Holy Spirit

  • Half a dozen men: Is that too many to ask for? (deer retreat update)

     
    I read George Whitefield’s Journals last year and have wanted to reread them (I’ve dabbled in them a bit since that time), but I did take them along with me on retreat last week (see here and here for more on my time away).

    Luke Tyerman (quoted by Iain Murray in the Introduction to George Whitefield’s Journals, p. 19) wrote this about Whitefield:

    Half a dozen men like Whitefield would at any time move a nation, stir its churches, and reform its morals. Whitefield’s power was not in his talents, nor even in his oratory, but in his piety. In some respects, he has no successors; but in prayer, in faith, in religious experience, in devotedness to God, he may have many. Such men are the gift of God, and are infinitely more valuable than all the gold in the Church’s coffers. Never did the world need them more than it needs them now. May Whitefield’s God raise them up, and thrust them out!

    After reading those words I wrote the following reflection/prayer in the margin and at the bottom of the page:

    Is He [the Lord] not the Giver of every good gift? Can we not ask Him for half a dozen? Are not half a dozen sufficient – so long as they are animated by the Spirit of God, devoted to the glory of God and driven by the zeal of the Lord of hosts? Matthew 7:7. He can save by many or few. His glory is magnified when it is but few.

    He provides workers with an eye and aim to HIS glory first and foremost. He will never provide a single worker more lest it obscure His glory.

    Let us rejoice in the workers He has provided.

    Let us pray He would send more workers into His harvest.

    Let us not question His ways, nor presume to be His counselor. All things are from Him, through Him and to Him and His glory. Romans 11:36.

    A worker He will not withhold should that soul in concert with the others work to magnify His Name.

    Let us trust His ways > ours.

    Amen.

    So there I was praying in faith for half a dozen workers, trusting God to work through that small number…I thought that was a pretty strong prayer of faith…

    But God showed me otherwise…

    During one the services I attended while I was away, Scripture was read from Isaiah 51…

    1  “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
    you who seek the LORD:
    look to the rock from which you were hewn,
    and to the quarry from which you were dug.
    2  Look to Abraham your father
    and to Sarah who bore you;
    for he was but one when I called him,
    that I might bless him and multiply him.
    3  For the LORD comforts Zion;
    he comforts all her waste places
    and makes her wilderness like Eden,
    her desert like the garden of the LORD;
    joy and gladness will be found in her,
    thanksgiving and the voice of song.
    4  “Give attention to me, my people,
    and give ear to me, my nation;
    for a law will go out from me,
    and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
    5  My righteousness draws near,
    my salvation has gone out,
    and my arms will judge the peoples;
    the coastlands hope for me,
    and for my arm they wait.

    I had been asking the Lord for a half a dozen men and had been thinking that was a bold step of faith since in the big scheme of things half a dozen men is not very many, yet God rebuked and humbled me and reminded me all He needs is a single man. He doesn’t need half a dozen men! He needs but one!

    Look to Abraham your father…
    for he was but one when I called him,
    that I might bless him and multiply him.

    Aren’t God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours?

    for he was but one when I called him,
    that I might bless him and multiply him.

    We think (I think, anyhow) we certainly need more than one. We think (I think, anyhow) we need half a dozen men (or more, often many more). I continue to fall into the trap that we need more, more, more. More people to pray. More people to preach the Word. More. More. Grrr!

    Is anything too hard for the Lord? No, of course not!

    Can the Lord save by many or by few? Yes and yes!

    Is not the Lord among His people wherever they go? Certainly yes!

    Is the Lord’s arm shortened or His power diminished because the numbers of men He chooses to enlist in His work are small? No, of course not!

    On a retreat last spring God pretty much reminded me of this very same thing as I read Joshua 3 and reflected on His call to Israel to step out in faith:

    There God is saying to the priests and the people (and us) (my paraphrase, see also Psalm 78):

    “Yes, the Jordan is ahead of you. Yes, I see the Jordan is overflowing its banks because it is harvest time. Yes, I have eyes to see that. I see that. Of course I do. I see all things. Do you not know I created the Jordan River? But do you not also know I am the God of the Jordan River? Do you not remember that I created the seasons and control them all? Do you not know? Have you not heard? Have you forgotten I am the living God? Have you forgotten all things exist because of Me and all things were created through Me and for Me and that I am before all things and in Me all things consist?

