Behold, O flock of God, thou art at the threshold of great things that the Lord has promised thee. Shall not the searchings of thy heart be greater than all of the searchings that the Lord has brought to thee as thou shalt stand at the threshold of possessing and entering into the thing that the Lord has promised thee in the days and years past? It shall not be a little thing that He shall do in thy heart. He shall sanctify thy heart, for tomorrow the Lord shall do wonders among thee (Joshua 3:5, KJV); and in the days that shall unfold, the Lord shall continue to move by His Spirit.
Thou hast come through manifold testings and manifold trials, yet look up and let thy heart rejoice. Yea, the Lord would see the rejoicing of thy heart today.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. I Peter 1:6–7.
He would not look upon the whines; He would not look upon the groans and the moans of those who feel themselves abused; but He would hear the prayers of those who would look to the Lord with rejoicing and renew their strength in Him, and look that the Lord should revive the feeble and the weary one, that the Lord should strengthen him who has no might.
Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:27–31.
Look ye unto the Lord this day. Let thy heart be set toward the Lord. Set thy expectation toward the Lord, and the Lord shall continue to move. Look not to what any shall say or imagine not an evil thing being done against thee, for thou art in the house of thy brothers and thy sisters, and their purpose toward thee is naught but good. Therefore, put away thy envying. Put away thy strife (James 3:16; I Corinthians 3:3). Put away the evil thing from thee that would devour thee and cause thy spirits to be hostile one to another, and love ye one another with a holy love, for it is the Lord who has raised thee up together.
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. Galatians 5:13–15.
It is not thy own choosing that thou shalt choose the brother that shall stand at thy side or the sister that shall be at thy right hand. It is the Lord that has chosen this for thee. It is the Lord that has brought thee together, and He has made thee one (I Corinthians 12:12–13, 18–25). Therefore, love ye one another and let there be a right spirit one toward another and toward the Lord (Psalm 51:10). Let thy heart be turned toward the Lord. Let the expectation of thy heart be greater in these days.
It is an hour that the Lord would teach His people repentance. Behold, at the beginning of thy walk with the Lord, did He not teach thee repentance and lead thee by a way of grace in which many things were overlooked? Thou art entering into the hour of maturity in which repentance shall again be part of thy life, and thou shalt learn how not to excuse thyself to another or defend thyself one to another. Neither shalt thou defend thyself before the Lord thy God, but thou shalt humble thyself before the Lord, before thy brothers and thy sisters.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 4:10; 5:16.
Behold, if there shall be a question, thou shalt take the blame upon thyself and thou shalt count thyself to be the transgressor, and thou shalt walk in unity toward thy brother and toward thy sister (Ephesians 4:1–3).
This is the hand of the Lord that raiseth thee up to bring thee through the hour of the threshing floor, where the Lord shall put thee through the threshing floor. He shall separate the wheat from the chaff, and thy life shall be adorned with the beauty and the glory of the Lord (Matthew 3:2, 11–12; Isaiah 61:3). Separate thyself unto the Lord. Let thy heart be given unto repentance. Let the Word of the Lord flow unto thee this day, for this is an hour that the Lord would revive His work in thee and renew His Spirit within thee, and He would make a covenant of grace with thy heart (Isaiah 55:3).
Behold, the Lord has set before this house many great works that you should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10); and the Spirit of the Lord has moved upon the congregation and the prophetic Word has declared the good works that the Lord has ordained that you should walk in. But let not thy heart be turned away from this one thing: it is not the quantity of work that the Lord has sought, but it is the quality of thy spirit before the Lord that He does search thee. Know the spirit that is in thee that thou may be wholly yielded unto the Lord, that there shall be nothing within thee that has held back from the Lord in this hour, for thy work shall be wrought in righteousness, and thy spirit shall be excellent before the Lord.
Call to mind the men that did walk with God before thee who pleased the Lord. The Lord said little about their works but spoke of their spirit. Of Daniel it was said that an excellent spirit was found in him (Daniel 6:3). Therefore did the Lord deliver him from the lions’ den and did establish his ministry in a place that none could cast him out of it, for the Lord did shield him and protect him in that place that He had chosen for him (Daniel 6:25–28).
If thou would walk in the will of the Lord and in the ministry that God has chosen for thee, let there be an excellent spirit within thee.
