Behold A Throne

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Allan Halton

The Bible record shows us that the apostles and prophets of old went through some very hard things.  Apostasy, persecution, affliction…

But there was something that held them, that kept them, through it all.  In the midst of it all they saw an eternal Throne.

Isaiah saw a vision of this throne in the year that king Uzziah died.  Uzziah was one of the longest reigning kings, and though he had made mistakes, was greatly loved because of the peace and security the people enjoyed under his shadow.  His reign was a time of great prosperity.  Suddenly this great and benevolent king died.  I’m sure many hearts were anxious.  Would the peace and prosperity die with him?

But what does Isaiah the prophet see?

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple (Isa. 6:1).

Perhaps it is here that Isaiah was first introduced to a throne, and a king and a kingdom, that would never pass away.  For a little later we find him prophesying:

Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth and forever (Isa. 9:7).

Jeremiah saw this same throne a century and a half later when the people of God were about to be deported to Babylon for their idolatry.

But the LORD is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting king… (Jer. 10:10).

This, I am sure, is what kept Jeremiah when Nebuchadnezzar deposed their king and carried the people captive to Babylon.  He knew there was an eternal throne with an everlasting king sitting upon it.

Ezekiel the priest was among those captives.  In Babylon by the river Chebar he saw this same throne.  He saw in vision the cherubim bearing a throne, “and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a Man above upon it” (Ezek. 1:26).

And so even in their captivity there is still One upon the throne.  And He assures Ezekiel that His purposes have not come to an end.  Greater things are ahead.

The apostle John saw this throne.  He had just been exiled to the barren isle of Patmos off the coast of present-day Turkey.  John was there because his testimony had been galling to the authorities of the day.  At the same time, many of the churches in which he has ministered were in a state of complacency; others had been overcome with false teaching.  His whole life’s work, it seems, had been largely in vain.  What a recipe for discouragement.

But John sees a vision while on Patmos.  It centres around a throne, and One who sits upon it.

And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and [one] sat on the throne (Rev. 4:2).

We too must behold this throne.  In fact John calls his vision a prophecy.  It was prophetic of our day.  We too are living in a time of great apostasy, of spiritual famine and drought.  It has become very difficult for the sincere of heart to endure.  Many have fallen away.  But God has provision for those who love him to endure.  We must with the eye of the Spirit behold a Throne.

The apostle Paul saw this throne.  In a letter to his “son in the faith” Timothy we discover that Satan and evil men had already done serious damage to the work of the Spirit that Paul has given his life to.   He warns of those who have “turned aside unto vain jangling” (1 Tim. 1:6), and that “in the latter time some shall depart from the faith” (1 Tim: 4:1).  And so he urges Timothy to stand guard over the doctrine being taught in the church he is involved with (1 Tim. 1:3).  He urges him to “war a good warfare” (1 Tim. 1:18), and to “keep that which is committed to thy trust” (1 Tim. 6:20).

And how can you do this, son Timothy?  There is one thing filling Paul’s mind in what he is saying to Timothy.  We find it at the beginning of his letter, and at the end.

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, [be] honour and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Tim. 1:17).

…Which in His times He shall shew, who is the blessed and only potentate (the only power), the King of kings and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting.  Amen (1 Tim. 6:15,16).

In other words, yes, there will come a time when this Throne and the One upon it will be openly manifested.  But even now, though He may be invisible at this time, those with the eye of the Spirit can behold His throne and live under His rule.  And no other.

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The New Man River

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Allan Halton

A few years ago my wife and I were at a picnic with some of her relatives along a river in southern Alberta called the Oldman River.  While they were visiting after the meal I went for a stroll over to the brink of the river.  I watched the water flowing and the swallows flying over a bluff on the opposite bank.  There was a sense of great age about the place; the sandstone along the bank had long since been worn smooth.  This Oldman River had been flowing for a long, long time, sustaining the creation all around it.

