We must sense that we have been put in the wilderness and under the work of the cross. How soon we get out of the wilderness and how soon we stop hanging on a cross is not the issue.
How soon does God break down this selfishness? How soon do we flow into the Body? How soon do the walls come down? How soon do we begin to relate in unselfish dedication to love deeply with all our hearts?
How soon do we get out of the infant stage where we have a soulish reaction to everything and get our feelings hurt and withdraw? How soon will we completely forget that and just become one with the rest of the Body, so one with our brothers and sisters that nothing can move us?
You do not get out of the wilderness until the job is done. It is what you are becoming that is important, not just what happens to you. It is being ordered for a purpose. You are going through these things in order that God can work a certain thing in you. God deals with His children this way. As you come out of the wilderness, God begins to check and double-check what has been worked in you.
How deeply are you dedicated? How deeply do you love God’s people? How deeply do you love Him? Everything begins to come against you to test the love. How deep is the love? As the body of Christ we must be ready to come out of the wilderness. The churches will not come out of the wilderness, until they realize that a deeper level of love is absolutely essential. They will stay there until they learn to love.
We must face this. It is the turning point in our lives where we will fervently love one another with a pure heart. We must act on this word. I know that we do love one another, and this love was enough for yesterday, but it is not enough for today.
We may feel as though we have been tested and pushed and we are without any reserves. As we come to a new level, we must look to God to let the things He has wrought in our lives stand to meet the new need.
God saved me a long time ago, but as I go on I realize that my salvation experience expands and grows to the new areas I move into.
I could have been a good Pentecostal preacher the rest of my life. I probably would never have faced any outstanding problems because I was not growing or developing much.
I could preach the same sermons because I did not need many sermons because the people were not walking in much light.
The minute I came into the walk with God, I felt as though I was being exposed; depths that I did not know were there were suddenly exposed. The Lord started dealing with me. I thought I had complete control over my temper; and the next thing I knew, I found myself tested on it beyond anything I had ever known.
When you get into this walk with the Lord, you rejoice because it is marvelous. You have more from God than you ever had before. Then the Lord puts you on a new level of walking with Him and the testings begin to really come.
Then Satan will tell you that you do not have anything after all, that you never were delivered for you have the same old problems of lust, the same old habits, the same old things tempting you.
You were delivered, but before you only faced the little demons, and they were scattered. Now you are coming up against principalities and powers. You are breaking through to see whole countries liberated and cities changed.
You are not dealing with the same little demons you dealt with before. Now you are dealing with powers that come at you with a viciousness, on a spiritual level you have never dealt with before. You need to have the faith to press in and walk with God, completely trusting Him, for the days ahead will be days of great shaking, until you wonder if the whole spiritual world is going to collapse on you.
God says, “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,” so you do just that. This makes you nervous when you know the Egyptians are after you. Now He says, “Tell them to go forward,” and He starts parting the sea so that you can go forward. Here come the Egyptians after you, and you are very uneasy when you see the water standing on each side; it might slip any minute, and you could be drowned.
Then you realize that this is taking more faith than ever. All you started out with was just a little faith to take a lamb, kill it, put the blood on the doorpost, roast it, and eat. Then Moses said, “Come on. You are getting out of Egypt. You are going in to possess the land of Canaan.”
Every step requires more faith. When you start out, you never have enough faith to get through the whole thing. You have just enough faith to start. You take a couple of steps while you are still chewing on the lamb bone.
Then you face the Red Sea which takes even more faith. It makes you nervous to see all those Egyptians pursuing you, but you are told, “The Egyptians that you see today, you will see no more forever.” The Lord will put an end to them.
After the Egyptians are off your trail and you get through the Red Sea, you think you are safe. Then it takes more faith than ever when you come to the bitter waters. A tree is thrown into the water which makes it sweet.
Finally, you face the fact that you must trust God for your food every day. He must provide a sustaining miracle. You have to trust God so that your clothes will not wear out because there are no department stores in the wilderness. You have to trust God so that your shoes will not wear out. In fact, you will have to trust Him for everything He gives you.
The wilderness can become irritating; and if you murmur, that can be dangerous. You will get through the wilderness, but then what happens?
You must have more faith, because you will be going across the Jordan when it has swollen over its banks and there is no apparent way of getting across it.
You will possess Canaan, but the only trouble is that there are many giants sitting on your inheritance. All those beautiful vineyards in the land flowing with milk and honey are also possessed by giants. What will you do about that?
It takes more faith. It is one thing to wander around in the wilderness and have God feed you; it is another thing to go in there and take the land away from the giants. Every step requires a little more faith. You must understand this.
Nothing avails anything but faith which works by love. You may love God and your brothers; you may believe in divine order and be submissive; but you must understand that even submission is relative. It is easy to be submissive when you are on a lower spiritual level, but what about now?
The further you go, the easier it is to come to the dangerous place where you feel that you have arrived, that you have some kind of seniority in the Kingdom, and that you do not have to be quite as humble and careful in your walk, in the way you live, and in what you do.
You may become a little arrogant and think that you are a privileged person, that because you have been in the walk with God a little longer than anyone else you do not have to be as careful.
