The last time I went in to preach in the city’s streets was in the battle with the Hares some weeks back. That ended up taking a huge toll on me and I was sick for some time afterwards…
The good news is that they apparently haven’t been back to the area since.
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” 2 Corinthians 2:14
Something else I discovered tonight: a large Muslim contingent has set up two tables in the city’s most popular mall. There they distribute Islamic literature and even preach on microphones to the public.
Of course, they are entitled to do so, just as we are.
I find this disturbing though. Why? Because it is really hard to get Christians out there to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, yet the Muslims are seemingly doing it for Allah.
I suppose that may be because as Christians we are partakers of God’s wondrous grace. We certainly don’t have to street-preach or to share the gospel to be saved. We don’t have to work for salvation at all. No, it is all the work of God. And praise Him for that! However, I do wonder why it is so hard to get Christians out there when we have the greatest love story in the world to share (not to mention the Great Commission Christ gave us and the Holy Spirit to help us).
Christian brothers and sisters – we need to pray that God sends out more labourers into the harvest! We really do. Whilst most of the church is sitting in their comfy chairs watching tv or arguing amongst themselves over doctrinal issues, the devil is working diligently against the gospel of Christ.
I am not trying to put condemnation on anyone. It is hard to get out there. Believe me, I know. I also know that no-one wants to hear this…. But I think it necessary to speak the truth of what I see.
Brothers and sisters we urgently need two things :
intercessors, and
those willing to go. We need those like Isaiah who will say:
The state of the Church breaks my heart. Yes it does. I weep over it, and I believe so does Jesus.
The deadness, the formality, the coldness. Where is the life? Where is the joy? Where is my Jesus?
I don’t seem Him in it.
I don’t see Him in the dry formality, I don’t see Him in the ritual, the “way we’ve always done it.”
Why do people’s faces look sad and somber in church? Why do we feel we have to pretend to be serious to be spiritual?
Jesus where are You?
Not there.
The thing is, we know it. We know it’s not right, that something is missing. We know that Jesus’ death on the cross wasn’t so we could sit and be bored in Church for two hours every Sunday morning. We feel it. Something in our spirit says this is not the way it was in the early Church, there is something more. What are we missing?
So, we try to fix it in our human-ness.
Entertainment, rock concerts, frenzied behavior, yelling, emotional manipulation. Get people to cry, yes, if that brings emotion, ANYTHING but that dead dryness. Oh God, anything but that.
Entertainment for true joy.
Emotional manipulation for true broken-ness
Frenzied behavior for the real work of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus where are You?
Not there.
After awhile, the yelling makes us tired, the emotive manipulation falls on dead ears, and, after all, we are not changed.
That didn’t work either. Oh God, what next?
Look at pubs, worldly concerts, sporting events. They are full of happy, excited people. There are crowds. They must know something we don’t. We must learn from them.
Advertising, marketing surveys, seeker-sensitive churches. Things not to mention:
the cross
sin
the Blood
God’s holiness
never ever use the word “sinner”
hell
judgment (shriek)
(But make sure you use the word “unpack” in your sermon at least 5 times.)
Jesus where are YOU?
Not there.
Something wrong. something missing. something different than the Church in Acts.
Spirituality. Candles, liturgies, labyrinths, darkness. Ooooh, we get goosebumps again. This is it! we feel again, we are not dead, not bored, we are spiritual.
We feel.
JESUS where are YOU?
Not there.
Don’t we see? don’t we know where He is?
He is outside the Church.
He is outside the door.
Long ago He was asked to leave. Oh yes, we use His Name, but we don’t really want Him. We want to be comfortable, we want convenience at all costs. We don’t want our formality and rituals confronted or thrown away. We want to feel good, positive emotions. We don’t want to be convicted. We want to feel intellectual and deep and have wonderful spiritual experiences. We want lots of people around us because that shows we are on the right track.
But we don’t want HIM.
Him – the goodness, the holiness, the righteousness, the kindness, the love, the truth, the mercy, the conviction, the call to the lost, the call to obedience, the faithfulness to Him that is required, the cost of the cross of Christ…
Jesus is a gentleman, He will not stay where He is not welcome.
There is only one way back to Him.
Let us cast off everything else and fall on our knees before Him.
There is only one thing that is required:
BROKENNESS
Utter broken-ness.
