The Edge of Night

Administrator — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 02:43:43 +0000

What exactly does that mean? When you’re on the edge of night, everything is black, everything is dark, and if you have no hope, then everything will continue to be that way, but if you put your hope, and trust, and confidence in God, then you do have hope and will see the light. The Bible says, “Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning,” (Psalm 30:5).
Now you know, there are some things you will have to go through but if you hold on through the darkest of nights, you know morning is coming and in the morning, joy comes.
Not too long ago my daughter preached a message titled, Trust In God. She was talking about a movie that she watched called, Insidious. She said she knew she had no business watching it but because everybody was bragging about it, she decided she had to see it. After which she had nightmares about the movie. She related how she prayed and asked God to forgive her and to remove the images from her mind so she could sleep. The enemy kept telling her that God did not hear her, that He has left her but she continued to pray and God answered her prayers. But in the movie, the plot was about a man who was able to travel outside his body and when he did so, he had a limited amount of time to return or else evil spirits would take him over. As a child he constantly encountered a certain evil woman spirit who was always trying to get him to stay longer than he was supposed to. Well, as time went by, the man had a son who was able to do the same thing. The man’s son got caught in this other world and the man, naturally, went on the other side to rescue his son. However, in saving his son, he once again encountered the evil woman spirit from his past. As she distracted him, he overstayed his time to return and she was able to take over and possess him. That’s the gist of the movie but keep this in mind as we move on.
In her message she also talked about watching another movie called, Chronicles of Riddick. Now briefly, this movie featured other worldly beings that invade and take over other planets. These beings are called the “half dead” and the leader had the power to “take” someone’s soul if the person did not bow down and worship him. However, one man stood up against the leader and told him that they would not bow down. Of course the leader didn’t like that and he reached in the man’s body, grabbed his soul, and killed him. Well as soon as the other people saw that, they immediately fell down and worshipped the leader. So much for their belief in their gods. My daughter told how these shows affected and bothered her spirit but as she repented, prayed, and put her trust in God, she was forgiven, relieved, and restored.
Now, I wrote about this because as my daughter preached this message, God began to show me some things. He told me to take note of the influx of movies that are either demonic in nature, have some type of alien life form, or are so-called reality shows. The majority of these reality shows deal with conniving, manipulation, or getting over whether by cheating spouses, people cheating each other out of money, or friends fighting over silly “he said, she said” stuff. So in taking note of all these things, what is the message that is subtlety being slipped in? The message is that this has become the norm, the things people now crave in abundance and is being supplied to curb their appetite.
We no longer see too many shows with households like the Huxtables, where someone does something they shouldn’t, get caught, feel regret and are sorry, and learn their lesson. Family shows like “The Brady Bunch,” “I Love Lucy,” and the like, are no longer popular but all of the demonic shows are. Shows like “Harry Potter,” “Ghost Whisperer,” “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” etc. are in demand and changing the scene. The enemy wants us to believe that this is the new thing, the new “it”. He wants us to become so accustomed to these sorts of things until they become almost natural to us; natural to the point that when we see it really happening, we pay it no attention.
We are on the edge of night because we are being plunged into darkness and some are happily following, going willingly. This is what the flesh wants and we want to satisfy flesh more so than our spirit. For some, their spirit man is screaming out, “Don’t look at it, don’t get caught up in it, turn it off, and get away from it.” But flesh is having a temper tantrum screaming, “it’s too intriguing, find out what’s going to happen, everybody said it was good, see what they’re talking about.”
See, this is the same sort of thing the enemy did to Eve. He said, “Look at this, isn’t it beautiful, look how big and plump and juicy it is.” Whatever he said, we don’t really know, but whatever it was, it was enough to appeal to her senses and because it did, she gave in to it. She forgot about what was right and what God said; none of that no longer mattered.
As it is with some of us, we push all that’s right in the background and allow the flesh to stand up and override what the Spirit tells us. And all these things are happening because we are on the edge of night. We are standing at the fork in the road and have a serious choice to make. These are the two paths set before us; wide is one and narrow is the other. Many people are beating a path to the wide one because it looks fun over there, it looks good over there, it looks exciting over there. The other path, however, the narrow one, it’s looks to be too hard, too rough, too boring, and no one wants to go over there. What they don’t realize though, is that over there, where all the people are willingly walking and running to, they are being set up.
Today, people are being setup because we are on the edge of night. Many aren’t recognizing it because the enemy has subtlely introduced it to us through music, TV, and film; all those things we watch, consume, and listen to.
And what’s happening is, people are trading in. They can’t wait for the rewards God has for them, they can’t wait for the things God has laid up for them. On the narrow path, we have to do a little work over here, we have to be obedient over here, we have to give of ourselves over here, and we have to do it God’s way over here. On the other side, however, you can have it instantly, you can be famous now, you can have all the money now, and you can do it your way, so you think. But the underlying truth is this, like Esau’s trade with Jacob, you’re trading in something of everlasting value for something temporary and worthless; you’re trading in your soul.
Like in the Chronicles of Riddick, there is coming a time, there is coming a day, when we’re going to have to stand up for what we believe in. Understand, these shows aren’t really fictitious but in a way are foretelling, a prophecy in a sense, of what is going to happen. In Riddick, the man who stood up for his faith, died for what he believed in. He said, “We will not bow down to you. We are of many faiths and we believe different things but we will not bow down to you.” He may have lost his life but he gained his soul because he did not bow down. One day, at some point, this same choice is going to come before us and we are going to have to declare our allegiance either to God or to the devil.
We are on the edge of night and the enemy is introducing all of these things to us through the media so that as we see it more often, we will become used to it. But the enemy played his hand. We need to realize that in the things that are portrayed in music, TV, and film, these are the things the enemy is plotting against us, and he’s already begun his attack. Like the message in Insidious, God is allowing the plot to be revealed. The enemy is showing us what he’s doing to us and the farther away we move from Christ, the farther away we get from God, and the more distracted we allow ourselves to become, the closer the enemy can get to us and get his grips in us; and if we don’t make it back to God in time, then he has free reign to enter in and rule.
Therefore, we have to “be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of [y]ours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour,” (1 Peter 5:8 Amp). Don’t let the enemy prey on you, don’t fall victim to him. Recognize the times in which we live and know that we are on the edge of night but when we put our hope in Jesus, He will be our Guiding Light.

