The March of God's Progress

Tip! THE possibilities of prayer are gauged by faith in God's ability to do. Faith is the one prime condition by which God works.

Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15:24 NKJV)

To what state, condition, outcome or degree is God moving today? When we speak of the eternal progress of the Almighty, we must remember that we are using human speech, because God lives in the eternal present. He is Jehovah--"I AM!"

God does not live in time with its past and future; the distinctions of time have no reference to Him who lives in Eternity. And Eternity is an ever-present NOW, in which the past is never past, and the future is always present.

God is moving to the supreme pleasure of our Savior. Christ must and will reign, and the Father's power is even now engaged in putting all things under His feet. He has given Him the heathen for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.

It is true that we can not see all the things put under Him, but God is even now engaged in hurrying the fulfillment of His eternal plan. Look at the rise and fall of rulers and kingdoms within the last few years; the clamor for new methods of government has threatened the ancient order; the whirlpool of elections; the babble of voices; the rivalry of political leaders and parties!

Tip! So when we ask Christ to carry out His works in our hearts we are fervently praying that our Father may be glorified in His Son.

What about these things? They are the clouds of His feet, the movement of His pieces on the game board of life, the successive stages in the unfolding of His plan. Watch the Divine strategy! God raises up one, and puts down another; there is not an item in the newspaper, TV or the Internet, not even a change on the map, nor a revolution among the people, however obscure, that is not contributing to that final scene, when the Son of Man shall come to the Ancient of Days, and there shall be given to Him dominion and glory, and a Kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages shall serve Him!

All of us need to understand God's movements, especially in this momentous era, because only then can we enter into His Rest. We can look out calmly on a world in confusion when once we have learned to understand the Divine program of gathering up all things in Christ, who is the Head.

To the careless world His way is in the sea, and His paths in the deep waters, and His footsteps are not known, but to those who love and follow Him. The heavens may depart, the hills be removed; but His kindness shall not depart; neither shall the covenant of His peace be removed.

PRAYER:

Hurry the coming of Your Kingdom, O Lord, the fulfillment of Your purpose. Keep us watchful and alert that at any moment we may discern the movement of Your hand, and detect Your will and guidance in the external circumstances of the little things in our lives. In Jesus' name AMEN

OUR LORD REIGNS!

Clouds and darkness surround Him;
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.

A fire goes before Him,
And burns up His enemies round about.

His lightnings light the world;
The earth sees and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

The heavens declare His righteousness,
And all the peoples see His glory.

Let all be put to shame who serve carved images,
Who boast of idols. Worship Him, all you gods.

Zion hears and is glad,
And the daughters of Judah rejoice
Because of Your judgments, O LORD.

For You, LORD, are most high above all the earth;
You are exalted far above all gods.

You, who love the LORD, hate evil!
He preserves the souls of His saints;
He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

Light is sown for the righteous,
And gladness for the upright in heart.

Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

(Psalms 97:2-12 NKJV)


BEHIND ALL clouds is the clear pure air of God's love. We are not dismayed by the storms that sweep the earth's surface, for beneath them are immeasurable depths of stillness. God sees His way through them, and is using them to fulfill His great purpose.

Difficulties are nothing to Him. He weighs the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. He is our Father, and we need not fear. The children who are cozily comfortable in the car which their father is driving are not afraid of the hail-storm that rattles on the window and the wild winds that sweep the earth. It is enough for them that their father is with them, and knows his way, and is making quickly for home. And if we are following hard after God, then His right hand will uphold us, and we can leave all the rest with Him.

None of the children that wait for Him will be ashamed. Revolution and anarchy may devastate the land. Storms of deluge may sweep the world. The savings of a life-time may disappear, but we will be kept in perfect peace; because our Lord reigns and He will always be mindful of His covenant to us.

We will not be in need for sustaining grace. If we cleave unto God, we will be upheld by His right hand, and no person will be able to pluck us from our Father's hand.

God, not selfish ease, nor human confederacies, is our end and aim; and He will not, cannot fail those who have left all for His companionship. Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, and the labor of the olive shall fail, and the flock shall be cut off from the fold, yet we will rejoice in the Lord; for the Lord God shall supply all our need, and will make our feet, like hind's feet, to walk even on the edge of the precipice.

The world is full of tumult. The floods have lifted up their voice, but above the noise of this world, our Lord on high is mighty; and He must reign till He has put all enemies beneath His feet.

Remember that when He was mocked in Pilate's hall, His enemies placed a reed in His hand. They were nearer the truth than they knew, for He who opens the sealed book of destiny, is the Lamb that was slain. He rules with the reed as the symbol of His government.