As I looked across the water, suddenly a very strong impression arrested me.  It wasn’t a vision, but I knew it was Spirit birthed.  On the other side of the river I could see in my mind’s eye a New Man, a new-creation man.  The thing that arrested me was…oh the simplicity of the life and walk of this Man.  Just as the earthly life is to the earthly man, just as sin is to sinners, life in the Spirit was simply nature to this man.

And I realized that this is all God is seeking.

Not that this Man has not yet come into being; He is here, and growing to full maturity, but usually is not recognized for who He actually is.  This is the major focus of the New Testament—the transition from one humanity to another, from one man to Another, from the first man Adam to the second Man, Christ, who is the outshining of the glory of God.  So we find this expression “in Christ” over and over again in the New Testament—77 times according to the Blue Letter Bible search function.  And what does it mean to be in Christ?

If any man be in Christ he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new (2 Cor. 5.17).

This new creation Man, as I said, is all God is seeking.  This is what church is all about—or should be: a new-creation Man who walks according to a new Rule of life—the rule of new creation life, which is hardwired in him; this law is written in his heart and mind.  So he walks in righteousness and holiness and life and love as simply and as easily as the old man walked in sin.

His life is sustained by a new River, the River of the Spirit of God.  The Newman River, I guess you could call it.  And not only does this River sustain this New Man, it also flows out from Him.  John saw this River proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the City of God.  It was running down the middle of the street of the City.  In other words, you would have to walk in the water to walk down the street—a beautiful picture of our walk in the Spirit.  In this City you must walk in the Spirit to get anywhere.

And the River flows outward, outward from the Throne of God.  And so the Throne of God and of the Lamb is in that river of the Spirit, bringing life and healing wherever it flows.  It brings an end to the curse God laid on the old creation.

Ezekiel saw this river.  He saw it flowing from the temple of God—this Man.  It began as a trickle.  The man in fine linen with the line of flax measured out a thousand cubits and led Ezekiel through the waters.  This happened four times at various depths—water to the ankles, to the knees, to the loins, till the river had become “waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over” (Ezek. 47.5).  Ezekiel could no longer touch bottom now, could not find a foothold on anything earthly for a sense of security.  He was moving in the total control of the Current of the river wherever that Current was going.

Beloved, God has this for us, a walk in the Spirit that is nature to us, instinct, and we are totally released from the law of sin and death—and from all that is earthly.  Moving out into these waters means we must let go of all our securities.

And our insecurities.  I’ve been thinking much of this—that the reason we hang on to our insecurities so tightly… it’s actually a sort of security to us, an attempt to secure our own little world.

But we must release our securities, let go of them—and our insecurities, and abandon ourselves to the Current of this River.  Being totally ruled by the Spirit of God is the answer to every problem we face either in our own lives or in the whole world.  Our own mental toilings are futile; in fact this itself is one of the problems.

It can be a very difficult thing to let go of thought patterns, to break the bondage of anxious or negative thought; we mull over things, dwell on them, feed on them: problems, troubles, difficulties.  The answer is to simply get into the Current of this River.  The New Man is no longer debtor to anything of the first man, the old man.  We are not debtors to his mode of thinking, to the carnal mind.  There is another mind, the mind of the New Man, the Lord from Heaven who has all things under His feet.

All things under His feet?  Because of this there is a great warfare for this Mind; it is fiercely resisted.  But we must wage this warfare and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.  For “the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8.6).  This is why Paul emphasized again and again that we are to “be transformed by the renewing of our mind,” that we are to “be renewed in the Spirit of our mind,” that we are to “put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him” (Eph. 4.23, Col. 3.10).

More and more we are going to see this new-creation Man in the earth, this Man I saw along the Oldman River that day.  We are going to see Him walking in the earth, walking in the Spirit… walking in this River that flows from the Throne of God… and which has that Throne in its waters.  That River, the New Man River, is Lord; it flows out from the Throne of God and of the Lamb, and therefore the Throne is in its flowing waters.

