FALSE PEACE

by David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011]

America today is under the seductive power of a satanic lie. Yet, before I say anything more, please know that what I speak here has nothing to do with politics but everything to do with spiritual truth. The fact is, our nation’s leaders have cast aside God’s Word completely, showing no respect for biblicaltruth. And now the Lord has allowed a deception to fall upon us.

The demonic lie blanketing America today is a false peace. It is the idea that we can do whatever we please with no fear of consequences. We have alreadycrossed a line in this deception and now judgment is inevitable.

Paul lays out this divine judgment in Romans 1. He speaks of those who once held to biblical truth but later tried to retain the truth in unrighteousness. In short, they wanted God’s Word and their lust at the same time. So the Lord turned them over to reprobate minds. They wanted to believe a lie and He sent a strong delusion upon them.

This is the very state of our nation right now. One of our recent Presidents told the entire country, “I did not commit this sin,” but later was exposed for committing the very act he named. Today, eighty percent of Americans have turned a blind eye to both his sin and his lie, saying none of it matters. As prophesied, truth is fallen in the streets.

Americans are gambling on the stock market like drunken sailors—and prospering. In addition, a survey says sixty-five percent of college students cheat and think there is nothing wrong with it. People of all ages are treating God’s laws casually, thinking, “What I’m doing must be okay, because I’m getting away with it.”

We constantly hear lies, cover-ups and manipulations from our nation’s capital. But the strong delusion our nation is under is not simply about the sordid mess in Washington, D.C. No, Satan’s deceiving power goes far beyond those treacheries and depravity. His big lie is an outpouring from hell against God’s people.

Paul warns, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables [lies]” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

Who are these deceived masses Paul is talking about? They are deceived Christians! He wrote this letter to the Thessalonian church -addressing born-again believers! These people had sat under biblical teaching and had known God’s truth, yet they held on to their lusts and sought out heresies that would comfort them in their sins.
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R.T. KENDALL'S LETTER TO JOHN MACARTHUR

Dear Dr. MacArthur,

I have admired you as an able writer and speaker for years. I have not only read your book Strange Fire but listened to your talks as well as the panel discussions at your recent conference. I am as Reformed theologically as you are and can say we are on the same page when it comes to many issues you address.

I was not prepared, however, for some of the things you said. I had to reread some parts to be sure you said what I thought you said.

First, if your book purports the danger of offending the Holy Spirit with counterfeit worship, I fear you are in greater danger of offending the Holy Spirit by attributing His work to Satan. Does this not worry you? You are risking an awful lot by counting on cessationism to be totally true. You have tried to turn the hypothetical teaching of cessationism into dogma.

Second, surprisingly, you imply that my predecessor Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones would agree with you. A major portion of my own book Holy Fire is devoted to what he believed regarding the gifts, the baptism and the immediate witness of the Holy Spirit. He was no cessationist; he loathed cessationism. Nearly every Pentecostal and charismatic in Britain knew he was their friend. Not only that, but he turned more of them into Reformed thinkers than anybody in the 20th century. He would be horrified that you dismiss as demonic all contemporary testimonies of experiencing the direct work of the Spirit. According to you, my own baptism with the Spirit was demonic even though it led me to Reformed theology without reading a single word of John Calvin.

Third, to be consistent, if you have got it right, we should counsel new Christians to disregard many Scriptures, such as those that encourage us to believe Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8), that He still shows us when we are on the wrong track (Phil. 3:15), that the Holy Spirit cannot speak today as He did to Philip (Acts 8:29) or that we should covet earnestly the best gifts (1 Cor. 12:31).

I hope you will consider reading my book. It will do you no harm and, just maybe, you might hear God speak to you in a way you never thought possible. I only pray with all my heart that you have not gone too far already. In the second panel discussion at your conference you actually said, “I know I am wrong somewhere.” If so, who would you listen to? Would you not want to know as soon as possible if you have got it wrong on those matters you are so dogmatic about?

