But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of sufferings; partly, being made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used. For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. Cast not away therefore your boldness… What boldness? What confidence? It was the boldness and confidence that not only endured suffering and the spoiling of their goods, but became involved with others that were so used. It was a time to stand and be counted. If someone was being beaten for being a Christian they would walk in the ring and say, “Beat me, too.”
Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience (or better, “steadfastness”), that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. For yet a very little while, he that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry. But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him. But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition: but of them that have faith unto, the saving of the soul. Hebrews 10:32–39.
Years ago, in one of the old stories about the early church, I read an account of the persecutions which had spread into certain areas of the high countries known then as Gaul. The Christians had been sought out and captured one particular day and a hundred of them were put out on a frozen lake, surrounded by soldiers and various citizens. They were stripped of their clothing and left to freeze in the bitter cold. It was the custom of Christians then to chant. They began to chant, “One hundred we are, Lord grant that we be one hundred when we stand in Your presence.” They chanted on and on using simple words as they used to do in the early church.
The cold was so unendurable that finally one broke and ran, renouncing Christ. The betrayer was received at the fire at the side of the lake, warmed and fed; and the song changed. The Christians, hungry and cold, continued their chant, “One hundred we were, ninety-nine we are, Lord grant that we be one hundred when we stand in Your presence.” Soon another broke and ran. The crowds cheered, but after the cheering the chant began again, “One hundred we were, ninety-eight we are, Lord grant that we be one hundred when we stand in Your presence.” On and on they sang till there were not too many voices left to sing, for one by one they had dropped to freeze on the ice.
Then, a big strong man who stood watching with tears in his eyes, began to strip off his cloak, his tunic, and his sandals. He walked out on the ice. The Christians gathered around him to bless him and began to sing, “One hundred we were, ninety-nine we are, Lord grant that we be one hundred when we stand in Your presence.” On and on they chanted until there weren’t a dozen of them left. Finally a Roman centurion unbuckled his sword, began to strip, and walked out on the ice. A few voices in the cold could still be heard, “One hundred we were, one hundred we are, Lord grant that we be one hundred when we stand in Your presence.” In a few minutes nothing was left but the cold corpses of the saints.
That is a true story, and because of it more and more Christians came to believe and accept Christ in that area.… call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of sufferings; partly, being made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used. We have a wonderful heritage handed down to us. The early church was much like the church now that is coming forth in the restoration. They clung to the simple life, to the sacrifice, to the great joy they found in the fact that their lives had a meaning above and beyond themselves. Beyond their enjoyments and pleasures they had something to live for. It was real to them, as it is real to us.
How many things God has wrought in your lives; how real He is to you! You are coming to know Him; you are learning to wait before Him. Your worship and your love comes forth like nothing that has been heard in this generation; it is beautiful, and it is just the beginning! You that are young will recall these days as days of beauty and wonder when God moved by His Spirit and the greatest move of all history began to fill the earth. You older ones will see it through all the way too, for it will not be long and drawn-out, in my opinion.
You are going to see it begin like a little trickle that becomes a river, and the river becomes a raging torrent, and the torrent becomes a high-moving tide to sweep the earth. God is speaking, God is moving upon His people and we have just seen the river begin to flow. That is the way Ezekiel described it when he saw it (Ezekiel 47). He looked down and saw the waters as they began to issue forth from the threshold of the Temple. Right from the very throne-room of God, from the Holiest of Holies it began. In the beginning, it was up to the ankles. As he went on the waters increased until they were up to the knees, then to the loins, and they continued to rise until finally there were waters to swim in that could not be passed over. The longer it flowed, the mightier and faster that stream became.
God is doing that with us today. Though we know it and hear it, there still come those moments in which we are almost overwhelmed. They come like a back-tide with the fury of Satan against what God is bringing forth. It hits you where you are human, in areas where you can easily get discouraged.