    “Do you not see Me high and lifted up? No, you may not see me with your naked eye but do you see me with the eye of faith? Will you not trust in Me, the God who is invisible, but the God who abides in and with you? Will you trust me with a heart of faith? Do you not see that I am going before you and beside you and behind you? I am with My people whithersoever they go. You are My people. I have redeemed you and I have set my love on you because I loved you. I have promised to never leave you or forsake you. The Jordan is flooding now. But I command you to go on, to begin. “How can we go on?” you ask. “How can we begin?” you ask. I tell you, you go on by faith in Me and My promises to you. You begin by faith in Me and My promises to you. Don’t limit me as your fathers did in the wilderness did.

    “Do you not remember My power, on the day I redeemed you from the enemy with the precious Lamb’s blood and worked signs and wonders in Egypt and made you to go forth. Did I not guide you like a flock and lead you safely through the Red Sea? Will you not remember I am your Rock and I am the Most High God, your Redeemer? Will you be like your fathers? Will you limit the Holy One of Israel? Remember My power! Remember the day I redeemed you from the enemy. I am the God who did wonders then and I am the God who does wonders today and I am the God who will do wonders among you tomorrow. I am the same yesterday, today and forever. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty God.”

    Once more I’ve been reminded of how small my view of God is, how puny my faith is, and how I continue to limit God.

    Did not God’s Spirit move and bless and multiply through a single soul like Abraham our father?

    Did not God’s Spirit move and bless and multiply through a single soul, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ?

    Cannot God’s Spirit move and bless and multiply through a single one of us today?

    I confess I find that hard to believe at times. (“O, Karen, ye of little faith!”)

    Yesterday on my other blog I was reflecting on Kingdom vision and posted some quotes from David Livingstone (from Rob Mackenzie’s biography “David Livingstone: The Truth behind the Legend”). Here’s one of them:

     
     
    A quiet audience today. The seed being sown, the least of all seeds now, but it will grow a mighty tree. It is as if it were a small stone cut out of a mountain, but it will fill the whole earth. He that believeth shall not make haste. Surely if God can bear with hardened impenitent sinners for 30, 40 or 50 years, waiting to be gracious, we may take it for granted that His is the best way. He could destroy His enemies, but He waits to be gracious. To become irritated with their stubbornness and hardness of heart is ungodlike.

    I know Livingstone meant this in a different way, but my friends in Christ, aren’t we are that seed being sown, aren’t we that small stone…

    John 12:24  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26  If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

    Yes, it’s true that we are the least of all seeds now and we are a small stone now…seemingly insignificant in the eyes of men (and in our own eyes)…

    However, because we are called by God and because we are filled with the Spirit of God … Will we not grow a mighty tree? Will we not fill the whole earth?

    Has God not called us like He did Abraham … so He might bless and multiply us?

    We see how we are so much like Abraham. Abraham was weak and powerless, his body was as good as dead and Sarah’s womb was barren (see the last part of Romans 4) and yet we see how he trusted God’s word and was justified by faith and lived by faith and God wrought through him a great nation, of which we are now a part by faith in Christ.

    Romans 4:18  In hope [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20  No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

    This is the same type of faith we’re to have in God and in the promises of God. Yes, we are as good as dead. Yes, we are the least of seeds now. Yes, we are the small stone now … Yes, that’s us. But what do we know about God? Is not our God is the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Romans 4:17.

    Just as the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, died, was buried and rose again from the dead to be the firstfruits of many creatures, so too we have been buried with Christ and raised by His resurrection power and filled with His Spirit so we might bear fruit to God – much fruit, fruit that will last (John 15). As we put to death our fleshly desires and live the life by His Spirit He intends, as we die to our own interests and live to His Kingdom interests, to seek to serve rather than be served, there is no doubt the Lord Christ will bear fruit through us (e.g.- see Romans 6). That is God’s intent for each of His children, not just the George Whitefields of the world, not just the ordained pastors, not just the worship leaders, etc., etc. If we are Christ’s joint-heirs, we cannot help but bear fruit like our Brother because we have His same fruit-bearing Spirit dwelling within us.

    As Abraham was but one, we are but few when He calls us, but God’s intent has always been the same for His people: to bless us and multiply us and bear fruit through us throughout the whole earth! Was that not Jesus’ commission to us? Has our Lord not given us all we need to bear fruit as He commands?

    Luke 24:46  …“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47  and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48  You are witnesses of these things. 49  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

    Matthew 28:18  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

    Returning back to the title of this post…

    Half a dozen men: Is that too many to ask for?

