Christ Your New Delight

SUCCESSOINT Sometimes we talk about the price of walking and talking intimately with God, but in truth, Jesus Christ has already paid that price. For believers, it is instead a privilege. Only when we understand this can He become our greatest delight and His words our greatest treasure. A Message That Changed My Life In February 1972, Loren Cunningham, the founder of Youth with a Mission (YWAM), preached at a church in Canada. I remember that message as if I heard it yesterday. I had just prayed to receive Jesus Christ into my heart on February 14, a Monday. On the following Thursday, February 17, I heard Loren’s sermon, and at the end of the service, I surrendered to the Lord publicly. So it was a memorable few days. Loren talked about the fact that YWAM had bought a ship. It was the culmination of so much work, and the plans were coming together to use this ship for a number of great mission outreaches. As this was happening, Loren had a dream from the Lord. He saw the ship, and he saw the Lord. As the ship became clearer and clearer in his dream, the Lord was going farther and farther away. Then the ship was in the center of his sight, and the Lord was somewhere far away, fading from his vision. In his dream, Loren heard the Lord saying, “What do you want? The ship or Me?” Anyone who knows anything about the founder of YWAM knows that he chose the Lord. As a result in the nearly 50 years since its inception, YWAM’s activities have expanded from youth-focused short-term trips to include educational training, church planting, business as mission, and relief and development services with operations in over 160 countries. And Loren also got his ship! The Lord rewarded him for making the right choice. In the years since I heard that message as a teenager in Toronto, I have seen so many times when preachers and believers have reached the same point—“What do you want? The ship or Me?”—but they have not always concluded with the same wonderful choice that Loren Cunningham made. No Longer Seeking the Lord So many get so caught up in ministry and good things that it gets easy to forget the Lord Jesus who gave that ministry. And when Jesus walks out, that ministry becomes merely a business. Remember the story of Samson? It is found in Judges 13–16. As Delilah tried to discover the source of his strength, he toyed with the Philistines. Each time they would try to capture him, his supernatural strength would allow him to shake off any ropes and overwhelm his captors. Finally, the last time he tried to shake off his ropes, his strength was gone. The Lord had departed. That is what happens to people, then and now, who take God’s presence for granted, who no longer seek Him. The Lord walks away, and all that is left is a shell of a ministry. Who wants the shell? There are so many preachers who have been fired, yet they don’t even realize it. The anointing is gone, but they do not know it. The anointing often goes away very slowly. People, even those who have been walking under a mighty anointing, can find it easy to be busy with the work of ministry and other things until they become accustomed to less and less of the anointing. They may have zero anointing, yet they think God is still there because of all the busy-ness and noise. But there is no power. Outsiders can often tell the difference. You can see that something is missing. It is business as usual, but the Holy Spirit is no longer there. That is what was behind God’s warning to the church in Ephesus in Revelation: “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4). And to the church of Laodicea, He warned: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:15-17) It is time for all believers to reexamine our hearts, to get back to our first love. We are at a prophetic point in history. The Lord is dealing with us, desiring for us to go to a deeper, more intimate communion with Him. He is asking if we want “things” or Him. He is sending a royal invitation to you, and your answer to His question will decide your eternal destiny. What you say to the Lord will determine what He does in your life and where He takes you from this point. God Demands More Almighty God is holy. He is powerful. He is glorious beyond description. He is so holy that the scene before His throne is described “as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire” (Revelation 15:2). As you get closer to the Lord, His holiness reveals the unfathomable privilege of being in His presence, even as the flames burn away everything that would hold us back. Suddenly, as you get closer to Him, you realize that the activities and things that we thought were harmless or even good need to go. Much is required. He is asking more because He desires to give more and do more. The moment you make the decision to give up everything that would hold you back, you will go to a place in Him that you did not even know existed. There is a place where God begins to reveal Himself to you in a way that you have never seen before. Everything is fresh and new! The treasures that await you are greater than you can handle right now, which is why He has to prepare you for getting closer and closer to Him. He wants you to know Him deeper, but nothing will be given to you nor will anything be shown to you until you say “Yes!” to Him and mean it with all your heart. Then He will begin to draw you into His own blessed presence. He wants intimacy with you. He created you