WAIT

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried,
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said, "Child, you must wait."

"Wait? You say, wait! " my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By Faith, I have asked, and I am claiming your Word.

My future and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and YOU tell me to "WAIT"?
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.

And Lord, You promised that if we believe
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply!

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master said once again, "Child, you must wait."
So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut
And grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting... for what?"

He seemed, then, to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,
And he tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.

All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want - But, you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint;
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there;
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence were all you could see.

You'd never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;
You'd know that I give and I save... (for a start),
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have LAST.

You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that "My grace is sufficient for Thee."
Yes, your dreams for your loved one overnight would come true,
But, Oh, the Loss! If I lost what I'm doing in you!

So, be silent, My Child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft may My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still, "WAIT."


Russell Kelfer

Help me to fight with Truth.

I have just returned from CEF's Childrens camp last night, exhausted with dark circles and a smelly shirt from all the sweat. It was an amazing experience. This was my 3rd time volunteering as a counselor and I've learned so much every year. This year's theme was "God's Warriors" and was found to be very relevant today. God is raising up warriors that would hold firmly to His word. We must abide in him in order to stay alive. We must abide in Christ to be alive. There were many evident attacks from the enemy that helped us as staff and volunteers know that this camp's theme was perfect for the situation we were constantly having to prayerfully overcome. Many kids were sick, had bloody noses, a counselor fainted, and many got sick including I, and some were under the influence of something demonic. For a couple of weeks now, I've been listening to sermons on 99.5 and 107.9, and many were found to be about the armor of God. (Ephesians 6:11-18). Couple of other staff went to churches in NY and the messages were on the Armor of God. I feel strongly that this is the message that people of the Church must hear because the enemy is building up strongholds against us.. which we must be ready for. We must stay awake and know truth. I was in charge of 8 little girls from the ages of 7- 12 and many did not know how to flip to certain books in the bible. Many did not know the stories in the bible. Many did not know how to even look up chapters and verses! We must as adults, parents, teachers, workman approved to God.. handle accurately the word of truth and teach the bible in our churches because that's the only weapon we have against the enemy. The word of God is our sword. We must use it as the body of Christ. The enemy is constantly shooting fiery arrows at the church. The church must have a shield in order to protect herself. Many churches are dying from these arrows of the enemy. We must hold up the shield of faith and stand firm and fight for truth.

Memory Verses during the Camp.

Ephesians 6:11
"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take a stand against the devil's schemes."

Ephesians 6:14
"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place."

Psalm 119:11
"I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."

Ephesians 6:15
"and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of Peace."

Ephesians 6:16
"In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one."

1 Corinthians 15:57
"But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Ephesians 6:17
"Take the helmet of Salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

Ephesians 6:18
"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests."

What I've learned in Daniel Elliot JDSN's sermons.
1. That it is through the seed of Adam that sin has come into the world. Adam was told by God not to eat the fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil but when Eve was tempted by Satan in the form of a serpent, he asked , " Did God REALLY say, "you must not to eat from any tree in the garden?" Eve told the devil that we must not eat of it or even TOUCH it or we will surely die. Eve did not know what God has said but Adam did. God specifically told Adam before he created Eve. Adam was with Eve while she was tempted but did not stop the devil by fighting for what God really said. He started to get confused himself.. causing him to fall. Sin has entered through man. That is why it is also prophecied that the son of God will come from a woman. Meaning Jesus would be without sin.

2. Satan was created before Adam and Eve were created.

3. The Shield of the Roman soldiers were soaked in water in order to extinguish their enemy's fiery arrows. The shoes had steel cleats underneath which helped them to stand firm whenever their enemy would use their strengths against them. The sword of the Spirit is actually the spoken word. Greek translation is not the logas, graphes or scriptura,.. but remma? which is the spoken word of God. Breastplate of Righteousness is Christ because man cannot gain righteousness on their own. Belt of truth is the word of God.

4. The importance of prayer and the word of God are our weapons.

I have recieved this email from David Wilkerson this morning and found it to confirm what the spirit is telling the churches.

Dealing with our Strongholds.

Many Christians quote 2 Corinthians 10:3–4: “We do not war after the flesh: for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” Most of us think of strongholds as bondages such as sexual trespasses, drug addictions, alcoholism—outward sins we put at the top of a worst-sins list. But Paul is referring here to something much worse than our human measuring of sins.