    Perhaps it is too many. Perhaps not. No matter. Let us ask our Lord first and foremost to circumcise each of our hearts by His Spirit so we might die to self to live to Him, to hate our lives in this world so we might keep them for eternal life, so we might bear much fruit to His glory. By His grace, may we trust His ways and His timing, knowing that He is working all things for His glory, whether it takes 30, 40 or 50 years or more, for we can be assured that He waits only so He might be highly exalted (Isaiah 30:18)! And, by His grace, may we (I) not limit Him but leave the numbers to Him! For indeed He doeth all things well, does He not?

    Never did the world need them more than it needs them now!
    May Whitefield’s God and our God raise them (us) up, and thrust them (and us) out!
    Soli Deo Gloria!

     

    If you have a burden and calling from God to pray for revival, please visit my website tent of meeting, dedicated to prayer for revival.

    Related:

    Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  • Welcome to deerlife! I’m just getting started.


    Hi everyone! Welcome to deerlife!

    I’m just getting started here, so the site is still under construction…but a few thoughts off the bat…(well, more than a few, I suppose)…

    Why the name deerlife?

    deerlife photoI’m a deer set free…The name is a bit of a change-up from Revelife…

    The deer set free – that’s from Genesis 49:21, a verse which hit me a few years back…not long after God had begun to free me to worship Him and serve Him in a way I’d not known before. (I wrote more about that here.) Since that time He’s had me on an unbelievable and wonderful journey with Him, a journey I never would have imagined. It’s not been without challenges, griefs, heartaches or pain, but He has been with me through it all, and has grown me in ways I’d not imagined.

    God is my first passion. I’ve been saved for over 28 years (so most likely I’m older than you!), and I’ve been married almost as long to a man whom God used to draw me to Himself.

    I love God more today than ever. He has shown me how wonderful His provision for me in Jesus Christ is. Christ took on my sin and died for me, so I might be forgiven of my sin. And then God credited Christ’s perfect righteousness to me so I might be accepted in His sight and have fellowship with Him. God the Father made me His child by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It was His free gift to me. Undeserved by me (I was unworthy). Unearned by me (salvation is a gift which cannot be earned or bought or bartered for in any way whatsoever). The part of the freedom I’ve only begun to understand in the past few years is that God has given me a new heart, a new nature though the gift of His Holy Spirit so I might be able to fulfill His commandments, to walk in His ways and to remain in His yoke. Yes, I could have told you about the Holy Spirit, I could have said He was important, but I can’t say I really had been able to see my real need of Him; my Christian life was much more of myself than of Christ.

    In other words: our salvation from beginning to ending (our justification, our sanctification as well as our glorification) is all of God and all of Christ and all to the glory of God alone (I Corinthians 1:30-31; Romans 8:29-30). Not that I really understand that, but by His grace I am trying to walk that out as He reveals more to me…

    I’m in love with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who purchased me by His sovereign grace alone. No, by that I do NOT mean Jesus is my boyfriend – not at all! This love is both intimate and reverential. I know I only love God because He first loved me. I adore Him as my all in all (though I confess I do not always treat Him as such). I desire to give Him my all knowing that He gave His all for me (I confess I often fail at that, and that not only grieves God but grieves me as well).

    Jesus Christ died so we might know His Father and know Him (John 17:3). That knowledge goes beyond a mere head knowledge but to a living reality which produces joy unspeakable and full of glory. As the grace of God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13), as we follow after God, we can have fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore…there is no need for us to wait until heaven to enjoy God. We are created to enjoy God here and now: today. Even in our pain and sorrow. Even in our suffering and disappointment. No matter what joy can be ours because we know that God is for us and we know that nothing whatsoever can ever separate us from our God.  I’m pursuing God for His sake and for His glory, but as I do so I have seen as I do so, it brings me joy I never thought possible. So that makes me a Christian hedonist.

    I hope and pray that if you’ve not known God at all or if you have known Him but have never known His joy in such a way, as we meet here together you might desire to know Him more intimately, to know Him as Abba, Father, the God who is transcendent as well as immanent, the God who died so You might know Him. That you might come to know and understand that the God who created all things and rules over the entire universe also tends and cares for the sheep of His pasture, and He calls each one by name and is intimately involved with all His people. He sent His Son, so each one of His children might enter into His very presence unashamed with boldness and confidence.

