How does God work? - How does God lead? by P. Ravenhill

How does God work? - How does God lead?
By Paul Ravenhill

At the year's end let me share with you some of the thoughts which tumble around in my mind...

Hosea 12:13 "By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved."

Here we have a glimpse of the power that worked in Israel's deliverance and guidance - a glimpse, not just of a moment in history but of the Principle of God's working throughout all history...

All else that Moses was - his education - his years of preparation in the wilderness - his strength of character - was laid aside and made subservient to this one thing... he was a PROPHET!

His Vision alone was the Source and the Sustenance of his life throughout the times of deliverance and journeying of Israel.
His Vision alone was the Birth and Flowering of God's purpose for a nation in his generation.
His Vision alone was the dawning of the Light and Glory of a New Era.

Without a prophet it never would have happened.
Without a prophet the darkness would have continued unbroken over Egypt.
Without a prophet the years of slavery and tears would have advanced without interruption.

Perhaps never in the course of the last centuries has there been a greater need of a prophet than there is today.
Who among us today, knows what is going on in the 'Egypt' around us?
Who among us today discerns the time of God in the midst of our confusion?
Who sees the connection between spiritual and natural worlds?
Who, beyond the limits of time, sees the unfolding of the plan of God for the next generation?
Who has heard God answer as they have asked, "What of the children?" "What of the future?"

Where is our Solution?...What is our Salvation?

Like Moses -We need... To see Him
We need... To hear Him.
We need... To obey Him.

To see Him and to hear Him...this is our need. But what will it take to come to the place of Vision?
For Moses it took a cutting off from the comforts of Egypt.
For Moses it took a cutting off from the fellowship and activities of his brethren.
For Moses it took a desert, a loneliness, and a total simplification of all
that his life had involved in times past.

When all was blasted away and Moses was brought to the barren, wind-swept, sun-scorched, horizons of emptiness - then God came with his REVELATION and then Moses became the PROPHET for his people.
Maybe our deserts will not be physical... or maybe they will be, to a measure that we can't even imagine today!
However it be, there will be many, many similarities between our lives and Moses' if God is going to show himself.

The Cost will certainly be the losing of all that appeals to, and sustains, the life of natural man.
But the Payment of God is a Revelation which carries within it the Seeds of Life for ourselves and our people.

My father used to say, 'We don't have revival because we are content to live without it...
So too our revelation of God depends directly upon the measure of our desire - the finding is still to those who seek 'with all your heart.'

I wish we could all understand, in this critical hour in which we live, that our life is not about techniques or methods - A BURNING DESIRE WILL LIGHT ITS OWN WAY TO GOD.
In reality, I think, that as in the life of Moses it is God that reveals himself to us - While we are seeking Him He reveals Himself to us.

How important is it to us?
To lay all else aside and search for God alone?
To search the scriptures and let them speak for themselves?
To come with a heart which says only, 'I come to do thy will?'
If there is one word for the coming year, I believe it is this, 'Now is the time to seek God.'

There is an interesting word at the end of the Old Testament.
Malachi declares (4:2) "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall." After all
the fall,
and sin,
and despair,
and slavery,
and suffering, of Israel's generations,
God's last word is a renewing of the first chapter of Genesis...

A promise of Light
A promise of Healing - (a Restoration of the Life destroyed.)
A promise of Growth and Development.
After all the loss, the promise is Total Restoration of the Presence of God and the Working of God with his people

At the end of this year - this century - this millenium - this age of Opportunity Lost (to the Church and to the World), even though all be desert around, God's word to us is that, in the measure of our fear in His presence, there is a promise, of...
His Coming.
His Healing
His Working

Let us rouse ourselves to press through all the obstacles until we find Him - only in Him is there Life!