Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Everyone carries a burden, but God intends for it to lead you to unspeakable joy. The question is, how do you embrace something that feels impossible to endure? Today Jill turns to the book of Habakkuk for the answer. But first...

Guest (Female): Today's culture is a revolving door of ever-shifting views and beliefs. That's why it's so important to test new ideas against the timeless truth of scripture. It's the best defense against the world's confusion. We want to help ground you in the foundations of your faith by sending you Stuart Briscoe's six-message series on the book of Second Peter, Six Things We Must Never Forget.

The Six Things We Must Never Forget series is our thanks for your gift to help keep Telling the Truth going strong, sharing life-giving teaching from Stuart and Jill with more people all over the world. So request your copy when you give today and get help staying grounded in truth in today's shifting culture. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Guest (Male): Now here's Jill with her message, Living One-Mile High.

Jill Briscoe: God said to Habakkuk, "In my inscrutable plan, in my sovereign plan, I am going to use Babylon in the strangest way to bring my people back and have a remnant left to work with for the future. But I will punish Babylon." Now Habakkuk, not in your day, for this revelation belongs to the end. We don't know which end. It's a prophecy. Certainly God did punish Babylon in biblical history, but certainly it's a bigger picture, perhaps of spiritual Babylon, and just before Jesus comes back, God will punish Babylon for what Babylon has done to the church of Christ.

We don't know, but we do know this: that it is not ours to judge or question the purposes of God and how he gets where he is going. And so Habakkuk is torn to shreds. "What do you mean? They're going to wipe us off the map. How can I tell the remnant this? How can I do this?" And God leans out of heaven, and in chapter three, he just shows himself. It's a transfiguration. He has a theophany.

A theophany, in terms theological, is a self-revelation of God. He just says, "Look at me." It's the same in Job. Job is struggling with good and evil, and why do bad things happen to good people, and why do good people do bad things? All of that stuff. Like Asaph in Psalm 73. "I did not understand when I saw the wicked overcoming good until I went into the temple of God and you showed me, not the answer, you showed me you."

And what we need to do when we're confused, what we need to do when we stand in countries where the most terrible, terrible things are happening to the people of God and it seems to be that the devil is running all over the world and having his own way, is stand on our high tower and ask our questions and hear perhaps God say, "Don't worry about it. One day they'll be punished for what they're doing to my people. But in this part of history, I'm working my purposes out even in Babylon and with Babylon."

It's hard to get your head round. It's hard to get your mind round, but it needs to be done. And so in chapter three, Habakkuk sees God. And when you're confused and you wonder why is evil in my family, why is evil in my life, when I sit so many times and hear stories that just break your heart and I think, "How is it that the devil's winning this or has won this? How could you let this happen, God?" This is a wonderful, wonderful place to go.

I can always encourage people or take them with me to stand on our high tower and ask the message to tell us, "Just give us theology to hold onto. What do we do if we are called to be a Habakkuk and live in a very dark place until the earth is filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea?" That's a verse from here. How are we going to do it? And the secret and the key verse, of course, of Habakkuk is in chapter two. "The just shall live by faith."

We read that in Romans. It is a reference to Habakkuk chapter two. What are you going to do? How are you going to do this? You're going to live by faith. You're going to trust. You're going to lean, Habakkuk. As I so often say, lean, folks, you won't fall over. How are you going to survive if God has given you the calling and the burden to live through a very dark time in your personal life, in your church life, in your country's life, in your world?

How are you going to do it? You're going to live by faith. You're going to learn trust. You're going to learn faith. You're going to say, "You are God. I can trust you. It looks so confusing. I don't have answers. I don't have answers for the people that say, 'Okay, where's your God? What's he doing?'" I watched on the TV as this hurricane hit and the very harsh questioning I felt some of God's people were given.

They were given a chance and I was on my knees in front of the TV. I didn't care who was up there. I didn't care what denomination they came from. I didn't care what their reputation was. They had been asked to answer for God. And some of those reporters, one of them particularly, I didn't like his way and I didn't like his manner at all. And I got on my knees and I prayed for the man that had to answer those questions.