    I also desire that we might become more intimately attuned to the workings of His Holy Spirit in our lives. Let us consider the wonder of this: For all who have believed on Christ, the life of God has come to dwell in our very souls (borrowing there from Henry Scougal). Our very souls! Will you ponder that! How can it be? It was amazing enough that God sent His Son to become sin for us, to die for on the cross for our sin and credited His righteousness to us, so we might not be condemned but have peace with God. But then God sent His Spirit to live in us!…I think we all need to grow in our understanding of that life who dwells within us…at least I know I certainly do.

    A few more things about me…

    I love reading and studying the Word of God, talking about God and His Word and writing about God and His Word.I have found that the study of theology increases our joy…as we come to know God better through His Word and through reading good resources in addition to His Word (more on that below), we come to rejoice in Him and what He has done for us more and more.

    A couple notes regarding my theological beliefs…

    tulip2I subscribe to the five solasAs way of disclaimer: I’m a deer who likes tulips…no, not eating tulips, but rather I should say I like tulip…TULIP, a.k.a. Reformed Theology. I know many of my brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ do not. By God’s grace, however, I endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. I welcome and count all as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus who have been washed in the fountain of Christ’s blood and are trusting Him alone to save.

    In addition to my passion for God, I have a passion to see God’s people, God’s Church, revived again.

    Related to all the above, in case you didn’t already know it, I’ve already got a couple other sites on Xanga:

    naphtali_deer: devoted primarily to the ministry of the Word
    tent_of_meeting: devoted to prayer for revival.

    So, why deerlife?

    Good question! (Yes, tell me if I’m nuts, or what…)

    One reason I set up this site was so I might do Xanga TV…if I’m brave enough. lol. A friend here (a friend?!), yes a friend , has challenged me to do that…I must say that I generally prefer writing, but though I do have opportunities to speak with friends in person (which immensely blesses me and I hope them also), I have found myself wanting to speak a few of my thoughts to my friends here on Xanga and Revelife. We’ll have to see about that, however…

    I’m not quite sure what I might actually end up doing here, but it may be…

    A little quirky…
    A little mind-altering…(in the words of a former Xangan)
    A little outside the box…

    I admit I’m serious much of the time, but once in a while I do like to kick back and relax – but even then my mind is still buzzing and full of ideas…with a concern for God and His Church and His glory always rising to the surface…and a desire to press on to know Him and to help others do the same.

    Who knows what else might happen here at deerlife? I’m not really sure. I’m not expecting to spend a whole lot of time on this site, but I hope it might be a means to connect and fellowship with like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ, to be able to kick back in a bit less formal way, to interchange ideas and bounce things off one another, to talk about our relationships to God, our daily challenges in walking in the Spirit and mortifying the flesh, to share our blessings and burdens and to encourage one another to run the race set before us, to help us live the life God intends…and through all that to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (or to glorify God by enjoying Him forever) as we fellowship here with one another. Of course, anyone else is more than welcome to come along for the ride as well…with the full disclaimer that I am a Christian and I expect many of the others who may join in will be also, therefore no doubt there will be talk about our Savior Jesus Christ and we will be speaking and discussing from a Christian/Biblical worldview.

    So a few more ideas of what possibly might happen here…Perhaps we might:

    • share what God has been teaching us through the sermons we hear as well as our individual and group studies of His Word
    • discuss theological issues
    • discuss ministry issues (how we can practically help others)
    • share good resources (books, authors, sermons, music). With that, I’ll make this disclaimer: mostly all the books I read are by dead authors, meaning as far as I’m concerned there is very little worthwhile being published nowadays. I know there are exceptions to that, but I’m sad to say that they are few and far between.
    • discuss and pray for one another that God’s will be done in our lives and our lives might be to His praise, honor and glory, after all that’s what we’re here for, isn’t it? (For example we might ask for and discuss ways we might mortify/overcome sin, and ask for prayer and help in discerning God’s will for our lives, etc.)

    (With all that, I would certainly direct you to check out my other blogs I cited above…)

    I feel I already have a lot I’m already juggling (as do many of you), but if we might come together here once in a while to support each other, I pray it might be a blessing to all so we might build up the local body of Christ in our own communities.

    Please feel free to comment, message me, use the chatboard, etc., etc.

    I love the Church and want to see her glorify God as she is intended and that starts with each one of us! I am a strong advocate of every member ministry. As Christians, we are all ministers, we are all uniquely called and equipped by God to be serving Him, His people and our neighbor in love with the gifts and resources He provides for His glory. I am praying God would be gracious to us and allow us to encourage one another to live our lives to His glory in the places He has put us here on this earth.

    Enjoying Him immensely and hoping and praying you will also,
    Karen

    Psalm 16:11.  ∞