GREATER DARKNESS

The longer I go in God the more I realize the power of darkness.  Most Christians have been taught to be afraid of darkness; it is evil, of the devil, but if this is your thinking then you have missed out on all of the treasures God has for you in the darkness. "Secret places" that only God knows where He has hidden riches far beyond jewels and power.  I have shared on this verse before "And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel."  (Isaiah 45:3) usually from the positive vein of truth, but do you know there is another vein a negative vein of truth that darkness can occupy.  Sadly most of the nominal church today is walking in this darkness because of their love for money, desire for acceptance, not wanting to offend, power, and authority.  Now there are two different types of darkness with two different and distinct degrees.  The first darkness is that which arises from sin.  It is a darkness that is filled with unhappiness and leads the Christian to eternal death. The second type of darkness is darkness which the Lord allows within our inward part in order to establish and settle virtue.  This is a happy darkness because it illuminates (revelation) our inward spirit, strengthens it and gives it greater light.  This darkness is a place most Christians try to get to spiritually,  but do not know it is found in darkness so they reject their unknown and unfamiliar environment. We must never rush out of the spiritual darkness (the unknown and unfamiliar) in which we can suddenly find our self in.  It would be well for us to stop all of our frantic running, struggling, and searching and just wait before the LORD.  There are some people who do not know God provides a light to walk through darkness they go stumbling on and stumbling on and falling into all kinds of unpleasant messes, getting cuts and bruised, and crying the blues.  These times are out there just waiting for us, as matter of fact God has planned them for us not to make our way difficult, but to make our journey meaningful and instructive. They do not believe there could be a light in such intense darkness.  They believe many things which are not true.  How readily some believe the suggestions of  others while being slow to believe the Word of God.  Job wrote, “By His light, I walked through darkness”  (Job 29:3) God gives us a light. We must see these times of darkness as a time we persevere in our inward pursuit.  It is a manifest sign that God, in His infinite mercy, is seeking to bring us into the inward path.  How good will be the results if we embrace these times with peace and with resignation.  Such times are for our spiritual growth and development. As we persevere God will give us a light which grows and increases in the midst of darkness. Often it is in times of darkness wisdom and strong love are begotten.  It is in times of darkness not in times of great outward spiritual joy that our self-nature and self-seeking is dealt a mortal blow.  Images, ideas, wanderings, and other hindrances which give us a distorted view of God and His ways are consumed.  Last of all the Lord uses darkness to purge us of our outward senses. This purging is necessary for our internal progress.  Do not particularly try to seek a way out of darkness and most of all do not stop coming before the Lord as in our most faithful times and in those times when spiritual riches and blessing were at their highest. We must not try to look for some emotion or even a tender devotion towards God.  We must only express our desire to do His will and to be His pleasure.  Otherwise we will simply go in circles throughout our lives and take not even one step towards our inward goal.  An emotional experience with the Lord must not be our goal for it is not His goal.  In the other vein of darkness I spoke of is what I would like to talk about now.  Jesus spoke with authority when He said men are by nature dark and in darkness the light will not always shine. Jesus taught the light will not always shine and that it is possible to reject the light and shut it out. Now there are two degrees of darkness according to our LORD.  First is the darkness that is absolute where there has never been any light. That is the darkness of the heathen, but God has made a way to deal with this darkness through the death, burial, and resurrection (the Gospel) of Jesus Christ.  But the second is another degree of darkness and more intense -- the darkness that follows rejected light. The darkness that Jesus spoke of was not the darkness of man in the night who was waiting for the sunrise, but was the darkness of the man who has fled from the light of righteousness and truth. Once knowing the  light now turns and walks in darkness.  Where does Christianity destroy itself in any given generation?  It destroys itself by not living in the light by  professing a truth it does not obey. It destroys itself by ignoring the connection between coming to know God and the volitional (act or power of using one's own will in deciding or making a choice) life for the Christian believer.  What the combined forces of hell could not do the church can do.  Love of money power, influence, love of this world, unconfessed iniquity, these and more are destroying the Church of today. Jesus said, "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single (focused and clear) , thy whole body shall be full of light. ²³But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness (unstable and double minded). If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! ²⁴ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."  (Matthew 6:22-24)  In other words Jesus was saying if we are walking in darkness we are unstable and double minded.  James tells us, "For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. ⁸ A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."  (James 1:7-8) A man that is going in two directions of thought or deed is deceived and will receive nothing from God. And is unstable in ALL of their ways.  The man has rejected the light of the truth and now walks in darkness.  And, "how great is that darkness!"  Now that is a question. Well, this darkness can be measured. The longer one walks in darkness the darker the darkness becomes.  I hear people say, "who would have believed (say) Jim Jones told the people (and drank it himself) to drink the poison laced cool-aid, they did, and ALL who drank died?  Jim Jones did not start off that way (nobody does), but the longer he walked in the darkness of deception to the truth the darker he got and the things he did until it ended in loss and death.  We can even measure the darkness in years.  In 1962 the light of the word of God was snuffed out in public school and today we have mass murders, rapes, and so much more heartache.  For 54 years our kids have walked in darkness in the public school system in America.  In the early 1970s the homosexuals in America started coming out (and the church went in) of the closet.  For 46 years America has walked in ungodly acts of sodomy, lesbianism, and utter depravity.  In 1973 the Supreme Court of America said it was legal to slaughter innocent life in the womb of mothers. For 43 years America has murdered over 52,000,000 babies and we think God will turn His head to this?  Oh no our sin and the darkness we walk in can be measured and God is keeping record. As evil as these darkness's are there is even a greater darkness and that is the willful turning away from the truth of the word of God a darkness God's remedy for man cannot make whole unless they turn from their wicked, deceived ways. Sadly today in the church many Christians have rejected the light for other things (power, money influence, etc.) they think are far more important at this time, but have failed to realize the central truth that the failure of the church to walk in the light of the Gospel message is far greater than sin and it has affected billions of people on this earth.  Folks (I have a hard time calling them Christians) that walk this way are unstable and double minded, "let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." Where is the balm of healing for the soul?  Oh how the church needs to get back to the old-time message of  Jesus being the light of world, but sadly in this technological driven age this message does not fill offering plates, pews (hard to find today) and seats (more modern).  I wonder why we started counting how many people come to church? Does it really matter how many people come if they leave unchanged and in dire need of salvation? Does not God own the cattle on a 1,000 hills and even the hills?  Does God not take care of His children?  If so then why are we so concerned about such things?  If God is behind something do not worry about the number of people, the money they bring, or what to do.  If you build God a temple He will fill it.  Now please notice I did not say a church.  If you build a chapel, church, or even a denomination God is not obligated to fill it.  Are we (as Christians) not the church, but the temple created in Christ Jesus?  Friend if we become the temple of the Holy Spirit God will get involved beyond our abilities, finances. and whatsoever we put our hands to He will bless.  When I think of darkness it shakes me to the core of my soul. Oh how I do not want to walk in deception and presumption (presuming to know right, but in reality not knowing the truth and doing wrong), but then I remember all I have to do is "looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of my faith"  there is no evil darkness there just the treasures, "hidden riches of secret places."                 

