PATHWAY TO REVIVAL
Our Lord Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it—Lk.19:41. That our Lord should express His heart in tears upon sighting a city should immediately cause to descend upon us a solemnity that should very reverently and fearfully provoke serious contemplations in the mind of any sober Christian.
That which should first arrest our attention is that He saw the city. This points us to a fact that transcends merely having visual contact with the city. It implies that the Lord saw that town as it truly was and not as it appeared to be. This is proven in the fact that His tears of grief were immediately connected with what He saw. And with that in mind, we pause to investigate, why did Jesus approach the city at all? What was He looking for? What did He see that made Him take to mourning over the city even before saying a word about that holy metropolis?
To understand the heartbreak of our Lord, let us begin with the city itself. Jerusalem was the one city in all the earth in which God chose to put His name and locally establish His presence [2 Chr.6:6]. No other nation could claim the same. Jerusalem was God’s chosen city to represent Him before all other nations that peopled the world. It stood for the noblest ideals and functioned as the religious headquarters of God’s chosen people and where all other lands had gone apostate and totally rejected the one true God, Jerusalem was meant to stand out differently. But this was far from being the case as was observed by the heart of our approaching Lord.
Jerusalem had forsaken her God. The city had become Ichabod [the glory has departed]. No longer was the glory of the God of gods their focus. That ancient city, specially known for Jehovah-worship, had become worse than cities that never laid claim to knowing the true God. It no longer was the spiritual center it was ordained to be, the lesser things of this life had gradually taken control of the entire city.
Even now, whole nations, cities and indeed individuals are capable of distressing the Lord like Jerusalem did. When a people, a city or an individual lives a life which is spiritually or morally lesser than God’s plan and purpose, it grieves the Spirit of God and causes divine bowels to churn with sorrow.
Jerusalem the beloved city had failed to do the one thing for which God had been nurturing her for centuries. In spite of all the care and attention given to her by heaven, the city was still not exclusively inclined towards her God. Indeed, some centuries earlier, Jerusalem was the glory of the earth but now that fact had become obsolete, the entire city had become a museum of true religion. Only a shadow remained.
Friend, before we proceed, what do you think? Is heaven rejoicing or mourning over your own city too? Perhaps you answer, but we are not Jerusalem. Obviously so and that makes it worse. Do you not have greater light than Jerusalem? Ancient Jerusalem knew nothing about the cross like you now do. Have you ever contemplated how much missionary blood congealed into the ground that you might have access to a Bible and even hear the gospel preached? Now have you even handled that Bible today? And when you do, do you ever take its message serious?
Think deeply, what is it that makes you better than others? How many years now has it been since the Lord has been putting up with your refusal to bow to Him? Have you forgotten all the dreams that kept coming to you over the years appealing to your lack of spiritual communion with heaven? Oh, how about the teachings, and the miraculous preservations of your life in several different instances? Is there anything that you presently are that God has not made you? What is your purpose on earth? Why are you living? Would it be a loss to God at all if you die right now, if not why do you continue to take His grace for granted by remaining spiritually unwashed?
Begin first to evaluate yourself as an individual. Like Jerusalem, what sort of action or conversation is your existence here on earth is provoking in the mind of Christ? In times past, the word of God was your delight but now holiness has become a burden to you and the love of other things have gained access and indeed taken your soul captive.
Remember how you never began a day without first spending time in God’s presence? Ah, recall how men will voluntarily fling religious titles like Pastor, Man of God and all such at you whenever you pass them by.
But observe how presently your schedule is so tight that you no longer have time for God. Notice how your knees have become so weak that they can’t sustain you in prayer even for five minutes. Consider how your heart has become stony and can no longer produce tears of intercession for the lost and cries of mercy for the poor. Ichabod! Ichabod!! The glory has departed!
Give ear to the charge of heaven, I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?—Jer.2:21. You started well how then has your life become spiritually desolate? What has come over you that you have turned your back against God?
Jesus lamented over Jerusalem. Dear minister of God, how about you? What is heaven saying about your ministry? In ancient Israel a man of God was powerfully preaching, no one for once doubted the approval of heaven over his ministry; everyone believed he was a prophet as he truly was.