Did you ever wonder what it was like for the early disciples? What do you think they were thinking on that day when one of them timidly approached the Lord and said, “Lord, we have left all to follow You,” and the Lord said, “No one has left wife, children, husband, and lands for My sake and the gospel’s sake but what he will receive one hundredfold” (Mark 10:28–30). Remember, those homes were not split by contention. The wives and children were home weeping and the lonely disciples were sitting someplace with the Master—maybe a place by the side of the road, for the Son of man often had no place to lay His head. They were not accustomed to that, but these men were doing something: they were following their Master. Yet they must have wondered how the family was doing at home.
“I wonder how big my baby is now?”
“I wonder if my oldest son is able to take care of things there at home?”
“I wonder if my wife is crying for me tonight, lonely?”
But it really couldn’t matter, because you see, there was something bigger: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It boomed down over the valleys and hills and people listened. They saw the sick healed; they saw lame people leap and walk, blind people see; they heard things they had never heard before. And the Master said, “Come and follow Me.” There was nothing else to do but to leave all; there wasn’t any other way to go. There were moments, though, when some did. They could see it, they knew it was real—they could feel the call of the Lord as He drew their hearts and they loved Him. And then came those moments—demonic powers, persecution, things they hadn’t realized—and they would think, “This is more complex than I thought.”
But the disciples were confronted: “Do you want to go also?” That was a lonely night out in the wilderness where He had fed the five thousand and He had walked across the sea. You can picture it: the winds came up strong in that area, as they do out on the desert, winds singing and moaning day and night. There had been multitudes ready to make Him a king just the day before. He had talked to them and told them what it meant, and then they left Him—oh, how many left Him! First just a few slipped out, but soon they would hang their heads, turn and walk away. Nothing the disciples could say would stop them so they just watched, and then the Lord said to them, “Will you also go away?” Peter said, “Lord, we believe and we are sure, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. We believe that. To whom shall we go? Where would we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:67, 68).
There are times when these tests will hit you so hard that even though you know this is the message of the kingdom and you know it is real, discouragement still gets to you and you feel almost swamped. Then ask yourself, “Where would I go? Where would I go to find a living Word?” All of us are in this place: we never have seen more wonderful things done for us—the Lord has done beautiful things for us—but the more He does, the more we see there is to be done. We look within ourselves and that is what swamps us more than anything else.
What would you say affects you most: adverse circumstances, or what is in your own spirit? That thing in your own spirit seems to get to you down inside and work on you in those moments when you read Scriptures like, Cast not away therefore your boldness, (or “your confidence”) Hebrews 10:35. But there is a great payoff with that, a “great recompense of reward” is the way it reads. For ye have need of steadfastness, that having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. Verse 36. We have found ourselves for a long time in a transition period. Don’t throw the promise away. Come on, hang on, be steady. God loves you. He loves you!
You ask, “What will I do now?” Hang on; it won’t be long—you have received a promise! You have need of patience. You’ve done the will of God, now you are going to receive the promise! This is that confidence the Lord wants you to have and this is what reaches in and says, “Lord, I want it; I’m believing You—You promised; I hang on to it!” Dig out those promises God has made over you. If you say, “I haven’t a promise,” come and let the elders minister to you. They will lay hands on you and prophesy over you and give you one. Just hang on, and soon the promise is yours.
Timothy was a man who knew how to hang on to the Lord. Paul said that everyone in Asia had forsaken him. Even the ministries that were true had gone to different areas to preach, so when he made his first appearance before Caesar, no one stood with him. He wrote and called for Timothy to come. Young Timothy with his oft infirmities, weak physically but a giant spiritually, walked right up to the old dungeon, “I want to see the Apostle Paul,” identifying himself with Him.
“Who are you?”
“I’m his son; I’ve brought him the parchments and the cloak that he asked for” (without saying, “I’m here to stand by him”).
To endure hardness as a good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to share. We have to have compassion. Work hard, believe God to prosper you and bless you. Then, take your money and share it; help those that have nothing. Be filled with compassion—don’t worry if you get kicked in the teeth and no one appreciates you. It doesn’t matter! Don’t cast away your confidence, for after you have done the will of God you are going to receive the promise. You will not lose; God is going to bless you; He has His eye upon you. Be like your heavenly Father. He causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust; He sends the rain on the sinners and on the saints. He is kind to everyone. He even lets blessings come to those who blaspheme and care nothing for Him, who ridicule Him and do not even believe on Him. It doesn’t bother Him; He just keeps blessing them—He gives them all a chance.
