we need to attend to this diligently. I love the promises of God with all the blessings that accompany them, but, the prophesies are still totally on the scene and now more that ever, because they are coming to pass suddenly, this is the season that we need to be diligent, gaining a more intimate knowledge of God.
When we read Paul’s final statement to Timothy and we know that he was recalling his walk with God, saying that he had fought the good fight, he had finished the race and he had kept the faith. All of that from 2 Timothy 4:7, but what was the fight? We have to turn back to 1 Timothy 6:11-12 and read;
“But as for you, O man of God, flee from all these things; aim at and pursue righteousness (right standing with God and true goodness), godliness (which is the loving fear of God and being Christlike), faith, love, steadfastness [patience], and gentleness of heart.
Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold of eternal life to which you were summoned and [for which] you confessed the good confession [of faith] before many witnesses.”
Of course, the ‘all these things’ that Paul said to flee from, was the greed and lust that was enveloping the world, plus many other things that can hinder our progress, and much of this is happening even now. So lets get on with what we have started.
I am not digressing from our subject, but I am just approaching it from a different direction. I know that the Holy Spirit, is now most active in a season of shifting the church, or a season of transformation. If we look at all that faces us each day, higher prices for everything, generally because the price of all we use is adjusted by the higher fuel prices we have to pay, plus many other obstacles, brought on by the chaos in the world. There is much in our daily lives that now seem like stumbling blocks and we sometimes wonder why God doesn’t do something – Well, He is doing something. He is using these potholes in the road of life as tools to perfect us and develop an end-time faith, that I know from scripture, our Lord Jesus is the perfecter of.
We have already read from Timothy, and we can surely know of the troubled times that confront us, as I said, not only them, but us as well. These are those times that Paul called perilous times, and seasons, but God is on the scene and His word will come to pass and His love and His glory will be seen by all the world, through His church that He is perfecting now. We see in Ephesians, that He is, through His servants, causing His children to reach full stature. In fact, let’s stick right here for just a moment. Go to Eph. 4:12, 13 and 16 and pick up on some of His promises, and they are promises that will come to pass.
Note: His servants or stewards here are Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers as listed in Ephesians 4.
His intention: Perfecting and fully equipping of the saints.
Developing us until there is oneness in the faith.
Developing the comprehension of the full and accurate knowledge
of the Son of God.
That we arrive at a really mature manhood.
The fullness of personality which is nothing less than the standard
height of Christ’s own perfection, and the completeness found in Him.
Plus verse 16
“For because of Him the whole body (the church, in all its various parts), closely joined and firmly knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part [with power adapted to its need] is working properly [in all it functions], grows to full maturity, building itself up in love.”
By the way, back to our subject, “FAITHFULNESS” All we have just read is going to take faithfulness in all of us. We are part of a body that is going to grow into what we have just described, and I really don’t know how, but God does, with the Holy Spirit here to direct each scene in the play of life. Jesus is the producer and the Holy Spirit is the director.
Note: Faithfulness to God involves an ongoing process of seeking and meditation in His word and faithfulness to His love in all its unconditional acceptance. His love is limitless and boundless. Our faithfulness to His call is always backed by His faithfulness.
As we said last week, faith is deeply involved in the acts of faithfulness that God is even now bringing more into focus than ever before, and not in just a few, but in all who have covenanted to go on with Him, and follow Him wherever He leads. There is a scripture that we have used many times, and God has not deleted it from His word yet, so we need to get hold of it now. Lets turn to Luke 18:8b;
“…However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find (persistence in) faith on the earth?”
If you add, as the Amplified Bible did, the words, [persistence in], you can say that Jesus was emphasizing ‘faithfulness’, and this is what I am hearing Him say through many of the teachers and preachers now, and I believe it is the heart of God.
When we started this lesson today, we heard Paul telling Timothy to fight the good fight of faith [1 Tim. 6:12] and I believe that the good fight involves our persistence [faithfulness], in trials and tests. That is what faithfulness is all about. But we need to understand. All of us, here in this room, accepted Jesus as Savior and I believe all here have also accepted Him as Lord, but there is another title that must be applied to His Lordship and that is found in Heb. 12:2; (I am going to add verse 3)
“…Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also it Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.” ( this is a testimony)
Now the point that I want to make is that Jesus went through all He went through, just for us, and He is now in the process of bringing in us the perfection of that which He started and if you look at Phil 1:6, you’ll see it written. (This is all material that you need to add to your library of testimonies.)
“And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.”
Note: There are times when the accuser will try to convince you that you will never make it, that you’ll never be acceptable to God and are a failure, but the above is your testimony and you can tell him that your attorney is sitting at the right hand of God and that he take that up with Him and His name is Jesus. Enter this verse into your library.
It is necessary that we continue to understand, as I am sure that most of you do, that this level of faith, has to be tried and tested for its genuineness, because it is intended to be accounted unto our praise and glory when Jesus Christ is revealed. [1 Peter 1:7].
I know that this seems a long way from where we were last week, but it isn’t. To be filled with an intimate knowledge of His love and faithfulness, empowers us in the persistence of faith that holds fast in any trial or test that comes. It is that time in which you withdraw from your library, a testimony that brings forth the overcoming victory. Have you ever truly considered Revelation 12:11? Read it in this manner and gain another testimony;
“And they have overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of their testimony, for they did not love and cling to life even when faced with death [holding their lives cheap till they had to die for their witnessing.”
They, (those redeemed by the blood) overcame him (the accuser and liar and deceiver) by the word of their testimony. Now, do you see the overcoming power of your testimony? These did not consider life, safety or self more important than the integrity and loyalty found in faithfulness to Him and His call on their lives.
