WHERE can you find a man who has guts? I’ll tell you where: In YOU! He’s your inner man who’ll come out and display his power after your insides get offered to the Lord. This morning I saw myself with my intestines in my hands raised up to the One whose glory, power and life I’m expecting to see come out of me,-…. a nobody, but a somebody, …. and out of you, too, because we have Him dwelling in us.

We’ve been waiting for God, but He’s been waiting for us to give Him what He rightly deserves-…. our insides… yes, our guts and our everything else. “Offer your bodies a living sacrifice” the Bible tells us, and what could be more alive than our guts? There’s a reason that our intestines are called this: It’s not when we eat the Word that we get strong-…. It’s when we internalize it by digesting and assimilating its substance all throughout our being…. It’s when we pass the IN-TEST, offering what we have to the Lord so that He can use it and us.

I have kept a writing in my Bible for many years by Charles W. Weller called “The Burnt Offering.” It’s a message I have reread often which continues to speak to me, even and especially now. The author/minister illuminates the three types of burnt offerings (the ox, the lamb and the dove) revealing how “each represents a different aspect of the whole burnt offering known as “Olah,” which means “ascending to the Lord,” …… as in surrendering totally to God.

In Leviticus 1 it is written that even though the ox was without spot and blemish, its legs and inward parts had to be cleansed in water.” Type and shadow wise, “we, like the ox, must be cleansed because we come into contact with that which is unholy and hence, cleansing is necessary. The reason the intestines and other inward parts need to be washed is because lower levels of understanding are no longer tolerated for those predestined to have His nature. (Ephesians 1: 5,1) These parts that represent the will, desires, emotions have to be cleansed until they are holy and acceptable unto the Lord….They must be cleansed from any possibility of carnal thinking, so that we can walk the walk being conformed to the desires of the Lord’s purposes.”

If we want to be like David, whose courage killed a lion, a bear and a giant, it’s time for us to offer up our intestines and become “Gutsy for the Lord.” This past week the name “Baruch” came and now as I write, I believe I am to include these words from “The Apocalypse of Baruch” LXX: 2-10:

“Behold! The days come, and it will be when the time of the age has ripened, and the harvest of its evil and good seeds has come, that the “Mighty One” will bring upon the earth and its inhabitants upon the earth and its rulers perturbation of spirit and stupor of heart. and they will hate one another, and provoke one other to fight, and the mean will rule over the honorable, and those of low degree will be exalted above the famous. And the many will be delivered into the hands of the few, and those who are nothing will rule over the strong, and the poor will have abundance beyond the rich, and the impious will exalt  themselves above the heroic. And the wise will be silent, and the foolish will speak, neither will the thought of men be then confirmed, nor the counsel of the mighty, nor will the hope of those hope be confirmed. Moreover, it will be when those things which were predicted have come to pass, that confusion will fall upon all men, and some of them will fall in battle, and some of them will perish in anguish, and some of them will be destroyed by their own. Then the Most High will reveal to those peoples whom He has prepared before, and they will come and make war with the leaders that shall then be left. And it will come to pass that whosoever gets safe out of the war will die in the earthquake, and whosoever gets safe out of the earthquake will be burned by the fire, and whosoever gets out of the fire will be destroyed by famine. And it will come to pass that whosoever of the victors and the vanquished gets safe out of and escapes all these things aforesaid will be delivered into the hands of my servant Messiah. For all the earth will devour its inhabitants.”

Whew, eh? Truly, we are in the time now, of men hating and fighting each other, of unworthy rulers in high positions in governments and of those who are criminals extolled above the righteous. It’s shocking to realize that the poor have more than hard working people, but we’re seeing it and so much of what is written in this book. Truly, the people of this world are in confusion, perturbation of spirit and stupor of heart, but thankfully, in the end, the good in the following verse in “The Apocalypse of Baruch” TLXXIII: 1,2 will come true:

“And it will come to pass, when He has brought low everything that is in the world, and has sat down in peace for the age of the throne of his kingdom, that joy will then be revealed, and rest appear. And then healing will descend in dew, and disease will withdraw, and anxiety and anguish and lamentation will pass from amongst men, and gladness will proceed through the whole earth.” Hallelujah!

My brethren, until the fulfillment of these promises, let us gird up our loins, fight the good fight of faith, and know that it’s the “gutsy ones” in Christ Jesus who will be ruling with our Lord…..

not the gutless!