Consolations or The Consolation of Israel?

"And, behold, there was a man in
Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon;
and the same man was just and devout,
waiting for the Consolation of Israel:
and the Holy Ghost was upon him" (Luke 2:25)

Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, ...
who did not depart from the temple, but
served God with fastings and prayers night
and day... and spoke of Him to all those who
looked for redemption in Jerusalem (Luke 2:36-38,
portions).

In this time when much is being said about
"feeling" a sense of God's presence there
is much wisdom in considering whether
it is spiritual consolations that we
want or the Consolation of Israel, who
is Christ Himself.

Before there was "pickling in His Presence",
"getting sloshed in the Spirit", "tokin'
the Ghost", "being hammered on the
carpet", the old spiritual writers used
to refer to "spiritual consolations." It
is a widely discussed topic throughout
Christian devotional history.

Spiritual consolations can be described
as a sense of God which "has its beginning
and is felt chiefly in the senses or
sensible faculties." There are many
types of consolations, base ones and pure
ones, real ones and false ones. And much
consideration has been already been given
to their place in the life of a Christian.

This passage from Luke on the Consolation
of Israel, never fails, speaking of
consolations, to make my heart skip a
beat. The devout Simeon, and Anna,
the prophetess, served God day in and
day out. Their life was God. They were
given entirely to Him. They had seen
the good and the bad, they had seen the
faith of many wax and wane, they had seen
enough tragedy to break their hearts and
to turn them away from God, but still they
served God, in His Temple.

Their longing was not for a feeling,
or a spiritual experience, there longing
was for God! They longed for the Holy
One of Israel to break into human history.
They longed for the bloodshed to stop,
and for their exile to be over and for
peace to come and for the terrible
ache in their hearts to be comforted.

"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her
that her warfare is ended, and her iniquity
is pardoned" (Isaiah 40:1,2). Here was
the consolation that they looked for, a
consolation that could only come in the
person and work of Christ.

These two old covenant saints, who got to
witness the birth of the One who would bring
them into the New Covenant, longed for redemption,
and for forgiveness, and for reconciliation.
They longed for the kingdom of God. They
longed for the everlasting rule and reign
of The Lord God of Hosts.

Poor consolations they are indeed if they
do not bring us to this elevated level of
longing and fulfillment. I fear that the
consolations that people are currently feeling
are hardly to be called worthy of the name
"consolations" at all. For if we feel something
that we assume to be God, we can judge whether
that something really is from God by some basic
criteria. God isn't against excess, He is
against excess that takes us away from HIM!

In the late 1800's, in the city of New
Haven, not too far from here, a man
named John Wesley Redfield preached up a storm.
People fell under such conviction of the
Holy Spirit that they were found laying
in the streets. The paddy wagon would
come around and pick them up, along
with any alcoholically drunk persons
who might also be passed out in the street.
Even the jailers knew what the difference
was: when those with "Redfield's Disease"
"woke up" the next morning, their lives
were changed. They cried out "Holy!"
They gave up drinking and gambling and
whatever vice they had layed down with.

Encounter with God produces not just
a good feeling, but a changed life.
Consolations without holy adaptations
are worth very little. The point of
"feeling God" is not the feeling part
but the being changed part.

Simeon and Anna were long past wanting
just to personally "feel good" in God.
They had sat with God, cried with God,
cried for God, waited for God, longed
for God, prayed and prayed and prayed
and prayed some more and in so doing
had built relationship with the Consolation
of Israel. It was only He that could
console them. It was only His purposes
that they longed for. It was only
His Kingdom that was on their minds.

Let me ask you, "Do your consolations
bring you the feet of the Consolation
of Israel or do they just make you
feel good?" Don't waste your time
with spiritual child's play or,
perhaps, the devil's distractions.

The wise counsel of spiritual directors
through the centuries has been to advise
people not to center on consolations:
not to seek them, not to pursue them,
not to be attached to them. If they are
there, fine, but if you never "feel" God again,
it does not matter. It does not, or
should not, affect your commitment to Him
and His purposes. They are certainly
not what you judge the validity of
a revival upon.

