The Prophet and the Sword of Grace

Forty-three years ago as a youth pastor I went into that Methodist church late at night to pray.

Kneeling at that altar in the sanctuary I cried to God, saying, “God, as a boy who grew up in church, if You can’t make me as radical and as intense a lover of God as a drug addict who got radically saved and has a testimony of complete deliverance, then I don’t want to follow You.” Then and there I made the words of that old hymn the lifelong prayer of my heart, “Spirit of God descend upon my heart, wean it from earth through all its pulses move. Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art, and help me love You as I ought to love. Teach me to love You as Thine angels love, one holy passion filling all my frame, the baptism of the heaven-descended dove, my heart an altar and Thy love the flame.” One holy passion. What a searching word. Only one passion?

And the Man to whom I prayed that prayer, the Man whose name is Jealous, has ever since been the Hound of Heaven to my heart, ever stalking me with love, searching my inward affections, and seeking to drive out all those false suitors who promise but can never fill the pleasure center of my soul. I was made for God alone and complete consecration to Him is the only true highway to the extreme pleasures of His Presence.

And oh how I have been tested and often fled from the pursuing Presence. How I have often sought solace in lesser pleasures, shrinking from the altar of sacrifice upon which only the fire of love falls.The whole life of Abraham, the friend of God, could be boiled down to consecration choices and tests of love, whereby every divine subtraction leads to divine multiplication and heavenly pleasure (reward). God is always cutting away that which hinders pure love and always giving us back something of Himself far beyond. “Take now thy son, thine only son, and offer him up on the mountain I show you.” “I swear, because you have not withheld your son, your only son whom you love, I swear your children will be like the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore.”

I once penned this simple poem that describes the tests in my own life to consecrate my soul to this one holy passion: “How hard it is to part with Isaac. He is deeply rooted in my soul, but just call my name and I’ll say here I am, like Abraham, I want to be a covenant man.” That has been easier said than done, but to the degree I’ve submitted to the knife of God’s love—to that degree, I’ve found fire.

John Piper said, “We easily deceive ourselves that we love God unless our love for Him is frequently put to the test, and we must show our preferences not merely in word but with sacrifice.”

I grew up listening to Dodgers baseball on the radio with my father. What fun! I love the Dodgers right fielder Cody Bellinger. He is on a hitting and fielding tear at the time of this writing. I love to watch the videos of Clayton Kershaw and Bellinger over and over again. What a wonderful pleasure. But when I ongoingly wake up in the morning and the first thing I want to do is open up my Dodgers baseball app, it is then I hear the footsteps of my Jesus walking in the cool of the garden of my heart whispering, “Where are you, Lou?" How easily we drift from the fire of devotion into the lukewarm love of a lax, cultural Christianity.I can hear the voices of those reading this last paragraph crying “legalism!” But really?… I know it. You know it.

The gospel of grace is way too sharp a sword than we’ve allowed to wound us.

I know when a series of novels eats me up with desire to read and the hungry spirit within me cries “feed me!” But no bread from heaven is given. We cannot sing about God’s fire, all the while knowing that fire is all-consuming. The gospel of grace is way too sharp a sword than we’ve allowed to wound us. Let’s let our semi-complacent souls and convenient grace boxes allow for a little disturbance.

My friend Jeremiah Johnson has written one of the best and most important books on consecration I’ve ever read. It's called The Power of Consecration. I read the entire book in one sitting. It has been calling me back to my original DNA. This book has searched the shadows of my soul, haunted me if you will, wooing me back to a fresh grace-filled crisis of consecration, to that single-hearted love for Jesus which is the wellspring of all true happiness.  It is a true trumpet call to my own heart, and I think to a whole generation that is saturated with pleasures and entertainments beyond our wildest imaginations. That saturation will be the foundation to a great apostasy and/or the testing ground out of which the Bride of Christ will arise victorious to love her bridegroom Jesus with such singular intensity as to magnetize His second coming, culminating in the wedding of Christ and the church.

This book is a disturbance to self-satisfied religionists. But it’s a biblical disturbance, and one that has motivated me by grace to press on to the prize if the high calling of Christ.The chapter on bridal fasting is worth the whole book. I’m realizing that the fast Jesus spoke about when the bridegroom is absent is as all-consuming and intense as John the Baptist’s fast who was the friend of the Bridegroom. Should not the Bride long for His return more than His friend? Jesus declares that this fast is the God-given channel for such longing. Feasting in the joy of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant is paradoxically connected with the groaning and longing for Jesus’ Presence here, now, and for His second coming. Feasting is ever linked with joy and fasting is linked with longing. We get to participate in both in this present dispensation.

Reading this book I found the preciousness of the sweet pain of longing stirring up within me again. The church must rediscover the groan for fullness. It’s the paradox of “the already” and the “not yet.” Here in this book we see the plight of the prophet. The prophet always sees the fullness of Christ and through his fasting and prayers and proclamation groans in a fresh revelation of Christ. Then when everyone is rejoicing in the new manifestation the prophet sees again and is again groaning for the “more.” What’s a prophet to do? Jeremiah is that kind of prophet. He has encountered God and encountering Him calls the people to a fresh consecration so they too may encounter.

At times Jeremiah has been to me that “oh troubler of Israel.” But in reality he has troubled my compromised heart. When you read this book, seek not to judge the man but let the message judge your manner of life. Heed this call to bridal consecration and let the cross be the crossover into a life crowned with passion and power.