Confidence is what I am talking about. There are a lot of times that you come right up to bitter problems and battles and they would wipe out all the faith you have. Then there is a disease of the heart called loneliness. Even though you know that the walk is right and it is all real, that lonely feeling can come. Then very close to it, you can come to that cynical place after your loneliness has reached out and you want somebody to just share things with you. You begin to think, “They don’t care. Nobody cares about me.” That was the great wail of the man in the Bible, No man careth for my soul. Psalm 142:4. Nobody cares. That is the way of the world.
There is a motto, “Make love, not war.” It will never work, not even in a high interpretation of it. Do you know why it won’t? Because war is in the heart. David said, “When I was for peace they were for war” (Psalm 120:7). It was in their hearts. Do you think people won’t cheat you? Do you think people are going to appreciate you? What are we looking for? What are we waiting for? What do we want in this walk? We just want the privilege of doing the will of the Lord and walking with God, blessing people in the will of the Lord. What does it matter if they don’t appreciate it? You are not trying to become famous, are you? Are you looking for great reward of recognition or return? Or are you believing to be the instruments in the hand of God that are going to see the breaking into His kingdom, the people that God will use in end-time events? Things are happening so fast within this walk. The Lord is going to return, we know: there isn’t any doubt in our minds. We don’t sit down, filled with doubts, and say, “I don’t know whether I can believe it”; we see it! When we hear the word, we know it is true; it bears witness in our hearts.
You receive the word as though it had hit you, you react to it; you put it in action and it works! That is why you are going to be miracles, every one of you, walking miracles! Don’t give up. Don’t say, “What hope do I have, what can I do, how can I change my life, how can I change the circumstances?” The circumstances of your life may not be very easy but forget that, just buckle in and do the work of the Lord. Become a part of something that is so big and wonderful that you won’t have time to complain of pain or anything else. Oh, we have a big life to live, don’t cast your confidence away!
“I don’t seem to be making any headway.” Yes, you are. You are doing great; press right in! Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is something just ahead of us that is bigger than any of us can believe. Have faith!
How close a parallel we are to what the early disciples really were. We are actually walking through Bible days again. What will we do when some of our number are persecuted to a point where real violence comes against them? Witchcraft is increasing and that is why God is preparing you for the spirit level. That is why you have constant encounters, spiritual battles of various kinds. Listen, you are getting ready to fight. Don’t get discouraged, you are just in boot camp now! Learn how to move in.
There is so much more Scripture I want to unfold to you. I want it to be an inspiration to your heart that motivates you very deeply to walk with the Lord.
But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak: for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which ye showed toward his name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and still do minister. And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end: that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Hebrews 6:9–15.
Having patiently endured, or “Steadfastly” endured, he obtained the promise. You don’t dare to be discouraged—keep on going! Have one thing in your mind, “I know that if I hang on, God will fulfill all the promises. I will have them. I’m not going to be sluggish; but I’m going to be on my toes, pressing in for God.” Have you ever noticed that when you get sluggish, you get passive and you fall right into a hole? But if you aggressively keep on tiptoe and keep walking and believing and reaching in, you can be in all kinds of battles but it doesn’t matter; you just keep scrambling on. Then you are going to be imitators of those who through patience and faith inherit the promises.
Everyone who believes the promise and claims it from the Scriptures seems to come into a period of time in which they are tested on that faith. Remember that until the word to Joseph came to pass, it tested him. The word of the Lord tried him; he was tested to abandon that word because it didn’t look like it was true. Have you ever felt that?
“I look at myself and at what I am walking in and at what is happening to me, and I just can’t believe that the word is really true.”
You can believe it, and you do believe it. Have your faith set. Believe; walk on with the Lord! Let no one say, “My life is not significant; the Lord has passed me by.” Don’t think the Lord is unconcerned.
We should begin to deal with this feeling of loneliness that is in people’s spirits. There is a difference between aloneness and loneliness. It is wrong to be so lonely. It opens the door to things that should not exist in your life, thinking that should not exist. We ought to stand fast in a mutual encouragement and strengthen the Body so that everyone feels “I am not alone, I’m walking with the Body.” Even though they might be segregated, put in prison, in isolation, they are not alone because the Body is one with them and the Lord is there, they draw on that.