There are some very real things to be felt in
God. Substantial, life-changing things.
Things that you will never get to unless
you abandon lesser pursuits. Simeon and
Anna knew about those substantial things,
you can feel it flooding out of this text.
Until your insides turn inside out, and
you fall to your knees in repentance
and adoration when you think of who God
is and what He is about, then you have barely
begun your journey. It is only then, that
you can, as Simeon, die in peace.

Until your vision and your life
are on the full tilt of complete surrender, total
obedience, and utter commitment to holiness you are
missing the mark. Until you are pursuing knowing
Christ and Christ alone, then you are living with
a lesser standard than you should be.

If it is the Living God who is coming to you
then He will take you, not for a "wheeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeee", not for a spiritual roller
coaster ride, but to the foot of
Cross. Funny thing about God though,
He allows us humans to choose. So choose
wisely. Seek the Consolation of Israel.
Seek the Living God. Nothing else matters,
and everything else pales in comparison--
even spiritual inebriation.

Know the most important thing that a
life in God has to offer: a deeply integrated
knowledge of Christ. Such a knowledge is so high
and so holy it can hardly be called
a "feeling"! There is much, much more
to knowing God than mere spiritual rushes.
God is seeking worshippers in Spirit
and in truth. "In Spirit" might not
be what you think it is, "in truth"
definitely will be a shock to all of us.
Better get started.

revival
spiritual consolations
Redfield's Disease
Consolation of Israel
Simeon
Anna, the prophetess
discerning spiritual manifestations
spiritual confusion
Luke 2:25-38
Isaiah 40:1-2
pickling in his presence
tokin' the Ghost
todd bentley
manifestations
glory
manifest presence of God

Devotions From the Heart: Deliverance is God's Business

by Pastor Derek Gitsham

"And it shall come to pass, that whosover
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be delivered." Joel 2:32

The promise of the Lord here in the book of
Joel is so emphatic and clear that to miss
His wonderful blessing is to miss out on life
itself.

Many of us find ourselves in troubles of one
kind or another, but the Lord does not even
get into that in this verse. Calling upon the
Lord is prayer. Prayer will be affective if
we pray with all our hearts. Casual praying
will never touch God, only effectual prayer,
even as James writes, “the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

We must mean what we pray, our wills must be
in our prayers. Now there is something quite
wonderful in this statement in Joel that at
first glance might be missed. It is so important
a key that its power will never be lost once it
is found. Calling upon the Lord for deliverance
is important. Taking our troubles to God is about
leaving them there with Him. That is so important
that if we have really prayed and believed God has
heard them, the burden of trouble will be lifted
off of us. David says many are the afflictions
of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them
them out of them all. Our troubles are allowed
simply to remind us that God is always available.

The key to this wonderful verse is this - it is
the word "whosoever." God by His promise is saying
I will deliver you in the trouble. Taking the
trouble out of your life is one thing, taking
you out of the trouble is another. Your deliverance
will not necessarily come when the trouble is gone,
but when the trouble is still there and you are not!
Praise God, what a wonder He is! Let Him take us out
of the trouble first, then watch the trouble become
no more trouble.

Don't Underestimate the Word of God

"For the Word of God is quick, and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
of the joints and the marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart"-- Hebrews 4:12

There seems to be a subtle, or not so subtle,
shift in some current streams of Christianity
to either rework what is traditional
orthodox understanding of what the basics of
our faith are, and to move toward a diminished,
more experience-based view, of the Scriptures.

The "emergent" church has sought to recast
the work and person of Christ, thinking
the idea of God having to cause His Son
to be sacrificed for the sins of the world
is somehow barbaric and punitive. From this
thinking, a psychologically correct "god",
inoffensive to current sensibilities, emerges
in a more rose-colored world.

In streams closer to my own, however, I
see an alarming move away from the use
of Scripture as the standard to judge
spiritual experience by. In place of the
Word of God, an experience based, and
prophecy-based ruler is increasingly
used.