All those problems and difficulties that are growing more intense by the day… the New Man is the answer, the new creation Man with the mind of Christ.  And so we have great hope in the midst of the grievous things that are taking place in our world.  I believe we are entering when days when men will despair of finding answers to the things that are coming upon the earth.  All the wisdom of the natural man is going to utterly fail, as the Bible prophesies (Jer. 49.7, Jer. 8.9, 1 Cor. 1.19,20).  The wisdom of the mind of Christ—the greater than Solomon—is the only wisdom that will avail.

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The Pathway Of The Wind

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Allan Halton

Solomon said, “As thou knowest not the pathway of the wind, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all” (Eccles. 11.5).

It has taken me several years to understand this verse, which it seems Jesus had in mind in a reply to a certain Pharisee, Nicodemus by name, who had come to Him by night to acknowledge what his colleagues refused to acknowledge.

Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him (Jn. 3.2).

I believe that in these words of Nicodemus we are touching more of a plea than a statement.  I believe they are the words of a man who wanted God, but in spite of all his credentials and the religious things he was involved in, felt painfully distanced from Him.  Jesus knew his heart, and this is the response He gave him.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Well, yes, Nicodemus was painfully aware there was something he wasn’t seeing.  But now this on top of it all?  How could a man be born again when he was old?  Could he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?

Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.   That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

Just quickly, notice the use of thee and ye here.  “Marvel not that I said unto thee (singular), ye (plural) must be born again.  You must all be born again, Jesus was saying.  Even though this one individual He was speaking to was a learned Pharisee and a teacher of Israel, he was no different from all men born of Adam’s race.  Just like everyone else, he needed to be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God.

And then Jesus continues—and I wonder if I don’t see Him and Nicodemus somewhere out on a rooftop in the cool of the evening, and they can hear the wind blowing in the trees nearby—and I think also that we hear the echo of Solomon’s words in what He says:

The wind bloweth where it listeth (desireth), and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Remember that in both Hebrew and Greek the word for wind and spirit is the same word.  Solomon the wise man said it wasn’t possible to know the pathway of the wind, or how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child.  But a wiser than Solomon was now saying to Nicodemus that there is in fact one way to come to know the pathway the Wind walks on.  That is to become like this child in the womb, and be born of the Wind.

There is pathway, and a life, a realm, a wisdom, that cannot be known by the natural man.  But those born of the Spirit can indeed know and walk in this realm and this Pathway.

As thou knowest not the pathway of the wind, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

As I said, it has taken me several years to understand this verse.  It’s the part about the works of God that has evaded me.  But just like the pathway of the wind, and the mysterious inner workings of life in the womb, even so the realm of the works of God simply cannot be known by man.

Paul said the same thing:

But the natural man (the soulical man) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2.14).

It takes the new creation man, a spiritual man, to know these things, these things of God, and to walk in them.  These are the works that Paul says God has prepared beforehand for the new creation man to know, and walk in.

For by grace ye are saved through faith, and that (salvation) not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained (before prepared) that we should walk in them (Eph. 2.8-10).

Works—the Bible distinguishes between dead works, and good works.  These good works Paul speaks of are simply the things we are about in our daily lives, the things we do, the spontaneous outflow of our walk with God, our love relationship with God.  They are living works—the works of a new creation Man, works God has prepared beforehand for us that we should walk in them.  We are just walking in sync with God Himself as a great eternal purpose unfolds.  Our works are works of rest, you might say.

The thing is… the beautiful, the liberating, thing is… this new creation man is under no other obligation.  He or she need not get under any other yoke whether in thought or deed.

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The Hidden Pathway

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Allan Halton

We’ve been talking of a certain Way which the redeemed of the Lord can walk in through the wilderness of this world.  Isaiah tells us they’re safe as they walk therein, for it’s a path that lions and other ravenous beasts cannot walk in.  They know nothing of this pathway.

