Keep Walking
Now Think On This
by Steve Martin
“Do you see what this
means — all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us
on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running — and never
quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.
Keep your eyes on Jesus,
who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he
never lost sight of where he was headed — that exhilarating finish in and with
God — he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And
now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
When you find yourselves
flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long
litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your
souls!” (Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message)
Hanging on our family
room wall is a worn out record album. You can see that it had gotten much use
during it’s time from 1976 on. The cover itself, framed in black with a glass
covering, has special meaning to me. Whenever I see it, going in and out of that
room, it reminds me of the need to keep walking in faith, and to keep my hand
to the plow.
The black 33 1/3 vinyl enclosed
within is entitled Hand To The Plow, one
of Paul Clark’s many albums produced during the time of my early Christian walk.
To this day he is still a Christian guitarist and soloist, though maybe not as
well known.
On the front of that framed
piece of artwork, in simple black and white color, is a pair of well worn, rather
hairy hands. They surely had seen better days in their prime years. But these
calloused hands were still holding onto the wooden plow. Obviously they were
preparing the fields for another harvest yet to come. They had faithfully kept walking as the seasons went by.
Growing up in Minnesota
and Iowa (located in the Midwest of America, for the sake of the international
readers) I had plenty of summer opportunities to be on a working farm. Of the
11 uncles I had (both sides of the family) I remember at least four of them raising
their families on farms. Each would put in the annual field crops, in addition
to all the dairy cows, pigs, sheep, chickens or all of the above.
In those years from 1954 -1970,
tractors had long since taken over the single steel blade as the method of plowing.
But being aware of how the early pioneers had to sweat, endure, and pray to the
Lord of the weather for favor, I understood what it would have physically cost
to keep those hands on the plow to prepare the black soil.
Staying on the path
takes courage and commitment. The apostle Paul wrote to disciple Timothy to be continually mindful of the
prophetic words spoken over him in his faith walk. In order to do that in my
own life I transcribed all prophetic words that had been recorded. Keeping them
in a three ring binder for easy access, and also saved on my laptop, it is an
encouraging reminder to go back and read what the Lord had spoken through His
people.
We often need to be
reminded of that which the Lord has revealed to us in our earlier years. In
February, 2007, that was such a time for me.
After a period of discouragement
in my life, I sought the Lord for a prophetic word. What amazes me now, looking
back (October, 2015 as I write this), little did I know that three years later, in
July of 2010, I would leave a $70,000 a year ministry director position, with full benefits,
to start our own new ministry organization called Love For His
People, Inc.
When I filed my income
tax for 2011, my individual total taxable income had fallen to $11,000 for that
year. Needless to say, either I had missed the Lord or He was doing a deep work
in my spirit, soul and body. Not only for myself, but also for Laurie my wife. (We
are thankful she still had her part time day care job.)
The following is a prophetic
word that I still read as a reminder to this day. It helps me to keep walking
the walk and my hands on the plow.
As transcribed from the cassette
tape that was recorded that night:
Robbie Phillips, from Columbia, SC,
met with a group at Michael & Mary Ann Blade's home in Charlotte, NC. Here
is a word prophesied to me.
Robbie Phillips: We call for the
blessings of God. Everything he puts his hands to, bless. Everything he puts
his hands to, bless, in Jesus’ name.
It seems to me in your work – talk
about plowing – brother it seems to me that you have been plowing and plowing
and plowing and plowing and plowing and plowing. And there is a verse in
Haggai. In Haggai it is in the negative sense but in your case it is in the
positive sense, where the word of the prophet was that you have sown much but
have harvested little.
And it seems to me that in the
ministry that you have been in the last few years, that you have sown far more
than what you have seen coming back. But it’s almost like as I see you are
going down, like you have one of the old time plows and you have an oxen or a
mule or something ahead of you, and here you are, just getting it done day
after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
And it’s like I see this tremendously
long row, and there is this man standing there, and he has a linen garment on,
he’s right out of Ezekiel, and you recognize that this is an angelic visitor,
and you stop, and he says, “Steve, look behind you. And you look back and you
thought you had been plowing, but in the distance, where you had plowed a long
time ago, whole forests have sprung up, and they are seeding new forests, and
right behind you there has been an acceleration of what God is doing in your
ministry, so that it’s not just a place where you just plowed, but there are
already small trees that have sprung up even a few feet behind you.
