John 12:27–33, Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The multitude therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it had thundered: others said, An angel hath spoken to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice hath not come for my sake, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself. But this he said, signifying by what manner of death he should die.
Jesus faced what every one of us face—the problem of facing difficulties. When problems seem overwhelming what do we say, “Father, save us from this hour?”
How can we be overcomers if we have no problems to overcome? What we are learning on planet earth is how to love God and our neighbors and how to depend upon the Lord to overcome the difficulties we face. Who does God want to be for us now, that we would not have experienced if we were not in this situation?
If we answer honestly, we say like Jesus, For this cause came I unto this hour. Sometimes there are problems that you can’t avoid, because the whole destiny and purpose of your life is involved in what you face, and if you pray for deliverance from that, you’re asking, “Deliver me from the will of God.” Lord help me I am a Christian, get me out of here, I don’t want to face this situation. But the whole Bible is about deliverance through tribulation. We are going to keep going around in circles, we are going to keep facing this difficulty over and over again, until we overcome it through the Spirit.
Jesus couldn’t pray that. Could He say, Father, save me from this hour? He could only say one thing, But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. That brought a response that people still do not understand. The voice thundered from heaven, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. John 12:27, 28. Some people said it thundered. Some heard it a little more distinctly and said that an angel was speaking. But very few people recognized the voice of God.
Jesus was bringing out what we also need to face now. We have a destiny to fulfill, and sometimes it means a cross. We are always challenged to try to escape that cross. Satan will do everything that he can and put every challenge before you, to get you to avoid the cross or the difficulty in your destiny.
In the Scripture, each time that Jesus was challenged as to His deity, it was a distinct, definite effort by Satan to get him to avoid the will of the Father. Matthew 27:40, … If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. “Show the world who you are.”
Sometimes you are challenged, and the challenge comes as to who you are, your place, and anything else, to get you to avoid the cross that God has for you to fulfill.
Jesus didn’t do it; He backed away from anything that would be detrimental to fulfilling the will of God, the will of the Father. He made an announcement—“Now,”—because he wasn’t going to avoid what He was to face and to do. That is difficult for us, because we tend to be like water and follow the line of least resistance.
There are very few men or women with the steel in their backbones to know what they are called to do, and who they are called to be, and never waver from it.
There are so many things that challenge you: “Look at what you are missing in life—look at the ease, the pleasure, look at all the good wholesome sanctified living that you can have. You don’t have to take up your cross.”
Look what you’ll miss, though—oh, it’s the hours of prayer, it’s the digging in and doing the will of the Lord. It’s doing without the things that you could have, in order to be the ministry God has called you to be; making that deliberate, exact choice, “This is the will of God and I’ll do it.”
What can we say, “Father, deliver me from this hour?” The world has waited for this hour of the sons of God. Do you want to miss the travail to bring them forth? Do you want to miss the intercession involved? Do you want to miss the agony? Do you want to miss the cross?
There are many who do not even see the significance of this hour, this walk with God, and what God is bringing forth upon the earth. They don’t understand it yet, and still want to say, “Save me from this hour.”
It is an hour of travail upon the whole earth—an hour of travail that has to be lived, that you have to walk through, you have to face. The moment you say, “Yes,” to that, you can say the same thing that Jesus said, Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. John 12:31.
Oh, how mystical are the things that Jesus said. Because He was facing His cross, because He knew the purpose for which He came; to glorify the Father, and He said, Now is the judgment of this world: Now shall the prince of this world be cast out; then He made a strange statement. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, is what the King James Version says, but the preposition is “out of.” “If I be lifted out of the earth,” will draw all men unto me. John 12:32.
There is an evident meaning to that, with also deep mystical overtones for you. When you know that you are going to do the will of God with all your heart, something starts in motion.
First the judgment, a real ministry of judgment: no man has ever set his heart to do the will of God that God wouldn’t begin to deal with the things in his heart that are hindering him from doing the will of God.
