WHO IS ON THE LORD'S SIDE?

Who is on the Lord's side?

Who will serve the King?

Who will be His helpers?

Other lives to bring?

Who will leave the world's side?

Who will face the foe?

Who is on the Lord's side?

Who for Him will go?

By Thy grand redemption,

By Thy grace divine,

We are on the Lord's side,

Saviour, we are thine.

Fierce may be the conflict, 

Strong may be the foe, 

But the King's own army,

None can overthrow.

Round His standard ranging

Victory is secure,

For His truth unchanging

Makes the triumph sure.

Chosen to be soldiers

in an alien land;

Chosen, called and faithful,

For our Captain's band;

In the service royal,

Let us not grow cold, 

Let us be right loyal, 

noble, true and bold.

The above represents verses 1, 4 and 5 together with the chorus from the rousing old hymn, "Who Is On The Lord's Side?" written by English Christian poet and hymn writer, Frances R. Havergal. She wrote the hymn somewhere around 1877.

    The words of the hymn remind us of the fact that all Christians are enlisted in an army, soldiers of the Cross, and as such, should be giving full allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Bible says is "the Captain of our salvation." Hebrews 2:10; Joshua 5:13-15

Rick Joyner, the Founder and Executive Director of MorningStar Ministries, a multi-faceted missions organisation based in Fort Mill, South Carolina, has stated in several of his more than fifty books that "the end-time body of Christ would become an army. God uses the title "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of Armies" more than ten times more than all the other titles combined. He is a martial God. We must understand this aspect of His nature and how His people are going to conform to it. To do this, we must understand the many ways in which human martial demeanour is not the same as God's martial demeanour. As we read in Isaiah 55:8,9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts," says the Lord. NKJV

In the Old Testament times, the people of Israel, God's chosen people, fought many physical wars. The Book of Joshua is a book outlining their conquest of Canaan, the Promised Land, although at the close of the book, the land had not been completely conquered. There were great victories, when the people were obedient to the Lord and took direction from their Commander, Joshua - as in the defeat of Jericho through a strategy which had to be from God. Who would have thought that marching around the city once every day for six days in silence, then marching round seven times the seventh day, after which the priests would blow their trumpets (shofars) and the people would raise a shout - would result in in the wall of the city being levelled, enabling it to be conquered? That is exactly what happened, though! Amazing! God's ways are indeed higher than our ways.

The Lord God had indeed had indeed promised His servant, Joshua, in Joshua 1:3 "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses."

Sadly, Israel suffered defeats though, just as spectacular as the victories, when they walked in disobedience to the Lord, or sought direction from sources which were not Godly.

The title of this blog post "Who Is On The Lord's Side?" is originally a question posed by Moses, who preceded Joshua as the God-appointed leader of the children of Israel.

Moses had been on Mount Sinai in the presence of the LORD, where he received the Ten Commandments, supernaturally engraved on two stone tablets - as well as instructions on building the Tabernacle, a movable structure, where the priests would offer sacrifices, and also where the Ark of the LORD would dwell in the Most Holy Place, a compartment in the tabernacle where only the high priest could enter - and that only once a year "not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance;

the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience -

But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,

how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Hebrews 9:7-14 NKJV

Moses came down from the mountain, with the Ten Commandments to find the children of Israel paying homage to a golden calf fashioned from items of gold provided by the people - under the direction of Aaron, the brother of Moses, worshipping and making sacrifices to this molded image - therein breaking the first and second of the ten commandments. Exodus 20:1-6

Moses, jealous for the honour of the Lord God, burned the golden calf in the fire, ground it into powder and scattered it over the water. After rebuking his brother, Aaron for allowing this idol worship to occur, Moses lifted his voice in the camp and asked loudly: "Who is on the LORD's side? - come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. Exodus 34:26 NKJV

TO BE CONTINUED

 

THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

Behold, I will do a new thing,

Now it shall spring forth;

Shall you not know it?

I will even make a road in the wilderness

And rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18,19

So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,

The crawling locust,

The consuming locust,

And the chewing locust,

My great army which I sent amongst you.

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

And praise the name of the LORD your God,

Who has dealt wondrously with you;

And My people shall never be put to shame. Joel 2:25,26

While many people in the world are living in fear and despair, and confusion, and a sense of hopelessness with all the bad stuff that has been happening over the past two years, those who have their full trust and confidence in the Living God, and are fully committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, as both Saviour and Lord - have a sense that God is about to do something in the nations that will see multitudes turn from darkness to light, despair to hope, fear to faith, and see a harvest of souls for Jesus in the multiplied millions. Not only will there be salvations from the penalty and power of sin, but this will be a perhaps hitherto not seen outpouring of God's healing, delivering, miracle-working grace and power, enveloped in His great love for people.

Truly, I believe for the fully committed child of God, we can confidently decree that, for this year of 2022: THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

That is not to deny the reality that, for Christians, persecution is a reality, and will increase, or that there will not be any trials of our faith. But, we can boldly proclaim with the apostle Paul that "through Him [Jesus], we are more than conquerors." and

 we can stand on His Word that "no weapon formed against us shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against us in judgment, the LORD will condemn." Isaiah 54:17

This truly is a time when we need to draw close to God, knowing that as we do, He will draw close to us. As the psalmist tells us clearly in Psalm 91:1 

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

 shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge 

and my fortress;

My God, in Him I will trust."

