KingdomSeeker
Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Messages
- 132
The Following is an Excerpt from "Hungry for More of Jesus" By David Wilkerson. If you have never read this book I highly suggest it. God put on my heart to share this.
..."Tragically, those in ministry have so watered down God's truth about self-denial that we have birthed a generation of loose-living, impotent believers who do not understand the meaning of seperation from the world. Many of our churches have so mixed worldliness into their messages that Christians can now out-sin the wicked without blushing! In fact, in recent years the world has been shocked and outraged by the filth and corruption in Christendom, and justifiably so.
Much Gospel preaching today contains no mention of the cross, no doctrine of suffering, no reproof, no repentance, no hatred for sin, no demand for seperation or purity, no call for unconditional surrender to the Lordship of Christ, no daily death to self, no crucifixtion of the fleshly lusts, no self denial, no rejection of the self-life, no warnings of comming persecution and imminent judgment. And, most tragic of all, mant Christians now prefer to hear about their rights in Christ - and ignore His Claim on us!"
Christ's Claim on Us
Multitudes followed Jesus, yet He knew only a few would hold fast to Him and become true disciples. The Jews wanted to hold to both Jesus and Moses, to keep their traditons and dead rituals while claiming to be Christ's followers. But Jesus would have nothing to do with their double-mindedness.
"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hatethe one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon"(Matthew 6:24). Jesus exsposes here the paradox of a divided heart. He tears away the facade of phony discipleship and shows us the fate of those who try to serve two masters at the same time. We dare not miss or Lord's pointed warning: Unforsaken sin will lead into the worst hypocrisy possible. Some say they love the Lord and hate the devil, but by clinging to secret lusts, idolatry, bitterness or rebellion, they instead despise the Lord and hold on to Satan. They secretly give their allegiance to the one they say they hate, while giving only lipservice to Loving their God.
To such hypocrites Jesus said, "these people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. . . .In vain they worship Me" (Matthew 15:8-9). He is saying, "no one can testify that I am the One he loves and at the same time despise Me by his evil doings." The Greek meaning of the word despise is "to esteem lightly." To despise the Lord is not to take His Word to heart - to disregard His claims as if they are not binding. Let me list just three of the claims Christ has on us as we desire to take hold of Him:
1. He calls His followers to love Him so passionately that all other affections appear as hatred in comparison.
"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:26
The Greek word for hate means "to love less by comparison" Jesus is calling us to have a love for Him that is so all-inclusive, fervent and absolute that all our earthly affections cannot come close.
If we had that red-hot, all-consuming, intense and joyus love for Christ, we would not need outlines, diagrams and instructions telling us how to pray; we would pray because our hearts would be on fire with love for Him. We would not groa bored trying to fill up an hour praying ambiguously for needs all over the world; Christ would be the object of our prayers, and our prayer time would be precious. We would spend hours behind closed doors, expressing the overflowing admiration and sweet love that flood our hearts for Him. Reading His Word would never be a burden; we wouldn't need formulas on how to finish the Bible in a year. If we loved Jesus passionately we would be drawn magnetically to his Word to learn more about Him. And we would not become bogged down with endless genealogies and end-time speculations. We would want only to know Him better - to see more of His beauty and glory so that we could become more like Him.
Think about it: Do we know what it is like to come into His sweet presence and ask nothing? To reach out to Him only becasue we are grateful that He loves us so completely? We have become selfish and self-centered in our prayers: "Give us. . .Meet us. . .help us. . . bless us. . .use us. . . protectus." All this may be scriptural, but the focus remains on us. We go to His Word for answers to our problems, for guidance and comfort, and this also is right and commendable. But where is the love-motivated soul who searches the Scriptures diligently, who wants only to discover more and more about his beloved Lord? Even our work for the Lord has become selfish. We want Him to bless our service to Him, so we can know our faith is genuine. We want to be considered diligent, capable and successful as a sign of His blessing upon us. I have been crying in my own heart, "o Lord, is my own ministry more important to me than You? Is love my only motive for my Saviour, or do I want to see somthing tangible that I have accomplished for You?" You see, our Lord is more interested in what we are becoming in Him than in what we are doing for Him. Someone reading this may be hurting because doors of ministry have closed. He or she may feel "put on the shelf." Someone else may think he would be more useful to the Lord on some needy mission feild. But I say we cannot be more useful to the Lord than when we minister love to Him in the secret closet of prayer. When we seek the Lord, when we search His Word endlessly to know Him, then we are at the peak of our usefulness. We do more to bless and satisfy God by being shut up with Him in loving communication than by doing anything else. Whatever work He might open up for us to do, at home or abroad, will flow effortlessly out of our communion with Him. He is more interested in winning our whole hearts than in winning the world for Him.
