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Abiding: Thoughts, Prayers and the Word of God

Posted on by Melissa Lynne

The warfare has been so intense these last days so I have planted myself in the Word of God and put my focus on Jesus Christ. Over the last couple of days I have meditated on this word – ABIDE. I am sure this will go further because it just is the way I am, but decided to type this out. I have kind of used it like one of my prayer/scripture cards. Maybe all of this will help someone else too.

Abide: To wait for, await. To endure without yielding, withstand. To bear patiently, endure. To remain in one place.

Synonyms for “abide”: To stay, dwell, remain. To hand around, stick around. Tarry.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:4-5 (one of my favorite scriptures)

Prayers from God’s Word to help keep me in the place of abiding

-Lord, have mercy on me

Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily. Psalm 86:3

-Lord, impart Your thoughts to me

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.. Isaiah 55:8

-Lord, help me to take every thought captive to You

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 2 Corinthians 10:5

-Lord, test and examine my ways

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40

I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Jeremiah 17:10

-Lord, make my desires Your desires

Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Psalm 37:4

-Lord, help me to be faithful in small things

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Luke 16:10

-Lord, show me which way I should turn today

And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.Isaiah 30:21

-Lord, keep me in Your dwelling place

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! Psalm 84:1

-Lord, keep me on track today

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Phillippians 3:12-16

-Lord, give me Your mind

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16

-Lord, help me to set my mind on things above

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2

-Lord, help my speech to be gracious

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.Colossians 4:6

-Lord, keep me in Your shelter and give me Your rest

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

-Lord, more of You and less of me

He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30

And when we have found our place of abiding with Christ, the fragrance of Christ is spread by us, for we are to God the aroma of Christ and we carry the fragrance of life to those around us.

Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17

 

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Hunger for the Word

Posted on by Melissa Lynne

I was just sitting here thinking about the greatest Bible study I was ever a part of. It was in the USA but with a Laotian community of believers. I was at a friend’s house for a Laotian birthday party. Suddenly right in the middle of it all, it seemed to come abruptly to an end because a majority of the people wanted to go and separate themselves to study the Bible. This majority was the Laotians. It would have never crossed my mind to study the Word at a party, I am sad to admit. I was invited by my friend to join them and very gladly accepted. We sat around a circle on the hard floor of an empty house that was being built next door. The Laotian minister gave each person a verse in a scripture passage that he had planned for their study that night. They came prepared to study the Word. They all had their Bibles. We prayed and then we went around the circle taking turns reading the scripture and then sharing what it meant to us. One interpreted so we could all understand. I believe we studied Ephesians. I don’t remember a lot about what was said that day but I remember the beauty in the hunger in these people and in their posture and reverence toward the Word of God. They didn’t take the freedom to study for granted. There was no hurrying. We sat there and studied for quite a while. I wonder that I have never seen that kind of hunger in any group of English speaking Christians that I have met. I have seen it in one or two people but never in such a large group. Surely it exists…I pray for that degree of hunger and that posture.

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“it will be as a memorial to you”

Posted on by Melissa Lynne

Today at 4pm I will go to another funeral. Yes, this week I have been dealing with the loss of another friend. A true servant of the Lord with a beautiful heart for Him and for those He loves. Although I know that my friend is in heaven and that is a much better place than this world, I once again had truly believed that the Lord was going to allow an earthly healing. When He didn’t, I found myself in a place of having another reaction of “what?” “what are you doing Lord?” “Help me understand, Father.” I have never been more expectant of  miracles than over these last months and never more (shocked…for lack of a better word).

A couple of days ago, I was reading my Bible and praying about this when I found myself stuck and meditating on 2 Samuel 23:14-17:

And David was then in an hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.  And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate! And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord.  And he said, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men. 

I found this an odd scripture, almost unfinished and yet I know all scripture is God breathed and it is complete and whole whether I can understand it yet or not. When I read this passage I was reminded of the cross. In my mind I see Jesus on the cross dying as His blood and life was slowly being poured out on the ground.

I wonder how the disciples felt…you know, in those days before Jesus was resurrected. They knew what He had told them, but did they have a true understanding? Did they have moments of such confusion over what they had been called to and what their human eyes saw? I think from what we know from the Bible, they did. I wonder how these three mighty men felt. Did their traditions help them to understand what they saw and experienced?

