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by
R.T. Kendall
Read between
November 10 - November 22, 2022
If God gives us a word of rebuke we should welcome it. It may come from reading the Bible, when we least expect it. It may come through preaching. It may come from a trusted friend.
This can happen spiritually. The early stage is “dull of hearing,” the worst is being spiritually stone-deaf. When one no longer hears from God it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance. Being granted repentance, what Paul calls being changed “from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18 KJV), is the proof we are hearing God. He deals with us, shows us our sin, we repent and walk in the light and know sweet fellowship (1 John 1:7).
heart. When we grieve the Spirit it is usually painless.
Third, we fear another’s anointing. “Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had left Saul” (1 Sam.
18:12). Perfect love casts out fear; when we are afraid we are not made perfect in love (1 John 4:18). Why would anybody be afraid of another’s anointing? It is God who gave it. We should affirm the anointing in another. If we are afraid of it, it suggests a rival spirit has crept in. Or we are afraid people will be influenced and think more of them than of us.
Fifth, when we cannot keep our word, not to mention a vow, it shows we have lost integrity. Keeping one’s word—honesty—should surely be taken for granted. It should go without saying that we do not tell lies, that we are honest, that we keep our word.
The task of every generation is to discover in which direction the Sovereign Redeemer is moving, then to move in that direction.
Either I will recognize truth for its own sake or I am going to embrace the thoughts only of those who adhere to my way of thinking. I felt convicted to my fingertips. I vowed then and there to be a seeker of truth, no matter who says it. Paul said, “I am bound both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish” (Rom. 1:14). If Paul can express a debt to the foolish, surely I can accept truth, even if it is stated by my enemy!
By discontinuity I mean the manifestation of God’s anointing that may have no obvious precedent. It may appear and disappear. That it had no precedent does not invalidate its authenticity.
There is no biblical principle that states that Christians are to do what the early Church did for a time. But there is equally no doubt that this is what happened for a while. I am sure it seemed natural to those who did it at the
“We pray for the manifestation of the glory of God in our midst along with an ever-increasing openness in us to the manner in which You choose to manifest that glory.” Why this? First, the only manifestation we care about is the manifestation of the Lord’s glory. We want nothing else.
Hence we pray as much for ourselves to be open to God’s sovereign choice as to how He may wish to manifest His glory, as we do for that unveiling itself.
Discontinuity. That is what threatens us—when there is no precedent that we can put our finger on. The precedent for the unprecedented, however, is biblical. It is the theme running right through Hebrews 11, the faith chapter of the Bible. Not a
Not knowing where we are going, yet knowing we are following God, can be most painful indeed. God has a way of giving us sufficient revelation for ourselves but not enough that it convinces others.
The stigma of solitude doubles the pain.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones used to say to me, “The Bible was not given to replace direct and immediate revelation from God; it was given to correct abuses.” There is not the slightest hint in the New Testament that the Bible, once completed, would replace God’s supernatural dealings with us.
We are all like that. We want to stay as we are. After many years of pastoral experience I think perhaps I have learned at least one thing: people don’t want their problems solved, they want them understood.
At the end of the day the anointing will have a stigma. It will offend. John Wesley was offended by George Whitefield going to the fields to preach since it wasn’t in a regular church building and it hadn’t been done before. But John Wesley eventually went to the fields too. Wesley also criticized Whitefield because of the unusual manifestations that characterized Whitefield’s preaching—people falling down on the ground, laughing, shaking, some barking like dogs. Wesley rebuked Whitefield for allowing this and urged that, at least, Whitefield deal with what was patently of the flesh if not the
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will equally and simultaneously remove what is real. One has to let things be, said Whitefield. Wesley eventually acquiesced and subsequently witnessed the same mixture of manifestations in his own ministry too, and agreed to let things be.
Arthur Blessitt had built a twelve-foot wooden cross and put it up on a wall in his coffee house, called His Place, in Hollywood’s Sunset Strip in the 1960s. One day God told him to take it down and carry it around the world. People thought he was crazy. But he did it. He carried that cross all across America, Canada, Europe, Great Britain, Africa, and the Middle East—and by now almost every country on the globe. He witnessed to every Israeli general, stayed in Prime Minister Begin’s home, spent a day witnessing to Yasser Arafat, was awarded the Sinai Peace Medal, has been sought after by
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zebra crossing
Arthur turned to me. “Dr. Kendall, I don’t know where this Page Street is, but you don’t need to leave the steps of your church. The whole world passes by here.” I was never to be the same again. In that moment I had what I’d call a vision. I saw a pilot light, like in a cooker or oven, that stays lit day and night. I said to Arthur, “Why couldn’t we have coffee available here on the porch of the Chapel and have a ministry talking to passers-by right here?” In that moment the Pilot Light ministry was born. I never looked back.