And the reporter said to him, "So what are you going to say to your people in church, pastor, this Sunday? What are you going to tell them about God who stayed this storm? He just wiped out a thousand people, drowned them in their beds and in this nursing home. So what are you going to say about God?" And I believe God gave wisdom beyond every single person that was asked that question. Franklin Graham was asked it, Anne Graham Lotz was asked it on national television, and many other pastors.

Pastors that perhaps we would take issue with theologically, but I tell you, they gave great answers. Basically they did point out, "Well, people are saying it was the sin that was going on there, but there were also over a hundred churches wiped out and God's people along with the people we might think were sinful or doing wrong things. So what do you think about that, Mr. Reporter?" And I saw one reporter really caught up in this as he began to think.

He said back to the pastor, "Yeah. So both the good and the bad got killed, right? Right. What are you going to say about that, pastor?" And he got his attention and began to walk him through some of the huge unanswerable questions. Why does God allow suffering? But was able to say as Habakkuk was able to say, "Listen, whatever the 'why' is, let me tell you 'how' you and I are going to survive this. We're going to live by faith.

We're going to trust that God, who's a good God, will do the right thing in the end. And one day he'll sit us down and say, 'Let me explain this to you.' Our little dust minds are so tiny. There's no way we can put our minds around this thing." And he comes into chapter three and he says, after seeing God, seeing God in his mightiness—and you can read that theophany and how God appeared to him in his vision or dream, or in reality, we don't know what it's like to have God show us little human beings himself in all his raw spiritness.

He does his best with the language here. And he says, "When I saw this, I heard my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound," 16 of chapter three. "Decay crept into my bones, my legs trembled. Yes, I will patiently wait for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us." So what am I going to do? I'm going to live by faith. What does that mean? Okay. "Though the fig tree does not bud."

A fig tree takes about a hundred years to get figs. It means it's been there a long time. It means you've lived in the country forever. It means you're safe. It means you're prosperous. And under the fig tree is the family, every man under his vine and fig tree. And it is a picture of prosperity and safety and security and blessing. "Though the fig tree doesn't bud. Though I lose my home in flood or war or whatever. Though I'm burned at the stake. Though my family isn't prosperous. Though I lose my job. Yet will I rejoice."

How am I going to do that? I'm going to live by faith. I'm going to stand on my high tower. I'm going to ask the questions I need to and accept the answers that I get. I'm going to build a high tower in my life. I'm going to build faith into my life. "Though the fig tree does not bud." Security. Could you say before you go out, "Though I don't know what security is, though I have no idea what's facing me, money-wise, security-wise, yet will I rejoice" because you're going to trust. You're going to lean on God.

Guest (Male): Don't go anywhere. There's more life-giving truth from the Briscoes headed your way. Tellingthetruth.org and the Telling the Truth app are great resources to help you grow in your spiritual life. Packed with videos like "Ask the Briscoes," articles from Stuart and Jill, and encouraging audio teaching content, you'll find a treasure trove of resources to encourage you and others in your faith.

And while you're there, you can also request this month's featured resource when you give a gift to help more people around the world experience life in Christ. So visit us online or download the app today. We look forward to connecting with you. Now here's Jill with more of today's message, Living One-Mile High.

Jill Briscoe: "Though no grapes on the vine." The vine, I love this. You know, there's a verse in the scripture that says, "Thy wife shall be like a fruitful vine by the side of thy house, and thy children like olive plants around thy table." Monstrous picture. Doesn't mean the wife is climbing the walls. "The wife shall be like a fruitful vine." It's the same picture of happiness, of joy in your relationships. And the little olive plants sitting having their cornflakes round the table. Wonderful picture.

