Wicked and Wonderful
Greetings sisters in Christ,
I pray this finds you all strong in the Spirit. I want to share how I had (for a short time) grown weak in the Spirit and desperately needed to be renewed...
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind
Ephesians 4:23
And our Father, who is rich in mercy and love for His people, gave that to me in the form knowledge and understanding. Let me share with you...
We were recently in a wickedly indulgent tourist town for many days and although I shared with you the wilderness of peace that we had when we weren't on the streets, I didn't share what we went through. First of all I will say that God was glorified on those days of the gospel, good news, being preached and also the Hebrews 4 sword that was used to call people out of their sins.
This particular day started out as normal when we go out on the streets. We set our mind on the Lord and prepare ourselves. We make sure we are ready and then we depart, trusting in the Lord for all things such as guidance on where to go, what to say, how to react, knowing that He is watching over all. It started out as a typical day in a busy town (thousands of people walking about) but by the end of the day it got the best of me. The wickedness of man, the vileness, the paganism, the absurd immodesty and nakedness, the satisfaction of the lust of the eyes and filling of bellies, the lust of the flesh, the anger, the utter rejection of the truth etc. We had men yelling obscenities in brother Jim's face while another man yelled some unintelligible things in mine, a woman lifted her shirt and exposed herself (brother Jim had already had his sign up to block her before she did it) an utterly harlot dressed woman stood before us rejecting the truth telling us not to judge, pagan women laughing demonically in their near naked apparel, men walking around in spandex and just as immodest as the women, sinful religious people shouting 'grace' and 'love' while indulging the lusts of their flesh and so much more! It was a sensory overload on tremendous amounts of sin, rejection of the Holy word of God and utter rebellion in a demonic way. Yes, we get that all over but it was like a super high charged concentration of it and I got angry. (It takes a lot to make me angry.) I felt this raging anger inside me boiling over for the flat out, disgusting rejection of God's Word. Then I wanted to vomit as that town was likened to Sodom and Gomorrah.
I felt like Lot:
As we rounded out the day and my anger, frustration, sickness increased; my Spirit battled with my flesh to put it all in a rightful order. When brother Jim said it was time to go, my thoughts went to:
And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.
Ezekial 25:17
I walked away thinking 'You reap what you sow, God's going to judge you all if you don't repent!'
I immediately thought of this:
As we walked back to the van, I was sharing this with brother Jim, struggling in myself to have it all put in biblical order, thinking:
'What is the use? Why do we have to deal with all that? How can I continue to do this for the next 'x' amount of years if the Lord calls us to?"
Just then a man, who was getting in his car, got back out and said 'Thank you for doing what you do'. Brother Jim gave him a gospel card, said to test himself and we are here to help, then we walked on. He said 'Maybe God gave us that gift of encouragement.' Yes, I saw that and was thinking how wonderful our Father is to give us just a bit of encouragement to keep us going. It helped me as I continued to struggle through this all in my mind.
We got to the van and took a moment to rest and have something cold to drink when not long after, a young man and woman walked up to the van. (We saw them on the square, sitting on a bench for a long while, listening to brother Jim preach.) As the man and brother Jim talked (for an hour and a half, praise God it went very well) I was thanking God. But that's not all, I was given a great gift!!!
At one point in the discussion on Calvinism, brother Jim had the young man look up a passage of scripture and while they began to discuss it, God allowed me to see why we do what we do. This echoed in my mind...
Our Father endures the vessels of wrath, the sin, the evil people who hate him, so that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy (those who are His.)
I understood that we are to endure through all that we do in order to help people like that young couple that followed us to our van. A righteous, Holy, Pure God, endures the sinfulness of mankind for His glory, how much more should we, the clay being used of the potter, do so as well. I immediately had a joy and peace that wiped away all that I was trying to wipe away myself.
God could have rebuked me, chastised me for allowing myself to fall that day, but instead, He showed me a depth of meaning in His word, through the very people we were there for.
BTW, there were a small handfull of people, among the thousands of mockers, that seemed to be different and receive some truth. You might be interested in reading a teaching that brother Jim did in regard to a question we recently received:
http://spiritandtruthdiscernment.blogspot.com/2020/08/is-street-preaching-gospel-effective.html
It was a wicked day that ended wonderful.
Praise God, the mighty creator of the heavens and the earth.
Be strong sisters and I hope this lesson helps you as well.
