YOUR HEART; "Does He Have All the Pieces?"

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For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1Cor 1:18


Well who else had a hell of a day, yesterday. LOL I know it was a real woozy for me but such is the way of the cross. I know there is a hurt that makes us very tender to the Spirit. How often I think of and find comfort in the verse from Isaiah describing Jesus as "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." So it was yesterday, as I found respite from my fear and resulting pain by residing in Him who knows perfectly my frame. The elect are saved "by means of death" (Heb. 9:15 & 27), not from death. That is how "life" comes "out of the ground". So it is with me as I died a little more this week and He was raised a little higher. If any of you are suffering His Cross today I pray this message might encourage you to find tender respite and comfort in the Father's bosom.

I wrote this out (below) some weeks ago and felt led to post it on the blog today. I'll tell you from the depths of my being, "if you are camped out under the cross I want to encourage you to remain as long as it takes. So many have fled the crucified life but to those that remain I am so humbled to call you brother, sister and, even more meaningfully, His son!

I shared some months ago, that the second death occurs when we are "born again" by the unction and regeneration of the Holy Spirit. This is where we die to our old Adamic sin nature as it is replaced by Christ's essence which is sinless and pure. This is not as the organized church teaches a one time deal but our second death is progressive in nature until we grow into the full stature of Christ.

"Precious, costly, valuable and rare in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Ps. 116:15

This death spoken of by the Psalmist is, I am sure, on the deepest level, the "second death", a painful death but a most glorious death and all shall go through it. The pain and suffering is on this side of the Cross while joy and glory is realized on the other. Even today there is a company of saints that are being torn from the temporal things of this world as they are reduced to Christ. Upon waking in the morning until the last thought before a night's sleep their minds are stayed upon Jesus. It is to those of you I write tonight, and to others I pray you shall soon know of such a state.

How often in the last few weeks have I glanced at the title of Joian's latest message on her "My Church" blog. With each take there is something that stirs within my spirit that says, "Yes, for those called as sons in this age this is His present work and our end."
The title reads, "If He Should Slay Me, I Will Praise Him........"

Many that name Christ would think the thought of being slayed by God as the last thing they would want. However those dear souls that have been called to taste of His wine press and stand in the fiery furnace of His love even desire such. The overcomer knows the old man with it's soulish sinful nature must be slain that Christ might fill them anew with His full Glory and Love. This is a day by day thing and often even an hour by hour experience as the soul painfully dies and, then through Christ, is gloriously and joyously raised up in Newness of Life.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:35-39

I believe if you are of the account above, as a sheep for slaughter, your heart is steadily being rent and then made soft that He might write upon it's walls His purpose of judgement, mercy and sacrifice due all creation. I speak of the sacrificial Cross of Christ through which all creation is judged as fallen and then mercifully raised to the heighth of His Heavenly Throne. With the setting of the last day's sun we will realize all things subdued under His feet. All things will have been judged as fallen and in His merciful sacrifice of Himself, Christ will have filled all with His full presence, resurrection glory and eternal love. Some of us have been given a glimpse of such a magnificent finale for creation and our hearts yearn and groan for such. Accompanying this glorious glimpse is also an oft present reckoning pain as we hear deep within out spirit the chorus of groans from all of dieing creation. Today all that is of this fallen world stands on tiptoe with necks stretched, yearning for it's release by the coming of Christ in His sons. Along side that burden of painful groaning comes also an ever growing view of heaven on earth. This ever growing perception of Eden restored and increased, brings with it a most glorious supernal hope that beckons us onward no matter the cost. We are God's captives and we intimately share the reproach and sufferings of our Lord and Christ. We share such, because before us has been set the reward of His glorious Peace and Love established within all creation as His everlasting government takes shape.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, Isa 9:6,7

If you are like me, you know He is also tearing down and destroying the governing forces within us. As the "Kingdom of God dwells within" the establishment of Christ's rule is being established first within. For those with a single eye for Christ and whose hands are stayed upon the plow there are often great inward wars waged as the rule of Adam's iniquitous rule is laid to waste.

As you pay the cost of possessing all of Him, who gave Himself for all of you, I suspect you like me of late might have felt pretty cut off and impotent as far as the power of God, with signs following. I copied this from Eby as it succinctly speaks to God's purpose and ways within our lives today and how our hearts desire reaches for such.