for worship. He designed you so that He could reveal His heart to you: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21). That depth of oneness is indescribable with human words. A Life-Changing Vision When I was a young man, just beginning my walk with my Lord Jesus, I had a vision, though I did not fully understand it then. I am just beginning to understand it now. In my vision, I was praying on my knees when suddenly I saw a troubling sight. I was bound up, totally crippled, looking like a hunchback. Every part of my body was wrapped in this dark brown, overwhelming ugliness. Nearby stood the Lord in all His perfection and beauty. He was wearing a glistening white robe. I could not see His features, but I could see His face in the midst of all the shining light. I was looking at this vision, and I heard the Lord Jesus saying to this bound-up Benny Hinn something so simple and compelling. He said, “Come. Just come.” That’s all. Looking at this vision of the Lord, with me bound up in overwhelming ugliness, I began crying out, “Oh, Lord, can’t You see that he’s a cripple? Can’t You see that he is bound? Please go touch him!” The Lord ignored me as I said those words, and He just kept repeating the same word to the disfigured Benny: “Come. Come. Come.” That bound-up person could hardly move because of the terrible darkness all around him. Then I saw that the prisoner was fighting against his wrappings. Everything in him was fighting to get out of that bondage. This went on for some time. I kept praying for the bound Benny, and I saw him slowly, slowly coming out of the darkness. Eventually he was able to move very slowly, then he was able to move freely. It was agonizing to watch what was happening. In time, the Benny Hinn who had been totally bound was able to stand tall and straight. The horrible darkness kept trying to pull him back in, but the closer he got to the presence of the Lord Jesus, the more that terrible atmosphere lost its grip. The Bible tells us, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). I literally saw this happening! What I saw amazes me to this day, for the freed Benny moved closer and closer to the Lord, until he disappeared out of sight. All I could see was Jesus! The other Benny was gone! The vision ended, but I was shaken and moved mightily for some time afterward. I remember praying, “Lord, what would happen to me if I should walk away?” He told me, “You would walk right back into your bondage. Away from Me is darkness. Only in My presence is liberty.” Liberty Through Communion with Our Precious Lord Jesus How often have we walked away and not realized how serious the consequences would be? Worse, how often have we simply neglected our fellowship with Him, only to realize that He has walked away while we busied ourselves with other things? The Lord Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Jesus did not say, “I will follow you.” He said, “Follow Me!” Where He goes, you must follow, if you want to be in His presence. He doesn’t always tell you where He is going, but He says, “Trust Me.” The alternative—not going with Him—means that you are headed back into darkness and destruction. Jesus wants you to be right where He is so you can stay free forever. Sometimes we get so caught up in our busy lives, our ministries, or our families that Jesus takes second place, then third place, then fourth, and the next thing you know, you are too tired to pray. Your spiritual life starts to die. Your heart knows you are in trouble, but you aren’t sure what to do, so you keep on being busy. It is a dangerous place to be. I made a decision a long time ago that I would never go back. Again and again I have made that decision to never leave the glorious presence of Jesus Christ. And I believe God is calling each of us today to make that decision. Your Calling to More Next week, I want to go step by step though the process of walking deeper with the Lord Jesus. When the desire for fellowship with God and safety in His presence becomes greater than anything else in life, then we can begin to understand what it means to be one in Him. From that moment, everything changes. And that is my prayer for you! It is also my prayer that you will step out in faith in your giving toward the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God wants to overtake you with blessings to the point that you hardly know what to do with all the overflow. That is specifically what Jesus talked about when He said, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38). God wants to pour out blessings in abundance upon you, and it is my prayer that as you step out in faith, God will bless you, prosper you, increase you, and will reveal hidden treasures that will change your life forever! I am asking you—God’s child, His beloved—to join hands with me and your heart with mine. Together, let’s commit to telling the world about the love of Jesus Christ. His deep, deep love is immeasurable, boundless, free, and flowing deeper than a mighty ocean in its fullness over us. Will you stand with me today? Will you help me tell the world about our precious, loving, and unchanging Jesus? Now is the time, for your greatest days are ahead. Your future is so much greater than your past, and your destiny is more prosperous than anything you have known before! Thank you for all you are doing to take the Gospel of Jesus around the world through miracles services, broadcasts, and mission outreaches.