The World's Intoxicating Bowl

Posted: 2007-05-07 20:59:25

A People Who are Drinking from the World’s Intoxicating Bowl   (Author not known)  (5-5-07)  (Some quotes by known authors are included)

2^nd Section by Debbie Przybylski

“Most men take the world for their chief good, and place their felicity in the enjoyments of it….” –Matthew Henry

There is something going on in the Body of Christ that is very disturbing. Anyone walking closely to the Lord can surely sense the off-balance message that is sounding out from the pulpits across the land.

Understand this- Yes, God does want to meet the needs of His children. Yes, He wants to free them from all oppression and depression due to debt and lack. Yes, He wants to give them an abundance so that they can fund His Gospel work and be a blessing to others.

However, it seems that this is all that some preachers can ever preach about. (And some “folks” really do want to hear this message.)

These same people need to take notice that there is (much) more in the Bible than the Prosperity and Abundance Message. They will find that it does teach on other subjects besides “Sowing your Seed for a Harvest.”

There is a fear that these churchgoers-whether knowingly or unknowingly-are drinking out of the “world’s intoxicating bowl” and don’t even realize it. Instead of the Lord, His Word, and His presence being their greatest desire, they are just like the heathen in that they are coveting after more and more of this world’s goods-only under the cover of “Sow Your Seed for a Harvest.”

Please do not misunderstand what we are saying here-we do believe in paying tithes and offerings to the Lord and also in planting in financial seed and then believing for blessings to come in return. Certainly, no one can out-give God!

But many have distorted this teaching to the point where they are more interested in the goods than the God who supplies them!

Let’s let the Word of God explain:

Psalm 61:5 says- “For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.”

Psalm 16:5-6 says- “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.”

Psalm 73:26 says- “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”

Psalm 119:57 says- “Thou art my portion, O Lord….”

Psalm 142:5 says- “I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.”

Lamentations 3:24 says- “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul….”

Ezekiel 44:28 says- “And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I am their inheritance: and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession.”

In the above Scriptures, you find words, phrases, or statements such as- “heritage of those that fear Thy name….” “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance….” “I have a goodly heritage….” “God is…my portion….” “Thou art my portion, O Lord….” “Thou art my portion in the land of the living….” “I am their inheritance….” “I am their possession….”

What did the Biblical writers mean when they referred to God as their “portion”?

They meant that He was their chief good…the supplier of all their needs…and the source of their comfort, refreshment, and happiness. He and He alone was the One who could content the desires and wishes of their spirits. While others sought for fulfillment from the things of this world like wealth, honor, pleasure, and fame-they found their God to be their all in all. All sufficient to counterbalance all their troubles and make up for all their loses.

Look around you today- not at the world- but at the Church. Just how many people do you know who can actually say with utmost zeal and confidence that- “The Lord is my portion”? Who is absolutely satisfied in just having Jesus as their source of comfort, refreshment, and happiness? Which ones are content to say- “You can have this old world…just give me Jesus and I’ll be satisfied”?

Are you getting the “drift” of what the Holy Spirit is saying through this message?

God definitely wants to bless His children. Just read what Psalm 115:13-14 says about this- “He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children.”

God takes delight in increasing His children and their children. There is no doubt about it!

But what should the attitude of His people be in return? Should thy forget Him and go after “the gold” so to speak?

Read what some of the Bible commentators had to say on this subject:

Matthew Henry said- “Those that have God for their inheritance and their portion for ever ought to look with a holy contempt and indifference upon the inheritances of this world, and not covet their portion in it.” “There is enough in God to answer all the necessities of this present time.” “It is our duty to make God the portion of our souls, and then to make use of Him as our portion and to take the comfort of it in the midst of our lamentations.” “Those that have God for their inheritance and their possession may be content with a little, and ought not to covet a great deal of the possessions and inheritances of this earth. If we have God, we have all; and therefore may reckon that we have enough….”

Adam Clarke said- “…he that has God for his portion has everything that can make him happy and glorious: all are his.”

Jamieson, Fausset, & Brown stated in their commentary- “To have God for our portion is the one and only foundation and hope.” “God is the all-sufficient Good to His people.”

Lamentations 3:24 says- “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him.”

In the above Scripture, the people who make God their “portion” walk in great confidence, faith, and in an expectancy. 

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2nd Section

The following was written by Debbie Przybylski, “Intercessors Arise”

“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill be made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God’s salvation.”