If I knew for sure it would be honoring to God, for the sake of sincere Christians who are fence-straddling on cessationism, I would ask that you and I have a civil debate (presidential style) on the issue of cessationism. Could we pray about this?

R.T. Kendall

R.T. Kendall was the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London from 1977 to 2002. He now lives in Nashville, Tenn. He is a well-known speaker and the author of many books.

An Open Letter to John MacArthur From A.W. Tozer: He Being Dead Yet Speaketh

A.W. TOZER

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A.W. Tozer

That every Christian can be and should be filled with the Holy Spirit would hardly seem to be a matter for debate among Christians. ... I want here boldly to assert that it is my happy belief that every Christian can have a copious outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a measure far beyond that received at conversion, and I might also say, far beyond that enjoyed by the rank and file of orthodox believers today.

It is important that we get this straight, for until doubts are removed, faith is impossible. God will not surprise a doubting heart with an effusion of the Holy Spirit, nor will He fill anyone who has doctrinal questions about the possibility of being filled.

In light of this, it will be seen how empty and meaningless is the average church service today. All the means are in evidence; the one ominous weakness is the absence of the Spirit’s power. ... The power from on high is neither known nor desired by pastor or people. This is nothing less than tragic, and all the more so because it falls within the field of religion, where the eternal destinies of men are involved.

Fundamentalism has stood aloof from the liberal in self-conscious superiority and has on its own part fallen into error, the error of textualism, which is simply orthodoxy without the Holy Ghost. Everywhere among conservatives we find persons who are Bible-taught but not Spirit-taught. They conceive truth to be something which they can grasp with the mind.

If a man holds to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, he is thought to possess divine truth. But it does not follow. There is no truth apart from the Spirit. The most brilliant intellect may be imbecilic when confronted with the mysteries of God. For a man to understand revealed truth requires an act of God equal to the original act which inspired the text. ... "Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things which are freely given us of God.”

For the textualism of our times is based upon the same premise as the old line rationalism, that is, the belief that the human mind is the supreme authority in the judgment of truth. Or otherwise stated, it is confidence in the ability of the human mind to do that which the Bible declares it was never created to do and consequently is wholly incapable of doing.Philosophical rationalism is honest enough to reject the Bible flatly. Theological rationalism rejects it while pretending to accept it and in so doing puts out its own eyes.

Few there are who without restraint will open their whole heart to the blessed Comforter. He has been and is so widely misunderstood that the very mention of His name in some circles is enough to frighten many people into resistance.

It is no use to deny that Christ was crucified by persons who would today be called fundamentalists. This should prove to be disquieting if not downright distressing to us who pride ourselves on our orthodoxy. An unblessed soul filled with the letter of truth may actually be worse off than a pagan kneeling before a fetish. We are saved only when our intellects are indwelt by the loving fire that came at Pentecost. For the Holy Spirit is not a luxury, not something added now and again to produce a deluxe type of Christian once in a generation. No. He is for every child of God a vital necessity, and that He fill and indwell His people is more than a languid hope. It is rather an inescapable imperative.

Now the Bible teaches that there is something in God which is like emotion. ... God has said certain things about Himself, and these furnish all the grounds we require. “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” (Zeph. 3:17). This is but one verse among thousands which serve to form our rational picture of what God is like, and tell us plainly that God feels something like our love, like our joy, and what He feels makes Him act very much as we would in a similar situation; He rejoices over His loved ones with joy and singing.

Here is emotion on as high a plain as it can ever be seen, emotion flowing out of the heart of God Himself. Feeling, then, is not the degenerate son of unbelief that is often painted by some of our Bible teachers. Our ability to feel is one of the marks of our divine origin. We need not be ashamed of either tears or laughter. The Christian stoic who has crushed his feelings is only two-thirds of a man; an important third part has been repudiated. Holy feeling had an important place in the life of our Lord. “For the joy that was set before Him” He endured the cross and despised its shame. He pictured Himself crying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.”

