"You are like a private garden, my treasure, my bride!" - Jesus
The place of refreshing is in the presence of the LORD. He is saying to each of us, "Be still and know that I am God. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. I am with you always, so don't go by your circumstances, go by My Word!" As wonderful and exciting it is on the mission field, so it is challenging and intense. Yes, it is in the hidden, personal, worshipping life of the saint that we are trained for battle - we are waging war against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. And we do this not by force nor by strength, but by the Spirit of the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. Jesus said we would be hated because of our allegiance to Him, so we shouldn't be too surprised when our message of Hope is not embraced by everyone. In fact, we are to REJOICE and LEAP FOR JOY when this happens! Yesterday, prompted by the Holy Spirit on the u-bahn train, we boldly preached the Good News of Jesus Christ's forgiveness of sins, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. One moslem man listened and said he respected what we were doing and as he left the train said something like, "Keep doing what you are doing. It is a good thing!" So after I spoke with Bianka translating, she then began to share her heart and after only a few minutes, one man sitting next to me, took offense, jumped out of his seat and angrily confronted Bianka a few inches from her face telling her to be quiet. She lovingly asked him why but he gave no reason. Then as we reached our stop, a few others angrily confronted her. Of course, she humbly took their hostile words and may the LORD bless her for it, but truly they were opposing JESUS Who passionately loves them and is the ONLY One Who can set them FREE. The whole experience was upsetting and heartbreaking to see such hard hearts. MAY NOTHING STOP THE GOSPEL FROM GOING FORTH AS WE OBEY JESUS AND PROCLAIM THE TRUTH IN LOVE TO A LOST AND DYING WORLD - THE TIME IS SHORT!