“OVERWHELMING DISTRESSES OR
OMNIPOTENT PRESENCE AND PEACE?”
BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, Sept.8, 2017
A number of years ago, visiting a church and faithful friends of the Body of Christ in Utah, my wife and I found an old book store in Salt Lake City. Browsing, I saw a very old book someone had purchased in 1910. It was a book entitled “The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning of her poetry from 1826-1844! I’ve treasured it over the years since I studied some of her writings in my English class at Baylor University in the mid to late 1950’s.
The last poem in the book, page 400, is entitled, “Weariness”. She wrote: “Mine eyes are weary of surveying The fairest things too soon decaying; Mine eyes are weary of receiving The kindest words – ah, past believing;
Weary my hope, of ebb and flow; Weary my pulse, of tunes of woe; My trusting heart is weariest! I would – I would, I were at rest!
For “me”, can earth refuse to fade? For “me”, can words be faithful made? Will “my” embittered hope be sweet? “My” pulse forego the human beat?
No! Darkness must consume mine eye – Silence, mine ear – hope cease – pulse die – And o’er mine heart a stone be pressed – Of vain this, – “Would I were at rest!”
There is a land of rest deferred; Nor eye has seen, nor ear has heard, Nor Hope has trod the precinct o’er; For Hope beheld is hope no more! There, human pulse forgets its tone – There, hearts may know as they are known; Oh, for dove’s wings, your dwelling blest, To fly to You, God, and be at rest!”
Dare I tell you? Believe I will! That, my friends, is one awesome piece of poetry! She faced the reality of life with its pains and sorrows, with its curses and its blessings, with its “ups and its downs”, with its wrongs and its rights, with its distresses and its deliverances, with its hopelessness and its Hope!
Is it “reality in life” that, at times, there ARE “overwhelming distresses”? I, personally, would be sincerely shocked if someone said to me, “I’ve never faced a ‘troubling’ day in my life,” or, “Overwhelming Distresses may exist for some, but for me, my family, my friends, we’ve only experienced ‘bliss’, not any ‘heavy burdens’,” or, you’ve heard it from some spiritually egotistical ‘believers’ (?), “Overwhelming distresses are for the worldly but not for believers,” and I want to “throw up!”
In Psalm 25:14-21, an inspired, Spirit-anointed word, from King David says: “Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have enlarged; (Are ‘troubles’ an instrument, yes, of Holy God in eternally equipping us for more of life’s pending events to come?), bring me out of MY DISTRESSES! Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins.
Consider my enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred. Keep my soul, and deliver me; let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”
OH, then look at Psalm 30:7, when David also cried out from the midst of a troubled heart, “Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled.” Yes! THERE ARE DARK MOMENTS IN A REDEEMED SOUL’S HEART AND MIND when it “seems” he/she has been totally forsaken by his/her Savior and Lord! Troubling times do come to true believers!
It’s why, in Psalm 46:1-7, a song of Korah, the Holy Word becomes so important in strengthening the “troubled” in their, yes, “moments” of despair and heartache! It says: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.
There IS a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. (Do you understand, “in Christ”, YOU are now the ‘holy place’, the Temple, the Tabernacle of the Most High God, yes, the Resurrected Christ living IN YOU?). God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is WITH US; the God of Jacob is our REFUGE.”
But, at times, “overwhelming distresses” occur when one of the faith “drifts” or “falls away” from devotion to his/her Lord and Savior, or experiences ‘on-slaughts’ from the powers of darkness, and, as a result, Proverbs 25:26 says, “A righteous man who falters before the wicked IS LIKE a murky spring and a polluted well.” Have you affirmed that word disastrously in your own walk of faith at times or witnessed it in those you love and care for, but willing to alert, warn, and inspire others to BE the true witness in troubled times?
In 2 Corinthians 4:5-16 Paul, inspired in the Spirit, wrote: “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.” God does, at times, ‘command light’ to shine ‘out of the darkness’ one has walked in or even presently is walking through? And Paul explains why in Verses 7-16 he wrote:
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. WE ARE hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.
And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore we speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things (DON’T DARE MISS THIS!!) are for YOUR SAKES, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound TO THE GLORY OF GOD. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day.”
Could it dare be that Holy God Himself allows, ordains, or opens the door to “Overwhelming Distresses” that you, as an immature child of faith, may be brought into His permissible will to perfect in you His Perfect Will, the door closed on you, but then opened to the glory of the Christ in you for the world around you to also discover Christ? Holy God is not interested in YOUR ‘house made in the flesh’ – He wants it gone, so that the Temple of the Lord may be established in you and through you! Amen?