I found the study notes in my Bible regarding this passage very interesting: David poured out the water as an offering to God b/c he was so moved by the sacrifice it represented. When Hebrews offered sacrifices, they never consumed the blood, it represented life. And they poured it out before God. David would not drink the water that represented the lives of his soldiers. Instead, he offered it to God.

Sometimes God does things or allows things that are so deep that we do not yet have a grid to understand. Our human minds just can’t comprehend. Sometimes we pour ourselves into something. We give it our all. We believe. We fast. We pray. We pray in agreement. We encourage ourselves. We praise in advance. We trust. We obey. We submit….but in the end nothing happens or even worse we seem to lose everything we poured in.

The person dies. The ministry shuts down or we are called from it. We lose our job. The business fails. We lose our investment. The marriage fails and on and on.

In Matthew 26 there is written the story of the time while Jesus walked the earth that a woman took everything she had and poured it on Jesus and the response of the disciples (the very closest to Jesus) was like our response so many times and like my response to the death of these precious saints that I had watch pass from this earth. Maybe we wouldn’t admit to such strong accusation but our hearts and our words say otherwise when we question at all God’s perfect sovereign plan. They asked “why the waste?” Here is the account in verses 8-13.

Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.  When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.  Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. 

One verse seems to lead to another for me, so I thought of this verse from Revelation 14:13:

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. 

And as I meditated on these portions of scripture I heard the Lord saying to me, “There is no such thing as waste in My Kingdom.”

Nothing! No prayer. No calling. No ministry. No miscarriage. No death. No failure. No endeavor. NOTHING, absolutely nothing is wasted in the Lord.  All that has died, failed, ended or seems to come to an end is poured out to Him as we give it to Him….and it will be as a memorial of you. Yes, YOU!

Have a blessed day and may you be drawn closer to Him and find yourself always pressing on! in Jesus’ precious name. AMEN!

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Matthew

Posted on by Melissa Lynne

The first time I knew for sure that I had seen the face of Jesus was when I met a boy named Matthew at a Romanian Orphanage. I had been warned of the “horrors” and told that if I didn’t want to see him and others like him that I could stay outside of their special room. I had been warned to say nothing of the experience while still in Romania because it was illegal for me to even be allowed in this particular orphanage and to speak of it put their workers in danger. Internationals and especially Americans were no longer allowed to be in these places. They are not allowed to adopt these children. Americans are allowed in the mission organization orphanages but not the government run facilities. I just happened to be hosted by a wonderful woman that once worked there and she arranged for my visit after a few days of long conversation over morning coffee.

Nothing just happens. It was a part of a great plan.

The orphanages are dark, old, and ill equipped…but their workers love the children and do the best they can with what few resources they have and within what they are allowed by law to do. Many sacrifice food and other things we would consider necessity to supplement the milk and food of these that they have grown to love so.

As I arrived at the orphanage I prayed that the Lord would help me to be able to look into the face of anything and anyone with love and without flenching. I remembered past experiences with people that had been victims of accidents and crime and having a hard time looking into their eyes. I didn’t want that to be what I left with and what I left them with.

Matthew was a little boy with a head so big that he could not sit or stand and could only lay to the side. In America we would call that hydrocelphalus or water on the brain. In America we would have treatments and special hospitals and special therapy. In Romania these children are immediately deserted and put into orphanages where they will spend the rest of their lives or until their eighteenth birthday. In Romania even the mentally challenged are set aside and out of the orphanages to fend for themselves at the age of eighteen..unless a mission organization agrees to take them in.

Matthew lay in his little crib all day, every day. He could not speak and his eyesight was poor. His head was much to big and it caused everything to be much too unstable to allow for us to hold him. He was rotated from side to side every few hours but his head had grown and flattened. His head was twice as big as his little body that had not grown much at all. Matthew’s body look to be about 3 months old. Matthew was three years old.

I remember walking up to him and I all I wanted to do was touch his face…so I did. And he smiled. It was then I saw Him…it was the face of Jesus! I knew it, for sure. I didn’t cry then like I did for so many days afterward and as I do to this day when I think of his smile. His beautiful face. I had a hard time pulling myself away. He was by far the most beautiful child I have ever seen. I was not allowed to take pictures so in the moments I had with him, I memorized his face and his body. I can see him today as though it were yesterday.

