November 2001

Part Thirty-four

The Super Highway (HH)

Permit us to proceed with portions of the book, “Eagle Saints, Arise”, written years ago by a beloved brother, Bill Britton, who has since gone home to glory. It is my prayer that you will take these timeless Truths to heart.

               In Job, chapter 42, that man of God suddenly “sees” the glory of God and also his own self-righteousness, and his whole attitude changes. Then deliverance comes!! He says, “Therefore have I uttered things I did not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I never knew...(up to now) I have heard of You with the hearing of the ear; but NOW MY EYES SEE YOU! Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes!”
               For more than 30 chapters of this book, Job was steadfastly maintaining his innocence and righteousness; but when He meets God face-to-face, he suddenly “sees” that his worst sin has been his own self-righteousness! He has blamed God for all his troubles, and has not been able to see himself! But he gets “eagle vision” and suddenly the “eyes within” begin to see his own Adamic nature for what it is!! Then can God bring him out of all his troubles and difficulties.
               Isaiah was a revered prophet of God. He talked with God, was heard by the nation, and walked in kings’ courts. But one day (Isa 6) he got a “vision of God” and his “eyes within” saw what (his true inner condition) really looked like in the sight of God! And this Godly old man cried out in his misery, “Woe is me! I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people who also have unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Praise God for the eyes within and without, for immediately there came a cleansing and deliverance! Notice the sequent: first came the operation of the “eyes within” then the “eyes without” could do their work. AFTER HE HAS SEEN HIS OWN UNDONE CONDITION, AND CONFESSED IT, THEN HE COULD SEE THE CONDITION OF THE (OTHER) PEOPLE AND MINISTER TO THEM!! BUT NOT BEFORE!!
               Too many are trying to cast demons today while their own lives are full of bad spirits (such as) JEALOUSY, ENVY, GREED, MALICE, FEAR, etc! See what happened to the sons of Scava in Acts 19:13 when they tried to cast demons out of someone else before they have been to the Cross for themselves!! (Jesus said) “Cast the huge timber out of your own eye, then you will be able to see clearly and cast out the tiny speck (as God views it) from your brother’s eye.”
               Think it not strange when you begin to see things in your life that you could never have admitted being guilty of!! You see, Heb 6:7-8 tells us that the same rain that brings forth “herbs fit for them for whom it is dressed” also produces thorns and briars! If you plow up a garden spot you will see what I mean. During the cold dark winter, the frozen ground will produce nothing- either good or bad!! But when the good seed is planted and the warm spring rains come down, up comes every kind of WEED imaginable. But where did they come from? How did they get into the soil if you did not plant them? They were there all the time! They just needed the plowing and the warm rains to bring them forth!! So the same latter rains of revival that yield the true Fruit of the Spirit in our lives, also bring forth every ugly, hidden thing that has laid dormant within and never been exposed or come to Light. Then comes true deliverance, as we see our need and call upon God. For God must have, and will have, a people who will be “Holy even as I am Holy!” (1 Pet 1:16) [End quote]

              No more self-condemnation, beloved brethren, when you discover that the more of Christ’s “Wheat” of Holiness, Righteousness and Truth is being revealed in you, the more of your “chaff” of unholiness, unrighteousness and lies are likewise being revealed in you. It is humiliating, vexing and even terrifying to discover one’s human flaws- especially if they were hid before we are saved, What condemnation when religious systems insist that their congregations must behave in a manner befitting of Christ as those poor mortals are just discovering their own mortality!! For unbelievers, the adage seems true, “Ignorance is bliss”. The unrepentant, unregenerate heart vacillates between complacent resignation toward its human flaws, and an arrogant flaunting of its evil tendencies. But they are not troubled by the stark contrast of a burgeoning Christ Nature in their lives! They are not seeing their transgressions held up to the Light of Christ’s Pure Ways of Love and Holiness! But for the man of God who has wept bitter tears at the sight of his Savior’s Cross; who now feels His Innocent, Life-giving Blood coursing through his veins; who has tasted the sweet wine of Holiness, it is unconscionable to suddenly see “weeds of wickedness” popping up in the garden of his heart!! It seems like one who has planted sweet strawberries and seeing turnips coming up alongside them!
               A turnip farmer (unbeliever) is not surprised to see turnips (sins) in his field, he expects them. But not so the strawberry sower; he only wants to see sweet, luscious strawberries in his field. However it is the “weeds” of our own, human imperfection that produce the blessed harvest of HUMILITY in our lives! Nothing slays the dragon of pride in our hearts faster than our helplessness against an exposed weakness in our human nature! Just when we are feeling very “religious and pious”, there appears a vile “tare” of malice or avarice or sexual impurity or naked fear we struggle and wrestle against with all our human strength, but we cannot overcome! It is then our eagle eyes are opened to “see” our desperate need for a Savior and we anticipate with joyful hope His promised deliverance! But first comes the fiery trial of “WAITING (and betimes, waiting and waiting) upon the Lord to renew our strength whereby we can mount up with wings as eagles!” (Isa 40:31)

[TO BE CONTINUED]