WHY DO I EXIST
April 25: ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN
TESTIMONY: GOD'S HOLY REMNANT
Before moving to Florida in May, 2004, I had a log cabin in the mountains of Upstate New York, in a sub-division comprised of thirty 5 acre lots cut into the woods. There was a private gravel road...branching off from a winding mountain road...that dead-ended at the end of the sub-division, and my cabin was about 500 feet in along the private road. There was no electricity in the sub-division; my cabin, however, was fully functional with a wood burning stove for heat, a propane cooking stove and refrigerator that I had gotten from the Amish community in Pennsylvania, oil lamps and chandeliers for lighting, a beautiful glass-enclosed fireplace in the center of the "great room," antique furniture from the 1880s, and well water. It was peaceful and quiet; my most prized Earthly possession! I went there every weekend...a 3 hr and 15 minute trip from Brooklyn, where I lived and worked...looking forward to spending time alone with the Lord…just to be together with Him, sitting at His feet.
The cabin and all my antique lamps and furnishings were my idols. I had no problem denying that truth and justifying having my idols...just to be alone together with You, Lord, just sitting at Your feet for the entire weekend. But I was consumed with antiques, and spent many, many, hours acquiring them... spending precious and priceless time on things that have no eternal value or eternal worth whatsoever...just like everyone here and those watching are doing right now with the pet idol you have in your own heart. It's amazing how our hearts are so deceitful and desperately wicked above all things...who really can know it...only You, Lord!
One winter evening, after having dinner in town with Vince...a brother whom I had just recently led to the Lord...and driving back up the mountain to the cabin, out of the clear blue the Lord spoke to me: “I want you to sell the cabin.” [These, and the following words spoken by the Lord, are literal quotes!] I was startled...just as if I was totally unaware someone had come up behind me and then began speaking to me! It was not an audible voice, but a voice speaking within me that was just as clear as if it were a friend speaking audibly to me! “Lord,” I said, “Sell the cabin?” “Yes…and with everything in it.” “Well…OK, Lord, I will do that.”
I have heard the voice of the Lord speak to me many times over the years, and that was always my response: “Well…OK, Lord, I will do that.”
As I began to think about how limited the market would be for a log cabin…the only building in a sub-division having no available electricity…three people came to mind whom I thought would potentially even be interested. The Lord interjected again, saying, “Sell it to Vince.”
Vince was one of the three persons I had thought to offer it to…but he was not the one I had in mind to ask first. I responded in my usual manner, “Well…OK, Lord, I will do that.”
I began thinking about the price I was going to offer the cabin to him for, with everything in it...all my precious antiques...as the Lord had instructed. In our human way of looking at things…there would be, of course, a nice profit. But the Lord startled me again, saying, “Sell it for $xxx.” I was really taken aback, because the price He named was quite a bit lower than what I was thinking. Nevertheless, I replied, “Well…OK, Lord.”
Vince was the brother I had dinner with earlier that evening. I called him in the morning, and invited him to come up to the cabin that evening just to spend some time together. I didn’t tell him what I had in mind to bring up. He had seen the cabin once before, and was really impressed; he thought it was “The cat’s meow!”
As we engaged in casual conversation, I found the right opportunity, and said, “I have to sell the cabin; the Lord told me I need to move to Florida to take care of my mother.” Vince immediately became super hyper-excited! “Sell the cabin?! Really?! What price are you asking?! I told him the price the Lord had given me…and with everything in it. He could hardly contain himself: “What?! You are selling it for $xxx?! I’ll take it!!”
I said, “Whoa, Vince…don’t make a hasty decision and just jump into this. Why don’t you spend some with the Lord and ask Him about it before making a decision.” He reluctantly agreed, and said he would. I assured him I would wait for his answer; he would have first preference if the Lord prompted him to go ahead with buying the cabin. Vince called me 8 AM the following morning…and excitedly informed me, “I spoke to the Lord about it; I’ll buy the cabin!”