I have often wondered why God would allow a little boy to just lay there but I kind of know. I pray that every day someone can see what I saw and I know that one day I will see him again.

Since that very moment I have been able to see the face of Jesus in so many people. God allows it. Sometimes I am in awe and kind of taken breathless and speechless. I wonder if they even know what I can see in them.

The Bible says of Jesus almost what I was told of little Matthew –  In Isaiah 53:2: “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.”

Oh that I could go again and take you to that orphanage to see the face of Jesus in a little boy named Matthew!!! Since I can’t do that yet…I just look around.

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Monday Prayer

Posted on by Melissa Lynne

I was in prayer this morning and heard part of a song by Luke Wood:

I want to stand in Your counsel

And sit at Your table

And speak to You face to face as a friend…

Before I got past this first verse, I felt like crying.  It was such a necessary reminder of what I’m after and what I feel I have been left alive on this earth to do. Even as I labor in prayer and as I prepare to preach (there, I said it) and with everything else I have going on from day to day, this is the heart of who I am. In all my doing and all my ministry, if I haven’t stood in His counsel, it benefits me nothing. If I haven’t met God and heard His voice and had His own fire touch my heart, not only will my witness be that much less effective, but I will become dull on the inside. I desperately don’t want that to happen. I can’t afford it.

Life is too short to not really know God. The hour is too urgent to babble away with lofty sounding ideas that have nothing of the weight of heaven upon them. As exciting and glorious as it sounds to stand in the counsel of the Lord, it is more than that — it is a matter and life and death for those called to be His messengers. It is a matter of hearts being alive and our witness being powerful, or our hearts growing cold and our words falling to the ground. He is coming back soon, and we must know His voice in that hour.

This journey is a painful one. As other lyrics in the song go, “Let my heart be torn in two until Your will is mine.”

 I personally am hitting head-on the reality that in and of myself – I have nothing.  I’m nowhere near where I want to be as far as hearing God and then responding rightly when I do hear. But by the grace of God, I want to continue to say yes, continue to rise up and follow, once and for all to remove that garment of fear that the enemy keeps trying to fasten back on me.  No more! uh uh NO I will not cower to intimidation any longer and I will continue to cry out to hear His voice until the day I see Him face to face…

I want to stand in Your counsel

to sit at Your table

And speak to You face to face as  a  friend

I want to stand in Your  fire  wherever  Your  eyes  fall

May You find me  faithful  to Your  heart

Let me be  found…

With a heart  after  You

May Your eyes find this  heart  loyal  to  You

May You be all that’s on my mind  all  of  the  time

Let my heart be torn in two until  your  will  is  mine

Dearly Beloved of my  soul

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Prayer, the Word, and Praise Reports!

Posted on by Melissa Lynne

I love praise reports! Especially when I have had a burden on my heart. Thank yous for prayer are okay though unnecessary. They don’t determine anything for me. I pray because I am led to pray and I love talking to the Lord. I pray every day and somedays I talk alot and somedays I don’t say a word. Some days I just cry. Some days I sing. Some days in prayer I dance before the Lord or I paint or I write poetry. He knows my heart and He understands when words don’t work. He has answered many a prayer for me as I have twirled around with a banner or a streamer before Him. So thankful He can appreciate that about me. So thankful He created me to communicate that way…creatively. He is a creative God. I pray however I feel I am supposed to but I pray until I am released. I don’t stop because people think I am crazy or if they think I have missed it. I don’t stop because I am discouraged but nothing encourages me or someone that has been on their knees more than the testimony of answered prayer or movement in that direction. I was so encouraged by one earlier this month!

In December a lady came into a Bible Study that I was leading. While we were discussing the study and doing an overview she said that she needed me to “spoon feed” her because there was just so much she didn’t understand and she didn’t know how to study. Something rose up in me and I told her “no, I won’t be spoon feeding anyone.” Instead for her I likened the study to being a toddler in a high chair with a bunch of cheerios. She could figure out how to get it in her mouth if she was hungry enough. She could watch and imitate until she got the cherrio in her hand and then to her mouth and then in her mouth to chew and swallow.

