Category Archives: Other Authors

BUT WE SEE JESUS by Ray Prinzing

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became Him, for whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” (Heb. 2:9-10)

Although God has ordained that man should fill a position of rulership over all the works of His hands, presently we do not see all things in subjection to man, but we see JESUS, Who, by the grace of God, did fully conquer all, and HE is bringing many sons into this same glory.

When in the process of the unfolding of His purpose God would reveal Himself to mankind, it was in the form of man; the creaturely form of His own creation, and this expression of Himself is called JESUS. “The express image of His person”, (Heb. 1:3). God, in the totality of His omnipresence cannot be confined to one form of expression, nor can He who is Spirit be limited only to the material, physical realm. But in the glorious revelation of His expressions to mankind, we find Him in various dimensions and manifestations. ONE GOD, yet revealed as SON, then as the “indwelling Comforter, the holy Spirit”, and yet to be more clearly revealed, as THE FATHER. Lesser forms of revelation are never lost, nor cast aside; they are swallowed up into the more complete revelations of our God. Our transition cannot be made in just one grand leap, nor can our understanding grasp and comprehend the whole when we have just begun our walk into spiritual realities. But “then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord”, (Hosea 6:3).

The idea has been expressed that to ‘go on’ means leaving behind the ‘Jesus realm’, but let it be clear, the ministry of Jesus is not complete till He has not only brought many sons unto glory, but until SALVATION “TO THE UTTERMOST” (Heb. 7:25) has been brought to EVERY CREATURE. Thus He is “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever (for all ages)”, (Heb. 13:8).

GATHER MY SAINTS by Ray Prinzing

“Gather My saints unto Me, those that have made a covenant by sacrifice. (Psalm 50:5)

The qualification of those presently being gathered unto Him is found in this word “saints”, from the Hebrew “chasid”, also given as good, godly, holy, and merciful. Thus we read, “Know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself”, (Psalm 4:3).

There are two kinds of separation these days. There are those who “separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit”, (Jude 19). These are ego-centered, soulish people who desire to go their own way, build for themselves and will not submit to the deeper inworkings of the cross in their self-life. But, there are, also, those whom the Lord sets apart, apprehends them for His own purpose, draws them away from the crowds that He might work into them the perfections of His own will. These are in contra-distinction to those that “went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have no doubt continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us”, (I John 2:19).

What a powerful message. Once you have ‘come out from among them”, and left the Babylonish, religious system behind, to be totally joined unto the Lord, to become His will, from thereon those who are not of one spirit with you will go out from you, separating themselves from you. Do not grieve over it all; see it as a work of the Lord, that actually HE HAS SET YOU APART FOR HIMSELF. For when God sets you apart, it is because there is a difference, you are not of this world. You now belong to Him, to His kingdom. Even if you try to mingle with them, you find yourself a mis-fit. You are not of them any more than they are of you. You are marked to be gathered unto Christ. This is the handiwork of God, conforming His called ones to His image, that in them He might be glorified.

“O Thou Spirit Divine, all my nature refine,
‘Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.”

RESIST THE DEVIL by Ray Prinzing

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

The pre-requisite is clearly stated, “Submit yourselves therefore to God”. The Greek word for ‘submit’ is ‘hupotasso’ meaning, to set in array under. Ah, is not this the purpose for all of our present processings? Until every part of our will bows to the will of God, and then we are able to resist the devil and he must flee from us. Fully set in array under the hand of God leaves us as ‘untouchable’ to all other forces. “My Father, – is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand,” (John 10:29).

Submitted, set in array under God, does require chastening to bring about such a submission. “Shall we much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live,” (Heb. 12:9). This is an individual challenge. He is my Father, and my submission to Him is essential if I shall ever truly LIVE. Too many only exist, torn between their own desires, and what they know to be right in God. To resist the circumstance, which He plans for our proving, is to resist the God who planned the circumstance. But as we learn to submit to Him in all things, then are we able to begin resisting the devil.

The word ‘resist’ means ‘to set’ or ‘place over against’. This is easily illustrated in the realm of our thinking. To be sure, God has been, and is dealing much with the ‘mind’, for we shall be “transformed by the renewing of our mind”. The mind has long been the battleground as evil forces seek to brainwash mankind. But we find that as we PLACE TRUTH, a positive thought over against every negative thought that arises, we gain the victory over the negative realm. Deliberately place positive thoughts over against the negative. This action is prompted and enabled by the indwelling of His Spirit. The strength for this work is His but we, through His enablement, “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, (Phil. 2:12).

BUT GOD MEANT IT by Ray Prinzing

“Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. – So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God. – As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.” (Gen. 45:5,8; 50:20)

God wanted Joseph to get to Egypt, to be used to preserve life, and in the process of getting him there God causes his own brethren to sell him into servitude. But brothers, shall I say “why did you do it when it was God that told you to do it?” No, just look beyond all secondary causes, God chose the means to accomplish the sending, and ultimately it all worked into good, and to His glory and praise.