Let us fall on our faces before our Lord and weep for the state of our own hearts, for the Church, for the lost around us. Let our hearts be broken. It is only when our hearts are broken before the Lord that LIFE, the real life of the Holy Spirit enters in.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand the deadness any more. I have had enough of formality and boredom. I have had enough of human solutions to the problem. I can’t handle any more extraneous rubbish – I WANT HOLY GHOST REVIVAL! This world needs men and women who have the fire of the Holy Ghost.
Lord, send Your Spirit. Revive us again. We need You Lord. I repent of my hardness of heart Lord. My heart breaks for the state of the Church Lord. My heart breaks for those around me on their way to Hell. Enough Lord ! Rend the heavens and come down!!! In Jesus’s Name, Amen
The Old Testament is all about Christ. It really is.
Don’t listen to those who would put the OT down and say it is over with, it is past. Don’t listen to those who would say OT = “bad” but NT = “good”. It makes up 2/3’s of the Bible and it is all about Jesus.
“Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” Hebrews 10:7/Psalm 40:7.
Remember: The New is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the New revealed.
The NT sheds light on the OT. And the NT is concealed in the shadows of the Old – it is hidden, but it is there for those who like to search for hidden treasure. Looking for the types and foreshadows of Christ in the OT is such a joy. I love discovering Him in the OT.
One example is Moses. Moses is such a wonderful type and picture of Christ. His life and ministry foreshadows Jesus in many ways. However One even greater than Moses is here now, in the Person of Jesus Christ. Let’s see how:
Moses was hidden away in Egypt as a baby for his own protection when Pharaoh decreed that all Hebrew baby boys were to be killed.
Jesus was hidden away in Egypt as a baby for his own protection when Herod sought to kill Him.
Moses, willingly left his royal home and high position in Pharaoh’s palace for the sake of his people.
Jesus, the royal Son of God, willingly left the glory of heaven to come to earth for the sake of His people.
In due course Moses came up out of Egypt and spent 40 years in the wilderness.
In due course Jesus also came up out of Egypt. He spent 40 days in the wilderness.
Moses was the deliverer of Israel out of the bondage and slavery of Egypt. He redeemed the Israelites from their hard-taskmasters with the blood of the Passover lamb.
Jesus is the deliverer of not only Israel but also of the Gentiles. He has delivered us from our bondage and slavery to sin. He has redeemed us from our hard-taskmaster (Satan) with His very own blood.
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29
Moses interceded for the Israelites when they corrupted themselves and worshipped a golden calf. In Exodus 32:32 Moses offered his own life on behalf of the people. Such was his love for them that he was prepared to take their guilt upon himself and to die for them.
Jesus interceded for the whole of humankind, utterly corrupted and gone astray as we were. Jesus actually did lay down His life on behalf of humankind. Such is His love for us that He did take our sin and guilt upon Himself and was offered to God in our place.
Moses was mediator of the Old Covenant of Law.
Jesus Christ is mediator of the New Covenant of Grace.
“For the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:17
This barely skims the surface of the treasures of Christ that can be found in the life of Moses. Have a look for yourself and see what else you can find.
“Belinda, why hasn’t anyone told me before that Jesus rose from the dead?”
This was Muslim woman *Safa’s question to me when I first shared the gospel with her just over a year ago…
On Friday I had the great honour and privilege of baptizing Safa*- our first adult convert to be baptized in our Mission.
With her permission I will share with you a little of Safa’s story…
Safa moved to Australia with her family when she was six years old. She was brought up a Muslim in a Muslim family. She remembers her father regularly went to mosque to make his prayers.
As time went on her family life broke down and violence became a part of it. As Safa grew up she turned away from her childhood faith and entered into an albeit God-less existence, although she stilled called herself a Muslim. Over the course of the years a pre-arranged marriage which didn’t work out, another violently abusive relationship and then the arrival of a baby boy had caused Safa to withdraw from much of life.
As she struggled to bring up her son as a single mother, she remembers spending most of her days simply staring out the window. Eventually she was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and turned to alcohol to alleviate some of the pain of her past.
Most days at midday she would begin to drink and would keep going right till 2 or 3am.
How I became a part of Safa’s life is through the food pantry. We have run this ministry from our garage for five years now. Another single mother whom we had helped with food parcels told me she knew someone who needed help – Safa. So one day I took food around to Safa. As well as the food, I popped into the bag a Bible and a Christian tract. This continued for a few weeks until one day Safa told me she had been reading the Bible but didn’t understand what she was reading. She invited me in for a coffee and to explain it to her.
I shared the basic gospel of Jesus Christ with her. This was when she had said to me:
“Belinda, why hasn’t anyone told me before that Jesus rose from the dead?”