HOME GROUP MEETING NOTES FOR 21 JUNE 16

WILDERNESS TRUTHS FOR MODERN TIMES-33 (NKJV) TEXT: "Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth." (Exodus 34:5-6)

 

I. THE SAFETY FACTOR

       A. How we want to stand with God in the cloud, to be raised into the lofty heights of God, to have the Lord proclaim His name before us. How difficulty this would be.

       B. But, the difficulty is not in maintaining the lofty height as it is in maintaining lowliness in the lofty height. Can humility be maintained in exaltation? There can be no greatness in God without humility.

       C. Man ascends to great heights in God, thinking that he has traveled a great distance. Actually God has come down to him traveling a much greater distance than the man has. God must greatly humble Himself in order to exalt man.

       D. This is truth is seen so vividly in the live Jesus. He became a servant. He was highly exalted in heaven, but He came down to earth. He was rich, but became poor. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich yet for your sakes He became poor that, you through His poverty, might become rich." (II Corinthians 8:9) 

       E. It would help us to keep in mind that every exaltation God brings to us entails a great humiliation or descending upon His part. In order to bring Moses into a sublime spiritual experience never before known to man God has to come most of the way.

       F. Moses had to climb Sinai, but God had to come all the way from Heaven to the top of Sinai. How far is Heaven? How high is Sinai? There is vast difference. God humbled Himself. May we learn humility from Him.

      G. Peter put it in proper perspective; "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." (I Peter 5:6) If God brings us into the wilderness to communicate and impart His glory to us it will help if we have humility. Perhaps the wilderness is necessary in order to bring us to humility.

      H. It would be nice if God brought us to Heaven (or at least green grass with softly flowing water) to impart His riches to us. But, He doesn't. He brings us to a land where we have no natural provision, thus we must live on the supernatural provision He provides found only in the wilderness. A land of no natural provision will help us with our pride.

