More than Conquerors

I just wanted to share with you today's Revival and Reformation devotional, because it really blessed me today.

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These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:33, NKJV.

Christ came to our world as the surety for humanity, preparing the way for all to gain the victory by giving them moral power. It is not His will that any shall be placed at a disadvantage. He would not have those who are striving to overcome intimidated and discouraged by the crafty assaults of the serpent. "Be of good cheer," He says, "I have overcome the world."

With such a General to lead us on to victory, we may indeed have joy and courage. He came as our champion. He takes cognizance of the battle that all who are at enmity with Satan must fight. He lays before His followers a plan of the battle, pointing out its peculiarities and severity, and warning them not to join His army without first counting the cost. He tells them that the vast confederacy of evil is arrayed against them, and shows them that they are fighting for an invisible world, and that His army is not composed merely of human agencies. His soldiers are coworkers with heavenly intelligences, and One higher than angels is in the ranks; for the Holy Spirit, Christ's representative, is there.

Then Christ summons every decided follower, every true soldier, to fight for Him, assuring them that there is deliverance for all who will obey His orders. If Christ's soldiers look faithfully to their Captain for their orders, success will attend their warfare against the enemy. No matter how they may be beset, in the end they will be triumphant.

Their infirmities may be many, their sins great, their ignorance seemingly insurmountable; but if they realize their weakness, and look to Christ for aid, He will be their efficiency. He is ever ready to enlighten their dullness and overcome their sinfulness. If they avail themselves of His power, their characters will be transformed; they will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and holiness. Through His merits and imparted power they will be "more than conquerors." Supernatural help will be given them, enabling them in their weakness to do the deeds of omnipotence.

Those who fight for Christ are fighting in the sight of the heavenly universe, and they should be soldiers, not cowards.... By faith they are to look calmly upon every foe, exclaiming: "We fight the good fight of faith, under the command of an omnipotent Power. Because He lives, we shall live also."--The Signs of the Times, May 27, 1897.

Change

Well, it' been a while since I actually wrote a post. Time has been flying by like a hurricane, and I can't seem to grab hold of enough of it. Just two days ago, I said goodbye to my beloved Fountainview. It always seemed like it was far ahead in the future, but then all of a sudden...I was gone. And I've been too busy to think much about it. After three years at Fountainview, I'm charging full speed ahead for ARISE. It feels like I'm on one of those moving walkways at the airport...and I'm running as if I'm about to miss my flight. It is exciting...but it's with mixed emotions that I contemplate this speedy change.

Change is what makes up life. It's unfortunate, because I dislike change, though I usually can adjust quite easily once it happens. There's just that one moment of gazing out at a familiar landscape...before you leap off the cliff and fly to destinations undiscovered, and the clouds blur the scene behind you.

But I've learned that discovery is not as unpleasant as I once thought. It is the gathering up of more experiences to store away in Memory's Hall. And no one can ever take those away. The memories are always there, even if you are no longer in the place where you gained them, or with the people you made them with.

Every bit of nostalgia and longing for these etchings upon the heart is but an echo of our inherent desire for Home.

Heaven will be cheap enough.

A Future and a Hope

Consider the experience of Moses. - Ministry of Healing, pg.474

I've been reading a lot about Moses lately. God worked miracle after miracle for the Israelites, but shortly after they would forget and murmur (complain) about present difficulties. It was a constant roller-coaster going from, "Praise the Lord, He is so good and has led us thus far," to, "Bitter water!? Come on Moses, did you bring us out here to die of thirst?" What a stupid question! God didn't bring them out to die in the desert. How could they forget all the wonders God worked in Egypt? How could they possibly forget crossing the Red Sea on dry ground? Just think, Moses had to deal with this stubborn bunch of whiners for more than 40 years! And that only because they were a stubborn bunch of whiners!

What prepared him for such a great and difficult work? Well of course, everything about him shouted, "LEADER." He had been trained in the royal schools of the most powerful nation on earth. Everything from diplomacy to strategy to governing was included in his training. All of Egypt, including his royal grandfather, once looked to him as the next Pharaoh. Surely this is what qualified him to lead the multitude of God's people. Right?

Not so.

The education he received in Egypt as the king’s grandson and the prospective heir to the throne was very thorough. Nothing was neglected that was calculated to make him a wise man, as the Egyptians understood wisdom. He received the highest civil and military training. He felt that he was fully prepared for the work of delivering Israel from bondage. But God judged otherwise. His providence appointed Moses forty years of training in the wilderness as a keeper of sheep (MH 474).

What? A shepherd? What happened to the great military leader, the heir to the throne of the most powerful kingdom in Egypt? Wasn't that the kind of training that would prepare Moses to lead his people? Doubtless it aided him greatly when the time came. But God knew that he wasn't ready yet. He had much to unlearn from his life as an honoured grandson of the Pharaoh, surrounded by heathen worship and glorified man-made structures. Here in the majestic mountains of the wilderness God revealed His power and greatness. Moses was alone with God, and he learned lessons of service, humility, tender care, patience, faithfulness, and meekness. He came to know God as a mighty but personal friend.

And then, the call came. Now God knew he was ready. Now, after he had let go of his own self-sufficiency, was he prepared to lead God's people from Egypt. In fact, he had become so humble and distrustful of himself that he shrank from the mission. It seemed impossible to him. God was patient, however, and provided everything he needed. And that encounter at the burning bush would be one of many near face-to-face meetings with God.

So what does this ancient familiar Bible story have to do with us today? Plenty. We are just as stubborn and whiny as those Israelites. We easily forget the ways God has led us in the past, and we complain and murmur about the smallest things.

Sometimes God leads you into the wilderness to teach you valuable lessons. This has to happen before He can really use you for the work He has called you to. You think that you are all prepared to do your lifework, or you think that you need education and power and honour in order to really do a work for God. But this is not reality. It may not make sense to the world, to your friends, to your family, or even to you, but God may place you in the most uncomfortable, uncanny, and unconventional circumstances to work out His greater purpose in your life.

And one day, you'll be ready.

One day, God will say to me, "Now you are ready. Go unto Pharaoh..." Whatever the work will be, I know that God is making me ready. He is using every experience and circumstance. And He is guiding every step. I may not meet a burning bush, or part the waters of a sea, but I KNOW, without a shadow of a doubt, that God has a plan for me.

And He has a plan for you.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV).