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Inevitable Provocation

I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! (Luke 12:49,51 NLT)

If you and I are going to be men and women of the Spirit, we are not going to have an easy time. Hell will see to that. At once the clash arises and it is true that the more the Holy Spirit is able to have His way in us and to lead us into all the will of God, the more we find this opposition, this antagonism. And it not only comes between us and the world, it sometimes comes in the circle of the Lord's own people. It is inevitable provocation. You wonder why, sometimes. As you read the New Testament you wonder, "What is the matter with these people? Why should they be so upset and so annoyed? And why should it be so spontaneous, this thing? And persistent; so unreasonable?" but there it is. There is the fact. It is inevitable.

You see, this thing that the Lord came to do and is doing, will not allow for any neutrality. It is going to be one thing or the other. It is going to be for or against. The eyes of flame (here the fire comes in again) the eyes of flame will not allow lukewarmness or anything that is of the Laodicean character. The fire is a positive element always, and it will create positive situations. If everything is all just nice and quiet, no disturbance, no trouble and no antagonism and opposition, you have reason to question whether the Holy Spirit is doing much, because He does aim at such a positiveness, which is a very, very costly thing. It is either with the Lord, or not with the Lord, and there is nothing between. It is going to come out sooner or later and be precipitated. Now, the Lord says that is what He came to do. This is not an accident, a chance or things having gone wrong or miscarried. This is exactly what He came to do to scatter fire on the earth and these are the inevitable effects of the fire. They are going to work out.

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. § Death and life are in the power of the tongue. § The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of justice. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. § Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. § I believed, therefore I spoke.

Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. § With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Matt. 12:34;  Col. 3:16;  Prov. 4:23;  Prov. 18:21;  Ps. 37:30,31;  Eph. 4:29;  Acts 4:20;  Ps. 116:10;  Matt. 10:32; Rom. 10:10

I hope to see you shortly,and we shall speak face to face.

Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! § As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? § Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. § Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. § God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. § Whom having not seen you love.

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! § It will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

3 John 1:14;  Isa. 64:1;  Ps. 42:1,2;  Song 8:14;  Phil. 3:20;  Titus 2:13;  1 Tim. 1:1;  1 Peter 1:8;  Rev. 22:20;  Isa. 25:9

The March Of Time

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him" (Ps. 37:7).

The difference between knowing the Lord Jesus as Savior and knowing Him as Life, is the better part of a lifetime; even for the hungriest of hearts. "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).

"In receiving the Word of God by faith, there is first, light; then exercise of conscience; third, prayer - you are cast on God; fourth, the work of the Spirit to lead you into it.

"Not one of us is beyond the work of the Spirit in us. Many think, because they have the light of a truth that they are in the power and reality of it. No! you may have all the Bible, have much light, but there is no growth beyond the measure of the Spirit's work in us."

"Conception of a truth is one thing, and execution is quite another. Grace may have been furnished you with a true conception, but you must wait on the Lord to carry it out by His Spirit. The working out of a true conception is the real discipline."

"Do not be discouraged because you may not carry out your purpose at once; God will carry it out, but you must keep in the place where you will be preserved, in the circle of His interests.

"Moses had to wait forty years to carry out his purpose, which was a right one, though in the first flush the flesh sought to carry it out; but in the Lord's time, how fully every purpose of his heart was met - all the way to the Mount of Transfiguration!"

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:3).

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