BY J.FARRELL FISHER, September 1, 2014

I really don’t know for sure the public’s response to the Scripture I’m about to share, but I sense in my inner man an awful rejection of the Scripture. It comes from John 3:36 when John said: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

I’d personally say that what we’ve just read is a frightening and future event that you’d think most people would like to avoid! “The wrath of God abides on him!”

In Jeremiah 45:5 our Lord spoke: “And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the Lord, “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.”

The last part of that verse reminds me of “I must decrease – He must increase.” But the first part is about those who have not believed, will not believe, and, as a result, the wrath of God abides on him.”

“Abounding Misery and Chaos or Advocacy Peace and Blessing?” Jeremiah 32:38-40 speaks of those who enter an everlasting covenant with Holy God. It says: “They shall be My people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.”

But I want you to know that much or most of what Jeremiah wrote, he did from behind prison bars! His devotion to Truth and its Author cost him dearly! At the very same time as he was writing from behind bars God was at work establishing the door to Advocacy Peace and Blessing! In fact, Jeremiah 33:30, tells us, God speaking to Jeremiah, and us, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

Jeremiah didn’t know and never would know if Almighty God had not opened his door of understanding to “Advocacy Peace and Blessing” – he would have, as most men, only known “Abounding Misery and Chains.”

Godless, the majority of men know only “abounding misery and chaos,” while the few, broken by Holy God, discover “advocacy peace and blessing.” Show me a man of peace and blessing and I’ll show you a man who’s been to the Cross of Christ!

It’s not a reason to rejoice at all, but in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, Paul wrote: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

A ‘veiled gospel’ that has erupted in “abounding misery and chaos” and they don’t even know they’re enveloped by it? Death is already at work in them!

Do you understand someone speaking of “a soul so base as mine”? That’s a picture of one “abounding in misery and chaos” who know nothing about amazing grace and eternal peace through Christ alone! They know and understand the paralysis of sin and the pulverizing power of a dead conscience, basically powerless to believe in Christ’s shed blood of the Atonement shed fully at Calvary’s Cross! Their own sin overpowers divine grace and fills them only with despair. It’s as if the powers of darkness instill within unbelievers a deadly disease called ‘sin’ that breeds despondency, discouragement, doubt and fear, and cements their minds with lies that God Himself couldn’t help them, and all of a sudden they seem to be emotionally and mentally paralyzed with hopelessness.

But if Jesus says, and He does, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest,” what He did 2000 years ago, He still does today! But people who are ‘heavy laden’ are acutely anguished body, soul, and spirit, and add more ‘weights’ trying to overcome on their own with their burden of sin growing stronger with despair and discouragement intensifying.

Have you heard the defiant to ‘saving faith’? “If I try harder, I’ll find the peace I’m looking for.” “If I earn my place on an athletic team, I’ll quiet my demons.” “If I earn a lot of money, everything will be OK.” “If I make a name for myself, I’ll adjust the mental, moral, and spiritual problems.” “If I stay busy, busy, I won’t have time to worry, worry, doubt, doubt, or be afraid, afraid.” Above all, they want to ignore God’s knock at the door of their heart. They want to totally shut out any references to the Cross and Christ’s shed blood. They want to refute the necessity of repentance and faith because that speaks of accountability before Holy God!

Opposite of self-effort and fleshly intent to be an overcomer of sin and death in and through one’s self is Jesus as He faced the judgment of unbelievers and the Cross praying to the Father in Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” So true, because every willful sin represents the nails in our Lord’s body!

In Fact, in Matthew 24:12 Jesus said, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” But ‘cold-hearted’ people need to know that the Holy Word of God tells us, in Romans 5:20, “…But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,” Verse 21, “so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And I believe that our Lord is telling us that the person who is the furtherest throw away from God is His target with the arrow of grace, mercy, and love – and though they’ve abounded in misery and chaos, our God is ABLE through advocacy peace and blessing, to birth new life, new hope, new purpose, with God glorifying Himself through a transformed sinner to a Heavenly saint!

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 speaks so clearly, hopefully, and powerfully about those who had abounded in misery and chaos, sinners separated, bound, hopeless – but they meet the Resurrected Christ and are ‘comforted’ by God! It says:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God…

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation…

And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.”