I can tell you one thing for sure: things
are changing fast! The nostalgic, predictable
world of Ward, June, and Beaver Cleaver is clearly
past. We who have lamented that the western
world is spiritually too antiseptic and
bookish, will soon see a society that
is filled with every kind of supernatural
and soulish activity imaginable. For better
or worse, third world spirituality is coming
to a neighborhood near you!

How will we judge what is of God unless we
hold to the Word of God?

Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the Word of God is
quick, and powerful, and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
of the joints and the marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart."

I totally agree that we cannot correctly read
and understand the written Word of God unless
we are aided by the Spirit of God. I totally
agree that reading it apart from the Spirit
of God can turn the text into a dry lunch,
that will make us prone to legalism,
but that is not a problem with the Word,
but with our availability and submissiveness
to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus became the Word made flesh. He became
the Living Word of God, but He Himself said
that He did not come to abolish the Law but
to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). Ah, but here is
were the slope starts to become quite slippery.
When Jesus was presented in the temple, Simeon
prophesied that "this child is set forth for the fall
and rising again of many in Israel" (Luke 2:34).

Who Jesus Christ really is, is a great divider.
We shall all stand or fall on our ability to
discern Him. We shall all ourselves be discerned
and divided as either a goat or a sheep,
either as a son or as an impostor.

As the Living Word, Christ is able to "divide
soul from spirit and discern the thoughts and
intents of man." On one hand the Pharisaical
will stumble over Him, but on the other hand,
so shall the lawless and those who abandon
the warnings signs that Scripture holds out
to us. Many shall slam against the
rocks of undiscerned, soulish experience.

In the past, people have tried to use the Word to make
their cases. Both "sides" might even use the same
verses to "prove" their point. That
has had its own issues, but at least people
agreed that the Bible has the authority
to address matters of faith. But now it is further
complicated by using prophecy and experience
to judge whether something is of God. "I have had
an extraordinary experience, how can it not be
of God?" "The prophet has said so, who can disagree?"
"The bible? how old-school is that? We have a 'new
revelation.'"

But have the prophet and the experience been
subjected to and judged by the Word of God?
The Old Testament is rife with examples of
prophets, even groups of prophets, that agreed
with each other, but were not prophets of God!
(Ezekiel 13, Jeremiah 23:30ff;Isaiah 56:10, 11)
Throughout the Old and New Testaments it was
commonly understood that unusual spiritual activity
did not necessarily have its origin in God.

Dear ones, like it or not, our hearts will be
judged by the Word of God. What is hidden in our
inward parts will be exposed to the piercing
light of the Word of God. And trust me, that
will not be an academic, intellectual piercing.
Who you are will be discerned and divided.

We can redevelop Jesus in our own image, paint
Him in hues that suit us, announce Him to be
here and there and everywhere and yet it may
be "another" Jesus (2 Cor. 11:4), a figment of our
imagination, a doctrine of devils, and not the
Christ revealed to us through the "old-fashioned"
Word of God. Do you think that you cannot be
deceived? I urge you to think about that Day when
you will stand before God and He will show what
is in your heart.

The written Word of God keeps us from straying
too far into the realm of hearsay, opinion
and the false and fickle winds of change. It is a
constant that we can come back to. It has stood
before us and will stand long after us. There is that
magnificent passage in Isaiah 40: "The voice
said, "Cry." And he said, "What shall I cry?"...
All flesh is grass, and all its goodness is
as the flower of the field...the grass withers
the flower fades, but the Word of our God shall
stand forever" (Isaiah 40:6,8).

We cannot throw away our reliance on a solid
understanding of the Word of God. Reading
a bit here and there will not do. Using one
verse to prove something will not do. Taking
things out of context will not do. Adding
things to it will not do. Subtracting things
from it will not do. The written Word of
God gives us a clear picture of who God is.
The Spirit, of course, must illumine us,
but He will never contradict Himself.

