04: The Throne Scene

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 4

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-04-01

We’re starting the fourth chapter of Revelation, and you’ll find that the fourth and fifth chapters are what we call the throne scene. God uses scenery, too, and He’s got some lollapalooza of pieces of scenery that you’ve never seen the like of before! He caught John up into that place to see some of God’s scenery and He showed him into the throne room. These two whole chapters are about what happened in that throne room, and give you a good introduction to what is about to occur.

Actually, the throne scene is a very remarkable scene, and God is making quite a bit of it because it’s very important. It’s another two chapters of introduction to the future and what’s going to happen, and in a sense, it tells you why.

“After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me: which said, John, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit” (Revelation 4:1–2). A voice like that’s enough to scare anybody into the spirit.—A voice like a P.A. system, a megaphone, sounding like a big trumpet out of heaven. He says, “Come up hither, John. I’m going to show you things which must be hereafter.”

“And behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.” The rest of this you can read. It’s quite clear; it’s a description of this scene, and what beautiful rocks were around, things made out of diamonds and pearls and emeralds and rainbows and crystal sea, all kinds of gorgeous things there.

“And out of the throne proceeded thunderings and voices and seven lamps of fire, seven Spirits of God” (Revelation 4:5).

Some people don’t like us talking about the spirits of God, but if you notice in that fifth verse of the King James Version, it even capitalized the word “spirits.” There are multitudes of spirits of God—spirits of the departed saints who have gone on to be with the Lord in heavenly places, spiritual spheres in that other world.

In fact, if you love Jesus, you’re a holy spirit—one of His holy spirits. And one of these days, when you die and go to be with the Lord, you’ll be a holy ghost. How about that? Any of you like ghosts? Any of you don’t like ghosts? Well, I like some ghosts, but some ghosts I don’t care for. I’ve seen a few ghosts, but thank God, most of the ghosts I’ve seen were holy ghosts, departed saints, men and women of God, my own mother in heaven and others that I love who have gone on before to be with the Lord. These are holy ghosts, now spirits in the spirit world—someday to come back and regain their bodies and have new beautiful, immortal, supernatural resurrection bodies, to live here on this earth forever as the angels of God ruling over His creation. His original intention for man was to dominate His creation and rule over it.

Sixth verse: “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.” Then He describes these beasts, one like a lion, one like a calf, one with a face of a man and one like a flying eagle. “And each of them had six wings, full of eyes, and they rest not day and night, constantly saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8). This is to impress us with the majesty and the might and the power and the holiness and the importance of God, sitting upon His throne.

“And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy. O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:9–11).

Copyright © 1981 The Family International.

03: Revelation of the Future

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 1

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-04-01

The history of man began in the Garden of Eden, but it has taken God over 6000 years to unfold His whole plan of how to save man and redeem him and work out his salvation, to populate the world and get people saved and get them through the Tribulation and into the heaven on earth of the Millennium. That’s what we’re going to deal with here, the revelation of the future as told by God to Jesus and to His archangel, who delivered the message to John. John wrote it all down and now we’re about to read it.

You may wonder where this book—the Revelation—begins. When does it start talking about the future? According to the Bible, the “last days” really began with Jesus when He first came to earth. The author of Hebrews writes, “In these last days” (Hebrews 1:2). In these last days Jesus has come. So believe it or not, the last days of man’s history have lasted now about 2000 years. They range from Christ’s first coming to His second coming; that’s the last days. And in fact, right on through into His third coming, and right on through the Millennium for another thousand years. Those are really the last days for people on this earth who are unsaved and not redeemed.

John is getting these marvelous revelations from God about the future, his future right then, the future of the world for the next 2000 years, and that’s pretty well covered in these first few chapters. In the very first chapter, the first verse, it says, “Things which must shortly come to pass”—that means very soon.

Then at the end of the third verse, it says, “for the time is at hand.” That means it’s here. “What I’m going to show you is beginning now, John.” So this book began at John’s day and it’s foretelling the future, most of which is now history.

He says, “John to the seven churches which are in Asia,” fourth verse. He’s writing this revelation in seven letters to the seven churches. In those days they didn’t have any carbon copies, typewriters, or mimeo machines, so he either had to write seven separate letters, or—what they usually did—he wrote one long letter and then they took it around to the different churches and it was read in them. So he’s writing to the seven churches which are in Asia.

The Island of Patmos, where the dear old apostle John received this marvelous revelation of the future, is a little island in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. These principal churches were in Asia Minor, on the coast of Turkey. Each one is named and listed in this first chapter, and then again in the second and third chapters. These were Ephesus, which was the principal church, the main port of that area, to whom Paul wrote his Epistles to the Ephesians; Smyrna; Thyatira; Pergamos; Sardis; Philadelphia, and the church of Laodicea.

John was living on a little island just off the coast of Turkey, not far from these churches. He was sort of like their bishop or their district superintendent, and he was naturally concerned and burdened about these very important churches.

The island was not far from Israel and Cyprus. There were boats to Ephesus, and then the Christians had people going around visiting the churches all the time. They’d probably travel a circuit to the different cities, and that’s probably why John named them the way he did in the order he did a little later in the same chapter, or the Lord did.

“Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come.” That can only be God, of course. “And from the seven Spirits which are before His throne”—God’s throne. We find out who those spirits are later; they’re the angels of God, the angels of these churches to whom he’s writing. “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness”—Jesus Himself was a faithful witness—“and the first begotten of the dead” (Revelation 1:4–5).

He was the first one to rise from the dead, and then immediately after He rose from the dead three days after His crucifixion, all the Old Testament saints also rose from the dead. It’s in the Bible. You can read it in the book of Matthew (Matthew 27:52–53). It says that when He rose from the dead, these other people rose from the dead too. But He was the first one that rose, “first begotten of the dead.” “And the prince of the kings of the earth.” He is the King of kings.

“Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” Who did that? Jesus. He died on the cross for our sins. He took our punishment for us so we could be saved just by believing on Him, receiving Him as our Savior into our hearts, loving Him and His Father God, and the Holy Spirit, and loving others, our neighbors as ourselves, and preaching the Gospel in all the world to every creature.

“And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, amen” (Revelation 1:6). We’re already kings and priests unto God, think of that!

Seventh verse, “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him.” When Jesus comes back to rapture His saints, He’s going to come back in the clouds just the way He went away on the day of Ascension. Just like His disciples watched Him go up in the clouds, they’re going see Him come down in the clouds. “Every eye shall see Him”—no secret Rapture—“and they also which pierced Him”—who crucified Him. “And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” The whole earth is going to see Jesus come when He returns for you and me, to rescue us, His children, out of this wicked old world.

Jesus goes on to say then: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord” (Revelation 1:8).

This same dear apostle who wrote this great book of Revelation, do you know what he says in the first part of his Gospel of John? He said, “In the beginning was the Word”—that’s Jesus—“and the Word was with God and the Word was God,” because He was the Son of God. “All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Think of that! Jesus was there (John 1:1–3).

Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet: Alpha, our “a,” and Omega, something we don’t have in the English alphabet. So Jesus is here saying He is the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” He’s been here a long time.

Ninth verse: “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ”—did you know we’re already in the kingdom? If you have Jesus in your heart, you have the kingdom of God within you.

John says, “I was in the isle that is called Patmos for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” He was literally in exile; he was a kind of a prisoner. He’d been exiled to the island like Napoleon was exiled to the Isle of Elba, and later to some other island.

So he says here that he was on that isle of Patmos and he got the most amazing sermon and preached to more people than ever before, even though the Romans tried to get rid of him. “For the Word of God”—he was there because he was a good witness. Tenth verse: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega”—that’s the very thing Jesus had just said to him—“the first and the last: and what thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.”

Jesus himself commanded him that he was to write all this down in a book, and that’s what he did, and we’ve got the book to show for it today. Then John says: “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man.” Notice that’s capitalized, “S” on the word Son, meaning Jesus. He was not only the Son of God but also the Son of man.

“Clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow: and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass”—golden—“as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength” (Revelation 1:13–16).

Here is a picture of Jesus Christ as the apostle John saw Him in the book of this marvelous revelation, Jesus standing before him as a supernatural figure with all of these amazing attributes, shining like the sun and like gold and like the rainbow, and a garment of shining, scintillating, sparkling light, from just above His breast down to His feet, and Jesus Himself having a human body of a man born of the Virgin Mary, clothed in such a garment of light.

It’d be almost beyond description, because it’s something very heavenly, very ethereal. There stands Jesus in all His glory, in all His beauty, ready to speak to the apostle John, standing in the midst of seven golden candlesticks, seven beautiful bright lights, with seven stars in His hand. What a beautiful picture!

In verse 16 he says: “Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.” This is, of course, symbolic of the Word of God, which He compares to a two-edged sword. “And His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.” He’s already said this in verse 8: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, that which is and which was and which is yet to come,” the first and the last. Verse 18, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore.” Jesus died, was crucified and rose again from the dead, and now He lives for evermore. “Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death,” so that He is able to unlock the gates of hell itself to release its prisoners from the very jaws of death.

So He says to John, “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” He’s going to tell him the history of now and hereafter. “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches” (Revelation 1:19–20). Isn’t that a beautiful picture?

He sees the seven principal churches of Asia Minor, or what is now Turkey, as seven beautiful candlesticks. And then he sees their seven guardian angels as seven beautiful stars. The churches, seven beautiful candles standing before God, and above each one, a guiding star, its guardian angel. What a beautiful picture of the churches to whom John is writing this epistle of this revelation of the marvels that God is about to show to him of their future, the future that they are to face, so they’ll know what’s coming!

The Lord does not want us to be ignorant, brethren, but to know the things which must shortly come to pass (1 Thessalonians 4:13; Revelation 1:1). And this is what He was telling the apostle John in that day, nearly 2000 years ago now, about 107 AD on the Isle of Patmos, where he was exiled by the Romans.

Copyright © 1981 The Family International.

Revelation 1-7 (part 3)

Compiled from the writings of David Brandt Berg

1976-02-01

6th Seal: “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven (or meteors?) fell unto the earth… And the heaven departed as a scroll … and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (verse 12–17).

Here we have the ultimate goal of 6,000 years of history: the glorious second coming of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ (John 1:29), to mete out His wrath upon the wicked and rescue the saints of all ages by the miracle of the resurrection and rapture.

Despite all the wrath of bestial man against the children of God, the day is coming “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:7–8).

And when He comes, John said, “every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him” (Revelation 1:7).

“And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together (resurrect and rapture) his elect (the saints) from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven” (Mark 13:27).

What we have actually seen, then, under these six seals is a panorama of history from John’s day up to the very end. Then, at the second coming of Christ, the white horse and the resurrected martyrs emerge as victors over the other three horsemen: the kings (pale horse), the rich men (black horse), and the captains (red horse). This is also presented in more detail in Revelation 16 and 19.

In fact, these six seals are really only capsule histories on characters that the vision is yet to cover, or rather uncover, in greater detail throughout the remainder of the Revelation. Though the characters under each of the first five seals were around before the ascension of Christ, the biblical picture both here and elsewhere is that each of these forces took on greater power after the ascension.

The children of God received greater power on the day of Pentecost, seven days after the ascension when they were baptized with the Holy Ghost. Just as Jesus had told them, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1:8). The forces of evil also received greater power at this time, as Paul said, “evil men and seducers (the red, black and pale horsemen) shall wax worse and worse” (2 Timothy 3:13).

Jesus predicted in His famous endtime discourse of Matthew 24 that there would be an increase in war, famine, pestilence and earthquakes, leading eventually to “affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation,” and that these calamities would get so bad that “except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s (or Christians’) sake, whom He (God) hath chosen, He hath shortened those days” (Matthew 24:7,21–22; Mark 13:19–20). In other words, Jesus was saying that one day man would reach such an impasse that letting him continue unchecked would result in the destruction of everyone on earth. However, when man finally reaches that point of self-destruction, he said God would shorten the days, which in the Greek literally means to stop the days, or stop those days of man’s attempts to destroy the earth. And the way God will stop it, Jesus said, was by His coming to punish the evildoers, take over the world, and rule it the way God wants.

Only within the last thirty years has the human race developed the potential to destroy itself. Military forces (red horse) have their nuclear bombs, satellites and intercontinental missiles. It fact, they have enough atomic bombs to kill the earth’s entire population several times. The rich (black horse) in their pursuit of the almighty dollar are finally succeeding in polluting the entire earth—a by-product of twentieth century technology! The rich have been responsible for starting this century’s great wars, and their hoarding and wasting of their riches is threatening another one. And it is their unchecked greed which will be responsible for the worldwide famine to come.

Meanwhile some governments (pale horse) have become bestial monsters, destroying whole nations in their pursuit of power, and martyring whole nationalities, races and creeds who don’t agree with them or their policies. Today man has almost finally reached that horrible time which Jesus said would immediately precede His second coming. However, the worst is not here yet. So don’t worry, the coming of Christ isn’t going to happen any minute! He is coming soon, but he is not coming before all the signs are fulfilled which have to precede His coming.

As the apostle Paul said, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together (Resurrection and Rapture) unto him.” (Notice he said “the coming,” showing there is only one coming to rapture the church, not two.) “That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand” (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2). In other words, don’t let anybody deceive you into believing that the day of Christ or the second coming and rapture of the church can happen at any time because it is not “at hand!”

“For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. … That Wicked … whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:3,4,8).

This means that the day of Christ, which will cut off or shorten these and the coming days of horrible evil, cannot happen till two things come first.

1) The falling away, which in the Greek means “apostasy” or departing from the faith. This has been happening throughout church history, but in these last days it will become, and is becoming, greater.

2) The “man of sin” has to be revealed. This is the man commonly referred to as the Antichrist, the endtime world dictator.

 

According to the Daniel 9:27, he will make a covenant with many of the religious people of the world for one “week” or seven years (each day representing a year).

During the first 3½ years, he will allow them to have their religious freedom. but in the “midst of the week,” after 3½ years, he will break the Covenant, causing their religious freedom to cease and setting up an “abomination of desolation”—an idol or image of himself—and demanding that all worship it or be killed.

Jesus said, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (a rebuilt Jewish temple on Mount Moriah, Jerusalem), … then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:15,21).

When will you see it? In the midst of the week, or seven years, Daniel 9:27. This Great Tribulation, therefore, will begin in the “midst of the week” and will continue throughout the remaining 3½ years of the seven-year Covenant. “Until the consummation (or completion of the seven years), and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

And “that determined” is the wrath of God, which Revelation describes as seven vials poured upon the wicked, and which begins at the second coming of Christ to gather together or rapture His saints.

All that to say this: There are some definite specific events that have to take place before Christ can come back. There is this seven-year Covenant, for one, and the Abomination of Desolation resulting in 3½ years of Great Tribulation of the church, for another. There is the Antichrist world dictator who must yet arise to place this abomination, which means we need a world government.

All of these events must happen before the events described under the sixth seal, the wrath and second coming, can occur. Since these first six seals present the span of history from the ascension to the second coming, they are in a sense like God taking a camera and doing a real quick “pan” of history from the beginning to the very end, just like they often do in movies to give the setting for the story they are about to tell us.

Then with the seventh seal, which opens in the eighth chapter, God takes His camera and zooms in for a close-up of the last few years of this period, the central theme of the Revelation containing the story of the Great Tribulation, the second coming, and the ushering in of Christ’s Millennial kingdom on earth.

Chapter 6, then, is a table of contents of the main characters yet to be uncovered in the remainder of the Revelation, presented as a brief summary of history from the ascension to the second coming of Christ.

 

Chapter 7: Saints Sealed for Great Tribulation

The seventh seal, which begins the Great Tribulation, is soon to be opened in chapter 8. But before it happens, God, in order to preserve His children and His witnesses during this Tribulation period, is going to “seal His saints” so that they will not be hurt by His judgments against the wicked.

“And after these things I (John) saw four angels … holding the four winds of the earth.… And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.… And there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (verse 1–4). Verses 5–8 list the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, 12,000 from each tribe being sealed.

These 144,000 which receive the seal of God are not physical Israel. They are spiritual Israel. As the apostle Paul said, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: … That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise (those who accept Jesus) are counted for the seed” (Romans 9:6–8).

These 144,000 are the same 144,000 of Revelation chapter 14, who “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” In other words, they obey and follow.

The 144,000 are the leaders of “the great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues … which came out of great tribulation” (verse 9–14). And in the original that means the Great Tribulation, the one that precedes the second coming of Christ.

Whether the 144,000 is a symbolic or literal number, we don’t know, but we do know this: they are going to be God’s cadre during that horrible Tribulation period to lead the rest of the church through it and to stand up and witness against the Antichrist system unto the very end.

The Devil, who is the great counterfeiter, is going to be out sealing his children too at this time, putting a mark in their right hand or forehead, which is the famous Mark of the Beast (the Antichrist dictator and his government)—666. (Revelation 13:15–18). And all those who refuse to bow down to him will be killed.

So, though the 144,000 are going to be sealed against being hurt by God’s judgments on the wicked, the wicked are going to be hurting them and even killing some of them. But to die for Christ is gain, and they shall stand “before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple … and they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; … and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:15–17).

But whosoever shall receive the Mark of the Beast, “the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture … and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb … and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever” (Revelation 14:9–11).

Whose brand are you going to take? Will you die for the truth and live forever? Or will you live for the lie and die forever?

^[1] Titus Flavius Domitianus, Roman emperor (81–96 A.D.).

Copyright © 1976 The Family International.

Revelation 1-7 (part 1)

Compiled from the writings of David Brandt Berg

1976-02-01

There had to be a design and a planner behind the plan. This driving force, the God behind history, must have given a plan and a goal to history, and man is being driven to his ultimate goal, whether he likes it or not.

The book of Revelation reveals the plan, the goal and the planner behind it all.

The Seven Seals (Chapters 1–7)

Chapter 1: Introduction

Right above “Chapter 1” in most Bibles, the title reads “The Revelation or Apocalypse of St. John the Divine.” However, the first line of the prophecy says it is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, and He (Jesus) sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John” (verse 1).

The first five chapters of Revelation, though they do not contain any glimpses into the future, are extremely important in giving us the background of what is to come. They set the stage, so to speak, for the drama of the future which begins to unfold in chapter six.

Therefore, since these background chapters are rather self-explanatory, we will give only a small commentary on each one to help prepare you for the astounding prophecy of the future that begins to unfold in chapter six as the four horsemen thunder forth and the seven-sealed book of the future is opened.

