Brother Gary Wednesday 4/10/13

Brother Gary Wednesday 4/10/13

Instructions to the church that are at ease, sleepy, and without a vision:

Isa 32:9  Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.

Isa 32:10  Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.

Isa 32:11  Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.

These are common battles.  This is how the morning time church got into the mess that they got in, and how the movement got in the mess that they got in.  It starts with one congregation.  Society, the world, and the times that we live in are our enemies to us staying on fire for God. 

We have seen people be on fire for God and congregations being on fire for God that are now no longer standing.  We can remember revival meetings in the Anderson church when there were convictions so strong that men and women shook under conviction.  We can remember individuals that were full of the Holy Ghost and fire.  At one time the church in Eureka was standing a true church of God. 

Unfortunately but true the common denominator that happens to individuals that fail to keep God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit in their rightful place in their life is that they lose their vision. 

The enemy is out warring against individuals.  The precious saints in little areas have all the devils turned loose to war against them.  We want to be standing in that gap and praying to help first ourselves and then the local congregation and anyone that is doing their best to stay on fire for God.

Isa 32:12  They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

What this scripture is telling us is that after people have lost a vision and a burden for souls they become so careless that they are not packing around a bottle like the lady that has the bum lambs does.  All their energies go toward play. 

We as the saints can have a good time.  We never want to mix the thought of our worship is a time of play, light and foolish.  Many have a lot of play and little worship.

They remember when God used to move.  I remember my father preaching at Libby.  After He got done preaching the altar filled.  Once the Spirit of God came back and as the valley of dry bones they felt the Spirit moving in that place they were moved to life. 

They got up from the altar and said, “This is just like in the olden days.”  Needless to say they never invited my dad back again.  We never want to be in the place where we are just remembering how God used to move and yet we have no vision. 

I read the hymn story of “Since Jesus Came into My heart.”  It was written by a man after he had come out of great adversity.  When we go through a difficulty we want to go through it with the Spirit of God.

People have lost a vision of the church of God and have no burden for souls.  They are just playing and taking on the thought, “We hope that they accept Jesus and we hope that they are saved.”   Soon they take on the thought, “Probably everybody is saved.”  That is not the way that it is.

We must have a garden pretty close to home that we are working in.  We have to have a burden.  Where ever you are working you want to be asking God to help you work for souls. 

Isa 32:13  Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:

When we lose the vision then there is no seed sewn.  That is sad because we have what the world needs.  We need to be seeking God and ask Him to help us know what seed to sew.  We need to work with young families but we also need to work with the elderly.  God help us to be prepared so that we have some seed to sew. 

If you are going to have a garden you need to have some seed.  If we till up the soil we cannot just hope that the robins bring seed from the neighbor’s garden.  Don’t be planting seed that you don’t know if you’ve had five years or ten, we want to have something fresh.

Pro 24:30  I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;

Pro 24:31  And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.

Pro 24:32  Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction.

Pro 24:33  Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

Pro 24:34  So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.

We don’t even need to exhort do we?  Don’t let the thorns get in your life or let anything choke out the Word, the Spirit, or the moving of God in our lives.

Isa 32:14  Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;

There is no palace more beautiful than the beautiful garden of prayer.  There is nothing more beautiful than a mother expecting a baby, especially among godly, virtuous, and moral people.  We’ve all seen the wife carrying the baby and getting ready to go the house of birth.  There is nothing more beautiful than the church having the bottles under their arms, and saying, maybe there will be twins or triplets or quads. 

The palaces, forts, and towers became dens for the wild and undisciplined without God and without respect.  It is terrible the lack of respect that is in the world today.  There is no respect to ladies, no respect to children, or to the aged.  It is sad that it is not only out in the world but it is sad when people just play around with the Word of God and have wild spirits and wild ideas and just throw out wild seed.

Isa 32:15  Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.

Isa 32:16  Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.

God told the prophet that one of these days things would change.  “That day that the spirit be poured out from on High.”  Jesus said, “It is expedient that I go away that the comforter may come.”  The Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost. 

It is not some wild spirit or some worked up thing.  It comes down because people tarry before God and are humble.  It should not be that there is any hesitation of saying, “we really need a baptism of the Holy Spirit of God.” 

We don’t want to say, “I think I need a little.”  We need all the outpouring of the Spirit in our individual life.  We need to pray in that we ask for revival here in our individual life. 

Let the Holy Spirit of God be poured out on us from on High.  Having the attitude, “I’m going to wait, I’m going to stay before God and wait before God and whatever it is in my life that would hinder, it has to go.”

The wilderness that we want to talk about is our own. God we want to have enough fruit growing that it feels that it is out as far as we can see, a fruitful field growing.

Judgment, the Holy Spirit brings judgment to us in our comings, our goings, in our talk and our attitudes.

Isa 32:17  And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

It takes the Holy Ghost to work righteousness in us.  The work is peace and the effect quietness and assurance.  The Holy Spirit is just the same today as it ever was.

Isa 32:18  And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;

The Holy Spirit is always at work, advocating and helping us to defeat the enemy and to work peace.  The devil loves to take our peace.  The other side of the story is that the Holy Ghost, another comforter, gives us sure dwellings and quiet resting places.

If you yield yourself to modern technology then you will not have enough peace to even blow a bubble with bubblegum.  The world that we live in loves to deal with partial stories.  Partial truths will take your peace.

Isa 32:19  When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.

We want to be humble before God.

Isa 32:20  Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.

Sow beside all waters.  Don’t choose that “This one looks like they wouldn’t take it but this one is special so I’ll talk to them.”

John says ‘another comforter’.  We had one, it was Jesus.  The other one is the Holy Spirit.  It is an additional comforter according to the scripture.  A comforter means that this Holy Spirit is an advocate.  An advocate pleads for another.  The Holy Spirit is working that you and I would have victory in every part of our lives.  An advocate defends us. 

I’d love to put on those boxing gloves and black the eye of the devil.  The devil is the king of criticizers.  “You were too long, too short, or you should have preached this or that.” 

The Holy Spirit supports us.  An advocate promotes another.  It is so wonderful how the Holy Spirit comes along and just nudges us. 

An antonym of an advocate is a critic.  The Holy Spirit is not a critic.  The next time that you feel that everything that you say is wrong, remember that the Holy Spirit is not a critic. 

If God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit has anything to say then I want to hear it but when I sense this critical thing that tries to move in on me and get me all worked up then that is not the Holy Spirit of God.  The Holy Spirit is not our adversary or our opponent He is working for us and is our comforter. 

The Holy Spirit is not a critic.