No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there… (Isa. 35.9).

Job talked of this same Pathway.

There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen:
The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it (that is, along it)” (Job 28.7,8).

Job has been talking of the great lengths men will go to as they explore the natural creation (I urge you to read that whole chapter); they stop at nothing to mine out its hidden riches.  In our day we see this same unquenchable quest in the field of technology. From day to day you wonder what will be next, where it will stop; man has such a voracious appetite for knowledge, he continues to search out things to the utter limit.

But, as Job says, with all this there is a certain Something that man simply cannot find.

But where shall wisdom be found?  And where is the place of understanding?  Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.

And so it’s wisdom that Job is seeking to disclose to us—the way of wisdom, the place of understanding.

But what does he mean by the land of the living?  He is not referring to the land of those alive in Christ, but the “land” confined to the life and earthly boundaries of the natural man.  The things of God are foolishness to this man, “neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2.14).

Job continues to ask this question; I am sure he does so to stir us to begin probing and asking the same question.

Whence then cometh wisdom?  And where is the place of understanding?
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air (Job 28.20,21).

There is a Way that the “fowls” of the heaven, and the vultures—those principalities and powers in the heavenlies—have not seen.  Apparently the vulture has such a keen eye that it can see its carrion from so high in the air that it would look like no more than a speck to you and me.  But even with that piercing eye it cannot see this Pathway.  This Pathway is “kept close” from the fowls of the air.  Maybe we think that the Devil and his princes in the heavenly realm have great insight, and can see a lot.  But they know nothing of this pathway.

For if they had known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2.8).

It’s the Way of Wisdom—the wisdom of the Cross—that Jesus walked in to the ultimate dismay of the Princes of this world.  This must be why Job says,

Destruction and death say, we have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

For, Christ brought destruction and death to naught by walking in the Way of this wisdom.  He destroyed them with their own devices.

There are also some very frightening beasts spoken of in Scripture, beasts with many heads and horns, beasts like bears and leopards and lions, beasts that look like lambs but speak like dragons.  The “beasts” also know nothing of this pathway.  They cannot go up thereon, cannot touch anyone who is walking in this Pathway.

And so Job brings us to his conclusion. There is One who knows this Pathway, and the Place it leads to.

God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof.
For He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven;
To make the weight for the winds; and He weigheth the waters by measure.
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:
Then did He see it, and declare it; He prepared it, and searched it out.
And unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

Those words echo often in my ears.  Behold… Behold…. the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding…

Do I see?  Do I yet understand? Do I yet behold this wondrous Way, this hidden Way, this prepared Way God has for me?  Am I searching it out with Him—this Way of Wisdom? Do I know the Place thereof?

It’s all so wondrous, so awesome, and who am I?  I don’t think I’m all that wise.  How am I to discover this Way?  How am I to walk in it?  Paul the apostle calls it “the hidden wisdom” (1 Cor. 2.7), and it’s the same Pathway Job says is hidden from the fowls of the air.  Those are very intelligent beings.  If it’s hidden from them, who am I?  But Jesus said these things were hidden “from the wise and prudent.” And “revealed unto babes” (Mt. 11.25).  Here then is our answer.  It’s not found in seeking to be wise in our own eyes, but in seeking to get into a certain Yoke and learn from Him who is meek and lowly of heart.

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The Way—My Destination

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Allan Halton

Isaiah prophesied that “in the wilderness shall waters break forth, and streams in the desert.”  And he said, “a highway shall be there, and a way…” (Isa. 35.8).  He is talking of something God has created—a river, a way—through the terrible wilderness of life.

This is a theme much on Isaiah’s heart, for he brings it up again in Chapter 43.  Notice again the intermingling of these two—the water, and the way.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth: shall ye not know it?  I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert (Isa. 43.19).