Those who made the biggest mistakes in the Bible were not the beginners; they were the well-seasoned ones. When Abraham was first starting to walk with God, he built altars throughout the country, seeking His face. Later when he went to Egypt, he told the king that Sarah was his sister.
Who was it that wanted to bring fire out of heaven and burn up the people? Not a new beginner, some sweet disciple; it was the one called the disciple of love.
Therefore him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. I Corinthians 10:12. There is something very dangerous about this business of suddenly having a lot of confidence, thinking you do not have to diligently seek the Lord to walk with Him.
I would like to see us walk with God just as though we were starting all over again. It is not that I want to make unbelievers out of us, but we must realize that we are walking on a whole new level and we do not even know the language on this level.
We do not know how to meet the devils and the problems on this level. In the greatest of humility it is up to each one to seek God and to have a new baptism of love, a new infusion of faith, to have God meet their heart all over again just as though they were a brand new beginner .In a sense, we are beginners again. We have walked into a new level we know very little about.
Even if you are just beginning, you may go along for a few days and then all of a sudden find that it seems as if the bottom has dropped out and you have to learn how to walk all over again. You may be doing just fine, sailing along like a little bird that is learning to fly; and then you hit a hurricane; and your poor little wings have the feathers blown right off. You face something different.
You love the Word; you listen to the M. P. 3’s; but the Word is not getting through to you. You go to church, but it seems as if walls are up. You read the Bible, and nothing is working. You sing in the Spirit, and again nothing is working. You wonder what is the matter? You were just put on a new level, and now you have to learn how to function on that new level. You go from glory to glory even as by the Lord the Spirit.
If the Lord did not allow you to hit one of those dry spells, you would never start struggling to get up there and learn how to move on a new level.
Elijah prophesied, “There will be no rain or dew in the land, except according to my word.” The Lord told Elijah to go to the brook Cherith because He had commanded the ravens to feed him there. He went to the brook Cherith, sat on a rock, and waited for the ravens to come over and drop food right in his hands. The little brook lulled him to sleep, and he could drink the water from the brook. Everything was just fine. Who could ask for anything better?
One day the Lord said to a couple of His angels, “What am I going to do with Elijah? I must stir him up to go on and finish the job. Elijah is content and looks very happy. He likes the food we are sending him. What do you think we ought to do?” An angel probably suggested, “Why don’t You just cut off his water.” That was a good idea.
After Elijah took his afternoon siesta, he became very thirsty, for the brook had dried up. Elijah probably thought, “Where are those birds with my breakfast? It is time for the evening meal, and I have not even had my breakfast yet.”
After several days, he called on the Lord, and the Lord told him, “I want you to go down to a certain place, for I have commanded a widow woman to care for you.” Elijah was ready to go. There was nothing else for him to do.
The Lord has a way of pushing you into the next step. Perhaps you feel as though someone had cut off your water, and it is time to move into the next step. You have loved the word; but suddenly you have a new need, a deep hunger. What do you do about it?
Face it. Face that deep hunger and thirsting after righteousness, and start seeking God with all your heart. Are you aware of your need as Elijah was? Do you suddenly realize that you need a meeting with God? In a way, you find yourself coming to a fresh measure of repentance, a new seeking after God, a determination that you are not going to walk the way you have before.
Do you think you need more love for your brothers and sisters? It is not that you are an unbeliever or that you are defeated. You have just moved up to a new level, and you have to say, “Lord, just do it to me again.” I can see why a double portion is prophesied for the end time. It is needed.
Would you like to have a double portion? Would you like to have the Lord renew His commission over you and bring new prophecies and ministries? Reach into a new level of dedication. Determine to break through to another level, and believe to receive a baptism of His love to help you function on that level.
I know God put me on this level, but I do not know how to cope with it yet. I believe though that I am going to have a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit on my heart like I have not had before.
This message is exactly what everyone needs who is trying to walk with God right now. We could go at this backwards and try to solve all the problems with counseling. Even though there are critical problems that need to be solved, we should be concerned first of all about believing for an infusion of love.
The problems that are coming are on a spiritual level, and the love and the anointing we have had are not enough to cope with the present problems. The battle and the victories we will win require that God renew and deepen His work within us. We must feel it in our hearts and take faith to believe that God will help us.
What will happen when we move right up to that level of faith—faith working by love? The problems will just disappear. But the problems will stay until we move into the place where God wants us to be, until we become what He wants us to be.
This means we will have to repent of judging our brother or sister in any way. We must repent of murmuring and complaining. God wants to bring us to a place of maturity, and we may not want to grow up.
He wants faithful, steadfast people. We must see the stability. We must get over our selfish ideas and relinquish some more of ourself. We might as well do this because the old flesh is not going to get out of this walk alive anyway. It must be crucified, so there is no point in hollering about it. We must drag the flesh to the altar and bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar.
Lord, You are going to deal with us. We submit to You, Lord, with a new submission, for we will walk in righteousness. Everything wrong must go. You are going to sanctify us wholly. We are going to be free and walk in that freedom. We are going to love as we have never loved before and believe as we have never believed before. Amen.