The book of Habakkuk begins with the author crying out to God lamenting the sorry state of affairs in Israel. According to the introductory notes in the Amplified, Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah, serving God as the ultimate punishment described by Moses was about to be meted out to a nation that refused to do right; exile!
A generation ago, propelled effectively by mass publishing and television, the word of faith movement swept the nation and the world. Though not new, the idea that man could bring about change in his physical environment and being by believing in and speaking God's Word rather than passively accepting every tragedy and assault as " at God's hand" and of His will struck a chord with a great number of believers;that His will might actually be for us to prosper and be in good health, but that it was our steadfast belief in that will as stated in His word, that would change our circumstances.
“Further, it (the surrendered heart) is dedicated to enjoy God. It chooses Him as its portion, its happiness, all and in all. It consents to find all its satisfaction in Him and Him alone, whether it be in the loss of every other channel of happiness or by His filling all the springs of life with Himself.”
Excerpt From: A. B. Simpson. “Wholly Sanctified.” WingSpread Publishers
If you read the gospels like a newspaper, i.e.looking for new information you might notice something: Jesus was big on the kingdom of heaven.That might seem a bit obvious but its interesting to me that we are not. Jesus spoke incessantly about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God and we talk about eternity in heaven.Jesus spoke about the gospel or good news of the kingdom but we talk about the gospel of Jesus dying for our sins so that we don't have to go to hell. Don't get me wrong,
A very wise and witty business consultant would write a newsletter to his clients and dispense his pearls gleaned from years of private consulting. One essay dealt with the futility of always looking for the big move; some single thing we could do in our practices and double our gross receipts. This was, in his view, an unrealistic expectation derived from quantum leaps we enjoyed in the early days of our business when, proceeding from zero, we enjoyed large percentage increases if we just kept going to work. He chronicled the phenomena like this: " You started your practice. Then you installed a phone and your gross doubled. Several months later, you unlocked your front door and your practice doubled again...". Of course his point is that those big gains in the beginning, the simple achievement of going from 1 to 2 represented a dramatic 100% growth rate and depended on our just continuing to breathe. As the enterprise matured, gains were smaller and harder won. I've come to understand this as a phenomena in our spiritual lives.