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
I pray this finds you all strong in the Spirit. I want to share how I had (for a short time) grown weak in the Spirit and desperately needed to be renewed...
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind
Ephesians 4:23
And our Father, who is rich in mercy and love for His people, gave that to me in the form knowledge and understanding. Let me share with you...
We were recently in a wickedly indulgent tourist town for many days and although I shared with you the wilderness of peace that we had when we weren't on the streets, I didn't share what we went through. First of all I will say that God was glorified on those days of the gospel, good news, being preached and also the Hebrews 4 sword that was used to call people out of their sins.
This particular day started out as normal when we go out on the streets. We set our mind on the Lord and prepare ourselves. We make sure we are ready and then we depart, trusting in the Lord for all things such as guidance on where to go, what to say, how to react, knowing that He is watching over all. It started out as a typical day in a busy town (thousands of people walking about) but by the end of the day it got the best of me. The wickedness of man, the vileness, the paganism, the absurd immodesty and nakedness, the satisfaction of the lust of the eyes and filling of bellies, the lust of the flesh, the anger, the utter rejection of the truth etc. We had men yelling obscenities in brother Jim's face while another man yelled some unintelligible things in mine, a woman lifted her shirt and exposed herself (brother Jim had already had his sign up to block her before she did it) an utterly harlot dressed woman stood before us rejecting the truth telling us not to judge, pagan women laughing demonically in their near naked apparel, men walking around in spandex and just as immodest as the women, sinful religious people shouting 'grace' and 'love' while indulging the lusts of their flesh and so much more! It was a sensory overload on tremendous amounts of sin, rejection of the Holy word of God and utter rebellion in a demonic way. Yes, we get that all over but it was like a super high charged concentration of it and I got angry. (It takes a lot to make me angry.) I felt this raging anger inside me boiling over for the flat out, disgusting rejection of God's Word. Then I wanted to vomit as that town was likened to Sodom and Gomorrah.
I felt like Lot:
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
2 Peter 2:7-8As we rounded out the day and my anger, frustration, sickness increased; my Spirit battled with my flesh to put it all in a rightful order. When brother Jim said it was time to go, my thoughts went to:
And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.
Ezekial 25:17
I walked away thinking 'You reap what you sow, God's going to judge you all if you don't repent!'
I immediately thought of this:
Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.
Ephesians 4:26-27As we walked back to the van, I was sharing this with brother Jim, struggling in myself to have it all put in biblical order, thinking:
'What is the use? Why do we have to deal with all that? How can I continue to do this for the next 'x' amount of years if the Lord calls us to?"
Just then a man, who was getting in his car, got back out and said 'Thank you for doing what you do'. Brother Jim gave him a gospel card, said to test himself and we are here to help, then we walked on. He said 'Maybe God gave us that gift of encouragement.' Yes, I saw that and was thinking how wonderful our Father is to give us just a bit of encouragement to keep us going. It helped me as I continued to struggle through this all in my mind.
We got to the van and took a moment to rest and have something cold to drink when not long after, a young man and woman walked up to the van. (We saw them on the square, sitting on a bench for a long while, listening to brother Jim preach.) As the man and brother Jim talked (for an hour and a half, praise God it went very well) I was thanking God. But that's not all, I was given a great gift!!!
At one point in the discussion on Calvinism, brother Jim had the young man look up a passage of scripture and while they began to discuss it, God allowed me to see why we do what we do. This echoed in my mind...
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Romans 9:22-23Our Father endures the vessels of wrath, the sin, the evil people who hate him, so that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy (those who are His.)
I understood that we are to endure through all that we do in order to help people like that young couple that followed us to our van. A righteous, Holy, Pure God, endures the sinfulness of mankind for His glory, how much more should we, the clay being used of the potter, do so as well. I immediately had a joy and peace that wiped away all that I was trying to wipe away myself.
God could have rebuked me, chastised me for allowing myself to fall that day, but instead, He showed me a depth of meaning in His word, through the very people we were there for.
BTW, there were a small handfull of people, among the thousands of mockers, that seemed to be different and receive some truth. You might be interested in reading a teaching that brother Jim did in regard to a question we recently received:
http://spiritandtruthdiscernment.blogspot.com/2020/08/is-street-preaching-gospel-effective.html
It was a wicked day that ended wonderful.
Praise God, the mighty creator of the heavens and the earth.
Be strong sisters and I hope this lesson helps you as well.
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
The biblical gospel...