It is fairly certain that this John who merely wrote the prophecy down is John the Beloved. He was one of the youngest of Jesus’ apostles and the only one, as far as we know, who did not die a martyr’s death. However, that was through no fault of the Roman Empire. They tried to boil him in oil, but he wouldn’t boil, because the Lord wasn’t finished with him and had further work for him to do!

So Domitian, emperor of Rome at that time,^[1] figured, “What can you do with a guy like this? We can’t kill him, so we’ll just stick him some place where he can’t do much damage, can’t preach or witness to anybody, and where he won’t accomplish too much!” So John tells us in his own account that he ended up on “the isle that is called Patmos for (or because of) the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (verse 9).

Patmos was a 10-mile-long rocky island off the southwest coast of Asia Minor in the Aegean Sea, which adjoins the Mediterranean. It was big and inhabitable enough to have a little town on it, and of course the island is still there today.

John was probably in his nineties at the time of his exile since Domitian’s persecution against Christians occurred in the mid-90s A.D. So here he was, an old man sentenced by the Roman government to exile on a lonely island in order to keep out of harm’s way and supposedly to keep him from doing any more damage with his revolutionary doctrines. Instead of that, he had a revelation out there all by himself that has since been a witness to millions of people and influenced more lives than he could ever have reached if he had stayed free.

So never think that just because you’re out alone some place or in some lonely prison cell that God can’t work or use you, because He may be preparing you for something through which you’ll be a greater witness than you ever dreamed.

This is what He did with John. He just put him someplace alone so John could have time to pray and meditate. Then one day when he “was in the Spirit” (or tuned in to God), he heard a voice behind him, “A great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am alpha and omega, the first and the last” (verse 10–11).

When John “turned to see the voice that spake with” him, he saw “one like unto the Son of man” standing “in the midst [of] seven golden candlesticks,” with hair like wool and snow, eyes like fire, feet like brass burning in an oven, and a voice sounding like many waters. In His right hand were seven stars, and a two-edged sword proceeded out of His mouth, and His face was like the sun (verse 12–16).

The awesome appearance of this supernatural being so astonished John that he “fell at his feet as dead.” But the being said, “Fear not…. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (verse 17–18). This, of course, could only have been Jesus in His heavenly appearance.

Many of the terms used here to describe Jesus may be very literal—for instance, “His face was like the sun.” This literally happened to Him on earth when He was transfigured on the mount where Elijah and Moses appeared to Him (Luke 9:28–32). So, although some of these are definitely symbolic, they nevertheless represent reality—reality which is even greater than the limited symbols used here to describe Him.

For instance, the sword going out of His mouth is symbolic of the “sword of the spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). But this spiritual sword is so powerful that with it He shall literally slay millions of the wicked at His second coming: “By His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh.… And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other” (Isaiah 66:16; Jeremiah 25:33). It’s symbolic, but very, very real!

The seven stars and candlesticks are also symbolic. Verse 20 of this same chapter says. “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches; and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.”

Who are these seven churches? According to verses 4 and 11 of this chapter, they are “seven churches which are (or were in 90 A.D.) in Asia,” and to whom the Lord told John to write. Chapters 2 and 3 contain these letters that John wrote to the seven churches.

After the Lord had helped John to recover his senses a bit, He told him that the vision he was about to receive would span the entire panorama of history. “Write the things which thou hast seen (past), and the things which are (present, in John’s day), and the things which shall be hereafter (future, after John). (Verse 19.)

The general pattern for the book of Revelation is a progressive preview of history “from the things which are,” or were in John’s day, to the “things which shall be hereafter.” However, frequently, sometimes even in the middle of a chapter, Revelation goes back into the past to give some background into whatever subject it’s dealing with before showing you the future and how things wind up.

Chapter 1 is definitely part of the “things which are” in John’s day, and it is an introduction to the vision itself. It introduces Jesus, who is giving the Revelation through His angel, and John, who is writing it. It also shows us that it is going to be about the past, present (of John’s day), and the future.

 

Chapters 2–3: Seven Letters to Seven Churches in Asia

In verses 4 and 11 of chapter 1, John named seven churches (groups of believers, not buildings) which were in seven Asian cities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. All of these were names of explicit, definite cities of Asia Minor, today known as Turkey. They were all close to each other and only a short distance from the isle of Patmos.

The Lord undoubtedly told John to write to these particular seven churches because he wasn’t far from them. Also, with John being one of the oldest disciples and an apostle of the Lord, these churches no doubt looked to him for guidance and leadership, even in exile.

The letters reveal churches in different levels of obedience and/or apostasy, and give rebukes, guidance, and promises from the Lord to each one. Though written to literal churches in Asia, we can read the letters today as warnings, advice, and counsel applicable to situations existing in ourselves or in our church and take it to heart.

The churches themselves do not symbolize different so-called church ages, but are examples of various kinds of churches that have existed throughout the entire church age. In other words, any one of the things spoken of in these seven letters could be true of a lot of different churches, even today.

In this sense, then, even though these churches were in Asia in John’s day and are part of “the things which are,” or were in 90 A.D., they could typify the churches which shall come “hereafter.” The promises to these churches have had many fulfillments throughout history and are now having ultimate fulfillments in this, the last generation.

Another example of prophecy being fulfilled in this manner is seen in the words Jesus spoke to His disciples 2,000 years ago, but which every ensuing generation of Christians has also appropriated. And as we have seen these promises of the Lord given to His apostles fulfilled in every generation, even so the rebukes, praises, and promises given to these seven churches have been fulfilled in every age and are now being ultimately fulfilled in this last age of Christians who fit the description of each church.

Of the seven churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia are without reproof. Sardis and Laodicea have nothing good said of them except that Sardis had a “few” undefiled believers left. Ephesus, Pergamos and Thyatira are part weak, part strong. The two good churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia, were composed of wildly willing workers and were facing persecution from the synagogue.

The two bad churches were materially rich and living it up, but spiritually poor and dead—Sardis, whom the Lord “will come on as a thief,” and Laodicea, whom the Lord will “spew out of His mouth” (Revelation 3:3,16).

The remaining three were faithful in certain respects, but Jesus said, “I have a few things against thee.” In Ephesus they were losing their first love for the Lord. In Pergamos they were tolerating false teachers and idolatry. In Thyatira they were swallowing the lies of the false prophetess Jezebel, who was teaching that fornication with idols or worshipping mammon was acceptable.

 

Chapters 4–5: Throne and 7-Sealed Book

“After this I (John) looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter” (verse 1). In chapter one we found out that Jesus had a voice “as of a trumpet” (1:10), so this is Jesus talking to John.

Now, some have misinterpreted this verse as the resurrection and rapture of the church, but it isn’t. It is Jesus telling John to come up so that He can show him the things which must be “hereafter.” So far the Revelation has dealt only with “the things which are,” or were in John’s day; but now Jesus tells John He’s going to show him the future.

In chapter 1, John was “in the Spirit” or tuned in to God’s Spirit, but here the Lord tells John to “come up” into the realm of the spirit, to literally take a trip into that mysterious dimension of eternal realities, so that John could get the whole view of time and see its future.

Jesus just called John and “immediately,” he said, “I was in the spirit; and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne” (4:2)—the throne of the Lord God Almighty, His central headquarters.

God is pictured here as having the appearance of a jasper (or diamond) and a sardine (red) stone. Around the throne is an emerald rainbow and twenty-four elders clothed in white raiment, with crowns of gold on their heads, seated on twenty-four seats. “Lightning and thunderings and voices” issue forth “out of the throne,” but a “sea of glass” symbolizing peacefulness lies before it. And “in the midst of the throne and round about” it are “four beasts (a lion, calf, flying eagle, and some strange beast with a man’s head), full of eyes before and behind” (4:3–6).

I’ve never heard any of this explained to my satisfaction yet. Most of these things are just beyond our understanding. It was certainly beyond John’s. He just described what it looked like, and that was all he could do. So we’re not going to try to interpret this more than to say it’s the throne of God. You’ll probably just have to wait till you get there yourself to find out who the twenty-four elders and the four beasts are.

But John did see something there that we can understand, and it’s in the fifth chapter. “I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.… And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne” (5:1,6–7).

This is a description of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ (John  1:29), ascending to the right hand of God the Father to take a book with seven seals. This picture of Jesus taking the book may even be going back in history a little bit from the time John received the vision (around 90 A.D.), because Jesus ascended to God’s right hand in 30 A.D (Mark 16:19).

However, the Lord had promised to show John the things which shall be hereafter. So this is just a little bit of background to introduce the future, because when the Lord begins to open the seals of this book in the next chapter, the future begins to be revealed.

The book is sealed and, except by prophecy, the future is in a sense sealed, and the only one who can unseal it or reveal it is Jesus. “No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon…” but “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof” (5:3,5).

“All things that the Father hath are mine,” Jesus said (including this book of the future), “therefore said I, that he (the Spirit) shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you,” John had recorded that saying of the Lord many years earlier in his gospel (John 16:15), and now years later, through the communication of God’s eternal Spirit, Jesus is about to show His beloved apostle the future of the world! (to be continued)

What We Have to Look Forward To

A compilation

2023-05-16

For Pastor Tim Keller, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than an abstract belief that good will triumph over evil one day. It’s a powerful, life-altering truth that gives him hope, peace, and comfort as he faces his own mortality.

(Note: Keller learned of his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in May 2020 while writing his book, Hope in Times of Fear, which focuses on the transformative power of the resurrection.)

In April 2021, Keller told The Christian Post: “When you know you could die very, very soon, you realize that you basically live in denial of the fact of your death. When it suddenly strikes you, you have to ask, ‘Do I have the faith for this? Do I believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened and that if I die in faith in Jesus, I will know that resurrection too?’

“Here I am, writing a book about the resurrection, and I realized I only half-believed I was going to die. I went back and realized that in some ways, I also only half-believed in the resurrection—not intellectually so much, but all the way down deep in my heart. I realized I needed to have a greater, a deeper faith in the resurrection…” he continued.

While undergoing treatment for cancer over the next several months, Keller said he did both “intellectual and emotional work,” looking at the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ while also immersing himself in prayer and in Scripture, asking the Holy Spirit to make it real to his heart.

“It took several months in which I had to take my abstract belief down into my heart to existentially and experientially know it and grow in assurance, and it worked,” he said. “If you are willing to embrace the truth of God’s Word and immerse yourself in it day in and day out, and then ask the Holy Spirit to make it real to your heart, He will.”

Most people, Keller contended, live in denial of death. But facing one’s own mortality and spiritual reality, he said, both changes the way we view our time on Earth and magnifies the transformative power of the resurrection.

“The things of Earth become less crucial. They’re not so important to you; you realize you don’t need them to be happy. Once I believe that, I start to enjoy them more. I don’t try to turn them into God; I don’t try to turn them into Heaven, which is the only thing that can really satisfy my heart,” he explained.

“You find that you have to really have a real spiritual experience of God’s reality so that the things of this Earth ‘grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace,’” Keller said, quoting the century-old hymn.¹

[In May 2022] The pastor told Christian Post that regardless of what happens, he was “ready for anything.”

“What the future holds, I don’t know. Pray that I would have years and not months left and that the chemotherapy would continue to be effective. But [my wife and I] are ready for whatever God decides for me. We’re spiritually ready.”

“I do know,” he added, “that the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened. And when I die, I will know that resurrection too.”²—The Christian Post

*

Jesus’ resurrection means that death is not the end. That though my body may lie moldering in the ground, Jesus, whom the Father raised from the dead, gives me eternal life. Ultimately, we Christians believe, our bodies, too, will be raised from the dead.

And since Jesus is not dead, people can encounter Him today. You can know Him through a personal relationship. I could point to lots of people who can testify what Jesus has done in their lives to bring them from the brink of disaster to peace and meaning and joy. He changes people for good.—Ralph F. Wilson

*

The vision lasted only a few seconds, but it left a big impression. I had been talking with a friend, when suddenly I saw a glimpse into the future. We were hugging, laughing, and talking about our lives—and we were in Heaven. This has happened to me several times. Sometimes it has been with a close friend, and other times it has been with someone I had just met. In each case I was left with the profound feeling that friendships in Heaven are much deeper and more meaningful and longer lasting than the ones we enjoy in this life.

I find that thought very comforting, perhaps because I’m somewhat isolated and lonely in my present situation. I have always been gregarious and had many friends, and friendships have always been very important to me. But fibromyalgia has a way of making a hermit of even the most sociable person. The aching muscles, fatigue, and sleep problems that come with this neurological disorder leave me too sick to go out with friends or attend parties, and often too sick to even talk on the phone. What do I have to talk about anyway, when I live in such an isolated world?

And what about all of the people I met and helped in the course of my years of volunteer work before I got sick? Do they even remember me now? Are they thankful for my prayers, and have those prayers made a difference? Does my friendship still mean something to them? What’s left to show for those years? I’ve asked myself those questions while lying alone in a dark room.

But now, through this series of little visions, I understand better that this life truly is only a brief moment in time and that regardless of how things are going now, someday these friends and I will be together again in heavenly bliss. It will be like old times, except that then it will be in a perfect world where there is no more parting, pain, or sorrow.

And most wonderful of all, we’ll be face to face and heart to heart with the One who loves and understands us like no other, the One who lived and died for us and rose to life again that we might live together in His love eternally, the ultimate forever Friend, Jesus.—Misty Kay

*

“Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”—Colossians 1:12

What is this inheritance?

It is a tearless state: God himself will wipe away all tears. Now He puts them into His bottle; then He will stop their flow.

But it is also a place. There is a heavenly “city.” This suggests the idea of locality, society, security; there will be sweet companionship.

It is a “fold” where all the sheep of the Good Shepherd will be safe: He who brought them there will guard them.

It is a “kingdom,” and there the glory of God will be revealed.

It is a “feast,” and there the bounties of the great Giver will be enjoyed.

It is a “garden,” an Eden, a paradise: and there will bloom, in immortal freshness, the most beautiful and fragrant flowers.

It is an inheritance in light.—Rev. Canon Money, adapted

*

Brief life is here our portion;
Brief sorrow, short-lived care;
The life that knows no ending,
The tearless life, is there.

There grief is turned to pleasure;
Such pleasure as below
No human voice can utter,
No human heart can know.

And after fleshly weakness,
And after this world’s night,
And after storm and whirlwind,
Are calm, and joy, and light.

And He, whom now we trust in,
Shall then be seen and known;
And they that know and see Him
Shall have Him for their own.

The morning shall awaken,
The shadows flee away,
And each true-hearted servant
Shall shine as doth the day.

There God, our King and Portion,
In fullness of His grace,
We then shall see forever,
And worship face to face.
—Bernard of Morlaix, translated by John M. Neale

*

I go and prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also.—John 14:3

Published on Anchor May 2023. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso. Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ https://www.christianpost.com/books/tim-keller-on-cancer-death-and-the-hope-of-the-resurrection.html

² https://www.christianpost.com/news/tim-keller-cancer-update-gods-given-me-more-time.html

A Spirit Hath Not Flesh and Bones

Timothy Keller

2012-04-03

A discussion about Luke 24:37-43 by Dr. Timothy Keller

“I believe that this little story is written especially for the average [Christian] today, because the average [Christian] is actually comfortable with the message of Easter. When the disciples heard the real message of Easter, look at all the words: startled, terrified, troubled, filled with doubts, disbelief, joy! The average [Christian] experiences none of these. … I’m here to show you that it’s almost like Luke anticipated that, because this passage comes right out essentially and says, ‘If you spiritualize the resurrection, if you say that Jesus is just living on in spirit, you will have comfort, but you won’t have the truth.’ … If you are comfortable with Easter, if you’re not terrified by it and rapturously lifted into joy by it, it’s because you have either spiritualized the message of Easter or you haven’t thought out the message of Easter. If you understand it the way the disciples understood it, you’ll be moved from absolute terror to absolute joy, but you won’t just be comforted by it.”

Run time of the audio, if you download it, is 34 minutes.

https://gospelinlife.com/sermon/doubt-joy-and-power-easter/

Wounded for Our Transgressions

A compilation

2018-03-27

“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”—Isaiah 53:5¹

“He was pierced”—as with a spear.

“He was crushed”—pulverized, broken, ground to pieces.

“Upon him was the chastisement”—beaten with a whip.

“By his wounds”—His body cut, bruised, his skin flayed.

No other God has wounds

It is not always understood that our Lord Jesus died in terrible pain. If you run the clock back from 3 o’clock in the afternoon—the moment of his death—to about 1 o’clock in the morning and review what had happened to Jesus as he moves through those hours—what you discover is that our Lord has just been through 14 hours of torture.

Arrested in the middle of the night.

Slapped.

Pushed around.

Mocked.

Slapped again.

Crowned with thorns that went into his scalp.

Scourged with a large strap studded with bits of bone and stone and metal.

His beard ripped out.

Beaten again and again.

Forced to carry his own cross.

Nails driven through his hands and feet.

Crucified.

At this point a strange question comes to mind. Was Jesus a failure? You could make a good case that the answer is yes. Just look at his life. He was born into an unimportant family in an unimportant village. He was ignored, he was taken for granted, he was laughed at. When he speaks, the powers that be want nothing to do with him. He faces ridicule, opposition, and misunderstanding all his life. In the end he is crucified like a criminal. His sufferings in those last few hours are unspeakable. When he dies he appears to be yet another forgotten footnote in history. Working with the facts on one level, you could make the case that our Lord was a failure.

But his death is not the end of the story.

Jesus did not fail in what he came to do.

He perfectly fulfilled the Father’s will.

Look what we have in return:

We have peace with God. The word means wholeness, health, the absence of war, and safety. In a messed-up world filled with broken people and broken promises, through Christ we have peace that passes all human understanding.

We are healed. We are healed from our guilt, healed from our hatred, healed from our doubt, and healed from our shame. Through Christ, broken people are put back together again.

Was Jesus a failure? No!

He took our sin, bore our pain, and through his death on the cross, he healed us from the inside out so that we now live in peace.—From keepbelieving.com²

Hallelujah! What a Savior

Man of Sorrows! what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood
Sealed my pardon with His blood.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
“Full atonement!” can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Lifted up was He to die;
“It is finished!” was His cry;
Now in Heav’n exalted high.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew His song we’ll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
—Philip Bliss, 1875

(Written shortly before his death. … A few weeks before his death, Mr. Bliss visited the state prison at Jackson, Michigan, where, after a very touching address on “The Man of Sorrows,” he sang this hymn with great effect. Many of the prisoners dated their conversion from that day.)³

Healed by His stripes

“He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses in His own body on the tree.”⁴ “For He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.”⁵ According to Strong’s Bible Concordance, the original Hebrew word translated here as “stripes” literally means “bruise, hurt, stripe, wound.”

