A Remnant is Rising

This is a Word from Robert Stearns with Eagles' Wings. It ministered to me, and I pray it will bless you as well.

A Remnant is Rising in the Land.

Unseen, unrecognized, they know Whose they are and have died to this present world's ambitions. They want nothing of a consumer Christianity, where God exists for their earthly pleasure. They have caught a whiff of Heaven's fragrant food, and just the smell has satisfied them more than the sweetest delicacies of this passing age, and motivates them to remember that they are just passing through.

A Remnant is Rising in the Land.

They will not be bought or sold with position or money. They are remembering why they "got into this" in the first place - for the Lamb. For Jesus Christ's honor, for the sake of His worthy name. Their backbones are being steeled in the furnace of affliction, and purified of contemporary dross. They are old-school, hard-core Jesus freaks, and they are not apologizing for it. The remnant is not ashamed!

A Remnant is Rising in the Land.

They are blood-bought, and fiercely committed to the Word - the Logos and the Rhema.

Something within them stirs because they know they are here on a kairos assignment. They realize that they may have forgotten that for a moment, been diverted off the path for some years, but like soldiers who remember drills from long ago, they are coming to attention and position and awareness.

They are here on purpose. They are necessary to Heaven's narrative. They are not bystanders. They are the players on the stage of His-story.

A Remnant is Rising in the Land.

This army is realizing they never should have eaten Babylon's food in the first place, even if it was served in halls decorated to look like a cheap imitation of Zion. They would rather be pilgrims than settle.

They would rather be fools for Christ than wise in the world's eyes. They would rather be known in Heaven and feared in Hell than recognized on earth.

Whatever happens to them in the world really doesn't matter. They have locked gazes with the Lamb's eyes, and locked step with the cadence of Heaven's march.

His remnant understand that this is the Final Act and there is no turning back now.

A Remnant is Rising in the Land.

They are nowhere to be seen and everywhere to be found. They are very few of them chosen, and a great host of them who will emerge.

It's going to be very, very intense, for the sword they carry is stained with the blood of their lesser desires and their crucified carnality. They've had their battles, faced their own personal Valleys of Decision, and made their choice.

I have Decided. To Follow Jesus. No Turning Back. We have decided. Have you decided?

My Old Identity

There is a war within us, battling to the end, for control over our souls. Who are we going to yield to? Are we going to identify with our old nature, which is corrupt and carnal, or are we going to put on our new nature, which is created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness.

It's so easy to identify with our old nature. It takes no effort to slip back to our old ways. It's comfortable. But when we have been born again, God gives us HIS nature. Old things are passed away, and all things have been made new. Now we must learn to yield our flesh to Him, declaring Him as our Lord.

We have to decide, who are we going to identify with? Our old, sinful nature, or the nature of Christ, who now lives in us? Christ in us is our only hope. We must realize there is no way we can live a Holy life in our flesh. Our best is like filthy rags, but we live this life through the faith and power of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, so we can become like Him.

It's always harder to do what is right. Our old way of thinking, and our old ways come so easy to us. But we must renew our minds in His Word, so that we can become mature and attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Lord, help me not to cling to my old identity. You overcame this world, and gave the victory to us, so that we can have an abundant life. Empower us to put on our new self, and to be made new in the attitude of our minds. Our identity is now with you, Lord. Our allegiance belongs to you alone.

"To accept Christ is to accept Him with a revolutionary acceptance. It is to accept Him completely, all of Him to all of me. To accept Him exclusively, and not any other hope but Him. He alone is my hope. It is to accept His friends as my friends, His enemies as my enemies, His ways as my ways, His rejection as my rejction, the cross as my cross, His life as my life, and His glorious future as my glorious future. That's what it means to be a Christian!"

Leonard Ravenhill

Everything That Hinders

Our minds are clouded
Our vision is blurred
Our hearing is dull . . .

We have lost our way.

Help us, Holy Spirit, to see clearly.
Unstop our ears and open our understanding.

The things of this world have distracted us.
Our pursuits have kept us from you.
We are lost and don't know it.

Give us more grace, Lord, to forsake everything
for the cause of Christ.
You are the pearl of great price. You are worth it.
We leave it all to follow You.

Therefore,

"Let us throw off everything that hinders,
and the sin that so easily entangles us,
and run with perserverance
the race marked out for us.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith . . ."

Falling Short

The well-known scripture in Romans declares that we have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.

Have you ever wondered what it means to FALL SHORT of His Glory? To fall short of something means we have not measured up or we have not reached our goal. Our goal should be to become like Christ, yet no one is righteous, no one understands and no one seeks God. We have turned away from God and become worthless.

The only way we can become righteous is through faith in what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross. He paid the penalty of our wickedness so that we will not fall short of God's glory. He has made a way for us to become the righteousness of Christ and live forever in His presence.

God's intention for us is to share in His glory by becoming like Him in His Holiness. There is only one way we can live a Holy life - through the empowering and infilling of the Holy Spirit. We will never overcome the desires of this world and the temptations of our flesh without His grace. We need Him. He alone is our hope of Glory.

As believers, we must depend on the Holy Spirit to shape us into something that we are not!
Christ in us is our hope of Glory. Everything that we face in this world right now is pressing us into God, forcing us to rely on Him as we should, and transforming us into His image.

Give in to His pressing. Allow the potter to shape His vessel into His glory. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all! (2 Cor 4:17)