From six years old she had lived in this “Christian” country – and it was not until she was in her forties that she heard the gospel. How terribly sad.
Then she said to me:
“But Belinda- If Jesus rose from the dead that means God is real!”
Her simple faith stunned me. Never before had I come across this beautiful child-like faith. I admit I almost did not know how to react to it. Antagonism, skepticism – these reactions were all familiar to me, but this was something new.
As I left her house that day I praised the Lord. I praised Him for His mercy and lovingkindess, I praised Him that He had sent me to Safa. I praised Him for her childlike faith and beauty.
Week by week we began meeting and reading the Bible together. Safa was full of questions. She couldn’t get enough of this incredible Book. New meaning was coming into her life and suddenly she began seeing that God was real.
“Belinda, I have never before noticed how beautiful those flowers are! It is like I am seeing them for the first time!” Safa said this sort of statement to me regularly as God’s beautiful creation unfolded before her for the first time.
Safa even began dreaming. She dreamt she was dropping down a big hole on her way to hell when suddenly she was saved. Some nights Safa would wake herself up talking aloud to Jesus. She said His presence was so very close to her.
All of this was so encouraging to me and I rejoiced in the Lord. However one thing was bothering me. I had smelled alcohol on Safa on a number of occasions. I didn’t know anything much about her or her past at this point, but I knew the smell of alcohol and I knew what it meant.
At that time I had just come out of a very difficult situation with another alcoholic that we had been ministering to. He had never confessed his alcoholism to us but it was obvious by the copious amounts of drink he consumed whenever we saw him. He had hurt us incredibly by lying to us, abusing us and then ultimately rejecting us as we tried to reach Him with God’s love. That is another story, but now being confronted with another person enslaved to alcohol was potentially too much for me to bear in my recent hurt. I spoke to God about this regularly. I didn’t know what He was going to do about it but I knew that I couldn’t bear being lied to again.
And then He did it.
One night I dropped food into Safa. She met me on her front porch. She was ready to accept Christ as her Lord and Saviour and to give Him her life. Suddenly the floodgates were opened and she confessed. She confessed her sins to me, she confessed her alcoholism and the hold it had on her. She confessed she was powerless against it. I knew then that this situation was different from the last. That God was working in her and that He had had her confess in absolute childlike honesty everything to me.
This was the beginning of Safa being set free.
There on her front porch we prayed together. She gave her life to Christ and I broke the power of the demon of alcohol over her in the Name of Jesus.
Safa says that was the night that everything changed. Even though she still drank, the alcohol lost its grip on her there and then.
She began reducing her intake. Her doctors became concerned. They told her she was reducing it too fast and that she would go into cardiac arrest.
She said “But if I don’t need it why should I drink it?”
They encouraged her to drink more. They said her body needs it. They were scared of what would happen.
When she refused, they helplessly told her to ring the Drug and Alcohol helpline, which she did.
After explaining to the man at the Drug and Alcohol line her situation he told her to continue with what she was doing. he was amazed by how well she was doing. When he asked her the cause of this sudden change in her life she told him:
“I have gotten to know Jesus.” She ended up witnessing to him on the phone. He asked if he could share her story with the other drug and alcohol counsellors he worked with….
Safa asked me one day how she should now answer on official documents as to her religion – should she write “Muslim” or “Christian”?
I answered by asking her “Well, Safa, who do you follow – Muhammed or Jesus?”
“Jesus!” She exclaimed, “I follow Jesus. I am a Christian!”
And so Safa was baptized on Friday in front of the ladies from our women’s prayer group.
Safa has found a Man she can trust. A Man who will never harm her or abuse her in any way. A Man who gave up His very life for her.
A Man she is totally in love with….. That Man of Galilee.
On Friday Safa obeyed her Lord and was identified with Him in His death, burial and resurrection.
I am absolutely overjoyed that God led me to Safa. I feel so privileged to have been with her every step of the way as she came to also know Jesus, my wonderful Saviour. I feel so privileged to be able to continue to disciple Safa and watch her grow.
I praise God with the angels in heaven that “there is a new name written down in glory”.
Hallelujah to the Lamb of God!
But one thing I can never forget is her question to me:
“Belinda, why hasn’t anyone told me before that Jesus rose from the dead?”
Many times I said it. Even though I had always read the Bible, even from a young child. I read it a lot. I memorized verses even. I believed it was truth, I believed it was the Word of God. And over and over God used His Word to teach me and to speak to me.
But I didn’t love it.