There you have it! The Lord had told me all I was to do concerning the cabin, and it came to pass exactly as He had said!
That brings me to the high calling of God to each and every believer who names themself a child of the Most High God...a calling that only 1% of God's children will embrace.
Abraham was called, "I want you to take your son, your only son, Isaac...the one whom you love...and offer him as a sacrifice on a mountain I will show you."
Scripture does not describe the intense emotional agony that Abraham must have suffered that night...but he set his heart and arose early in the morning to obey the Lord's command. He could have walked sadly away, unwilling to do this...but he set his heart to obey.
The rich young ruler had a hunger and a thirst for something more than what he already had when Jesus answered his question, “You know the commandments,” and he responded, saying, “All these I have kept since I was a boy. What do I still lack? There must be something more, something I am still missing.”
Jesus looked at him and loved him, and said, “Very well...If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come back, follow Me, and be My disciple.”
The rich young ruler walked sadly away, unwilling to embrace the Lord’s call. The cost was too great for him to part with his idol and become a true disciple…part of God’s 1% holy remnant. He wasn’t WILLING to sell everything he had.
In contrast, Scripture’s account of the merchant seeking fine pearls…when he found a magnificent pearl of great value…HE SOLD EVERYTHING HE HAD in order to have sufficient funds to buy it. It cost him EVERYTHING HE HAD…but HE WANTED IT above everything else.
Brethren…becoming a true disciple of Christ…part of God’s 1% holy remnant…will cost you everything you have! You will have to want it above everything else! It has to be the consuming desire of your heart! Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. [1 John 2:15]
Our Lord never told His Disciples we are going into Jerusalem today to watch the championship chariot races. He told them, “If anyone would come after Me, he must sacrifice and deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple."
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, never said to the Lord, "I am going with some friends today to the annual Boat Show in Galilee; I'll catch up with You later."
Our Lord will always put His finger on the idol in our heart, and take us to the Cross-roads of Decision: I know your deeds; you are neither hot nor cold, having a pretension and claim to My Name, yet having a love for the world and thereby unwilling to stand steadfast and immovable with Me. I wish you were one or the other. Make up your mind, would you please!
If you want to be perfect...
"I want you to sell the cabin...and with everything in it;"
"Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor. Then come back, follow Me, and be My Disciple;"
"I want you to take your son, your only son, Isaac...the one whom you love..."
Here is the Lord’s high calling to every child of God…to you, my brother, my sister:
if you want to be perfect, go…sell, give away, walk away from…the idol within your heart that you don’t want to part with. Choose this day whom you will serve. Then come back after you have done this, follow Me, and be My disciple.
Everyone here within the sound of my voice, and those watching, have heard this call of the Spirit...probably multiple times...but nearly all have walked sadly away, unwilling to embrace it. Only a very few will embrace this call…universally, only 1% of the children of God...and that will be true even now...this morning.
But for those few...your life will literally be transformed, and it will be your privilege to abide in God’s inner circle in the Holy of Holies! And He will show you His Glory! For those few.
"Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So, therefore, be earnest, and repent."
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Closing Comment to Testimony Presented Above:
Our Lord told His disciples, "God’s holy remnant is called to a life of self-sacrifice and self-denial. You cannot become My holy remnant without being willing to sacrifice your desire for anything and everything you own.
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Therefore come out from among them and be separate," says the Lord. "Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty.
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
[2 Cor 6:16-7:1] Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God! [Matt 5:8]
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Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the Power and the Kingdom of our God, and the Authority of His Christ. For the accuser of the brethren, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him...
by the Blood of the Lamb and
by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death...neither death to their self-life nor physical death if called to be a martyr.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the inhabitants of the Earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short." [Rev 12:10-13]
Here is a Link to the full Article: Chapter 53: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:9fc29648-8e2f-4dd2-b2cc-834c198f4858
May the Eternal Christ Jesus the Lord bless you and keep you!
Michael