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Holy Exhortation II

Ethan Ferris

Parables, psalms and proverbs to edify the body of Christ


 

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. Romans 12:4-6


But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. 1 Corinthians 12:7


And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-12


This publication is collected in obedience to these scriptures, with the understanding that the anointed writings of men and women of God are one of the gifts which we are to use; one of the manifestation given for the profit of all; one of the ministries given for the edifying of the body of Christ. These writings, insofar as they are guided by the Holy Spirit, are given by God with the intention that they be shared with the body at large for benefit and exhortation of many. Those who first receive and author them are not the end recipient, but are the Kingdom couriers entrusted with the very heart of God.


I encourage you to read Holy Exhortation slowly and prayerfully. Open your heart to the voice of God as you read, and let Him speak in the margins and between the pages. His words are of ultimate value, and this publication possesses value only insofar as He speaks to you through it.



 

The LORD Desires to Heal You

Collected by Evan Arsenault


“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” Luke 4:18

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3


“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23


He is Jehovah Shalom - The LORD of Peace and Wholeness.


“Little faith will take your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven into your soul while you’re still on the Earth.” - Charles Spurgeon


 

Kingdom Proverbs

By Ethan Ferris


The one who is blessed shall become a blessing.


(I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. Genesis 12:2)


~


A man cannot truly help his brother until he needs nothing from his brother.


~


In his suffering, the fool says, “If you are God, then save me from this injustice!” But the wise man says, “God, I ask only that you remember me in Your Kingdom.”


(Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.”


But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”


And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:39-43)


 

Make Me a Sign

By Ethan Ferris


LORD, by Your mighty deeds

You have made me a sign to many

I will praise You, more and more

I will testify of Your ways


You have taught me by Your Holy Spirit

Set me aside from the instructions of men

You have given me honor in Your house

Raised me up from the floor before Your altar


You have filled me with wisdom I did not know nor hear

You have anointed my lips for speech

You have accepted my sacrifices, blemished

Your fire has come upon my sorrowful heart


You have humbled me and quieted my ambitions

In loving me, You have made me able to be loved

You call me beloved, You comfort me in my weeping

The desires of my heart, You have brought to my door


You give me peace with my enemies

And have made men predisposed to me

By example, You taught me to forgive

Healing all my festering wounds


You have delivered me from the hands of devils

And guarded me in my sleeping and stumbling

You have provided for me

With manna from heaven and water from rocks


 

Free from Thorns & Thistles

By Jesse Arsenault


Free from strife,

From death to life.


Smile, don't take yourself so seriously.

It's the Lord God who is sovereign over every person on earth.


Take your trophies to the altar.

Yes, take your trophies to the altar.


Be free from the grasp of element,

Which is fading away.

Like grass, here today and gone tomorrow,

So are the earthly lives of the human race.


Though you may not see His hand,

His fingerprints cover the earth.


Pause... reflect, ponder.


What is it that makes a human's heart chase?

Does one not know that arrival happens the day of surrender?


Home...yes, home.


 

A Prayer for Holiness

By Ethan Ferris


Holy Spirit, make me more like Jesus today. Come into every corner of my life - show me where You want to go next, and I will invite You in. Come and do another miracle in me - let me glimpse Your glory. The immensity of Your power is displayed in holiness - make me holy as You are holy.


But God, let me not rob one word of praise from You. Teach me humility like Yours. Please, allow me to continue walking with You. I am not waiting for perfection - I am chasing the Perfect One.


Come and be perfect in my life.


God, You are holy.


Be enthroned on my praises.


 

God’s Answer to Perfectionism

By Ethan Ferris


“God, how do You answer the spirit of perfectionism?”


“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3


No matter what works you do, and no matter how perfectly you do them, they are worthless without love. It is not how well you do what you do that gives it value, but the heart you do it with. Is God not able to work all things for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes?


Better to labor tactlessly and ineffectively with love than to strive in perfect execution with a heart that is dead and unforgiving. For the perfectionist heart is dead and unforgiving - unable to enjoy any of the fruit of its labors, and unwilling to forgive itself.


“Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.” 1 Corinthians 13:8-10


Perfection is entirely unattainable to us apart from Him. The spirit of perfection would have us pursue a goal we can never attain.


