Although we are faced with many challenges, we have only one responsibility, just as Israel had in the Old Testament: follow the cloud—that’s all—just follow that cloud.
And sometimes the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; then according to the commandment of the Lord they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. And sometimes the cloud was from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they journeyed: or if it continued by day and by night, when the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, abiding thereon, the children of Israel remained encamped, and journeyed not; but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord they encamped, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord by Moses. Numbers 9:20–23. This is an amazing passage showing how precisely they followed the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
We are in the beginning of the greatest move of God’s Spirit since the beginning of the human race; and what God is bringing is more important than we realize. Yet it’s very easy to grumble, to murmur and complain.
Looking back at the children of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness it would be easy to sympathize with them. However, their privations were few compared to the fantastic miracles in Egypt bringing them out of slavery: the great Passover, the judgment; feeding them bread every day. You wouldn’t think they would ever murmur. Yet they murmured and complained, they rebelled and drew back, and made it very difficult for Moses. So God smote them down.
Why did they react as they did? They were just as human as you are; and if you follow the old human nature, that’s exactly what you’ll do. You will have times when you murmur and complain, instead of saying in your heart, “This walk with God is the greatest privilege that God has ever given anyone.”
If you are fortunate enough to know what a walk with God is all about, and you being blessed of God, don’t grumble when God upsets your life and all your neat little circumstances; don’t complain when He demands of you sacrifice and discipleship.
Instead, say with Paul, “We rejoice, that we are made partakers of the sufferings of Christ” (II Corinthians 1:7). Who are we, and what do we have so special that we hold it back from the Lord and say, “Lord, we can’t afford to sacrifice; we can’t afford to give our life to You. We want a little comfort and a little pleasure.”
You may get that comfort and be sorry for it afterwards, when you realize how empty it is. You may say, “When I was in the denominational church it was never so difficult.” Then go back, sit there for about six months and come out with the smell of death on you.
Don’t complain about the spiritual warfare—get into it! Consider it the greatest privilege you have. Just think—God has called you to be in that end-time army that will see destinies changed. You are privileged to be a part of it and to rise up in the battle. God has opened the door for the people in a walk with God to face every kind of assault possible, in order that they might learn something about spiritual warfare.
Principalities and powers are going to come down in this generation. You are learning and being prepared by “cutting your teeth” on a few little miserable battles that you come through, sometimes with great difficulty.
I’m not going to retreat from the battle. I refuse to be discouraged because I count myself a man favored of God to be able to walk with Him. Paul counted himself blessed of God that he was chosen to suffer great things for Christ’s sake. Do you think we’re not chosen to battle, to struggle through a few things? Of course we are. Little by little we’re being strengthened.
Some of you have had your ideas and ways of thinking completely changed since you came into a walk with God. Stop your murmuring! Stop your complaining! Don’t grumble at what happens to you. God has only started to change you and when He gets finished, you will think like Jesus; you will have the mind of Christ.
Shallow people who live in the soulish realm will say, “I never feel the blessing, so I’m not going to worship; I’m not going to praise the Lord.”
Sometimes in the pressure of battle, I don’t feel the blessing either; yet in the midst of it, I lift my heart to worship the Lord anyway. There will be times when there is no feeling, times when you feel defeated and often very much alone, as though no one cares. Let me tell you what we should feel: “I want to walk with God with everything that is within me.” There are things in all of us that should not be there, but by the grace of God, they will be removed. The certainty of this we must feel very deeply.
In the Old Testament when God judged the Israelites and sent them into captivity, it was not because they turned to idols and away from God. In Chronicles we read that they worshiped the Lord, but they also worshiped and sought their own gods. They didn’t completely turn away from the Lord; they were just divided.
That’s what God hates that lukewarmness, being neither hot nor cold. He hates it! When God starts judging lukewarm Christians, they will say, “But Lord, we’re believers.” Some believers—they’re believers in God, but they also believe in the personality cult; they love themselves too much.
When God gave the message to Hosea that He was ready to judge Israel, Hosea’s message was the last thing the northern tribes heard before God started sending them off in every direction. They were butchered and sold as slaves. When God turned them out of His sight He gave as the reason: Their heart is divided; now shall they be found guilty: he will smite their altars, he will destroy their pillars. Therefore judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. Hosea 10:2, 4b. Judgment over what? Their heart was divided.
We must get rid of halfheartedness—the divided heart. If God has set you in the Body and created a relationship or ministry—any duty—for you to walk in and you’re halfhearted about it, then you’re not pleasing God as you should.
God is preparing us to bless the world, and we don’t want visitors to say of us, “What a wonderful word they print; but we were there and there was no love, there was only halfheartedness. No one cared; no one was worshiping much.”
We are to be an exhibition of a humble people who love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul, with all our mind and strength. God has said, “They will come from the east and the west and the north and the south to be led and taught by the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge.”
Some of the people of God do too much murmuring and complaining. Do you? Are you a grumbler at home? What do you do when you’re in a difficult situation? Do you complain? Do you murmur?
We dare not be critical in our talking, especially among the young people. They could lose their zeal for God because of it. Don’t do it! Be careful of your conduct in times of discouragement, for you can cause irreparable damage. You aren’t always aware of who sees you.
It might be a tender babe in Christ. We must be a mature church. Don’t grumble! Don’t complain! Stand and rejoice in the Lord. What’s the use of complaining anyway? You just slow down the process. Rejoice all the way through it, with the assurance that God is going to meet you.
Let’s prepare our hearts and be filled with the Spirit. We read of the early Church that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit; they were filled with great joy and boldness (Acts 4:31; Acts 13:52). Let’s have that byproduct working in our lives, too. To do that, we must repent and renounce everything of grumbling, murmuring, complaining, rebellion, and withdrawal—all the things that God hates.