We’ll speak more of this river road in a coming blog entry, but first we want to ask: just what is a highway?  In our day and age we think immediately of the asphalt freeway out there.  When you want to go somewhere you don’t have to make your own way; you just get on the highway and step on the gas, and you are soon at your destination.  And this is the idea behind the Bible word.  It means simply a raised way, a HIGHway, a prepared way.  Back in those days they built their roads by going along and casting rocks and other obstructions out of the way.  They would level the terrain to some extent by bringing down high places and raising up low places.  Thus, they would “cast up” the highway, and there are several Bible passages that use this imagery—one we’re very familiar with.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert an highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain;
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed… (Isa. 40.3-5).

This was the way, the highway, that God prepared for the coming of the glory of the Lord—His Son.  He had a man go before Him to prepare His way.

And it’s a highway—the same way of the Lord—that we too are to walk in.  When Isaiah prophecies of the return of God’s people from their Babylonian captivity, he brings up this same highway through the wilderness.

Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people (Isa. 57.14).

Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people (Isa. 62.10).

This is an utterly awesome prophecy.  There comes a time when God brings His people out through the gates of Babylon where they have been captives, His intent being to return them to Zion, His own dwelling place, where He will dwell in their midst.  I realize we’ve seen this in a measure all through the new covenant dispensation.  But the promise of God is that there will yet be a great company returning on this highway.

Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together; a great company shall return thither.
They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble… (Jer. 31.8,9).

Why won’t they stumble?  It’s because God sees to it that the stumblingstones that have been such a hindrance to His people are removed.  Thus they walk in a prepared Way, a way raised up, a way not of our own making, a Way of rest—right through that great and terrible wilderness of ours.  I am not trying to be unfeeling, but I don’t care how difficult, how grievous, how tormenting, how impassable, that terrible wilderness of yours and mine is; the God who loves us with an everlasting love has created a Highway there, and you and I the redeemed of the Lord shall walk therein, and return to Zion, the heavenly City unto which our Lord Jesus Christ has brought us in the New Covenant (Heb. 12.22).

One more thing.  This way of rest… it sounds so easy.  You mean this is something for the idle, the spiritually lazy?  Not when you consider this verse:

The way of the slothful is an hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain (Pr. 15.19).

Notice the contrast.  The slothful are travelling a way that’s so difficult it’s like trying to get through a hedge of thorns.  The righteous are walking in an easy way.  The Hebrew says something like, “the way of the upright is raised up as a causeway, or highway.”  It’s the same word used in the other verses about casting up the highway.  This is what the way of the upright is like; it’s a prepared way, a way raised up.  The upright don’t have to contend with brambles and thorns as they try to make their own way; they just have to follow the prepared way.

I like this very much.  I am not being slothful when I am seeking to walk in rest.  On the contrary, it’s slothful to neglect this beautiful highway.  I understand that.  This highway must be maintained.  It takes earnest spiritual diligence, earnest prayer, and continually maintaining a close communion with the Lord Jesus, to walk in this prepared Way, the Way of the Spirit.  It’s far from slothful; it’s when we neglect it that we are being slothful.

And if we neglect it we will continue to walk through thorns.  I know by personal experience what it’s like to try to fight my way through the wilderness thorns toiling and sweating and struggling, piercing myself through with anxious thoughts… and never getting anywhere.  I also know by experience that when I cry unto the Lord in my troubles He shows me His Way.  And I repent of my foolishness.  Why do I torment myself with thoughts that pierce like thorns, when there is a Way, oh, so beautiful a Way, through my wilderness?  The God who loves me has prepared a Way for me, a Way of rest.  Yes, the frightening thorns of circumstance may still be there, but I am walking through them on a raised Way—who at one and the same time is my destination—Jesus Christ Himself.

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A Highway Shall Be There

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Allan Halton

I mentioned a while ago that God has given me some openings concerning the realm of the Spirit that is before us.  Perhaps these openings are not exactly new, but when the Spirit of the Lord breathes life into the Scriptures there is an opening of the understanding that is very precious; there is a sense of newness of life about what we are reading.  It is fresh, we have a distinct impression that this is what God is saying, this is what He is doing, this is what is before us.

