O, My Soul, March on in Strength!

O, My Soul, March on in Strength!

This is how Deborah sings! This call resounds in every zealous heart. “For the Lord whose name is Zealous, is a zealous God.” Ex. 34:14. A zealous soul advances. God has a goal for him, a goal in life: The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ! A goal for life: Serving and giving your life! Zeal is life’s trailblazing support. There is no progress without zeal. By it our kingdom is enlarged and the peace in our hearts is without end. By it the kingdom is ordered and established with judgment and justice. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Isa. 9:7. The zeal of God guides a soul through everything. It works decisiveness in the soul that is as strong as death. Song of Sol. 8:6. Its flames are flames of fire—a flame of the Lord—a consuming judgment and fire against all unrighteousness, against all sin, and against all self-life. It consumes the one who possesses it and re-molds him to be strength in the Lord’s hand, an instrument with an inherent strength, just as the hand that guides it. God’s will is its decision; theories and figures of speech must make way for action and strength. It drives its man forward into the gap for the Lord— right in front of people—with its unadulterated truth. Zeal increases courage, defies danger, leads relentlessly forward on the ways of the Lord; it doesn’t know the word “retreat”; failure is an unknown entity in its past. It does not blind a man to difficulties, but it makes him blind to himself in difficulties. To zeal, a thousand obstacles are a thousand opportunities to overcome. It breaks in pieces gates of bronze and bars of iron. The Lord’s own strength does this. Therefore zeal consists of joy; for its goal is victory, and its hope never fails. Its strength increases through resistance; its power makes the soul longsuffering; despondency is not found within its gates. In case of failure, zeal will turn against the root cause of it, so that the heart is cleansed until its motives become pure and the spirit’s understanding is clear.

Such a soul, apprehended of the Holy Spirit’s power, marches forward on the ways of the Lord, following the Lamb through death to a life in the fullness of Christ. He goes on the Lamb’s way—the lowest way, the most despised way, the way of the cross— rejoicing. He goes into the depths, for there is firmness and security. The depths are heavenly. His walk in the depths is a walk in heavenly places, for he has forsaken his thoughts and his ways and has entered into God’s thoughts and onto God’s ways. They are hidden in the depths. However, God says about them that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so God’s thoughts are higher than man’s thoughts and God’s ways are higher than man’s ways. The hidden ways in Christ Jesus, the ways on which one meets the riches of His glory, lead away from that which is great, down to the lowly places; away from that which is revered to that which is despised; away from that which is strong to that which is weak just so that God’s power can and shall be manifested in that which is nothing.

God’s hidden ways are only revealed to babes, and few are those who find them. However, those who do find them will mature through opposition and scorn, through mockery and tribulation. They shall overcome in all things—not by going around, and not by becoming free, but by going through. Victory is certain in tribulation, in distress, and in reproach, just to prove that Christ is mightier than all these things, for He is the mightiest! Therefore life is a life of testing; it is an advancing life, a growing life—through death.

God is a consuming fire, and he who lives in His presence has his “self” consumed. Those who live in God’s presence turn their minds to the spirit of wisdom, power, sobriety, and courage. They are prepared to fight in the light, tear down all that is evil, and lay down their life in the battle. They love peace, fighting against all that causes strife. They love a life in unity, therefore they forsake everything that divides but keep everything that can create unity: the sword of the Spirit, which they are prepared to use in season and out of season against whomever and wherever. They love to fight for peace, hating a peace without purity. Therefore they are a sign of division, an enigma to unsteady minds. Nevertheless, God is leading them. They fight faithfully by His hand. Their life is a sacrifice of service—under law in the liberty of Christ—to be the slave of all—without being a slave to those who want to enslave them. They love liberty; therefore they commit themselves to a life of service so that others can be free for the same ministry. They love God’s law beautifully represented by the body of Christ—the church of God on earth—whose edification is their life. They count everything else as loss, having renounced the hidden things of shame, platitudes, the world, and the things in the world. The Exalted One is their reward; therefore they consider the honor of man as shame and loss. Their mind is in heavenly places; therefore they are faithful on earth. And because they are faithful on earth, they will have an abundant entrance in heaven; therefore they can sing together with Deborah, “O my soul, march on in strength!”