Seven Thousand Did Not Bow
You remember the story of Elijah. On Mount Carmel, he faced 850 false prophets in a life-or-death showdown over whose God would prevail. He simply called on the Lord, and supernatural fire fell from heaven.
You remember the story of Elijah. On Mount Carmel, he faced 850 false prophets in a life-or-death showdown over whose God would prevail. He simply called on the Lord, and supernatural fire fell from heaven.
It is one thing to suffer through times of darkness when we bring it on ourselves through a lifestyle of sinful behaviors. In that case, we should expect arrows to come. For the upright in heart, however, endlessly suffering in the dark is troubling to the soul.
If you’ve been a Christian for some time, you have known Jesus’s healing and restoring power through your griefs and losses. When you faced the end of your world as you knew it, Jesus opened your eyes to a new world beginning, and it blessed you.
It is clear the Lord loves his church and desires to bless it. So why does Revelation 2 present such a fearsome picture of Christ as he appears to his people?
“Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered” (Psalm 68:1, NKJV). In every generation, God is rising to scatter his enemies. He puts to chase all demonic principalities, driving them from his people. The very words of this verse, in fact, were quoted by Moses when the ark went forward in Israel. “So it was, whenever the ark set out, that Moses said: ‘Rise up, O Lord! Let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you’” (Numbers 10:35-36).
When Jesus said, “I am the way” (John 14:6, NKJV), he issued a powerful proclamation to his church. Tragically, we have not fully understood the power behind his words here. I believe if the church today truly grasped the simple statement that Jesus is the way, we would once and for all end our fleshly strivings to try to please the Lord and instead trust him for his promised favor.
Paul told Timothy that in the last days, perilous times would come on the face of the earth. Surely this describes our time, with a global pandemic and political upheaval in so many countries. Paul added that people’s hearts would grow cold, causing them to fall away from faith. Every study shows that in the Western world, Christians are forsaking faith and the church is shrinking.
“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12, NKJV). In this verse, Paul tells the Christians in Philippi not to worry about all the things they’d heard had befallen him. All those “things” he refers to included great afflictions and infirmities.
Every Christian has known mountaintop peaks and deep, dark valleys in their walk with Jesus. In my experience, it’s the valleys—the low places, trials and difficult times—that teach us how to be people of prayer, hope and courageous service.
God’s goodness simply can’t be nailed down. It transcends our understanding, yet it blesses us in every moment of our lives. His goodness can’t be defined, yet we know its truth through scripture and the Spirit’s witness. How can any human being ever get their head around the awesome goodness of God?