“TO PRAY
WITHOUT CEASING”.
1Thes. 5:17
Luke
18:1 And He also
spoke a parable to them to teach it is
always right to pray, and not to faint
Pro
24:10 If you faint
in the day of trial, your strength is small.
- Whoever
gives up is always useless
- None
has any reason to give up since His yoke is never heavy
- Whoever
gives up is blackmailing God with his own life
- Whoever
blackmails does it only because he loves self extremely
- Giving
up is nothing but resisting to the outermost
- On
the other hand, persisting while in sin, is nothing but insisting on God to accept the sin
that’s keeping any kind of answer away from us
PRAYING
WITHOUT STOPPING
What
does it mean to pray without ceasing? It can never mean to pray over and over about the
same thing, for if it would then it go against the words of Jesus Himself, for He said
that, “But when you pray, do not babble vain words, as the nations. For they think
that in their much speaking they shall be heard. Therefore do not be like them, for your
Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask Him”, Mat 6:7,8. So, what does it mean then, what may it mean to you
and what may not? Praying without ceasing means in the first place, praying without giving
up on something, on anything, small or great which may still be given and granted by God
Himself.
To
pray like an hypocrite is so easy one may not be aware and watchful enough against it. Let
us beware of that. To pray without ceasing means just that we may not, cannot, give up on
something for God is hand to hand it over to us Himself!
No halfway delusions, neither stopping at the end of the way dying at the beach having
swam so hard up till there, just to give up and drown at the sight of the haven rest
ahead. It would be good if such a person would rather not be aware of the rest which is
still before him, for the sight of it made him drown. It also means that one should never
stop in the beginning when there is so little light, when the way to prevail with God is
most difficult. Nevertheless, only those who are enabled to wait and receive from God
Himself, will ever be able to float over all as an eagle does in the sky above the earth.
Why
are people made to give up on something God is to give, which is a solemn promise of the
Holy God? What drives people to give up on God, right in His face as to mock Him? And why
then is God delaying answers to those who might need it desperately? What reasons does He
have to do so, seeing the Father is especially glorified when we are to ask and receive?
What does it mean to receive? How should we go about never to give up on something holy,
something which is still the will of God? What kind of spirit makes people put their own
eternal welfare at stake, for only those who do His will to the end will ever be saved
from hellfire? Let’s have a look into it, because these things have been roaring
within my heart lately and I think I am enabled to express myself within the holy frames
of the word which comes from God alone.
I do not want to discuss such as never enter the
fight with God, seeing every Christian must enter if he is ever to be considered a
non-hypocrite. There are those whose submission is a lie, an hypocrisy because they see no
reason to enter into the holy fight of the salvation of their soul and other’s. We
will not discuss those who slumber themselves into hell while keeping the frame of holy
Christians. We will discuss those who enter the fight, who are bold enough to become
honest in prayer, seeing God is such a difficult person to handle with, but still give up
at some point. Neither will we discuss those who are influenced and helped up by foreign
powers of darkness to pray and be steadfast seeing the devil cannot keep them from seeing
light any longer – because he cannot keep them away from it, he will try help them in
it.
To
have someone give up, there must be a struggle to give up from. Someone is struggling with
Someone. Whoever enters the fight with, against or for God, if not entering within it,
will always carry the possibility within himself to be nothing less than an hypocrite who
will soon be thrown out towards where the Pharisees and suchlike atrocities are to be.
Where there are holy people, there must have been a huge battle between them and God or there would
not be holy people at all! That’s why Paul mentions those who “have a
reputation of wisdom in self-imposed worship and humility, and unsparing severity of the body, but are
not of any value”, Col
2:23.
But those who fight never to look good – to entertain themselves with vain ideas of
being something before God and people which they are not in fact – but to deal with
God face to face, may come to a point where they gives up seeing God does not yield to the
sin of the sinner, but only to the holiness of the made-righteous who is still able to
pray after dealing with God, exchanging filth for holy things within and still be kept
away from exhaustion. God does not hear prayers: no, He hears people, holy people. So, one
may come to pray at any time spreading before God – and not men – whatever the
heart contains within to the full, but will still incur on dangers either to give up
because of refusing to become holy, or to have the full answer of all things he prays
about, together with whatever he could never pray for. God is able to grant, during and
after any struggle, both those things any sinner is able to ask Him about and those which
matter to God too. He gets those things he asks for, and the Promise God has promised to
any such that come to Him and stay true to the end.