What does it mean, “With His stripes we are healed”? There is some form of atonement, even for our diseases. He paid for it by His physical suffering. So we can claim healing, even as a part of His atonement. We can claim it as a part of what He paid for. It’s yours already for the asking.

“The great physician now is near, the sympathizing Jesus. He speaks, the drooping heart to cheer. Oh! Hear the voice of Jesus.”⁶

We who have personally received Jesus into our hearts already have His healing power manifested in our bodies through the Lord’s healing.⁷ But it will not be complete until we receive our eternal, supernatural, indestructible bodies on which death and sickness no longer have any power or claim whatsoever.

Healing is a sample, like salvation. When we experience salvation, we get a little sample of what eternal salvation and heaven are going to be like. We have a little bit of heaven in our hearts already! We have “tasted of the heavenly gift and the powers of the world to come,” as His Word says.⁸ Likewise, when we are healed we have a little sample of what God is going to do one of these days. He’ll not only give you one new part or fix you up a little bit or repair you, but He is going to give you a whole new heavenly body!⁹

But in the meantime, we’re still bound by our corruptible fleshly human bodies, and about all God’s doing now through healing is patching us up to make us last a little longer. He can patch you up a little bit, like an old car, and keep repairing you.

When those who believe in Jesus are resurrected, it will be like the difference between the grain of wheat and the full-grown, full-blown stock and head that comes from one grain, or the flower that comes from one tiny seed. That’s how much better your new heavenly body is going to be than your present one. It will be that much more wonderful.¹⁰—David Brandt Berg

Published on Anchor March 2018. Read by Jon Marc. Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ NIV.

² http://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/the-suffering-substitute.

³ http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/a/halwasav.htm.

⁴ Matthew 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24.

⁵ Isaiah 53:5.

⁶ William Hunter, 1859.

⁷ See Romans 8:11.

⁸ Hebrews 6:4–5.

⁹ See 1 Corinthians 15:42–58.

¹⁰ 1 Corinthians 15:35–38, 42–58.

Celebrating Communion

Treasures

2024-03-28

The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.—1 Corinthians 11:23–26

Communion is a simple illustration of the Lord’s last supper with His disciples. It is the only religious ceremony that Jesus Himself instituted and commanded His followers to continue to observe until He comes again. It is meant to be a ceremony of remembrance and thanksgiving, and a witness.

Communion is a remembrance of Jesus and His death for us—the sacrifice of His life for our salvation, the breaking of His body for us. It is a thanksgiving celebration of His gift of eternal salvation. It is a witness and testimony to others that Jesus died for us, to proclaim His death until He comes. It is also a time for believers to come together in unity, showing that we believe as one. It is a time to renew fellowship, confess sins, make things right, thank Jesus for His salvation, and witness to His goodness.

Each year at Easter, hundreds of millions of professing Christians around the globe—be they Catholic, Protestant, or nondenominational—celebrate the last day of Christ’s life on earth before His death, as well as the Last Supper that He celebrated with His disciples at the Passover. The Feast of the Passover was a celebration in which the Jews commemorated their deliverance from slavery and exodus out of Egypt with joy and thanksgiving.

This particular Passover would be sad for the disciples, who were sharing the Lord’s Last Supper. Jesus Himself had found them a place to have their Passover meal by a miracle (Luke 22:9–13). Then they celebrated what has come to be known as Communion or Eucharist.

After they partook of their Passover meal, the Lord told His disciples about His coming suffering and death, and solemnly led them in a ceremony, one of the few that He commended His followers to observe to commemorate His death. “As often as you do this, do it in remembrance of Me.” Paul said that in so doing, “You proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:25–26).

The Gospel of Luke tells us: “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me’” (Luke 22:19). Jesus was illustrating for His disciples what He was about to do. That night His body was going to be broken, pierced, lacerated, abused, His blood shed, and finally His life given. His body was going to be broken for you and me.

He suffered pain and agony of the physical body by His death on the cross, and the shedding of His blood for our salvation and our healing. God’s Word says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

“Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins’” (Matthew 26:27–28). If you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have already partaken of His blood for salvation, which the wine symbolizes. As you partake of the wine, you are testifying of having received the blood of Christ for your spiritual salvation. As you partake of the bread, you are testifying that you are receiving the body of Christ which was broken for you.

“As often as you do this, do it in remembrance of Me.” Communion is a manifestation of your love for Him and appreciation of the sacrifice He made for your redemption. Jesus didn’t say how often we should celebrate Communion, but to do so in remembrance of Him and as a witness for Him.

Partaking of the Communion wine does not save you, because you have already received His salvation by faith. But this ceremony should encourage and affirm your faith, and it is your witness that you have received the blood of Christ for your atonement, His sacrifice for your sins.

What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

O, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
—Robert Lowry, 1876

We should never forget the resurrection when speaking of Jesus’ death. If it hadn’t been for His resurrection, His life and death would have meant nothing. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:17–19). But thank God He is risen!

Let’s not just remember the death of the cross or just picture a Christ on the cross, the suffering and the death. Jesus is no longer on the cross. We don’t have a Christ in the grave—He is risen! “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).

We don’t have a dead Christ hanging on a crucifix; we have a live Jesus living in our hearts!

Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a victor o’er the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!
—Robert Lowry, 1874

The passage in 1 Corinthians on Communion goes on to provide a sober warning: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:27). What does it mean to partake of Communion in an unworthy manner? If it was meant in the sense of undeserving, nobody could ever be worthy or deserving of the death of Christ. You can’t earn it or work for it and deserve it by your own merit, your own goodness, or your own righteousness. You can’t deserve His death, His body, or His blood shed for you.

None of us are worthy of salvation, but there is one thing we are required to do, and that is accept Jesus’ sacrifice, and proclaim Him our Lord and Savior. “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). The only way to be worthy of partaking of Communion is through having experienced salvation yourself.

Jesus has done all the rest. He did the suffering, dying, and the shedding of blood. Now we are called to proclaim His death until He comes. What is the duty of every Christian? To witness to others, to be a testimony of their faith. And you are only able to do this through His worthiness, His salvation.

“Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28). We can know we are taking Communion worthily through Christ’s worth because we know we are saved and have spiritually drunk of the blood of Jesus and eaten of the body of Christ in salvation.

Paul again warns, however, that “anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:29). If the unsaved partake of the holy Eucharist without being saved, they are drinking judgment to themselves. The celebration of Communion is reserved for those who have received salvation in Jesus.

Jesus, thank You for Your sacrifice, Your blood shed for the remission of our sins, the new testament in Your blood that we commemorate every time we partake of Communion. We do this in remembrance of You—of Your suffering, Your love, that You died for us in our place, that You took upon Yourself the punishment for our sins, and that You rose from the dead.

We now attest and witness our faith in You and Your death for us and Your sacrifice of Your blood for our salvation to wash away our sins. Thank You for Your precious gift of salvation, eternal life, and that we can partake of everlasting communion with You.

From an article in Treasures, published by the Family International in 1987. Adapted and republished March 2024. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.

What Easter Represents

Maria Fontaine

2017-04-10

Anything so unspeakably priceless as Jesus offering His life in payment for our sins required immense strength of spirit and depth of character and closeness to His Father in order to accomplish such a colossal mission—His ultimate goal.

Even then, in the midst of facing what He had to do for the salvation of humankind, Jesus requested that if it were possible that the Father would let the cup pass from Him.¹ What was the cup? It was His great agony and the suffering that He would have to endure. We might picture His cup filled with the consequences of the sins of the world!—All that God’s justice had decreed was due for all the sins that had ever been committed—past, present, and future. As a paraphrasing of 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For God took the sinless Christ and poured into Him the cost of our sins. Then, in exchange, He poured the pure gift of God’s goodness into us.” He who was without sin bore the weight of punishment for the transgressions of the entire world, in order to free us from them.

Out of love for us, He who knew no sin suffered the price of sin for us and was made a curse for us, so that through His death He could destroy sin’s power over those who would come to Him.²

Our human intellects, no matter how brilliant, can never fully understand these deep spiritual truths. However, physical illustrations of these concepts, even though insufficient at their best and “seen through a glass darkly,” can at least help us to a partial, very limited understanding. Jesus taking our sins and evil into Himself could be symbolically likened to a terminal disease permeating the body and infiltrating the cells. His becoming sin for us was like His taking into Himself the resulting consequence of death.

The Bible says that Jesus poured out His soul unto death, and set us free through His blood.³ The cup now symbolizes new life through His blood shed for us.⁴ Sin, death, ungodliness, and all that is evil is swallowed up in victory.⁵ All of the evil of mankind, and the full settlement for all sin for all time was made. And what does Jesus ask of us? The Scripture says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”⁶

He who was life and truth and the Word made flesh was destroyed in the flesh, but His spirit could not be destroyed.⁷ What was destroyed for all who turn to Jesus was the power of sin and death, the spirit of the world, and those spiritual forces bound to them. Their power was broken and conquered by Christ for any who would receive His sacrifice and gift of love. These forces of Satan no longer have any power or authority over His children beyond what Jesus allows for a purpose—to teach us and strengthen us, to cause our witness to shine even brighter, and to draw us closer to Him.

What Jesus did through His death and resurrection to bring us salvation is something so very mysterious and beyond our human comprehension that we won’t be able to fully understand it until we’re liberated from the realm of the flesh into the spirit—and maybe not even then. However, every time we reflect on what Jesus did for each one of us—and for all of us—it renews our sense of reverence and awe.

What, in practical terms, does such limitless love mean to us as Christians? What does it say to us? What is its significance? What does it mean to us personally?

Christian writers throughout the years have tried to explain the essence of Easter in various ways:

• A demonstration that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.
• The rare beauty of new life.
• News of a great victory, the assurance of a great triumph.
• A declaration that we are immortal children of God.
• The “out of the grave and into my heart” miracle.
• A fact of history, without which history does not make sense.
• The door of the holy sepulcher—the portal through which we enter the kingdom of God.
• The descent of God to the human level and the ascent of man to the divine level, becoming the sons of God.
• The thing that turns the church from a museum into a ministry.
• A second chance.
• The assurance that the truth does not perish; it cannot be destroyed.
• The crowning proof of Christianity.
• The right to live nobly now because we are to live forever.
• The knowledge that we are living in a world in which God has the last word.

Easter represents all that our salvation is.⁸—And that’s worth celebrating! Easter stands for everything that has been and forever will be possible in our resurrection-empowered lives. It represents:

• Freedom from condemnation of past mistakes and failures.⁹
• Liberation from fear of death.¹⁰
• The guarantee of hope for an eternal future in a home that Jesus has gone to prepare for us.¹¹
• An alternative to the temporal, sin-laden, suffering-plagued existence of this world.¹²
• The opening of the door of heaven to us.
• The blind given sight.¹³
• Common men and women becoming kings and queens.¹⁴
• The drowning man rescued.
• The brand snatched from the burning.¹⁵
• The power to preach good tidings, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.¹⁶
• The paralyzed becoming mobile.¹⁷
• The earth coming to life in the spring.
• The knowledge that man can live forever.¹⁸
• A demonstration that anything wonderful can happen when all hope seems gone.
• Complete forgiveness.¹⁹
• Freedom from the law of death.²⁰
• The truth let loose in the world.²¹
• The sting taken out of death.²²
• The guarantee that there are no illnesses nor pain in heaven.²³
• The promise of eternal life with our loved ones.²⁴
• The assurance of a glorious future, no matter how bad the world gets.
• The power to conquer all impossibilities.²⁵
• Divine healing power.²⁶
• A way of life, not just a religion or a ritual.²⁷

All of the above impossibilities became possible—all the potential of the universe was released—when Christ’s victory over death was won.

The resurrection and its results are worth repeatedly examining, since in this—one of the greatest moments of history—we continue to find Easter wonders.

Like the little girl said when her daddy asked her, “Do you know what Easter means, honey?” The three-year-old, throwing up her arms, shouted at the top of her voice, “Surprise!” Yes, indeed! Death was surprised! Sin was surprised! The grieving disciples were surprised! Modern man is surprised! Jesus is alive—and the whole world is filled with His resurrection miracles!

Originally published March 2010. Adapted and republished April 2017.
Read by Carol Andrews.

¹ Matthew 26:39.

² 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 2:14; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24.

³ Isaiah 53:12.

⁴ 1 Corinthians 11:25.

⁵ 1 Corinthians 15:54.

⁶ Galatians 2:20; Romans 5:8–11, 6:6–11.

⁷ Luke 23:46; 1 Peter 3:18.

⁸ John 11:25–26.

⁹ Romans 8:1.

¹⁰ Hebrews 2:14–15.

¹¹ John 14:2–3.

¹² John 16:33.

¹³ 1 Peter 2:9; John 9:25.

¹⁴ Revelation 5:9–10.

¹⁵ Zechariah 3:2.

¹⁶ Isaiah 61:1, 3.

¹⁷ Matthew 11:5.

¹⁸ 1 John 2:17.

¹⁹ Isaiah 1:18.

²⁰ Romans 8:2.

²¹ John 1:17.

²² 1 Corinthians 15:55.

²³ Revelation 21:4.

²⁴ Acts 16:31.

²⁵ Luke 1:37.

²⁶ Mark 16:17–18.

²⁷ John 10:10.

Celebrating Life

Maria Fontaine

2021-04-01

Easter is a time when we look back to the most powerful event in the history of mankind. We see God’s supernatural, undeserved love for us being expressed through Christ’s death on the cross and His glorious resurrection. It is the pivotal point when humankind, in spite of its pride and sin and consequential separation from God, was given a path back to the Father. This is the reason why Jesus went through unimaginable suffering and the horrors of the damned, and conquered them.

Easter is a proclamation of this gift! But as incomprehensibly wondrous as this new life with our King of kings throughout eternity is going to be, Jesus has also made it possible to experience a part of His heavenly gift here and now. Listen to the One who is the source of life explain it from His perspective.

My Spirit in this world and throughout eternity is alive and vibrant. Easter is a celebration of the restoration of man’s connection to the source of all life, God. It’s about who I am to you and to each of My children, both now and for eternity. I am with you always. I am a part of your life every moment.

Isn’t it a cause for great celebration that I am with you in spirit every day? I am with you, even during the times when you seem to be at your worst and when you feel the lowest and most hopeless. That is how My sacrifice on the cross touches your life every moment and lifts you up and helps you grow in your relationship with Me. My presence within you renews you when you need Me most.

Doesn’t your deepest praise come from knowing that I’m always with you and I will never leave you? I’m with you in the good times. I’m with you in the times when the mundane or trouble-strewn cares of this life try to rob you of My joy, strength, and purpose. I am with you down in the mud and the ugliness you face during your earth life. My arms are around you in the sorrow, discouragement, and evil you encounter in this world. I’m holding you up when no one else can, and I’m pouring into you all the life and strength that I have promised to give you when you need it.

This is the commitment that I have made to you. This is the moment-by-moment, unconditional, unending love that I have for you.

There will come a time when we will all sit down together in the heavenly glory that My death and resurrection have made possible for you. But right here, right now, expressions of My love can be seen even amidst the difficulties of this earth life.

That is a glorious thing to declare, to think about, to express thanks for. I rose from the dead, but I’m not just off in the heavenly realm waiting for you to join Me. I am with you, every moment, in the midst of the evil and suffering perpetrated by man, because here is where the greatest need for My love is. It is glorious because it’s here and now, and it’s personal between Me and you, between Me and each of those who know Me or will yet come to know Me.

I love it when your heart is grateful for the gift of eternal life that you will spend with Me. This gift began with My death on the cross and My resurrection, but My Spirit continues to flood the world through you and each one who lets My love and truth flow out of them wherever I show them it is needed. That is a true celebration of life.

So, let’s celebrate Jesus’ gift of life by multiplying it in the hearts of others. We make Easter the celebration of life that our Father intended it to be when we continue to carry the life, hope, and truth Jesus has given us to all who will receive it.

Originally published March 2018. Adapted and republished April 2021.
Read by Debra Lee.

The Eternal Riches of Heaven

Maria Fontaine

2013-05-20

We have received a lot of prophecies from the Lord about how if we’ll look ahead more, if we’ll step back and see the big picture more, if we’ll keep our eyes on heaven more, we’ll have an easier time with the difficulties of today.

It’s about perspective. If you’re only looking at what’s happening around you right now, things can seem pretty rough. That’s true for everyone. It took Thomas Edison more than a thousand experiments before he produced a practical, functioning light bulb. All those failures must have been very frustrating and rough, to say the least. But what if he had gotten his eyes off the goal when he was on failure number 998 and quit? He wouldn’t have developed the light bulb after all and would have just wasted a lot of money, time, and effort.

Paul said something that we’d do well to take note of: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”¹ In other words, we have to look beyond what we’re going through today to the long term: the rewards, the happiness, the surcease from life’s battles. We have to look to the time when we will be victorious, and that will give us the strength to keep going. All of that is part of keeping the heavenly vision.

We have so much to look forward to, and we can really have a good time anticipating it! And as we do, the little day-to-day bumps in the road will be easier to bear.

 

Jesus says:

Keeping the heavenly vision means stepping back from the small, day-to-day tasks and to-dos and remembering the big picture of why you’re on earth. It’s remembering that you are on earth for a very short time, and that soon you will come to the place where all the struggles, difficulties, and problems won’t matter anymore, and only the eternal and lasting things will come with you.

Keeping the heavenly vision is also remembering Me, remembering My promises of love and comfort to you, and how much I have in store for you when this life is over. It’s what I was trying to impart to My first disciples when I encouraged them about the many mansions in My Father’s house, and that although I had to go away, soon they would be where I am and we would be together again.²

It is so important that you keep this perspective. Don’t lose the heavenly vision by becoming too wrapped up in the cares and trials of earth. Your present existence is such a fleeting thing; your life is but a vapor. Soon, so many of the things that seem so difficult for you are going to be wiped away, and in their place you will receive a crown of life and everlasting rewards for having bravely stayed the course and kept the faith.

But when you forget all of that, life can seem discouraging and difficult at times. I can even start to seem far away, pushed to the back of your mind, and the promise that I’m going to return again and gather you to Myself seems very distant.