Abounding misery or Advocacy Peace? Abounding chaos or Advocacy Blessing? Tribulation or consolation? Trouble or comfort? Hopeless or steadfast? Sufferings or eternal salvation? Bondage or liberty and freedom? A sin-bound life of death and separation or sainthood by the Life and oneness with Christ? A paralysis of sin and guilt or the pleasure of forgiveness and freedom through our bondage-breaker, Jesus?

And the amazing, life-changing Truth? Romans 8:28 tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Do you long for the Lord’s nearness to you? In Psalm 34:18 David said: “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite (or crushed) spirit.” David didn’t stop there but went on to say in verse 19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

Advocacy peace and blessing reigns supreme! Years ago Andrae Crouch wrote and sang the song entitled “Through It All.” It’s a spiritual classic! It says:

“I’ve had many tears and sorrows, I’ve had questions for tomorrow, there’s been times I didn’t know right from wrong…But in every situation, God gave me blessed consolation, that my trials come to only make me strong…

I’ve been to lots of places, I’ve seen a lot of faces, there’s been times I felt so all alone. But in my lonely hours, yes, those precious lonely hours, Jesus lets me know that I was His own…

I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for the valleys, I thank Him for the storms He brought me through. For if I’d never had a problem, I wouldn’t know God could solve them, I’d never know what faith in God could do…

Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God… Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.”

No doubt this is why David wrote in Psalm 32:7, “You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.” Do you believe – have you experienced the reality of the God who “gives songs in the night”?

Reading through Acts recently I came across Acts 16:25. “But at midnight Paul and Silas [imprisoned] were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

I’m telling you: Dark nights are our opportunities for “songs of light”! A night of sorrow may be your hallowed moment of Holy Presence like you’ve never known before! It may be in “the dark” when your enemies come to arouse and threaten you, but then Holy God steps in in the Light of His Glorious Presence! It may be a dark night of fear and doubt but Holy Truth raises you above it! It may be a dark night of worrisome anxiety but Holy Peace stands up in Holy Promises! And the dark night becomes your “song of light”!

Out of “The Mourning Bride,” William Congreve wrote: “What do the damned endure, but to despair?” Despair or to delight, sorrow or to celebrate, assaulted by the powers of darkness and the enemies of God or to be affirmed by our Advocate of peace and blessing?

It was John Calvin, in his “Institutes of the Christian Religion,” who wrote: “God foreordained for His own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.” Are you the “called” or the “cursed”?

Can you believe it? Jesus dared to say, [Matthew 23:33], “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” I love what Thomas Scott once wrote when he said: “No affliction nor temptation, no guilt nor power of sin, no wounded spirit nor terrified conscience, should induce us to despair of help and comfort from God.”

Why? How? Who? Because His Word says: “Whosoever will may come.” That tells me of God’s pardon and forgiveness, not of His penalty and unforgiveness! What does Revelation 22:17 tell us? And the Spirit and the Bride say “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

Acts 2:21 tells us, “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And how could even one resist the words of Jesus in John 11:25-26? “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” “Believe”? That means “trust in,” “rely upon,” “adhere to!!” Is that YOUR testimony of belief and trust? Do you really have a mind and heart “trust” in God?

It was Horace Bushnell who said, “Trust God for great things: with your five loaves and two fishes, He will show you a way to feed thousands.”

ABOUNDING MISERY AND CHAOS OR ADVOCACY PEACE AND BLESSING? I’m sure you understand that a Christ-less life is a life of continual, addictive sin but when we come to Christ as Lord we hear Him say, “Go and sin no more.”

But the beloved John tells us in I John 2:1, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” John then said in Verse 6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked,” and He never walked in sin but He went to the Cross to die for your sin and mine!

And before Father-God we see Jesus, our advocate, representing us before Him because of our faith and trust in our Lord and Savior’s atoning work in our behalf as our “legal attorney”!

I don’t know who wrote it but the words are so encouraging: “We have listened to the preacher – Truth by him has now been shown; But we want a Greater Teacher, from the everlasting throne: APPLICATION is the work of God alone.”