The prophetic word in Isaiah 32 is so vital in understanding God’s intent in releasing, allowing, even ordaining “Overwhelming Distresses”! In Verses 1-15 the prophetic Word is unveiled! “Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, (Is that King Jesus?), and princes will rule with justice (Are You a ‘prince’, a ‘priest’, the bodily temple of the Resurrected Christ?). A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
The eyes of those who see will not be dimmed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
The foolish person will no longer be called generous (or noble), nor the miser said to be bountiful. For the foolish person will speak foolishness, and his heart will work iniquity: to practice ungodliness, to utter error against the Lord, to keep the hungry unsatisfied, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; He devises wicked plans to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks justice. But a generous man devises generous things, and by generosity he shall stand. (The “standing-generosity-givers” are God-birthed, redeemed, and the reconciled invaded by the Resurrected Christ!). Rise up, you women, who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. In a year and some days you will be troubled, you complacent women; for the vintage will fail, the gathering (of the “fruit” of other redeemed lives through these women’s example or witness!) will not come. Tremble, you women who are at ease. Be troubled, you complacent ones; Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth on your waists.
People shall mourn upon their breasts FOR the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city; because the palaces will be forsaken (that’s like the U.S. House and Senate, present, but vacant in heart and mind, because, yes, the majority, both democrats and republicans have forsaken God saying He has no place or part in human government! How stupid have they become!!), the bustling city will be deserted.
The forts and towers will become lairs forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks – UNTIL the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest.”
Can a life, can a marriage, can a family, can a state or nation, can a ‘cold’ or ‘Spirit-less church’, truly become, by God’s grace and mercy, productive, God-honoring “fruitful fields”? Absolutely! Absolutely when they die to ‘self’ and are “raised” “In Christ alone”!
But, I have to tell you: I’m not sure how many ‘at-large’ churches “LIVE IN OMNIPOTENT PRESENCE AND PEACE” (OR “OMNIPOTENT POWER”)! I wish I could say, “They DO!”, but, sadly, in many fellowships, it’s fellowship without power – and, never a concern about the ‘empty container’ of the church of the “Released Presence of Spirit-Anointing and Empowerment”! And for some, it’s not only the Spirit’s “absence”, but a blindness and deafness and voluntary “abstinence” of “Spirit-Anointing” because it scares them or they witnessed “Spirit-abuse” in some ‘deranged disciples’ (?)!
The “abundance of grace” is not only seen in the purifying through the blood of the Lamb, but also in the ‘circumcision’ of the heart by the Spirit, born-again by the Spirit, equipped by the Spirit, and, yes, ANOINTED IN THE SPIRIT to fulfill one’s calling, not be “best effort” but by the “Blessed Spirit”!
What did Paul write in Romans 8:12-17? “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For IF YOU LIVE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH YOU WILL DIE; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THESE ARE SONS OF GOD.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Are you aware of “the supply of the Holy Spirit” as His gracious Gift to His children? God knew we needed a “tutor”, He knew we needed a “guardian’, God knew we need a daily instructor and protector, God knew we’d need the Spirit “to pick us up” at times, God knew we’d need the Spirit “hovering over us and in us and through us” because of stormy waters at times, and God knew, in His birthing of humanity and touching His “new world” with grace and mercy, even in His giftings, that all the Body of Christ would need the Holy Spirit who fills us with wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and, (Get this!), in all manner of workmanship!”
Do you think God knew ‘humanity’, whether they loved and served God or not, needed the Holy Spirit to “gift”, “design”, “create even basic needs for all humanity”, plus God knew apart from Holy Spirit conviction there’d be no desire to know Him, serve Him, or follow Him, so He sent the Spirit!
But, there are natural men doing natural things on their own without any need of God or the Spirit, but there are spiritual men doing spiritual things, and they understand, “It’s not MY “best effort”, but the manifestation of the Spirit in me and through me!” And in Joel 2 God said: “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; (does that mean ‘all flesh’ having God’s Spirit poured out on them will receive it and yield to the will of God? I don’t think so!). Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams”. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.” Then God said: “I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath…”, and whether in the high heavens of spiritual identity or simply “the streets of a daily walk, the Spirit of God is going to manifest the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”!
Have you ever sung the old hymn entitled “Have Thine Own Way, Lord”? The last verse of that hymn says: “Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Hold o’er my being Absolute sway! Fill with Your Spirit Till all shall see Christ only, always, Living in me!”
I believe it needs to be a “new day” of refreshing, renewing, re-empowering and anointing of the Mighty Holy Spirit to honor and unveil Christ through you and me! Amen? Omnipotent Presence, Omnipotent Peace, Omnipotent Power! Will you receive Him and walk in Him?