The church in many parts of the world needs revival. We are right now living in desperate days, and God can use each one of us to prepare the way for the Lord. I trust that each one of you senses the urgency of the hour as intercessors. It is time to seek the Lord. The valleys of defeat must be filled, the mountains of disbelief must be leveled, the crooked places of dishonesty must be straightened and the rough places of disobedience must be made smooth. It is time to make room for the Lord. Revival is divine intervention in the normal course of spiritual things. It is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irresistible power. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed, and human programs abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field. It is the Lord making bare His holy arm and working in extraordinary power on saint and sinner.

I wrote the following two paragraphs almost 25 years ago, and I find that I must still ask myself the same questions today as I wrote then. “Am I desperate enough for revival?” “Do I realize the desperate condition of my country?” And if I trust in religious organization, material wealth, popular preaching, shallow evangelistic crusades, there will never be revival. But when confidence in my flesh is smashed and I realize my desperate wretchedness and emptiness before God, then and only then will God break through. “Lord, make me ready for revival. Revive me.”

I ask that you might join me in prayer for revival in our lives and in the nations- for prayer that is strong, prevailing, believing, God-moving, hell-defeating, devil-routing, sinner-saving, believer-sanctifying, Christ-exalting and worker-producing- prayer that takes all that we are and have. God Himself will motivate us to pray these prayers and have extraordinary consequences if we are willing, willing to pay the price. Pray that God will fill us with the very passion of Christ, with the power and persistence of the Holy Spirit, with the burdening sense of the church’s plight and the world’s appalling need, that the wheels of revival be set in motion.

How do we Personally Prepare the Way for Revival?

(Adapted from Andrew Murray)

 

“A revival of holiness is what we need. And how is it to be found? It will cost much prayer. It will cost more than that- much sacrifice of self and of the world. It will need a surrender to Christ Jesus, to follow Him closely as God is able to lead us. We must learn to look upon a life like Christ’s, having the very same mind that was in Him, as the supreme object of daily life.” Andrew Murray

Become thoroughly dissatisfied with yourself- Be sensitive to God’s conviction. “Press on towards the goal.” (Phil. 3:14)

Set yourself like flint toward a sweeping transformation of your life- Throw your whole soul into the desire for God.

Prepare yourself in the way of blessing- Pray with all your heart, and ask God to enlarge your prayer and worship life. Make time for God, and practice fasting. (Sometimes fasting is walking away from other things you enjoy to seek God, not just food.)

Do a thorough job of repentance- Don’t tolerate sin in your life. Let godly sorrow over your sin touch you deeply.

Make restitution when possible- Make the crooked ways straight in your relationships and life.

Be serious about personal revival- Pray instead of watching TV, and don’t get caught up in the ways of the world. Lay aside the crooked roads.

Deliberately narrow your interests- If you narrow your interests, God will enlarge your heart. Wanting the Lord alone is the way into a world that is infinitely wider and richer than anything else.

Make a new commitment to reach out to the lost. Ask God for opportunities (to be of service for Him, to touch people’s lives for eternity), and He will help you.

Have faith in God- Begin to expect God to move. All heaven is on your side. (He wants to bring glory to Himself through you.)

Revival begins with us. It is each one of us getting our lives straight and turning from the crooked paths. Take seriously the need for personal revival. Take seriously the need for prayer. God is dealing with His church. The following is the testimony of Charles Finney during a revival in a small village in New York.

“I should say a few words regarding the spirit of prayer which prevailed at Rome, New York during this time. Indeed the whole town was full of prayer. Go where you would, you heard the voice of prayer. If you were walking down the street, and if two or three Christians happened to be there, they were praying. Whenever they met, they prayed. Whenever there was a sinner unconverted, especially if he showed any opposition, you would find some two or three brethren or sisters agreeing to make him a special subject of prayer. No one could come into the village without feeling awe-stricken with the impression that God was there in a peculiar and wonderful way.”

Are we willing for God to transform our cities through prayer? Are we willing to pay the price? For many of us, God has brought us to the point of desperation. We are willing to lay down our own agendas and get on our faces before God for however long it takes. We have seen that our methods and plans will never change the increasing darkness that is permeating the world. We are becoming desperate, and that is a good place to be. Seeking the manifest presence of God in a region is risky, but it is the way towards a true and powerful transformation in a nation.

We proclaim, decree, decrease and defeat of witchcraft, Islam, abortion, stupor, secularism, paganism, profanity, heathenism, idol worship, greed, spiritual slumber, corruption, pollution, self-centeredness.