2. He calls us to see it through.
"Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, wheather he has enough to finish it-- lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him saying, 'This man began and was not able to finish.' " Luke 14:28-30
Christ knew many of the His folowers would not have what it took to see them through. He knew that they would turn back and not finish the race. I believe this is the most tragic condition possible for a believer--To have started out fully intending to lay hold of Christ, to grow into a mature disciple and become more like Jesus and then to drift away, becoming cold and indifferent to Him. Such a person is the one who laid the foundation and could not finish because he did not first count the cost. He went only so far becasue he ran our of resources and then quit. What a joy it is to meet those who are indeed finishing the race! These believers are growing in the wisdom and knowledge of Christ. They are changing daily, from moment to moment. Paul says to them encouragingly, "we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord"(2 Corinthians 3:18). They are becoming increasingly distant from the World and its pleasures. They are becoming heavenly minded, their spiritual senses exercised, their discernment increasing. The older they get, the hungrier they grow for Christ. They break loose from all earthly attachments, and with growing intensity thel long to be with Jesus in His glory. For them, to die is gain, becasue the ultimate prize is to be called into His presence and remain at His side forevermore. It is not heaven these believers seek, but Christ in His glory!
We can be sure that when Jesus returns, He will have a glorious Church consisting of those who have been changed into His likeness. Her members will have become so unattached to this world and so united to Him that moving from the corruptible state to the incorruptible will be just one last step of love. It will be like breaking through a thin veil of tissue, becasue they will already have drawn so close to Christ in this life.
I know that many who read this particular message are in the process of pausing or taking a step backward. It may seem like a small step, but it will cause a swift decline away from His love. If this is true of you,realize the Holy Spirit is calling you all the way back -- Back to repentance, self-denial and surrender. And at this very moment, time is a big factor. If you ever intend to lay hold of Christ, do it now; see it through.
3. He calls us to fight Satan.
"What king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider wheather he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:31-33
Enoch once propesied, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints" (Jude 14). Scripture says we are kings and priests unto the Lord, and we represent these tens of thousands going out to battle Satan's army. Satan wars against us becasue he hates us greatly: "And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest[the remnat, KJV] of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ"(Revelation 12:17). If we have set our hearts to lay hold of Christ, wehave become the devils' target in this final conflict. He will hurl everything in hell against us.
We must be prepared for what is coming. We must be ready to spend our days in spirtual warfare, knowing that a flood of iniquity is aimedagainst people of God. If we are determined to lay hold of Christ, then we need to realize that we are invincible in Christ. It is written, "grater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" (see 1 John 4:4). God says we are guaranteed victory over all the power of the enemy; we have all the hosts of heaven fighting for us!
This is especially encouraging becasue, as we have noted, the devil is amassing greater power. We do well to remember the words Moses spoke to Israel for God:
"You shall not make idols for youselves. . . .Walk in. . . .My commandments, and preform them, [and in turn] you will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you." Leviticus 26:1, 3, 7-8
Joshua also encouraged the Lord's army with these words: "One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you. . . . Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God" (Joshua 23:10-11).
Moses told them what would happen if they mingled with the world and attempted to serve two masters. "how could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rocj had sold them, and the Lord had surrendered them?" (Deuteronomy 32:30). Those eho no longer cling to the Rock --Christ ---Become cowardly and fearful before the enemy. Sin and lukewarmness rob them of all power and confidence. They will leave their first love and end up running in fright from the devil's harassment. If they continue to refuse to let go of secret sin and hidden lusts, these double-minded Christians will eventually try to make a deal with the devil. They will seek conditions of peace by sending their consciences out to meet the enemy and negotiate a truce. They want to continue their claim of loving the Lord, but they don't want to give up that last stronghold, that one besetting sin. And they make this truce with the full knowledge that the devil still rules as the god of this world. He could swallow them up at any time!
We cannot make deals with the devil. We cannot compromise with sin even slightly. We cannot allow our faith to be shipwrecked by compromise and false peace for even one moment. We are in an all-out war and we have to defeat the enemy completely to have victory over all his claims on us.
May God give us more Holy Ghost fight so that each or us can shout to the world and all the hordes of hell,
"Nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ! Not tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or war. No, in all these things I am more than a conqueror through Him who loves me. 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 created thing, shall be able to separate me from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"(see Romans 8:35, 37-39).