By that (what is before us) I don’t mean that we haven’t already experienced this in a measure.  But I know that there is much much more before us.

And so I mentioned that this realm of the Spirit is both a Place, and a Way.  There is a Pathway, and a Place… a Life, a walk in the Spirit, that oh… if I could only dance… I mean, dance the way the poet danced when he said, “Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings…”  Oh how duped we have been, we Christians, of our heritage in Christ, the realm of the Spirit, of the heavenlies.   Oh, how we have been blinded, we settle for earthly things when we have before us a vast heritage in the Spirit, the heritage of the New Creation man, the Israel of God, who walks not according to the rules and regulations of law, but according to a New Rule—the rule of new creation Life.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

One of the wonderful promises of the New Covenant is that God will make a way where there is no way—a way through the wilderness, a way where there has been nothing but desert and wilderness.  Are you there?  Don’t be discouraged, so am I.  But let us lift up the hands that hang down, and strengthen our feeble knees: there is a Way here!

Now, in the typology of Scripture, the wilderness is the wasteland of this world caused by the sin of Adam.  Spiritually speaking, this whole world is a desert, an unfriendly and uninhabitable wilderness.  Thorns and thistles grow everywhere; venomous creatures abound; water is scarce, and when we get closer to things that excited us and lifted our hopes when we saw them in the distance, we discover them to be just another deceiving mirage.

But this is what has become of the old creation under the curse.  I am aware these days, as are many others, that the wilderness of this world has intensified, has become even more difficult, not just in the big wide world out there but in our own circumstances.  Sin abounds, and so troubles are greater, problems are more severe.  How wonderful to discover, then, that God promises a Way through this wilderness!  Yes, right there in the desert, right there in the wilderness, right in the midst of those terrible and difficult circumstances of ours—those impossible circumstances—there is a Way.

We find this theme over and over in our Bible, especially in Isaiah, where in Chapter 35 he introduces us to a certain Highway that leads to Zion.  Where is this highway found?

And an highway shall be there…

That, is, there in the wilderness.  Isaiah has been talking of this terrible wilderness place, “the wilderness and the solitary place,” and he prophesies that there “the lame man shall leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.”

Water!  And not just a brackish puddle of it!

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons (or, jackals) where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

Water!  Water where there had been no water—living water, the Water Jesus spoke of when He promised the River of the Spirit.  And suddenly the desert is rejoicing, and the wilderness is blossoming as a rose.

And what else is here?

And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

Notice the intermingling of these two things in this chapter—the Water, and the Way.  For it is the Way of the Spirit that Isaiah is prophesying of.  He calls it the Way of Holiness, which the unclean cannot walk in.  But reading between the lines, I am sure we detect here that those who walk in this Way discover in it a power that cleanses them and keeps them clean.

Again, where is this highway?  Right there in the wilderness!  And the thought seems to be that even the most foolish of us can walk in this pathway without erring.  Once we have confessed what fools we have been and how terribly we have erred in going our own way and doing our own thing in trying to resolve our difficulties and make a life for ourselves, we discover God has a Way that accomplishes the impossible… if we will just give ourselves to walking in this Way.

I am talking to us Christians.  If we are born again, born of the Spirit, how foolish of us to try to deal with our difficult circumstances with our own resources and wisdom.  How foolish of us to try to resolve our problems with carnal means, to begin in the Spirit and hope to conclude things in the flesh.  God says the answer, the only answer, lies in walking in this Way, the Way of the Spirit.  If we are born of the Spirit we must take the plunge, we must give ourselves to walking in the Spirit in all we say and do.  What have we got to lose?  Our own ways haven’t worked, have they?

And the promise is that:

No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.