       I. If pride continues to be characteristic in the life of a believer they will not be able to carry God's truth properly. This implies, among other things the believer's communication to others would be seriously hampered. Most if not all that God imparted to Moses was to be shared with others.

      J. What God has given to you is to be given to others without its being contaminated. God seeks open and clean channels through which to flow toward others. God flows to other through us. We have a responsibility to God and others to be a clean vessel which God can flow.

      K. There is a desire in most believers to be used of God. But a desire which should supersede the desire to be used of God, is the desire to be right and pure before Him. The condition of heart has much to do in receiving from God.

      L. Peter may have missed much on the mount of trans figuration, but God worked effectually in him. (Galatians 2:8) Like us Peter was taken through trying circumstances when Jesus was crucified. His hope and dreams (like ours) was shattered into a million pieces. He was so devastated that he had to find a place near God in order to survive. "And the Lord said, Here is a place by Me; and you can stand on the rock." (Exodus 33:21) We are walk the same path Peter walked.

     M. Peter in spite of his weaknesses was brought to this place of revelation, communication, and impartation. He now knew from experience;" . . . after you have suffered awhile God will make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you." (1 Peter 5:10) Peter addressed the lame man in Acts 3:6 and said, "silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." Where did Peter receive "such as I have?" There is a place near God. At that place God imparts. Are we willing to go to the wilderness to find that place? Found only in the wilderness.

 

II. PARTING THOUGHTS

     A. Our times of blessings in green pastures beside still waters do not etch in our spirits and nature the character and glory of God as deeply do those times we spend in the wilderness.

    B. In your darkest hour, in your deepest despair God will come and give you the treasures of darkness. The Wilderness of Sinai was the leading of God in the lives of the children of Israel. He continues to lead us onward, forward into these unlikely situations.

    C. For He wants to impart to us His unlikely treasures. He will give us treasures unlike any earthly wealth in existence. In the wilderness He brings us into His ways and His glory. What treasures that are untold. His intentions are revealed and His truth is made known in the wilderness.