I certainly didn’t desire to read it or look forward to reading it. I did it because I knew it was the “right” thing to do.
Then one day I watched that old “Jesus” movie…. In it Jesus picks up the scroll of the Old Testament in the Temple preparing to read from it. But before he reads Isaiah 61 he kisses the scroll. That simple act convicted me.
I blurted to the Lord in almost desperation: “Jesus, I love You, but I don’t love Your Word. Not like that.”
I knew I loved Jesus. I loved Him with my whole heart and soul and mind and strength. I could see that “in the volume of the book it is written of Him”, I knew that Jesus is the Word made flesh. And it didn’t make sense to me. If He really is the Word made into human flesh, and if I really loved Him, how could I not love His Word as well?
Well of course there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t make myself love it nor desire it.
Actually, there was one thing I could do – and that was to be honest with Him about it.
So I was. I just kept telling the Lord what was in my heart.
“Lord I love You but I don’t love Your Word.”
Then gradually my prayers began to change : “Lord, give me a love for your Word. Make it real to me.”
It took some time, but one day I realized that I could honestly say that I now loved His Word. And I still do. I LOVE it. I desire to read it. I can’t wait to find more treasures in it. I can’t wait to discover my Jesus concealed in the pages of the Old Testament and find His beauty and grace revealed in the New Testament. I love reading the apostles revelations and teachings in the epistles. I often cry as I read it now, I am so blessed with this wonderful, old Book. There is nothing like it.
So what’s the difference now? The Book certainly hasn’t changed.
No, the difference is that now the Holy Spirit is bringing life where before there was death.
This principle is true not only with reading the Word of God, but with everything in the Christian life – doctrine, preaching, church meetings, worship, fellowship, prayer, giving to the poor… it can all be dry and lifeless. It may all be cold, dead duty, ritual or tradition with no life in it if it’s done in the power of the flesh.
Without the Spirit of life breathing His life into something, anything, there is in fact, a ministration of death. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, so when He is in something – whether it is prayer, reading the Word, preaching- there is reality there. There is Life. It rings true to us, it ministers life to us and we are changed by it.
A long, eloquent prayer may bring death…. If there’s no anointing of the Spirit.
A sermon with all the right doctrine may minister death to the hearers…. If it’s not infused with the life of the Spirit.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is not an added bonus or extra in the life of a believer – His ministry of Life is essential. As Watchman Nee said “We either minister life or death. There’s nothing in between.”
Let us pray for the reality of the life of the Holy Spirit in every part of our lives, worship and ministries.
CT Studd gave up professional cricket to become a missionary to China, Africa and India. In a letter home, upon the approach of his soon death, C.T. Studd wrote of the outstanding events of his life:
“As I believe I am now nearing my departure from this world, I have but a few things to rejoice in; they are these:
1. That God called me to China and I went in spite of utmost opposition from all my loved ones.
2. That I joyfully acted as Christ told that rich young man to act.
3. That I deliberately at the call of God, when alone on the Bibby liner in 1910, gave up my life for this work, which was to be henceforth not for the Sudan only, but for the whole unevangelized World.
My only joys therefore are that when God has given me a work to do, I have not refused it.”
Going to be with His Lord in 1931, C.T. Studd’s last word he spoke was “Hallelujah”!
As the Altar of Incense fore-shadowed Christ, so too the incense offered on the Altar also fore-shadows Him. This is how:
The Incense
Old Testament Shadow
New Testament Reality in Jesus
The Church’s Application
It was made of a delicate blend of four different spices. Each spice had to be of equal quantity, exactly balanced.
Jesus Christ is the One in whom is perfectly balanced grace and truth, holiness and love, righteousness and mercy.
Christ lives His holy life through the Church, as His Body. “Christ in us, the hope of glory.”
Each spice had to be crushed to a fine powder before it was added to the incense.
Christ was “wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities”. He was smitten, stricken, crushed. His perfect, sinless life poured out.
This points to “death to self”, the humbling of the believer.
Salt was added to the incense – salt is a seasoning and a preserver
Salt points to the holiness of Christ and the flavor of His life.
The Church is the salt of the earth –a preserving agent.
The incense was burned on the altar in front of the Ark of the Testimony.
Christ went through the fire of affliction in His sufferings and ultimately His death on the cross.
Our faith is tried by the fire of affliction and suffering.
The incense sent up a sweet perfume which entered the veil into the Holy of Holies, surrounding the Ark of the Testimony.