I find this a fascinating verse.  There is a Pathway that… as you and I walk in this Pathway, no lion can touch us.  Lions simply cannot go up on this Pathway, they know nothing about it.  Our adversary the Devil who walketh about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour… as long as we abide in this Pathway he cannot touch us.  He doesn’t even know where we are.

What is this Highway, this Way?  It’s the Way of the Spirit, and it’s right there in the midst of our terrible wilderness, the only way through our difficult circumstances.  It’s there, beloved, God promises that it is there.  And He promises that “the redeemed shall walk there:

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

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I’m Not Tired Yet

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Allan Halton

I mentioned a while ago that I hoped to share with my readers some things that were opened to me about the realm of the Spirit during a time of fasting.  It’s still on my heart to do that, but my leading is to first emphasize what the Spirit of the Lord is emphasizing—that at this particular juncture in the purposes of God when many are finding it very hard to go on, and prayer is difficult, and there is so little of His Presence with us, our Lord is saying strongly, “Keep seeking Me earnestly!  Don’t quit!  Don’t give up!”

We’ve had several confirmations the last while that this is what He is urging upon us.  I sensed that again earlier today—that our Lord is bursting with hope for each one of us in the same way we would be cheering and shouting encouragement to our favourite runner in a marathon race.  I don’t know how He manages to make each and every one of us His favourite runner, but He does, and He wants to see us finish and win the prize.

The shape this is taking in my own thinking is along this line:  although we have a measure of this now, God is about to bring His people into a realm of the Spirit and a walk in the Spirit more wondrous than anything we have ever known.  But necessary to this is the time we are now in—a very grievous time of spiritual drought and famine in which many at times can’t find enough of the water of the Spirit so much as to wet their tongue.  So there is a lot of weariness and discouragement.

Part of the reason for this dark and desolate time, I believe, is that it emboldens the evil spirits to come out and make their play, like the psalmist said when the sun goes down and it is night, “wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth” (Ps. 104.20).

There are certainly a lot of beasts creeping around these days seeking their prey.  And not just out there in the “world.”  They are finding their prey even in many churches.  In fact this is the hour when the man of iniquity is being revealed in the temple of God “shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thes. 2.4).  He’s beginning to reveal himself, manifesting signs and lying wonders, and many are being deceived by it all.

And so it’s a very difficult time for the true of heart, and our Lord wants to reassure us.  Don’t give up!  Don’t quit!  Keep seeking me!  I am with you more than you can know, and what I am about to do with your help will deal with all this like a snail in the sun.

It’s a wonderful prospect.  BUT.  We are being very foolish if we think we can just wait for this and meanwhile fill our lives with earthly things.  If there was a time when a Christian could keep his or her walk with the Lord on the back burner and just enjoy the earthly life, that time is gone now.  We have entered a time when, as my friend Terry said recently, “if we are not in the Spirit we are going to be dead meat.”   To trust the arm of the flesh to get you through something is to court total disaster.  We are entering a time—have already entered it—when our own wisdom and earthly zeal will no longer get us through things.  Our own strength will fail us.

And it’s for this very reason, I think, that God has permitted the great spiritual drought we are in.  That’s how I’m beginning to see things.  He has dried us up, has caused our own strength and zeal to shrivel, because He knows it just won’t cut it in the day that’s coming.  So He dries us up to prepare us for what He has in mind to bring us into– a totally spiritual provision, a totally supernatural strength and sustenance, with no admixture of the earthly whatsoever!

Perhaps that’s a fearful thought.  Personally I find it exciting.  And why should it be less than exciting to the new-creation man?

So, with this in mind, the other day I was looking for a song on YouTube.  (I go to YouTube very very cautiously, by the way; there are beasts there ready to eat you if you let your guard down even for a second.)  I was looking for that old song, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”  That’s what I have been wanting to do more fully—trust Him with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding.  Anyway, somehow I came across a song called, “I’m Not Tired Yet” by the Mississippi Mass Choir.  Please forgive me: I was intrigued by the title, so I listened to it.  :)   My old ear couldn’t make out the words, but “I’m not tired yet” was the continual refrain.  I thought, they’re singing what God is saying: “I’m not tired yet.”  Amen, I said to myself, God never gets tired.  He’s not discouraged.  He’s going to do what He said He would do.

