“A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.” (Luk 15:11-13 KJV)
LORD, fire me up and set me on fire”… Let not grace diminish in my life. Let me not become obsolete, ever before the work is done completely.
The bane and doom of the Prodigal son was that he left home … he left the shadow of his father, into an open country … He took off, with confidence in his past experience and in a past blessing… He took off on a reservoir he gathered for himself… He left Baba (the father): the inexhaustible Reservoir, the Source that never runs dry and took off on a ‘Jerry can Reservoir’… How far can a man go on “gathered up” resources?
LORD, deliver me from taking off, solely dependent on little things I have gathered so far from Thy presence. Drive me back again and again until I no longer stray from this eternal lesson of total and absolute dependence on Thee.
He took off on his past dealing with God… He expected the glory that shone on his face while he beheld God continually to remain ever shining, even when he had left the source long ago. He expected some form of everlastingness, having left the ever-lasting God, the ever-living, the ever-burning, and the ever-loving God! What an impossible expectation!!
As soon as firewood is no more added to fire, existing wood must burn and get burnt into ashes. It starts by reducing in length, as it becomes very small pieces of charcoal and then it becomes the ash. LORD, help me to learn this wisdom once more in Jesus’ Name.
And took his journey “into a far country …!”
Why not a nearby country? When the devil wants to kill a man, and destroy his anointing … he sets his mind on a destination far away where he can be plundered and squandered without any immediate help from home. LORD, I desire not a far distance from Thy presence… The devil took him to places where even if he cried out for help, no one would hear. Home seemed so far away…!
LORD, help me to be tied with a strong cord around the horn of the altar. Let me lose my peace, my assurance and my confidence; the more I stray from Thine altar. Regulate the circumference of my operations. No amount of revelation knowledge, and No amount of divine unction; No amount of open doors granted unto me ought to entice and deceive me to seek personal independence from Thy presence. Revelation knowledge, divine unction, open doors, etc. are only meaningful for as long as I abide in thy presence; if I should take “my journey into a far country,” not because you sent me, I would soon discovered that such can only be sustained in your presence not anywhere else.
What keeps a man from spending the substance of grace God bestow on him “with riotous (reckless, uncontrolled and expensive thoughtless) living,” can only also be gotten from abiding in God’s presence.
No brake, No control and No inner check; No direction, No soundness of thought, No organisation and No arrangement… This is what happens when a man leaves the presence of God; trusting on a ‘Jerry can Reservoir,’ completely ignorant of how short lived “gathered up” resources are. When a man walks out of the Holy Spirit, he squanders all the truth riotously without any focus and without any meaningful application. Revelation knowledge is wasted in a riotous and loose living… ONLY, under the shadow of the Almighty God can my life, my work and my thoughts be properly focused and applied for measurable results.
The prodigal son lost all his inner checks and balances; he lost all sense of direction, as he wasted all he acquired in the presence of God. It takes years to build a prayer life. It takes years to become acquainted with the voice of God, and prove His perfect will. It takes years to have an open door into God’s word regularly… yet it takes just a few days out there to waste, squander and spend all these jewels of grace!
It takes years for Christ’s character (a treasure more precious than gold) to be formed in a Christian; it takes a combination of several things: sufferings, persecution, temptations and trials of faith to bring a Christian to a Christ-like experience and life style. Yet it takes a short moment only to destroy all these, and clothe the child of God with rags!
LORD, help me to guard jealously what you have taken several years to deposit into my life. Help me to remain within Thy shadows, so as to preserve Thy eternal investments in my heart for this generation, in Jesus’ Name.