THE GRIP Newsletter

Why are God's people seemed so bewildered today? We have more teaching and preaching in this country than ever. We have 24 hour Christian TV, tapes and video’s yet we are more needy now than ever. There is a growing frustration for a genuine devotion to the simpler Christian life. We have all done the rounds of the Christian conventions and Church meetings and yet that satisfaction did not last but for a short moment. Even our Pastor’s are not preaching what we need to hear. THERE IS A FAMINE OF THE WORD!

This scripture is not referring to the Bible (the Word of the Lord) but refers to God’s people who travel to meetings to locate the presence of the Lord where words from the Lord are spoken. We have had so much prophecy in the past and what have we done with it? Mostly just treated it as passe’, waiting for another more glorious one to come along. Maybe sometimes we don’t like a personal prophecy that was given us, so we go to another meeting to get a "second opinion." We end up going from meeting to meeting where we hear the Holy Spirit is moving just to get a differing word that the Lord has told us time and time again to do. Like Jonah we run the other way when the Lord calls but He always brings us back to Ninivah! Obedience is always better than sacrifice.

Sacrifice can come from our flesh, wanting to seek God’s favor temporally by us giving up something, but obedience comes from a life yielded to the will of the Lord.

As we learn to trust Him and surrender to His voice then He will direct us in paths that will even surprise us. The Lord is calling us to be available to abandon our own concepts of what we presume Christians are to live and act, and allow our Master to reveal His will.

When we quit seeking the words of the Lord and start desiring the Word of the Lord then He can truly manifest His presence and maybe without any fanfare or great showmanship, just that small still voice of the Lord saying this is the way, walk here. God has always produced harvest in a famine.

As we seek Him and not manifestations of His presence then we are promised to be satisfied. There are several ways that we can seek the Lord:

Discernment is a much unused and sometimes abused gift from the Lord. We need to use this gift more and more in these last days as we have so much erroneous teachings and teachers in the Body of Christ today. When in our spirit the Lord gives us warning signals about teachings and teachers then we need to heed it and NOT put it down as just negative thinking on our part. It is that discernment that has kept many of God’s people alive in the persecuted countries. Discernment is not just a gift for a few chosen people but is given to all of God’s family, we just need to be aware that it is there and use it when the Lord shows us to.

I want to conclude by saying it is very important in this turbulent world to cultivate strong families by praying together and reading the Word. The enemy’s desire is to break up Christian families and he will use anything to do it. We also need fellow believers to be in constant fellowship with (I don’t just mean eating with) so we can be strengthened. Part of that is going out and feeding the poor, clothing those who are without funds. The harvest is ripe but the laborers are few. Let us have the vision to see the harvest and prepare to obey when the Lord wants us in the "field". We don’t have to be like sheep wandering around without a shepherd, bewildered and confused.