Thought for Today – Arise and Shine

Thought for Today

Arise and Shine

“Arise, shine! For your light has come,
and the glory of Yahweh has risen on you.
For look! darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples,
but Yahweh will rise on you,
and his glory will appear over you”
Isaiah 60:1

God calls to us to shine though darkness is covering the earth. He sends His light to us in the face of Jesus Christ that we may “arise” in the growing night. It is in Christ that the arising glory of God empowers and strengthens His own to be beacons of Hope to the lost. Our light has come; His life in us is the light of men. His Life is our Light.

“In Him was life
And the Life is the Light of men”
John 1:4

The Life of Christ within is our salvation. Teaching is good and necessary for a season but the teaching must give way to the Life. Teaching must produce a hunger for Him to live and reign within our hearts. In hearing of His life, the true in heart launch their lives into the great ocean of all that He is. The teaching of His extraordinary grace must produce lives that are not content with the “hearing” of His goodness; but like Paul we cry out to know experimentally the “width and length and depth and height” of all that He is (Ephesians 3:18). There is an inward pursuit to “know Him” (Philippians 3:10) for it is in the true knowing of Him we are enabled to walk in the power and wonder of His salvation.

Our living Hope is not based on outward words; our hope is sure because of the Christ within. He is our hope, He is our salvation and He is the substance and surety of all that God has promised.

“To them God willed to make known
what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles:
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”
Colossians 1:27

May we arise in this hour being fully persuaded of His promises. Come to Him with full intent to drink of the waters of His salvation from the living well of His own being.

“Ho, everyone who thirsts
Come to the waters…”
Isaiah 55:1

Ω

“Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness…”
Matthew 5:6

Thought for Today – Come Away –

Thought for Today

Come Away!

“My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
Song of songs 2:16

The call of God to His own is always one to new places of intimacy in relationship. Not only does He call but He speaks words of endearment to those who follow after Him. His own know Him as “Beloved” and He calls us “my fair one” There is no plurality here; He is not speaking to a congregation or a crowd. He is calling out to one who is the object of His great love.

In religious circles the call is broad; it is a generic call and the references are impersonal. Those who are His know this intense and personal relationship. There is a singular flow of His life and love unto those who are following Him. The focus of the individual’s heart is all about Him. In the seeing of Him the world becomes dim and distant and its temptations start to lose their power and attraction. It is out of this wonder of Him drawing near that we feel the power of His love rising in our hearts to respond to the call of a deeper knowing of Him. This call is characterized by words of incomprehensible beauty: “my fair one”. Who can resist such undeserved love? Who is able to fathom such redemptive love? How can we ever measure or understand its cause or the depths from which its flows?

Lost within the broad landscape of religion, and a world gone mad with the voices and the rantings of men who think they have the answers, there is the “still small voice”. It draws the heart with whispers of grace and affection; “come away my fair one… come to Me”.

Within this growing relationship the need to fortify our place in Him with the teachings and doctrines of men disappears for His love itself becomes our surety and solace. His love constrains us to willingly arise from where we are to follow on to deeper places of affection and wonder. We touch the holy atmosphere of His cords of love that embrace us setting our own hearts ablaze with their fervency. The words flowing between the “beloved” and the “my fair one” are the language of this holy union:

“I am my beloved’s,
and my beloved is mine”
Song of songs 6:3

He is hers because she is His!

Brian Troxel
www.aword.info

Thought for Today – Get Thee Up –

Thought for Today

Get Thee Up

“O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain”
Isaiah 40:9

In God’s Word there is ever the call to His people to arise to the heights and wonders of His being. Here the prophet tells God’s people to get up into the high places that they might behold their God. The verses preceding this declare…

“The voice said, Cry. And he said,
What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
and all the goodliness thereof
is as the flower of the field:
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:
surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
but the word of our God shall stand for ever”
Isaiah 40:6-8

These are the good tidings; the pride and strength of man shall not prevail but His Word will stand forever! It is in light of this knowledge that we are called to arise, no longer in the strength of men, but in the power of God. It is time to climb the mountain and behold Him from a new perspective. We, who are withering grass and fading flowers, will find that our hope and our strength is in God alone and will be able to declare to others “Behold your God!”

“O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain;
O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings,
lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up,
be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God!”
Isaiah 40:9

Brian Troxel
www.aword.info

Deeper Into the River

The following is a message delivered at Boulder Street Church on March 19, 2017

I PRESS TOWARD THE MARK

“I press toward the mark…”

PART ONE

Those who have life and faith arise to walk in the unknown. There is a depth in God that calls out unto the depth in us to walk and live in the moment (Psalm 42:7). The depth in Christ beckoned to the depth that was in Peter to come and walk on the water. Life consists of simple obedience to the urges and movings of the great depth that has been birthed within us. That great depth is nothing less than the Glorious Risen Christ. He has come to cause us to arise and walk, to arise and explore, to arise and lay hold of the treasures of His (and our) Father’s house. He has come to bring us into the Father’s Kingdom. It is His good pleasure to do so, and it is our good pleasure to arise and walk in the vastness of what He has given. The testimony of Enoch is “Enoch walked with God and was not” (Gen. 5:24) “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death…for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God”! While men linger waiting for some great event, the Son walks day by day doing the will of His Father. See Him at the age of twelve years old in the temple, living and moving in the business of His Father. He was not waiting. He was engaged in life, because He is the Life. So also should it be with us, He has been given…