When you forget the big picture, I seem small and irrelevant, and all the things of the world seem so important. That’s why you must keep your eyes on heaven and on Me. That’s why you have to remember that compared to all of the happy eternity that you will spend with Me, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in you and to you.³

You have to remember that there is a reason, a plan, and a purpose for everything that’s happening to you. I allow it all, so that when you come to My realm, you will have gained valuable lessons, skills, and insight that you couldn’t have gotten any other way.

No one, while they were alive, had the whole picture and understood the full meaning of their existence and why they were on earth, or even why there was an earth in the first place. Although many people had some understanding, still, as My Word says, “You see through a glass darkly” right now.⁴ You won’t understand the larger concepts in full till the end of your time on earth, when I finally reveal it all and make My plans plain. But until then there is a lot that you do know—certainly enough to make good choices and base good decisions on.

With the information you have right now, you know that it’s important to Me that while you’re on earth you love Me and keep My commandments, that you love your neighbor as yourself and learn lessons of love, that you win others to My kingdom, and that you give your children positive training that will last for eternity. These things will last forever.

So you must stop from time to time and look at what you’re doing in relation to Me and eternity. Ask yourself if it’s eternally sound, if it’s something that you can take with you when you leave earth, or if it’s something that’s going to pass away and be lost. You’ll be happy when you discover that what you’re investing your life in is eternal and lasting, and is not only fulfilling My will, but is reaping you benefits in the world beyond that will last forever.

If you are working for that which does not fade away, that which has eternal value, you should feel happy about this! Let this fact encourage your heart that you’re using your time wisely.

You can be certain that when this life is over, you have a happy heaven full of rewards and blessings awaiting you for your faithfulness. You can know that I love you, and that as you’re working for Me and pleasing Me, and manifesting your faith that isn’t dependent upon sight or understanding—you’re learning important lessons, and it’s going to pay off in the life hereafter.

You can know that in My kingdom there is no sorrow or loneliness or hardship or sickness or worry or death or lack of love or any of the things that can be so hard on you now. With that in mind, you can more happily brave your current sorrows or troubles, knowing that soon they’ll be gone. And in the meantime, I have promised that My grace is sufficient for you, and you can determine not to let the things of earth hold you back from gaining and gleaning from your time there the things that will last.

That’s the heavenly vision—knowing that there is a much bigger world full of love, rewards, meaning, and happiness just beyond this earthly one. When you look at the heavenly vision you’re reminded of and motivated by what’s really important and what’s worth living for and caring about.

Things tend to snap into perspective when weighed against eternity. And, oh, the comfort it can bring to your heart when you remember that no matter how tough a battle may seem, your life on earth is just the tip of the iceberg in eternity.

You need to pause sometimes and think about these things. It’s so good for you to take a few minutes to stop what you’re doing and ask Me to help you to get the heavenly vision again.

Think about the things that are difficult for you and remember that one day they’ll all be gone, and in their place will be a reward for your faith. Think about whether what you’re doing in life is working toward something eternal that will still matter once you’re gone from this earth. Think about the things you love or that matter to you right now—are they going to come with you into the world beyond? Or are they temporal things of this world that are going to pass away?

As you think about this, you may find yourself wanting to change the way you live, or make adjustments to the things that are important to you, based on Me and eternity.

When you’re not keeping the heavenly vision, self becomes so much more important to you—your own happiness, your own comfort, your own fame and wealth and pride. But when you live for heaven, I become the most important one, and you remember just how fleeting it is to chase your own satisfaction in the short time that you have on earth.

In the next life, you’re truly going to be glad that you lived for Me. You’re going to shine as the stars if you’ve been wise and turned many to righteousness.⁵ You’re going to be eternally glad for all the times that you laid down your own will and said yes to Me. You’re going to someday count the things of this earth as dung compared to the eternal riches of heaven.⁶

Originally published 2006. Adapted and republished May 2013.
Read by Tina Miles.

¹ 1 Corinthians 15:19.

² John 14:2–3.

³ Romans 8:18.

⁴ 1 Corinthians 13:12.

⁵ Daniel 12:3.

⁶ Philippians 3:8.

148 – Jesus—His Life and Message: The Coming of the Son of Man (Part 2)

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2021-03-16

(You can read about the intent for and overview of this series in this introductory article.)

In the previous article, we read Jesus’ statement that heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.¹ He went on to say,

Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.²

Jesus clearly said that the time of His return, His parousia, is unknown to anyone but the Father. Throughout history there have been many predictions of when Jesus was going to return. None of them proved to be true, which makes perfect sense, since Jesus made it clear that no one knows except the Father.

Some may wonder how Jesus couldn’t know the day nor hour when heaven and earth will pass away when He, like the Father, is God. This is a matter that has to do with the inner workings of the Trinity, which is beyond our knowing. The ESV Bible commentary states:

How Jesus could have limited knowledge and yet know all things is difficult, and much remains a mystery, for nobody else has ever been both God and man. One possibility is that Jesus regularly lived on the basis of his human knowledge but could at any time call to mind anything from his infinite knowledge.

We find another example of this paradox in the book of John, where Jesus states I and the Father are one,³ and also the Father is greater than I.⁴

As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.⁵

Jesus’ return will be sudden and without warning. Those who are alive when it happens will be carrying on with the normal affairs of daily life, just as those in Noah’s day were.

Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.⁶ 

These examples of people going about their daily lives and work at the time of Jesus’ return express the importance of being ready. In both examples there is a division, a separation, between the people. Jesus’ return brings this separation. Those who have made the choice to believe in Christ will be with Him forever, while those who make the conscious decision to reject Him and to live without God will find that their choice will be respected, resulting in their permanent separation from Him.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.⁷

As it is certain that Jesus will return, He calls His followers to live in a manner that they will be ready for that time, whenever it may be. If people knew exactly when He was going to come again, they could put off any preparation until shortly before His coming. However, they do not know, and therefore they must live in a state of constant readiness.

Know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.⁸ 

Jesus included this illustration to help them understand that His return would come unexpectedly. Clearly, if one knew when his house was going to be robbed, he would prepare himself. The timing of Christ’s return, however, is not known. This point is made throughout the New Testament.

You yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.⁹

But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.¹⁰

The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.¹¹

“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”¹²

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.¹³

Because the disciples did not know when Christ would return, and knew that His return would be at an unexpected time, they were instructed to live in a state of constant readiness. Jesus’ instruction to His disciples applies equally to all present-day believers as well, because we are in the same state of not knowing when He will return.

Jesus continued with:

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.”¹⁴

Jesus turns from the topic of watchfulness and focuses on the faithful and wise servant. He refers to a household in which there are numerous servants. One of them is put in a position of responsibility by the householder. Among other things, he is responsible for making sure the household is fed. This servant does his job diligently. He doesn’t know when the householder is going to return, but that doesn’t matter to him; he is focused on being faithful in his work. When the master returns, the servant will be blessed.

Jesus’ statement, Truly, I say to you, emphasizes that what He is about to say is significant. He will set him over all his possessions. The master will reward the servant by putting him in charge of all that he owns. The reward for faithful service is the opportunity of serving in a position of even greater responsibility.

But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards…¹⁵

There is another possible outcome, as Jesus pointed out. He brings up a hypothetical case of that wicked servant. This servant lacks the moral strength of the first servant. With the master away, he knows that he will not have to answer to anyone for some time, and he sees it as an opportunity to be selfishly irresponsible. His true character is exposed. He uses his temporary authority to beat his fellow servants. He also partakes in self-indulgence as he eats and drinks with drunkards.

The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.¹⁶ 

The wicked servant lost sight of the fact that his being in charge was a temporary situation. The master will return at an unexpected time, and the servant will be called to account for his deeds. The fact that the master was away for longer than the servant expected didn’t mean that he was never coming back. Though the Son of Man’s return may seem delayed, it doesn’t mean that He isn’t coming back. As Jesus stated earlier in this chapter, You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.¹⁷

Jesus predicted the fate of the wicked servant: the master will severely punish him. The statement about putting the unfaithful servant with the hypocrites is a bit unclear. One author explains:

Perhaps we should bear in mind that throughout this Gospel hypocrites come in for severe condemnation; Jesus has left no doubt that their ultimate fate will be a most unhappy one.¹⁸

We’re told that In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Gnashing of teeth” is a phrase which is found a number of times in the Gospel of Matthew.¹⁹ It stands for the pain, distress, anguish, and suffering of those who pass on without having a saving relationship with God.

Jesus clearly stated that the time of His return, His parousia, is unknown to anyone but the Father. Since Jesus’ ascension into heaven, believers have been waiting for His return. For two millennia, Christians have lived their lives, passed on from this world, and gone to be with the Lord. At the time of Jesus’ return, those who are alive on earth will experience His second coming. In 1 Thessalonians we are told that those who have already passed on will return with Jesus.

Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.²⁰

While Jesus’ return at the time of the rapture is an important part of our faith, we, like all the Christians who have gone before us, may not be on this earth when it happens. Therefore, while the endtime events are important, how we live our lives during the time we have on earth is even more important. We are called to love others, to share the gospel, to do our best to live the teachings of Jesus. May we all strive to follow the example of the One who gave His life for us, so that we can live with Him forever.

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

¹ Matthew 24:35.

² Matthew 24:36.

³ John 10:30.

⁴ John 14:28.

⁵ Matthew 24:37–39.

⁶ Matthew 24:40–41.

⁷ Matthew 24:42.

⁸ Matthew 24:43.

⁹ 1 Thessalonians 5:2.

¹⁰ 1 Thessalonians 5:4.

¹¹ 2 Peter 3:10.

¹² Revelation 16:15.

¹³ Matthew 24:44.

¹⁴ Matthew 24:45–47.

¹⁵ Matthew 24:48–49.

¹⁶ Matthew 24:50–51.

¹⁷ Matthew 24:44.

¹⁸ Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, 618.

¹⁹ See Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30.

²⁰ 1 Thessalonians 4:14.

Copyright © 2021 The Family International.

We’ve Got a Lot to Learn (part 2)

David Brandt Berg

1985-06-09

Learning in eternity

Then you have to die, and then you’ve got a thousand years and all eternity to learn all the things you didn’t learn while you were a flesh-and-blood human being. I think God has an awful lot of things to teach us, to learn all the things we didn’t learn in this life.

Not only this life, but the Millennium and eternity are a constant learning process, another grade, another step. Aren’t you glad you’ve got eternity to learn it? I’m going to look forward to the Millennium to learn a few things I haven’t learned yet. I’ve got a lot of questions to ask, for one thing, but I’ve probably got a lot of bad habits to cure and a lot of my failures to make up for. There’s so much!

How could you possibly think you could just somehow get a shot in the head the minute you die and go to heaven and suddenly you know it all? You’d be like God! Suddenly you’d have it all, know it all, be all-powerful. If you were that way you’d be God Himself. He’s the only one who is omniscient; that means He knows it all. He’s the only one that’s omnipresent; that means everywhere. He’s the only one that’s omnipotent; that means all-powerful. Not you, not me.

Now doesn’t that challenge you more than sitting on a cloud playing a harp for eternity? Why eternity if you know it all the minute you get there? What’s it for? We can call it time, but it’s eternity. What’s all that eternity for? If you’ve made it, you have arrived, you’ve got it all, you know it all and you’re all-powerful, what’s the use of living? What’s the challenge? What’s all that time for? I call it time for lack of a better word, but what’s all that eternity for? What’s it all for if you’ve arrived and got it all and know it all the minute you get there and it’s all over, no more problems?

There are a lot of things there aren’t going to be any more of: pain, death, sickness and sorrow (Revelation 21:4). He doesn’t say there’s not going to be any more tears, but He says He’s going to wipe away our tears. I think there’s still going to be some pain and obviously death. It says a child will die in the Millennium and there will be sorrow and tears in this world, but not with us.

Thank God, we’ve got a lot to be thankful for; there are going to be a lot of things done and finished that we’ll never have to worry about again. We’ve got so many new things to do and new things to learn and new problems, that we can’t be afflicted with all those things we used to have.

 

We’re making progress

Thank God, when we get to the next life, we won’t have to relearn a lot of the things we’ve already learned. There are some things you’ve already learned and it’s past, and thank God it’s done! You don’t have to learn that anymore; isn’t that wonderful?

Aren’t there some things in your adult life, thank God, that you have learned and that you don’t have to learn anymore?—That you surely have learned and learned enough and made enough of those mistakes that you’re not going to make them any longer? Thank God there are some things that we have learned.

There’s one good thing about looking back, and about the only good thing about looking back. The Lord says, “Don’t look back; look forward to the things that are before” (Philippians 3:13–14)—except for one thing: to see all the progress you’ve made.

That’s one advantage to looking back, at least you can see where you’ve been. Don’t you feel like you’ve made some progress when you look back and you see how you used to be, things you used to do, what you used to be like? Thank God for the progress you have made! Thank Him for where you have been. Isn’t that a wonderful feeling of satisfaction, of fulfillment, of a certain amount of completion? Didn’t you always have a certain feeling of real satisfaction when you graduated from a grade in school or in college?

Don’t sorrow over what you are today. The Lord said not to worry about yesterday and not to worry about tomorrow. The trouble with a lot of people is, they’re not only worried about yesterday, the past, they’re also worried about the future; and worst of all, they’re worried about right now, lamenting over the way they are now. They can’t even correct the present—they certainly can’t correct the past—but you can change the future, your future in a sense, by trying to change your present.

Look how marvelous it is that you’ve come this far! Don’t you think the Lord rejoices over it too? Don’t you think He gets excited about it just like you do every time the baby takes a new step or learns a new word or makes a little progress or that child learns to read? I still don’t know anything compared to what I’m learning and hope to learn! All the things I still don’t know about the Bible, all the things I still don’t know about nature and creation and heaven and the future!

Thank God for the past—that it’s gone and over with and done, and you don’t have to go through that again. I still make some mistakes, bad mistakes sometimes, but I hope I’m learning. Don’t you hope you’re learning? Don’t you hope you’re not going to make any more of those mistakes again? That you’re going to learn here so that you won’t have to learn there because you still hadn’t learned?

That’s what the future is all about, to continue the process that you have begun here. We’ve got a lot not only to be thankful for, the past that’s over, but we’ve got a lot yet to learn!

Would you like to undo some of the things you did in the past but now it’s too late, you figure it’s impossible, the damage is done? What if God gives you another chance to meet that person over there and straighten that thing out and undo it and tell them you’re sorry and help them to undo the damage you did? Wouldn’t you like to do that?

Aren’t there some things in your past you’d like to undo if God gave you another chance? I believe God’s going to give you a chance to do some of the things you failed to do and make things right with some of the people you hurt. Doesn’t that give you a good feeling, to think God’s going to give you a chance to do some of the things you failed to do here and undo some of the things you did?

That’s what this life is about, that’s what the Millennium’s about, that’s what eternity is about! That’s what it’s all about, why God made you and created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden and all the rest. Because you’ve got a lot of learning to do, and it takes time to really learn.

It’s all a part of God’s plan and process to make you learn for yourself what you can, and He will give you what you can’t! So be thankful for the past, that it’s over with. Be thankful for the present, that you’re learning, even if you’re not always successful. And thank God for the future when you can finish the job, we hope, or at least keep on with the job and do even better!

Thank You, Lord, for the past, the present, and the future. Thank You for all Your blessings, both the good and the bad, even the bad that taught us things in the past, and all the good things, and for the present, the better things, and for the future, the best things! As we pray Your prayer together, Lord bless and keep us all. Give us a good day to learn whatever we need to learn today, or to lean however we need to lean today on You, and on others. And Lord, to rest in whatever way we need to rest, and to love in whatever way we need to love! In Jesus’ name we ask, for Thy glory. Amen.

Copyright © 1985 The Family International.

We’ve Got a Lot to Learn (part 1)

David Brandt Berg

1985-06-09

It’s good for you to make a mistake; it keeps you humble! I make lots of them. If I didn’t make some mistakes, I’d probably get really proud and think I was very wholly sanctified and couldn’t sin. If I didn’t make some mistakes, I’d probably get proud of my sanctimonious holiness! But it seems like the Lord makes me one of the biggest mistake-makers in the world to keep me humble.

Even St. Paul had a thorn in the flesh, which he said he figured was to keep him humble. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a rabbi. After his tremendous conversion—which helped to humble him, even being blind for a while—then he became a Christian and such a powerhouse for the Lord and such an evangelist, such a missionary—he even had revelations, trips to heaven and whatnot—he might have gotten pretty proud over being such an outstanding Christian, undoubtedly the greatest of the apostles.

So St. Paul said he figured that’s why he had that thorn in the flesh. And what was it? Was it actually a sticker in his side? We’re not exactly told what it is, but from other scriptures about, “Behold with what large characters I write unto you” and “Some of you would have given me your own eyes,” it sounds like he had very poor eyesight, and that could have been a part of his thorn in the flesh (Galatians 6:11; 4:15).

It says he was buffeted by a messenger of Satan, an evil spirit that plagued St. Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7). He was pestered by it, annoyed by it; it just kept bothering him! Evil spirits cannot possess Christians, because we are the possession of the Lord! We are possessed by Christ and He has promised He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will never allow us to fall; we will always be His. All kinds of promises guarantee that you belong to Jesus and that the Devil cannot have you. But he sure as hell can pester you, tempt you, and test you, just as he did Job!

So St. Paul had to admit he was being plagued by a demon, “buffeted about by a messenger of Satan.” Here he was the greatest Christian in the world at the time, the greatest leader of the Christian faith, greatest missionary, evangelist, teacher, and rabbi; it seemed like he had it all. He’d had all kinds of revelations, he was a lawyer of the Word, he was brilliant. And yet he had this thorn in the flesh that kept bothering him to keep him humble. He confessed that he figured that’s what it was for. He said, “Lest I be exalted.”

 

Job and self-righteousness

Look at all the trouble the Devil caused poor old Job! He destroyed his home, he destroyed his cattle, all his wealth, he killed all his children, and then he made him so sick his wife wished he’d curse God and die (Job 2:9). But it finally humbled him. He thought he was pretty good up until that time; he thought he was pretty righteous, and he goes on arguing with his so-called “comforters.” They weren’t very comforting; they were constantly accusing him of some kind of sin. “You must have done something wrong or you wouldn’t be in this shape!” And they were right.

Even God was bragging about Job, how good he was! But the Devil is the prosecutor, the accuser of the saints (Revelation 12:10). He’s a snoop, and he noses around and finds what your weakness is and what your problem is, and he does his best to aggravate it. And what was dear Job’s problem? Self-righteousness.

