One of the problems you will face as you walk with God is the problem of losing strength, especially as you labor and become weary in well-doing. Therefore, you will need to know how to regain your strength in order to be effective. A crisis comes to those whom God has brought to a place of dedication. They are determined to keep doing the job they are supposed to do, even if they drop. After a while an exhaustion reaches their spirits, and they do not know how to cope with the weariness that penetrates into their bones and their hearts.
You must learn how to refresh yourself, because in the days to come God will require that we be capable of living in a spiritual state of almost perpetual motion. There are secrets of renewal that are found in times of waiting on the Lord. It is worth spending hours and days and months to learn how to wait on the Lord. You can learn how to commune with the Lord and how to draw from Him the flow of life and revelation that He has for you.
The time spent waiting on the Lord brings an anointing to give out to others in service to Him. However, when your ministry demands so much time that there is less time to wait on the Lord, a vicious cycle develops in which the level of His anointing within you begins to diminish. Therefore you must learn to wait on the Lord and to draw from His very presence constantly, every moment of every hour. The time has come in which everyone who serves in a ministry will face increasing demands. They will not be able to fulfill everything that people ask of them in a day and still have any time left to wait on the Lord.
Perhaps you are facing a time now in your work when you find yourself so weary that you cannot express it. You go to church, but something is missing. The joy in the worship has disappeared for you. Weariness seeps into your bones. You lag behind in the schedules you should fulfill. You need a key given to you, a way to be in a state of perpetual spiritual renewal, similar to that of breathing in and out continuously in an endless cycle. A rhythm must be developed: as you give out, do not fail to be in communion and contact with the Lord, drawing from Him continually. There must be an alertness to God, in order to receive the much-needed seasons of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).
No one should be doing the work of the Lord if he is not on top spiritually, no matter how dedicated or how essential he seems to be. Whenever people work to a point of weariness without knowing how to find refreshing in the Lord, they are in danger of becoming spiritual casualties. People are not able to stay in the work and endure spiritual warfare if they do not have times of renewal or the keys of renewal in their spirits. They should stop trying to serve until they learn how to constantly renew the Spirit and anointing in their walk with God. Then they will be able to pick up their dedication and fulfill it. This may seem like a drastic action, but it is very essential.
A walk with God should be, above all, a flow of the Spirit. It was never intended to be an endurance contest. We are symbolized by the golden lampstands mentioned in Revelation 2:1. We are to be filled with golden oil, fed by the inner oil supply of the Holy Spirit (Zechariah 4). Then the presence of the Lord, who walks up and down in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, will shine forth from our very lives. Some translations mistakenly call these lampstands “candlesticks.” However, they are lamps. A lamp is not self-consuming, but candles are. Rather than being like candles which burn themselves out, we must be like lamps which are constantly fed. We must be fed by the secret supply of anointing within us. We must see our need of perpetual renewal, and then constantly draw from the Lord. If we do not, we will become depleted.
I Kings 19:4–8 gives us a picture of the time of Elijah’s renewal. Jezebel had sent word to Elijah that she was going to kill him because he had slain all the false prophets of Baal. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.” (He could not endure anything further.) And he lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.” Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” (Notice this: “the journey is too great for you.”) So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
When the Lord met Elijah at Mount Horeb, a greater level of ministry began for him. He was commissioned to anoint kings, not only over Israel, but also over Syria; and he was told also to anoint Elisha to be his successor. Then he found Elisha, and he started training him. Everything began flowing along well for Elijah after that time. Possibly he had learned one great secret when the angel presented the food to him, saying, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” Weariness was upon him, for he had accomplished a busy day’s work. Not only had he repaired the altar of the Lord and prepared the sacrifice, but he also had slain 450 false prophets. If a butcher slaughters 450 pigs in one day, we say that he has done a hard day’s work. Furthermore, Elijah prayed an end to the drought of three and one-half years; and as the rain was beginning to come, he outran King Ahab’s chariot to the gates of Jezreel, a great many miles away. This was an astounding feat, especially since Elijah was probably middle-aged at that time. Imagine outrunning a horse! No wonder Elijah was facing the constant need of renewal. He would not be able to do what he was supposed to do in the future without having the divine source of supply ministered to him. The angel awoke him and fed him twice; this was symbolical of the double portion.