But while he was busy for the kingdom with hot messages passing from his lips, heaven was advertising his position, Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for Us?—Isa.6:8 Tragic, you say, but consider another example; Saul though sitting on the throne of Israel was in heaven’s estimation an expired king. As far as God was concerned, the anointing oil on his head had run dry. He was merely decorating the throne as ruler while God was seeking a man after His own heart.
How is it with you? When heaven looks down into your neighborhood, is God still saying, ‘Oh, We need a Christian in this neighborhood, who will go for Us? Is the Spirit of God scanning the students in your school and despite your presence and physical well-being, is the Spirit still searching and saying, ‘Darkness is upon the face of this school, We need a Christian here, whom shall We send and who will go for Us? Ah, the terror of it! May the Lord not exchange you for another person.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem, is He not weeping over you too? He advertised Isaiah’s position while the man was alive and still active in ministry what is your own story o man of God? Saul filled the throne but the Spirit had departed. Professing Believer, where are you? These things were written for our example we dare not take them for granted [Rom.11:21]. Where men fail to do what is required of them, it is not beyond the power of God that stones should rise and perform God’s will.
Listen, you may have lost the anointing, fine! You possibly have gone bankrupt in ministry, no problem! Perhaps you have lost your reputation, good! That is no fatal trouble. All those things can be regained. With God they can be reclaimed. But how you as a human soul, how you yourself as a professing believer will not be forever lost is the issue we have to deal with here.
Returning to Jerusalem, we find Jesus speaking, If you had known even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes—Lk.19:42 . The first thing our Lord says is, If you had known The boast of Jerusalem was always in possessing a special knowledge of God above all other cities. But Jesus here declares her to be ignorant of true knowledge. If you had known! Jerusalem did not know as she ought to know though she thought she did. She lacked knowledge and her children were dying spiritually because of this.
Our modern cities are even worse. The increasing crave for knowledge is becoming almost idolatrous. We pursue knowledge in science, government, commerce and in technology. Weapons of war capable of destroying the earth are the trophies of our breakthroughs, industries destroying and depleting the ozone layer, polluting the waters and endangering marine life are monuments of our advancements in technology. Indeed we can clone anything now and robots can gradually take the place of man. There no longer is a need to adapt to our environment, we are skillful in subjecting our environment to our whims.
And the circle continues so that daily great energies are constantly expended upon passing and perishable things but in all of these the knowledge of God remains relatively absent. Think about it for once, a growing child who proposes to pursue a career in science, politics, or in technology will at once gain the approval of his parents and the public. But if the same child, instead, chooses to pursue the knowledge of the Bible, insisting that he desires to set himself apart unto the purpose of God. He immediately wins himself a notorious reputation of being an unserious entity! If only we know it that the Almighty Himself does not commit His pearls of sacred truth to the trust of swine, literate or not, wealthy or not, perhaps we would be more careful.
The idea here is not that improvements in science and technology in themselves are evil, that which is wrong about it all is that we pursue these things at the expense of the knowledge of the One true God while attempting to derive satisfaction and security from what we think we know rather than from the Lord Himself.
One city in the world that has never ceased to trouble my heart is that geographical location typically known as London. Trace the lines of history and note men who valiantly subdued this world for God in their generations and whose influence continues up until the present and you will be amazed that the U.K. and specifically London, had produced the best men the world has known in the last few centuries.
However, consider London as it is today, do you notice the death of true religion and the proliferation of meaningless worship? It is almost unbelievable that the same city that trembled under the teachings of God’s prophets for centuries presently boasts of giant structures dedicated as headquarter centers for the worship of other deities. Worse still, is the spiritual infidelity we see on video, parading as ‘Christian music and messages’ all hailing from that same place! Ah, crooked and perverse generation! Trading the principles for which your ancestors lived and labored! What more ought to have been done for you that the God of heaven did not? May the Lord have mercy on you.
So much for London, please skip quickly with me to verse 45-47 in Luke chapter nineteen, Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, ‘It is written, My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him.