If our pursuit of sonship and kingship and priesthood contains any element of desire for a future, for greatness, for a name, for recognition, for power, for SELF we have not yet come to the altar of burnt offering, nor have passed through the consuming fire of God. O Father! Draw us to Thy Tabernacle door. Help us to offer there our offering, ourselves. Thou whose love is a fire, burn up and destroy all that hinders or refuses the triumph of Thy love. Consume the sacrifice and convert it into its own heavenly light nature, transform our beings into flames of love! Eby

While so many today are fleeing the work of the Cross in their lives, there is that very hidden remnant, made up of God's elect of this age that have no place to go. For they have been called by Him who has the words of Life. These elect saints are those that find no profit in a temporal escape. They have been given a vision of Eternal realms of God's deepest presence and Eternity's call beckons them onward and out and away from that which shines falsely with it's vaporous substance. These are those that have received the heart of their Elder Brother, Jesus.

In closing allow me to share a couple short messages I read sometime ago. May they be an encouragement to you as they were to me.


The SHATTERED PEOPLE by Joseph Herrin and Delwyn McAlister.

Matthew 21:44 "And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust." Mankind has no way of escaping the breaking process of God. Either man will agree with God that he needs breaking, and he will submit himself to this process, or he will resist it and the breaking will be incredibly more severe and without reward. The child of God can choose to fall on the Rock, which is Christ, and be broken, or the Rock will fall on them and they will be scattered as dust. About four years ago I did one of the wisest things that a man can do. I asked for the judgments of God in my life. It was not because I was so wise that I did this thing, but because the Spirit brought me to the point of understanding that all of those who would go further with Him and be accounted as overcomers must undergo a crucifixion of their soul life. The outer man must be broken open to allow the precious life of Christ contained within these earthen vessels to be poured forth .........

A truly consecrated man is a man who has given up HIS FUTURE. He abandons not only his future in the world, but also his so called spiritual future. He no longer has hopes for himself in anything; all his hope is in God. He lives purely and simply in the hand of God. He has no ministry or program to perpetuate, he is what God wants him to be and does what God wants him to do. God can change the order at any time and he will change with it. He clings to nothing, for God Himself is his only hope, his only motivation. Whatever the outcome may be, he does not know and does not care. He only knows that he is a sacrifice, wholly belonging to God. The altar is forever the place where he stands, and a heap of ashes is forever the result. His own will, his own way and his future have been utterly abandoned and do not enter into consideration at all.

Even if the entire glory of Egypt is placed before you, you can say to it, "Goodbye, I must go to Canaan."

Watchman Nee comments on this theme by writing, 'The breaking
of the alabaster box and the anointing of God filled the house with
the odor, with the sweetest odor. Everyone could smell it.
Wherever you meet someone who has really suffered, been limited,
gone through things for the Lord, willing to be imprisoned for the
Lord, just being satisfied with Him and nothing else, immediately
you scent the fragrance. There is a savor of the Lord. Something
has been crushed, something has been broken, and there is a
resulting odor of sweetness'.

Peterus Octavianus, a man greatly used by God in the 1973 revival
in Borneo, reminds us, 'Revivals do not begin happily with everyone
having a good time. They start with a broken and contrite heart'.
Smith Wigglesworth believes, 'You can not take people into the
depths of God unless you have been broken yourself. I have been
broken, and broken, and broken. Praise God He is near to those
who have a broken heart. You must have brokenness to get into
the depths of God'.

'The question is no longer if revival will come, but rather through
whom will revival come? Where are the humble and broken people
who will allow God to birth a mighty visitation through them?
Where are the ones who are willing to empty themselves of their
own agendas and plans in order to become pregnant with God's
vision for revival? Will YOU allow Jesus to break you and use you
in the coming revival? Invite the Holy Spirit even now to fill you with
that kind of all-consuming vision and calling. Yield to the Spirit and
give Him permission to ache, weep and pray through you! Humble
yourself and repent of ANYTHING that would hinder or quench the
Spirit of revival! Ask the Lord to let you feel what He feels about
the state of the Church and the world.