Now, can I bring this same portion up to where we live today? I need to have you turn to Matthew 16:24-25 for a moment and then we can see where we are going.
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone decides to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
The blood of the Lamb was to them, in their time, the power of the cross, and their testimony, was centered on what the power of the blood had done in their lives, that they were no longer their own, and the devil’s accusations had no power over them. They were all probably martyred, according to history, and as we continue to bring this up to our time, then we have to know that the cross that Jesus spoke of in Matthew is our self life, our opinions, our strengths, our abilities, are what we need to understand that we need loose ourselves from, or die to. These all represent the carnality of life that we are willing to give up for His sake. O, by the way, the word ‘witnesses’ in acts 1:8, the word that Jesus used, is from the greek word for martyr, and we come to the place of loving not our lives unto death (that is death to self), it is the life you lost when you picked up your cross [Matthew 16:25]
As we continue to hunger after the Lord and follow Him, He will, and the word I am going to use is, crowd us into dependence on Him, and we will start to understand that we must let go of our own independence, and begin to totally depend on Him alone. To loose ourselves from our so called strength and hear Him tell Paul that it was His grace that was the sufficiency that he needed. That in Paul’s weakness, the Lord’s strength was made manifest. “Paul, let go of trying to do anything, whatsoever on your own.” This is all happening at a pace that is at the “speed of Light”, and that is as fast as God determines it to be. Hold on, it is a glory ride.
Now, we need to understand that we, as overcomers, are not perfect, and all will stumble, but we only need to get up and dust the mistake off with a testimony of God’s rich love and faithfulness, and overcome the test with victory. I know that we are living in a season of the suddenlies, times in which God is hastening our growth rate, and in fact, in Isaiah 60, the prophet speaks of the time when the glory of the Lord, is risen upon His children, and His glory being seen on His children and in verse 22, it declares; “I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.”
It is good to think and know that God is moving quickly and He is also about His business of doing a very thorough work and perfecting it in us. Think about what He has already done to prove (as if He needs to prove anything), His power. He took a dozen men, rough fishermen, hated tax collectors, and transformed them into a company of apostles, that went forth, raising the dead, healing the sick, many of them being involved in writing the scriptures and then there was of course, Paul, a pharisee, of the school of Gamaliel, one who stood by and watched the Christians martyred, but God had a plan, and Paul had the key role and during his ministry (30 years), wrote at least two thirds of the New Testament and most of it while in chains in prison. Is that an overcoming life or not? A life of faithfulness when it looked many times as if all hope was fleeting. He was shipwrecked, beaten, imprisoned and chained, but he knew His God and His faithfulness and knew His final end, but he remained faithful.
Note: Paul’s faithfulness was always active because he, as we just discussed, had an intimate knowing in his spirit that God’s faithfulness was then and always is on hand to back up His call on our life and our faithfulness to perform His call.
We are coming to the place where we need to have an intimate knowing of our God more than ever before. We will, I believe, get a true focus on revival in our land, and we will not be distracted from that vision and it will come to pass. This is all a part of ‘faithfulness’ and knowing our God.
I believe that one of the final moves of grace will be a church whose spiritual maturity will be so evident that many in the world will be drawn to it, and many others will be frightened by the power of grace never witnessed before. The very life of Jesus Christ will be manifest in the earth. His power will be in every move of His church, which is that body that the gates of hell cannot prevail against.
I love it in Daniel 11:32, where the prophet declared;
“…but the people who know their God shall prove themselves strong and shall stand firm and do exploits [for God].”
And listen to Daniel 12:3, and both of these are end time verses;
“And the teachers and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness (to uprightness and right standing with God) [shall give forth light] like the stars forever and ever.”
Could I share with you what our exploits could be, for many have asked me over the years about this. I believe that our exploits are to speak of His love to those wherever we have opportunity. It may be in the supermarket, or the hardware store, on the job or you may need to pray for someone’s healing on the street, and your faithfulness will be so confident in God’s faithfulness and love that you will pray with power and startling confidence, and they will know that they have been touched by the hand of God.
I have recently been reminded again of something that God spoke to me early in my walk with Him. He told me that He did could not hurt me, and that He could never leave me nor forsake me and that He would eternally be jealous to perform His word and that none of His word could ever fail. If it were to ever fail [and it won’t] then everything that is, would cease to be, because when He established His word, He had no other name more powerful than His own to swear by. Wow!! That is a strong declaration, but true.
A brother once said, and I hope that I get the quote right, after having read it many times, that we are not mere mortals stumbling around on earth, separated from our God and isolated from His response to our needs. No! We are each one, new creations, born again from above, and resident within us is the Holy Spirit of the Almighty and All Powerful God. We are His residence and He is always here with us. We are filled with His fullness [Col. 2:9-10]. Get this in your spirit now; No power can quench the promises that God has inspired in His Word, and now power can stop His prophesies from coming to pass.
What we become is far more important to God and anything we are doing. Faithfulness will maintain its standards when tried and tested, and will always find grace when pressed beyond our ability, and makes us truly the men and women that God will use in these days of awe.
Listen, I want you to remember to consciously build your library of testimonies of God’s faithfulness in your life, to draw upon when trials demand it. Lets look at one other of God’s people as we close this lesson, and we find our blessing here, in 2 Chron 20, but I first want to read one verse from chapter 19. This is Jehosophat speaking in verse 9; “Thus you shall act in the fear of the Lord, faithfully and with a loyal heart.” And in verse 11c; “Behave courageously, and the Lord will be with the good.”
Now, in 20, we find Jehosophat’s people, being attacked by Moab, Ammon and Mount Sier, and they were far outnumbered and he set himself to seek the Lord and humbled himself and stood in the assembly and said [listen to the testimony];