Through the Refining Fires of Affliction to the New Life of Spiritual Spring:
REST, VESSEL. ~ “Requies, Vas.” ~ A VESSEL RESTS.
Has God Our Sovereign Savior allowed unfathomable pain in your life beyond human utterance? If so, take refuge in His paradoxical, great divine work of love and grace. When fiery afflictions come, He is our only hiding place.
God Our Sovereign Savior, In Matthew 6:13 You are summoned and exalted,“And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
STANZA 9
•Not just words from one’s own tongue to prepare
Christ Crucified1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. I Corinthians 2:1-5
The Spiritual War 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
“Paul had learned that God can use human weakness to show forth His own glory. Because he knew that men and women will be convicted by the gospel only ‘in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,’ Paul used his talents and training with a full and proper confidence in God, rather than relying on his own skills.” …The Teacher is not to prepare “according to worldly standards or life-views but according to spiritual power and spiritual reality.”…“The Holy Spirit breaks through the defenses of a fallen human heart to seize and subdue it to Christ…If every thought, then the whole person—every idea, motive, desire, and decision—belongs to Christ.” (Reformation Study Bible Commentary: 1 Corinthians 2:3-5: II Corinthians 10:3-5)
• Human responses fall short to repair.
He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. Psalm 107:20
Spiritual Wisdom 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. I Corinthians 2:6-16
Beginning with creation, and as soothe to the human heart, God’s divine Word is powerful and effective to repair! Additionally, as only the Spirit of God enables spiritual discernment, only the spirit of a man can discern his own spirit (mental faculties). Through the Spirit believers have the mind of Christ, “the infinity of God’s Spirit with His boundless wisdom and knowledge”. (Reformation Study Bible Commentary: 1 Corinthians 2:16) (Psalm 107:20; I Corinthians 2:6-16)
•The heart, mind, and soul in grips of defeat
Blessings on Obedience6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.”
7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.”
8 “The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 28:6-8
God’s comprehensive, divine blessing is promised to His obedient people. In as much, God will cause the enemies who come against His people one way to flee seven ways. Believers are to encourage others in the grips of defeat of God’s full provision and preservation for every need. (Deuteronomy 28:6-8)
•Instructed Sovereign Words giv’n for meat.
The Responsibility of the Prophet 1 Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.
3 And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.
4 Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. 5 For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, 6 not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. 7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. 8 Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. 9 Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”
10 Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. 11 And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.” Ezekiel 3:1-11
Just as He did Ezekiel, whose name means, “God makes strong, hardens”, God makes those He sends to speak His word strong! We are to receive, eat, stomach, and speak God’s Word as well-instructed “meat”, like “honey in sweetness”…“whether they hear, or whether they refuse”. (Ezekiel 3:1-11)