And he says, "And though the olive plants fail." What happens if your kids fail? What happens if they go with the peers and they get into drugs and the policeman comes to your door at 11:00 at night, says your kid's just killed somebody is drunk driving? What you going to do? "Though the olive plant fails, yet will not I." And you have to come if you're a parent to the point of saying, "They might not go on with you. They might not love you. They might fail, the olive crop might fail, but I'm not going to. And I'm not going to let them take me down with them."

That was one of the hardest places of my life. My kids were in their teenage years, just ordinary teenage problems, normal teenage problems. And I became panic-stricken with fear that they would not love Jesus and follow him. I just became obsessed with it. And I remember kneeling at my bed and saying, "Okay, okay, okay, I got it. I've got it. Though the olive crop might fail, I won't. And I'll love you. I'll serve you. Though my heart is broken. Though my dreams have gone. I'll do it. I'll rejoice in you. I'll trust. I'll lean. I'll live by faith. If they live by faith or they don't live by faith, I will."

And you have to let that go. You have to come to that point. Doesn't mean you don't put your heart and soul and energy and your life into your kids and seeing them love Jesus. Of course not. But what if they fail? What's that going to do to you? You're going to drop out of serving? Are you going to say, "I just need a year out to regroup. How can I serve God when my kids have failed?" It's not got to do with it. What's that got to do with your relationship with God?

What's that got to do with your calling and your burden? "Yet will not I," he says. "Count on me." That's living one-mile high. Though the olive crop fails or the wife or the security or the husband, yet will not I. "No sheep in the fold." You're going back to your ministry and since you've been here in one weekend, everybody's left your Bible study. How could this happen? It was only a week, three days. So what you going to do if you fail with all your wonderful high plans you've collected here?

What you going to do? You're going to just sit down and die? You're going to quit? Or are you going to listen to the coach? No sheep in the fold, "no donkey in the stall." I love this little picture. You could come to the temple and give sacrifices and they would kill them and give you back something to eat and all of that. But there was one sacrifice that was accepted because it was needed, and it was called a living sacrifice. And it was a donkey.

Donkeys were given huge expense to a family. If you gave a donkey, it's like giving a Rolls Royce. It was all sorts of things. It was their transport. It was the thing that hauled stuff around the fields. They gave their living sacrifice, the donkey, to the temple. And it bore the burdens in the temple. It did the donkey work. Okay, let's apply it. You feel as though you're on your own. "I've nobody to help me. Poor little me. Can't get volunteers. I'm always finished. Everybody's gone. They have to go home and look after their kids. I've got kids. Nobody thinks of that. And there's nobody doing the donkey work. You're doing it all. You're doing all the other stuff and the donkey work."

Okay, listen to me. "Though there is no donkey in the stall, I'll do it. So what? I'll stay till midnight. I'll put in the extra hours, even when nobody's looking to watch, except God. No donkey in the stall. Yet will I rejoice. I'll do it with joy." It's not about the success of my event. I'll get on with it. How do I live one-mile high? You turn your eyes to the hills. You stay on your high tower listening to the messages from the scriptures, from God, that he will send you.

You take time. You invest your life. You go to the deep place. You do not need a mentor. Jesus is your mentor. God is your mentor. Now you might need somebody to mentor you into how that works, and then they're done. And then you go and mentor someone else into how they can go to their high tower, how they can hear God's voice in the deep place where nobody goes and sit on the steps and talk to God, you see.

That's what mentoring's supposed to be. But God is our mentor. How do we help? How do we bring them into the fullness of that? That's our job. That's our burden. That's what we're called to do. I live one-mile high and somehow I explain how that happens to somebody watching me live one-mile high. That's how it happens and that's how it works. We turn our eyes to the hills of faith. We ask God for the feet of a deer, fleet feet.

And then we pick our way on the heights. I have seen in Austria, I have seen in the Himalayas, I have seen in Tibet mountain goats in the most incredible places on the highest peaks in the world. And somebody will say, "Take these glasses. Look at those goats." And it is an incredible miracle of God how they leap from one place to another. Sure-footed. God did that for those goats. And God says, "I will give you the feet of a deer to pick your way on the impossible peaks and you will find that the low places of your life turn into the high places of your experience of God."