Whoever
gives up on fighting with God, disdains both those things he is asking for, and those he
is not able to ask about. Those who never enter the holy fight of the knees, believing
wrongly God will grant all anyway, anyhow, are those who right from the start pretend
loving sin on to the end – that’s why they never enter a holy fight with God,
for they do not intend to become holy at all. But we find those who enter the fight, yet
know not what they getting themselves into, seeing they will lift up their lives from
their knees in a new shape, brand new and unknown to them through previous experience.
Whoever gives up on a Good Holy fight, gives up on God and on whatever He has to grant freely, both of His own
nature as well as of His own pocket! God grants both His own nature and His things to
those that come to Him – He cannot give things without giving Himself up, for He does
not grant pearls to pigs. He changes pigs first so He may grant them something holy to
care for. The pig has the opportunity to recognize he is a pig, just as the Canaanite
woman did when begging for some crumbs that fall from the table of masters. She realized
she was not holy, never an Israelite even, nor better than them, seeing people usually lie
to themselves as being better than others so they may be enabled to give themselves unto
trusting, just never to realize they are equally sinful before God. Entertaining the idea
of being better than others keeps them away from realizing their sins and sinfulnesses!
How will people be holy within if they refuse to see, to look in there? How can a house
wife cook without looking at whatever she is using to cook?
God
uses up all this most blessed time of struggling in prayer to exchange the nature of those
who are enabled to approach Him. The reasons we pray is a device , a way to be able to
have God carry out a holy work within Himself, having the sinner put to sleep by his own
need so God may carry out the work without having the sinner become selfish concerning his
own holiness. The only time God is able to cure, to heal from sin and its many, multiforms
of hurt, is when someone comes to Him personally. But that is the time when people come to
ask too. So, none has to become selfish in the struggle towards holiness. And God will
hold fast to it, to whatever He knows the sinner needs so as to be holy. People cannot
look into those things directly because they will surely become selfish concerning it;
they will either become “holy” because of whatever they ask God for, for the
sake of having it granted him, or ask God for things because of holiness; so, God grants
them indirectly so as to guarantee them all. God grants nothing out of any selfishness in
whoever prays, so, that’s why the sinner has to receive them all indirectly, as if he is not receiving them at all. Therefore,
anyone coming to God at whatever time he most desires, will be granted all he asks for, if
he endures the struggle to the end so as to have granted the needful time for God to
exchange those deep, filthy things within the heart, for those which exalt God and yet
humble the sinner. Whoever enters the fight as
Jacob did and no less than that, will be granted the blessing after having been
granted the request too, (Gen.32:24-30). This is to prevail with God.
Now,
to be able to be granted the nature of God, one has to be changed from deep within, right
there where one is never able to reach unto. That’s why it has got to be the work of
a powerful God, most wise Savior too. Jesus grants the sinner whatever God the Father is
asking for concerning the sinner, and whatever the sinner is asking too from God the
Father at the feet of the Mediator from heaven. The praying time is the time for exchange,
for becoming one with the Father in whatever we are and ask and He asks and inquires about
too. It is always a counseling session concerning those
things God is asking to have about within people. Every sinner has the right to be
turned into a child of God, genuinely, truthfully, during all counseling sessions of
prayerful questioning and honest struggling with God. The struggle is not with the fact
that God seems not to be willing to grant the request, but the fight is between natures,
opposed natures which never got along with each other. God will never change, so the
sinner will have to if he is ever to stand before the Son of Man. This is what
reconciliation is all about – the becoming of one nature with God IN HIS PRESENCE AND
NOWHERE ELSE. So, God is to use this time to reconcile people with Him, with His nature,
while people are to request. You may even request holiness, yet, you will always find God
doing a parallel work within your own heart which is after holiness. In His presence we
may not, cannot lie without having it happen to us whatever happened with Ananias, with
Sapphira, his wife, who sold a possession for the love they carried within towards God and
still lied to Him because they were divided at heart and in loves. In His presence we may
not lie without dying forever!