The fire starts burning out every hindering thing—every little hidden source of a later defeat. Every deep thing of wrong motivation, everything of the flesh, God will begin judging and uprooting. “Now the prince of this world is cast out.” He’ll have no place in your life, and up out of this earth (you) comes the exaltation of Christ, and men are drawn to that. Isn’t that what you believe for?
“Oh, let me set my heart to do the will of the Lord, and as I set my heart to really do what God wants no matter what the cost, then God begins to judge everything in me that’s wrong.” Satan is cast out and he doesn’t even have a toe-hold left, and “out of” this earth comes a lifting up of Christ and men are drawn—isn’t that what you really want?
Do you know what we face? We face the fact that most of the hearts today are unhappy in the will of God. “Oh, I am very happy. I love to worship and enjoy.…” No, I am talking about doing the will of God. There are so many other things we’d rather do. There are so many other things we’d rather be involved in.
Do we make every effort to be involved with prayer and the Word and to live in the things that are definitely disciplines? Putting ourselves out, becoming involved—our thinking isn’t in that direction in the first place. We’re happier if we’re not involved. We are happier if we don’t deliberately go out of our way to put ourselves in situations where we are helping others continually, carrying their load. We don’t want to be bothered.
I’m not talking about professional do-gooders, but about the people who are called to do the will of God. Many of the promises and the provisions that God has made us have not been fulfilled. Largely it is not because of unbelief, but because we haven’t come into the basic dedication to the Lord first, that He could give us what He has promised without it becoming an end in itself.
I imagine if Abraham hadn’t had to wait for little Isaac, that he would have tended to put Isaac ahead of the Lord. Because he had to trust God and wait so long, he didn’t even withhold that son from lying upon an altar of sacrifice, and that took much grace.
Can you give your whole life? God has given you deliverance; for what are you delivered? “I am free now. I don’t have to be bound by this or that. I wanted to be loose from that anyway.” Now what are you free to do?
“Oh, I can do a lot of wonderful things I always wanted to do. Thank God, He’s delivered me from all of those debts. Finances worked out and now I have more money.” What do you intend to do with it? “Well, I plan to buy this and that.”
For what are we delivered? Or were we really delivered? Are we looking to be delivered from restrictive circumstances so we can have an easier, freer life? Are we asking that the chains shall be dropped so that we can do the will of God, so that we can really do everything that He wants us to do?
That is probably what is most important.
What do we want? What are we going to say when we are in an uptight situation because we have been walking with God? Are we going to say, “Father, deliver me from this hour?”
Be sure it is just from Satan or the flesh that you want to be delivered. Because in this walk with God, there are many things that God has ordered, be sure that you are not praying, “Lord, deliver me from this hour,” but rather
“For this cause I came to this hour.”
There are satanic things that come against us; from those, let us be delivered, but not so we’ll have easier lives. We can’t think about retiring without thinking about defeat.
We can’t even think of an easier life. To me, the time is short for many things to be done; the teaching, the wisdom, the keys that God has given money couldn’t buy.
“Lord, put the fire to us the way you want it, but deliver us from that which is evil within us.” As we set ourselves to do the will of God, immediately, there will be judgment.
Judgment must begin there—God judging the whole earth—but He is judging in this old earth of self first of all. Out of it the prince of this world is cast out, and Christ is lifted up; out of this earth. When He is the “Exalted One” in the whole of our life, then men are drawn.
“Lord, deliver us now from those hang-ups we have. Deliver us from the things that would come to distract us to an easier course than Your will.
In my spirit there is great desire to walk wholly with Thee and a fearfulness of being too closely entangled even with believers who are not likeminded to be given wholly to the will of God.
There is something, Lord, so detrimental about the spirit of this age, the covetousness of it, the self-seeking, the love of ease, the love of an easier way that avoids a destiny God has given, that avoids the work of the cross, that tries to skirt around the battles that absolutely have to be fought and won.
Lord, as we have received this word with joy in our hearts, bless us, we pray, let us draw upon your grace and strength to press on in to what you have for us. In Thy name we pray. Amen.”