There is only One who is capable of doing anything perfectly. Yet He, in His perfection, does not demand perfection of us. He only asks that we admit our imperfection and submit to His perfect will.


Then, when He comes, all that is imperfect will pass away. On that day, our mistakes will absolutely cease to matter. Everything we messed up or tarnished, every challenge we failed to fully meet and every accident we allowed in a moment of distraction will vanish.

Every bungled prayer, every jumbled prophecy, every stutter at the pulpit, every foot-in-mouth moment while sharing our testimony, every typo in our writing, every flat note in our worship… all of it, done away with.


The spirit of perfectionism says that mistakes are sin. The Spirit of the LORD says that inaction is sin. For even though we know that what we do now is imperfect and is soon to blow away like so much dust, still we prophecy in part. We worship in part. We preach in part. We work in part. We serve in part. We disciple in part. We lead in part.


We are safe, able to act despite our imperfection, because of these two assurances; that our wholehearted love gives our actions, be they small or flawed, value and meaning, and that our imperfections and mistakes will soon pass away, like footprints on the beach.


 

Patience

By Ethan Ferris


Patience is a devoted commitment

Does honor to what could be different


To what you know may yet be made

A hope for nothing you would trade


Resisting all temptation of finality

Until the promise becomes reality


And the truest sign of a vision pre-drawn

Is long and arduous patience undergone


On that eve of awaited perfection attained

The most savory gift is temptation abstained


To present a love long and solemnly withheld

Even before that vision in your mind's eye dwelled


That from the world your heart you did conceal

And loved what you could neither see nor feel


To have remained committed faithfully

To your spirit's unceasing certainty


That no illusive mirage gleaming

Could hope to satisfy your yearning


That only lifting the veil from truth

Could be worth the sacrifices of youth


 

Destiny and Trauma

By Ethan Ferris


In prayer, the Holy Spirit showed me a vision of a lobster being lifted out of the water by gentle hands. I saw its claws were bound shut, but as the lobster flexed its muscles above the water, the bindings snapped. The hand returned the lobster to its home, where it grasped firmly to a branch of stone beneath the waves.


Then, I heard the voice of the LORD say, “If it avoids the snares, the lobster will never stop growing.”


~


Often, our most severe wounds are in the area of our God-given destiny. As in the vision, God will sometimes lift us out of the waters of our calling - the land we are to inherit - in order to strengthen us and set us free, before sending us back, now free and founded upon the Rock (1 Corinthians 10:4) and the Branch (Isaiah 4:2).


For generations, Abraham’s descendants were led in and out of the promised land as God prepared them to receive and steward their inheritance. In one instance, Israel (the man) and his family were living in the land God had given to them as an inheritance, and they were starving. Their destiny had become a burden. Moreover, Israel’s children were bearing the secret guilt of selling their brother into slavery, and Israel himself was so scarred by the experience of losing his son that he refused to part with his youngest child.


Desperate and unsure of what to do, ten of Israel’s children went to prosperous Egypt to purchase food. There, they were accused of being meraggelim. This word is commonly translated to ‘spies’, and describes a type of person who is always looking for greener pastures. A meraggelim is never committing to one course, but always looking for the way which will benefit them most, which is most practical, or which is easiest. Meraggelim change their loyalties like the wind, willing to slander or disparage that which they once claimed to be committed to.


After making this severe accusation, Joseph (still unrecognized) invites the brothers to commit themselves totally to a risky course, asking them to bring their final brother before him, rather than holding him back out of fear.


When Israel and his sons agree to this, they find their deliverance (a new home in the most prosperous area of Egypt) and redemption (the return of their lost family-member)!


Yet Israel’s decision to move his family out of the promised land and into Egypt could easily be labeled ungodly without the benefit of knowing the ending of the story. He walked away from what God had promised him to live in greater ease in a kingdom that worshiped idols. This sounds like a man walking away from God, not a man of faith!


But in truth, it had been Israel’s stubbornness that was disobedience. In Egypt, God multiplied Israel, turning a small, wounded and defeated family into a great nation, ready to be sent into their destiny.


Genesis 42-47


 

A Psalm of Inquiry

By Jesse Arsenault


A Lament of Man

It's been hard to make eye contact with you Lord.

It's been hard with people too...

