The concept of selling or releasing all that we have and are such that we can attain the Lord God (not His gifts and blessings, but Himself as the gift and the ultimate blessing) as our portion, and be satisfied is a powerful one in the Bible, touching the very heart of His desire for His children. Consider the hard and horrendous life of Jeremiah, how he was asked to forsake all - his family, his calling in the priesthood, his nation, a bride and family of his own, his reputation, everything - all He would be permitted to have was the Lord his God. "The Lord is my portion." My friends, perhaps take some time to read the Book of Jeremiah and Lamentations prayerfully, and ask the Lord to lead you to His conclusions about how it might impact your walk with Him.

The times in Jeremiah's day were very much like our own - anticipation and impending judgment, uncertainty, false and natural religion. A whole generation of believers professing true things but not partaking of the one True thing. Pride and trust in the temple or the church, and the activities of such as though by this the Lord God who sees the whole heart is impressed or appeased. False prophets abounding with words of peace, peace and rapture and easy escape. And all the time Babylon is knocking at the door.

My friends, I really don't know what will happen; what circumstances or losses I will be asked to bear in order that He might know that I love Him, and that in Him as my only portion I will hope and be satisfied. This world means nothing to me, but I do have a wife and son whom I love deeply and dearly. In fact, they have been very much my portion for many years. I secretly fear that perhaps my love for them has often crossed the line into that dangerous area where idolatry begins. This is not a syrupy romantic, natural love as the world might recognize it - but a love born of time and dependence and belonging.

Am I ready to give them up if necessary? I can't answer that, only He can. But far greater men than I have been asked to give up far more. Again, consider the 40-50 years of Jeremiah's faithful service to the Lord; where our Lord's words were the prophet's very breath and food keeping him alive. Oh to sell all that we have, to relinquish all that hinders and obscures His purposes in us, to release ourselves completely like a little child falling into his father's arms behind him.

Yes, the oil is His life flowing into us and through us and out of us. In this sense can we ever have enough of His fullness and essence. He is the living and flowing dynamic, the spark of divine existence and being, that gives wings to the dust that we are.

Is He alone your portion brethren? Are you content with Him alone? Is He your one true desire? Have you discovered Him as the strength of your heart and life? If all else were required of you - all that you love and hold dear - would you let it fly gladly that you might have Him, and Him alone? Is He your Infinite Supply or do you seek something elsewhere - in religion, or community perhaps, in the warm and familiar embrace of loved ones? Would you be willing - as the prophet Jeremiah - to be hated by the entire world - such that you would enter into the Love and Blessing of the Eternal God?

My understanding of the last days - incomplete as it is -  is that there will be a generation of saints (being prepared now as I write this) who will represent the Almighty God's final witness to this world. These witnesses will be hated and hunted for their words and testimony. Theirs, you see, will not be a happy, affirming message, but a sharp two-edged sword that rips violently through all falseness and pride. As the Lord's message through the prophet Jeremiah, it will cut deep and expose, revealing that the very foundation upon which men stand and hope is cracked and crumbling. These end-of-the-age messengers will represent the very heart and mind of the Lord God, He who created humankind, the earth and all living things. As such, they will elicit the fierce enmity of all established power brokers in the world - governments and kings, churches and priests and even powerful commercial interests. It is likely that their own families will hate them and seek to silence or destroy them. In the end, like Jeremiah and all the prophets including the Lord Jesus in the garden the night before He died - all they will have left is... God Himself. He will be the only one they can trust. His words will be their food and sustenance. He will be their shelter and security as a hostile and murderous world seeks to quench the light that exposes it for what it truly is. Consider this again in this light - notice that "no man" would know him or care for his soul...

I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. (Psalms 142:4 )

 "The Lord is my portion." wrote Jeremiah and the Psalmist. "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work", affirmed our Lord. If all we have is the Lord God, brethren, will that be enough for us? What now is our portion in this life? Are we willing to suffer the loss of it - whatever it might be -such that we might gain Christ?