YIKES!!! Later I felt kind of guilty for putting it like that. Where was my compassion and my sensitivity? I wondered had I embarrassed her? I really struggled with what had come out of my mouth but I knew that I had been true to my beliefs that this lady was not a new Christian and so if I did spoonfeed her, as she had suggested and as people had been doing all of her life, her growth would be stunted…and I would be responsible for my part in that. I believe this stunted growth is rampant in the churches of today. So I said it. I knew that my “hands were tied” regarding this but that I could pray for her and for the eyes of her heart to be opened to the Word. Pray I did!!! Every week I started with that prayer and I prayed it just about every day. She continued to come to the class. I continued to pray and I continued to move forward as we studied and went deeper and deeper into what the Word says about Spiritual Authority and the fear of the Lord. It was a marvelous study! Life changing!

We finished the class at the end of May. A couple of weeks ago I received a note from her. A testimony of how my refusing to spoon feed her but still directing her toward searching the Scripture on her own and then allowing her to share whatever God spoke to her about it had taken her deeper into the Word than she ever imagined she could go. She said, my love for the Word and my prayers for her had ignited her own love for the Word and the Lord.

What a testimony! I can’t explain the joy released in my heart at this answered prayer. It is my prayer for us all today. May we all go deeper in the Word so as to know our God and love Him more. May we study it and meditate on it and share it. Afterall, everything in the Word points straight to Jesus!!! Jesus Christ crucified. It is the absolute plumbline…the absolute. Only I can’t meditate on it for you no more than I can repent for you and no more than I can digest your food for you. You must know it for yourself.

Love you all and pray also that you are persevering into this 2nd week of the ninety day Bible challenge. Share, if you will and if you haven’t already, what God is revealing to you. It is what keeps us all interested, motivated and moving forward. My mind is kind of stuck on some things about Noah, but will write about that when I have some time tomorrow.

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My Prayer!

Posted on by Melissa Lynne

I love listening to music so much and I am quite content to listen…but some songs just make me wish I could sing. This is one of them! Such a beautiful song with such beautiful words. It is my prayer!!

_______

Touch Through Me

by Barbara Tubbs

 

Touch through me, Holy Spirit, touch through me,

Let my hands reach out to others, touch through me;

There’s a lonely soul somewhere needing just one friend to care,

Touch through me, Holy Spirit, touch through me.

 

Love through me, Holy Spirit, love through me,

I will be my brother’s keeper, love through me;

Hearts are bleeding deep inside, love can dry the weeping eye,

Love through me, Holy Spirit, love through me.

 

Flow through me, Holy Spirit, flow through me,

Like a river in the desert, flow through me;

Springing power and healing strength, living water pure and clean,

Flow through me, Holy Spirit, flow through me.

 

My hands will be your hands reaching out to others,

My lips will not be slothful, Lord, to speak;

I will be that good Samaritan to someone else in need,

I will be your house to dwell in, live through me.

 

Flow through me, Holy Spirit, flow through me,

Holy Spirit, touch through me,

Holy Spirit, touch through me.

______

Amen and Amen!!!!!

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Psalm

Posted on by Melissa Lynne

I bow down toward Your holy temple

and give thanks to Your Name,

for Your steadfast love

and Your faithfulness,

for you have exalted above all things

Your name and Your Word.

 

I will extol You, my God and King

and bless Your Name

forever and ever.

 

Every day I will bless You and praise Your Name

forever and ever.

 

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised

His greatness is unsearchable.

 

One generation shall commend Your works to another.

and to those

I shall declare Your mighty acts.

 

On the glorious splendor of Your Majesty

and on Your wondrous works

I will meditate.

 

I shall speak of the might of your awesome deed

and I WILL declare Your greatness.

 

I shall pour forth the fame of Your abundant goodness

and shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

 

My mouth will give praise and speak the praises of the Lord.

 

Let all flesh bless HIS holy name… forever and ever.

 

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Attention to the Wind

Posted on by Melissa Lynne

I was sitting in my yard early this morning seeking a cool breeze because we are having issues with our air conditioner and I was reminded of a word I received a couple of months ago, “Pay attention to the wind, even small breezes.”

At the end of 2011, I dreamed I was in a cave and as I stepped out of the cave and into the opening a gentle breeze was blowing; God was awakening something…in me and in my life.

In the Bible there are a number of symbols of the Holy Spirit – river, rain, dew, fire, oil, wine, a seal, a dove and the wind, to name a few. Each symbol emphasizes some specific phase or element of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. I believe the Lord is looking to teach me how to be sensitive and discern the wind of the Holy Spirit.