Please notice two things. There in God’s own city, religion had become profane and prayerless routine. Why would Jesus not cry over it? The sanctuary was no more than a center of commerce. They were buying and selling in the temple [Lk.19:45]. Even worse than this, the religious big-men of the day sought to silence Spirit-filled teaching [Lk.19:47]. Sound Scriptural reasoning was to their minds intolerant to human rights while commercial religion was being promoted.
The supreme meaning of life to them was no longer to be found in God’s word or will but in money and in a spiritually base, non-offensive and congenial religion. In their thinking, such peaceful co-existence with mutual understanding at the expense of the soul, define peace and prosperity.
But the word of Christ struck the point when He declared, If you had known the things that make for your peace. All those things that Jerusalem looked to and depended upon did not bring peace. On the external everything appeared well but in reality they were very spiritually impoverished. Life goes deeper than pretense.
You would be amazed at how artificial laughter, fine dresses, cosmetics and eloquence attempt to vainly cover disturbed hearts who pretend as if all is well. Day to day, the streets reveal squadrons of souls physically well-dressed, exchanging pleasantries, speaking English language admirably, yet personal discussions with most of these expose seats of emptiness deeply entrenched within the consciousness of these people. Dear reader, these things do not provide peace. They do not and cannot eternally secure your soul.
Everyone wants to get rich but they forget that the rich also cry. Those who would stop at nothing until they get a bachelors degree, presently pursue Masters degree, and Masters degree holders continue to long for doctorate degrees and the circle goes on and on and on. These things though not harmful in themselves can never substitute for peace, success or security and should not constitute our topmost priority.
Be honest to yourself, Is there any assurance of peace in your heart? In spite of all you own does your spirit bear witness to the rule of tranquility within you? Believers in Christ can testify to an inward serenity independent of external circumstances but can you? There is no peace to the wicked, his financial, social, political, and academic status irrespective.
This is not about religion, the point here is peace with God. Do you know it? Do you have it? If you are a believer and you lack it, then I say check your focus. On what affairs of life do you place your topmost priority? What is the master passion of your life?
How do you define success and what values do you interpret as constituting fullness of life? Any answer apart from God at once reveals your inner lack and demands that you re-consider your ways and return to God. It is the indisputable way to never-ending peace.
Our Lord declared of Jerusalem, they are hidden from your eyes which does not mean God hid the way of peace from their eyes rather it means that they failed to see! Their attention was fastened upon other things.
Friend, God’s word stand revealed in the Scriptures, it is from your eyes and mine that the scale needs to fall. The Psalmist cried, Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law--Ps.119:18.
Remember Isaiah said of the Christ that when He comes, there is no beauty that we should desire Him [Isa.53:2] The Christ of God is not destitute of beauty as that verse is commonly being interpreted today. Comparing Scripture with Scripture, we discover that human intelligence since the fall of man has been impaired and darkened and cannot, apart from divine aid, appreciate true beauty [Eph.4:18]. Sin has so blighted and blasted our understanding and capacity to appreciate true beauty that we fall far below the original powers of the mind according to the divine intent.
It follows then that we must lift our hearts and cry out that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened-- Eph.1:17-18. Once this is achieved, immediately our eyes are enlightened again, then our steps can be re-ordered in the paths of grace.
The Lord’s final words to Jerusalem that day ran thus, For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation—Lk.19:43-44. Here we hear Christ warning the city. While Jerusalem was complacently living in carelessness, the enemy was preparing to strike. While she was without prayer, buying and selling, the destroyer was getting ready to wreck and ruin.
Oh, the import of all these, the sons of this world are in their generations wiser than the children of light. The great dragon is out there roaming around, seeking to kill, to steal and to destroy and do you, oh Christian pilgrim sleep and snore? Have you never read it that, it was while men slept that the enemy came and sow tares? Wake up! Wake up!! You have not yet arrived at the haven of rest. Arise now, O fainting believer, the plan of God for you demands vigilance. You are not far from true rest. God will uphold you Himself. But stop giving your whole time to other things at the expense of fellowship with heaven. Please do not continue to gamble with your soul. What shall it profit you if you have all the knowledge that science has to offer together with wealth, political power and everything this world has to offer at the expense of your eternal well-being?