FACING THIS HOUR
John 12:27–33, Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The multitude therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it had thundered: others said, An angel hath spoken to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice hath not come for my sake, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself. But this he said, signifying by what manner of death he should die.
Jesus faced what every one of us face—the problem of facing difficulties. When problems seem overwhelming what do we say, “Father, save us from this hour?”
How can we be overcomers if we have no problems to overcome? What we are learning on planet earth is how to love God and our neighbors and how to depend upon the Lord to overcome the difficulties we face. Who does God want to be for us now, that we would not have experienced if we were not in this situation?
If we answer honestly, we say like Jesus, For this cause came I unto this hour. Sometimes there are problems that you can’t avoid, because the whole destiny and purpose of your life is involved in what you face, and if you pray for deliverance from that, you’re asking, “Deliver me from the will of God.” Lord help me I am a Christian, get me out of here, I don’t want to face this situation. But the whole Bible is about deliverance through tribulation. We are going to keep going around in circles, we are going to keep facing this difficulty over and over again, until we overcome it through the Spirit.
Jesus couldn’t pray that. Could He say, Father, save me from this hour? He could only say one thing, But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. That brought a response that people still do not understand. The voice thundered from heaven, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. John 12:27, 28. Some people said it thundered. Some heard it a little more distinctly and said that an angel was speaking. But very few people recognized the voice of God.
Jesus was bringing out what we also need to face now. We have a destiny to fulfill, and sometimes it means a cross. We are always challenged to try to escape that cross. Satan will do everything that he can and put every challenge before you, to get you to avoid the cross or the difficulty in your destiny.
In the Scripture, each time that Jesus was challenged as to His deity, it was a distinct, definite effort by Satan to get him to avoid the will of the Father. Matthew 27:40, … If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. “Show the world who you are.”
Sometimes you are challenged, and the challenge comes as to who you are, your place, and anything else, to get you to avoid the cross that God has for you to fulfill.
Jesus didn’t do it; He backed away from anything that would be detrimental to fulfilling the will of God, the will of the Father. He made an announcement—“Now,”—because he wasn’t going to avoid what He was to face and to do. That is difficult for us, because we tend to be like water and follow the line of least resistance.
There are very few men or women with the steel in their backbones to know what they are called to do, and who they are called to be, and never waver from it.
There are so many things that challenge you: “Look at what you are missing in life—look at the ease, the pleasure, look at all the good wholesome sanctified living that you can have. You don’t have to take up your cross.”
Look what you’ll miss, though—oh, it’s the hours of prayer, it’s the digging in and doing the will of the Lord. It’s doing without the things that you could have, in order to be the ministry God has called you to be; making that deliberate, exact choice, “This is the will of God and I’ll do it.”
What can we say, “Father, deliver me from this hour?” The world has waited for this hour of the sons of God. Do you want to miss the travail to bring them forth? Do you want to miss the intercession involved? Do you want to miss the agony? Do you want to miss the cross?
There are many who do not even see the significance of this hour, this walk with God, and what God is bringing forth upon the earth. They don’t understand it yet, and still want to say, “Save me from this hour.”
It is an hour of travail upon the whole earth—an hour of travail that has to be lived, that you have to walk through, you have to face. The moment you say, “Yes,” to that, you can say the same thing that Jesus said, Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. John 12:31.
Oh, how mystical are the things that Jesus said. Because He was facing His cross, because He knew the purpose for which He came; to glorify the Father, and He said, Now is the judgment of this world: Now shall the prince of this world be cast out; then He made a strange statement. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, is what the King James Version says, but the preposition is “out of.” “If I be lifted out of the earth,” will draw all men unto me. John 12:32.
There is an evident meaning to that, with also deep mystical overtones for you. When you know that you are going to do the will of God with all your heart, something starts in motion.
First the judgment, a real ministry of judgment: no man has ever set his heart to do the will of God that God wouldn’t begin to deal with the things in his heart that are hindering him from doing the will of God.