Christ’s sinless life of obedience was as a sweet perfume unto God. Christ has entered the veil and has made the way open for us too through His shed blood.
We are now able to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”
Aaron was to burn the incense in the morning and the evening when he also attended the lamps.
“As Christ ministers to the Church interceding for His own, He trims the wicks of the lamps and supplies the oil of the Spirit.”(1)
We are to pray in the Holy Spirit. “Prayer is the key for the day, the lock for the night” Corrie Ten Boom
No strange incense was to be offered on the altar, nor was anyone to make for themselves the incense. It was to be holy to God.
Points to Jesus being the only Way to the Father, there is no other Name under heaven whereby man can be saved.
It’s only through faith in Christ that we are saved. We are to have no other gods before Him. We are to pray in Jesus’ Name.
The incense was to be “perpetual…before the Lord”.
Points to Jesus as our High-Priest “who ever lives to make intercession for us.”
We are commanded to “pray without ceasing”. Our life is to be a perpetual prayer unto the Lord.
The Golden Censer
“Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die” Leviticus 16:12-13
Old Testament Shadow
New Testament Reality in Jesus and the Church
On the Day of Atonement the High Priest brought a golden censer full of fire and a handful of incense into the Most Holy Place. He put the incense on the fire in front of the Ark so that the cloud of incense covered the mercy seat. He then sprinkled the blood of the sin offering upon the mercy seat.
The mercy seat is a picture of Christ Himself. The sprinkled blood points to Christ’s shed blood. The censer of incense is significant of Christ taking the prayers of His people within the veil to God’s presence, on the basis of His shed blood. Read also Revelation 8:1-5
Incense is simply an Old Testament shadow or type of prayer and intercession. God is no longer interested in the shadows or types, but rather in the eternal realities to which these shadows point.
He is extremely interested in the prayer and intercession of His Church. For the life of a believer to be truly saturated in prayer is well-pleasing to God.
“Pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” Ephesians 6:18
“The New is in the Old concealed, the OId is in the New revealed.”
The Tabernacle of Moses was built as an earthly copy of the true, heavenly Tabernacle. As the earthly, temporal priests ministered at the earthly Golden Altar, (or the Altar of Incense),on behalf of the Israelites, so too our eternal Great High Priest ministers at the true Golden Altar in Heaven, on our behalf.
“God has sworn and will not relent: You are a priest forever, according to the Order of Melchizedek” Psalm 110:4
The ministry of the priesthood in the Tabernacle of Moses points to Jesus Christ’s ministry now as our Great High Priest. Understanding the principles concealed in the Tabernacle of Moses unlocks so many wonderful eternal treasures about the One we love, Jesus Christ. It also relates to us as believers in our ministry of prayer and intercession.
The Altar of Incense itself is a type of Christ:
Old Testament Shadow
New Testament Reality in Jesus
The Church’s Application
It was made of acacia (or shittim) wood. Acacia wood was a very durable, non-decaying wood.
Wood points to Christ’s human nature.Non-decaying wood points to His incorruptible, sinless humanity.
It was overlaid with gold
Points to Christ’s Divinity/Godhood
It had four horns on each corner of the altar. Horns are the strength and power of an animal.
Points to all power given to Christ in heaven and earth.
Points to the gospel of Christ going to the 4 corners of the earth under the authority of Christ’s Church
On the Day of Atonement blood from the Sin Offering was applied to the horns of the altar and sprinkled seven times.
It is Christ’s blood that was shed on Calvary (or the Brazen altar) which forms the foundation of His ministry of Intercession.
The blood of Jesus allows us to stand before a Holy God and gives power to the incense of prayer.
It had a crown (or moulding) of gold around it.
Points to Christ being the King-Priest
The Church joins Christ in His King-Priestly ministry as a kingdom of priests.
It was 2 cubits high, making it the tallest piece of furniture within the actual Tabernacle
Points to the highest ministry of Christ now on behalf of the Church – prayer and intercession
The highest ministry of the Church is also intercessory prayer
It was in the Holy Place, in front of the veil, before the Ark of the Testimony. It was the nearest piece of furniture to the Shekinah Glory of God.
Points to Christ’s earthly life of prayer and His ascension to the presence of God in His High-Priestly ministry.
Points to the place of prayer being the closest place to the presence of God.
“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.” Colossians 4:2
The last time I went in to preach in the city’s streets was in the battle with the Hares some weeks back. That ended up taking a huge toll on me and I was sick for some time afterwards…
Christians out there to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, yet the Muslims are seemingly doing it for Allah.
Grace and Truth 