Jerusalem did not heed the warning. She despised the call of salvation and pursued her own death as a consequence of her spiritual negligence.
That city which Christ once referred to as My house [Lk.19:46], He presently refers to as your house. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under wings, but you were not willing. See! Your house is left to you desolate--Matt.23:37-38. After Jesus referred to Jerusalem as your house, He never went to the temple again until enemy armies leveled the city to ruins.
Dear reader, have you fallen from fellowship with God because you would not heed warning. Do you now lie spiritually desolate because you hardened your heart? Ah, your sorrowful estate. All joy gone, true peace withdrawn!
Yet, it is not the end, the enemy will not have the last say. Jesus sounded the note of hope when He said, till you say, blessed is He who comes in the name of he Lord--Matt.19:39. Jerusalem is not forever abandoned. She remains an outcast only TILL she turns back unto the Lord.
As soon as she is willing, God will embrace her again. She fell because she was not willing [Matt.19:37]. But Christ will turn her to Himself again and if she will but respond to His love. He will purge and cleanse her of filth and give her a heart from God.
The apostle John prophetically announced that he saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband--Rev.21:2. That’s it! There’s no time to waste. God is waiting to restore and to revive you. He is waiting to take you to Himself again, cleanse you and give you back your job and service as His representative with His authority backing you up.
Jerusalem is to be restored, God can and will restore you too. She was sent down to earth again; you can regain your ministry and with heaven open over you this time.
My brother, dear sister, linger not in your miseries this day, the Father’s eyes daily long for your approaching footfalls, the Son’s hands are stretched out to take in your embrace and impart some benedictions to you, and the Spirit of God delights in filling you with power for His service.
What will your response be? It is never too late to retrace your steps, all that is lost can be regained and restored. The Spirit of grace can alight on your heart again with the fire of His love. Do not give up on yourself; God has not given up on you. Simply bow your head in prayer and submit your heart to God in true repentance and He will mold you again into a useful vessel. Arise! Arise!! And come take your place in the Father’s heart. God bless you.
That which should first arrest our attention is that He saw the city. This points us to a fact that transcends merely having visual contact with the city. It implies that the Lord saw that town as it truly was and not as it appeared to be. This is proven in the fact that His tears of grief were immediately connected with what He saw. And with that in mind, we pause to investigate, why did Jesus approach the city at all? What was He looking for? What did He see that made Him take to mourning over the city even before saying a word about that holy metropolis?
To understand the heartbreak of our Lord, let us begin with the city itself. Jerusalem was the one city in all the earth in which God chose to put His name and locally establish His presence [2 Chr.6:6]. No other nation could claim the same. Jerusalem was God’s chosen city to represent Him before all other nations that peopled the world. It stood for the noblest ideals and functioned as the religious headquarters of God’s chosen people and where all other lands had gone apostate and totally rejected the one true God, Jerusalem was meant to stand out differently. But this was far from being the case as was observed by the heart of our approaching Lord.
Jerusalem had forsaken her God. The city had become Ichabod [the glory has departed]. No longer was the glory of the God of gods their focus. That ancient city, specially known for Jehovah-worship, had become worse than cities that never laid claim to knowing the true God. It no longer was the spiritual center it was ordained to be, the lesser things of this life had gradually taken control of the entire city.
Even now, whole nations, cities and indeed individuals are capable of distressing the Lord like Jerusalem did. When a people, a city or an individual lives a life which is spiritually or morally lesser than God’s plan and purpose, it grieves the Spirit of God and causes divine bowels to churn with sorrow.
Jerusalem the beloved city had failed to do the one thing for which God had been nurturing her for centuries. In spite of all the care and attention given to her by heaven, the city was still not exclusively inclined towards her God. Indeed, some centuries earlier, Jerusalem was the glory of the earth but now that fact had become obsolete, the entire city had become a museum of true religion. Only a shadow remained.