So,
one is never to give up on any matter we are to get from the bosom of God Himself, whether
it be a wife, a car, a house or a castle in heaven. God uses this time up, fully to the
uttermost and single last second to exchange natures within the sinner. So, that’s
why no sinner is ever to give up on God concerning any single thing, great or small. If he
does, it will surely sadden down the Holy Spirit within – he may never restart that
lost work again so sad He is become! The promise is to receive all things
we ask for. And unless the sinner has been turned into such a person as to have God and
His words remain within him, and having the sinner remain in God both before, during and
after having received all from God Himself, having no pride, no sleepiness, no slackness
as a temptation just because he has already all he has been asking God for, God will not
grant the requests to him unless He is very angry at him. He has been so angry towards
Saul He left him the throne of Israel
for forty one years! Had Saul refused the throne to himself and to his own descendents
right when Samuel “said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast
rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel”,
1Sa 15:26, he would have saved his life, he would still
have his life given him as a ransom for his obedience to the exchanged, new will of God
for him! He should have accepted the new king, the exchanged will of God. Because he did
not, he is burning in hell today, for he lost the only chance he had to submit unto God,
unto God’s will, which is the same thing. Because God was angry, He gave him the
throne of Israel.
We read “I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath”,
Hos. 13:11.
So
God grants answers to any holy request upon submission unto Him. God chooses what we are
to ask Him for, as well as what He is going to grant. We cannot, may not even dare to
believe we will come away from it. Why does a sinner stop praying, why does he cease to
pray about something he knows God will be able to grant within the frame of His holy will?
Is it not because the fight is enduring unto the deepest spot of the heart of the beggar?
God uses the time fully up to sanctify up to where He can and may, to purify the vessel
which has the request within. The vessel, on the other hand, has to concern himself with
the full report of any request whatsoever and whatever God is demanding from him
henceforth (for the need is the providence of God Himself) to have any kind of sinner
comply and submit fully to all that God is by nature, by will and by ways of carrying out
the request; God is concerned about the way to carry out the will; the sinner, about the
will of the Father of all. That’s why we read in the prayer the Lord has given as
guide lines, that we are to pray that His will should be done as it is done in heaven above and not so much that it
should be done. We are to learn up fully – and fully comply to it – how and
all concerning the how it should be carried out, I mean through the power God grants,
through the whisper of wisdom he blows as life upon people who preach and those who are
able to hear Him through taking heed and opening the ears themselves, going against
themselves for the Word they usually hate.
God
is not selfish when He withholds answers from prayerful requests: no, He happens to be
loving in so doing! That’s why no sinner, no righteous person is to think God is not
giving him whatever he is asking with his whole heart. God is delaying because of the
person, never because of the bad timing of the prayer! God does never hear prayers! He
hears holy people. What did He tell Job’s friends? He said “and my servant Job
shall pray for you: for him will I accept”.
He would accept him, not the request! Oh Christian, until when will you delay the perfume
upon the Lord, the perfume of holiness upon His head in front of all, even when knowing
you have been a prostitute to whom much have been forgiven?
Why
then does God use up all His time we spend in prayer, holy inspired prayer, to fortify and
consolidate Christ’s holy work in us? Because that’s the only time Christians
come to Him, if they have something in their heart. They do not say any longer “I
charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love!”
They have become fools. So, when people come to Him as they are and not as they
want to look like, He is able to change unto holiness, to turn them into beings who become
sick of love towards Him and others, exchanging filth for pearls. Do you take to heart
that God is good, instead of you? Why on earth should you hear God say to you, “Is
it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine
own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?”
Mat 20:15
Are you not His own? That’s why you should
never give up on God, nor on anything which may come from Him. See how long a time David
waited to have God Himself fulfill the promised throne to him. Did he ever say “no, I
do not want a throne; all I want is to be poor for God, honorably caring for sheep! That’s
my job, to take care of little things which are in my hand to do!” Or, he could have
killed Saul at least twice and did not, so as to haste the conclusion of prophecy too!
But
no, David was a man according to God’s own heart, caring for the holy Pulse of His
great heart concerning his life, so it should not happen to David as it did to Saul! Saul
could and should have complied to God after having received the throne from the very hand
of God; David did it before it would be given him. What’s the difference? None
whatsoever! God’s
will was presented to both – only one of them, David, refused to the end to do his
own thing or do a thing from God for himself! He even disdained and hated the very garment
spotted by the flesh. Jud 1:23. No wonder he killed whom
thought to be able to save his life before him by killing Saul!
