Hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth to accommodate the people going therein.
Isaiah 5:14, "Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it."
July, 2013
It was reported last week that the Syrian civil war had reached another milestone, in its two year warfare. The number of deaths is estimated to have gone over 100,000 deaths in the last two years. And there are over 2 million displaced and in refuge camps, struggling for life. When such devastation occurs it is the responsiblity of the church to respond. When so many deaths occur in such a short time, eternity must be set before us. WE must contemplate and consider the truth of this matter. And simply because it is not our nation, or our family or our people does not remove the cry from our heart for God to intervene and help.
So often prayer meetings and our own personal prayer needs are expressed from those things which are simply in our own backyard. Very few would venture in their prayers beyond their own remote life. Their family, their work, their friends, their city, their church is the predominate prayer requests. How isolated, remote and selfish is this type of praying. It is not that these things do not hold a legitimate need of prayer concern. They are important, and it is relevant and needy. And it is good to bring such things before the Lord for Him to work wondrously. But there is so much more!
I was asked most recently about the 'third heaven' that Paul talks of in Corinthians. Paul declares that he knew a man that went up to the third heaven and saw things to wonderful to describe and speak of. Oh, does not such a statement wet the appetite of every Christian for our heavenly home and such moments. But do we have to wait until we die? There is opportunity to experience deeper and greater things right now that are 'right in front of us'. And we don't have to wait 'until then'. And just as there are higher planes describing the 3 levels of heaven, so there are higher planes in prayer to reach.
The 3 levels of heaven:
1. Level of the heavens above us, the place where birds fly and we see with our eyes. It is above us that we call 'looking up to the sky'. WE see it with our physical eye and it contains the sun, moon and stars. Yet these powers of creation from God are in the second level of the universe.
2. Level of the heavens beyond us, the place where God's universe is. It is vast, and through man's inventions and God's help in revealing the stars, planets, moons, galaxies are extended beyond our comprehension. We know it to be a reality, it has been and is being. It is still considered the physical realm. For it is has been proven by study and sight.
3. Level of the heavens - God's realm. The third heaven where the Lord of heaven and earth is. God's throne in the heavens, 'where He that is holy sits on His throne'. The revelation revealed in Scripture that tells us of heaven, where God abides. It has not been seen by most and without sight remains by faith. Yet, Paul describes and tells that he saw it, therefore it is no longer faith. 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.'
The 3 levels of prayeris much the same definition:
1. Level of prayer around us. That which we see and is a majority of our senses and daily lives. It is our family, our work, our social interactions of people and needs. WE are constant to have our minds and hearts for that which we can literally reach and touch.
2. Level of prayer beyond us. It is that the needs are still the same, but on such a much larger scale. It is beyond our comprehension of 7 billion souls on the earth and the nations which are in need, yet we are not able to simply engage them by our personal lives. But we can engage them by our prayer lives. We pray in our secret closet, yet we impact those half way around the world.
3. Level of prayer - spiritual realm. Jesus prayed, "nevertheless, not My will be done, but Thy will be done.' And it is the same need today for God is eternal; being past, present and future. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And because God is overall, He directs, leads and guides the ways of men for His Divine will. He moves men to pray in agreement with these things for the advancement of His kingdom here on earth. It takes us beyond the 'here and now' and moves us to eternal purposes and moments.
Let us look at the 3 levels of prayer needed for this situation in Syria; and other chaotic places of the world. Let us remind ourselves that the Lord's purpose and ways are much higher than ours. 'As high as the clouds in the sky so are Thy ways higher than our ways; and Thy thoughts higher than ours.' God desires that none should perish, none should go away from Him. He has made the way and given everything needful for lost men to be saved. He has established the church, implemented opportunities and birthed a desire to pray within us for the furtherance and completion of His Divine will for the souls of men.
And not just for this age, but for all ages, God has set it into motion. The truth of Scripture is our prayer, 'that Your Name be glorified in all the earth.'
What is this life? It is only a staging ground for the next life in eternity. This life impacts and determines our next life. With Christ we abide with Him in heaven; without Christ we abide without Him in hell. This is the reality of our Christian message. We are made in God's image, created male and female, given life. IN this shell of human physique is a soul, a eternal embodiment that shall never die. The flesh may return to the dust as it was, but the soul goes to its determined place of heaven or hell, depending on what the man/woman did about the issue of salvation in Christ. None of us knows how long we shall be here on this earth. So while we have time (today) the choice must be made 'to receive' Christ as Lord and Savior. And if the life of a person refuses to do this, then they have made their choice to reject God's great gift of love and redemption. This act of choice for Christ or against Christ determines their eternity.
Throughout the world their are 7 billion souls living. Here, in the United States we have so many opportunities to hear, know and receive Christ. There are countless venues of invitation and acknowledgment of Christ as Lord and Savior. But in other parts of the world such invitations are limited and few. Within a mission field of nations and people called the 10/40 window it contains over 3 billion souls. Most of these souls are found in darkness and have heard lies about the truth all their life. Rare and few are the ones that have received the truth of the Gospel and the Light of Christ into their hearts and souls for salvation. It is predominate with the lies of religion by Satan. Religion holds men in darkness and rejects the Light of Christ. The religions of Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism holds billions of souls captive and headed toward hell.
Syria is mentioned long ago in the Old Testament. It holds a specific place of fighting with King David. The Assyrians were the ones that God used to carry away captive the children of Israel when they sinned against Him. They have always been at conflict with Israel. They are predominately Muslim in their religious faith today and follow the forces of darkness into hell. Most recently their has been a revolution against their president and the country has spiralled into civil war.
When war happens in such nations and among such people, death is at hand. This nation reports to have around 22 million people in their population. Death is raging in that land since the conflict broke out over two years ago. The death count has topped 100,000 people. These are children whose parents have been killed; theses are parents who have lost their children; these are spouses who are now widows; death has come in a great volume. What a mass exdous of people who have died in such a short time frame.
Now with what we have just said about darkness going out into eternity, can you see the vast majority of these 100,000 dying and going out into hell forever? There has been Christians killed in this conflict as Muslim vigilante groups have seized the unrest as an opportunity to attack and kill Christans. It is unclear how many Christians have been martyred for their faith at this time. But the vast majority, the higher percentage of this 100,000 have been lost, sinful men who died without Christ. and the truth of Christ's words comes clear to us, 'many there be on the broad and wide path; few there be on the straight and narrow.'
Such an eternal picture is set before us. Does it compel you to respond? Do you see the great atrocity to these people who have had so little opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel? How great the need for these now living who fight for water, food and life itself. Over 2 million people are in these refugee camps who have lost their homes, possessions, family members, jobs and way of life. They struggle day to day. The need is constant.
And as Christ wept and prayed over Jerusalem for rejecting and missing their day of invitation. How much more when so many die and go to hell, that it would not compel us to tremble and fear and weep to see that hell had to enlarge itself to accomadate so many going therein? Never was it Hsi desire that this should be, and nor should we be content with it. Arise and fight this battle! Let us prevail for nations, for souls; let us push back the forces of hell for all of its influence and power over this dark region.
Drafted:
July 31, 2013
Updated:
August 1, 2013
August 5, 2013
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