The goal of our lives should be to enter
into a knowledge of and obedience to God
AS HE IS--not as we think He is, not as
we would like Him to be, not as others
say He is. We can be greatly aided by a
conscience that is not seared (1 Tim 1:19),
but even that is not a foolproof way of
judging whether we know something is of
God. Even if our hearts do not condemn us,
God is greater than our hearts. We can think
we are right and still be wrong. This should
sober us greatly.

We need to be a people of the Word
and of the Holy Spirit. We need to be
a holy people, seeking God alone,
and not anything apart from Him--
not healing, not spiritual experience,
not signs and wonders, not even
if an "angel" comes and tells us to.

The Word of God is undiminished. It
WILL discern your heart. It will divide
that which is of soul from that which
is of the Holy Spirit within you. Don't
underestimate it. All flesh is as grass
but the Word of our God shall stand
forever!

deception
true and false prophets
the Word of God
heresy
Hebrews 4:12
the bible
Isaiah 40:8
spiritual confusion
judging spiritual experience

Devotions From the Heart: Unless I Had Believed

by Pastor Derek Gitsham

"I had fainted unless I had believed to
see the goodness of the Lord in the land
of the living." Psalm 27:13

Faith is the marvelous grace of God that
saves us not only from the present calamity,
but also what is to come. For we must believe
to see, and see to believe. So many have
given up on the road of life because they
cannot see what can only be seen by the eye
of faith by the heart that believes.

Such was the distress of David that he knew
that if he had not believed, his heart would
have given way to discouragement, and would
have lost courage to continue on. Many are
the attacks of the enemy to dissuade the
saints, that to continue on would be futile.
Dark clouds hover ominously over us, but
David knew that he would see God’s hand in
the situation.

What a joy this is for the saint, to be able
to believe that God will come through for us,
He will bring forth something good out of bad,
that He will be glorified in all. It is not
time to stop short of the winning post. But
to press on by believing Him, confessing to
this in prayer as Paul says, “with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10b).

God is the God of the eleventh hour. He waited
till Israel reached the edge of the Red Sea,
there was no warning given about the water, no
preparation. At the edge of the water, God spoke.
He’s always on time, believe then only to see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living
and surely you will, for He cannot fail, and
has never failed.

The Deception of Idolatry: The False Promises of False Prophets

"Because with lies you have made the heart
of the righteous sad, whom I have not made
sad; and strengthened the hands of the
wicked, that he should not return from
his wicked way, by promising him life"
(Ezekiel 13:22).

In the Book of Ezekiel, God has severe
issues with the purveyors of Israel's
idolatry. He accuses the false prophets
of having a false vision of peace for
Jerusalem instead of calling her out of
her idolatry (13:16).

He rails against those who sell items
of idolatry to encourage idol worship,
causing people who are trying to do
right to stumble and causing people
who perpetrate this idol worship
to prosper (13:19,20).

What makes a false prophet false is that
they do not speak for God. They do not
speak the truth: they lie. They say that
"Everything will be fine," they say that
"peace is coming," they say that "you
are ok." True prophets, however, call
people back to a Holy God. They warn,
they cajol, they plead, they weep. They
are not happy campers, that is not their
job. In a sense, when all is well, we do
not need prophets! When we pursue God
with all our heart then the prophet is
out of a job! Then, and only then, is he
happy!

No-one would want to be a prophet because
his is a lonely road to walk when idolatry
and sin have overtaken a people. He does
not bring the message that everyone wants
to hear. In Jeremiah's day he was mocked for
bringing "today's sad news from God"
(Jer. 23:33).

Beware the prophet who is too popular. When
"prophets" have become as popular and
undiscerning as the rock stars they so
scarily resemble, then we are in trouble.
In the bible, prophets of God do not
usually have the luxury of being popular.
Many might come to hear him, but few wanted
or heeded his words. And sadly, they were
not his words, but God's.

How long will the righteous have to live
with a sad heart because wickedness and
lies abound? How long will the hands of
the wicked be strengthened by those who
would tell them lies about how they are
right before God? How long will the godly
have to watch ungodly and unlawful deeds?