On
giving up on even a small matter of prayer, one is always mocking God, despising His holy
will concerning the whole of our life! We loose the matter we have been praying for as
well as whatever we have been shortsighted to see far ahead, putting thus a dagger deep
into His heart. There is no greater sin then giving up on God! Allow me to expand on that
matter.
Giving
up is, at the least, resisting on something God follows up on our lives, the indirect
cause of prayer – the main reason He does not grant us the answer to a specific
prayer. We give up because we think God has either forgotten about us, does not hear
prayer any longer or is just taking too long to appear. The main reason God delays on and
on is just because we are not cleansing darkness from within, as Is.
59:1,2 states, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot
save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid his
face from you, that he will not hear”. To give up then, is because God is never
giving up on Himself, reconciling not with our sin or sins even. We become tired off from
all the strain and then use up the last resource we have within our own hands against God
in His presence: we say, “well, if that what you want from me, then I will rather
give up, because I cannot go on like this anymore!” That’s how we start
blackmailing on God, putting forth our own well-being and eternity as a shield against God
so He may come down and be subdued tour feelings
and ways. We believe God will pity us and bow down to our blackmailing.
Friends,
is that not what the devil still does up to today? Remember when he showed off all the
kingdoms to our most blessed Lord so He would have been made a slave to sin in order to
save all the kingdoms of the earth by a single act? What makes you, then, do the same
thing against God, seeing Jesus will always do the same thing He did then? Try cleansing
your life for once, and see whether the doors of heaven will not open up to you instantly!
You need not blackmail Him!
You need not
go so far as throwing yourself down at the door of hell crying like a son of a mule so God
will listen to you for once! You need not do so. Bow down, humble yourself and turn
heavenwards and see, God will be much more humble than you can ever dream of! He is the
most humble person in the whole universe, though He is the King of Kings. He cannot deny
Himself, He will not for your sake. If He did, you would destroy the whole of His kingdom
if He ever came to comply to any of your pretensions!
To
give up on God is most convenient to the sin of the sinner alone. There is a certain sin
in the heart of man God is searching after to exhaustion and full extermination, and that
sin may not even be related to the request of the sinner whose intention is to bow down
only for the sake and because of the request itself. That the request is seldom related to
the sin God is after, is so easy to find it said in Scripture. For example we read in 1Pet 3:7 “Likewise, ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as
unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your
prayers be not hindered”. So, it is
possible to hinder any kind of prayer if you do not respect, love and care for your wife,
husband and child! This is where persisting on in prayer when our prayers happen to be
hindered or even delayed for a certain reason is nothing else than blinded obsession and
resisting the Holy Spirit on something. If not, why do we read then in Is. 65:24, “And it shall come to pass, that before they
call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear”? It is just too
possible that God answers prayer on the spot even before we pray! Why? And why then are
people fasting so much and getting close to no answers to their many prayers? Should you
not read Is. 58 and 59 over and over again until it stands out to you why God closes His
hypersensitive ears to prayers? So, a whole lot of giving up is done because somewhere the
prayerful man is not complying to God on something which God is delaying his prayer for.
Search your heart Christian and see to it that there is no wicked way put forth as a valid
thing to you or to your own. Go, Christian, go, God is not wrong. Is God not answering
you? Are you answering Him? What about gluttony, lust, depravation, stealing, not eating
when you must, not drinking heavenly waters at the right time? Allow God to enter your
conscience and enlighten you concerning any matter. He will search your heart for you.
Concentrate on bowing down alone – it will work. It is just not possible not to be
heard when the whole of the sky between you and your God is cleared up and spotless!
Just
mark why David was such a man as would always be close to the heart of God. For three
years there was something wrong in the skies of Israel.
David alone saw it was not a normal thing to happen. Then they inquired God upon it. And
there the answer came. Then all was normal again and life went on, having both people and
God made happy. We read about that in 2Sam. 21:1,14 “Then there was a famine in the days of
David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is
for Saul, and for his bloody house,
because he slew the Gibeonites. And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in
the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulcher of Kish
his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that
God was entreated for the land”.