About four years ago I (Joseph Herrin) did one of the wisest things that

a man can do. I asked for the judgments of God in my life. It was not
because I was so wise that I did this thing, but because the Spirit brought
me to the point of understanding that all of those who would go
further with Him and be accounted as overcomers must undergo a
crucifixion of their soul life. The outer man must be broken open to
allow the precious life of Christ contained within these earthen
vessels to be poured forth.

For a number of weeks I thought on this matter, and I clearly saw
that standing between myself and a deeper experience in Christ
was this place of death. My flesh recoiled from what it saw, and
loudly made known its protest. Yet even more pressing was the
desire of my spirit to go forward with Christ. To turn away from
Christ was something I feared even more than physical and
emotional suffering. The thought of falling short of God's will for my
life was the most dreadful thought of all.

This was a watershed day in our lives, and I understood that some
threshold had just been crossed over. Our Father was not long in
answering this prayer. The Spirit quickly began to lead me down
roads that can only be described as the valley of death. For a
period of eighteen months I was subjected to one experience of
suffering after another as the independence of my soul life was
dealt with. Many were the instruments of death during this process.
I was cast out from my place of ministry in the body of Christ when
I refused to compromise in obedience to God. I was rejected by
family members and saints alike. My family went through a
stripping process from all of the things of the world. Things I had
accumulated in disobedience through debt were all removed. Our
path was very painful, even to the extent that my wife said she
regretted ever agreeing to go this way with me, yet she remained
nonetheless.

The end of this intense death experience found us living on a street
bearing the prophetic name of Kingsbury, where the King was
separating away and burying the soulish powers that had ruled in
our lives. The community we lived in at this time equally bore a
prophetic name, for it was called "Payne City", and great was our
pain in this place. Never had I felt more vulnerable or helpless than
during these many months of dying. Even as a man on a cross is
unable to deliver himself, so I too was at the mercy of God.

For months my heart felt like it was being torn apart and I wept
many tears in my distress, yet before we had gone far down this
path the Father spoke prophetically to me and said, "Though the
path will seem long and sorrowful, seemingly without end, when it
is over it will seem to have been but a moment in time that passed
swiftly by." As I now look back on this experience, it does appear
to have passed swiftly, and the sting of it is no longer in my
memory. It is like a mighty firestorm has passed over me, and I
am now filled with peace and joy to know that I am still standing,
and I have not been destroyed. The only things that have been
consumed are those things that bound me.

I have no illusions about having been completely delivered from the
evil in my soul and flesh. Even now the Father is doing a further
refining and purifying in my life, yet it is not with the former
intensity that was required to shatter the strongholds that had
gone uncontested for so long.

As I have traveled the path before me the Father has allowed me
to see that there have been many others who have been
experiencing similar fiery trials. I have had the honor to correspond
with numbers of these saints, and it is evident that a brokenness
has come in their lives that is now allowing the sweet savor of
Christ to come forth, when formerly it had been hindered.

*(Please realize that each person will go through different things. For some, instead of 18 months it may be 18 years. For others your 18 months might be one phase, and even harder things may be ahead. Also, the sweet savor you want to see reaching others may not be seen or felt by you as clearly or fully as you desire at this time. Even now you may still be contesting weaknesses and sins in your life but your heart is still pursuing that deeper walk with Him.)


Sadly not long ago on a New Age forum I saw the bitterness arise from one, as she berated me for sharing God's miraculous deliverance and healing to my soul in the midst of a great trial where I had lost a new born son. I knew as this woman bitterly recounted her own loss, she had never gotten over her deep hurt. Soon after I read this quote and I thought how beautiful and how very true.

"It is wonderful what God can do with a broken heart, if He gets all
the pieces." Samuel Chadwick


I pray that you might ever find surrender of all the pieces of your precious heart to Him. May He also give you remembrance of how He bore your soul within His very being as He carried the Cross, even before the foundations of the world. As Jesus walked it out two thousand years ago so shall you. May you continue to walk until you hear His voice rise up from within you and say "it is finished!" Truly it will be soon.

Jack

PS. As I prayed deep into the wee hours last night I felt the inside of me was becoming the outside and it was glorious. I know of many that are being given signs that our glorification is near. The whole world today stands on tiptoe and groans for such!


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