It is no fun to watch people fall into
error. It is no fun watching the heart
of God break over that which would hurt
His people. Yet God did not and does not
wink at sin. He dealt with the cancer of
idolatry forcibly and completely. God gave
the idolatrous over to deception and
to lies. He allowed the false prophets
to be deceived and to prophecy deception
(Ezekiel 14:7-11).

Why? What did God have against Israel?
First, they turned away from worshipping
Him for who He is. They turned and
adopted the practices of their pagan
neighbors. Why was God so strict about
Israel's not mixing with the other pagan
nations? He did not want the leaven of sin
to infiltrate them. He is not like the
pagan gods. You cannot manipulate Him,
or conjure things up, or do as you will with
Him, or exercise power apart from Him.

That is why every true work of God
will have repentance at its heart and
holiness as its fruit and watchword.
Words can sound right but what is
behind them? The label on the can
can say "Christian" but inside it
can be devil's food! How would you
know the difference?

First, God is holy. That which is of
God is in line with the holy
character of God. The Holy Spirit
reveals Christ to us. The Holy Spirit
does not speak of Himself, but points
to Christ. Anything that is not of
the fruit of the Spirit is not of God.
And what are the fruits of the flesh?
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
contentions, jealousies, outbursts of
wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,
heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness,
revelries [orgies], and the like
(Gal 5: 20, 21).

Anything that mocks goodness, is
provocative of evil, disrespects spiritual
authority, demeans, produces lust, presumes,
exerts and follows its own way, puffs itself up,
compromises the truth, is enamored with money
or excess wealth, anything degrading or
anything that leads to loss of being led or
influenced by the Holy Spirit is simply not
from God (2 Peter 2:10-22, 1 John 3:3-16,
2 Tim 3:2-7).

Evil can look good for awhile, but it
cannot continue to fake genuine holiness:
the flesh will erupt because that is what
the flesh is like. Good fruit produced over
time is a worthy test of whether something
is from God or not.

Secondly, not all signs and wonders are
of God. Throughout the bible signs and
wonders were wrought by both godly and
ungodly alike. In Moses' day, Jannes and
Jambres (2 Tim 3:8)worked signs and wonders,
some of the plagues were reproduced by
Egyptian sorcerors (Ex 7:11,12), Daniel's
contemporaries practiced magic (Daniel 2:2),
Simon the Sorceror worked false miracles
(Acts 8:9).

Jesus said that the sign of the end
of the age would be MANY false signs and
wonders (Matthew 24:25) The False Prophet
who paves the way for the Antichrist does so
with false signs and wonders (Rev 13).

We as a people are so starved for the
supernatural that we fail to discern
what spirit is behind what we see.
We have gone from seeing nothing of the
miraculous to a cesspool of spiritual
activity that few seem to be discerning
by biblical standards and by the Spirit
of the Lord. If we prefer darkness to
light, and righteousness to unrighteousness
then God will give us over, as He gave
Israel over, to darkness, unrighteousness,
and deception (2 Tim 3:8-13).

We don't want to be there. For when
God deceives us, we are truly deceived.
Dear ones, I adjure you to not be naive,
nor be led astray by the "miraculous."
Seek God. Try the spirits. Our only
safety is to walk with God.
As Micah says, "Do justly, love mercy,
and to walk humbly with God" (Micah 6:8.)
Being with the Lord is not about
feeling good. It is not even about
being healed or having a spiritual
experience. It is about being transformed
into the image of God's dear Son, Jesus,
for the Spirit of Jesus is a Holy Spirit.

May we purpose to listen to and OBEY God,
even if He tells us something that we do not
want to hear. He alone is Holy and True.
He alone knows best. Do not make His
heart, or the heart of the righteous, sad,
but forsake all others and everything
to follow Him alone.

deception
true and false prophets
holiness
heresy
false prophets
idolatry
Ezekiel 13:22
spiritual confusion

Devotions From the Heart: Enemies of The Cross

by Pastor Derek Gitsham

"For many walk, of whom I have told you
often, and now tell you even weeping,
that they are the enemies of the cross
of Christ." Philippians 3:18.

