Dear People who Keep Company with God,
When Jesus was eight days old his parents brought Him to the temple in Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. During this ceremony a man named Simeon prophesied concerning Jesus and spoke a word directly to Jesus’ mother, Mary, “and a sword will pierce even your own soul — to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” Luke 2:35.
Recently I had an experience where I felt the Lord’s sword pierce my heart and ironically it came in a conversation with my oldest son, Aaron. We were discussing those times in our lives when we reach the absolute bottom and have no way out apart from the Lord Himself rescuing us. Aaron said, “At some point in everyone’s life the best thing that can happen is for the Lord to bust your….” I immediately thought of all the people I know who have been successful, but one day found themselves broke and broken by a turn of events that suddenly for no good reason did not go their way. I have seen the Lord meet these people at the bottom, rescue them and radically change their hearts.
In the Book of Proverbs we get a glimpse of this as it says, “The poor speak in soft supplications; the rich bark out answers.” Proverbs 18:23 (from the Message Bible). There is softness in broken people; they are quick to look to the Lord instead of barking out their answers.
In the Book of Ecclesiastes there is a curious phrase, it says, “money is the answer to everything” Ecclesiastes 10:19. This is saying by having money men can have what they wish; all things are at the call of money. Money will buy us many things, but it cannot buy true love, spiritual power or a sound mind.
Many times God will use money or really the lack of money to bring us to our senses, however, the sword God pierced me with had nothing to do with money. For those who are experiencing some level of the Holy Spirit’s activity and the blessing of the manifest Presence of the Lord we can easily become intoxicated with unbroken spiritual success. I believe the Lord sometimes withdraws His activity and felt Presence in effort to get our attention. In our way of doing church, when the Holy Spirit is moving much of what we do succeeds and when the Holy Spirit is not moving almost everything we do fails.
Several years ago we had a tremendous move of God in our church, but it eventually ended and what ensued was some of the most difficult times of our ministry. A lot of people who loved us quit loving us. It was during this time that God gave us a much deeper revelation of His grace, the Father’s heart and a sincere hunger for real revival and spiritual awakening. Most of what I truly value in my heart came out of God meeting me when I was broken and at the bottom of ministry.
In the 1990’s a pastor in a rural town was desperately hungry for God. He had come to the end of his self and decided to resign from the ministry as nothing he did worked. In one last desperate move he visited a church that was in full blown revival. When he returned to his little church the Lord suddenly showed up as he walked in the door during an evening service without him doing or saying a thing. He went on to experience a major revival in that little church that got national attention. Later, he wrote a book on what to do to have revival. Although the book was a good sound biblically based book, it just was not what he did to come into revival.
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Many Blessings, BW