In I Thessalonians 5:5-11 there’s powerful statements of encouragement by Paul. It says: “You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober…

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”

Both the above Scripture and words by Spurgeon really challenge all true believers of their ministry! Spurgeon said: “As the spiritual guide of the flock of God along the intricate mazes of experience, it is the duty of the gospel minister to point out every turning of the road to heaven, to speak concerning its dangers or its privileges, and to warn any whom he may suspect to be in a position peculiarly perilous. Now, there is a portion of the road which leads from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, which has in it, perhaps, more dangers than any other portion of the way. It does not abound with lions; there are no dragons in it; it has no dark woods, and no deep pitfalls; yet more seeming pilgrims have been destroyed in that portion of the road than anywhere else, and not even Doubting Castle, with all its hosts of bones, can show so many who have been slain there. It is a part of the road called the Enchanted Ground. The great geographer, John Bunyan, well pictured it when he said:

‘I then saw in my dream that they went on till they came into a certain country, whose air naturally tended to make one drowsy, if he came a stranger into it…

‘And here Hopeful began to be very dull, and heavy of sleep; wherefore he said unto Christian, I do now begin to grow so drowsy that I can scarcely hold up my eyes; let us lie down here, and take one nap…

‘Christian: By no means, said the other, lest sleeping, we never awake more. ‘Hope: Why, my brother? Sleep is sweet to the laboring man; we may be refreshed if we take a nap…

‘Christian: Do you not remember that one of the shepherds bid us beware of the Enchanted Ground? He meant by that, that we should beware of sleeping; wherefore, ‘let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.’”

And Spurgeon went on to speak “concerning the condition of the majority of churches in the present day.” He said, “they are lying down on the settles of LUKEWARMNESS, in the Arbors of the Enchanted Ground. There is not that activity and zeal we could wish to see among them; they are not, perhaps, notably heterodox; they may not be invaded by the lion of persecution, but they are somewhat worse than that, – they are lying down to slumber, like HEEDLESS and TOO-BOLD in the Arbor of Sloth. May God grant that His servants may be the means of arousing the church from its lethargy, and stirring it up from its slumbers, lest haply professors should sleep the sleep of death.”

What was the verse that inspired that? I Thessalonians 5:6, “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober [self-controlled].”

Advocacy peace and blessing does not breed abounding misery and chaos – but sin and self-abandonment to sin does just that! Sin and self-abandonment to sin breeds a person so insensitive to the things of God, making a person so subject to satanic deception, breeding spiritual paralysis concerning the things of God, and depriving one of true security but basically spiritually producing one so insecure of who he is and what he’s about! But I pray, not YOU, as you read this writing!

BY: J. FARRELL FISHER, SEPT. 3-4, 2017

Thank Holy God that Paul was inspired to write in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, AND is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

And don’t you think or consider that it is advisable, essential, absolutely necessary that we proclaim “Sour Grapes” to the insatiable devourers of those eating from the wrong tree? In Jeremiah 31:27-30 the Lord God Almighty spoke concerning His “chosen people” who were to usher in the blessing of His grace, mercy, and love to, yes, the nations of the known world, but something happened spiritually in their hearts and minds, and they ‘back-tracked’ to sin and self-indulgent ‘religious activity’ rather than the “Redeemer’s Ministry”! The Word says:

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. In those days they shall say no more: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ BUT EVERY ONE shall die FOR HIS OWN INIQUITY; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.”

And, how deviant do you find those determined in their own minds and hearts that “Sour Grapes” is OK? Have you ever been around the unashamed “indecency of trash talkers and trash takers and trash tossers” who so desire for you to be a part of what they are up to in their, yes, reckless lives and old ‘sin-nature choices’?

Ezekiel 24 is a convicting, challenging, life-changing chapter if one has chosen “sour grapes” rather than “sure grace”! In Verses 13-14 Holy God arose! (Does He still arise at times to confront “abominable walkers” who believe “flesh choices are OK” if you “believe in the blood of the Lamb”? HEAR ALMIGHTY GOD! “In your filthiness is lewdness. Because I have cleansed you, and you were not cleansed, you will not be cleansed of your filthiness anymore, Till I have caused My fury to rest upon you.

I the Lord, have spoken it; it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not hold back, nor will I spare, nor will I relent; According to your ways and according to your deeds they will judge you,” says the Lord God.’” And God’s charges against His “chosen people” Israel? Idolatry, sexual immorality, and shedding of innocent blood as they, yes, sacrificed their babies on His altar!

And a few verses down God told them: Verse 21, about their “arrogant boast, the desire of your eyes, the delight of your soul…and their sons and daughters they just left on their own, and THEY end up “falling by the sword”!