Let thy heart be broken before the Lord and let thy spirit be yielded unto God, for behold, if thou shalt see the hour when bitterness or criticism shall enter within thee, this is the hour that thy heart shall be turned away from the Lord, and thou shalt begin to take counsel with thine own heart and murmur against the ways of the Lord and against the circumstances that He has confronted thee with. In that hour thy spirit shall be weighed and found wanting before the Lord (Daniel 5:27).
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Proverbs 16:2.
And thou shalt call to mind the Word of Hannah who said, “Behold, the Lord God is a God of knowledge and by Him spirits are weighed” (I Samuel 2:1–3).
Behold, the Lord has seen the unclean hands. He has seen the hands of His people stained with blood, for shall He not require the blood of the lost at their hand if they have been unfaithful. Yea, they have not proclaimed the Word of the Lord to them that are drawn unto death, that are ready to perish (Ezekiel 33:1–9).
If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works? Proverbs 24:11–12.
The Lord has seen those that have walked not before the Lord with uprightness, but only for themselves have they sought and pursued after the blessing. But the Lord has looked upon thy heart, and He has ordained a better thing for thee, the thing that accompanies salvation, as thou shalt press on in the things of the Lord and thou shalt walk before Him with a whole heart and with a spirit that is upright before the Lord.
For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. Hebrews 6:7–9.
The Lord shall cause His people to walk in lowliness and humility. Yea, shall they not possess the high places of the earth and mount up to the high peaks? (Habakkuk 3:18–19; Obadiah 17; Isaiah 58:12–14.) Shall they not walk before the Lord as conquerors, as more than conquerors? (Romans 8:37.) Yea, they shall walk victorious before Him, but they shall be known as the people whose spirit has not overcome them. They have overcome all things by the word of their testimony and the blood of the Lamb.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Revelation 12:10–11.
The hour cometh when thou shalt overcome, O house of the Lord, and thou shalt walk before Him as the elect of the Lord in righteousness and in holiness before Him. Let the Lord move upon thee and let His compassion fill thy heart, for this is the day of searching. It is the hour of crisis of many a heart. As they shall open their hearts, even greater things the Lord would set before thee.
The Lord shall fill thee with His Spirit and He shall anoint thee afresh. He shall cause rain to fall upon the thirsty and dry ground.
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. Isaiah 44:3.
This is the hour that the Spirit of the Lord speaketh unto thee, “Break up thy fallow ground, that the Lord shall come and rain righteousness upon thee.” Behold the ground is so hard it cannot absorb the water that comes down; there shall be no fruit brought to perfection. Break up thy fallow ground. Let thy heart be broken before the Lord. Let thy spirit be broken before the Lord, that the Lord shall have His way with thee and He shall bless thee.
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. Hosea 10:12.
How shall the world mark the difference between him who has walked after the Lord in a form, who has no religion but only a form of godliness (II Timothy 3:1–5), and how shall they know him who has walked uprightly before the Lord? For all come and say, “Behold, I am walking in the way of the Lord, and my doctrine is the true doctrine,” but in this hour even the hearts of the unlearned and the ignorant and those that are sinners before the Lord shall sense those in whom the Lord has wrought a right spirit. It shall be revealed by the spirit they see. It shall not be those that shall knock at their doors and give them much literature or much argument, for thou shalt perceive the spirit of contention that is in them. It shall be the saints of God that shall go to those same doors, and they shall have a word of grace and they shall have a spirit that is gracious before the Lord, a holiness that is winsome. It shall be a compassion of the Lord that floweth out that winneth and draweth those wheresoever that one goeth. It is the Lord that is with thee.
Surely as the Lord shall be with thee to give thee grace and understanding in this hour, thou shalt sense that there shall never be a time when thou shalt come together that thou shalt not realize the potential of that service is greater than thy heart has imagined, that the authority and the power of the Lord would flow without restraint, and the only hindering thing is thy own spirit. Yea, wilt thou open thy spirit wide to the Lord as a faucet that is open, that the power of God might come flowing forth? Or wilt thou only open a little to the Lord, that there should be a meager trickle to the house of God? Blessed are they that shall search after the Lord with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind and with all their strength, and shall enter in valiantly to subdue the enemy, to cast him out and take the high places that God setteth before them.
And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it. Numbers 33:53.
And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.
Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said. Joshua 14:9, 12.