Place yourself in the following scenarios:
- Suddenly you are accosted by a desperate, armed, drug addict ready to do whatever it takes, to get money for his next ‘fix’…
- Someone you love with all your heart develops a potentially fatal disease…
- The economy you depend on and look to for security suddenly crashes. Your government is powerless to do anything to stop the financial, emotional, social and relational carnage that is sure to follow…
- The floor and walls of the skyscraper you’re in begin to tremble and sway and you realize you’re in a major earthquake…
- You’re trying to navigate your car through bumper to bumper rush hour city traffic. Suddenly you see a monster tornado through your window and it’s heading in your direction…
If you should be confronted by such a desperate situation, how much closeness to the Lord will you wish you had at that moment? What level of spiritual harvest will you want to be able to reap amid such an emergency?
Deuteronomy 23:14
“Since the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you.” (NASB)
If the Lord should entrust a dire situation to you, asking you to give supernatural testimony to Him, will you be spiritually, mentally and emotionally ready to do it? Will you be trained, equipped and ready to overcome whatever ‘Goliath’ you may have to face? Will you have the necessary ‘boot camp’ training under your belt that will cause automatic, instinctive feelings of outrageous confidence, peace, calm, assurance and joy to rise up in your guts when such moments come? Will the pit of your stomach KNOW that God is with you and that He is Perfect in every way…and already has everything covered that you will need and has already paid for it so that you can have it, now that you really need it…and that He is here with you, right now and always, to be whatever you will ever need Him to be…such as your eternal, infinite, invincible DEFENSE?
Is what you are doing today preparing you for those kinds of tomorrows? Are you practicing abiding continually under ‘the shadow of His wings’? Are you using the normal, mundane things of each day as raw material to drill and practice and rehearse the proper responses and reactions that will prepare you for ‘show time’? Are you in training to know exactly what to do and how to do it, when everything is on the line?
Psalm 23
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, FOR YOU ARE WITH ME! Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” (Emphasis added.)
It’s one thing to read psalms in your easy chair, or analyze them in Bible studies, or hear them read at funerals; but it’s another thing entirely to have the eternal infinite Holy Spirit Reality…the living Perfection of God’s Presence that the psalms proclaim…actually downloaded, present and operating in your heart, soul, brain and circumstances. If you’re prepared – the electrifying Energy and Love-Power of your Master’s living nearness and lovingkindness will automatically well up on your behalf, from deep within you. The knowledge and nearness of the Lord will fill you at the precise moment when your life and testimony need and depend on it!
Everything around you may be pure chaos and you may not even be able to remember your name. All the head knowledge you amassed in class rooms or church services will fly away. And it won’t matter a fig whether you call yourself a Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, black, white, male, female, gay, straight, educated, ignorant, rich or poor! All that will matter then is whether or not your existence and resources are springing out of the loving faithfulness of the Living God! Is your God real, capable, faithful, and totally in control of everything? And have you been under the authority of His living and written Word and walking before Him blamelessly? That is the only thing that will matter to you then. But…if what you have, proves to be false and unreal, then you will be found in your great hour of need, to be clinging to… nothing!
Psalm 18:16-24
“He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity. But the LORD was my stay. He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me. The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
“For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God; for all His ordinances were before me, and I did not put away His statutes from me. I was also blameless with Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.” (Emphasis added.)
Our habitual relationship with God (or the lack of it) will resemble the situation of actors and actresses that have contracted to perform starring roles in a play. They are responsible for making sure they’re ready and able to play their parts, deliver their lines and perform with the skill and excellence that opening night will require.
But imagine that instead of rehearsing their parts and learning their lines, two of the major cast members habitually waste their precious preparation time by getting lost in meaningless, useless, time-wasting distractions. They refuse to prepare because everything that comes up throughout each day always seems to be more urgent and of a higher priority than studying their scripts.
So when opening night finally comes, and the curtain is about to rise…these two have no clue as to what they are supposed to say, or do, or where on stage they are supposed to be or what costume and makeup they should be wearing. And now it’s too late for them to learn their lines or rehearse. So they are going to be exposed. The real truth about them will be revealed for all to see.
Matthew 24:37-39
“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away…so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
It Pays to Be Ready
Beloved…when ‘opening night’ comes, those so-called ‘performers’ will give wretched performances, won’t they? And they’ll have no legitimate excuse to offer for their dismal failure to fulfill their responsibilities.
Imagine hearing sirens suddenly begin to blare in the distance. People turn on TV’s and radios and the weather forecasters warn the public that a massive tornado is on the way. And now imagine people that snort and scoff, saying, ‘What a lot of hogwash! I don’t believe a thing those charlatans and frauds are saying!’ So instead of heeding the warnings and taking shelter, they resent the weather forecasters and storm chasers. They do everything they can to silence or discredit them so that they can be free to go about their business, attending picnics, mowing lawns, going to bars and restaurants or watching movies on their TV sets.
Then…suddenly, to their dismay, they discover that the forecasters were right and their warnings were true…just as the horrors they were warned about crash into them and carry them away…
That is how it will be for all of us – for ‘atheists’, ‘agnostics’, ‘believers’, ‘Christians’, ‘Chosen People’, or whatever other label we Sin-corrupted, self-centered, ill-prepared humans may choose to hide behind prior to our day of reckoning. When ‘show time’ finally arrives, the utter naked truth about what we really are before the real God, the living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is all that will matter. That, and what state we’re really in before Him, will be exposed and made known to all, by the brightest Light imaginable…The Reality of God’s Truth! There will be nowhere to run or hide, and nothing anyone can say. The Truth alone will speak. And that’s why the Lord Jesus said to people that came across as ‘religious’, but refused to believe, accept, obey and abide with Him:
Matthew 12:33-37
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Emphasis added.)