Friend, before we proceed, what do you think? Is heaven rejoicing or mourning over your own city too? Perhaps you answer, but we are not Jerusalem. Obviously so and that makes it worse. Do you not have greater light than Jerusalem? Ancient Jerusalem knew nothing about the cross like you now do. Have you ever contemplated how much missionary blood congealed into the ground that you might have access to a Bible and even hear the gospel preached? Now have you even handled that Bible today? And when you do, do you ever take its message serious?
Think deeply, what is it that makes you better than others? How many years now has it been since the Lord has been putting up with your refusal to bow to Him? Have you forgotten all the dreams that kept coming to you over the years appealing to your lack of spiritual communion with heaven? Oh, how about the teachings, and the miraculous preservations of your life in several different instances? Is there anything that you presently are that God has not made you? What is your purpose on earth? Why are you living? Would it be a loss to God at all if you die right now, if not why do you continue to take His grace for granted by remaining spiritually unwashed?
Begin first to evaluate yourself as an individual. Like Jerusalem, what sort of action or conversation is your existence here on earth is provoking in the mind of Christ? In times past, the word of God was your delight but now holiness has become a burden to you and the love of other things have gained access and indeed taken your soul captive.
Remember how you never began a day without first spending time in God’s presence? Ah, recall how men will voluntarily fling religious titles like Pastor, Man of God and all such at you whenever you pass them by.
But observe how presently your schedule is so tight that you no longer have time for God. Notice how your knees have become so weak that they can’t sustain you in prayer even for five minutes. Consider how your heart has become stony and can no longer produce tears of intercession for the lost and cries of mercy for the poor. Ichabod! Ichabod!! The glory has departed!
Give ear to the charge of heaven, I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?—Jer.2:21. You started well how then has your life become spiritually desolate? What has come over you that you have turned your back against God?
Jesus lamented over Jerusalem. Dear minister of God, how about you? What is heaven saying about your ministry? In ancient Israel a man of God was powerfully preaching, no one for once doubted the approval of heaven over his ministry; everyone believed he was a prophet as he truly was.
But while he was busy for the kingdom with hot messages passing from his lips, heaven was advertising his position, Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for Us?—Isa.6:8 Tragic, you say, but consider another example; Saul though sitting on the throne of Israel was in heaven’s estimation an expired king. As far as God was concerned, the anointing oil on his head had run dry. He was merely decorating the throne as ruler while God was seeking a man after His own heart.
How is it with you? When heaven looks down into your neighborhood, is God still saying, ‘Oh, We need a Christian in this neighborhood, who will go for Us? Is the Spirit of God scanning the students in your school and despite your presence and physical well-being, is the Spirit still searching and saying, ‘Darkness is upon the face of this school, We need a Christian here, whom shall We send and who will go for Us? Ah, the terror of it! May the Lord not exchange you for another person.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem, is He not weeping over you too? He advertised Isaiah’s position while the man was alive and still active in ministry what is your own story o man of God? Saul filled the throne but the Spirit had departed. Professing Believer, where are you? These things were written for our example we dare not take them for granted [Rom.11:21]. Where men fail to do what is required of them, it is not beyond the power of God that stones should rise and perform God’s will.
Listen, you may have lost the anointing, fine! You possibly have gone bankrupt in ministry, no problem! Perhaps you have lost your reputation, good! That is no fatal trouble. All those things can be regained. With God they can be reclaimed. But how you as a human soul, how you yourself as a professing believer will not be forever lost is the issue we have to deal with here.
Returning to Jerusalem, we find Jesus speaking, If you had known even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes—Lk.19:42 . The first thing our Lord says is, If you had known The boast of Jerusalem was always in possessing a special knowledge of God above all other cities. But Jesus here declares her to be ignorant of true knowledge. If you had known! Jerusalem did not know as she ought to know though she thought she did. She lacked knowledge and her children were dying spiritually because of this.
Our modern cities are even worse. The increasing crave for knowledge is becoming almost idolatrous. We pursue knowledge in science, government, commerce and in technology. Weapons of war capable of destroying the earth are the trophies of our breakthroughs, industries destroying and depleting the ozone layer, polluting the waters and endangering marine life are monuments of our advancements in technology. Indeed we can clone anything now and robots can gradually take the place of man. There no longer is a need to adapt to our environment, we are skillful in subjecting our environment to our whims.