David was caused to flee his throne for a while, for his own son Absalom had conspired and risen against him. While going through a wilderness and deep valley, there was a man running along the hillside throwing down rocks and cursing David. One of those with David requested permission to take care of this evil man, but David answered, “So let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so? – Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him”, (II Samuel 16:10-11).

Paul said, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,” (Gal. 6:17). Never the marks of the soldiers, of the persecutors, or of the Romans. It wasn’t the marks of the whips and scourges, but the marks of the Lord Jesus. Negative forces weren’t ruling over him. It was all the mark of the Lord, received as from the hand of God. He saw the sovereign hand of God in all that crossed his path. Bound with chains and delivered into the hands of the Romans, he said, “now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ”, (Philemon 9).

Good or evil, let it be,
Mine eyes are single, Lord, to Thee.

OUT OF THE STONE AGE by Ray Prinzing

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

“I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and thy shall be to Me a people,” (Heb. 13:10). Thus that which was written in the tables of stone must give way to that which is now written in heart and mind. There are plenty of people who still carry all their ‘tables of stone’, living in THE STONE AGE. Laws and standards, tenets of traditional creed by which they measure and brand all else as false, judging most freely, and using their ‘tables of stone’ to throw at, to beat, coerce others who do not follow their prescribed course. But God has a people which follow the promptings of the Spirit, because THE VOICE IS WITHIN, writing His laws in their heart and mind, and they are living a life which redounds to His glory, in freedom, joy, and peace.

He has to remove our stony heart just as much as we need to be loosed from the ‘tables of stone’, that it might be a living, pulsating, vibrant expression of truth. We are not left without a law, but no more is it engraved upon stone, as a letter that killeth, but it is a new ministration of the “Spirit, which giveth life”.

Many have rebelled against the restraints of the law; have cast it aside, to become lawless. They caught a glimpse of the freedom of the new, without possessing the SPIRIT OF THE NEW, thus use these truths for an occasion to the flesh. Jesus is our transition from the old into the new – not to abandon the old, He fulfilled it, and He will fulfill it in us, for “the righteousness of the law shall be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”, (Rom. 5:4). The indwelling Spirit of God leads to a path of holiness far more exacting than the first covenant on tables of stone, yet it is wrought in freedom because it is HIS LIFE living the requirements in us.

RETURNING GOD’S LOVE by Ray Prinzing

 

“We love Him, because He first loved us.” (I John 4:19)

 

The initial expression of love is always HIS, He loves us, and this love that is directed our way, working in us, becomes the cause of our loving Him in return.

Love unexpressed is love unfulfilled, unsatisfied.  Therefore God has brought forth this whole creation upon which He can express His love.  “For Thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:11).

Furthermore, it requires an even greater expression of love when the object of that love is ever so unlovely, unholy, unclean.  Hence the introduction of evil to form the bleak background against which the ultimate of His love can be portrayed.  It was while we were yet sinners that this expression came to us, for “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16).  Jesus is a manifestation of the Father’s heart of love, sent to us when we were so very unlovely, rebellious, and selfish.

Though this Divine love, so sacrificial in nature, so freely given, is ours to receive, it remains unsatisfied until it can be returned.  Love shared, but if one-sided, one sharing and the other doing all the receiving, this does not bring happiness.  Not that love requires a return or a reward for loving, but it rests in the happiness of the beloved, and to receive love selfishly, is to remain unhappy, thus the giver realizes that his love has failed to make the loved one happy.  But when that loved one begins to return that love because it is out of a heart overflowing with joy and love, it brings joy and happiness to the heart of the initial lover.

When we are so completely transformed by His love to us, and so filled with that love that we must express it back to Him again, then He knows that His creation is happy with His expression to us-ward, and receiving that which now flows from us to Him, He shall be satisfied as well.  Love expresses and returned is love fulfilled.  He truly is worthy of our love.

OUR UNCHANGEABLE GOD by Ray Prinzing

“If we believe no, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.” (II Timothy 2:13)

“For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?”    (Romans 3:3)

Certainly, we recognize that faith is a necessity in the life of a believer, for “without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”, (Heb. 11:6).  But whether we believe God, or do not believe, that does not change God’s character.  He is still the God, Victor over all.  Were it possible for our unbelieving attitudes to have an effect upon God’s operations, then unbelief, not faith, would be the stronger.  If, in our unbelief, we “limit the Holy One of Israel”, we do bring a restriction into our own lives, which God will then have to deal with.  Paul once wrote, “Our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.  Ye are not straightened in us, but ye are straightened in your own bowels”, (II Cor. 6:11-12).  We become bound in ourselves, but God is not bound by us.  His purpose shall be accomplished.

But, praise God, it is, as we do believe, open up our heart to trust and rely upon Him, that His victory begins to work in us in an experimental way.  God was all-victorious before the ages of sin and selfhood began.  He knew what was going to happen, for He planned that it should happen, and He has always been in total control, restraining what He did not purpose to use, and causing what He did purpose to use.  But He not only is God of the past, He is God of the present, “by Him all things consist”, (Col. 1:17).  The word “consist” coming from the Greek word meaning “to put and hold together”.  Things can only fall apart to the extent He plans for them to fall apart, for He holds all the boundaries, holding together all things, working out His plan in perfect order.  And, obviously, He is God of all our future, so that ultimately all things will have been worked together into our good, and for His praise.  Past, present, future – forever He is God!