God will give you hinds' feet in high places. Yes, he will. And he'll help you walk surely. You won't slip. You won't fall. And you'll live one-mile high. For the sovereign Lord is my strength. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God says, "My grace is sufficient for thee," etcetera, etcetera. He makes my feet like the feet of the deer. Fleet feet, grace, alacrity, swift sure-footedness. He'll set you on your high places, which will be the low places of life, strangely.

I don't think I've ever felt closer to God than in a low place. And he's lifted me one-mile high inside in my spirit. And as I've done my part, as I've waited for the messenger to explain what I need to know and then I've accepted that, even if it's bad news. I remember once standing on that high tower waiting for God to give me the message, and when it came, it was as bad as "the Babylonians are coming."

And I needed to accept it and say, "Okay. Thank you for telling me what's ahead. It's all bad, but thank you for telling me. This isn't going to get better. This isn't going to get change. This is where I will probably live for the rest of my days. Now then, how do I do it? You live by faith. You stand on your tower. You listen to the messenger. That's how you do it. And you lean on me and you trust me." And God says, "I will show you myself and that will be enough."

Day after day, God will show you himself. What more do you want? What more do you need? Nothing. And he'll make your feet like the feet of a deer. Early in the morning as day was dawning, I read in Habakkuk. I was glad to arrive at the end of the book. It was so sad. And it talked of pain and sorrow, tears and war. But there in the end of the prophecy, I found a song of joy crowning the prophet's psalm of sorrow.

And seeing it was early, I went to the deep place and I waited in the mellow mists of morning to talk to him about it. "Habakkuk was my friend," he said quietly. And I thought I knew why. "I think Habakkuk pictured you as the hind of the morning," I commented. "That's a lovely picture of you, Lord." And we were quiet thinking of how at Calvary, the lion got the hind. And I thought of how the devil ripped the hind to shreds, and I shuddered.

"But on Easter morning, I got the lion," he said. And then we laughed and time stood still and all the trees of the field clapped their hands. Oh, dear one, more precious to me than any other, help me to be like you, a hind sure-footed on high ground, I pled. And I thought of the challenges that awaited me. Today I could lose a friend and even make an enemy for life. Today I must confront wrongdoing, be misunderstood, play peacemaker.

I didn't like this part of the mountain climb. I didn't like this part of ministry. "Well, remember the low places of life are really the high places of spiritual experience," he reminded me. "Well then, oh heavenly hind of the morning, today when I find myself picking my way among the rocks and crags, trying to keep my feet and not fall down, help me to keep my balance." "I'll give you hinds' feet in high places if you ask me to," he replied quietly.

"I will enable you to go on the heights." And then we were walking together in the shallow place where everyone lives, looking at the impossible crags on the mountainside, and they looked for all the world to me like the dangerous difficulties of the day ahead of me. What a rocky road. So I asked him to help me go on the heights, just like he told me to. It's the best thing to do, you know.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening to Telling the Truth today. We're so glad you've joined us and we pray this message has helped you experience more of the abundant life Jesus promised. Today's culture is a revolving door of ever-shifting views and beliefs. That's why it's so important to test new ideas against the timeless truth of scripture. It's the best defense against the world's confusion.

We want to help ground you in the foundations of your faith by sending you Stuart Briscoe's six-message series on the book of Second Peter, Six Things We Must Never Forget. This series will anchor you in six time-tested truths from God's word so you can stand strong in your beliefs as you remember the deep spiritual truths that are foundational to your faith.

The Six Things We Must Never Forget series is our thanks for your gift to help keep Telling the Truth going strong, sharing life-giving teaching from Stuart and Jill with more people all over the world. So request your copy when you give today and get help staying grounded in truth in today's shifting culture. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Thanks for being here today and listening to Telling the Truth. Join us again next time as Stuart and Jill Briscoe share more powerful truth from God's word. Experience life next time on Telling the Truth.