Heart Tracks - His Word And His Spirit

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you--they are full of the Spirit and life. John 6:63....."I think the most awesome task in the world tonight is not to be the President of the United States or the king of an empire, but to be a man who stands between a living God and a dying people." Leonard Ravenhill

How many of us really desire to be the man, or woman, who fits Ravenhill's above description? Moses was such a man. Daniel was such a man. So was Isaiah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Paul, Peter, John, and a host of others whose names we will never know this side of eternity. A dying world owes them, and the God they serve in Christ, a debt it can never repay. The need of that world for such men has always been desperate. It is desperate still. Are you and I really available to be such men and women?

James Robison said that when we speak the Word of God, we need to do so with and in the Spirit of God. There are many very willing to speak His Word, but in what spirit do they speak? Many take pleasure in "punishing" people with His Word. There is a kind of "I told them" attitude to it all. Paul did not hold back from confronting the Corinthians over their sin, but he did so with tears. Tears that stained the very pages of the letters he wrote. We decry the lack of those who will preach the full Word of God, and we should, but can we be equally burdened over the lack of grieving over wayward, backslid, lost, men and women, that can be found in the hearts of those who do?

I once heard a preacher described as one whose messages were so saturated with His Truth that they "peeled the paint" from the sanctuary's walls. Yet it was said of that same preacher that he did so with tears. One of the things I love to do is listen to recordings or watch old videos of men like Ravenhill, Tozer, and Havner preach. Such men were "wall peelers" for sure, but what also marked them were their breaking hearts for their listeners as they delivered His Word. They spoke His Word, but did so with His Spirit. Charles Spurgeon said that when he preached, he burned, and people came "to watch me burn," and in turn be burned by His fire themselves. Swept up in it. A dying world needs such today, just as they did in their day. Would you and I be such?

There was no "secret" to it other than this; the men above lived in that "secret place" in Him. That place where He reveals His heart to those who will dwell there, and give that heart to them as well. We need to be dwellers in, and not visitors to that place. Only then can we be among those who speak His Word with His Spirit. All of us are called to bear witness to His Truth. In word and in deed. If we do, do we do so with His Spirit or in our flesh? As John 6 says, "the flesh counts for nothing." A dying world needs to hear the Word that is full of Spirit and Life from men and women who will stand between it and the Father. Will we, you and I, be such to it, and to all those who dwell there?

Blessings,
Pastor O