And He said this to Nicodemus, another religious person that ultimately did believe, obey and serve as His disciple:
John 3:17-21
“…God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the Darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the Truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (Emphasis added.)
What Does It Take to Be Ready for Show Time?
The preparation we must have is this: we must be trained to be true disciples of God’s Living Word. To do that, we must be able to allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to embody our Lord’s Resurrection Presence from within our own spirit, soul and body!
In this way, we can correspond to, and reflect what the written Word of God reveals about Him into our circumstances and interactions. The Lord Himself, abiding within us and covering us, will be our spiritual ‘Armor’ and ‘Fortress’.
Then it won’t matter what it is we have to deal with, we may have to clean a toilet, comfort a child, do our job, vacuum the rug, forgive an enemy, help an elderly neighbor, or withstand the fury of Hell itself! If the Lord is truly free to live and operate from within us, we can face and endure and deal with anything! (See Philippians 4:12-13)
Since the Lord of the universe dwells within us and is ready to operate through us, whatever happens to us must be all about Him, and how well we are able to embody and release His awesome indwelling Perfection into every situation we encounter.
The Living, Creative Word of God is ready and able to handle anything His Father sends Him to do to us… and in us… and through us! So, our preparation must center on how deeply we’ve come to believe this, and how well we’ve practiced embodying God’s Word in our past training. If we’ve trained properly, then when it’s time to engage in the real action… the Lord Himself will be dealing with every situation and circumstance, whether it be mundane and routine, or the most dire and dangerous emergency imaginable!
Do we really practice knowing, following and interacting with Him while we have the time and freedom to learn to do it? Do we interact with Him continually throughout each day, deferring to His Presence and allowing Him to live His Resurrection Life from within us, the way our ‘Marching Orders’ require? Is He always the central focus of our mind, will, affections, actions, reactions and interactions? Is the Living Lord that creates and sustains us and provides all that we are and have and do… the Living, ever-present and active Wellspring of our ongoing stream of consciousness throughout the day?
Do we realize and admit that:
- In ourselves, we are but dust?
- If He should forget about us for even one second…we would instantly blink off and disappear into oblivion?
- We depend on our Creator and Sustainer even more than the bodies of critically injured patients in intensive care depend on life support systems?
- He continually creates, sustains, organizes, energizes, integrates and replaces each cell that we have ever had, currently have, and ever will have?
- We cannot do anything without Him – not even flinch, blink, burp or think a thought…unless He gives it to us first?
- He that abides ‘under the shadow of the Lord’s wings’…does not cast an independent shadow of his own?
It isn’t that we should ask Him into MY life. It’s not about asking Him to help us out once in a while. Nor is it that we should prod ourselves to remember Him occasionally and acknowledge His existence from time to time, as we go about the business of living our lives. The real Truth is that apart from Him, we have no life! HE is our life! HE is our ability. HE is our strength. HE is our EVERYTHING! Awake and active, or even if we’re asleep, comatose, or brain-dead…He is everything to us. We do not add or subtract anything from Him by remembering or forgetting Him. But He does require His chosen disciples to face the Truth, so they can finally realize and admit their bankruptcy and acknowledge Him as their All in all, and continually receive everything from Him…according to His Father’s purposes, as His image and likeness.
Since He always has been, always is, and always will be EVERYTHING to us, our performance in times of crisis will depend on how aware we are of Him and of what He really means to us. When we first begin to know Him…the process resembles the gradual dawning of the sun as it first peeks over the horizon. Then our awareness level rises slowly…we begin to get a clue here and another one there…and our awareness rises and the sky of our mind gets brighter and brighter. Finally we’re able to begin to marinate in Him and soak up more of the full, eternal noonday force of His Glory and Majesty and All-Sufficient Grace.
The more we practice believing, abiding in His perfect Presence and obeying Him, the freer He is to take over and live His Life within us. Finally, we realize that He is our ALL in all things, at all times. Then the right responses to Him become automatic, even amid disasters! Once we’re that well trained, an abiding, habitual sense of relief and outrageous confidence and joy, peace and well-being takes over within us. Our responses to disaster no longer mirror our dire surroundings. Instead, they reflect His indwelling Glory and eternal, infinite, unfailing Perfection and Triumph over all of Creation (Cf. 2 Cor. 4). He abides within us, in all circumstances. And that enables us to operate at all times… out from a position of total Victory. Our Commander has already crushed the head of the Serpent! He has won the War in our name! And from that stance, we are commissioned to face and deal with the defeated powers of Darkness and the puny little world system they dominate fade out of our minds and we’re able to do our jobs, no matter what, amid the eternal Blaze of His Eternal Majesty and Invincible Power!
We must train ourselves to be filled with Him and His Truth and Glory at all times. We must become very knowledgeable in whatever God reveals concerning His Son’s All-Sufficient creative Ability and undying Faithfulness. Knowing that our Messiah is our indwelling Life is what transforms us. And when we know Him, and the All-Sufficiency of His Perfect, already-finished Works of Creation and Redemption… THEN… compared to the majority of mankind we will be, to say the least, very different. When we become convinced that His presence always goes with us, we can be filled at all times with His Perfection, and also share it with others that are in dire need of God’s mercy and grace. We’ll have more to offer them than nice words and good but empty benevolent wishes. We’ll be able to bring them into His Presence and then God will be able to do as He pleases to bless them and glorify and validate His Word to those that have not yet come to know Him!
Amid darkness, disaster and death, well-trained disciples are blazing reflectors and radiators of God’s eternal Light and redemptive Reality. That will make an enormous difference in this poor sad, frightened world. Thanks to them, the Darkness will dissipate and break apart, and God’s Glory will prevail!
Matthew 5:14-16
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven!”