PRAYER

Our Father, let us hear You say to us, as we step out into the new day, that You are with us, holding our right hand. Keep us in the midst of the storm, and guide us in the path You have for us. In Jesus’ name AMEN.

Prayer for a New Year

Lord, I confess before You that:

I have had longings and nudges from You which I did not translate into action.

I have made decisions without consulting You, then have blamed You when things went wrong.

I have said that I trusted You, yet have not turned my affairs over to You.

I have been greedy for present delights and pleasures, unwilling to wait for those joys which time and discipline alone can give.

I have often sought the easy way and have consistently drawn back from the road that is hard.

I have been fond of giving myself to dreams of which I am going to do sometime, yet have been so slow in getting started to do them.

Forgive me for all the intentions that were born and somehow never lived.

And now I claim Your promise to change me.
Do for me what I cannot do for myself.
Lead me into a new tomorrow with a new spirit.
Cleanse my heart; create within me new attitudes and new ideas, as only You can.

In Jesus' name Amen.

He has Made with Me an Everlasting Covenant

Tip! Jesus never taught His followers to expect justice. Paul did not receive justice. Even great leaders in history did not always receive justice here and now.

(2 Samuel 23:5) "Although my house is not so with God, Yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things and secure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire; will He not make it increase?"

This covenant is divine in its origin. "HE has made with me an everlasting covenant." Oh that great word "HE"! Stop right here and think about this my soul. God, the everlasting Father, has positively made a covenant with you; yes, the very same God who spoke the world into existence by a word; He, stooping from His majesty, takes hold of your hand and makes a covenant with you.

This action, this awesome everlasting covenant might overwhelm our hearts if we could really understand it. "HE has made with me a covenant." A king has not made a covenant with me-that would be somewhat good; but the Prince of the kings of the earth, Shaddai, the Lord All-sufficient, the Jehovah of ages, the everlasting Elohim, "He has made with me an everlasting covenant."

But notice it is particular in its application. "Yet He has made with ME an everlasting covenant." Here lies the sweetness of this covenant to each of us believers. Was it for me that He was born, died and rose up for the world; I want to know whether He has made peace for me! It is of little concern to me that He has made a covenant, what I want to know is whether He has made a covenant with me!

Tip! Trouble, if correctly used, will bring you great peace and a deep surrender of spirit which nothing else can work in you.

Blessed is the assurance that He has made a covenant with me! If God the Holy Spirit gives me assurance of this, then His salvation is mine, His heart is mine, He himself is mine-He is my God!

This covenant is everlasting in its duration; an everlasting covenant means a covenant that had no beginning and will never, ever end. How sweet amidst all the uncertainties of life, to know that "the foundation of the Lord stands sure," and to have God's own promise, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." Then we can be like dying David, I will sing of this covenant, "Although my house is not so with God" as my heart so desires.

Trouble — Could We make it Our Servant? Part 1

Tip! Some live as though life and the Christian experience were some kind of slot machine: you put in a dime’s worth of kindness and pull out three yards of blessing; then five cents’ worth of charity and you think God must bless you next Saturday night.

Did you ever test yourself as to how you react to trouble or tragedy? In life's school we often find that God uses trouble or misfortune to prove our faith or to test our character. Trouble has a way of stalking down the road and meeting us so many times when we least expect it.

I am sure we all know that such proving or testing can happen to us without our being personally or directly the cause of it. Many, many times it is beyond our control. If it were otherwise possible we would probably avoid all such testing and keep to an easy, smooth path. But we should remember that trouble, as well as the hours of sunshine and music is a part of the divine arrangement and has a place in our program. Trouble and severe testing is not necessarily a sign of sin, failure, or lack of spirituality. They are often a sign of spirituality and growth which God must test and prove, because we are His workmanship.

Many people have the notion that the life of the Christian is, or should be somewhat charmed, void of trouble, testing, tribulation and suffering. Such people have shaped up for themselves, or hold this as an ideal of real Christian living, but this is an impossible or unscriptural conception of the Christian life.

Where in the world have these people, so bewitched, been living all these years, or what books or TV shows have they been watching or reading is beyond me! Surely they do not know history, Christian experience or the every least the Holy Bible. Because the truth is this -

"Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward." (Job 5:7)

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous; But the LORD delivers him out of them all." (Psalms 34:19)

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," (2 Corinthians 4:17)

"Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." (2 Timothy 3:12).

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;" (Romans 5:3)

Surely on the basis of all these Scriptures, we as Christians know better than to pray for exemption from trouble, and since we know that in God's plan it is a part of our inheritance, we should not avoid its special place of work in our lives.