In this day, the Lord will teach His people if they follow on to know Him (Hosea 6:3). He will come to them and anoint them. Those who know their God will be strong and do exploits (Daniel 11:32). Exploits will not be done in any way through human energies. They will be done by the divine flow. This is a time of transition which will mark the greatest changes in people’s lives since the dawn of history, the days of Adam. Never have there been days such as those that we will face. They will be days of switching from human energy to divine energy. Human energy provided a supply in the past, but now we must reach into the divine flow. We must have that anointing which will enable us to do the greater works.
In this day, the wisdom that will come through a man of God when he speaks will not be human wisdom, but a gift from God. God also will allow a man to come to the end of human reserves before He gives him divine strength. As carnal as Samson was, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him he could do anything. Samson was a wonder. The Philistines could not figure out the source of his strength, until his basic lack of consecration finally caused him to reveal it. As soon as his hair was cut off, his strength was gone. The Spirit of the Lord was gone, and Samson had no more power. Samson’s strength was a firstfruits illustration of what will come when those who know their God will be strong and do exploits. They will have to perform works greater than even Christ performed (John 14:12). A double portion of the anointing of God’s Spirit will be loosed through the Body of Christ to accomplish not only the ministry of grace, but also the ministry of judgment in all the earth.
We have not yet seen even the smallest part of what God intends for us to walk in; but before we see it, we will have to switch over to a new source of energy. We cannot be self-consuming in our reliance upon human energy. We must find the supernatural key, the perpetual flow that will come to us constantly from the presence of the Lord. God must teach us, step by step, His secrets and hints of getting into the great provision that He has made for us. If Elijah and Samson could touch it, there must be a way for us to touch it too. We can touch the same anointing that was on David, who in his later years still sang, “By my God I can crush a troop and leap a wall” (II Samuel 22:30).
The Scriptures contain many truths that are hidden in plain sight. Other truths are hidden just below the surface; but if you dig, you will find some beautiful veins of precious gold still farther below the surface. Hebrews 12:1–5 is one of them. In verse 1 we read, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
This endurance is mentioned again in James 1:2–4. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. The King James Version translates endurance as “patience,” but that is a weak word. Patience is considered a virtue; but sometimes it is merely passivity. If we were to express the word endurance in more modern terminology, we would say, “Let us run with perpetual motion.” We can appropriate the promise of Isaiah 40:31 and learn to mount up with wings as eagles, to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint.
How can we obtain endurance? The answer is hidden in Hebrews 12:2. We make an effort by fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. How did Jesus endure the cross and despise the shame? He endured for the joy that was set before Him! What was that joy? Not only did He anticipate our deliverance and our salvation, but on the immediate scene, He saw that upon His ascension He would be sitting at the right hand of God. He was determined to go through the suffering, but He kept looking at the place at the right hand of the Father. He kept His eyes fixed on that. Therefore He was able to endure the suffering and despise the shame. He received strength to do that which was not humanly possible to do.
In Hebrews 12:3 Paul tells us to do the same thing: For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. What should you do when you grow weary and lose heart, when you become mentally and spiritually exhausted? Just learn to focus on the Lord, fixing your eyes on Him. It is a set spiritual stare that cannot be distracted. Then you can endure, because nothing else can come with enough force to exhaust the flow that comes from the contact you have with the Lord. You can learn how to draw from Him when your focus is on Him.
In Psalm 34:5 David wrote, They looked unto him, and were lightened. The endurance will come as you reach into the Lord. This fixed focus on Him, the focus that draws strength, the focus that is a living contact with Him, is vital to your walk with God. The only way you will be able to meet your responsibilities and fulfill the ministry God gives you is by focusing completely upon the Lord. Witchcraft and demonic oppression can have no power over you if you are completely focused on the Lord. On the other hand, if you give attention to the source of your harassment, you start a vicious cycle: you focus on it because you are harassed by it, and then you become even more focused on it. It is like the pain of a broken bone, which the mind keeps dwelling on. There must be a release from that level of awareness by the renewal of your mind.
