It is now September and summer, vacations and summer camps are behind us and the kids are back in school. Fall is coming fast and Pastors are planning Revival Meetings along with their annual Mission Conference. I am looking forward to spending some time in New England this month as I will be holding several Revival Meetings and also a Men’s Leadership Conference…Well enough small talk. As I was seeking God’s face and preparing my heart for God to use me in the Revival Meetings, I prayed we may hear from heaven and not be just another meeting or just greater preaching, but I prayed it would be a time of soul searching.
Recently, in my prayer and worship time with the Lord, He kept bringing to me (Gal. 2:20). I spent several days in this text as God really got a hold of my heart and the Holy Spirit convicted me about my own relationship with Christ. So I would like to share some thoughts with you this month from my soul searching with the Lord.
NOT I, BUT CHRIST:
If we would die to self we must fall in love with Jesus Christ and let Him become to us the personal reality of Solomon’s sweet Song of Joy. But it is not the love of Christ that we merely want; it is the Living Christ Himself. Many folks have touches of the Love of Christ, but to them He is a Christ way up in Heaven. The Apostles speak of something far mightier. It is Christ Himself who lives inside us and who is big enough to crowd out and keep out the little “I.” There is no other that can truly lift and keep the heart above the power of self but Jesus Christ, The Mighty Lord, stronger than the strong man armed.
Blessed Christ! He is able not only for sin, sorrow and sickness, but He is able for you and me-able to be our very life, moment by moment we shall be conscious that He is in us, fills us with Himself and conquers the self that ruled before. The more you try to fight a self-thought and look to Him; He fills all the consciousness and disperses everything with His own Presence. Let us abide in Him and we shall find that there is nothing else to do.
It is not a new thought, but it is an appropriate thought, that all things that God has used had first been sacrificed. It is a Sacrificed Savior, one who emptied Himself, and made Himself of no reputation that God has so highly exalted, and given Him a name that is above every name. (Phil 2:10). It was a sacrificed Isaac that God made the promised seed and the progenitor of Israel’s tribes. And it was on that very Mount Moriah where Isaac was sacrificed, that God afterwards reared His Glorious Temple. And so it is only when our Isaac is on the altar and our whole being lost in God that He can lay the deep foundations and rear the everlasting walls of the Living Temple which He is the supreme and eternal glory.
I look back today with much thanks and gratitude to the lonely and sorrowful night, when, mistaken in many things, and not perfect in all, my heart’s first full consecration was made, not knowing that it would be death in the most literal sense before the morning light. Yet, with unreserved surrender I could say: “Jesus, I my Cross has taken, all to leave and follow Thee.”
Never before has my heart known such a thrill of Joy as when the following Lord’s Day, I sang those lines with all my heart. If
God has been pleased to make my life in any measure a little temple for His indwelling and for His Glory, and if ever He should be pleased to use me in my fuller measure, it has been because of that hour on July 12, 1964. It will be still in the measure in which that hour is made the keynote of a consecrated, Crucified, and Christ devoted life. Paul said, “I die daily” it’s not a one time experience but a daily experience we must seek to do.
Never, until we become fascinated with Christ’s affections, and won in complete captivity to His Love, shall we cease to live unto ourselves. Then we will follow Him anywhere. We will toil and supper with Him. We will be content without many things that before we felt we must have, because His smile is our sunshine, His presence is our Joy, His love shed abroad in our hearts, is our Heaven, and we cannot speak or think of sacrifice or suffering, our heart is so satisfied with Him.
My dear brothers in Christ, I realize that we all have busy lives and I am no different. This morning as the sweet Holy Spirit brought to my mind and also convicted my heart of the day that I surrendered my life to Him, and then He called me to preach the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ, I thought how easy it is for us to forget that wonderful, sweet relationship that only comes out of a consecrated vessel who has a daily habit of fellowshipping and glorious communion with Him.
Before the Church can have Revival and our folks can have Revival, it must begin with us, the Men of God. How we men of God need fresh manna from Heaven and to experience a fresh Joy and blessing that only comes when we have been in His presence. Today let us commit ourselves to that daily communion with Him, to fall in love with God’s Word and with Him. So as you prepare your meetings this fall make sure it’s not just another meeting, but a fresh presence of Christ and His Glory.
I greatly appreciate all your phone calls and letters about our newsletter and I assure you that as long as God provides we will continue to do so. Those who know me, realize that I have such a heart for pastors, evangelists, and preachers. We love you and appreciate your ministries so much. Keep up the fight, Christ is coming for us soon.
Love and Prayers in Christ,
Bro. Randy Davis