Tip! Surely on the basis of all these Scriptures, we as Christians know better than to pray for exemption from trouble, and since we know that in God’s plan it is a part of our inheritance, we should not avoid its special place of work in our lives.

History is full of examples of lives wrecked because of ungraceful reaction to trouble. In spite of all the collected experiences of people over the ages, and the wisdom and the philosophy of the prophets, many still fail to recognize that behind her mask, trouble is a servant to assist us. Any other view is due to lack of vision and outlook in that range. Too many of us only see the immediate, or the local, and interpret our lives and family members questions from a limited viewpoint. The Scriptures say, "While we look not at the things which are seen."

As Christians, after we are convinced in our hearts that trouble is not designed to defeat us and is not a mere nuisance or cruelty, but is one of the corrective elements in great living, we must learn how to use it the way God wants us to use it.

How many problems would be solved and shipwrecks of faith be avoided could we take a positive, constructive attitude and see that trouble is one of the agents and mighty instruments placed in our hands for the shaping of character and the releasing of potential power for correct and glorious building!

Trouble — Could We make it Our Servant? Part 2

Tip! As Christians, after we are convinced in our hearts that trouble is not designed to defeat us and is not a mere nuisance or cruelty, but is one of the corrective elements in great living, we must learn how to use it the way God wants us to use it.

How do you use trouble? Naturally, because of physical and fundamental elements in our make-up, we shun pain, discomfort and trouble. But that is because we relate them purely to their action on the physical or on our present mood. Many times we will spend hours in praying away trouble, the great servant. At times we take long, circuitous journeys to avoid meeting her. Finally, when we are compelled to meet her, we spend a long, long time telling her or God that we do not like her and we wonder and wonder why we ever had to meet her. But trouble is not to be reasoned with; she is utterly unreasonable. She is to be used.

Please remove from your minds the incorrect thought that if you are a good or a real spiritual Christian totally yielded and holy then your life will be a charmed life and that God will spare you from trouble or disappointment. No! To reach such a fine place of devotion and surrender is only to make you a fit candidate for tribulation.

Tribulation is a word God uses in relation to saints. The etymology of the word means threshing. The farmer does not thresh weeds; he threshes the golden wheat that the grain may be separated from the chaff and the sticks. He is after grain, not trying to pound out some straw. For this reason God says, Tribulation works patience; that is, the golden grain of patience, long-suffering and kindness, comes by way of threshing or tribulation. Think of the splendid spiritual grain of character and noble living produced only through the tribulation process. The spiritual tone and quality of the mighty people of God came only through trouble and suffering.

In the world about us, in the fields of fine music, art and literature, the artist never reaches the pinnacle of their labors and gives to the world the best in creative beauty and strength until they have known the sad touch of personal sorrow or grief or trouble. Oftentimes it is like a divine chemist turning the ordinary and dull life into a glorious display of divine power, fortitude and beauty. It is the use of trouble that releases the deeper springs of our lives and sets allow the streams of mercy and understanding of which our perishing world needs today.

Tip! Trouble will make you either bitter or better. Notice how very much alike these words are, and how very little is needed to change them; just the letter “I.” Yes, dear ones, it is the “I” that changes the whole matter.

Do not misunderstand me; I am not saying that trouble alone makes us strong or noble or that it alone has a transforming power. I am dealing with you as Christians who believe Romans 8:28, and that text, as you see, is never to be applied to lives which are not fully surrendered. That is why many unsaved people never understand the outworking of the Scriptures in the daily walk, but if the Christian has anything remotely approaching the Spirit of Christ; they can make trouble a servant to bring out the best in them.

Tip! What are you seeking in your trouble today? Is it deliverance or development? You may have the one and not grow, or you may have both and grow. Get the development first and the deliverance will be yours, too.

But trouble in itself is neutral or passive; the whole matter depends upon how we use it. One may take an inactive attitude and lose the benefit of the trial; justify themselves, and trouble will make them bitter or resentful, or it can make them hard, cruel and cynical. People who have no faith, no perspective of thought or vision, let trouble do all sorts of harmful and cruel things to them, but thanks be to God there are many wonderful people on whom trouble has fallen who were able to see and to discern behind its mask a servant at their beck and call, to build them, lives of strength and beauty.

In a simple study of such lives we find a certain creative power which makes out of their calamity a magnificent privilege. You may have noticed that in our lives there are two types reaction to trouble or tragedy: either it will break us in spirit, melting the hardness and bringing us in our helplessness to God, or it will throw us on our feeble resources and human reasoning, and this in turn at times hardens us in spirit, makes us critical and often cynical. It robs our hearts of the great privilege of trusting God and the developing of our life into rich and helpful avenues.