This is the battle cry of those who hunger for Jesus.
..."Tragically, those in ministry have so watered down God's truth about self-denial that we have birthed a generation of loose-living, impotent believers who do not understand the meaning of seperation from the world. Many of our churches have so mixed worldliness into their messages that Christians can now out-sin the wicked without blushing! In fact, in recent years the world has been shocked and outraged by the filth and corruption in Christendom, and justifiably so.
Much Gospel preaching today contains no mention of the cross, no doctrine of suffering, no reproof, no repentance, no hatred for sin, no demand for seperation or purity, no call for unconditional surrender to the Lordship of Christ, no daily death to self, no crucifixtion of the fleshly lusts, no self denial, no rejection of the self-life, no warnings of comming persecution and imminent judgment. And, most tragic of all, mant Christians now prefer to hear about their rights in Christ - and ignore His Claim on us!"
Christ's Claim on Us
Multitudes followed Jesus, yet He knew only a few would hold fast to Him and become true disciples. The Jews wanted to hold to both Jesus and Moses, to keep their traditons and dead rituals while claiming to be Christ's followers. But Jesus would have nothing to do with their double-mindedness.
"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hatethe one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon"(Matthew 6:24). Jesus exsposes here the paradox of a divided heart. He tears away the facade of phony discipleship and shows us the fate of those who try to serve two masters at the same time. We dare not miss or Lord's pointed warning: Unforsaken sin will lead into the worst hypocrisy possible. Some say they love the Lord and hate the devil, but by clinging to secret lusts, idolatry, bitterness or rebellion, they instead despise the Lord and hold on to Satan. They secretly give their allegiance to the one they say they hate, while giving only lipservice to Loving their God.
To such hypocrites Jesus said, "these people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. . . .In vain they worship Me" (Matthew 15:8-9). He is saying, "no one can testify that I am the One he loves and at the same time despise Me by his evil doings." The Greek meaning of the word despise is "to esteem lightly." To despise the Lord is not to take His Word to heart - to disregard His claims as if they are not binding. Let me list just three of the claims Christ has on us as we desire to take hold of Him:
1. He calls His followers to love Him so passionately that all other affections appear as hatred in comparison.
"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:26
The Greek word for hate means "to love less by comparison" Jesus is calling us to have a love for Him that is so all-inclusive, fervent and absolute that all our earthly affections cannot come close.
If we had that red-hot, all-consuming, intense and joyus love for Christ, we would not need outlines, diagrams and instructions telling us how to pray; we would pray because our hearts would be on fire with love for Him. We would not groa bored trying to fill up an hour praying ambiguously for needs all over the world; Christ would be the object of our prayers, and our prayer time would be precious. We would spend hours behind closed doors, expressing the overflowing admiration and sweet love that flood our hearts for Him. Reading His Word would never be a burden; we wouldn't need formulas on how to finish the Bible in a year. If we loved Jesus passionately we would be drawn magnetically to his Word to learn more about Him. And we would not become bogged down with endless genealogies and end-time speculations. We would want only to know Him better - to see more of His beauty and glory so that we could become more like Him.
Think about it: Do we know what it is like to come into His sweet presence and ask nothing? To reach out to Him only becasue we are grateful that He loves us so completely? We have become selfish and self-centered in our prayers: "Give us. . .Meet us. . .help us. . . bless us. . .use us. . . protectus." All this may be scriptural, but the focus remains on us. We go to His Word for answers to our problems, for guidance and comfort, and this also is right and commendable. But where is the love-motivated soul who searches the Scriptures diligently, who wants only to discover more and more about his beloved Lord? Even our work for the Lord has become selfish. We want Him to bless our service to Him, so we can know our faith is genuine. We want to be considered diligent, capable and successful as a sign of His blessing upon us. I have been crying in my own heart, "o Lord, is my own ministry more important to me than You? Is love my only motive for my Saviour, or do I want to see somthing tangible that I have accomplished for You?" You see, our Lord is more interested in what we are becoming in Him than in what we are doing for Him. Someone reading this may be hurting because doors of ministry have closed. He or she may feel "put on the shelf." Someone else may think he would be more useful to the Lord on some needy mission feild. But I say we cannot be more useful to the Lord than when we minister love to Him in the secret closet of prayer. When we seek the Lord, when we search His Word endlessly to know Him, then we are at the peak of our usefulness. We do more to bless and satisfy God by being shut up with Him in loving communication than by doing anything else. Whatever work He might open up for us to do, at home or abroad, will flow effortlessly out of our communion with Him. He is more interested in winning our whole hearts than in winning the world for Him.