I wanted to get the words to the song so I searched for the lyrics.  When I found them I was a little disappointed.  They were along the lines of… well, here they are, read them for yourself:

Been working for Jesus a long time.
(I’m not tired yet.)
Been running for Jesus a long time.
(I’m not tired yet.)
Been working for Jesus a long time.
(I’m not tired yet.)
Been singing for Jesus a long time.
(I’m not tired yet.)
Been running by day and praying by night.
(I’m not tired yet.)
I’ve gotta get going it’s a mighty hard fight.
(I’m not tired yet.)
No… I’m not tired yet.
No… I’m not tired yet…

There’s more, but see what I mean?  I wondered if it was just human zeal boasting about a conflict they’ve never engaged.  I know by experience that a painful revelation awaits those who zealously lean on the arm of the flesh in the trials of life.  But then I thought… I’m probably not being very generous here.  These people are no doubt singing because they have been through a lot and actually have discovered the secret of never growing tired.  And that old familiar passage in Isaiah came to me.

Hast thou not known?  Hast thou not heard?  That the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?  There is no searching of His understanding.

So, yes, it’s true—and we need to remember this—God never gets tired.  It’s a very difficult hour and it’s going to get even more difficult.  But God is not tired yet.  God is not tired yet.  He is going to finish what He started.

“Well and good,” you say, “He is God.  What about me?  I’m starting to get so tired.”  Let me say that I too know what it’s like to grow very weary in the trials of life.  At times I have been filled with such inner emotional pain that I have said, “Lord, please just take me home, I can’t do this anymore.”  Even the apostle Paul spoke of being “in weariness, and painfulness.”  Christians are not made of plastic, and the Lord knows it.  He Himself knows our frame.  He remembers that we are dust.  But when Isaiah reminds us that God never grows weary and never faints, he is leading up to something.  This God who never gets tired, what does He do?

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.

He gives power to whom?  To the faint.  To them that have no might.  Can you relate?  These are the ones whose strength He increases in a day when the strong and the zealous are falling and fainting on every hand.

Now the verse we all love:

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles: they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.

We love that old song, don’t we.  “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…”  In other words, no matter what they are going through, those who are waiting upon the LORD will be able to say, “I’m not tired yet.”  Why?  Because they have tapped into a hidden strength, the resources of Almighty God Himself.  Human zeal and strength—the arm of the flesh—will never carry the day.  But those who wait upon the Lord will, because they have exchanged their strength, as the Hebrew word renew means.  They are no longer walking in an earthly realm.  They are walking in a spiritual dimension, and are being sustained with an entirely spiritual strength—God’s own strength.

And as I said, more and more we are entering the day when this is not optional.  We are up against such complex problems, such grievous things, such difficult things, and forces in a heavenly dimension… forces that are far too great for us, far greater than any human resource can deal with.  We must be in the Spirit, meeting all things with spiritual provision. This is what the day at hand is calling for and requires.

But if it is required, this can only mean that God has it for us, beloved!  He has the provision for us to run this race and not get tired, to walk and not faint.  And it begins by waiting upon Him, looking expectantly to Him… and mounting up into the realm where the eagle flies—the realm of the Spirit, the realm where we discover the wind under our wings, and find those thermals in the Spirit that draw us upward, upward, upward… and we have loosed the surly bonds of earth.

Let’s not be afraid of this.  Maybe it’s frightening, the prospect of being so totally in the Spirit that we have none of the familiar earthly moorings to hold on to any more.  But oh… what an adventure is before us!

…As it turns out this blog entry wasn’t a detour after all.  In fact it’s already leading into what I have been wanting to share about the realm of the Spirit.

 

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