Trouble — Could We make it Our Servant? Part 3

Tip! It takes a quiet heart, peace of spirit, and clear vision (long range, if you please), to interpret trouble in terms of strength and high living.

Trouble will make you either bitter or better. Notice how very much alike these words are, and how very little is needed to change them; just the letter "I." Yes, dear ones, it is the "I" that changes the whole matter. When the "I" keeps out of the question, out of the difficulty, life will be better; but when the "I" is introduced and we get mixed in the trouble, life will become bitter and we harden. Too many times this "I" gets in the way; the poor, little, hurt ego gets a slap and down the street it runs, screaming for attention. The dear little ego sits in its doorway and weeps tears of self-pity until its eyes are so red and inflamed that it just cannot see things as they are or should be.

It takes a quiet heart, peace of spirit, and clear vision (long range, if you please), to interpret trouble in terms of strength and high living. Little souls, small people, are usually hurt all the time; the ego within is unduly important and consequently is easily hurt or flattered. Such souls have too small a world and hence everything relates directly to the self within. They will have a very difficult time, to say the least.

Frequently such souls are persons who are seeking justice, fairness, and a proper adjustment of life. They never seem to learn. We are not here for justice; we are here to live. If you expect to be a spiritual and victorious Christian, you may as well learn here and now to drop justice out of your vocabulary as far as it may relate to your life. We do not get justice now. God's Saturday night of settlement has not yet come.

Tip! As Christians, after we are convinced in our hearts that trouble is not designed to defeat us and is not a mere nuisance or cruelty, but is one of the corrective elements in great living, we must learn how to use it the way God wants us to use it.

Some live as though life and the Christian experience were some kind of slot machine: you put in a dime's worth of kindness and pull out three yards of blessing; then five cents' worth of charity and you think God must bless you next Saturday night. Be very good, kind or generous and next week the winds will blow you a fortune. It is true that what we sow that shall we also reap, and bread cast upon the waters shall return, but God is not too clear on the time element. So we will not always receive our justice here and now.

Jesus never taught His followers to expect justice. Paul did not receive justice. Even great leaders in history did not always receive justice here and now. Do not misunderstand me; I do not mean that the Christian or the spiritually-minded one is not conscious of the hurt or the trouble of the injustice. Believe me, dear souls, the Holy Spirit makes one all the more sensitive to the pain, the hurt and the wrong, but the victorious soul has found the gift of grace and the love of God sufficient to hinder the trouble from marring his spirit.

The closer one gets to Christ the more sensitive they will be to pain, to little, petty, mean ways and all the train of unkind and unlovely things which would vex the heart and tarnish the spirit. The eyes are now anointed and they see in them privileges of overcoming and high living. I am sure we have all lived long enough to have had some injustice done us. Yet today God has given us grace not to harbor any resentment or hard feelings. To have trouble or injustice and know the feeling of it, and yet live above and far from its damaging power, is a sign of real spirituality, a sign of Christian character that He has fashioned in the life.

Trouble — Could We make it Our Servant? Part 4

Tip! The closer one gets to Christ the more sensitive he will be to pain, to little, petty, mean ways and all the train of unkind and unlovely things which would vex the heart and tarnish the spirit.

Someone learned of a real injustice done me in material things one time, and he was horrified to know it came from a Christian source. Such treatment as that," he said, "is absolutely wrong. I would not stand for it."

Of course it was wrong and very unfair, and at times I was amazed and tried, but I kept my heart and life open for justice and the right thing to be done by me; however, I was neglected and seemingly forgotten. But God had taken me quite a long distance on the road and I knew He would take care of the matter; so I took of His grace and love and stood it. It never caused me a resentful spirit, nor did I allow the hurt and the disappointment to fester into a sore. And today I praise God for the realities of His life in my heart to keep it sweet when trouble and unfair dealings would chill it to indifference and hardness.

Had we time we could trace through history, both sacred and secular, scores of noble men and women who were not spared the hard places in life. They were good, moral, kind, noble, and yet came under the disciplinary measures of trouble. Certainly Paul knew trouble or he never could have written, "In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck" (2 Cor. 11:23-25). Yet out of it all he comes purified and strengthened, a noble expression of God's grace and an example for the ages to come that trouble may be used to build a Christian character.

In the Old Testament we find Joseph and Job and many others demonstrating the same truth. Surely Joseph might have said, "All these things are against me. Where is God? Why do "I" have to put up with all this confusion and trouble when He promised me great victory and triumph?" Yet listen to him after in faith he comes through, "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good" (Gen. 50:20). We are following in the steps of Christ, who said that the servant was not above his lord. And we read of Him, "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered."