Now
we may understand why it is said in Scripture that Jam 4:3,4,
“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and
adulteresses know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever
therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 1:16 Do
not err, my beloved brethren. 1:17,
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of
lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Jam
2:14,
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he
hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?” We read also in Heb 10:38,
“Now the just shall live by faith: but if any
man draws back, my soul shall have no
pleasure in him”. Now we know why! Jam 1:4, “But
let patience have her perfect work, that
ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing”. I always wondered how could David say
without lying, “the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”, which is to say,
lack nothing. Heb 10:36,
“For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye
might receive the promise”. Heb 6:12,
“That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises”. Whoever clings to sin, will eventually give up on something:
either sin or God. So, allow none to be content to be just a Christian in a Mary-go-round,
seeing God is just giving time for repentance to take place.
Luke
12:35-47, “Let
your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto
men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh
and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom
the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird
himself, and make them to sit down to eat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he
shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so,
blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the Goodman of the house had known what
hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be
broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye
think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to
all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord
shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in
due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so
doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But
and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat
the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that
servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is
not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the
unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself,
neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes”.
Why
do people give up then, unless because they hold not on to the end? God is fighting them
and their sin while they bow because of something else. Jesus said “For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly
in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls”, Mat 11:30,
28, and 29. Is it not
possible that He is right and we are all wrong? How is that with you Christians? Why on
earth do you think your burden has become heavy and unbearable so as to think giving up on
your own life is suddenly become better off to you? Have you ever tried listening to
reason? Hear what the words of God tell us: 1Sam 15:23,
“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and
idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from
being king. 1Sam. 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in
burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and
to hearken than the fat of rams. 1Sa 12:14 If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey
his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye and also
the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD your God”. So, it
is possible to continue following the Lord if we just hearken and hear reason. The
opposite of continue is to give up. There is no other way in between these. All you need
is to kindle down rebellion and sinning against God. Why then is it a duty not to stop praying, never giving in
to fainting? We read, “And he spoke a parable unto them to
this end,
that men ought (duty) always to pray, and not to faint”; “And give Him no rest,
till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” Luke 18:1, Is. 62:7 . Are you willing to stay close to God to
the end as did Peter and John? Are you willing to abolish the abyss between you and God?
Hear what Jesus said, Christian. He said: “I am come to send fire on the earth; and
what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how
am I straitened till it be accomplished!” Luke 12:49,50. I
am sure one single soul is able to kindle, in time, a whole continent! The smallest of all
will become a thousand and a little one a strong nation: Can He, the LORD, hasten it in
his time? Is. 60:22
Are
you able to strengthen yourself so as to still be able to stand rejoicing before God after
you have done all of God’s own will within you?
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to
escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand (still remain standing)
before the Son of man” after all has been accomplished in you. Luke 21:36. “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For
this is the will of God, even your sanctification”, Heb
10:36,
1Thes. 4:3.
What
makes people cease to pray, to ask from God, to inquire, is their unwillingness to be made
holy. God is not giving up on that holiness and because someone may not be giving up on
sin, (and may we state that many times people are not aware of what kind of sin it is),
the rope fails to endure the strain and the love between fellowshippers cools down and
dies off eventually, unless something is done promptly. God is trying to take sinning away
from the mouth, the working place, the house, the land of a Christian and he is never keen
enough to see that! How foolish have we turned to be today! What kind of folly is this
that people come to the point of giving in to discouragement because of sin? “There
is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that
hate me love death”, Pro 14:12 Pro 8:36.
There will dawn a point in discouragement that a sinner will start hating God and love
death! Beware, Christian, allow it not to come to your horizons that you fail to humble
yourself before God in time, TODAY. “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a
branch, and is withered; (you will soon start to hate on God, wither) and men gather them,
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned”, John
15:6. Do never entertain the idea that God will hear you mock Him, hardening
yourself about an issue God might have already heard you about! Have you heard Him,
whatever He has got to say to you about you or anything else? “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith), Today if
ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation”, Heb 3:7,8. “And this is the confidence that we have in
him, that, if we ask any thing according to his
will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that
we have the petitions that we desired of him”. 1Jo 5:14,15.
You might
have them already – only bow down and worship as soon as you yourself have given in
to Him, instead of giving in to hardening yourself against Him!