One of his accusers really hit the nail on the head when he said, “Job, can a man be found to be righteous with God?” (Job 4:17). Job was contending and arguing that he was righteous and saying, “How come? Why me, Lord? Why did You do this to me when I’m so good?” He had been thinking he was pretty good, pretty righteous, and that in itself was a sin!

Self-righteousness, thinking you’re good and righteous and holy, is the most abhorrent of all sins because you think you know better than God, that you would do things differently; that you’re even more righteous than God. That’s the way Job seemed to be thinking: “God, if I were You, I wouldn’t do this to me. How come You’re not as righteous as I am? How come You’re doing these things to me when I’m so good?”

So poor old Job had to finally confess that he wasn’t righteous. And he finally confessed that he had to just trust the Lord, not his own righteousness. When his wife told him to just curse God and die, he said, “Though He slay me,” even if God slays me, “yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). In other words, he was attesting to the righteousness of God. “Even if God kills me, I will trust that He knew best and that He was righteous in so doing.”

So that was the worst sin of all, the sin of the scribes and the Pharisees, hypocritical self-righteousness!

How do we know we’re not righteous? The best answer you could give is: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And another verse that goes right with it: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10).

We’re all a mess! We’re all sinners. We all harbor evil in our hearts except for the Lord. “The heart of man is desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). God’s Word says you’re even born in sin. But that doesn’t mean it’s a sin to be born. It says, “And in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).

Probably a lot of people tried to worship King David because he was such a great man and so wonderful and did such wonderful things, in spite of all his evil. He was a murderer, a wife stealer, a liar, a cheat, a hypocrite; he was just about everything you could think of that was evil in those early days. I like to think, according to his Psalms, that he vastly improved later, so there’s some hope for me too!

 

Angels have choice

The quicker you find out that you’re not God, the better. And you’re not even a god, as the Devil promised (Genesis 3:5)! You’re sons of God and we will become like gods, like the lesser gods, so to speak, like angels, even greater than angels. Man was made a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:5), but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stay there.

We’re even going to judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). If a third of the angels could fall along with Satan, and he could lead a third of them astray, I therefore disagree with the preachers I’ve heard saying that angels are like automatons or robots and have no will of their own; they just do the will of God. I’ve heard preachers preach like that, that they’re not like us, that we are the only ones upon whom God conferred the majesty of choice and decision to choose to serve the Lord.

We’re the only ones whom God saved this way. But if the archangel of all angels, Satan, the right hand of God, could choose to go against God, and then a third of the angels choose to follow him, don’t tell me the rest of the angels don’t have any choice! It wouldn’t be to their credit that they stayed with the Lord, would it? About the only thing to your credit for being saved is that you made the choice. You reached out the hand of faith and accepted the gift. That’s not much credit, but God will give you credit for it by saving you. So I believe angels must have choice.

 

We keep learning

If you didn’t have that human frailty, that human weakness to make wrong decisions and to fail, then there would not be the freedom of choice, the majesty of free will that God implanted in every heart, including, apparently, in the hearts of the angels, to make a choice, to voluntarily love and serve Him. Jesus said, “I have not called you servants, but friends. For the Master doesn’t tell everything to His servants, His slaves” (John 15:15). He wanted you as friends. He wanted you as His beloved; not only friends, but His bride!

Do you mean, then, that if angels and holy spirits have choices, that they may also have temptations and maybe they make a mistake once in a while? Those holy spirits, the saints, are human just like you and me! And just because you suddenly get a spirit body in the next world and you suddenly have some powers you didn’t have before, such as appearing and disappearing and walking through walls and flying and a few things like that, sorry to have to tell you this to your great disappointment, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will never again make a mistake or never again make the wrong choice.

In the next world we are still learning, still developing, and we are not yet perfected. We will be the spirits of just men—in other words, good men—made perfect (Hebrews 12:23). But when? We’re being made perfect. It’s a continuative tense; it means, “I am being made perfect!

We use this verse for salvation a lot, that if you believe in your heart in Jesus, that God’s raised Him from the dead, it says to confess Him: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9–10). The Greek literally says, “If thou shalt keep on confessing.” If you’re saved you’ll keep on confessing Christ; you’ll continually confess Christ. That tense in the Greek is used many times in the Bible. There’s not a verb conjugation for it in English; there’s no way of saying it except to use words like I have: You’ve got to keep on confessing and we’re going to keep on learning and keep on being made perfect. We’ve got a long way to go before we become perfect, if ever!

Did you think that the minute you died and went to heaven you were going to be absolutely perfect? How could you be when you’ve been so imperfect down here? You’re the same person with the same thoughts, the same mind. That’s a part of the marvel and the wonder of this process of being made perfect, that it continues. And who knows, maybe there’s no end to it.

It’s wonderful to be able to make progress and continue. Even St. Paul said, “I do not count myself to have arrived”—and he probably hasn’t arrived yet, except in heaven (Philippians 3:13)!

 

Life is a learning process

Life is a learning process. And you don’t learn it by snapping your fingers or suddenly getting an injection!—Or like you’ve seen in some of these sci-fis where they put a skull cap on one guy and drain his brain and put all of his knowledge in your head. Wouldn’t that be nice? It would be so easy! But look what you would miss—this trial-and-error process, this trying-and-learning process.

Look how a baby learns. Why didn’t God have babies born like some of the animals, where they could just get up and walk around right off the bat? Baby goats and lambs and cows and horses can stand up within a few minutes after they’re born and walk around and follow their mothers—because they have to. Their mothers are busy wandering all over the pasture eating grass and can’t just stay there all the time letting them nurse.

Human babies are almost the most helpless babies in the world. Lots of other babies are made so they can almost shift for themselves as soon as they’re born. But isn’t it wonderful to watch a baby learn and grow? Even while he’s still in his mother’s tummy the baby is learning; he’s hearing sounds, voices, music, recognizing voices, even recognizing music.

They learn so many things! It’s so marvelous to watch them learn, and watch them learn the difference between doing it right and doing it wrong. There are a few things God puts innately in you as instincts, they’re called. An instinct is a talent that is not acquired; you don’t have to learn it. It’s a knowledge of something that God put in you that you just know how to do without it ever being taught or learned.

Don’t you think God enjoys watching you learn things? Even by mistakes, trial and error? And don’t you learn things better that way and for sure that way? Isn’t experience really the best teacher? Sometimes it’s the hardest, but you know, about the only mistakes I never made again in school—some of the only ones I ever remember—are the ones I made on a test, facts or figures where I made a mistake and got the answer wrong. I never forgot that again, let me tell you!

But some people are “ever learning and never coming to a knowledge” (2 Timothy 3:7). As the old Indian used to say, “The difference between white man and Indian is, Indian no make same mistake twice!”

The learning process is a marvelous thing! That’s what we’re here for. That’s what Adam and Eve in the Garden was all about. Why didn’t God just create them with the knowledge of good and evil and how to be good and not be bad? What was the surest way to learn, to really know and never forget? Of course, some people never seem to learn and they never seem to even try; they always forget!

Even when you make mistakes once in a while, it helps you to learn that it feels so good when you don’t. Because we all make them! We’re all sinners! “There’s none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Nobody’s perfect.

That’s what life is all about! It’s all about, believe it or not, not being perfect. The Christian life is a constant learning process. I don’t mean you learn to be saved; you’re saved the minute you believe and Jesus comes into your heart. You believe the Word and you receive Christ, and you’re saved then and there. Because that’s a gift; you had nothing to do with learning it or earning it!

It’s a miracle of God. He does it all for you, He’s already done it, and it’s finished! But that is just the beginning of learning how to be a Christian and live a Christian life, to love others, and even how to love God and how to be faithful and how to be loyal, how to be diligent. (to be continued)

Eternity Matters

A compilation

2014-01-02

Eternity matters because we are eternal beings (who just temporarily operate by the clock). Not surprisingly, eternity informed almost everything Jesus had to say about life on earth. Like us, those farmers and fishermen and housewives listening to Him by the lake were obsessed with now—with justice and healing and freedom now. But to help them understand their present, Jesus kept pointing them ahead to their future.

Blessed are you now, Jesus said, when you endure and seek to redeem evil of all kinds because then, in My kingdom, your life will be beautiful and never-ending. You can even leap for joy now, He said, “because great is your reward in heaven.”

Do you remember what it was like when you were struggling through college or high school, looking forward to graduation? You slogged through classes, labored through homework, stayed up late to cram for exams. But sometimes your mind would drift to a picture that filled you with hope. In this picture, you’re walking across the platform in cap and gown, a big silly grin on your face, camera flashes going off, and your hand is out to receive your diploma. All the work is behind you; all the reward is ahead.

If you are a Christ follower, heaven is the picture of your future reward. It’s what will finally make sense of everything. And it’s real—as real as the daily struggle is for you now. Heaven is what you can anticipate with every fiber of your being because then all the work will be behind you, all the reward ahead.—Rick McKinley¹

*

Even in the worst situations that seem beyond our capacities, God knows how much our hearts can bear. I hold on to the belief that our life here is temporary, as we are being prepared for eternity. Whether our lives here are good or bad, the promise of heaven awaits. I always have hope in the difficult times that God will give me the strength to endure the challenges and the heartache and that better days await, if not on this earth then for certain in heaven.—Nick Vujicic²

*

David Livingstone, called the Apostle to Africa, was born in poverty and struggled from childhood for his education, while supporting himself and his family. When he decided as a young man to spend his life as a missionary, he was mocked and scoffed. Even those he loved tried to dissuade him. When he finally arrived in Africa, life presented one hardship after another—not only the difficulties of daily life and natural dangers, but many spiritual tests also. Yet he looked beyond his present circumstances, as summed up in these words spoken to students at Cambridge University: “Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a forgoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink, but let this be only for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us [in heaven]. I never made a sacrifice.”—David Brandt Berg³

*

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”⁴ Paul thinks of his life … as a race: “I have finished my course.” Yonder is the goal, with the judge waiting to crown the successful competitor. Along the course are the witnesses, watching the contest, cheering their favorites. Paul had now run the race almost to the end. Just before him was the goal, and he saw the crown shining, ready to be put upon his brow. The racer strains every muscle and puts all his strength into the race. So Paul had lived. We must do our very best always if we would win in life’s race.

Then life is also a trust, something given to keep and guard and use, and bring home at last unimpaired. “I have kept the faith.” Everyone’s life is a trust—something he has to answer for. Whatever God gives us is a trust. The parable of the talents illustrates this. Young people should think of life and its privileges as not their own—they receive all they have and are from God, not to be spent on their own pleasure, but for the blessing of others and then to be accounted for—not the bare talents merely as first received, but the talents increased by use. The story of the man with the one talent is forever a warning to all who do not make the most of their gifts and opportunities.

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown.” It was only a wreath of laurel that the ancient racer who first touched the goal received, but it is a crown of fadeless glory which every Christian racer will receive. So there is something to live for besides the pleasure of success in this world. Those who live the life of faith will receive a crown. One may even fail in this world’s struggles, not making a success of his life, as men estimate life, and yet be wonderfully successful in the true sense, gaining eternal reward. If we live well in this present time, we lay up treasures for ourselves in heaven.—J. R. Miller⁵

*

Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, which could have been his, because he looked to the reward.⁶ He looked beyond his day and all of its problems and temptations and saw Jesus. He had an eye on eternity and its great rewards, and counted the riches of Christ greater than all the riches of Egypt, the richest, most powerful nation on earth in that day, of which he could have been pharaoh.⁷—David Brandt Berg⁸

*

Jesus said where your treasure is, there your heart is also.⁹ Some people quote that “Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.” But that isn’t the way it is. The Lord said where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Then we know the following passage so well, but let’s read it again: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” That’s in John 14:2. And Matthew 6:19–21 says, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt.” This might have said, “and fire burns.” “And where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there the heart is also.”

I wonder, what do you treasure most? Where is your treasure? Have you laid up treasures in heaven? You may be poor and yet have no treasures in heaven. This is not a question of poverty or riches, but it’s a question of have you laid up treasures in heaven?—Virginia Brandt Berg¹⁰

Published on Anchor January 2014. Read by Irene Quiti Vera.
Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ This Beautiful Mess (Multnomah Books, 2006).

² Life Without Limits (Doubleday, 2010).

³ Obstacles Are for Overcoming (Aurora Production, 2010).

⁴ 2 Timothy 4:7 NIV.

⁵ Paul’s Message for Today (Hodder and Stoughton, 1904), adapted.

⁶ Hebrews 11:26.

⁷ Hebrews 11:24–27.

⁸ Daily Might (Aurora Production, 2004).

⁹ Matthew 6:21.

¹⁰ http://virginiabrandtberg.org/meditation-moments/mm132_the-mansion-just-over-the-hill.html.

30 – Living Christianity: The Ten Commandments (Truthfulness)

Living Christianity

Peter Amsterdam

2020-10-27

(Points for this article were taken from The Doctrine of the Christian Life by John M. Frame¹ and Kingdom Ethics by Glen H. Stassen and David P. Gushee.²)

The ninth commandment states:

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.³

This commandment addresses truthfulness. It is presented in the context of giving witness in a trial, and commands that someone who is testifying must not lie. However, it is not limited to testifying in a legal scenario; it also speaks to being truthful in our everyday lives. This concept is also seen in verses such as:

Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD.⁴

A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.⁵

Having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.⁶

The focus here will be on two aspects of truthfulness: vows and oaths, and lying.

Vows and Oaths

Throughout the Old Testament, we read of individuals swearing oaths or making sacred vows. At that time, when a vow was given or an oath was sworn, whatever was agreed upon was legally binding in the same manner as when two parties sign a contract today.

Some examples are:

Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” And Abraham said, “I will swear.”⁷

Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.⁸

Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”⁹

[Hannah] vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”¹⁰

Within the Old Testament, God Himself is also depicted as making vows and swearing oaths. An example is the promise He made to Abraham.

By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.¹¹

Making a vow and swearing an oath in God’s name is stating that what we are saying or agreeing to is truthful, and that we are willing to suffer God’s judgment if we break our word. An oath is a sign by which we guarantee that our promise, our word, is authentic and that we will keep the promises we have made.

If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.¹²

In the New Testament, we find examples of vows made.

Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.¹³ 

Within Paul’s writings, we find other statements where he appealed to God’s name to give assurance that what he was writing was the truth.

I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.¹⁴

In what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.¹⁵

God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.¹⁶

As Christians, part of our faith and our example is to be honest and trustworthy. When we make a vow or swear an oath, we have given our word and we should do our utmost to fulfill what we have agreed to do. Because we want to be truthful and to fulfill our commitments by doing the things that we promised to do, it is necessary to prayerfully and wisely consider the promises we make or the things we commit ourselves to. When we make promises or take vows, we do so before God, and having given our word before Him, we are bound to carry them out. Any vows or oaths one makes should be made only after much thought and prayer.

Lying

The ninth commandment—You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor—encompasses the sin of lying. While truth is an accurate representation of the facts, lying is any deliberate misrepresentation of the facts. Scripture tells us that Jesus is the embodiment of the truth, as stated in John 14:6:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

This is reiterated in the Epistles as well, where we read that the truth is in Jesus.¹⁷ We’re also told that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.¹⁸

By contrast, Scripture teaches that Satan is the source of falsehood and lies. Jesus called Satan a liar and the “father of lies.”¹⁹ He introduced the first lie in the garden of Eden when he implied that God was lying.

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”²⁰

Scripture makes it clear that God is vehemently against dishonesty.

Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD.²¹

In Proverbs 6, we read that there are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him. One of the things on that list is a lying tongue.²² We’re also told that a false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.²³ A false witness will perish.²⁴

Truthfulness is important because honesty is grounded in the character of God; therefore we are to be truthful, because God is truthful. The apostle Paul refers to God who never lies.²⁵ Jesus and the Holy Spirit are both referred to as the truth.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”²⁶

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.²⁷

The Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.²⁸

God’s Word is also referred to as truth.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.²⁹

Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true.³⁰

As believers, we are called to emulate God; because He is truth, we are to be truthful.

Is it ever morally acceptable to lie? The easiest answer is no, we should never lie, and for the most part that is correct. However, there are some very rare situations when it would be morally acceptable to not tell the truth. There are biblical examples of individuals lying to save life. In Exodus chapter 1 we read about the Hebrew midwives who were ordered by the king of Egypt to put all Hebrew baby boys to death. They disobeyed, and when the king questioned them about it, they lied, saying it was “because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives.³¹ Another Old Testament example of someone lying to save life is seen in the story of Rahab, who deceived the soldiers of Jericho to save the lives of the Israelite spies.³²

One nonbiblical example is found in the life of Corrie ten Boom, whose family was hiding Jews in their house during the occupation of Holland in World War II. When she was asked by the Gestapo if there were Jews hiding in the house, she lied to the authorities in order to protect lives. In such a case, the obligation to save lives was more important than the obligation to tell the truth, especially when telling the truth would result in the likely death of innocent people.

While rare incidents may occur where it would be morally acceptable to not tell the truth, the vast majority of the time telling the truth is the morally right thing to do, and is in alignment with the nature and character of God.

As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way … by truthful speech, and the power of God.³³

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ John Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing), 2008.

² Glen H. Stassen and David P. Gushee, Kingdom Ethics (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press), 2003.

³ Exodus 20:16. See also Deuteronomy 5:20.

⁴ Proverbs 12:22.

⁵ Proverbs 19:9.

⁶ Ephesian 4:25.

⁷ Genesis 21:22–24.

⁸ Genesis 25:32–33.

⁹ Genesis 28:20–22.

¹⁰ 1 Samuel 1:11. See also: Genesis 50:5–6, Joshua 6:26, 1 Samuel 14:24, Nehemiah 13:2.

¹¹ Genesis 22:15–18. See also Genesis 26:1–5.

¹² Numbers 30:2.

¹³ Acts 18:18 KJV.

¹⁴ 2 Corinthians 1:23.

¹⁵ Galatians 1:20 NAS.

¹⁶ Philippians 1:8.

¹⁷ Ephesians 4:21.

¹⁸ John 14:17. See also John 15:26, 16:13.

¹⁹ John 8:44.

²⁰ Genesis 3:2–5.

²¹ Proverbs 12:22.

²² Proverbs 6:16–17.

²³ Proverbs 19:9.

²⁴ Proverbs 21:28.

²⁵ Titus 1:2.

²⁶ John 14:6.

²⁷ John 16:13.

²⁸ 1 John 5:6.

²⁹ John 17:17.

³⁰ Psalm 119:142.

³¹ Exodus 1:19–20.

³² Joshua 2:1–24.