And the circle continues so that daily great energies are constantly expended upon passing and perishable things but in all of these the knowledge of God remains relatively absent. Think about it for once, a growing child who proposes to pursue a career in science, politics, or in technology will at once gain the approval of his parents and the public. But if the same child, instead, chooses to pursue the knowledge of the Bible, insisting that he desires to set himself apart unto the purpose of God. He immediately wins himself a notorious reputation of being an unserious entity! If only we know it that the Almighty Himself does not commit His pearls of sacred truth to the trust of swine, literate or not, wealthy or not, perhaps we would be more careful.
The idea here is not that improvements in science and technology in themselves are evil, that which is wrong about it all is that we pursue these things at the expense of the knowledge of the One true God while attempting to derive satisfaction and security from what we think we know rather than from the Lord Himself.
One city in the world that has never ceased to trouble my heart is that geographical location typically known as London. Trace the lines of history and note men who valiantly subdued this world for God in their generations and whose influence continues up until the present and you will be amazed that the U.K. and specifically London, had produced the best men the world has known in the last few centuries.
However, consider London as it is today, do you notice the death of true religion and the proliferation of meaningless worship? It is almost unbelievable that the same city that trembled under the teachings of God’s prophets for centuries presently boasts of giant structures dedicated as headquarter centers for the worship of other deities. Worse still, is the spiritual infidelity we see on video, parading as ‘Christian music and messages’ all hailing from that same place! Ah, crooked and perverse generation! Trading the principles for which your ancestors lived and labored! What more ought to have been done for you that the God of heaven did not? May the Lord have mercy on you.
So much for London, please skip quickly with me to verse 45-47 in Luke chapter nineteen, Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, ‘It is written, My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him.
Please notice two things. There in God’s own city, religion had become profane and prayerless routine. Why would Jesus not cry over it? The sanctuary was no more than a center of commerce. They were buying and selling in the temple [Lk.19:45]. Even worse than this, the religious big-men of the day sought to silence Spirit-filled teaching [Lk.19:47]. Sound Scriptural reasoning was to their minds intolerant to human rights while commercial religion was being promoted.
The supreme meaning of life to them was no longer to be found in God’s word or will but in money and in a spiritually base, non-offensive and congenial religion. In their thinking, such peaceful co-existence with mutual understanding at the expense of the soul, define peace and prosperity.
But the word of Christ struck the point when He declared, If you had known the things that make for your peace. All those things that Jerusalem looked to and depended upon did not bring peace. On the external everything appeared well but in reality they were very spiritually impoverished. Life goes deeper than pretense.
You would be amazed at how artificial laughter, fine dresses, cosmetics and eloquence attempt to vainly cover disturbed hearts who pretend as if all is well. Day to day, the streets reveal squadrons of souls physically well-dressed, exchanging pleasantries, speaking English language admirably, yet personal discussions with most of these expose seats of emptiness deeply entrenched within the consciousness of these people. Dear reader, these things do not provide peace. They do not and cannot eternally secure your soul.
Everyone wants to get rich but they forget that the rich also cry. Those who would stop at nothing until they get a bachelors degree, presently pursue Masters degree, and Masters degree holders continue to long for doctorate degrees and the circle goes on and on and on. These things though not harmful in themselves can never substitute for peace, success or security and should not constitute our topmost priority.
Be honest to yourself, Is there any assurance of peace in your heart? In spite of all you own does your spirit bear witness to the rule of tranquility within you? Believers in Christ can testify to an inward serenity independent of external circumstances but can you? There is no peace to the wicked, his financial, social, political, and academic status irrespective.
This is not about religion, the point here is peace with God. Do you know it? Do you have it? If you are a believer and you lack it, then I say check your focus. On what affairs of life do you place your topmost priority? What is the master passion of your life?
How do you define success and what values do you interpret as constituting fullness of life? Any answer apart from God at once reveals your inner lack and demands that you re-consider your ways and return to God. It is the indisputable way to never-ending peace.
