...but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.

 

"And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you , even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow." Josh 24:12

Read Joshua 24:1-15

You want to win a war but you don't want to service God?

"It's not my war. The battle is the Lord's!" has become cliche and we've lost the understanding of how our pride and arrogance impact the spirit of our words.

     "It's not my war." should come to mean, 

"How dare I think for a moment that something God has chosen to glorify Himself with, the victory over my enemies, is something I can take credit for." 

     Joshua gathered all of Israel together because what he had to say was important (v1).  He then, with authority, announced and imparted the vision and majesty of Who God is and had been to the people (vv. 2-13) and then brought the responsibility of each person to light with a commission, a plan of action, a call (vv. 14-15).

Today, were is the Spirit of the Lord in Power in our meetings?  What is it that is needed to reveal the fear of the Lord in our congregation? Why, it's the Lord Himself, coming down, being present, holiness manifested!  It's a place we've heard about.  It's a place some of us have experienced a portion of in our lives.  It's a place people talk about.  Where is it right now?

We're so busy and caught up in our phones and computers!  Even now as I type this message I feel His conviction!  We should call facebook and twitter what they really are, "Anti-Social Networks" because what they do is allow us to show a face without action, a mask, the VANITY OF OUR MINDS rather than the evidence of our walk!  Oh Lord help us to seek You!  Lord help us to find You!  Lord, call us into times of prayer and fasting that are unheard of today!  Lord, help!  Come down! Lord, please!

Reader, don't you want to feel the cleansing power of the presence of the Lord corporately?  Would you like to see your husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters flee from sin as if they'd seen the devil himself in it?  THAT is revival, THAT is what happens when God Steps Down.
Have you tried to help them? Have you cried trying to get them to listen?



It's time abandon all our own devices and minister unto the Lord.  "If My people," the Lord said, "which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 


#Commission - Time to pray without ceasing.

When God Stepped Down from Heaven by Duncan Campbell
Topic: Revival History   
Description: Listen to this first-hand account of the Lewis Revival during the early 1950s. Duncan Campbell was God's instrument in this extraordinary awakening. In this tape Campbell recounts point-by-point this three-year movement of the Holy Spirit over the Hebrides Islands. Thousands were converted, conviction overwhelmed villages, outward sin disappeared, and prayer meetings were packed! Your heart will be thrilled as you listen to this tape about this heaven-sent revival in Lewis. 

"If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them..."

This morning, a reading that blessed my heart:

John 13:1-17 J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

Jesus teaches his disciples humility

13 ^1-5 Before the festival of the Passover began, Jesus realised that the time had come for him to leave this world and return to the Father. He had loved those who were his own in this world and he loved them to the end. By supper-time, the devil had already put the thought of betraying Jesus in the mind of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son. Jesus, with the full knowledge that the Father had put everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from the supper-table, took off his outer clothes, picked up a towel and fastened it round his waist. Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel around his waist.

⁶ So he came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
⁷ “You do not realise now what I am doing,” replied Jesus, “but later on you will understand.”
⁸ Then Peter said to him, “You must never wash my feet!” “Unless you let me wash you, Peter,” replied Jesus, “you cannot share my lot.”
⁹ “Then,” returned Simon Peter, “please—not just my feet but my hands and my face as well!”
¹⁰ “The man who has bathed,” returned Jesus, “only needs to wash his feet to be clean all over. And you are clean—though not all of you.”
¹¹ (For Jesus knew his betrayer and that is why he said, “though not all of you”.)
^12-17 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his clothes, he sat down and spoke to them, “Do you realise what I have just done to you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘Lord’ and you are quite right, for I am your teacher and your Lord. But if I, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you must be ready to wash one another’s feet. I have given you this as an example so that you may do as I have done. Believe me, the servant is not greater than his master and the messenger is not greater than the man who sent him. Once you have realised these things, you will find your happiness in doing them.

Knowing He had everything, he chose to cleanse the ways and means this walk requires.  SELAH, ya'll.  SELAH.

Spiritual Things Discerned, Foolishness To Fleshly Mind

1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

18 The preaching of the cross is, I know, nonsense to those who are involved in this dying world, but to us who are being saved from that death it is nothing less than the power of God.