“For unto US a child is born,
unto US a son is given,”
Isaiah 9:6

He is right now resident within our hearts to bring us into the fullness. He is right now beckoning us to walk, live and have our being in the great oceans of His provision. Why tarry any longer in the teachings and concepts of men, when the Son of Man is speaking… “if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me”. We must resist the voices of fear that speak of our weakness, our failures and our inabilities. Jesus said to deny them… it is not the voice of faith and that is the voice that has kept us living in the squalor of our own reasoning. Concerning Abraham, Paul writes….

“And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead,
when he was about one hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb…”
(Rom. 4:19)

It is a day and a time for us to Arise and Walk; a day that we must begin to discover who the Son is in US. The Body of Christ must arise to walk upon her high places, for HE has given us “hinds feet to walk upon the high places” of God in Christ. The secret of life is Christ in you the hope of Glory! Not some teaching, some apostle, but Christ in you the (only) hope of Glory. Let us realize that for the Body of Christ to arise HE MUST ARISE in the individual. Without the members in particular moving in the power and reality of His Presence there is no vital expression of the true and glorious Body of Christ in the earth. Each day the Son arises to bring us to new horizons in Him…yet He is bound to the response of the faith within our own hearts. Let us return to the child like faith that reveals the true faith by responding to the deep in us to live and move in the great and glorious depths of our God and Saviour. He ever calls unto us… “Launch into the deep and let down your nets…” and man’s response is “we have toiled all night, and have taken nothing…” but faith arises “nevertheless…” A man who lives by his past, dies in the past. It is the “To Day if ye will hear His voice…” that we must hearken to and respond to for the fresh manna of today.

May the cry for truth and reality burn with a new intensity, A FIRE THAT CANNOT, WILL NOT BE DENIED. A CRY WITHIN OUR HEARTS THAT WE MIGHT LIVE AND MOVE IN HIM THAT HE MIGHT RECEIVE FRUIT FROM HIS VINE, THAT HE MIGHT RECEIVE THE INCREASE OF THE TALENTS AND POUNDS THAT HE HAS SO RICHLY GIVEN AND THAT THIS WORLD MIGHT BE CONFRONTED BY THE FULL UNDIMMED EXPRESSION OF THE SON! THIS IS NOT AN HOUR TO TURN BACK; IT IS AN HOUR TO ARISE, FOR THIS IS HIS DAY, HIS HOUR AND HIS MOMENT.

Ω

“Bad will be the day for every man
when he becomes absolutely content with the life that he is living,
with the thoughts that he is thinking, with the deeds that he is doing,
when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul
some great desire to do something larger,
which he knows that he was meant and made to do because he is still,
in spite of all, the child of God.
PHILLIPS BROOKS (1835–1893)

Brian Troxel

ARISING IN THE NIGHT!

ARISING IN THE NIGHT

”And I arose in the night”
Nehemiah 2:12

The test of faith is not only what we do in the times of light and blessing but how we respond in those times when we cannot see our way. Here we see a dark time for the people of God; the City of God was burned with fire, the gates destroyed, and rubble filled the streets. The enemy was strong in the Land and the oppressors kept diligent watch that there should be no rising up of the people of God.

Nehemiah had a call from God to see the City arise from the rubble. There was a cry in his heart for the City not for himself. The burden caused him to arise, the vision was strong upon him, his purpose was clear and his God was Great. He did not wait for others to “catch the vision”; he did not wait for the “conditions” to improve. He arose to fulfill the cry of God in his heart.

True Vision produces DEEDS of FAITH. True vision brings us into the reality that our God is willing, able and faithful to provide substance and strength for the purpose for which we have been apprehended. While men linger in the night the tares are planted…

“But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat”
Matthew 13:25

While men sleep the enemy sows deception and error; thoughts that sound right but destroy the truth of the seed that was planted. Excuses and reasons why we cannot arise, why the people of God should be content to just maintain the status quo while the City of God remains divided, weak and barren, are all tares sown in the night.

“The slothful man saith, there is a lion in the way…”
Proverbs 26:13

LET US ARISE even in the night to see HIS Glory once again covering, filling and empowering the Church of JESUS CHRIST. Let us arise, lay aside the seeking of our own prosperity, and find HIS heart to seek the welfare of the Children of God!

“God’s program for reviving His people is definite and clear. First Elijah repaired the altar of Jehovah that was thrown down. That is the place to begin. All the ruin that sin has wrought must be cleared away by confession. Things must be made right with God; restitution must be made where it is due. Unless this is done definitely and thoroughly, prayer for reviving is vain. Too many are praying today without repairing the altar by confession of sin, without digging a trench of separation from the world and without a surrender that is even unto death. No wonder such prayer is fruitless”
Andrew Gih

Brian Troxel