I assume it's shame or thoughts of inadequacy.

Can you help me?

This unsettled feeling I cannot shake.


The Lord’s Response

You are avoiding intimacy.

Trust you in Me, and Me in you.

Also, trust that love never fails.

Beloved, if you make the choice to love, and never relent, you will be successful in all your ways.


 

Contending for Total Healing

By Ethan Ferris


A wounded limb is not considered healed until it can face what wounded it without pain.

It is absolutely necessary that we, as believers, contend total healing. Without being truly healed, we cannot be truly free, obedient or loving. If our expectations for tomorrow are still based on yesterday, we will be ruled by fear, living in the enemy’s fences, driven by a mindset of scarcity and striving.


We must not believe that He stops at ‘good enough’ or that we are disqualified if we admit to imperfection. By way of prayer and supplication, we must pursue our savior unto full restoration.


If we feel tension in this prayer, then as with all tension in Kingdom relationships, we can treat it as an opportunity to press in towards greater intimacy. Surely, the LORD shall reward those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)


“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:23-25


To be a doer of the word is to be a believer of the word. 


“When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.” Matthew 8:16


Jesus freed all who were oppressed and healed all who were sick that were brought to Him. Jesus did not go breaking down the doors of the sick and the oppressed. But He never turned one away who sought Him.


As doers of the word, we are called to bring our wounds before Him faithfully and present them on the altar. Let us stop trying to serve God and give to Him out of our lack, and instead give Him our lack and let Him fill it. For it is the altar that sanctifies the gift, (Matthew 23:19) and it is our Lord who washes our feet. (John 13:8)


We must not let a temporary feeling of adequacy or contentment make us forget our need for Him, and prevent us from receiving what He wants to pour out. Nor can we allow the lies of the enemy or the shame of the flesh to prevent us from admitting our need and rushing to the altar to be healed. Let us not wait, pridefully, for Him to move us, but instead eagerly present our empty vessel to Him.


As well, we must never use our imperfection or emptiness as an excuse to ignore the call of the Spirit, because being where He is will allow us to fill up and be healed. Even if that means praying for someone else when you feel empty - after all, are you the healer, or are you inviting the healer? Believing you must pray from personal victory is carnal thinking. Instead, have faith in His victory!


Our God desires to heal us. Let us invite Him to do so.


 

The Humility of the Lamb

By Jesse Arsenault


I long to know the Lamb's humility.

I know it will move me beyond comprehension.


The refusal to advocate for Himself.

The refusal of need to be understood. 

 

Pure love spilled out.

Broken bread that the masses may live.


A confidential agreement with the Father,

When no one was looking.


A willingness to reach toward the mocker and the proud,

as rejection covered Him.


A lowliness and meekness so great.


The most bitter injustice the world had ever seen,

was suddenly turned sweet as honey.


There were no rewards or praise on earth waiting for Him.

Only a hidden mystery for the humble and hungry of each generation to seek out.


A remnant that has the wisdom to lay their crowns at His feet.


~


“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.


Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:1-11


 

The intention of this publication is to provide an opportunity to obey the commission of God in Romans 12:4-6, 1 Corinthians 12:7 and Ephesians 4:11. Further, it is not to do this just for me, but for many to whom God has entrusted fragments of His divine creativity. Any person may submit material to be potentially published in Holy Exhortation with full credit. 


Submissions may be made by email to ethanbferris@gmail.com.


An important point about submissions; I will make the final, prayerful decision about what is published. Not everything that is submitted will be published, but everything that is submitted will be prayerfully considered for publication.


If I do decide to publish a piece, be it my own or someone else’s, it is not a final judgment on that piece as ‘good’ or ‘from God’. It merely states that when I inquired of God as to whether He wished it to be published at this time and in this manner, I believe to have heard Him say, ‘Yes.’


Similarly, if I decide not to publish a piece, it is not a final judgment on that piece as ‘bad’ or ‘not from God’. It merely states that when I inquired of God as to whether He wished it to be published at this time and in this manner, I believe to have heard Him say, ‘No.’


With that said, I look forward to reading what God has inspired in you, and I pray that you have been edified by this volume. May you be filled with the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Chris.


  • Ethan B. Ferris



 

“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, For You are my praise.” 

Jeremiah 17:14





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