One of the most encouraging scriptures in the Bible is “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7, NKJV).
King David, the author of so many psalms, grew weary of his struggles. He was so tired in soul, so embattled and beset by troubles, that all he wanted was to escape to a place of peace and safety. “My heart is severely pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. …So I said, ‘Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest. … I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.’” (Psalm 55:4-8, NKJV).
We know that all through the Bible, the number seven is associated with God’s eternal purpose. Therefore, I believe that when God said to one of his prophets, “Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18, NKJV), he was simply denoting everyone who made up his remnant. The people he sets aside for himself could number 70 or 7 million. What matters is that they are wholly given to him.
So, what are the characteristics of this remnant? Here are three defining marks.
Success in God’s eyes is being totally fulfilled in ministering to him. Such servants aren’t striving to “make it” or seeking earthly security. They only want to know their Lord and to minister to him.
God, in his love and mercy, is allowing disasters to strike the earth to warn all who hear that Jesus is coming back and that it’s time to get ready. He loves his children too much to bring his new kingdom to pass without warning. He knows that mankind is hard of hearing and that it takes disasters of earthquake proportions to get our attention.
Let me distinguish clearly between pride and humility. A humble person is not one who thinks little of himself, hangs his head and says, “I’m nothing.” Rather, he is one who depends wholly on the Lord for everything in every circumstance. He knows the Lord has to direct him, empower him and quicken him and that he’s dead without that!
Three enemy armies were closing in on Judah, and King Jehoshaphat called the nation together at Jerusalem. Something had to be done immediately. No doubt people expected him to announce plans, a decisive declaration of action, a way to wage war. Instead, Jehoshaphat stood before his people and poured his heart out to God in confession.
Listen to the words of Jonah: “For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all your billows and your waves passed over me. … The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me. … The earth with its bars closed behind me forever” (Jonah 2:3-6, NKJV).
Jonah had hit rock bottom, entombed in the belly of a whale. He was in a battle for his life and filled with despair, shame and guilt. He was heavy of heart, literally as low as a person could get. He thought God had abandoned him.
God always desires to pour out more of his glory on his people. He longs to do for us “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV). This is why he wants a people who have a ravenous appetite for more of him. He wants to fill them with his awesome presence, beyond anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime.
I asked the Holy Spirit to give me a one-paragraph description of faith so that the boys in our Teen Challenge drug center could understand it. I have a book in my library that uses over three hundred pages to define faith, and I never understood it. Frankly, I don’t think the man who wrote it understood faith either.