STAYING IN THE FLOW
BEING IN THE VEIN OR BEING IN VAIN
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
- 1 Cor. 15:58
God is about to do something in the earth that will bring a divine separation so distinct and so resounding that no one will be mistaken concerning who is in the vein and who is laboring in vain. Change is coming, and it will be defined by the pureness of our hands and our hearts. This thing that he is about to do will bring a divine shift in much of what has occurred in the church.
Over the past several years, we have watched the rise of many changes take place that frankly, some of it has begun to turn the thoughts of men away from a holy affection for the things of God. More and more ministries are becoming attracted to a seeker-friendly mentality. While this approach has seemingly shown signs of increased church growth and productivity, it has also proven to be out of touch and no longer in the vein of where God is taking us. We are heading into a time where the roots of our faith must be anchored in the soil of a deep affection for the holy things of God, and not given to the subtleties of compromise. Our value system cannot be muddled by the hands of those who want to lessen the charge to a life of separation. We are in this world, but we are not of this world. That truth has never changed and should never change. We must be determined to stay in the vein of the Holy Spirit.
These are very serious times we are living in, and we cannot afford to let the current of this world system pull us into its own vein. The Lord began to speak to my heart about where our true victory lies. Everything that we have in Christ; healing, provision, soundness of mind, protection, peace (the list can go on and on), is all part of the divine flow of a heavenly life. Jesus said, "I have come that ye might have life and that ye might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). How well we know this verse! But what I began to see, as he started to quicken to me several verses of scripture, was how we are to stay in the vein and not get pulled out of it, where we wind up laboring in vain.
There is only one source to life. We find it in Christ. But how is this life imparted? Romans chapter eight says, "...our spirit has life because of righteousness" (Rom. 8:10). Christ came to give us life, but it is only found through the paths of righteousness. Go back to Psalm twenty-three and read again the first few verses: "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake!" Every provision comes from the hand of our watchful Shepherd as he guides us into green pastures, by still waters, into the paths of righteousness. Here is where the river of life resides. It is the true vein of the Holy Spirit. Every need we have, every want and desire, is found in the Shepherd's path!
So Christ came to give us life; and where does life come but through the paths of righteousness. Peter wrote these words: "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:1). Even here, we find the source of faith is found in righteousness. Everything that we have in Christ, all that proceeds forth as the issues of life - is found in righteousness. No wonder Paul cried out, "...And that I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him...!" (Phil. 3:9, 10).
Here is the clincher: Try seeing this as taking steps or understanding how one thing leads to another. Everything that proceeds out of God's Life is meant to produce in us the blessings of heaven. But Life must first proceed out of righteousness, and righteousness can only proceed from its truest source, the Blood of Christ! As far as our natural bodies are concerned, what flows through our veins is blood, and that blood is what gives us life! In the same way, what flows through the vein of heaven is the Blood of Jesus, and it is his Blood that gives us Eternal Life! Heaven has equipped us with the paths of righteousness as a supply line or vein so that all that is in the Blood can produce in us what we have need of. If we get off of those paths, then we get out of the vein where everything done is in vain.
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