Water Walking Faith

Administrator — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:46:51 +0000

“But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.”

Wow! What an experience for Peter and what a testimony for us today. God, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Now I said that because God doesn’t change and He has no respect of persons. If He allowed Peter to walk on water, He will do the same for us. Okay, we may not acutally walk on water – though if God were to command it we could – but understand what is being illustrated here. Jesus came to the disciples walking on water. Peter saw it and desired to do the same thing. They knew Jesus was the Son of God but what did that really mean to them? They had heard Him teach with wisdom and authority like none other. They had seen Him do miracles: heal people, feed multitudes, cast out devils, but was any of that personal enough to get them to truly know and believe who He was? You know how some of us are…”I know He can do it for Ruthy Mae and Johnny; I’ve seen Him do it, but will He, can He do it for me?”

Peter made a request of Jesus and Jesus granted it. Peter got out the boat and was walking on water. He was doing the impossible! At the moment he stepped out of the boat, he was full of faith. “Jesus said it, I can do it,” was probably his thought. He trusted Jesus’ word to come! But then something happened. Peter began to notice what was going on around him. His environment began to speak to him and remind him that this wasn’t something that naturally he should be doing. He bought it and began to sink and called out to Jesus to save him. Jesus grabbed him by the hand and, still walking on water, the two of them went to the boat with the others. OK, so we know with God all things are possible. While Peter was with Jesus, they two, walked on water back to the boat. But what about when Jesus is afar off? Well Peter still walked on water as long as he acted in faith on Jesus’ command to come.

So too with us. We can do the impossible, that which our nature and environment says we can’t or shouldn’t be able to do, when God gives us the green light, nothing is impossible! We must learn to step out on faith having received the word from God. That is the word we need to keep first and foremost in our thinking because if we become distracted by other things: what’s going on in the economy, what people are saying about us, how the job and housing markets look, etc, these things will eventually pull us down. Then we will have to call on God to save us and His reply will be, “Where is your faith? Why did you doubt?” Why did you doubt His word and let “things” erode your faith?

This is a lesson to us that no matter what it looks like, no matter how bad it seems, how we feel or think, we have to depend on God’s word. If God said it, that settles it. This is how we increase our faith, by trusting in and acting on God’s word. Go ahead, try it, I dare you!

Kingdom Business » God

The Edge of Night

Water Walking Faith