Almost three years ago now, a number of significant confirmations were given to us by the Lord concerning the Lord's decree that: The Best Is Yet To Come. Within nine days, the following things spoke to us concerning this reality:

1.    I reconnected with an old friend in New Zealand through Facebook. I had had no contact with Bruce for over thirty years. He and I boarded with a young couple in Christchurch in the early eighties for several years, while I was working for Radio Rhema.  Bruce related to me that he had been through a period of eleven years of severe debilitating health issues from age thirty seven, followed by a period of several years seeing their only daughter taken from them through a terminal illness. Yet, through all these severe trials, Bruce and his wife have remained faithful to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and to trust Him, even though they have unanswered questions as to why God has allowed them to face such severe tests.

At the time, I wrote back to Bruce with a desire to encourage him in the Lord, saying: It might sound like a cliche, but I want to believe for you, as for us, that your best days are ahead. In reply, he answered that he agreed that "The Best Is Yet To Come," if not totally here on earth, then definitely in heaven as I am totally convinced that just one second in heaven will be far greater than all our earthly years.

He also shared a link to a song he had written and recorded while singing at church called "The Best Is Yet To Come."

About ten days after Bruce sent me the song, for a period of twenty four to thirty six hours, this song, or at least the chorus to this song kept going around in my head. Some of the lyrics are:

"The best is yet to come,

Yes, the best is yet to come!

The rain will fall again, heal you inside.

Has the flower bloomed into many colours

Or has the blossom come and suddenly gone?

Oh, the best is yet to come,

The best is yet to come.

Living waters will flow again

Out from your heart,

Oh, the best is yet to come!"

At that time, the Lord confirmed the truth of this song to us as an encouragement then, and I believe again for this year of 2022 that the best is yet to come. To use a colloquial expression, I believe the Lord is saying for us, for our family, and for our church family, as we position ourselves for blessing and breakthrough - 'You ain't seen nothing yet!'

Over a nine day period, we received five further confirmations of the Lord's decree that: The Best is Yet To Come!

1.    One Saturday, while Bruce's song was "playing in my head," I was scrolling through my News Feed on Facebook and suddenly saw a post with a picture of a big cinema screen with the words boldly emblazoned: "BUT WAIT - The Lord says 'THE BEST IS YET TO COME"'

2.    That same day, in the evening as I was getting ready to go for my shower, Tessa called out to me that she had just turned the radio on - tuned to Vision Christian Radio, the Australian Christian Radio network. The song playing was "The Best Is Yet To Come," by a man named Matty Mullins.

3.    Several days later, we listened to my hour-long program on Tasman FM, a community radio station in South East Tasmania, which I pre-record at home. After listening, I drove to the service station not far from our place. When I got back in the car, I turned on the car radio to Tasman FM to see what the lady announcer was playing. She forward announced the next three songs she was about to play. The second song in the set she announced as "The Best Is Yet To Come," by Michael Buble. I could not believe what I was hearing. Of all the thousands of songs she could have chosen to play, she chose to play that song at that time.

4. A few days later, we received in the mail our quarterly copy of "Creation" magazine, produced by Creation Ministries International. While flicking through the magazine to get an overview of the articles contained therein, when I got to page 42, I gasped at seeing the title of the article: "The Best Is Yet To Come."

We feel really excited about our future, knowing that God is going before us and there is a sense of wonder at what the Lord is preparing us for in this next season of our lives. 

Another word I have heard from the Lord from time to time is: "Position Yourself!"

Part of that positioning for us was to move to a new church home, after being in our previous church for almost seven years. This was not done in any sense of us being disgruntled or being offended by anyone in our previous church home, but with a clear sense of leading by the Holy Spirit to Living Waters Christian Centre in Campania, a small church family at present, with a huge vision to reach the lost, and the nations for Jesus Christ. We truly believe that as far as we are concerned, "we have come to the kingdom for such a time as this." 

God is speaking to His people today in various ways so that we will align with His will and purposes for us individually and as the body of Christ, the Church. He is speaking through His Word, through prophets, and other God-ordained ministries, through visions and dreams, through signs and wonders, through symbolism within the parameters of His Word etc.

I have been greatly blessed in recent times by the online ministry of Aussie Revivalists, Ben and Jodie Hughes who lead "Pour It Out Ministries," and are now based in Phoenix, Arizona. They have written several greatly inspiring books which I would encourage anyone to get a hold of to bless you and set you on fire for Jesus. Ben's book "When God Breaks In" and Jodie's book "The King's Decree" can be bought online through their website pouritout.org as a package deal, and the exciting news is that Jodie's new book "The King's Prophetic Voice" will be released through their ministry on 22/2/22 or 2/22/22, depending on which side of the Pacific you are on. We are looking forward to receiving and reading this new release.

GOD BLESS!