Tip! As Christians, after we are convinced in our hearts that trouble is not designed to defeat us and is not a mere nuisance or cruelty, but is one of the corrective elements in great living, we must learn how to use it the way God wants us to use it.

What are you seeking in your trouble today? Is it deliverance or development? You may have the one and not grow, or you may have both and grow. Get the development first and the deliverance will be yours, too. Let this servant minister to you in a way no other servant can. Take the positive attitude and use your trouble as one of the most skillful and wonderful instruments God ever placed into your hands for the working out of the character of Christ to be duplicated in you.

Trouble, if correctly used, will bring you great peace and a deep surrender of spirit which nothing else can work in you. I have not gone far on the way but I can give as my personal testimony that these deeper revelations of truth and clear understanding of the things of God have come only through suffering. I cannot offer you any other method. May God grant you grace to take your share of "trouble". Don't pray for exemption, but may He teach you and use this strange servant to build your life into noble proportions of strength and beauty, and from your life healing streams of understanding and love will flow to broken lives and timid, fearful hearts "For he who suffers most has most to give."

The Power of Persevering Prayer

Tip! The entire principle of Bible teaching is to illustrate the great truth that God hears and answers prayer. One of the great purposes of God in His book is to impress on us permanently the great importance, the priceless value, and the absolute necessity of asking God for the things that we need for our time on earth and eternity.

"Then He spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.... Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" —Luke 18:1, 6-8

OF all the mysteries of prayer, the need for persevering prayer is one of the greatest and most important. We do not understand why our Lord, who so loves and longs to bless us, should have to be pleaded with time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes.

It is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer. When, after we have persevered in prayer, our prayer remains unanswered. It is often easiest for our lazy human nature, and it has all the appearance of devout obedience, to think that we must now stop praying for what it is we so desperately want, because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request.

It is by faith alone that the difficulty is overcome. When once our faith has taken its stand on God's word, and in the Name of Jesus, and we have yielded ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit to seek God's will and honor alone in our prayer, we do not need to be discouraged by any delay.

We know from Scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply irresistible; real faith can never be disappointed.

We know how, just as water, to exercise the irresistible power it can have, must be gathered up and accumulated, until the stream can come down in full force, there must often be a heaping up of prayer, until God sees that the measure is full, and the answer comes.

We know how, just as the farmer has to take his ten thousand steps, and sow his ten thousand seeds, each one a part of the preparation for the final harvest, so there is a need for often repeated persevering prayer, all for working out some desired blessing from God.

We know for certain that not a single believing prayer can fail in its effect in heaven, but has its influence, and is treasured up to work out an answer in due time to us who perseveres to the end.

Tip! Prayer is no little thing, no selfish and small matter. It does not concern the selfish insignificant interests of one person. The littlest prayer expands out by the will of God till it touches all words, preserves all interests, and develops man’s greatest wealth, and God’s greatest good.

We know that our faith has nothing to do with our human thoughts or possibilities, but with the Word of the living God. And so even as Abraham through so many years ‘in hope believed against hope,' and then ‘through faith and patience inherited the promise,' it counts that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, waiting and hasting unto the coming of its Lord to fulfill His promise.

Faith is to enable us, when the answer to our prayer does not come at once, to combine quiet patience and joyful confidence in our persevering prayer, we must specially try to understand the two words in which our Lord sets up the character and conduct, not the way of the unjust judge, but of our God and Father towards those whom He allows to cry day and night to Him: ‘He is long-suffering over them; He will avenge them speedily.'

He will avenge them speedily, the Master says. The blessing is all prepared; He is not only willing but most anxious to give us what we ask for; everlasting love burns with the longing desire to reveal itself fully to its beloved, and to satisfy our needs. God will not delay one moment longer than what is absolutely necessary; He will do all in His power to hurry and speed the answer to us.

Tip! If I will give myself up to the inspiration of the Spirit of God, who commands me to pray, the details and the petitions of that praying will all fall into harmony with the will of Him who wills that I should pray.

Prayer:

O Lord my God! Teach me now to know Your way, and in faith to apprehend what Your Beloved Son has taught: ‘He will avenge them speedily.' Let Your tender love, and the delight You have in hearing and blessing Your children, lead me implicitly to accept Your promise, that we receive what we believe, that we have the petitions we ask, and that the answer will in due time be seen. Lord! We understand the seasons in nature, and know to wait with patience for the fruit we long for—O fill us with the assurance that not one moment longer than is needed will You delay, and that faith will hasten the answer. In Jesus' name Amen