Many years ago when Dale Earnhardt, the famous NASCAR driver, was still alive, he was known for his skill on super speedways like Daytona and Talladega. Dale wore an open face helmet so he could sense what the wind was doing. That was one of his secrets to success on those tracks. Pro golfers will pick up little pieces of grass and throw them into the air looking for what the wind is doing before they make their shots.

In the natural, winds are created when a high pressure goes into a low pressure. That speaks volumes spiritually. Humility is the key to experiencing the wind of the Spirit – get low and the wind will blow.

It is interesting that the first mention of the Holy Spirit is right at creation; a gentle breeze was blowing (Gen. 1:2). That is so important; gentle winds have huge impacts.

The second mention of the Holy Spirit was when God breathed into man, breathing His life into him and creating our spirit (Gen. 2:7). Winds speak of the life giving power of the Spirit.

One of the ways God speaks with us is in the wind (Heb. 1:7). In 1 Kings 19:13-18, He spoke to Elijah in a gentle breeze. We should be careful to not be so focused on the spectacular and miss the voice of the Lord in the gentle breeze that is currently blowing.

Perhaps the most famous wind of all happened in Acts 2:2. “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

I was reading this on the porch as I sat waiting on that breeze. I often find myself praying to have that separated fire that came with that violent wind come and rest on me. If they could see it, I want to see it. Though I know I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of tongues I still want to experience the full of what these early disciples experienced and so knew. I want that kind of boldness to preach and I want to do the greater works of the Lord that they did…following that wind.

On this hot morning, I need a breeze – a wind – in the natural and the spiritual. The church was born in the wind and we are sons and daughters of the wind (John 3:8). No matter how violent; no matter how gentle – come now wind of the Holy Spirit!

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Picture of A Prophet

Posted on by Melissa Lynne

-by Leonard Ravenhill.

 

The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.

Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, “No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected.” The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his “brand name.”

The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him “Man of the year” when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!

The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, “has almost always been that of recovery.”

The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.

 

He has no price tags.

He is totally ‘otherworldly.’

He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.

He marches to another drummer!

He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.

He is a “seer” who comes to lead the blind.

He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a”thus saith the Lord.”

He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware ofimpending judgment.

He lives in ‘splendid isolation.’

He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.

His message is “repent, be reconciled to God or else…!”

His prophecies are parried.

His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.

He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.

He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!

He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with epitaphs when dead.

He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few ‘make the grade’in his class.

He is friendless while living and famous when dead.

He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint by posterity.

He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of Life to those who listen.

He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.

He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.

He announces, pronounces, and denounces!

He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.

He talks to men about God.

He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men.

He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.

He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hidein the marketplace.

He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.

He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.

He is ordained of God but disdained by men.

Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet!

I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the “seven years of plenty” are over for us. The “seven years of famine” are ahead.But the greatest famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11).

Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years.Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital contribution. “Come-outers” have “come out” and settled, too,without a nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound. Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT where, oh where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from the holy place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and sick spirituality?

 

GOD’S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH.

They will come.

The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by history.

There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable.

Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.

Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and stagnant “churchianity.”

Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle.

Let him, too, say and live, “This ONE thing I do.”

Let him reject ecclesiastical favors.

Let him be self-abasing, non self-seeking, non self-projecting,non self-righteous, non self-glorying, non self-promoting.

Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which will move men to God.

Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has received the order of the day. Let him, under God,unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.

Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism,where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where enlightened men,totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.———————————————————God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!

“When a prophet is accepted and deified, his message is lost. The prophet is only useful so long as he is stoned as a public nuisance calling us to repentance, disturbing our comfortable routines,breaking our respectable idols, shattering our sacred conventions.”-A. G. Gardiner.

“The function of the Prophet has almost invariably been that of recovery. That implies that his business is related to something lost. That something being absolutely essential to God’s full satisfaction, the dominant note of the Prophet was one of dissatisfaction. And, there being the additional factor that, for obvious reasons, the people were not disposed to go the costly way of God’s full purpose, the Prophet was usually an unpopular person.”-T. Austin Sparks.

“Those whom God calls to such a ministry – and a call is essential -must be prepared for a pathway of unpopularity and misunderstanding.”You troubler of Israel” was the way Ahab addressed Elijah.”-Arthur Wallis.