First of all, he isn’t speaking of demonic possession. In my opinion, the devil cannot enter the heart of any overcoming Christian and claim a place in that person. Rather, the figurative meaning of Paul’s word stronghold in Greek here is “holding firmly to an argument.” A stronghold is an accusation planted firmly in your mind. Satan establishes strongholds in God’s people by implanting in their minds lies, falsehoods and misconceptions, especially regarding God’s nature.

For instance, the enemy may plant in your mind the lie that you’re unspiritual, totally unworthy of God’s grace. He may whisper to you repeatedly, “You’ll never be free of your besetting sin. You haven’t tried hard enough. You haven’t changed. And now God has lost patience with you because of your continual ups and downs.”

Or the devil may try to convince you that you have a right to hold on to bitterness because you’ve been wronged. If you keep listening to his lies, you’ll begin to believe them after a while.
Satan is the accuser of the brethren, coming against us time after time with his army of accusers, planting demonic lies in our minds. These lies are his stronghold—and if we don’t resist them by God’s Word, they will turn into imbedded fears in our minds.

The only weapon that scares the devil is the same one that scared him in the wilderness temptations of Jesus. That weapon is the truth of the living Word of God. According to Micah, here is the promise we are to cling to: “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18–19). In Hebrew, the word subdue means “he will trample on them.” We do not subdue our sins; he will subdue them through repentance and faith.

-DAVID WILKERSON

tim keller: who is this jesus?

very profound message about our Lord and an intelligent way to defend the faith.

CLICK TO LISTEN

archive of Tim Keller's Messages.
CLICK HERE.

I abandon myself for you God.

God has sworn by an oath to give us a new heart—one that is inclined to obey.

“I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart” (Jeremiah 24:7).

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

God promises us not only to give us a new heart, but to write on our hearts his commands. In other words, he promises to cause us to know him. Again, the Holy Spirit is the one who accomplishes this work in us. He teaches us about the Father’s nature and way—and in the process, he transforms us into Christ’s divine image.

Our Lord has sworn a sovereign oath to be merciful to us in our struggles against sin. And until full victory comes, he will be patient and loving with us, never casting us aside. He promises, “No matter what I demand of you, I will supply you with all the power you need to accomplish it. I won’t ask anything of you for which I have not made provision.”

Today, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead—and which enabled him to fulfill God’s law through a perfect, sinless life—now abides in us. God’s own Spirit is alive in us, providing all power over every work the enemy tries to bring against us.

When the enemy comes flooding into your soul, enticing you toward an old lust, call upon the Holy Ghost. Listen to his every whisper, and obey his every command. Don’t shut him out. If you are prepared to do whatever he empowers you to do, he won’t withhold his word from you.

You can move out of the old life and into the new in a single leap. It happens when you see how impossible it is for you to overcome sin by your own human efforts. It dawns on you that a faithful God has sworn to give the Holy Ghost to all believers who ask, and that he will accomplish in you what the Lord has promised by oath. So, finally, you abandon yourself totally to God and his promises. You believe he will perform what he has promised.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17).

-David Wilkerson

Rest in his faithfulness.

"Who so hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil."—Proverbs 1:33.

DIVINE love is rendered conspicuous when it I shines in the midst of judgments. Fair is that lone star which smiles through the rifts of the thunder clouds; bright is the oasis which blooms in the wilderness of sand; so fair and so bright is love in the midst of wrath. When the Israelites provoked the Most High by their continued idolatry, He punished them by withholding both dew and rain, so that their land was visited by a sore famine; but while He did this, He took care that His own chosen ones should be secure. If all other brooks are dry, yet shall there be one reserved for Elijah; and when that fails, God shall still preserve for him a place of sustenance; nay, not only so, the Lord had not simply one "Elijah," but He had a remnant according to the election of grace, who were hidden by fifties in a cave, and though the whole land was subject to famine, yet these fifties in the cave were fed, and fed from Ahab's table too by His faithful, God-fearing steward, Obadiah. Let us from this draw the inference, that come what may, God's people are safe. Let convulsions shake the solid earth, let the skies themselves be rent in twain, yet amid the wreck of worlds the believer shall be as secure as in the calmest hour of rest. If God cannot save His people under heaven, He will save them in heaven. If the world becomes too hot to hold them, then heaven shall be the place of their reception and their safety. Be ye then confident, when ye hear of wars, and rumours of wars. Let no agitation distress you, but be quiet from fear of evil. Whatsoever cometh upon the earth, you, beneath the broad wings of Jehovah, shall be secure. Stay yourself upon His promise; rest in His faithfulness, and bid defiance to the blackest future, for there is nothing in it direful for you. Your sole concern should be to show forth to the world the blessedness of hearkening to the voice of wisdom.

-Charles Spurgeon