.
When you are down and hurting — when you think you’ve crossed the
line, and it’s all over for you — the Holy Spirit comes in immediately to lift
you up and bring you back into God’s grace. Every bit of your sin has been paid
for, no matter how awful it may be. Jesus paid the price in full. The new covenant
is all about God’s love message to his people. The secret of the Lord is a
life-freeing revelation of his loving kindness to us at the point of our
failures. It is the Holy Spirit enduing us with a powerful revelation that
nothing can separate us from the covenant love of God. He is not mad at you — so
get your eyes off your sin, and gladly receive the free access you still have
to the father, through the cross of Christ. This secret is that your Savior
wants you to rejoice and be glad — because your past, present and future sins
have been taken away.
David Wilkerson
“The secret of the Lord is with those who fear
Him, and He will show them His covenant” - (Psalm
25:14).
I believe God carefully
chose the word “secret” to use in this passage.
Its Hebrew root means “to
be alert, to be on the lookout, to watch, to be a confidant.”
The concept expressed here
is powerful: God has a secret he will share only with believers who are willing
to pursue it with passion.
This company of seekers will
become his confidants only by having a deep hunger to know his heart.
In essence, the Lord does
not share his secret with just anybody, even within the body of Christ.
Flippant Christians won’t
grasp it and casual believers will never enter into it. This is why the Bible
calls it a secret: It is for his confidants only.
I believe this secret of
the New Covenant is a lifeline God casts toward every Christian who is sinking
in a mire of sin.
Through
it, he calls out to every child bound by a lust, habit or evil stronghold,
saying, “Lay hold of my covenant. It will be a lifeline to you, providing an
escape from sin before you’re swept away.”
Yet — I say this as kindly
as possible — only a handful of Christians will grasp this lifeline.
A believer can memorize all
the glorious promises of the New Covenant, master complex theological outlines
and trace each of the biblical covenants from the Adamic to the New.
But only a few will set
their minds to diligently seek the Lord for an understanding of his life-giving
New Covenant.
Here are just a few of the
promises and provisions God gives us through the New Covenant: a new heart, a
righteous fear of God, dominion over sin, Holy Ghost mortification of all sin
within us, a heart to know the Lord, his law written within our hearts so we
will not sin against him.
God also pledges that we
will be taught by his own Spirit and kept from falling; that we will be caused
to walk in his ways, do his good pleasure and endure to the end — all through
the abiding power of the Holy Ghost.
You may
reason, “If God has decreed the New Covenant — if he has sworn an oath to do
these wonderful things, and his Word is unchangeable — why should I pray for
what he has already decreed?
“Why
should I ask him to deliver me when he has already pledged to do for me what I
can’t do for myself? Shouldn’t I just wait on him in faith?
“If his
covenant promises are binding, why should I believe there are conditions
attached to them such as prayer and diligent seeking?”
In response, let me ask
you: Why would Jesus, who made the New Covenant with his Father, pray
diligently as he did so often?
In fact, why would he ask
the Father three times for an answer to a single matter?
And why would he praise a
woman in a parable who kept pestering a judge until she got the verdict she
wanted?
I hope to prove to you that
God has hung the secret of the New Covenant upon the condition of seeking him
with all our heart.
This condition and its
accompanying disciplines — prayer, Bible study, diligent seeking — cannot in
any way merit the New Covenant promises for us.
But they do prepare our
hearts to receive what God has promised.
We see a pattern
throughout the Bible: God says, “I give you these promises— but I want you
to seek my face until you are fully persuaded of them.”
There has never been a
time, from the foundation of the world, when God’s people were not under a
covenant.
Yet still godly men and
women have fasted and prayed throughout the centuries, holding the Lord to his
Word. The Bible gives us several examples of this:
1. Jacob
was given a sure promise by God through the Abrahamic covenant. The Lord had
promised to be his shield so no one could harm him.
Furthermore,
God had assured him, “Return to your country and to your family, and I will
deal well with you” (Genesis 32:9).
What powerful promises
these were. Who could oppose a man whose God was with him as Jacob’s was?
Still, Jacob was compelled
to pray the covenant.
He cried
out, “Lord, you promised to deal well with me if I returned. Now I’m holding
you to that promise” (verses 10-11, my paraphrase).
Scripture tells us Jacob
then wrestled all night with an angel of the Lord.
He told
the Lord, “I will not let You go unless You bless me” (verse
26).
He was holding the Lord to
his covenant.
2. Jesus
not only knew the covenant promises, having made covenant with the Father; he
was the New Covenant personified.
All the covenant promises resided in him.
Yet even Jesus himself fasted and prayed.
At one point, a group of
desperate people brought a demon-possessed, lunatic young man to Jesus.
His disciples hadn’t been
able to cast out the demonic spirit. Yet when Jesus rebuked the devil, the
demon immediately left the young man.
The Bible
says, “The child was cured from that very hour” (Matthew
17:18).
Jesus’ disciples were perplexed.
Scripture
tells us, “Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could
we not cast it out?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your unbelief; for
assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to
this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be
impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and
fasting’” (Matthew 17:19-21).
Think of the implications
of what Jesus is saying here. He is inferring that if his disciples had spent
time in prayer and fasting, they would have had both the faith and the power
for the boy to be delivered.