It had not taken long for the early Church
to be infiltrated with those who wanted to
cheapen the grace and gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Everyone in the natural realm
longs for an easy life, but an easy life is
not promised to those who would follow in
the footsteps of Jesus.

Jesus said to his disciples, “If any man cometh
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). He spoke
this to his disciples and the first words out
of His mouth were to let him deny himself i.e.
let him lay down his rights to himself.

The early church had incredible accusations
against it, suffering immense persecution and
intolerable hardship. Life was not an easy matter
in those days, but embracing their afflictions
they grew and increased, and the gospel spread.

Paul’s word that many walk (live) as enemies of
the cross of Christ was clearly pointing to the
fact that the Church was being attacked by those
amongst them who did not see the necessity of a
life of discipline and perseverance. They
rejected the idea that the cross was not just
about redemption, but a way of life. Calvary
was about how we live, not just a place of
redeeming mankind.

We must recognize that the cross is to be part
of our life in Christ, even as Jesus said,
“Take up his cross and follow Me.” He called
the cross His Cross. We have to make the
cross our own if we are to follow Jesus utterly
and completely. Ours is not a life of ease,
but of accepting rejection, and following
Jesus through all that assails us.

The end of such people who refuse the cross
is destruction. Carnality is what we reap by
ignoring the cross, and our god is our belly,
whose glory is in our shame, who mind earthly
things. Pray that the cross be made our own.
Make it yours by faith right now.

Philippians 3:18
enemies of the Cross
spiritual confusion

Take Heed That No Man Deceive You

"For there shall arise false Christs, and
false prophets, and shall show great signs
and wonders; insomuch that, if it were
possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Behold, I have told you before." (Matthew 24:
24, 25).

In Matthew 24 Jesus gives us one of His last
discourses and it is a most earnest warning:
Let no man deceive you! Jesus mentions the
word "deceive" four times in this passage.
One mention should get our attention, two
mentions should give us pause, but 4 four
mentions should make us stop and take careful,
careful notice.

When we think about deception we often think
in terms of "the other guy" being deceived.
It is "the other guy", in the "other church,"
in "a different place" who falls into error.
Certainly is is not me and mine who are being
deceived. Often, too, we think of deception
happening outside of the church because those
that do not know the Lord are in darkness.

Jesus, however, is talking privately to his
chosen twelve in this discourse (vs 3).
Was this only meant for them? Obviously
not since they are asking Him what things
would be like at His Coming and at the end
of the world.

He speaks of a deception of great magnitude
that would come: MANY would come IN HIS NAME--
as "Christians", and MANY would be deceived.
This would not be an ineffective deception
because we see Jesus use the word "MANY" even
more times than He uses the word "deceive."

MANY shall come [falsely] in His Name. MANY
will be deceived. MANY shall be offended.
MANY false prophets shall come, and the
love of MANY shall wax cold.

There is absolutely no sign that Christians will
escape this, in fact, the deception is in the
place where it should not be--even in the
Church. It has invaded the holy place on all
levels.

This idea of deception parallels what
Jesus is speaking of here about
the "abomination of desolation" (vs 15) being
in the holy place. Deception becomes
personified.That which is not of God will
sit in the holy place just as Antiochus
Ephiphanes desecrated the temple (167 B.C.)
as Daniel predicted and just as the
Roman Army devastated Jerusalem in 70 A.D.,
and just as, if we understand scripture
correctly, a coming Antichrist will try to
deceive and devastate all that is holy.

Persecution and deception will not only come from
without but from within, just as Jesus was betrayed
by His own countrymen--even a close associate.

False Christ's (Christ means "annointed one")
will arise, claiming they are "God's Annointed"
and false prophets shall come showing great
signs and wonders, so much so that if it were
possible, THEY WOULD DECEIVE THE VERY
ELECT. Jesus Himself asks, "...when the Son
of Man comes shall He find faith on the earth?"
(Luke 18:8). As much as we want a massive
worldwide revival, this does not bode well
for one appearing. God is always calling,
but who will answer Him? Revival must come
in our heart and not necessarily as an
external "event." You never have to wait
for that kind of revival to begin.