³³ 2 Corinthians 6:4–7.

Copyright © 2020 The Family International.

The Sin of Unbelief

Virginia Brandt Berg

1970-01-02

Greetings and welcome to Meditation Moments again. God bless you and give you a wonderful day. We do pray that some little word from this meditation shall strengthen your faith and encourage your heart and give you a real day of victory.

Our meditation this morning is from Deuteronomy 1:28, where it says, “Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.”

Now someone will say, “You surely aren’t going to talk about Joshua and Caleb and the spies that went to spy out the land of Canaan, that much-used story? We’ve heard it so much.” Yes, I am! We need it now more than ever.

On the subject of discouragement, we want to warn especially about letting others discourage you regarding any stand of faith you’ve taken. Don’t let others discourage you! Note again the words in this passage: “Our brethren have discouraged our hearts.”

Yet first off the spies did not bring back such an evil report, for on their return they said, “We came into the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it.” (Numbers 13:27) For you see, they had brought back of the fruit of the land: grapes, pomegranates, figs, proving they had faithfully searched the land.

But God’s Word says they brought back an evil report because they enlarged upon the fact that the people of the land were like giants, in whose sight the Israelites were like grasshoppers, and the cities were great with strong walls. (Numbers 13:32–33)

So on second thought, how great the sin of unbelief is here, for they laid their emphasis not on what God had promised to do. They laid it on the wrong things: the circumstance, the condition, and on that which they saw. Not on what God had promised at all, but on all that was contrary to that which God had said.

God said, “I have set before thee this land; go up and possess it, fear not, neither be discouraged.” But the spies made God out a liar and said, “We be not able to go up against these people, for they are stronger than we.” (Deuteronomy 1:21; Numbers 13:31)

God was not taken into the equation, and this evil report caused the heart of the people to be discouraged, and they wept and murmured against God and against Moses, and went on into further rebellion and unbelief until God had to terribly punish them.

You remember also, , that Joshua and Caleb, the two faithful spies who gave the good report and believed God, tried so hard to encourage the people, telling them that God was able to bring them into the land. Caleb said, “Let us go up at once and possess the land; we are well able to overcome it.” (Numbers 13:30)

You know the rest of the story, how God, because they believed the evil report and did not trust His promise, let them wander in the wilderness for 40 years. (Numbers 14:26–35) And the ten spies that brought the evil report that discouraged the hearts of the people died by the plague before the Lord. You find that story in Numbers 14:36 and 37.

I haven’t told you any real personal experience, except about the marvelous miracle that happened one time in my life when I was such an invalid. But I do want to tell you something this morning regarding this passage of scripture. I was en route to revivals in Cuba and the Bahamas, and had stopped over in a town not far from Miami.

Unexpected emergencies had left me without funds, and I needed them to reach my appointment. I was looking to the Lord definitely, and I knew that it had to be a miracle. I haven’t time to tell you why, but because of conditions around me and circumstances all considered, it would just have to be a miracle of God if any funds came to me.

I got alone with the Lord and claiming certain definite promises, I waited for His answer. Not only did I need the Lord to supply this need, but I had had the flu on the way down and I desperately needed healing for my body.

While alone I read many of the promises, and had a heart-searching to see if all was well in my own heart, that I had met God’s conditions. There were circumstances that did not make it easy to exercise faith, but I just had to do all I could.

This particular evening I attended a Bible conference, and there came into my hands a small book by a learned Bible teacher, well known for his great knowledge of the Scriptures. The little book explained just why God no longer worked miracles. That book stated emphatically that nowhere did the Bible teach that miracles would continue after the days of the apostles.

It was so clearly brought out, and he was so emphatic about it, and he was such a great and learned man, that for just a moment I was shaken, for the Devil took advantage of this and came against my faith with fiery darts unspeakable! (Ephesians 6:16)

He was such a scholar. He taught the Word of God with such clarity and brilliance, and he knew that Word from cover to cover. He had traveled far in the land of promise, but for me he had, like those spies, brought back an evil report, and discouraged the stand of faith I had taken. I left that auditorium, and in the quiet of my room I again read over many passages in God’s precious Word.

It was there, right there; I saw it in God’s Word: God said it! There were the verses: He would supply my every need “according to his riches in glory” and “whatsoever things ye desire, when you pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.” (Philippians 4:19; Mark 11:24) God says so. It’s so because God said so.

“Let every man be called a liar but God be found true.” (Romans 3:4) Suddenly light broke through the darkness; faith flooded my soul. I asked the Lord to forgive me for that wavering. I’d gotten my eyes on this intellectual giant in the land, and simple faith for just a moment was almost shaken.

It is not uncommon for those who are seeking God for help to come under the power of unbelief in others who want to discourage. God’s Word then came to me in this passage that we’re talking about tonight, so very definite was this scripture brought to me: “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, and ye shall not be afraid of the face of this man; the judgment is God’s. The cause that is too hard for thee, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.” (Deuteronomy 1:17) How wonderful that was!

The verse in this passage we are studying tonight, it says in the 19th verse, you see, “that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” The pity of it is that these discouragers not only did not enter in themselves, but by discouraging others, they had kept them all from entering in.

This was my verse for that hour: “Be of good courage, have I not commanded you? Neither fear the people, for they are bread for us.” (Joshua 1:9; Numbers 14:9) Wonderful! It inspired my heart and all the fear departed from me. Just as God’s Word says, “Their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us, let us go up at once and possess the land.” (Numbers 13:30) You know, it’s far better to stand alone and seem simple-minded to some, than to seek help from leaders who weaken faith by their discouraging words when we’re stepping on God’s promise.

If you listening in are compelled to live in an atmosphere of doubt and unbelief either in your home or your church, ask God to protect you, to hide you away in Himself. Refuse to accept every doubt, every discouragement, and He’ll so fill you with His Spirit that you can stand in the evil day, stand. (Ephesians 6:13)

Now you wonder, was my prayer answered? Yes. I awakened the next morning refreshed in body, almost entirely well, and that very day a large gift came from the most unexpected source I could have dreamed of. In fact, I would never have conceived of a gift from that source, for they knew nothing of my circumstances or my plans. It was God alone who had done this and answered prayer. It was a miracle!

Don’t let anyone discourage you. God’s Word stands sure and steadfast. He’ll not fail you. Go in and possess the land and He will go with you. Stand your ground.

Father we come to Thee, in Jesus’ precious name. We ask you, Lord, to keep faith, keep heart, keep hope in these hearts. We pray Thee that their trust shall be strengthened in their day to day lives. We ask Thee, Lord, that the morning shall break in the darkness for some of these who have been so hurt by the discouragers. Bless Lord, and encourage faith, for Thy name’s sake, we ask.

God is still on the throne and prayer does change things.

Attack (part 2)

David Brandt Berg

1972-06-01

A passive defense never won a war. That’s why it’s usually the aggressors who win wars. They take the initiative. They launch the attack; they leap to the offensive, and they can pick the time and place, and do it by surprise and suddenness, so that you’re caught off your guard, your defense is down, and you’re overrun.

This is why guerrilla warfare is so successful, even with such small numbers and very little manpower. By sudden surprise attacks in unexpected places and at weak spots in the enemy’s armor, you can do a lot of damage. You can hit and run before the enemy even knows what happened, before he has a chance to retaliate.

This is why conventional armies can be withstood or even licked by small-scale guerrilla warfare. A conventional army is a large, ponderous, slow-moving, though powerful giant, usually somewhat thick-witted and its reactions slow, because its body is so big that it takes a long time for it to move and for communications to get from the brain, headquarters, to the hand or the foot, and for them to react.

Whereas guerrilla forces and commando units are small, somewhat independent, and can choose the time and place of attack, with lightning strikes, and disappear as quickly as they appeared, like little David with Goliath: one little guerrilla defied a whole army; like Gideon and his little band: a bunch of guerrillas who defied a whole army; like Jonathan and his armor bearer; two more guerrillas who defied a whole army. And, boy, if you’ve got God with you, you’re unbeatable, no matter how small you are! Jonathan said, in that particular attack of his, “God is not limited by few or by many.” (1 Samuel 14:6).

Any military strategist knows that, no matter how small your forces, if you take the initiative and attack first—go on the offensive—you have a definite and distinct advantage over the enemy.

So it pays to face your fears, recognize they’re there, decide between the real and the unreal, the truth and the lie, and go to the attack to dispel the vaporous fiction of the fairy tale and to drive away the genuine reality of real threat.

We’re in a spiritual warfare, and our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual—mighty to the tearing down of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). This is a picture of your attacking the strongholds of the Enemy and ripping them apart, destroying the opposition. Jesus said of the church, in Matthew 16:18, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

When I was a little boy and I heard preachers use this verse, the way they interpreted it, it sounded as though the church was standing on a big rock, and, though all hell was pounding on its gates, hell couldn’t triumph over the church. The whole way they had it pictured was the church building standing there on the rock, Christ Jesus, and the fires of hell were lapping against its fortifications. But the church was standing firm on the defensive, all bottled up in its little fortress, and hell and the Devil and all the demons couldn’t get in.

But this is not God’s picture at all. That isn’t what the Scripture says. Jesus said it to Peter when Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. Jesus told Peter, “Upon this Rock (the fact that I am Christ, the Anointed, the Savior, the only foundation) will I build My church.” He was literally saying, “Upon Me will I build My church.”

But now notice the rest of the verse. As Jesus continues His declaration, He says, “And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”—the church. In other words, the gates of hell will not be able to defend themselves against the church. The gates of hell itself—the Devil’s territory, his fortresses, Satan’s strongholds, his gates—will not be able to withstand the onslaughts of the church, the attacks of God’s people against the Enemy’s territory. The gates of hell shall not prevail. The gates of hell will not be able to withstand our attacks.

It’s a case of mistaken identity, and some of the misunderstanding has probably come from the misuse of the word “prevail.” The Lord didn’t misuse it: the original Greek word He used here did not mean to “conquer” or “overcome,” as is the accepted meaning of “prevail” in most of today’s dictionaries. The word Jesus used meant to “stand strong” or “withstand strongly.” What He was saying was that the gates of hell would not be able to stand strong or withstand or be very strong against the attacks of the forces of God.

It could be that our modern usage of the word “prevail” has changed its meaning through the years since the King James translation, when it is possible the word “prevail” did convey the correct meaning of “stand strong against.” Otherwise, it was a very poor choice of a word by the translators to define the Greek word, which meant to “stand strong,” because our usual present meaning of the word “prevail” in English means to “conquer” or “overcome,” just the opposite of what Jesus was talking about. Furthermore, the word “prevail” is only used one time in this sense of “overcoming” or “conquering” in the 67 times it is used in the whole Bible.

The picture is not of the church standing fast behind its closed doors while all hell attacks. The picture Christ painted was of hell trembling behind its closed doors, while the church was in an all-out attack against hell’s gates, which were collapsing and crumbling under the weight of the power of God through His church.

Did you get the picture? The Children of God are launching the attack. They are on the offensive. They are invading hell’s gates. The Children of God are raiding the Devil’s territory, just as you do when you go out witnessing, right on the Devil’s ground, right into his strongholds. You’re launching the attack, you’re picking its time and place. You’re taking the initiative, you’re overwhelming the Enemy.

This is why the commando raids of World War II were so successful—tiny raids against tremendous strongholds of the enemy on the coasts of Norway and Germany. One tiny little boatload of men and explosives in the fog of dark and night, would cross the North Sea, then suddenly, without warning, sneaking right past the enemy’s line of defense, would blow up some of his major installations—power plants, fortifications, bunkers, big guns, even battleships—which they’d sink right in the port’s mouth, bottling up his fleet.

All this damage was inflicted by a mere handful of men against almost overwhelming numerical odds of the enemy, in manpower and firepower.—All because they were quick, unexpected, surprising, sudden attacks, taking the initiative and the offensive, choosing the time and the place, and the enemy knew not where or when, so he could never be prepared. And they were extremely successful. It caused him to have to spread out his forces and be prepared to defend himself in so many places at one time that he weakened his whole operation.

The enemy never knows what you’re going to do next. He doesn’t know what kind of a shenanigan you’re going to pull next, and you’ve put him on the defensive. He rocks and reels from sudden blow after sudden blow, so that he has no time to organize an attack on you; he’s too busy defending himself. In this way, tiny guerrilla forces and commando units can keep an entire numerically superior conventional army at bay, and an army continually on the defensive will never get anywhere.

Take Martin Luther, for example. That one man against the world, with God, was more than a match for the Devil and all his forces, because he launched the attack, he took the initiative, he chose the time and place, and he drove home thrust after thrust of the sword of God’s Spirit into the wide open chinks in the armor of the Roman Catholic Church, which was set back on its heels and made to defend itself against the attacks of one man and a few others who preceded and followed him.

You can be destroyed by defending instead of attacking. Never let yourself get put on the defensive! Never let them do all the talking, ask all the questions, and give all the answers. Sock it to them with the Word of God! Survey their condition, find the chinks in their armor, the weakness in their defense, then launch the attack with the sword of His Spirit. Don’t let them put you on the defensive or you’re doomed to defeat.

This is why the tiny handful of Christians of the early church could absolutely upset the whole Roman world. This is why the tiny handful of so-called reformers—really revolutionists—of the Reformation, could all but destroy the exclusive hold the Roman church had on Christian faith and doctrine. This is why the tiny handful of American pioneers could establish such a great and powerful country, now one of the richest and most powerful in the world.

Let’s go! Attack! You can’t lose. Sure, we’ll have casualties. Sure, we’ll have losses. Sure we’ll have wounds. But we’ll win, because we cannot lose. It’s impossible, for God is with us. We’re on the offensive. We’re moving. We’re attacking. We’re active. We’re doing something—getting things done—acting, not just talking—samples, not just sermons—activists, not just theorists—converting, changing, conquering.

Face the enemy! Attack him! “Resist the enemy and he’ll flee from you” (James 4:7). Face the fear of man in the power of His Spirit on the promises of His Word, and you cannot fail. Praise God.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And tho’ this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim—we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours, through Him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
And we will win the battle.^[1]

Hallelujah.

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” (Matthew 25:21).

^[1] From “A Mighty Fortress” by Martin Luther, 1529. This song has been called “the great­est hymn of the great­est man of the great­est per­i­od of Ger­man his­to­ry” and the “Bat­tle Hymn of the Ref­or­ma­tion.”

Copyright © June 1972 by The Family International

Attack (part 1)

David Brandt Berg

1972-06-01

Fear is a very interesting subject. You don’t realize so much of it is subconscious until you try to put it in words and try to analyze it. I suppose my being afraid to talk about my fears is one of the worst fears of all, because to confess your fears is really to expose your innermost self—the part you hide from everybody, even those dearest to you. In fact, the part you’re even trying to hide from yourself, because you’re afraid to think about it. You don’t even want to confess it to yourself that you’re afraid, because that would be admitting you’re a coward, and you don’t want to confess you’re a coward for fear of being exposed.

Jesus, Lord Jesus, Thy will be done. Have Thy way. If we can help someone else by being honest, help us to be honest. Help us, Lord, to be willing to face our fears.

I guess it’s kind of like a disease. You can’t very well find the cure unless you confess you have the disease and you reveal the symptoms. And you’re really very ashamed to confess you have it. It’s one of those secret diseases that you’re ashamed to confess you have, because you know it’s the result of sin. Because if you’re honest, you know your fears are results of doubts or feared failures—past failures or possible future failures.

I think the fear of failure is probably one of the greatest fears anybody could possibly have—the fear of failure in life, love, labor, and the Lord. If you’re failing God, I think that’s one of the worst for a Christian. And it’s perhaps second only to the fear of failing others, because you know that God will forgive you, but others find it hard to forgive. The fear of hurting them because of your failure, fear of letting them down, disappointing them, hurting their faith, disillusioning them, discouraging them—the fear that because of your failure, others will fail, too. This is hardest to bear. It’s the kind of thing you don’t even want to admit to yourself.

The fear of failing yourself is least of all. Really, in a way, it’s fear of the truth. You’re actually afraid of the truth about yourself. But now here’s where it pays to face your fears, because you have to draw a line of distinction by facing them, between that which is the truth and those fears which are the lies of the Devil.

It reminds me of when I was a little kid delivering papers and handbills, and there were all these big dogs that were always chasing me and nipping at my heels. Sometimes they actually bit me, and they really hurt. But most of the time their bark was worse than their bite. I soon discovered that, if I ran from them, they ran after me, and they were more apt to bite me if I turned my back on them than if I faced them.

A dog barks at you and growls at you because he’s afraid of you. And it’s a funny thing, the more afraid you are of him, the more afraid he is of you, because God put in him the instinctive knowledge that if you’re afraid of him, you’re apt to do something to him to protect yourself; you’re apt to hurt him.

So, if he senses you have fear, right away he’s afraid of you, and he’s apt to bark and growl and possibly even attack you. But if you face him and stand your ground, no matter how much he barks and growls and snarls, he usually will not attack you. The very fact that you face him lets him know that, though you may be somewhat afraid of him, you’re not too afraid. You’re not afraid to stand there and face him. Therefore, he knows you’re not afraid of him, and since you’re no longer afraid of him by standing firm and facing him, then it lessens his fear of you, and he’ll often back down, growl and snarl a little, turn his head away, and look for somewhere to go to get out of your presence, watching you out of the corner of his eye all the time. And then he’ll usually back down and turn around and leave you alone.

I’ve had this happen so many times with dogs, both big and little. If you’re so afraid that you turn your back on him and run, he’ll chase you and even be encouraged to bite you—even the littlest dog—because now he knows you really are afraid of him. He knows you really are an enemy and his doubts about you were right, his fears of you were well founded. You’ve proved it by running. So he promptly takes advantage of your fear as you retreat, by leaping to the attack.

Nearly everybody who’s ever been bitten by a dog was not bitten on the toes, but the heels; not on the shin, but the calf of the leg. Of course, some dogs are so mad or so diseased or so trained that they’ll attack you to the face—sometimes demon-possessed—but even these can be rebuked in the power of the Spirit in Jesus’ name.

I’ll never forget when I was about 12, delivering handbills, and I had to go into a certain yard to get to a house in the rear. Out from the back yard came this huge Great Dane, barking and growling furiously, and coming at me full speed, leaping and bounding. I thought, “This is it!” But I knew I didn’t dare turn my back on him or he would bite me for sure. Yet, on the other hand, he was a little too big for me to face, and I was invading his territory.