The work of the Holy Spirit is, among other things, to rescue the redeemed man’s emotions, to restring his harp and open again the wells of sacred joy which have been stopped up by sin.

Aiden Wilson Tozer (April 21, 1897–May 12, 1963) was an American Christian pastor, preacher, author, magazine editor and spiritual mentor. This article is an excerpt from The Divine Conques

EVEN THE APOSTLE PAUL HAD BAD DAYS

David Wilkerson Today
A Ministry of World Challenge

by David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011]

Paul was hit with a bad day while traveling in Macedonia. "When we were come
into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side;
without were fightings, within were fears" (2 Corinthians 7:5). This godly man
confessed that his inner man was plagued not just by one fear, but by many
fears!

Indeed, Paul was no superhuman. He was subject to the same human emotions we
all face. At one point, all the believers in Asia turned against him, people
he'd given his lifeblood for. He wrote, "The more abundantly I love you, the
less I be loved" (2 Corinthians 12:15).

Yes, Paul had awful days. But he never gave in to his feelings and the
temptations that accompanied them. He testified in his worst time: "I am filled
with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation" (2 Corinthians 7:4).
Then he added: "God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us"
(verse 6).

Are you going through a bad day, a bad week, a long season of despondency? Are
you cast down, discouraged, with thoughts of quitting? If so, then how do you
think God reacts to your trial? Does He rebuke you or chasten you? No, never!
Paul states, "The Lord is never closer to you, never more ready to help you,
than when you're down and hurting."

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). The Greek
word for comforteth here means "to comfort or encourage, to call to one’s
side." What an amazing truth! When we experience bad days, our heavenly Father
takes advantage of them to draw us closer to Himself.
(For more information on the world-wide ministry of World Challenge please visit their website at www.WorldChallenge.org)

WHEN GOD SAYS "TRUST ME," HE MEANS IT!

WHEN GOD SAYS “TRUST ME,” HE MEANS IT!
by David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 - April 27, 2011]

Think for a moment about all the ways God has met the needs of His people
throughout history.

When Israel was in the wilderness, they had no supermarkets or grocery stores.
There was not even a blade of grass in sight. But God rained down manna from
heaven so the people would have bread, and He caused birds to fall by the
bushel from the sky so they would have meat. He caused water to gush from a
rock. And He supernaturally kept their shoes and clothing intact, so that they
never wore out in forty years of use.

In the Old Testament, we read that a hungry prophet was fed by a raven. A
barrel of meal and a bottle of oil supernaturally replenished themselves. And
an entire enemy army fled upon hearing a strange noise—leaving behind enough
supplies to feed an entire city of starving Israelites.

In the New Testament, we read that water was turned into wine. Money was found
in a fish's mouth to pay taxes. And five thousand people were fed with only
five loaves of bread and two fish.

All these miracles of supply cry out to us, "God is faithful. He can be
trusted!" And in Leviticus 25, we read of another supernatural phenomenon—an
especially ripe harvest in the year before the sabbath for the land.

Next, God commanded that the people observe seven consecutive cycles of
sabbaths for the land: "Thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee,
seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be
unto thee forty and nine years" (verse 8). In other words: "You are to
celebrate this sabbath every seventh year, for a period of forty-nine
years—seven sabbaths times seven."

In biblical terms, the forty-nine-year period would comprise a whole
generation. The implication here is that such a period would provide enough
time for an entire generation to learn to trust the Lord. Over that time,
parents and grandparents would build up a history of faith, so they could tell
their children: "Yes, it's true! God supplied everything we needed the first
six years, but when the seventh year came, many of us were afraid. Yet God's
provision saw us through to the eighth year, and right up to the ninth.
Sometimes it was frightening, but there was always enough. No one starved, and
no one had to beg. Every need was supplied. God tested our faith—and He
remained faithful!"

The point is, when God says, "Trust me," He means it!




Read this devotion online: http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/20577?src=devo-email