ONE IN HIS HEADSHIP by Ray Prinzing

“Grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ.” (Ephesians 4:15)

There is a spiritual realm of dominion and control, not a position that is selfishly grasped, but a position filled by those prepared by the Lord. “Keep on fostering the same disposition that Christ Jesus had. Though He was existing in the nature of God, He did not think His being on an equality with God a thing to be selfishly grasped,” (Phil. 2:5-6, Williams).

“And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, (Heb. 5:4). One can always find a few self-appointed apostles and prophets in the land. Those who would like to prophesy others into some kind of a position, as if by saying so would cause them to qualify. But let it be clear, OVERCOMERS are not self-proclaimed reactionaries, they are carefully prepared by God through much purifying “To him that overcometh…”implies that there will be a sufficient amount of obstacles placed into your pathway for your overcoming, so that having gained the victory you qualify for the crown. If the difficulties seem to be piling up in front of you, take it as a sign from the Lord that He purposes to make you an overcomer. Consider the trials as a token of the personal attention of God in your development.

You are sitting alone in the desert, the Lord is talking to you only by these pressures; He is testing you with trial and tribulation, and yet you feel so dry and dead, no feelings, no morsel of fellowship for a long time, and then one comes along boasting of their many works and the causes they are promoting. Don’t envy them, don’t measure your life by theirs, and don’t let their activity place you under condemnation because you aren’t engaged as they. Many a star falls out of its place and blazes across the sky in a spectacular display, but it burns itself out, and plunges into darkness. God is bringing forth developed disciples that will qualify to share His throne, which will abide in the place He appoints for them, to rule in righteousness.

ZION IS FOUNDED by Ray Prinzing

“What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it (betake themselves unto it).” (Isaiah 14:32)

Tell me, what’s going on these days? Is anything happening? What is God’s move for this hour? THE LORD IS FOUNDING ZION! Take a heavenly tour and walk about Zion and count, inspect, look over His new creation. God is raising up PILLARS in the midst of the land, His elect, and they KNOW IN WHOM THEY HAVE BELIEVED. They are willing to be ‘placed’ by God, and there to abide. Let the nations rage, let the people imagine a vain thing. Let the storms blow, and let the darkness cover the earth. They are unafraid because they KNOW HIM. They are upheld by His mighty hand, and they shall become a beacon of light to those who stumble in darkness. When men’s hearts fail them for fear, these shall remain calm, cool, and collected, ready to give an encouraging word to him that is weary. These processed saints have been so disciplined by the Lord that they are not easily disturbed by the pressures without. Thus, God shall have His strong ones in the midst of the land, and the poor shall be able to take themselves unto these FOUNDED ONES, to find safety, security, and help.

We have become ‘a nation on wheels’, driven by a restless spirit, searching everywhere for they know not what. Buried deep in the bosom of every Israelite is that call of God which says, “we have here no continuing city”, and with Abraham we “look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”, (Heb. 11:10). Men do not know this is what they seek, but their very restlessness is an evident token that they are not inwardly at home, at rest, at peace. Not until we find ourselves again contained in the fullness of the will of God, conformed to His image, filled with His Spirit, do we find a satisfaction and an inner quietness. God’s elect, His Zion, is being brought into this place of stability and victory in Him.

WITH PURPOSE OF HEART by Ray Prinzing

“And they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch, Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.” (Acts 11:22-23)

Barnabas beheld the GRACE OF GOD working in their lives, and he was glad. This is a beautiful, positive approach. He could have seen all the imperfections, how much spiritual growth was needed, worried about the errors of doctrine, whatever else might be common to the beginnings of the Christian walk. But he saw the grace of God, and knew there was a work begun, and viewing God’s handiwork, he knew that the One who had begun in these people a good work, He also would bring it to a successful conclusion in due time, so he only sought to encourage, to exhort them to continue, to follow on to perfection, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.

The word ‘cleave’ comes from the Greek ‘pros’ meaning toward, and ‘meno’ which means to remain, abide. What an excellent exhortation, to remain towards the Lord, to abide in a walk that is always directed towards the Lord, to keep Him in the center of our vision, and to remain in that close union with Him. “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth,” (Psalm 16:8-9)

This vital abiding, remaining ever towards the Lord, is the resultant action of our PURPOSE OF HEART. It speaks of the action of the will. True, spiritual depth and maturity come with growth and processing under the workmanship of the Spirit of God within us, but our responsive action to His inworking is the exercise of our will, willing to live out that which He has wrought within. “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself,” (Dan. 1:8). The deliberate, pre-meditated, chosen course of action. It was the action of his will motivated by his heart, his inner state of being, that gave strength to face every test, which followed.

Lord, we will to have Your will in all things. Amen!