The very height of folly would be to think
that you cannot be deceived. If you do think that,
then you already ARE deceived! Deception works
by slight of hand--really slight of truth--
things are not what they appear.

Behind the smoke screen, the coiled serpent
lurks ready to strike. Eccles. 10:11 says,
"If the serpent bites before it is charmed,
than it is too late to call the [snake]
charmer." We must be wary lest we be bitten
by deception before we recognize it to be
deception.

We need not be heresy hunters, but we do need
to do as Jesus tells us and take heed. Christ
would not take such great steps to warn us if
there was not a grave threat. God can keep
us, but how?

First, we need to be people of prayer. We must
continually be speaking with, and inquiring of
the Lord. We must stay close to Him in simple,
childlike faith.

Second, we need to be people of the Word of God.
As we walk more and more in the realm of the
supernatural we cannot divorce our inner
discernment of things from the written Word
of God. God has revealed all that we really
need through His Word. By the Holy Spirit,
that Word is revealed and understood. The
Living Word and the written Word of God
are always in agreement.

Seeking "deep truth" or "hidden revelation" or
"extreme prophetic" encounters, or third heaven
"day trips" can set us up for "old age" deception
quicker than fast. Soaring into spiritual realms
without being grounded in the Word of God
is just plain dangerous. As the song says, "Just a
song, before I go, a message to be learned,
traveling twice the speed of sound its easy
to get burned!" As deception and false spiritual
activity accelerates,then we must be doubly
careful to stay within the boundaries the Word
of God sets for us.

Third, we must be people of holiness. Jesus shows
us the fruit of deception: offense, hatred,
betrayal, iniquity, and love grown cold. But the
pure in heart see God! Hallelujah! They see
who God is and they know His Voice. They follow
Him as He leads them to safety. We need to
pursue holiness and truth so that there
is less and less within us that will be
attracted to the beguiling claws of deception.

Deception is very real and is coming to a
theatre near you: your mind! Seek the Lord.
Stay up to date with God. Pursue Holiness. Read
the Word. Entrust yourself to the Good Shepherd
so that you will be safe in the coming days of
deep deception.

deception
true and false worship
Matthew 24:4-25
heresy
false prophets
false Christs
abomination of desolation
spiritual confusion

Devotions from the Heart: The Help of His Countenance

by Pastor Derek Gitsham


"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why
art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in
God: for I shall yet praise him for the
help of His countenance" Psalm 42:5

Though David’s name is not over this Psalm
it is so like him in style and language that
it must be him. He speaks in the Psalm of
being greatly distressed (verse 3) my tears
have been my meat day and night, while they
continually say unto me, where is thy God?

At the same time he talks of tremendous
longing for God, which he knows, is the only
answer to great trials and afflictions.
(Verse 1) As the hart panteth after the water
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
(Verse 2) My soul thirsteth for God, for the
living God, when shall I come and appear
before God?

Then he says in verse 4 that when he
remembered these things, his longing for God,
his thirst, he poured out his soul in him. He
began to say to himself, “Why art thou cast
down, oh my soul? Why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God for I shall yet
praise him for the help of His countenance.”

This last phrase “for the help of His
countenance” can be translated, “His presence
is salvation.” David knows this more than any
other. Having seen the house of Obed-edom
under the blessing of God because of the ark’s
presence in his house he knew that there was
no greater blessing but God Himself. The
same is true today.

Charles Wesley wrote in the same vein the hymn:

“Give me Thyself from every boast;
From every wish set free,
Let all I am in Thee be lost,
But give Thyself to me.”

Peter in his first epistle writes in the
third chapter, “For Christ now hast once
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit.” Oh, that our hearts will never be
satisfied with anything less than Him, for
it is He and He alone who saves, and to
Him we must come.