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Dear friends, these past few weeks have been simply agonizing for me, full of confusion, turmoil, anguish, sleeplessness, blindness, bewilderment and questioning. I have come face to face with the world in its rawest form and its bitter hatred of those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet our Heavenly Father, in His illimitable wisdom and love, has deemed me worthy of such suffering and persecution. It seems the self in me has a long way to go before it will willingly lay down and die as it ought; indeed, as it must so that He might rise up out of the ashes of this fallen flesh. So much easier it is to read about turning the other cheek and deferring to His will than actually doing it when confronted with malicious betrayal and the very depths of hell seem to be rising up against us. At times like these, as I am sure many of you understand, we find ourselves stumbling in the dark, trying to comprehend what is happening; why events don’t make any sense. We can’t seem to turn our minds off, to stop it from spinning and replaying the same things over and over again. We are powerless, and nothing we do appears to offer comfort or resolution. We are so utterly disoriented that it begins to be clear what the Scriptures mean when they refer to us as aliens and sojourners in this world. I must confess that many of my responses of late were nothing more or less than the flesh in all of its ugly and defiant pride, trying to defend and assert itself in this world, to protect myself and my reputation against the tide of lies, confusion and attack. So very sad, and I am not feeling very Christian right now. I didn’t even want to return to this journal, as I felt so very hypocritical. Like Job and Jacob, I felt like I was wrestling with God spiritually and mentally. I wasn’t at all sure why these things were happening, how He could permit them. I couldn’t pray for a couple of days, and when I did all that came out was self-pitying and self-justifying whining. Sound familiar? I couldn’t actually concentrate on anything for any length of time. I would open the Bible, but there seemed to be a thick wall inserted between me and the words. Disillusioned, disheartened, and feeling alone and rejected, it was as if I had died, that my heart had stopped. I cried out to Him for He is all I have. I have no one else. All that the Lord has been showing me over this past many months; the depths of His ways and wisdom summed up in His Beloved Son. All these high-minded prayers about going further and deeper and letting it all go. All became fuzzy and twisted as the gentle hand of His comforting Spirit seemed to be lifted from my life. Although I kept crying out to Him for understanding and meaning (why Lord, why Lord), this was not really what I needed at all, and He knew that perfectly as only He can. At that very moment where I couldn’t possibly endure another second, His voice broke through from Heaven, deep into my very being. It was like an anvil had been lifted from my chest. “I have allowed this my son. I will carry you through it. You are not alone.” Peace. Unspeakable peace and comfort. Just as our Lord assured us… Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27) These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33) Dear friends, my heart was troubled and I was very much afraid. I thought I was going out of my mind. Nothing made any sense, as I mentioned. So what does He mean by this assurance of peace? Here we see that His peace is not the absence of tribulation or conflict, as this is what the world means by peace. The world is always talking about and pining for peace, but the history of the world and the shattered condition of the human spirit reveal how utterly empty and powerless such sentiment has become. To the world, peace infers the absence of conflict, enmity, distress, animosity; the free and easy life in other words. Yet our Lord’s peace is something altogether different, as I am slowly and painfully discovering. He has pretty much guaranteed, has He not, that in the world, we will have trouble, tribulation and conflict (the absence of peace as the world would see it)? The world hates Him, and so it only follows that it will hate us also? The destroyer is constantly seeking our destruction and will stop at nothing to achieve it. The spirit of anti-christ that pervades all the world and those aligned to it is enmity to the Spirit of God and His Christ. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14-16) Yet our Lord’s desire is not that we would be removed from the world, either physically or by a conflict-free existence, but rather kept in His peace here in the middle of it. Here in the world is our proving ground; the place we need Him and His peace the most. We are to remain present in this world, and in many respects subject to it, as a stunning and vital testimony to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. Our Lord’s promised peace is quite different from the worlds isn’t it? Although we would certainly appreciate it sometimes, it does not involve in any manner the absence of antagonism and tribulation, but the assurance of His presence in the midst of it, banishing worry and anxiety even though people and situations provoke them. In fact, it is often the case that He would have us venture forth into circumstances that will place us at risk, provoke conflict with the world, and leave us with only Him (and His strength, peace and comfort) to fall back on. "He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world." - Indeed, and the world will discover this whether it wants to or not. And how does His peace come to us? Those who have spent anytime at all here, know that the Father does not grant anything good to His children apart from Jesus Christ. He alone is the essence of all simplicity and fulfillment. Every heavenly provision is embodied and made available in Him. The granting of His peace is no exception. John 16:33 reminds us that “in Me you have peace”, meaning that peace is not some emotional attribute or quality of mind that He provides apart from Himself. His peace is made possible only by Him abiding in our hearts, as we abide in this world. He alone is our peace, here in the midst of pressure, persecution and the spirit of enmity that pervades the world. The Lord’s promise of the Comforter was the promise of His Holy Spirit. Peace, as with any other divine attribute is synonymous with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true vine from which all heavenly fruit flows. He alone is our "peace, quietness, rest, and unity" as is embodied in the Greek word for peace - “eirenē”. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7) He has promised to guard our hearts and minds “through Christ Jesus” – to be our ever-present peace and provision in the midst of the world and the devil’s animosity and murderous intent. As such, we are not to in any way allow people or circumstances to separate us from our God, who promises to fortify us in the center of the storm. Rest assured brethren, that if you are a true 'remnant child' of the Most High, you can expect to be misunderstood, maligned, falsely accused, targeted, antagonized, persecuted, ostracized, isolated, confounded, and even betrayed by those whom you believed to be your friends or supporters. On a human or rational level, nothing will seem to make sense. Your mind will go crazy trying to seek answers to it all. You may wonder what you did to deserve this kind of treatment. You may even be tempted to do everything in your power to “make it right”. Yet, the world’s kind of peace involves compromise, conformity and agreement, and in this sense we can never be at peace with this world. Peace at any cost such as this is not applicable to citizens of the heavenly kingdom. And our Lord will undoubtedly use such hard conditions and testing to bring us to the point where we love and trust Him above anything or anyone else. His way more often than not leads directly through conflict and separation. It forces a collision with the very heart of darkness and the spirit that is behind it all. Light and darkness cannot coexist peacefully, nor can life and death. There is no middle ground, nor can there be. Just as righteous Abel and all the holy prophets leading up to an including our Lord, we represent a dangerous threat to all principalities and powers that have dominion over this world. Attempting to make peace with the world is a fool’s game for the Christian. No, it is not the world’s peace we need, but the peace summed up and personified in the Prince of Peace. He is the true reality for which everything else is artificial and unreal. He is the Shining One who penetrates the lies and thick darkness of this evil world, and shines as a piercing light on all that is dead and dying. If you have ever gone out at night with a flashlight and lifted up a decaying log you will kind of get the idea. All manner of crawling things will scatter from the presence of the light. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. (Ephesians 2:14-16) The world would have us compromise and get along. To do all we could to mitigate conflict and foster agreement. Dear saints, this is no peace at all, but a satanic ploy designed to swell the ranks of hell. To live in opposition to the world, animated by the life of Jesus Christ, is to invite enmity and opposition. The Father knew this when He sent down His Beloved and Perfect Son, and He confirms it still as He sanctifies us here in the midst of it. Yet we are not alone, for our Lord is ever present to settle and secure us, to comfort us and guard our hearts and minds from the impact of being at times despised and rejected. I am still very much trying to make sense of this, and falling into the wisdom of His ways and purposes for us here. More often lately I stumble and fall. Clearly, I have so much more to learn, as all of my carnal instincts attempt to get me to worry, to fight back, to defend myself, to try to “fix” the situation, to apply human insight or wisdom. Please believe me when I say that I am not posting this as from someone who is far along in the understanding of it. These truths are still being very much fleshed out in my life, as so many situations have arisen lately to shatter everything I have relied on to secure myself in this world. He must loosen my grip from every manner of coping and surviving in this world that do not center on His Son abiding in and strengthening my spirit. The Father assured my recently that it was His will that all of this madness enveloped me; that He actually permitted it. Not to hurt me, or see me squirm (and believe me I have been doing a lot of this), but to help me to appreciate how His provision of Peace in His Son is all that I need. Not a worry-free existence, nor a hassle-free life. Not a day without conflict and opposition – just His Son who is all the peace I will very need. I tried in vain for many days to affect the peace of the world, to make things right. Oh how I exhausted myself trying to achieve this; how I rethought every possible course of action – but no, this was not the way at all. “Not as the world gives do I give to you” said our Shepherd. Friends and brethren – the last days are upon us, and I sincerely believe with all of my heart that the hard and deep things we are learning as His children, will equip us for what is coming, and for what will be required of us. We must die to this world and its ways, and any part of us still cleaving to it must be loosed. This is most often bitter and painful, as death can only be. But our Lord must separate us to Himself, and bind us to His provision. We must come to see that we can only be contained and sustained in Him alone. Eternity awaits, with joy unimaginable, but before that there is an altar and a cross to bear; there is death and the laying down always before the rising up. Oh, how I wish it were not so, that there was another way, but not so my friends. Our Lord has called us to follow Him, yet He has left us here in the world; a world that is becoming increasingly the expression of the spirit of anti-christ. He prayed to the Father that we would be kept from the evil one. Well, the keeping is in Him alone, as He has promised to guard our hearts from failing; to secure and strengthen our resolve in His faith and truth; to comfort and settle us when storms and conflict rage all around. This, dear brethren is His peace, and by His grace will be sustained in it to the bitter end. O’ Mighty Father – how we at times hurt so bad, rejected by men, and surrounded all around by enemies. Yet our Lord too, was despised and rejected, spit upon, and hung on a cross. Oh how the madness and brutality of the world seems too much at times; how our hearts so quickly fail and we want to run, or fight back, or be tempted to make peace with the world. Keep us from such responses dear Father. Keep us in Your Beloved Son, in His Peace, by the comfort of Your Holy Spirit. Keep us O’ Lord in the name of Jesus Christ our Hope. Amen. *********************** Please pray for us here at Living-Walk, that we would watch and see the Master at work, and understand what He would have us do. Your friend and servant in Christ Jesus, Wayne |
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