Therefore,
if someone enters the fight, the struggle, (“Moreover, no one who is an athlete wins
a prize unless he competes according to the rules,” 2Ti
2:5) one of the options not to loose
– and people fear to loose more than to die! – is always to give up on something
God is willing but renders itself difficult to be achieved because of the unknown sin in
the asker. Dear friend, let it be God or anything else to be drawn to loose-win the fight
and never you. That’s the only language you should be concerned about ever. But
because sinners have God alone to be good and that in the movies of their deceit alone,
(if it were only so truly!), they usually give up so they may come to blackmail on God,
having God to pity them somehow. And the preachings we often hear concerning the so-called
mercies of God, are the main menu in this hypocritical feast of foolish, self-deceived,
giving-up people. Most people may go on preaching about the mercies of God simply because
they have fooled themselves into it! They surely have deceived themselves – none else
has, for they are too stubborn to be turned into fools by any other person on earth!
Friends,
let us hear the words of the Lord we usually profess to follow: “If anyone does not
abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather and cast them into the fire, and they are burned”. John 15:6. Why
then is someone led to give up knowing and doubting and the same time about God’s
will? Why should he rather choose to have his ways put upside down, thinking God will come
to his rescue somehow by obligation? We read that the ways of a deceitful man is always
full of thorns from then on. There is no other way out but to humble yourself concerning
sin too. You may never give up on God, and to give up on a tiny little thing which may be
His will, is to do so. Why do we read in Revelation “I know your works and love and
service and faith and your patience, and your works; and the last to
be more than the first”? Rev 2:19.
How else may works be increasing but through sanctification and purity? You have not to
increase upon works, but rather decrease upon self and sinfulness!
Are
you thinking God has given up on you, now you have to give up yourself so God may manifest
Himself? Think again, for God will not bow down lower than He is already, for the King of
Kings has already taken His seat in the lowest possible place of all His creation. Find
Him there, if you ever want to converse with Him in His language. Jesus has died so you
who believe may not come to perish by lifting yourself up to the giving up style we often
come to find out about in the practical lives of faithful Christians. Recall the words
constantly “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”.
You may still perish dear believer!
Now that you can believe because the Lord is in you, you may
still flirt the ideal of giving up as a valid way to return unto sinning, maybe from the
sinning you never really came out from at all! Why else should someone give up, seeing His
yoke is light?
“Therefore
we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time
we should let them slip. For if the word
spoken by angels was steadfast, and if every transgression and disobedience received a
just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if
we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and
was confirmed unto us by those who heard Him;”
Heb 2:1-3 “Therefore,
as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your
hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness”, where
people tried to give up so they could have food as
in Egypt (and not in Egypt!), having seen all of God’s great works, Heb 3:7,8.
To
conclude my reasoning, one my say that people give up on God because God does never give
up on their own sin, the one or ones God is trying to deal with by using that useful time
the Christian is able to approach Him for, whatever
reason it may be. God has His own reasons to have Christians pray! We read that “Behold,
the Lord's hand is not shortened so that it cannot save, nor is His ear heavy so that it
cannot hear. But your iniquities have come between you and your God, and your sins have
hidden His face from you, from hearing. For your
fingers are defiled with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered
perverseness. None calls for justice (within),
nor does anyone plead for truth; they trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive
mischief and bring out iniquity”.
Is.
59:1,2,3,4 Are you
guilty on just one of these many sins or any other it comes in this listing? If you do not
call wholeheartedly for justice and righteousness to be shed upon the earth, just as the
deepest yearnings of your Lord really happen to be, (for
He has said already loud and clear that “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what
do I desire, if it is already kindled? And how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Luke 12:49,50),
you may never be heard if your wife is sick, in deep sin, or halfhearted in God’s
work. Your fire is already kindled, Christian! So, why give up now? If your fingers point
out easily, if your tongue is kindled by hell itself and you think not so, if you are not
truthful and faithful in the out speaking of the massage God has so lovingly and promptly
given you to address people with as soon as you
prayed for it, do not expect anything else from God but disdain and silence! If you
do, you happen to be a fool and know not what you are doing, not being able to discern the
body of Christ, nor left from right. Shame on you, Child of a Holy God! You are not like
your Father at all! Do not dare to think you are within trial – call on God to show
out what the problem might be, rather, before deciding upon the matter yourself, closing
it down by shutting it definitely off to yourself, comparing yourself with Job! Do not,
for you will be taken into account just as an unworthy servant who knows God is faithful
enough to answer! Why do you believe Job never stilled his mouth, claiming “As God lives, He has taken away my judgment; and the
Almighty has made my soul bitter. As long as my breath
is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor
my tongue utter deceit. Far be it from me that I should justify you; until I die I will
not retract my integrity from me”, Job 27:2-5. Would
any vile earthly king not come back to something that is precious and worth to him? How
would Jesus then stay away from the jewels of His own crown? If you happen to be the
“the pupil of His eye”, why should you give up on Him?
So,
to give up is to resist and nothing else. It is the most subtle form of resistance. For
the sinner has no reason to give up besides his own heart’s delay on excluding
sinning from his daily, normal outside church living. If His yoke is easy, if His burden
light, why else should one give up saying we are carrying a light burden for Him? Who
gives up ever because of a light burden? Does Scripture speak against itself? Is it ever
divided? Surely not! But the sinner may be and does not live well with something
undivided, working and being differently from his own ways, being of a different nature!
God is like a clock, a good one Who does not beat but to be on time alone, maintaining His
clocking for the sake of all of mankind and not for the sake of you alone, certain and
softly sure. The sinner never understands such a language unless he gives up on something
dear to his heart and ways. His ways always look and seem right to him, driving him to
giving up on the light burdens of God! His ways will lead him to death eventually. “There
is a way which seems right to a man, but the end of it is
the ways of death. But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; all who hate me love
death”. Pro 14:12;8:36 Unless you come to the point where you are enabled
to deny yourself, selling all to be able to buy the treasure off, you will surely not have
life to live with, nor air to breath within the church of God, for it is said that there
you will never be able to stand – in the world maybe, in a lukewarm place or church
also, but not in God’s own courts where He can be a real Emanuel. “A perverse
heart shall depart from me: Him that hath a
high look and a proud heart will I not suffer”. Psa 101:4,5.
If
you do not enter the fight in God, for and against Him, you are a non-salty hypocrite
without taste. If you enter, however, and give up, you are good enough to be thrown out
and be stepped upon by unholy people yourself. They will surely have the upper hand on
you. Be like Nathanael of whom we hear that, “Jesus saith of him, Behold, an
Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” John 1:47
Therefore,
the reason one is giving up on a light yoke, is but the sinning we beguile with, so we may
not be justified, it is, be made just and righteous while we pray to God concerning any
kind of request whatsoever. You may be asking “A” while God may be dealing with
“X” or “Z”. So? Are you listening to God when you happen to call upon
the attention of the most Holy God? God does not expect you to give up on “A”
but on “Z” and maybe on “X” too! Be justified before God Christian!
Loose no time, no breath, no murmur on anything else! Buy off time, for it is always short
if you do the wrong thing, asking for a blessing God is never willing to withhold unless
you have for a fool, wanting to be blessed so you may have strength enough to sin on.
Ananias and Sapphira fell in the presence of God – why do you allow yourself to flirt
the thought you will stand in sin before your Emanuel, the same they stood before? Are you
different from them? If you are, surely you will stand like Peter, who stood firmly doing
whatever should be done!
If
God is delaying an answer, be sure there is something you ought to give attention to
besides the request, the arrangement of it before God, the words, for God has promised
that there will come a day when “And it shall come to pass that, before they call, I
will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear”. Is.
65:24. Until then, “ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of
God, ye may receive the promise”. Heb 10:36 And we
know what God’s will is, for we read, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification”,
1Th 4:3 Do never give up, Christian, rather be willing to be sanctified, maybe
justified still, having still to start off somewhere, somehow! Do not give up for God is a
King of kings, and never of deserters! There is a tribe in Africa where, if a man comes to
his king to request something, or even to enquire of him concerning something, and the
kings happens to go out and say “wait until I come back”, if that man dares to
leave the doorstep of that earthly king whatever
time it takes for him to come back, he will be searched and killed. May I tell you
something? Hear the words, the happenings of an unrighteous judge! Luke 18:6. Jesus
is the King of Kings! How respectful of Him must you be then, seeing you know He may not
deny your request ever! Is it to easy for you to have a good Father? Has your eye become
evil because He is Good? “He saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest
that I am an austere man, taking up that which I laid not down, and reaping that which I
did not sow;” Luke 19:22
We know there
will be fighting with God, for we read that “For the flesh fights against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may
not do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under (this)
law” either. Gal 5:17,18. May God be able to bless you richly!