So I thank God I remembered to cry out to the Lord. I suddenly jutted my hand out toward him and I yelled, “I rebuke you in Jesus’ name!” And did he put on the brakes! He skidded to a stop and looked absolutely startled, and turned tail and ran.

So it not only pays to face your fears and to acknowledge them, even confess them, but to take a positive stand against them, especially in the power and Spirit of the Lord with the promises from His Word. Because it wouldn’t have done me a bit of good in the world to say, as a Christian Scientist, “Big old dog, you just don’t exist, so I’m going to ignore you.” He would have promptly finished me off to prove that he did exist.

It doesn’t pay to say there’s no Devil and no demons and no such thing as evil, sin, or sickness, and just try to ignore the facts. It would be like trying to ignore that you have a disease when you’ve really got it, because as long as you have it and try to hide it, you can’t very well find the remedy.

Like the story told by Mark Twain about the fellow who fell off a cliff and broke so many bones, and the Christian Scientist came along and tried to persuade him that he didn’t have any broken bones, it was all in his imagination. There was no such thing as reality. It was all in his mind, so he should just try to get up and walk. But the poor man couldn’t make it.

And that’s where you have to draw the line. You have to find out the difference between reality and the imaginary, the truth and the lie, because if it is reality, it doesn’t do any good to try to tell yourself it isn’t there—to just shut your eyes and hope it goes away, and when you open them again you’ll find out it didn’t exist, that it was just your imagination.

That big dog existed, and he was coming right for me, and it wouldn’t have done a bit of good to shut my eyes and hope he went away, that he was just something I was imagining, some figment of my imagination. He was there, brother, and he was as real as you or me, and he was headed for me. And in that case, the best thing in the world to do was to face it and take some kind of action and do something about it to eliminate the danger, because it was either him or me. I did this by taking the initiative and launching an attack myself on him by the power of the Spirit, in that rebuke in Jesus’ name. At first he was on the offensive and I was on the defensive, but the Lord helped me turn the tables by inspiring me to take the offensive and attack him with a rebuke—and suddenly he was put on the defensive and turned and ran.

As any military strategist knows, it’s impossible to win a defensive warfare. Defensive war is doomed to defeat. To win a war, you have to launch an attack. You have to go on the offensive. You have to attack the enemy. You have to set him back on his heels. You have to take the initiative. You have to be positive. You have to attack and invade and overpower. You can’t just sit there and try to ward him off while he attacks and invades, or he’ll finally overpower you. (To be continued)

Persecution: It Will Never Happen Here? (part 4)

Jan Pit

2005-04-29

THE CHURCH THAT CANNOT BE DESTROYED

The Battle Is Not Over

Satan is a conquered foe, but he still has not given up the battle. He knows his time is short, and therefore tries to bring as many people to a fall as possible. That is why he uses all types of weapons. His greatest concern is for the “unreached people.” He realises that he has to hand over many people (Christians) to his opponent, Jesus Christ. If the Christians obey the commission of God and spread the Gospel to all nations, then he will lose even more people. That is why he tries to rock the Church of Christ to sleep, so that the “unreached people” will remain unreached. Or he blinds our eyes so that we are concerned only about our own church instead of the whole World. Another tactic is to encourage discord among Christians so that they will fight one another instead of the Devil.

Satan also makes use of other religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., so that people will believe in “saving themselves” instead of accepting redemption through Christ. He infiltrates Capitalism, which allows Man to think he does not need God; Mammon takes the place of God.

Wealth can be a blessing, but it is also a curse. This was proved to me when I had a conversation with a rich businessman about Christ. I told him that he should seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and that all the other things would be given to him. The man looked at me disdainfully and replied, “But I have all the `other things’ already. Why should I seek after God?” His possessions took the place of God.

 

The Higher You Are…

I recently visited Laos again. It is now a Communist country, and I was afraid the Communists would recognise me. While still in the plane I prayed and confessed my fear to the Lord. It was as if the Lord said to me, “Do not fear. Trust in Me.” This gave me peace.

When we were above the Vientiane airport we were advised that we could not land immediately. There were thousands of Communist soldiers on the airfield, busy with an exercise and using the only landing strip available. We circled the airfield several times while the pilot remained in contact with the control tower. Finally the landing strip was cleared, and the Communist soldiers stood on either side of the airstrip as we came in. I looked through the window and felt the same as Elisha’s servant. “O Lord, what now?” Then God opened my eyes. “You are not seeing right. Look at the people as I see them.” It changed everything. I looked again and saw the Communists were like tiny grasshoppers!

That is the secret: the higher you are, the smaller the people. It is the same from a spiritual point of view. The problems become smaller as we take up our position in Christ. He “made us sit together with Him in heavenly places” (Ephesians 2:6). Things look different from there. Then our problems change into God’s opportunities.

SPECTATORS OR PARTICIPANTS?

Once on a tour through Russia and Siberia I met many fanatical Communists. The impression I received was that they were totally dedicated to their ideology.

When I spoke to one of them about the Gospel, he laughed. “If you really believe Jesus is your Savior, why don’t you win the World for Him? We Communists really believe in our ideology, and in the sixty years we’ve been in existence we have already won half the World. A few more years and the whole World will be at our feet.”

Then he said something which made my flesh crawl: “Shall I tell you what the difference is between us? You Christians are spectators, and we Communists are participants.”

He was right; in the Christian world we have many spectators and few participants. This is our big problem.

The Lord wants us to be involved in His Kingdom. God’s Church is not a pleasure launch but a cargo boat. There is no place for passengers, only a crew.

The great English missionary, C. T. Studd, put it so well: “Let us not glide through this World and then slip quietly into Heaven, without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the Devil will hold a thanksgiving service in Hell when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle.”

We need to be participants, witnesses of the salvation of Christ, to give the Devil a nervous breakdown because of our continued witnessing. The reaction of Satan when we die should be, luckily, one less witness for Jesus.

Those who are spectators now will be the first to fall away during times of persecution. “Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:33). If we are ashamed of Him, He will be ashamed of us.

The opposite is also true. “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32).

 

Dedication to the Revolution

Mao’s little Red Book of quotations was found on the body of a dead soldier in Zimbabwe. He had received it from a Chinese advisor and had obviously studied it thoroughly. On leafing through the book I found that the guerrilla had underlined many of Mao’s statements. And on the first page he wrote something every Christian should write in his Bible: “Every sentence, every word of this book is true. It is a mighty weapon. Forward to victory, fear no sacrifice. One spark out of this book can cause a mighty fire.”

That is the language of a dedicated guerrilla. No sacrifice is considered too great for his revolution. He was prepared to die for it, and he did. Many Christians would rather remain spectators; it is safer.

 

To Divide Is to Multiply

The best form of defense is still attack. This applies in the spiritual realm as well. We cannot sit back and bemoan our lot; we must look forward and push forward.

There is a law which exists in the Kingdom of God but is unknown to the World. That law is simply: “To divide is to multiply.” When Jesus fed the crowd of five thousand, He had only five loaves of bread and two fish. He did not complain about the impossible situation; neither did He send the crowds home. No, He gave the disciples instructions to distribute the food to the crowd. They looked at Him in bewilderment: “We have here but five loaves and two fishes” (Matthew 14:17).

“Bring them here,” Jesus said. He blessed them and began to break the bread. Then the miracle happened! The more they broke off and shared, the more they received. Finally, all five thousand men were fed, as well as the women and children. And there was still bread left over.

Paradoxically, in the Christian life, to divide is to multiply. The person who has little but dares to give it to Jesus, will quickly see the wonders Jesus is able to perform with it.

 

A Missionary Diet

The World must be reached with the message of the Gospel. This is harvest time; we cannot permit ourselves to be forever busy with our own problems, for “he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame” (Proverbs 10:5). This is why we should reach beyond the borders of our own church and country.

John Wesley said, “The World is my parish.” Unfortunately, today too many ministers switch this around: “My parish is my World.” They do not see beyond their own churches. They say, “There is so much to be done in my own church that it is impossible to think about missionary work.”

Why do we have to minister to the same people Sunday after Sunday without becoming involved with missionary work? If we do not activate the Church, but only keep preaching to the same people every Sunday, they do not become more spiritual but only fatter–so fat that God cannot get them into action anymore.

A fat church is a sick church. The best medicine for a sick church is to put them on a missionary diet! The more we share, the more we will receive–in the spiritual as well as in the financial aspect. A church which is alive is a church doing missionary work. And a mission-oriented church is a financially sound church.

 

The Need for Dedication

On a visit to friends in Vietnam we rode in a jeep to an isolated village. The way seemed impassable. There had been a heavy downpour, and the sand road resembled a quagmire instead of a road. We continually got stuck; the wheels made deep tracks in the mud. Halfway, we felt like giving up. The road went through a forest, and it would have taken us at least another hour before we would arrive at the village. There wasn’t a person or house in sight, and because of the war it appeared to be safer to return home. That, however, was not feasible. While we could hardly move forward, it would have been practically impossible to turn around. We decided to try once more.

At a curve in the road we saw a young boy pushing his bicycle. He was walking ankle-deep in mud and was pushing his bicycle with difficulty. On the back of the bike was an icebox containing ice cream. The boy was going to the same village we were. He had been on the road for many hours and was only halfway. Yet he smiled when we chatted with him. Yes, he considered it worth his while, because he wanted to earn a few cents.

He actually was willing to walk through the mud, because he had something to sell. We, who were taking the Gospel to the next village, found the road too difficult and wanted to turn back!

We can learn much from the World–from the Russians and the Chinese, the Cubans and this Vietnamese boy. We will have to make a decision: to be a spectator or a participant.

A SPIRITUAL BATTLE, A SPIRITUAL VICTORY

On the Waiting List

In 1976, Brother Andrew and I visited Uganda for the first time. We were invited by the Anglican Church of Uganda to see what we could do for the believers there. There was a great need and, after many discussions with church leaders, we decided to send in 50,000 Bibles.

It was a dangerous trip, but we knew we had many prayer groups who were one with us in the battle. Their intercession bore fruit as there was a tremendous victory. The day before our departure we went to the travel agency in Kampala to confirm our flight. Although our air tickets were in order, it appeared that our names were on a waiting list. We advised them that our return flight was booked in Kenya and that they could verify this via their computer. The lady just smiled and told us that there were no computers in Uganda. Our names were right at the bottom of the waiting list, with sixteen others above ours.

The problem was that our visas would expire the following day. If we could not board the plane in due time, the following day we would be in Uganda illegally. Friends told us it was probably a ruse of Idi Amin’s government to get us into trouble; our names probably were put on the waiting list for that reason.

We went back to the hotel room and knelt before the Lord. We knew this was a spiritual battle. Idi Amin did not want to let us go. Our thoughts went to our prayer partners. “Lord, lay it upon their hearts to pray for us,” we asked the Lord.

We also claimed His promise that He would bountifully supply all our needs. Were we not His ambassadors? Then we should be treated like ambassadors. The plane would be leaving at five that afternoon. We decided to go to the airport at Entebbe as early as possible to see if anything else could be done.

When we arrived we saw no one else except two passengers who also had decided to come early. They were standing at the counter where all luggage was to be weighed. A half hour later more passengers came and stood behind us. Soon the line became longer and longer. The lady who was to give us our seating tickets did not turn up. It was five o’clock and she still wasn’t there. Fortunately, we could see the plane, ready for its departure.

At half past five the lady came, together with an Ugandan soldier. Standing behind the counter, he called out for silence. Immediately it was quiet. “Ladies and gentlemen, please listen carefully. I don’t want you to panic. There is a problem. We do not know where the passenger list is. We will start in front. Those who came first will be helped first.”

Brother Andrew and I were the first to enter the plane. I asked the stewardess where we could sit.

“Take any seat, sir,” she said. “The plane is yours.” That was true ambassador treatment! “Thank you, Lord–uh … miss,” I said and sank into the first and best seat.

Later on we heard how the Lord had laid it on the hearts of our prayer partners to pray for us. “I thought so much about you and knew you were in trouble,” one sister told me.

That is the reality of a spiritual battle. Our prayer partners were not with us in Uganda, but they knew of our need. They prayed–and the passenger list disappeared.

 

In Prison

The Devil has no answer for the prayer of faith in a Christian. In times of persecution and need, prayer remains the mightiest weapon. Christians in Communist countries experience this daily. Georgi Vins, the unregistered Baptist Church leader who has been banished from the Soviet Union, testified to it on his arrival in the United States. “When the Communist guards, without reason, treated us better, we knew it was because of the prayers and intercession of our friends in the West,” Vins said.

A Ugandan minister, Pastor Joshua Musoke, also testified to this. His congregation prayed continuously for him when he was arrested by the infamous State Research Bureau, men from Amin’s Gestapo. The news of his arrest reached us on the same day. We immediately informed some prayer groups, which came together to intercede for him.

The Lord answered their prayers in a wonderful way. Pastor Joshua was taken to the notorious headquarters of the State Research Bureau at Nakasero in Kampala. Hundreds of people were killed in the most gruesome ways.

Musoke was locked up in this underground prison. He stood ankle deep in water mixed with urine and the blood of former victims. The stench was unbearable. When the door closed behind him, he found himself alone in this dark hole. Fear gripped his heart, and in his desperate need he called out to the Lord: “O Lord, help me. I am not afraid to die, but I am afraid of the suffering. Let the soldiers come and kill me immediately, but let the suffering be short.”

The Holy Spirit comforted him and reminded him of Paul and Silas in prison at Philippi. With tears still in his eyes he began to praise and glorify the Lord. His guards, standing outside the door, heard him and thought he had lost his mind. They opened the cell door and pulled him outside and took him to the prison commander. He stared at Musoke in surprise. “What is wrong with you?” he asked.

Musoke lifted his hands heavenward and again began to praise the Lord. “You can kill me if you want to,” he told the commander, “but I will continue to praise the Lord.” And this he kept on doing.

The commander looked at Musoke and shook his head. “Totally mad,” he said. “Let him go so he can die at home.”

A few minutes later Musoke stood outside, a free man. He ran home, where the Christians were still on their knees praying. When they saw him, they embraced him. Tears of joy flowed down their cheeks. Then they lifted up their hands and praised the Lord.

“There is real power in intercession and praise,” the beaming Musoke told me later.

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man” has great power (James 5:16). This power is always at our disposal, in times of need and in times of freedom. Prayer bridges distances–not only between God and us, but also between us and others who are suffering.

Persecution: It Will Never Happen Here? (part 3)

Jan Pit

2005-04-29

THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE

What will the Church of the future be like? That is a very interesting question to which many answers have already been given. There will be revival and unity among the children of God, says one. There will be persecution, says another.

To define our subject we must differentiate between “the Church of the future” and “the future of the Church.” We can argue over the Church of the future but not over the future of the Church. That future has been fixed. When Christ comes again, the whole church will undertake a space trip and meet her Lord in the air.

But what will the local churches look like before the Second Coming? Let me present a few thoughts:

1. Countries which have been sending out missionaries will become mission fields themselves.
2. Missionary work will not be done by professional missionaries, but by laymen who will preach the Gospel. If countries close their doors to mission work, then doctors, nurses, teachers and technicians will have to do the work of missionaries.

The above was speculative, but the following is known to us from God’s Word:

1. The Gospel will be proclaimed to all nations before Christ’s Second Coming. This does not mean all will be converted but that all nations will hear the Gospel (Mark 13:10).
2. Many Christians will backslide. “And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another” (Matthew 24:10). They are not prepared to be persecuted or hated for the name of Jesus. The price of discipleship is too high. It is a sad thought that nominal Christians will hate and deliver one another up, hoping that in doing so they will escape persecution and death.
3. Because wickedness will increase, the love of many will grow cold. Love of God will be replaced by love of the World. It won’t happen to a few Christians only, but to the majority. In the end times only a minority will remain faithful to the Lord (Matthew 24:12).
4. Christian persecution will increase worldwide (2 Timothy 3:12). That is why we must prepare. Only Christians who draw their strength from the Holy Spirit will be prepared to live and suffer for God and will remain steadfast. They will refuse to serve the World government and World religion, even though they know that their obedience to God will mean persecution, suffering and perhaps even death.

The above statements are not imaginative fiction but Scriptural accounts of what will happen. There is hope for the future in spite of persecution. The Church of Christ is in fact the only group in the World which has a future. She never loses her members. “He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). We must think realistically–or, rather, Biblically.

 

House Churches and Their Advantages

In countries where atheistic governments are in power and Christians are persecuted, many church buildings have been confiscated and nationalised. When the “Cultural Revolution” broke out in China in 1966, all churches and Christian schools were closed. But that did not mean the people of God were unable to meet. They met secretly in homes, and they still do. The size of these groups varies from place to place; sometimes only five to ten people gather, although sometimes there are many more.

 

Traditional Churches

1. Only a few can take up the office of “minister” or “pastor.”
2. Large numbers allow little contact with one another.
3. Money is needed for salaries, church buildings and upkeep.
4. Nominal Christians are not easily noticeable among the numbers.
5. It is difficult for the gifts of the Spirit to function.
6. The church needs much organisation.
7. Services are highly structured, with little variety.

 

House Churches

1. There is the “office of the believer.”
2. Close fellowship is experienced.
3. No money is needed; no one receives a salary and there are no church buildings.
4. There are no nominal Christians.
5. The functioning of the gifts plays an essential part.
6. There is little organisation.
7. Variety occurs as all members take part in the service.

The church of the future will be confronted with persecution, apostasy, a World religion and a World government. The church has to prepare for the difficult times lying ahead. It does not mean simply survival, however. We have to prepare churches not just to survive but to stand and to overcome despite circumstances.

SPIRITUAL OR CAPABLE LEADERS?

Weak People–Powerful Leaders

Jesus chose simple fishermen, not those from the Sanhedrin, to represent His Kingdom. “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it” (Acts 4:13-14).

Peter and John did not belong to the Sanhedrin, but they had qualifications which the Pharisees (the “qualified” leaders) did not have. They had been with Jesus and were filled with the Holy Spirit. That was the qualification. The proof was the man who had been healed. They could not say anything against this. When the excited crowd gathered around them, Peter did not claim honour for himself but asked them, “Why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?” (Acts 3:12).

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the World to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the World, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence.” (1Corinthians 1:26-29).

God chooses His ambassadors from this group. Through being filled with the Holy Spirit, people who know they are weak in themselves are made powerful men of God. They do not tout their honour and glory, but give it to Him who reveals His strength in the weak. “For when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities … in persecutions….” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

 

Natural and Spiritual Leadership

The late U.S. President, Harry S. Truman, described a natural leader as “a person who possesses the ability to make others do something they themselves would not like to do, and actually enjoy doing it.”