2. He calls us to see it through.
"Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, wheather he has enough to finish it-- lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him saying, 'This man began and was not able to finish.' " Luke 14:28-30
Christ knew many of the His folowers would not have what it took to see them through. He knew that they would turn back and not finish the race. I believe this is the most tragic condition possible for a believer--To have started out fully intending to lay hold of Christ, to grow into a mature disciple and become more like Jesus and then to drift away, becoming cold and indifferent to Him. Such a person is the one who laid the foundation and could not finish because he did not first count the cost. He went only so far becasue he ran our of resources and then quit. What a joy it is to meet those who are indeed finishing the race! These believers are growing in the wisdom and knowledge of Christ. They are changing daily, from moment to moment. Paul says to them encouragingly, "we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord"(2 Corinthians 3:18). They are becoming increasingly distant from the World and its pleasures. They are becoming heavenly minded, their spiritual senses exercised, their discernment increasing. The older they get, the hungrier they grow for Christ. They break loose from all earthly attachments, and with growing intensity thel long to be with Jesus in His glory. For them, to die is gain, becasue the ultimate prize is to be called into His presence and remain at His side forevermore. It is not heaven these believers seek, but Christ in His glory!
We can be sure that when Jesus returns, He will have a glorious Church consisting of those who have been changed into His likeness. Her members will have become so unattached to this world and so united to Him that moving from the corruptible state to the incorruptible will be just one last step of love. It will be like breaking through a thin veil of tissue, becasue they will already have drawn so close to Christ in this life.
I know that many who read this particular message are in the process of pausing or taking a step backward. It may seem like a small step, but it will cause a swift decline away from His love. If this is true of you,realize the Holy Spirit is calling you all the way back -- Back to repentance, self-denial and surrender. And at this very moment, time is a big factor. If you ever intend to lay hold of Christ, do it now; see it through.
3. He calls us to fight Satan.
"What king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider wheather he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:31-33
Enoch once propesied, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints" (Jude 14). Scripture says we are kings and priests unto the Lord, and we represent these tens of thousands going out to battle Satan's army. Satan wars against us becasue he hates us greatly: "And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest[the remnat, KJV] of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ"(Revelation 12:17). If we have set our hearts to lay hold of Christ, wehave become the devils' target in this final conflict. He will hurl everything in hell against us.
We must be prepared for what is coming. We must be ready to spend our days in spirtual warfare, knowing that a flood of iniquity is aimedagainst people of God. If we are determined to lay hold of Christ, then we need to realize that we are invincible in Christ. It is written, "grater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" (see 1 John 4:4). God says we are guaranteed victory over all the power of the enemy; we have all the hosts of heaven fighting for us!
This is especially encouraging becasue, as we have noted, the devil is amassing greater power. We do well to remember the words Moses spoke to Israel for God:
"You shall not make idols for youselves. . . .Walk in. . . .My commandments, and preform them, [and in turn] you will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you." Leviticus 26:1, 3, 7-8
Joshua also encouraged the Lord's army with these words: "One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you. . . . Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God" (Joshua 23:10-11).
Moses told them what would happen if they mingled with the world and attempted to serve two masters. "how could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rocj had sold them, and the Lord had surrendered them?" (Deuteronomy 32:30). Those eho no longer cling to the Rock --Christ ---Become cowardly and fearful before the enemy. Sin and lukewarmness rob them of all power and confidence. They will leave their first love and end up running in fright from the devil's harassment. If they continue to refuse to let go of secret sin and hidden lusts, these double-minded Christians will eventually try to make a deal with the devil. They will seek conditions of peace by sending their consciences out to meet the enemy and negotiate a truce. They want to continue their claim of loving the Lord, but they don't want to give up that last stronghold, that one besetting sin. And they make this truce with the full knowledge that the devil still rules as the god of this world. He could swallow them up at any time!
We cannot make deals with the devil. We cannot compromise with sin even slightly. We cannot allow our faith to be shipwrecked by compromise and false peace for even one moment. We are in an all-out war and we have to defeat the enemy completely to have victory over all his claims on us.
May God give us more Holy Ghost fight so that each or us can shout to the world and all the hordes of hell,
"Nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ! Not tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or war. No, in all these things I am more than a conqueror through Him who loves me. 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 created thing, shall be able to separate me from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"(see Romans 8:35, 37-39).
This is the battle cry of those who hunger for Jesus.