But I have never been sorry I invited Arthur and walked in the light that God was giving me then. If you ask me, it was my finest hour.
now doubt I would have survived had I not obeyed the Lord in those days. I have little doubt that God would have taken his hand off me and replaced me with someone who would listen. And yet it wasn’t easy. It hurt my pride. It isn’t fun to have some of your best supporters tiptoe away from you because your obedience embarrasses them. It is part of the stigma.
When we finally achieved it, I decided I’d never again do anything controversial. I figured I’d done enough to show I would obey God. I wanted to live out my days in Westminster Chapel
“I’d paid my dues.” No more risks for me.
Until I met Paul Cain. When I first heard of Paul, as I said in the beginning, I honestly felt he was occultic. The incredible accuracy of his words of knowledge—calling people out by name and giving their birthdays and addresses or their personal details—sounded to me an awful lot like what the devil does. Isn’t
In October 1992 Paul Cain and I had held the first Word and Spirit conference at Wembley. Graham Kendrick wrote a hymn for us, “Jesus, Restore to Us Again,” which demonstrated the need for the word and the Spirit to come together. I preached a sermon that amounted to a prophetic statement: as Abraham sincerely believed that Ishmael was the promised child, so have many assumed that the charismatic renewal was the revival the Church had been praying for. Wrong, I said. Isaac is coming.
In seeking tomorrow’s man Samuel was at considerable risk. Samuel said to the Lord, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me” (1 Sam. 16:2).
No saint of God is perfect. As Solomon said in his prayer at the dedication of the temple, “There is no one who does not sin” (2 Chron. 6:36). Eli had his blind spot; we all have them. Calvin even said that in every saint there is something reprehensible.
I tended to sweep such under the carpet in my mind, but eventually I came to terms with the fact that the best of men are men at best.
I have to say that within a few months of that naïve testimonial, the man I so admired became the source of my greatest disappointment and severest trial up to then. It happened when I preached things that made him uneasy. His friends had accepted me but became disillusioned with me because they could see that he was not going to uphold what I was teaching. He and those friends deserted me in my dark hour. It took years and years before I recovered.
questions: P—is it providential? If God gives a word, it will cohere with his providence. In other words, does God open the door or do we have to knock it down? If I have to pry a door open it is a fairly good hint I am in the flesh. Providence refers to God’s way of governing: His overruling, His going before us, His way of arranging circumstances—the “coincidences.” If it is providential—that is, if a door is open without your having to open it yourself—move on a bit and look for other tests.
When God is at work, doors open. His providence is a good hint that you are not being deceived. It isn’t the only test, but I would say it is an essential ingredient in knowing whether you have heard from God. If it is providential, move on and put another question.
E—the enemy: what would he want you to do? Your enemy is the devil. He comes as a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8); he masquerades
When we are given an impression, impulse, or feeling that we think could be of God, we should ask, “What do we suppose the devil would want us to do?”
A—Authority: the Bible. What does God’s Word say? The Holy Spirit will never, never, never lead us to do anything contrary to God’s revealed will—the Bible. “How can a young man keep
The Holy Spirit wrote the Bible, using consecrated men and women (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). He will not lead us in a way that does not cohere with holy Scripture.
If your “word” from the Lord goes against the teaching of God’s Word, then you did not hear from God after all.
C—confidence. Does the impression you have received increase or diminish your confidence?
When I hear a word, get an impulse, feel an impression to do something, I ask myself: how do I really feel? I have learned that a lack of confidence is a warning signal not to proceed.
When I can see that my lack of confidence is based upon the fear of what people might think, I ask: what does God think? If a great sense of confidence swells up inside I have learned to recognize it as a warm, sure signal that I am hearing from God.
Confidence, boldness, assurance, and inner liberty were what enabled Peter to preach on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-36).
E—ease: what you feel in your heart of hearts.
He will never lead you in such a way that you violate your conscience.
One of the fruits of the Spirit is “peace” (Gal. 5:22). It is deep and very powerful. “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you” (Isa. 26:3). I cannot recall a single major decision I have ever made that I later came to regret when it was preceded by that peace. But I can recall decisions I made which I later regretted when I proceeded without that peace. The lack of peace is like a flashing red light that says “Stop!”
God “confides” in those who fear him (Ps. 25:14).
Samuel had no peace until he saw young David. But when he saw David he recognized the voice that had never let him down. “Then the LORD said, ‘Rise and anoint him: he is the one’” (1 Sam. 16:12).
When we take rejection personally we will need a lot more of God’s fiery disciplining. It’s hard not to take rejection personally, especially if you have been close to the people who can’t go along with you.
“We must go through many hardships [much tribulation—AV] to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