Our Lord declared of Jerusalem, they are hidden from your eyes which does not mean God hid the way of peace from their eyes rather it means that they failed to see! Their attention was fastened upon other things.
Friend, God’s word stand revealed in the Scriptures, it is from your eyes and mine that the scale needs to fall. The Psalmist cried, Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law--Ps.119:18.
Remember Isaiah said of the Christ that when He comes, there is no beauty that we should desire Him [Isa.53:2] The Christ of God is not destitute of beauty as that verse is commonly being interpreted today. Comparing Scripture with Scripture, we discover that human intelligence since the fall of man has been impaired and darkened and cannot, apart from divine aid, appreciate true beauty [Eph.4:18]. Sin has so blighted and blasted our understanding and capacity to appreciate true beauty that we fall far below the original powers of the mind according to the divine intent.
It follows then that we must lift our hearts and cry out that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened-- Eph.1:17-18. Once this is achieved, immediately our eyes are enlightened again, then our steps can be re-ordered in the paths of grace.
The Lord’s final words to Jerusalem that day ran thus, For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation—Lk.19:43-44. Here we hear Christ warning the city. While Jerusalem was complacently living in carelessness, the enemy was preparing to strike. While she was without prayer, buying and selling, the destroyer was getting ready to wreck and ruin.
Oh, the import of all these, the sons of this world are in their generations wiser than the children of light. The great dragon is out there roaming around, seeking to kill, to steal and to destroy and do you, oh Christian pilgrim sleep and snore? Have you never read it that, it was while men slept that the enemy came and sow tares? Wake up! Wake up!! You have not yet arrived at the haven of rest. Arise now, O fainting believer, the plan of God for you demands vigilance. You are not far from true rest. God will uphold you Himself. But stop giving your whole time to other things at the expense of fellowship with heaven. Please do not continue to gamble with your soul. What shall it profit you if you have all the knowledge that science has to offer together with wealth, political power and everything this world has to offer at the expense of your eternal well-being?
Jerusalem did not heed the warning. She despised the call of salvation and pursued her own death as a consequence of her spiritual negligence.
That city which Christ once referred to as My house [Lk.19:46], He presently refers to as your house. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under wings, but you were not willing. See! Your house is left to you desolate--Matt.23:37-38. After Jesus referred to Jerusalem as your house, He never went to the temple again until enemy armies leveled the city to ruins.
Dear reader, have you fallen from fellowship with God because you would not heed warning. Do you now lie spiritually desolate because you hardened your heart? Ah, your sorrowful estate. All joy gone, true peace withdrawn!
Yet, it is not the end, the enemy will not have the last say. Jesus sounded the note of hope when He said, till you say, blessed is He who comes in the name of he Lord--Matt.19:39. Jerusalem is not forever abandoned. She remains an outcast only TILL she turns back unto the Lord.
As soon as she is willing, God will embrace her again. She fell because she was not willing [Matt.19:37]. But Christ will turn her to Himself again and if she will but respond to His love. He will purge and cleanse her of filth and give her a heart from God.
The apostle John prophetically announced that he saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband--Rev.21:2. That’s it! There’s no time to waste. God is waiting to restore and to revive you. He is waiting to take you to Himself again, cleanse you and give you back your job and service as His representative with His authority backing you up.
Jerusalem is to be restored, God can and will restore you too. She was sent down to earth again; you can regain your ministry and with heaven open over you this time.
My brother, dear sister, linger not in your miseries this day, the Father’s eyes daily long for your approaching footfalls, the Son’s hands are stretched out to take in your embrace and impart some benedictions to you, and the Spirit of God delights in filling you with power for His service.
What will your response be? It is never too late to retrace your steps, all that is lost can be regained and restored. The Spirit of grace can alight on your heart again with the fire of His love. Do not give up on yourself; God has not given up on you. Simply bow your head in prayer and submit your heart to God in true repentance and He will mold you again into a useful vessel. Arise! Arise!! And come take your place in the Father’s heart. God bless you.
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