Isn’t it interesting how we can move from bold, hard rock faith in God right into a storm? One moment all is so calm, so peaceful. You have entered a season of rest. God is blessing you on all sides. Then from no where a storm arises, hell hounds are after you, trouble breaks in everywhere. There is no peace, and you wonder what is going on. All you know is that you were following Jesus. How many of you have ever been in a storm? How many of you are in a storm right now? You have no peace. You have no joy. Your strength is gone. Please know that these storms come to stop you and block you from doing the will of God. The thing that is important is your attitude about the storms you face – how you react to the storms. If you have a mind to stand on the word of God, then you will make it. If you have a mind to believe God, then you will overcome. Keep the word in your heart and in your mouth and God will bring to past what He has said in His word.

Three things: faith, no fear, and love. These are most powerful.  Oh it is easy to give in, to fight back but it takes courage to stand in faith saying I am going to trust God; I will not fear what man can do unto me; I will, no matter what, walk in love. Jesus said, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you”. This is your victory. But you must stand in faith with no fear in your heart and let love be at the foundation of everything you do.

There are some things, regardless of how strong you are, regardless of how committed you are to God, that are so devastating, so hard hitting that it turns your joy into sorrow and robs you of your strength. There are some things that can happen to the best of saints that leaves you pure weak. If it were not for the grace of God you world give up because of the weight of the problems. God knows about them. He could stop them, but somehow, for some reason, He allows you to go through them. And, if God allows you to go through, then know, He has a plan. When I see you, the children of God, fall to the attacks of the enemy. When He hear you say, “I have prayed; I have fasted; I have stayed in the word; I am not living in sin; I do not doubt God. Yet, still, there are waves and waves of attacks from the enemy. I ask the question, “IS THERE A WORD FROM THE LORD?” The answer is…yes!

God spoke into my spirit and said, “If my people will allow me, I will restore to them the years that the canker worm has eaten”. I asked him, Lord, what do you mean, allow you? You are God; you can do anything that you want to do. He said, “they must believe again”. I can do no work for them until they are willing to believe afresh and anew. He said pray my son for the healing of their wounds. Pray for the healing of their spirits. Pray for the healing of their faith. They have been broken and they need my love bathed over their wounded souls.”

The lessons we learn when walking with God are rather awe-inspiring. Those of us who are serious about being true servants of God and have been enrolled in the school of the Holy Spirit often go through some amazing experiences that teaches us about the greatness, the power, the ability of God to make ways out of no ways.   If you have ever been tempered by God, if you have ever walked with Him, that is, put your body, soul, and spirit in his hands and followed Him, then you know He can show you His immeasurable ways of dealing in your life. So much so that you conclude that if God can not fix it, no one can.

It is not strange to see Jesus lead by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. It is not strange to see Abraham taking Issac to an altar of sacrifice. It is not strange to see Hebrew boys let down into a burning fiery furnace. It is not strange to see your savior and my savior dying on a cross and laid in a tomb. Why?  Because they belong to God. And when you belong to God, He can do whatever He wants to do in your life and with your life. They belong to God, and all who belong to God, God keeps. No matter the trouble, no matter the circumstances, no matter how terrible the hour, God will keep you and He will keep you in his peace.

If all this was a game then it would not matter. We could play the game today and live like we want to live tomorrow. But it is not a game. Living in this world for God is real. Not only that, also living in this world for God is going to pay off after while.           This is not a game. Whatever you do, how you really live, you are responsible. The Bible even declares that we will have to give an account for every idle word that comes out of our mouths. Man might be playing a game but God is not. There was a man who decided one day that he would pretend to be a Christian. He did so to prove how phony some of his so called Christian friends were. So he faked salvation, joined the church, taught in sunday school, ushered, even was elected to serve on the deacon board. He lived most of all his adult life pretending to be a christian. One day he died and came before the Lord. The Lord asked him, who are you, I do not know you. He said, my name is Deacon         .  The Lord said, I do not know you. The man said well, I…, and he was about to tell who he was and how he served in the church, when all of a sudden he heard coming out of his own mouth these words, “I lied”. I must ask you the question today.  Are you living a lie?

If the Church was to be strong and endure the attacks from within and without, Jesus knew that He had to teach His disciples truths that they could live by and not be shaken. Jesus knew that for the success of the work of the Church His teachings had to become their life and their only reason for living. And, He knew that the man and the woman that yielded to His teachings and who was fully committed to living them from day to day would help make a fruit producing, victorious Church of God in the earth, strong against all enemies and foe. Persecutions, trials, attacks, not even suffering could stop the Church from being what God established because Jesus knew He had devoted followers who would give their all for what He had taught them.

Jesus released into His disciples truth – spiritual knowledge – that would establish them – the Church, truth that would give them success in their mission to produce eternal fruit, and truth that would keep the Church in its darkest hour, in its most trying times, against all the wiles of the Devil. What could be so potent?  What could be so compelling?  What was it that Jesus taught that caused men and women to yield their all to Him and live daily on His words?  What truth could be so powerful that the gates of hell could not prevail against the Church? What truth could be so powerful that persecutions, spiritual attacks, trials, nor suffering could stop the success of the Church? What truth could be so trenchant that men and women would give up their lives rather than deny their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? It had to be something that was real to them. It had to be something that worked. It had to be something that they could experience from day to day. It had to be something that they could use and see results. It was the abiding life of Christ. They believed that He was still with them through the Holy Spirit.

The abiding life has to do with God’s will and God’s design for all who believe on Him to live in Him. The abiding life is surrendering or giving up your life as you know it to live life in Christ. The abiding life is Christians daily, moment by moment, living in Christ. Everything that you do now comes from the life of Christ that flows through you. Christ calls us to live in Him and He in us. He uses the word abide. Abide means to stay or remain. Through salvation, we have been baptized into Christ. Now, what He wants us to do is stay in Him…live in Him and bear fruit in Him. Is this the call of God on your life? Do you know deep down within that this is the will of God for you? The give to Him your all. Hold back nothing. Forsake all and follow Him and He will make your life what He wants it to be.