The cross shows that God’s wisdom is not man’s wisdom by any means

19 It is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent’.

20-25 For consider, what have the philosopher, the writer and the critic of this world to show for all their wisdom? Has not God made the wisdom of this world look foolish? for it was after the world in its wisdom failed to know God, that he in his wisdom chose to save all who would believe by the “simple-mindedness” of the Gospel message. For the Jews ask for miraculous proofs and the Greeks an intellectual panacea, but all we preach is Christ crucified—a stumbling block to the Jews and sheer nonsense to the Gentiles, but for those who are called, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. And this is really only natural, for God’s foolishness” is wiser than men, and his “weakness” is stronger than men.

Nor are God’s values the same as man’s

26-31 For look at your own calling as Christians, my brothers. You don’t see among you many of the wise (according to this world’s judgment) nor many of the ruling class, nor many from the noblest families. But God has chosen what the world calls foolish to shame the wise; he has chosen what the world calls weak to shame the strong. He has chosen things of little strength and small repute, yes and even things which have no real existence to explode the pretensions of the things that are—that no man may boast in the presence of God. Yet from this same God you have received your standing in Jesus Christ, and he has become for us the true wisdom, a matter, in practice, of being made righteous and holy, in fact, of being redeemed. And this makes us see the truth of scripture: ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

I came to you in God’s strength not my own

2 1-5 In the same way, my brothers, when I came to proclaim to you God’s secret purpose, I did not come equipped with any brilliance of speech or intellect. You may as well know now that it was my secret determination to concentrate entirely on Jesus Christ and the fact of his death upon the cross. As a matter of fact, in myself I was feeling far from strong; I was nervous and rather shaky. What I said and preached had none of the attractiveness of the clever mind, but it was a demonstration of the power of the Spirit! Plainly God’s purpose was that your faith should not rest upon man’s cleverness but upon the power of God.

There is, of course, a real wisdom, which God allows us to share with him

6-8 We do, of course, speak “wisdom” among those who are spiritually mature, but it is not what is called wisdom by this world, nor by the powers-that-be, who soon will be only the powers that have been. The wisdom we speak of is that mysterious secret wisdom of God which he planned before the creation for our glory today. None of the powers of this world have known this wisdom—if they had they would never have crucified the Lord of glory!

9-10a But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him’. But God has, through the Spirit, let us share his secret.

10b-12 For nothing is hidden from the Spirit, not even the deep wisdom of God. For who could really understand a man’s inmost thoughts except the spirit of the man himself? How much less could anyone understand the thoughts of God except the very Spirit of God? And the marvellous thing is this, that we now receive not the spirit of the world but the Spirit of God himself, so that we can actually understand something of God’s generosity towards us.

This wisdom is only understood by the spiritual

13 It is these things that we talk about, not using the expressions of the human intellect but those which the Holy Spirit teaches us, explaining things to those who are spiritual.

14-16 But the unspiritual man simply cannot accept the matters which the Spirit deals with—they just don’t make sense to him, for, after all, you must be spiritual to see spiritual things. The spiritual man, on the other hand, has an insight into the meaning of everything, though his insight may baffle the man of the world. This is because the former is sharing in God’s wisdom, and ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?’ Incredible as it may sound, we who are spiritual have the very thoughts of Christ!

J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. 

Psalm 5

1 To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. 2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. 3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct [my prayer] unto thee, and will look up. 4 For thou [art] not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. 5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
n1 in…: Heb. before thine eyes
6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
n1 bloody…: Heb. man of bloods and deceit
7 But as for me, I will come [into] thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: [and] in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
n1 thy holy…: Heb. the temple of thy holiness
8 Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.
n1 mine…: Heb. those which observe me
9 For [there is] no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part [is] very wickedness; their throat [is] an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue. (faithfulness: or, stedfastness)(their mouth: Heb. his mouth, that is, the mouth of any of them)
n1 very…: Heb. wickednesses
10 Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.(Destroy…: or, Make them guilty)
n1 by…: or, from their counsels
11 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.
n1 defendest…: Heb. coverest over, or, protectest them
12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as [with] a shield.
n1 compass: Heb. crown

Jesus' Teaching for His Disciples

Luke 6: 17And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; 18And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. 19And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed [them] all. 20And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed [be ye] poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. 21Blessed [are ye] that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed [are ye] that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 22Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man´s sake. 23Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward [is] great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. 24But woe unto you that are rich ! for ye have received your consolation. 25Woe unto you that are full ! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now ! for ye shall mourn and weep. 26Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you ! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. 27But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

Zeke

http://bible.com/1171/ezk.16.8.MEV