The fire starts burning out every hindering thing—every little hidden source of a later defeat. Every deep thing of wrong motivation, everything of the flesh, God will begin judging and uprooting. “Now the prince of this world is cast out.” He’ll have no place in your life, and up out of this earth (you) comes the exaltation of Christ, and men are drawn to that. Isn’t that what you believe for?
“Oh, let me set my heart to do the will of the Lord, and as I set my heart to really do what God wants no matter what the cost, then God begins to judge everything in me that’s wrong.” Satan is cast out and he doesn’t even have a toe-hold left, and “out of” this earth comes a lifting up of Christ and men are drawn—isn’t that what you really want?
Do you know what we face? We face the fact that most of the hearts today are unhappy in the will of God. “Oh, I am very happy. I love to worship and enjoy.…” No, I am talking about doing the will of God. There are so many other things we’d rather do. There are so many other things we’d rather be involved in.
Do we make every effort to be involved with prayer and the Word and to live in the things that are definitely disciplines? Putting ourselves out, becoming involved—our thinking isn’t in that direction in the first place. We’re happier if we’re not involved. We are happier if we don’t deliberately go out of our way to put ourselves in situations where we are helping others continually, carrying their load. We don’t want to be bothered.
I’m not talking about professional do-gooders, but about the people who are called to do the will of God. Many of the promises and the provisions that God has made us have not been fulfilled. Largely it is not because of unbelief, but because we haven’t come into the basic dedication to the Lord first, that He could give us what He has promised without it becoming an end in itself.
I imagine if Abraham hadn’t had to wait for little Isaac, that he would have tended to put Isaac ahead of the Lord. Because he had to trust God and wait so long, he didn’t even withhold that son from lying upon an altar of sacrifice, and that took much grace.
Can you give your whole life? God has given you deliverance; for what are you delivered? “I am free now. I don’t have to be bound by this or that. I wanted to be loose from that anyway.” Now what are you free to do?
“Oh, I can do a lot of wonderful things I always wanted to do. Thank God, He’s delivered me from all of those debts. Finances worked out and now I have more money.” What do you intend to do with it? “Well, I plan to buy this and that.”
For what are we delivered? Or were we really delivered? Are we looking to be delivered from restrictive circumstances so we can have an easier, freer life? Are we asking that the chains shall be dropped so that we can do the will of God, so that we can really do everything that He wants us to do?
That is probably what is most important.
What do we want? What are we going to say when we are in an uptight situation because we have been walking with God? Are we going to say, “Father, deliver me from this hour?”
Be sure it is just from Satan or the flesh that you want to be delivered. Because in this walk with God, there are many things that God has ordered, be sure that you are not praying, “Lord, deliver me from this hour,” but rather
“For this cause I came to this hour.”
There are satanic things that come against us; from those, let us be delivered, but not so we’ll have easier lives. We can’t think about retiring without thinking about defeat.
We can’t even think of an easier life. To me, the time is short for many things to be done; the teaching, the wisdom, the keys that God has given money couldn’t buy.
“Lord, put the fire to us the way you want it, but deliver us from that which is evil within us.” As we set ourselves to do the will of God, immediately, there will be judgment.
Judgment must begin there—God judging the whole earth—but He is judging in this old earth of self first of all. Out of it the prince of this world is cast out, and Christ is lifted up; out of this earth. When He is the “Exalted One” in the whole of our life, then men are drawn.
“Lord, deliver us now from those hang-ups we have. Deliver us from the things that would come to distract us to an easier course than Your will.
In my spirit there is great desire to walk wholly with Thee and a fearfulness of being too closely entangled even with believers who are not likeminded to be given wholly to the will of God.
There is something, Lord, so detrimental about the spirit of this age, the covetousness of it, the self-seeking, the love of ease, the love of an easier way that avoids a destiny God has given, that avoids the work of the cross, that tries to skirt around the battles that absolutely have to be fought and won.
Lord, as we have received this word with joy in our hearts, bless us, we pray, let us draw upon your grace and strength to press on in to what you have for us. In Thy name we pray. Amen.”