Each morning I get our my Bible to have my time alone with the Lord. Each morning I have to fight the urge to do something else. Recently, I have often turned to a Psalm which calls for deliverance from God. The Psalmist cries for God to deliver him. He wonders why God has been so distant.
I had not intended to open my Bible to the Psalms. Granted it is the largest book in the Bible located in the smack-dab middle which would make it the most natural place for any book to open but these Psalms have caught my attention. I read them and continued to the place I wanted for my quiet time. A few days with this repeated experience made me think that turning to these Psalms was no accident. Then, today, I began to listen.
I feel like the Psalmist. The devil is my enemy. He is winning battles all around me. He captures hearts, destroys families, ruins the testimony of believers and steals the joy of the Lord. I am fighting but I am losing the battle. I am holding him off on my best days and I am conceding victories to him on my worst. My preaching is makng no difference. My praying is producing no visible results. I could really use God's power and presence.
My denomination has be infamous for its attempt to create revival. We have known that the presence of the Holy Spirit resulted in His presence working with might in many places at once so, we thought we could have all of our churches have simultaneous revival meetings so that the Holy Spirit would work mightily. It didn't work. We know that people are unconcerned about the length of time when the Spirit comes upon them. They will pray or stay in a revival meeting for hours. So, we told people that they need to stay in very long services so that the Holy Spirit will come. That doesn't work either.
Jesus compared the Holy Spriit to the wind. He does not inform you where He is going nor when He will arrive. He does not respond to our attempts to manipulate Him. He is God.
I have been in one church which experienced an extended visit by the Holy Spirit. I arrived five years after the revival began. I saw the devil flee and God's Spirit rest on that church. People would tell me of falling under conviction in the parking lot before entering the building for worship. The building was so full the first time I came to give my testimony that I had a hard time making it to the pulpit. There were chairs in the aisles and people sitting on the steps up to the pulpit because there was no other place to put them. It was a Wednesday night in January. It was too cold to do as the church normally did. Normally, they would open the windows and let people either sit or stand at the windows because there was no more room in the sanctuary.
That church built a new sanctuary which would seat three times as many. I remember hauling chairs in the first Sunday night after we moved into it because we didn't have enough seats for all the people.
That is not my experience today. I am seeing the people most involved in church dissolving their marriages. I see them having affairs, in debt past their ears and participating in the sins of the world. I see the Church being taken over by great salesmen who are great at marketing. They give people what they want to hear so that their churches are full to the brim while their people are empty.
I see the devil winning and I know that I cannot win the victory without the Holy Spirit.
So, Holy Spirit I could use Your help. I need Your presence. I have no power beyond Your power. Change me and change the Church to glorify the Son. Fill me and make me pure so that I can be Yours alone. Come, Holy Spirit, I could use your help right now!
Psalm 10:1-14 (NIV) 1 Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises.
3 He boasts of the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD.
4 In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
5 His ways are always prosperous; he is haughty and your laws are far from him; he sneers at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, "Nothing will shake me; I'll always be happy and never have trouble."
7 His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue.
8 He lies in wait near the villages; from ambush he murders the innocent, watching in secret for his victims.
9 He lies in wait like a lion in cover; he lies in wait to catch the helpless; he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
10 His victims are crushed, they collapse; they fall under his strength.
11 He says to himself, "God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees."
12 Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless.
13 Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, "He won't call me to account"?
14 But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
1 comment:
God Almighty,
My brother, Prentis wrote with the first-person pronoun, and I wonder if indeed he and his church are in need of your help, although of course, all of us, need your help. May you, through your Holy Spirit extend the help he and his church need at this very hour. Indeed, the battles in so many local churches have been tilted to the Devil's side, but the last laugh belongs to you, and you alone. May you NOT tarry, but come to the aid of your servants all over the world.
I especially want to lift up my brother, Prentis and his church to you, that you might once again pour forth your favor upon my brother and the flock under his care. May you, in your agape and mercy, care and comfort, and build up the mortal body of your servant, Prentis, even as you give him long life. Rebuild, restore, and revalitalise his body even as you come to quicken his spirit, so that the physical man in him can keep with the spirit man in him, that he may continue his good works for you, bearing much fruit pleasing unto you, that when he comes to you, in Heaven, in the time to come, he will present you a fruit basket to your liking. God, I could see from his writings that he instead had been steadfast in learning your truths and your ways, and in passing them on; may you honor him even as he has honored you.
Even though there is nothing we could do to earn your love for us, for you agape everyone of us, but surely you could like Prentis more. From your words in 1 Tim 5:25, I perceived that our good works, including those of my brother, Prentis, some are manifest, some are not, but for those that are NOT, they are NOT hidden from you. And the incident in Numbers 16 (the usurping priests) showed among others, this: You know who are yours and who is supposed to do what, and what was done by who, nothing is hidden from you. May you like my brother more and favor him, so that he and the flock he leads may receive your help, right now, through your Spirit. Amen. Anthony Chia
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