OUR INTEGERITY

Make no mistake my friend the greatest focus in our lives is not how much money we give to the church, how much service we do for God, how long we can speak in tongues, or how well we can pray and preach, oh no, the number one focus of God in our lives is our integrity and God's second focus in our lives is do we have a love for the truth. Not do we know all truth which will carry us only so far in knowing God, but having a love for the truth will easily carry us past our inability to know some things of God, our religious works, and our immaturity in God. Paul tells us, "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:2) Having all of these things (what most Christians go after in their walk with the LORD) and not "charity" or love, then we are nothing. Again our integrity in all matters of our lives is God's number one focus. Now we think God is looking at us in the big things, but oh no my friend that is wrong. God is more concerned about the small areas in our lives than He is concerned about the big areas. As a matter of fact the smaller the area, the more insignificant we think the area the more God is securitizing us closer. We think God is examining us in the big areas of our lives (cheating, lying, stealing, committing adultery, or murder, etc.), but He is not. We like big things (flashy and showy), but do you know that? God likes small things (behind the scenes people and things) and He is measuring us in the little, insignificant areas of our lives. Most of you all know we have a maternity clinic in Aveile, Nigeria (about six hours south of Abuja and six hours north of Lagos) where we are delivering 125 to 130 babies a month, that is more than the local hospital in the Jacksonville, NC area. Well it was built in 2005 and has not had a major facelift since. We had to build a wall (and paint it) around the compound to protect the clinic from the continued violence, robbery in the country, and the massive crowds of ladies that come (often with their kids) each day to be seen for maternity medical issues or to be fed. So I let some of my friends know about the need for the critical improvements to the maternity clinic and two wonderful brothers gave me some money. One brother gave me $4,000 and another brother gave me $5,000, praise the LORD. Also most of you know I travel out to the nations every year. In my travels I usually finish my year in Bulgaria and Romania, there are some Bible Schools and churches I have fallen in love with and the feeling is mutual with them. Usually in November I travel there, but in the summer for the last two years God has sent me out to a country I have not been to in some time. Last year we (Pastor Victor Foster and I) went to India (not been there 10+ years) and the year before that we (Pastor Victor Foster and I) went to Ethiopia (not been in 12+ years). So now it is summer, I have the money for the clinic ($9,000), and we were hosting a pastor from Tanzania, which I have not been to in 11+ years. How tempting would it be to use the money for the maternity clinic on the trip to Tanzania? What a test from God! Remember God tests, Satan is the tempter. You know in God we must not fall into patterns with God, just because you did something last week, last month, or last year does not mean God wants you to do it this week, this month, or this year. I thought I wonder if God wants me to use this money for our trip? I know the money was given for the maternity clinic, but I can rob Peter to pay Paul and use some of the money for our trip to Tanzania, God will be glorified, the church in Bukoba will be strengthened with our BHG conference and crusade, great things in God will take place. I even in ways perused my thought. It is okay to lean forward (project, plan, and coordinate these must be done in advance) in the foxhole, but when you pull the trigger to spend money and expend resources we must be right and well within God's guide lines of integrity. Some of my friends in ministry (not ours) would say not a big deal as long as the money is spent on ministry, well the LORD does not look at things that way. Remember God closely scrutinizes us in the little things in the insignificant areas, things we think are not important to God, well the smaller the area (like our thoughts, our character, and our integrity) the closer God is looking at us. Now here is the strange part I know we could have went on the trip and God would have been glorified and mighty works would have been done. Amazingly God was leaving it all up to me to either do the right thing or do something that would not totally reflect His integrity and character in my life. How subtle is that? You would miss it if you did not have an ability to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. In Mathew Jesus shares, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:22-23) The key word to understand these verses is the word "iniquity." The word "iniquity" does not mean bad or wicked like we use it today, but is Strong's #G459 which means, lawlessness, without the framework, or outside the law. These Christians (in verse 22) were not doing bad things after all they were prophesying, casting out devils, and doing wonderful works, "in thy name," but they were not doing these mighty works within the framework and guidelines of the way God wanted things to be done. They were operating in "iniquity" or outside the law, they were operating in lawlessness, outside the way God wanted things to be done; while casting out devils, prophesying, and the like and that is why God said, depart from me, ye that works or operates outside the framework of the law. It is odd, strange, and even scary to me to know God will allow people to operate or work outside His framework, maybe that is how evangelists, preachers, and teachers (just turn on Christian TV) can function and be off track (or even over in sin) yet still do good things for God. After all Isaiah tells us, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11) It has nothing to do with the speaker, but all to do with the sender. God can even use someone (or even a donkey) in sin to share His word, so we must not get all puffed up and think we have arrived when He uses us. I was even more amazed when the brother who gave me $5,000 was going to cover my ticket which I planned to use on the conference or crusade. It was not a question of God's ability to keep us or provide for us, but it was a question of my integrity and my love for the truth. Make no mistake I (and the others) were qualified (after all God has made me an international Bible teacher) to go on the trip, but since the money was given to me for the maternity clinic I was not authorized. This is a divine spiritual principle that many young Christians violate; you may be qualified to do something in God, but if God has not authorized you to do it then doing it would be sin. The longer you go in the LORD the more subtle and even almost seemingly deceptive the LORD's tests become. He will not hold His cards out for you to see or show you what He wants you to learn, oh no the LORD will hold His cards close to His chest and see if you have enough understanding and spiritual discernment to know what He is saying and doing in a given situation or circumstance. He will hide and watch us to see how we will respond in given situations. Solomon said, "The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. 9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice." (Song of Solomon 2:8-9) For the young Christian many cannot handle such scrutiny and inspection they do not have a spiritual wherewithal to discern the mature subtle tests, but as "we grow in the grace and knowledge of the LORD" our spiritual ability is to sharpen, become fined tuned, and as God checks us out He then can approve or qualify us for the next thing He has for us. If we pass the test what awaits us is God's treasures, not His blessing. I would rather have God's treasures than His blessing. Again in Isaiah we read, "And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel." (Isaiah 45:3) If you think the "treasures of darkness" and "hidden riches" are money, influence, power, or authority you are a greedy, selfish, and arrogant Christian. God gives us His treasures not for service, but to build in us His integrity and His character in us (we do not have it when we first are saved) and to establish us in the inward man the more. "Hidden riches of secret places" in the uncertainty and darkness of not knowing, but then coming into the light of knowing that we have done the right thing. What a treasure God gave me. Not a feeling or an emotion because I still would like to go on the trip in spite of the new dangers I just found out from Pastor John recently (after all God made me an international Bible teacher this is what I am to be doing), but a sense of "well done" knowing I have done the right thing in spite of my emotions and religious zeal by not going. Knowing the LORD and His ways is far above any trip to preach, teach, or minister abroad and knowing He has called me by His name is far beyond diamonds, gold, or rubies. What a treasure far greater than any blessing. Without integrity all we have is commonness which is the opposite of holiness. Written by David Stahl