Oh, and true disciples in the midst of all this “sour grapes living” surrounding you, when His judgment falls, they’ll come running to you for an answer to their sin-stained lives and tattered existence! Ezekial 24:25-27, God speaking to a faithful servant: “And you, son of man – will it not be in the day when I TAKE THEM FROM THEIR STRONGHOLD, THEIR JOY AND THEIR GLORY, the desire of their eyes, and that on which they set their minds, their sons and their daughters: that on that day one who escapes will come to you to let you hear it with your ears. On that day your mouth will be opened to him who has escaped; you shall speak and no longer be mute. THUS YOU will be a sign to them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.” [But do they learn too late?].

I’m telling you: individual, married couple, family, friends, city, state, or nation: “It’s time to seek the Lord who has sought you out, even with a heavy-hand, to turn you from vainness, bad-choices, defiance, disobedience, and RECEIVE AMAZING GRACE AND MERCY to no longer be your own master, but fully desiring to be Mastered by the Master, King Jesus!” He’s not a bad king, but King of kings and Lord of lords!

In Ezekiel 34:25-27, how necessary to hear and receive these words!! “I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause ‘wild beasts’ to cease from the land, (lions, tigers, jackals, fierce bears, poisonous snakes, alligators, crocodiles? I don’t think so! ‘Wild beasts’? How about ‘sinners’, cruel and callous mean men, super-intelligent, godless professors, independent owners of much of the world’s wealth, or the angry, poverty stricken who know nothing, really, about ‘deserving more’, or, yes, “the pretenders” who CAN BE the strongest roadblocks to the True Pathway to the fullness of the blessing in Christ?), Back to the passage!!,; and they (The established in the Faith under the True Shepherd!),will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there SHALL BE SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

THEN the trees of the field (Who are they? The apples, the oranges, the mangos, the pears? NO! The trees of God’s field are His reborn, replanted, resurrected men and women planted, cared for, nurtured by the Holy Spirit!), then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. (Where YOU’RE PLANTED, GOD GIVES THE PROMISE OF INCREASE! DO YOU LET HIM?). They shall be safe in their land, and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. (Who’s that? The world, the flesh, and Satan!)….Oh, Verse 29!! “I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore. Verse 30-31? Thus they shall know that, I, the Lord their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, who are My people,” says the Lord God.” THERE WAS AND IS TODAY THE TRUE REMNANT! VERSE 31, “YOU are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God, “ says the Lord God.

Can you say, “Glory to the Father or Glory to God, Glory to the Son, Glory to the Spirit, the blessed “Three-in-One”? Can YOU say, “I know I am God’s child, birthed by the Holy Spirit through the “seed” of the Word of God”?

But, “Sour grapes”, or “wild beasts”? Does that describe “the perpetually desolate”? Are you aware, though they don’t see it or know it, there are folks, who are, according to Psalm 35:26, “Clothed with shame and dishonor who exalt themselves against Me”?

“Sour grapes”, “wild beasts”, independent, self-sufficient, the disdainers of God’s Truth, the worldly, self-centered, humanly sufficient crowd, the haters of knowledge, the refusers who choose to “fear the Lord”, the spiritually complacent though ‘glowing’ in their human attributes and abilities and attitudes and actions, constantly patting themselves on their backs with their own ‘self-imagined award winning of human capability’, and yet no true security or, for the day of death, no ‘door’ to eternal blessing but only the ‘door’ to Satanic oversight!

Dare I tell you? There is nothing ‘pleasant’ to the man who lives faithlessly, lives cemented in his fleshly desires, lives in the deep, dark waters of human abilities void of the “Life-Preserver” of true blood redemption, “New life”, “eternal purpose”, and the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the Family of God surrounding and overseeing, and boosting and encouraging your every step in His “blessed Kingdom-Rule”!

To be gut-level honest with you: I don’t know how any man, without Christ, lives a ‘confident life’ that has no true benefits, no spiritual provision, no wealth of the Word feeding Him the True Bread and the Meat of Life daily, and with No Spotter, (the Spirit), guiding His every step! It’s a “roll-of-the-dice”, but that was and is not God’s design or desire for YOU! Jesus said, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest!”

“Sour grapes”? Do you see, sense, yes, and sympathize for those who reject God’s compassion, mercy, and love, and choose for themselves to walk in the paths of sin and death, caught in the strong cords of sinful natures, entrapped by the ‘wild schemes of Satan’ like an animal-like man or woman laying their traps to take you down?

“Sour grapes”? That’s no desire to welcome at all God’s cords of conviction because ‘fleshly pleasure’ is their supreme desire, and “pleasing God” is the furthermost step away from them! Goodness even may be a trait of both the ‘lost’ and the “found”, but only Godliness is the fruit, character and nature of God alone, but He’s willing to live in you if you’re tired of a “sour-grapes mentality”!