He also
implied, “Yes, I had the power to cast out this demon because I am God in
flesh. Yet I also set an example for you through my prayer and fasting.”
So, what is the secret God
wants to share with his people?
The secret of the New
Covenant isn’t some sudden rush of supernatural power in us, enabling us to
resist an overwhelming temptation.
Rather, it is God’s still,
small voice, revealing his love to us in the midst of our failure and
testing.
I want to illustrate this
truth through several letters our ministry has received.
One
sister in Christ wrote: “Moral weakness and failure — that’s me. I
continually go back to my old sins. I don’t want to hurt my Lord, and I pray
for him to keep me from going back. Yet at times I feel he is tired of my
failing in this same area all the time. But the truth is, I never hear from him
in the midst of my temptation. I feel alienated.”
Now,
contrast this letter with an e-mail from a young man in Christ: “Last night
I was in prayer, experiencing great anguish in my soul. I had failed my Lord
and sinned. My heart was breaking inside. I cried before him, but all I could
think was that I had gone too far. I asked him, ‘How can you still love me? Do
you, Lord? Or have I gone too far?’ I cried out for a single word from him to
let me know he still loves me.
“Then,
with perfect timing, your message arrived, ‘Keep Yourself in the Love of God.’
I was so overwhelmed and awed by the love of the Lord as I read it. I
immediately repented, and my heart was flushed with God’s love. It has made me
love him so much more.”
This young man now stands
in awe of God’s love, and his love for Jesus has grown deeper. Why? When it
seemed Satan had won the battle, he received a revelation of God’s forgiving
love and restoring grace.
The New Covenant promises
that God will show mercy toward all our iniquities and unrighteousness.
Yet this is not new; the
Lord has always been merciful in all of the biblical covenants.
What is different about the
New Covenant is how God shows us his mercy: He sends his Spirit to empower us
with a revelation of the almighty grace and loving kindness of Jesus Christ, at
the very lowest point of our Christian walk — even while we are sinking in
guilt and failure.
I am convinced the body of
Christ has yet to understand just how amazing God’s grace to us is.
Consider a Christian who
has loved the Lord for years.
He is a praying, faithful
believer with a gentle spirit and the sweet presence of Jesus about him.
But suddenly this godly
saint is overwhelmed by a powerful temptation.
He yields to it, and
suddenly he is drawn back into an old, besetting sin.
Perhaps his bondage is an
outburst of temper, or swarms of evil thoughts, or lukewarmness, or gross sins
such as drinking, fornication or adultery.
The devil then quickly
attacks this Christian using the only real power he has against him: lies. He
tries to convince the believer of the following:
1. He has sinned
against the light.
2. He has
sinned too often after being convicted for so long.
3. He has
sinned one too many times.
4. He has
crossed a line and is now beyond God’s mercy.
Here, at this crucial
point, is where the secret of the New Covenant is revealed.
Instead
of condemning that Christian, the Holy Spirit woos him, saying, “Come back
quickly to the sprinkling of Jesus’ blood. Repent and accept your forgiveness.
Stay in the love of God. You are forgiven unconditionally. Return now to your
walk with me.”
What is happening at this
moment?
The Holy Ghost is at work —
revealing the love of God to that person, causing him to marvel at the Lord’s
mercy and grace.
And in doing so, he is
drawing him into a greater love for Jesus.
That is the keeping power
of the Holy Ghost.
When you are down and
hurting — when you think you’ve crossed a line, and it’s all over for you — the
Spirit comes in immediately to lift you up and bring you back into God’s grace.
Every bit of your sin has
been paid for, no matter how awful it may be.
How? Jesus paid the price
in full.
God said
by covenant, “I am going to be merciful to your sins — and I have sent my
Son to you as the seal of my covenant. Your fear tells you I have every right
to damn you. But my covenant says my Son took upon himself everything that
would ever condemn you. You are now free.”
Here is what the covenant
is all about.
It is
God’s love message to his people, saying, “I love you so much, I will never
let the devil have you. I won’t let him take over your life, even when you fail
me. It is impossible for you ever to stray too far from my love. There is no
place in heaven or earth you can escape it.”
The secret of the Lord is a
life-freeing revelation of his loving kindness to us at the point of our
failures.
It is the Holy Spirit enduing
us with a powerful revelation that nothing can separate us from the covenant
love of God.
He is not mad at you — so
get your eyes off your sin, and gladly receive the free access you still have
to the father, through the cross of Christ.
This secret is that your
Savior wants you to rejoice and be glad — because your past, present and future
sins have been taken away.
Hallelujah!
D
avid
Wilkerson
was called to New York City in 1958 to minister to gang members and drug
addicts, as told in the best-selling book The Cross and the Switchblade. He
went on to create Teen Challenge and World Challenge, Inc. to minister to
people’s spiritual and physical needs.
In
1987, he established Times Square Church. As its founding pastor, he faithfully
led this congregation, delivering powerful biblical messages that encourage
righteous living and complete reliance on God.
David
Wilkerson also had a strong burden to encourage his fellow pastors. He founded
the Summit International School of Ministry; and from 1999 to 2008, he held
international conferences to strengthen church leaders.
His
passion to support believers, build up leaders and care for the poor is still
at the heart of World Challenge’s ministries to this day.
https://worldchallenge.org/newsletter/2017/new-covenant-and-secret-lord
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