God allows many things to come that will completely exhaust you, demoralize you, and destroy you, until you learn the secret of focusing yourself in praise and adoration on the Lord. You may come to a state of despair as Elijah did when he asked God to kill him. Moses reached the same state. He even asked God to kill him as a favor. Of course, God did not kill him; instead, He took the anointing that was on Moses and placed it on seventy other men to minister to the people (Numbers 11:11–17). God does not intend for us to reach the place where there is no answer. He may place responsibilities upon us that are humanly impossible to carry, but we must not allow ourselves to become discouraged or to worry. If we keep our focus upon the Lord, the problems will have their solution.
Focus on the Lord, and give yourself to praise. Do not be a worrier; instead, be a praiser. Give thanks to God and rejoice in Him; then the problems will be solved. In praise to the Lord, Isaiah sang, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed (focused, fixed) on thee. Isaiah 26:3a. David cried, “My heart is fixed, O God; my heart is fixed on Thee” (Psalm 57:7). He also proclaimed, I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Psalm 16:8. Nothing could move him. You will not be exhausted or defeated, nor will your reserves be depleted, when you learn that by the constant focus upon the Lord you can tune in to another source of energy.
Moses is an example of a person who tapped in to the divine source of energy. He climbed Mount Sinai, where he stayed for forty days and forty nights. While he was there he asked God, “Show me Thy glory.” But God said, “No man can see Me and live; but if you stand in the cleft of the rock, I will cover you with My hand, until I pass by. When I remove My hand, you shall see My back” (Exodus 33:18–23). When Moses came down from the mountain, everyone was afraid because his face was glowing. He was not aware that the skin of his face shone because he had talked with the Lord (Exodus 34:29). The Lord is our source of divine energy. In the same way that lights will not function if the electrical switches are disconnected, so also we will not be able to function as ministries in the house of God if something disconnects our focus and contact with the Lord.
A divine, spiritual energy will flow to you if you learn how to tap in to it. This is the way that changes will take place. How much money do you have? How much energy do you have? How much time do you have? Put them all together, and how much can you do? You have no hope if those various factors are all that you can look to. Instead, you must find the way to focus on the Father, as Christ did when He blessed the five loaves and two fishes. After He started breaking them and sending them out, there was more than enough.
When we focus on the Lord, there will always be a little bit more than we need. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). We may feel unequipped to handle such a great flow, but won’t it be fun to try? We do not yet know what we can really learn. We should not think in terms of being poor. Poor we may be, but that does not mean we will never have of His abundance. We must not think in terms of being weak and never having any strength, because He will use the weak to confound the mighty and the foolish to confound the wise—no flesh will glory in His presence (I Corinthians 1:27–29). Though they be the poor and the offscouring of the earth, it is the people who have learned how to stand in His presence who will change the world. Even the most powerful sources of natural energy cannot be compared to the energy we tap when we touch Him who is our life.
We must touch this flow of divine, spiritual energy, which is the very life of God. If we do not, we will have to cope with the limitations of natural, human abilities. We will have to admit that we can never walk with God in the power and effectiveness which the Scriptures promise. Either we admit defeat or we convert to a new form of energy. The whole world is watching the natural sources of energy being depleted; they are wondering where the energy will come from. However, when John saw the new Jerusalem in vision, he said that the city had no need of the sun or the moon because the Lamb was its light (Revelation 21:23). The spiritual Kingdom to come will be kept alive entirely by the fact that we tune in to Him who is the source of all our life.
This focus on the Lord is the key to the changes that will come to those who walk with God. Praise and worship is the best way of maintaining this focus. If you continually praise the Lord, you will walk in perfect victory. This was the key to miracles in the early Church. In Acts 2:42–47 we read about many miracles that took place: And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart (this is the key), praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. They were continually praising God.