Why not turn from, yes, your “sour grapes” but Merciful God’s “SURE GRACE”? Yet, sadly, many turn willful deaf ears and willful blind away from Eternal Truth about God and His love and man and his deceived sin-nature that, as I’ve already said, some ‘believers still give into, because of their ‘love affair’ with that old sin-nature, because the world looks down on the call to holiness, and because Satan himself deceives, lures, tempts, ensnares with his mocking ways of Kingdom living! [Why don’t you study and check out: “Imprisoned In Babylon”? Consider seriously, intently, purposefully about resolving the reality of Satan’s desire for YOU to choose ‘darkness’ OR to see the blessing of “walking in the Light”, studying “best effort still opening the door to ‘sin’” OR “Blessed by Emmanuel, “God in flesh” willingly laying down His life for the glory of God !].

And, if you resolve, yes, your dilemma about whether to “stay” devoted to your old nature or “rest” in Christ’s finished work at Calvary and the Empty Tomb, you may “see the Light”! And the angels will arouse all of Heaven to rejoice over you! In “sour grapes” living, you are definitely in the ‘world’ and a part of the ‘world’ that shuts the door into the Face of Almighty God! In the “old man dilemma”, YOU are surrounded by a dark cloud of sinfulness, But the Son shines on you, your ‘storms’ still blow, but He speaks and says, as they blow, “Peace be still!” Your problems may abound, intensify, try to overcome you and break you down, but King Jesus arises saying, “Peace, be still!” Your ‘problems’ invite Jesus, yes, to be YOUR “Problem Solver”, because not many flesh men can solve their dilemmas – they just try to survive them, but the “faithful in Christ” still says: “Peace be still!”.

Be assured: You’ll either lean on yourself, trying your best, or you’ll look to the Helper, you’ll either “look for another, better day, OR you’ll “rest” in Christ alone now, come what may! You also need to understand that those “dark nights of the soul” will be unveiled by the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ to shock the Hell out of every human soul that leans to his/her own understanding, closing out the Redeemer, The Victor, the Conqueror over anything you face!

What would you do if you secretly sinned and shamed the Savior, then He comes, He knocks on YOUR DOOR, and says: “I’m going to expose you – REPENT OR ELSE YOUR EXPOSURE COMES!” Yes, the day comes when Holy God is ready to pull back the curtains of one’s self-indulgent life, even in some ‘professing believers’, darkened in secret sins, and He comes not with ‘blind eyes’ but to let you know, He’s seen! Nothing, nothing, nothing is hidden unless “washed away by the blood of the Lamb of God, not to be resurrected or unveiled or broadcasted”!!

The ‘dark nights of the soul’ WILL hang around and seek to shudder the “Eternal Light of the Abiding Christ in you” that is your only hope of overcoming, yes, the darkness you allow! Many, yes, true believers are targets of their enemies, and their ‘enemies’ will do WHATEVER to split your allegiance, invert your eternal priorities, cloud your spiritual mind, pierce it, anyway possible, for leakage, heighten the, yes, at times, the influences, strong opposition, and deceitful doors they want to open to “bring you down” from “Throne-Living In and Through Jesus”, demoralizing your True Identity in Him and emphasizing the ‘pleasures’(?) of the world, the flesh and the devil!

Oh, but Christ Jesus is ALIVE AND WELL AND PRESENT AND DESIRES TO REIGN VICTORIOUS IN YOU AS ONE WHO IS MORE THAN CONQUEROR! He’s Redeemer, He’s Atoner, He’s Master and Lord over life, over death, over temptation, over deceit, over your ‘flesh’, over the demons of Hell who want you blinded to His All-Sufficient Grace, Mercy, and Love, and to be the “More than Conqueror in you as He fights your battles if you allow Him! “SURE GRACE”? Let me sum it up in Matthew 5:3-12!! “Blessed are the POOR IN SPIRIT, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek (teachable), for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those WHO HUNGER AND THIRST For Righteousness, for THEY shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart (washed in the blood of the Lamb!), for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. REJOICE and BE EXCEEDINGLY GLAD, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you!” “IN CHRIST” YOU are “salt of the earth”, “light of the world”, “Let YOUR light shine!”

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, October 24-26, 2018

How prophetic and convicting do YOU find Jeremiah’s words from the Lord in Jeremiah 18:1-12? The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that kingdom against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.

Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”

And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.” THE MORTAL SPHERE OF MISGUIDED MEN!

The Lord Jesus so clearly understood the deception of earthly treasures and the opposite of it, being a life, a mind, and a heart set on the “true treasures of heaven”! In Matthew 6:19-24 Jesus said: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Examine carefully WHERE your mind, heart, will, and spirit is truly set! In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 Paul wrote, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…”! IS THAT TRUE IN YOUR WALK AS A “PROFESSING DISCIPLE OF CHRIST JESUS”?

How sad that many, in comparison to the grace gifts of Christ, live unaware of the “flesh-bondage”, though some are even religious, but void of the power, freedom, and victory of His Overcoming Life over the flesh-nature, the world-spirit, and the demonic-deceptions!

Oswald Chambers, in his book “My Utmost For His Highest”, (pps. 185-186), highlighting 2 Corinthians 10:5, wrote: “Deliverance from sin is not deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, which the saint has to destroy by neglect; and other things which have to be destroyed by violence, i.e., by the Divine strength imparted by God’s Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but to stand still in and see the salvation of God; but every theory or conception which erects itself as a rampart against the knowledge of God is to be determinedly demolished by drawing on God’s power, not by fleshly endeavor or compromise (v.4).

It is only when God has altered our disposition and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin: Jesus Christ deals with sin in Redemption. The conflict is along the line of turning our natural life into a spiritual life, and this is never done easily, nor does God intend it to be done easily. It is done only by a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense of character; He makes us holy in the sense of innocence, and we have to turn that innocence into holy character by a series of moral choices. These choices are continually in antagonism to the entrenchments of our natural life, the things which erect themselves as ramparts against the knowledge of God. We can either go back and make ourselves of no account in the Kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish those things and let Jesus bring another son to glory.”

How often have you witnessed, yes, seen ‘professing disciples’ who “stand still and see the salvation of God”, yes, being fully unveiled before them AND before Christ Jesus as He waits to see if, by the clouds, His people trust in Him? Have YOU flippantly read Revelation 1:7? John said, “Behold, He is COMING WITH CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him.” I truly often wonder if, at times, when dark clouds surround people, especially true believers, that those ‘clouds’ ARE the awareness for them of the Lord’s abiding Presence! If He says, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you,”, is that only true of peaceful times, or does it include perilous times? As well as the Word of God, I treasure the past hymns of the ages, and especially one hymn by H.G.Stafford and P.P.Bliss found in the old Broadman Hymnal published by The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1940. It was entitled “It Is Well With My Soul”, saying:

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, You have taught me to say, IT IS WELL, IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL.

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And has shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin – oh, the bliss of this glorious thought – My sin – not in part, but the whole –Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, “Even so” – it is well with my soul.

IT IS Well…with my soul,…It is well, it is well with my soul.” Is it ‘well with your soul’, cemented in Christ’s eternal victory over sin, over Satan, and, yes, over death itself? “BEHOLD, HE COMES WITH CLOUDS!”

Are you familiar with Psalm 97 which is so important for the ‘lighting up’ of “The Mortal Sphere of Misguided Men”? It says: Verses 1-2,“The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad! Clouds and darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.” Oh, but then reflect upon Verses 4-6! “His lightnings light the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, AND ALL THE PEOPLES SEE HIS GLORY”, followed by Verses 10-12:

“You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. LIGHT is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.”

In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” And the Lord Jesus was not speaking about human reasoning or human understanding, but human minds and human hearts enlightened by the Holy Spirit in the grace of “eating His flesh and drinking His blood”, and he or she who does so “abides in Jesus, and Jesus in him or her”!!

Are YOU aware of ‘religious folks’ who ‘mouth’ words apart from the WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? Jude said the following in Verses 3-25, and I close this message with Jude’s powerful Spirit-anointed words! He said: “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to CONTEND EARNESTLY FOR THE FAITH which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day, as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” (That’s against Christ Jesus the Lord, Emmanuel, the Promised Savior!).

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And on some have compassion, making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.”

Are YOU a “contender for the true faith”, or have you been captured, chained, and been fully corrupted by, yes, your old sin-nature colored black and dark by Satan himself or his band of rebellious, renegade, run-amok-demons?

Why not “choose YOU this day whom you will serve through all eternity, choosing especially and literally, day by day, to be led by the Resurrected, Reigning, Victorious Christ over sin, over death, and over Satan? Amen?