We are a different breed. We just don’t fit with this world, and there is no point in your getting excited about the fact that you don’t fit in or that the circumstances will never be rigged so that you will get a break or that any one will appreciate you. You go around feeling a little peculiar because you are! Expect it, and walk with God.
We have an anointing of the Lord and it doesn’t seem to win friends and influence people. They do a double take and wonder what’s the matter with you—why don’t you fear their fears? Why don’t you strive for their goals? Why don’t you join with them in putting on the show and the hypocrisy? Why don’t you fake it like they do? It isn’t right; it isn’t honest for people to be honest! You’re not like them and you’re not going to be. I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
I felt very close to the early church today, to the great cloud of witnesses spoken of in Hebrews 12:1a: … seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses; and I could feel the spirit of the early church, the early martyrs happy and joyful in the giving of their lives for the Lord. What foolish things people die for. We have everything to live for and everything to die for. Walking with the Lord is the greatest endeavor in the world. Don’t back off from it. This is pure discipleship coming forth now. Walk in it.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is. And every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. I John 3:1–3.
This brings out one thing: we are the children of God right now, but the world doesn’t recognize it and that is partly because we don’t appear as what we are. We are royalty, traveling incognito; we don’t really look like sons of God, yet. It doesn’t yet appear what we are going to be, but nevertheless such we are, right now: I’m a son of God. John says, … the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. I John 3:16. The world didn’t recognize Jesus as a creator when He walked among them. All things were made by Him, yet they believed not. Here we are, kings and priests of the Lord. God is doing something in our spirits that is preparing us in the faithfulness of our hearts.
This world isn’t real; it is biting on an empty hook! But you have something to live for—live for it! We don’t belong to this world, to this age. The world doesn’t know who we are, but we know who we are. We have faith to look at each other and say, “Look at the sons of God; look at the kings and priests; look at these people whom God has raised up.” How marvelous it is. Not because we see it with the outward appearance—there we see stumbling and faltering in every one of us at times—but because we know what God is within us; we know what is coming forth; we have a faith. If you have a reverse, stay with it! Don’t cast away confidence, stay with it with all your heart.
And shall not God avenge his elect, that cry to him day and night, and yet he is longsuffering over them? I say unto you, that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:7, 8. The Greek reads “the faith.” What is “the faith”? when we can stand and call upon God and know that there will be an answer, that He will do it speedily.
We have a lot of things to do. We have a life to be lived for the Lord. I am ashamed of the moments of depression that I let come, aren’t you? I’m ashamed to come before the Lord and say, “Lord, I’m discouraged.” It shames me that I would even allow that kind of feeling ever to be in my heart and mind. Let’s be joyful. “Be of good cheer” is the word the Lord is constantly speaking to His people. Let’s be of good cheer.
This is the time that we can possess many things and walk in them. A door is set before us by the Lord which no man can shut. There are different kinds of manifestations of battles in the spirit realm, but none of them are effective. We are moving right in. The Lord is helping. The thing is in motion. We don’t have to say, “Well this year the prophecies will be fulfilled”; we say, “They are being fulfilled!” The process of fulfillment has begun to be manifest in a way in which we enter in with great faith.
I exhort you that your worship and your faith for one another be really great. We know what we are to do. Have faith with us; pray with us, as we give a great deal of diligence to do everything the Lord wants us to do. Everything is moving, so lift your hearts in faith to the Lord and praise Him. Don’t doubt, don’t waver and say, “Well, I’m still working on some personal problems.” Forget them! Get about the King’s business and let the Lord take care of any other business. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and the other things will be added unto you.
We can become so absorbed in the process of ministry as God opens it up, that we expose ourselves and our personal needs for ministry instead of saying, “Lord, You minister to the world through us; minister out to those that are to receive this message.” Don’t you think that is the danger, to become self-centered when you can obtain mercy and ministry? God knows that—commit it to Him and enter in with real faith in the name of the Lord. There is such a marvelous thing that God has set before us.