Discipline yourself to praise God with gladness and singleness of heart. When you seem to wear out, keep praising and you will get your second breath, just as a runner comes into his second wind after using up his first reserves of strength. Keep praising God, going on to your third breath. Continually praise God until it becomes a way of life to you. When praising God becomes a way of life, the flow of life from the Lord through you will be multiplied many times. The miracles, the signs, and the wonders that will take place in this end time will have a direct relationship to God’s people continually praising Him. New levels of worship will be the key to everything that God brings forth.
You do not need to go out and work hard physically all day in order to become tired. A desk job can also leave you exhausted at the end of the day. Fatigue comes neither from physical work or lack of physical work. When your physical energies go down and you begin to concentrate on your problems, then you become fatigued. At the end of the day, you are exhausted because you have spent the day feeling the futility of trying to reject your problems. Shopping is tiring for the same reason. Looking over numerous items and rejecting most of them for the few you purchase makes you tired. When you look at your troubles or try to make decisions all day long, you become caught in the curse as it is revealed in Romans 8:20: all creation was made subject to futility. But have you ever noticed that when you focus on the Lord in worship and praise, you experience definite changes in your physical body and are no longer fatigued? The key to release and deliverance from futility is found in being focused upon the Lord. When you praise Him and rejoice in Him with your faith reaching to Him for an answer, you will find that your energy rises.
Galatians 6:9 says, And let us not be weary in well doing… Romans 12:1–2 shows us how to overcome this weariness. By reading this passage backwards, we will receive a deep revelation from it. Verse 2: And do not be conformed to this world (age), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (this is speaking of more than merely having energy; it is speaking of a complete transformation), that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
We want to do that, but how? Verse 1 tells us: … present your bodies (to the Lord) a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Yet none of this passage has the meaning it should have unless we read the first phrase: I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. It is the grace of God and His mercies that bring us into Christ. We must learn to look up to Him. He began the good work in us, and He will perform it unto the day of the Lord (Philippians 1:6). He is the author and He is the finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
If we want to walk on with the Lord to perfection, we must break down the fallacy that has been taught to us by the Fundamentalists—that the grace of God brings salvation, and that is all. They teach that we can hope to grow a little by our efforts and by our discipline, if we continue reading the Bible every day, if we witness a little every day, and if we pray every day. People must be taught that when they begin a walk with God, they are bargaining for the finished product just as God is. We are to become conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). We are to come to the full measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). How do we get there? We are entreated all the way by the grace and the mercies of God.
The focus that looks to God for mercy is the key of renewal. Discouragement and losing out with God are the reverse of renewal. If the Lord has saved you and given you the Holy Spirit, if He healed you when you were sick and provided money for your needs, then why do you pick up your burdens and try to meet your problems in yourself? This is the reason you bog down and become so weary. He never intended for you to carry the load. He intended to be the unceasing continual source of supply. Christ is your life. He is your life through grace as you look to Him in continual appropriation.
All of this sounds so simple, but most people have not learned to touch the hem of His garment. You can do this when your focus is fixed upon the Lord. It comes from seeing Him as your source of supply. It does not come just from watching others move in God. You must be tuned in to the energy that could be flowing within you. To experience the Spirit of the Lord surging into your being could be as startling as taking hold of two hot wires.
Every time you come to the house of God with a drooping spirit, and every time you lie down at night exhausted and discouraged, ask the Lord to forgive you and to give you eyes to see Him.
Perhaps you are enjoying many blessings and you feel that you do not need anything. That was the attitude of the Laodicean Christians. But the Lord told them, “Anoint your eyes with eyesalve that you might see” (Revelation 3:18). He was not talking about seeing all the events that were taking place. He wants you to get your eyes focused upon Him. In verse 20, He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Open the door, and we will eat together. You will feast with Me. You will know perpetual strength and renewal.” The day will come when we will stop looking for blessings, and we will believe for perpetual blessing to rest upon us continually.