And I see about you, I think it is
just trickling in now, but I see the blessings of God beginning to come now, to
the point where they are going to overtake you. It talks about when you are
faithful to the Lord, and in the 7th year when the land has the
Sabbath, that you don’t need to worry about plowing and harvesting in that 7th
year, because what you sowed three years before, and the next year and the
following year, will all seem to come in on top of you at one time, and you
will have more than enough, in fact you will have so much coming in, that you
will have to move out some of the old to bring the new in.
And I see the blessing of the Lord
and it’s like you have been looking and trusting God for His faithfulness and
you are going to see a demonstration of the faithfulness of God and not just in
spiritual things but in financial ways and material ways.
I see you, brother, you riding the
high places of the earth with the Lord. I see you at 50,000 feet in jet liners
just about all the time, flying all over the world. I see you a connector in
the hand of the Lord. I see you being behind the scenes man, much of the time,
major conferences and things like that, but the people that really know, the
people that are the shakers and the movers in the Kingdom, the people that are
well known, they’ll say that if you really want to meet a shaker and a mover,
then you go and meet Steve Martin. He’s the guy behind the scenes, and he’s the
guy that really gets things done.
And I see you being able to go to
Scandinavian countries, European countries, the countries of the Far East,
South America, all over the world, and I see you having contacts all over the
world, and I see you being able to be used of the Lord to connect this person
on one end of the world to a person over here and to bring things together in
just the right timing of the Lord.
I see a tremendous amount of
influence in your life, and I see that teaching anointing of your life. I see
situation, particularly with leadership, it seems to me the Lord, just like
with Elijah, suddenly “Boom!” out of nowhere Elijah appears, he wasn’t there
one day and suddenly he’s the talk of the nation and I see the Lord just
suddenly revealing you, revealing a teaching anointing, particularly for
leadership and with leaders, and a lot of it having to do with the holiness of
God, and your own personal, their own personal walk with God, the things that
are near and dear to your heart, about right relationships with your wife and
your family. How your relationships with that, how those dynamics work, things
that really matter. The nitty gritty stuff that drive the kingdom. These things
being those that are really near to your heart.
Being able to be a real impact to
people who are key leaders. But I see that in a teaching format, even more so
than your own personal encouragement and strengthening. I see the Lord giving
you teachings to begin to bring to leadership, in due season.”
We know that not all personal prophetic words may come
to pass, for a variety of reasons. (Another message for another day.) But there
are several spoken in this word from that 2007 date that have since been fulfilled
already. I anticipate that more of them will be in the years ahead.
I shared this to encourage you to keep believing the
Lord on your faith walk. There are many days when things don’t look like they
are moving; when advancement would be great if even just a step forward happened
one day, rather than the two steps backward that seemed to occur yesterday. We
must keep pressing on towards the goal set before us. (Philippians 3:14)
Winston Churchill is famously known for a simple but
profound speech he gave, where he walked out onto the stage, said, “Never,
never, never give up” and then walked off.
Scripture also encourages us to never quit, but to keep walking and standing firm in our commitment to the Lord and His eternal purposes.
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be
able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against
the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you
will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand
firm.
Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH
TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR
FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up
the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming
arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:11-17 NASU)
Days of trial and tribulations are coming even more so
on the earth. For many believers in the Middle East and the Far East, they can’t
get much worse than what they already are. But wherever we find ourselves, we
are called to stand in the power of the Lord’s might, and be witnesses in the
nations.
The Lord God Almighty, Victor of All, is on His eternal
throne in heaven, along with many witnesses who have gone on before us, interceding
and cheering us on.
Keep walking.
Now think on this,
Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People.
Inc.
P.S. We sure could use your
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hurting ones here in the USA. Please give out of the abundance you have been
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of the Father in the nations.
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Todah rabah! (Hebrew
– Thank you very much.)
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Think On This with your friends.
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Now Think On This #195 “Keep
Walking” by Steve
Martin
Date: In the year of our
Lord 2015 (10.23.15) Friday at 6:30 pm in Charlotte, NC
All previous editions
of Now Think On This can be found on this
Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This
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Greg Toppo