Li Hung Chang, an old Chinese leader, phrased it this way: “There are three types of people: those who are movable, those who are immovable, and those who are able to move others. The latter are the leaders.”

When God gives orders, He opens doors–with or without a visa. The only condition? Be ready to go and perhaps never return.

An Open Doors employee went to Mozambique with me a little while ago at the request of a group of Christians there. We went as far as the border by car, and from there the seventy-three-year-old coworker and I crossed the Mozambican border on foot.

It was a dangerous venture for two whites–one a South African minister. The actual border crossing was a stream. There were no guard posts; at least none was seen. The journey was difficult; uphill, downhill, deeper into Mozambique. It was dangerous, the more so because a man had been murdered the previous day in that area. Frelimo* soldiers were everywhere. Any shrub could have concealed one of them, but it never entered our minds. Our thoughts were with the Christians awaiting our arrival beyond the next hill. *(Frelimo: Mozambique Liberation Front, a Marxist guerrilla army that overthrew the former Portuguese government of Mozambique in the early 1970’s.)

Eventually we saw the village. The Christians were on the lookout for us. As soon as they spotted us they waved their hands, and we received a hearty welcome.

Suddenly another man walked toward us. “It is the Frelimo representative for our area,” one of the Christians said. What was his intention? The Frelimo representative was so surprised that white men had come walking over the hill. But he did not arrest us. Instead he gave the white South African minister a bunch of bananas! The Christians’ faces beamed with joy and happiness. Even the Frelimo man stayed to attend the meeting.

Christians came from all directions to greet us. They slaughtered a goat for a feast in honour of their guests. It was a remarkable experience.

The meaning is clear. You don’t necessarily need a visa. But you do need a vision and faith. And, of course, the willingness to be caught. “To wait for a visa takes too much time,” the South African minister said. “My visa is in Matthew 28:19: `Go therefore!”‘ And he added with a little laugh, “That visa is two thousand years old, but is still valid today.”

CHRISTIANS PERSECUTING CHRISTIANS

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock; also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30).

The worst kind of persecution is Christians who persecute Christians. It sounds dreadful, but it is true.

The Bible gives repeated warnings. They will “betray one another and hate one another” (Matthew 24:10). What a sad thought, and this will increase as the end draws near. Many Christians, hoping to avoid persecution and save their own lives, will betray their fellow Christians. Not only does this apply to the end times, but it is already happening.

Jesus Christ was not condemned by the Romans but the “pious” Jews, Pharisees, chief priests and scribes. They hated Him although He proclaimed the same God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The reason they hated Him was simple: their positions were threatened. The people followed Jesus instead of them. To prevent their self-established kingdom from falling, they decided to murder Jesus. Even Pilate realised that the chief priests delivered Jesus up because they were envious (Mark 15:10). Pilate, even though a heathen, wanted to protect Jesus from these “pious” Jews who demanded His death.

The apostles also experienced the same persecution. Although they were sent into a heathen world, they were persecuted by the religious Jews. They were thrown out of the temples and synagogues only to be later thrown into prisons.

The first martyr was a deacon, Stephen. Saul, the religious Jew, looked after the clothes of his fellow Jews so that they could move more freely while stoning Stephen. “And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem … As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison” (Acts 8:1,3). The pious Saul had only one aim: to murder the Christians. “For ye have heard … how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it” (Galatians 1:13). (to be continued)

Persecution: It Will Never Happen Here? (part 2)

Jan Pit

2005-04-29

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND PERSECUTION

The Holy Spirit is the source of power of every Christian. This is particularly so in times of persecution, when unity and courage are vital. The apostles experienced this. Before Pentecost the disciples were afraid of the Jews. After Pentecost the Jews were afraid of the disciples! After they had been filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the disciples were changed from being fearful to being full of courage.

Before Pentecost, a maid identified Peter as being one of the disciples. Fear made him deny his Master. Before Jesus’ arrest, Peter vehemently denied that he would ever renounce his Master and added that he was willing to die for Him. A few hours later, however, he denied Jesus three times, because he was afraid that his life might be required of him. The price of discipleship turned out to be too high: “I do not know Him” was his response. Despite his best intentions, he was unable to make good his boast.

After Pentecost he was again recognised: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John … they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Peter did not hesitate but spoke with authority and power. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you …” (Acts 1:8).

Every child of God should receive the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that we are always automatically surrendered to the Spirit. Many people live off an experience of the Holy Spirit that occurred many years previously. When they give their testimonies, they talk about the great happening in their lives when they were flooded with the power of the Spirit. But what of now?

We must be more concerned with what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives today than in what happened years ago. We are to be continuously filled by the Holy Spirit.

Christians who have experienced persecution testify to the necessity of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Laotian church leader Brother Soeban was interned in a Communist brainwashing camp on three different occasions. They tried to break his spirit by indoctrinating him with atheistic propaganda for weeks at a time.

“At times it seemed almost too much for me,” Soeban, once a former Captain in the Royal Laotian army, told me. “That I could remain steadfast was only possible because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When things became too rough, I would often hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. He would encourage me and point me to Jesus, Who had suffered more than I. He assured me that He would keep me from falling. This gave me power and joy. I knew I was not alone. The Comforter was always with me.”

Soeban heard that still small voice of the Holy Spirit in a concentration camp because he learned to listen to His voice while he was still a free man. If we surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit and learn to walk in His power while we still live in freedom, then the Holy Spirit will guide us now and also in the future.

Soeban was a fiery evangelist. I had the privilege of working with him for a few years. In fact, we both lived in the same town. Wherever he went, he witnessed and he led many Laotians to Jesus. Because he used his freedom to work for the Lord, he was able to continue to witness in the concentration camp. Whoever is ashamed of Christ now will be even more ashamed of Him during persecution. Those who live for Him now will continue to live for Him when scorned and persecuted.

Soeban also witnessed to his Communist guards. One of them accepted the Lord Jesus. A miracle happened the next day. The Communist leaders came to the conclusion that they would not be able to break Soeban’s spirit, despite their indoctrination and torture. Soeban had survived three terms in concentration camp and still witnessed for Christ. The leaders then decided that they would have to kill him.

In the room where this decision took place there were only the Communist officers. At the door was a guard. He overheard the conversation. This soldier was the same man Soeban had led to the Lord the day before. The Lord had arranged for this man to be on guard that morning, and on hearing the decision he was afraid but said nothing. Then the Holy Spirit said to him: “I saved you through Soeban yesterday. Now I want to save Soeban through you.” That night the guard helped Soeban escape.

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter in times of persecution. He does not keep us trouble free but imparts power so that, in spite of trials, we can remain faithful.

The Lord permits us to go through persecution because He knows that Christ’s Love and the power of the Holy Spirit will enable us to be more than conquerors. But whoever does not live in the Holy Spirit during freedom will have difficulty remaining faithful in times of persecution. The price of discipleship will be too high.

When we are truly surrendered to the Holy Spirit, we have a new boldness that nothing can quench. I remember a visit to Uganda with Brother Andrew at the time when Idi Amin was still terrorising the country with his Satanic excesses.

A woman believer had come to see us at the Kampala International Hotel, which at that time was infested with Amin’s so-called secret police. (Actually they were easily identified because most of them wore flowered shirts, dark glasses, bell-bottom trousers and platform-heel shoes.)

As we all stepped into the elevator I noticed that we were joined by one of these policemen, who was taking a great interest in us. He obviously wanted to know what a Ugandan woman was doing with two foreigners. I felt my heart flutter a little, knowing that there was the possibility that one or all of us could be hauled off to prison.

Suddenly the woman believer smiled at the policeman, opened her purse, took out a tract and handed it to him.

“Brother, please take this. Jesus loves you and wants to save you,” she said softly. He was startled, but as her smile burst into an all-consuming grin, he took it. With a flustered look, he stuffed it into his pocket.

She had a boldness that could only have come from the Holy Spirit. Do you have that same boldness? You can have it, if you allow God’s Spirit to fill you.

THE BIBLE AND THE SUFFERING CHURCH

During the Vietnam War, a number of American soldiers were captured and taken to the North’s capital, Hanoi. After they had been kept under strict surveillance for a few weeks, they decided to read from the Bible to one another. They asked one of the guards for a Bible, but the man just shook his head.

They then decided to write a Bible for themselves, from memory. Each soldier quoted verses he knew from the Bible.

It started off with a flourish. One after another they quoted Bible verses, as one POW (prisoner of war) acted as secretary, writing all the verses on a piece of paper.

Too soon they realised how limited their Bible knowledge was. Except for John 3:16, Psalm 23, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments, they could remember only a few more verses. They stared at one another dejectedly; in an hour they had perhaps twenty verses. They kept on trying, only to discover that they were confusing one verse with another.

It was obvious. The Word of God did not dwell in them richly. No matter how hard they tried, they could not quote any more verses correctly. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly …” (Colossians 3:16). (Editor: A good reminder to hide the Word in your heart by faithful memorisation.)

 

A Banned Book, and Bible Memorisation

The Bible is a banned book in times of persecution. In China, Laos and Vietnam, the Communists either burned or confiscated thousands of Bibles. When the Christians assembled, they could do little more than the American prisoners of war. They tried to quote the Bible but did not get very far. The reason was simple. While they lived in freedom they had not seen the need for Bible memorisation. Why exert yourself by learning Bible texts if you have a Bible on your bookshelf?

The general opinion was that the revolution would not take place. When it did take place, the Church obviously was not prepared. When the Christians saw the necessity of Bible memorisation, it was too late. One cannot attempt to learn Bible verses once the Bibles have been confiscated or burned. It takes time and it must start while there is still freedom.

For us, the obstacle is not the effort but the thought that persecution will not come. It came to Russia, China and Vietnam. The Bible became a banned book. Many Christians there did not even possess a Bible, let alone being able to memorise it. They had never seen the necessity of Bible memorisation during the time of religious freedom. Even when the Communist revolution had begun, they still believed that the Bible would always be available. This was a false hope. Bibles were impounded and burned. It was too late to start Bible memorisation.

God’s Word must be kept in our hearts instead of on the bookshelf. Then we will know from experience that the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). Jesus knew this. When the Devil tested Him in the desert, He used the Scriptures. Every time the Devil tempted Him, Jesus answered, “It is written.” He quoted the Word of God.

The Devil’s tactics have not changed. He knows the Bible, but when he quotes it, he takes it out of context (Matthew 4:6). We should not be ignorant of his designs (2 Corinthians 2:11). He will tell us that it is not necessary to memorise the Bible, that it is enough to have it in the house, in case it is needed. God’s Word tells us differently. It reminds us to let it dwell in us richly (Colossians 3:16), to enable us to manage the spiritual battle now and in the future.

CHILD EVANGELISING

After an evangelistic meeting in the United States, a man approached Dwight L. Moody, the well-known American preacher, and asked him if anyone had been converted that night. Moody smiled and answered, “Yes, two-and-a-half were saved.”

The man looked puzzled. Then, as if the light had dawned, he said, “You mean two adults and a child?”

“No,” Moody corrected him, “I mean two children and one adult.”

This puzzled the man even more, so the evangelist went on to explain, “Children have their lives ahead of them, while adults are already past the halfway mark.”

Moody was right. Children do have their lives ahead of them. The Communists know this too. Their motto is, “Give us children until they are twelve, then you may have them.” During those twelve years the children can be fully indoctrinated with atheistic propaganda. Children are more receptive during these years. That is when their characters are formed. This is the reason Sunday schools are forbidden. Great efforts are taken to bring the children up in an atheistic way of thought.

Indoctrination starts very early. Not only do the men work, but the women too. Children are sent to state-run day-care centers and are reared in a Godless climate. The state is aware of the mother’s influence on a child, so it compels her to work all day. Back at home in the evening, she is too tired to devote much time and attention to the child.

It is my opinion that we, who live in a materialistic world, follow the same tactic as the Communists. The number of working women has increased drastically over the past few years. We need to examine this trend carefully in order to find the correct balance. Our children should not be left to their own devices.

To prevent parents from giving needed love and teaching to their children, Communist governments compel women to work all day; and in the western world Mammon (the money god) keeps mothers out of the homes. In both cases the children suffer as a result.

 

Who Makes the Decision–the Children?

Some time ago I had a talk with a young couple. They had two children, and we discussed the importance of a Christian upbringing. The husband totally disagreed with my view that the children should be reared “in the fear of the Lord.”

“There is no question about it,” he said. “I will allow my children to make their own decisions. As far as I’m concerned, they don’t have to say grace, they don’t need to attend a Christian school, nor do they have to attend church or Sunday school. This way they will develop freely and independently. When they are bigger, they can decide what they want to do. I don’t want to force them to go. They can choose for themselves at a later stage.”

He seemed to forget that his children live in a World which is sinful. While keeping them back from places where the Gospel is preached, he exposes them to the influences of the World. You cannot allow your children to grow up neutral, because there is no such position. That is why the Communists say, “Give us the children until they are twelve.”

That is also why Jesus said, “Suffer little children to come unto Me” (Matthew 19:14); “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6); and, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth …” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).

Liberalism and humanism have pervaded our school systems. Many youth workers and even some Sunday school teachers don’t even know Jesus as their Savior.

Much youth work is done only to keep the children off the streets. That is not enough. Children should not only be entertained; they must be renewed. They need Jesus. We must present the message of the Gospel to each child now, so that “when he is old he will not depart from it.”

The Communists realise that the battle for the minds of children is equally as important as the battles fought with guns and missiles.

This was forcefully brought home to me during a visit to the once proud land of Ethiopia, which until a few years ago had been a unique Coptic Christian state, isolated from 300 A.D. The revolution came there in 1974 after army officers deposed Emperor Haile Selassie. The army officers ruled through a committee called the Dergue, which announced in 1975 that it would pursue Socialist (Marxist) policies.

I discovered that, over a three-year period, the Communists there had imported two million books on Marxism and published internally more than 8 million pieces of literature on atheistic beliefs. Almost all of this propaganda was aimed at young people.

“Brother Jan,” one Christian leader told me sadly, “the Communists have spent more than 50 percent of their time and effort since taking over the country in indoctrinating the children.”

Often their methods are extremely subtle, like the time when a group of Communist officials walked into a Sunday school in the capital of Addis Ababa. They didn’t disturb the meeting, but patiently waited until it was finished. Then one of them rose to speak.

“Children,” the man said in a soft voice, “we want you all to take part in a nice demonstration in the square. Each one of you will get the gift of a toy gun. All we want you to do in return is to march like soldiers and learn a few slogans.”

Naturally, a buzz of excitement swept through the room.

“Hands up, all of you who’d like to come.” Every hand shot up.

The believer who told me about this said that the Sunday school teachers were helpless and shed tears later that day as they saw their charges proudly marching along with thousands of other children, shouting parrot fashion Communist slogans that they didn’t understand.

The harsh truth is that the Christian teachers could not match the excitement that the Communists had offered their children. The comparison between the deadly dull Sunday school and the exhilarating occasion in the square caused many of the youngsters to leave for good and join an all-action Communist youth group. (To be continued)

Persecution: It Will Never Happen Here? (part 1)

Jan Pit

2005-04-29

Excerpts from the book  (Santa Ana, CA: Open Doors with Brother Andrew, 1981.)

(Jan Pit works with Brother Andrew of Open Doors, a ministry to those who live in countries that do not allow freedom of worship or witness. It has bases in Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.)

FOREWORD

I RECENTLY RETURNED FROM visiting a number of Central American countries. There I had the privilege of meeting many spiritual leaders. I asked each one of them in these threatened nations, “Are you ready for revolution, change of power, closure of churches and Bible Societies? Also the expulsion of missionaries, as well as the murder, imprisonment or immobilisation of your own pastors?” Before they could reply, I also posed these further questions: “Are you now ready to not be able to evangelise children and young people? To work without literature and foreign funds?” Almost invariably the answer was, “No, we are not ready.” Yet all the signs of imminent persecution are there for all to see in these countries.

Time is definitely against us; time is running out; time is not going to be produced any more, and the little there is left is mainly at the disposal of the powers of darkness. Both the Bible and the newspapers tell us this.

“IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN HERE!”

While reading this book you may experience a feeling of threat. “Preparation for persecution!” That sounds ominous. “Preparation for Heaven” sounds much better, for who wants to prepare for persecution? Yet the threat is real, and the words, “In the unlikely event of …” do not apply to the contents of this book. The Bible says persecution is certain. It is not unlikely, not even likely, but it is certain. Second Timothy 3:12 clearly states, “All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

Is there hope? Do we have to be defeatist? No, we must not view persecution in the light of defeat, but in the light of victory. Persecution is the mark of true discipleship. There lies the hope.

Of course we know about persecution. The Book of Acts tell us much about it. The terrible persecution that occurred during the time of Nero, the Roman butcher, is well-known, as are the examples of persecution in the history of the Church. Stakes, guillotines, concentration camps in Siberia, killer prisons in Uganda, and murdered missionaries around the World bear witness to persecution. The courage displayed by martyrs in the face of death speaks clearly of victory and faith.

The mistake we make is in thinking that we will never suffer persecution. We are eager to apply the words, “In the unlikely event of …” to our own situation. Yet the events in other countries ominously foreshadow what will happen in our own country.

 

The Lesson of Vietnam

It is not only laymen who convince themselves that persecution will not come; church leaders and missionaries have also been of the opinion that this horror would not happen in their countries.

During the appalling Vietnam war, church leaders from a certain Christian group held their annual conference. The southern Vietnamese city they were in resembled a fortress. There were soldiers everywhere, barricades, and a terrifying collection of weaponry. Daily attacks were being made on the city by the Communist Viet Cong, yet the pastors continued to discuss the various activities which they would embark upon in the ensuing years. They even adopted a ten-year plan. Despite all the evidence, no one there thought it possible for South Vietnam to be overthrown. All were convinced the country would remain open to mission work.

What happened? South Vietnam fell–not ten years later, but ten days after the conference. The leaders there in July 1976 had no insight into the situation. “It will never happen here,” was their opinion. But ten days later they had to flee Vietnam. The Church remained–unprepared.

A German missionary stationed in Ethiopia for many years wrote, “We did everything we could in Ethiopia. We built schools and hospitals. We held conferences and leadership courses. We trained church leaders for pastoral duties. We forgot one thing: to tell leaders and their congregations how to function under persecution. I am back in Germany. I cannot return to Ethiopia. The church has remained behind–unprepared.”

 

Skyscrapers and Church Buildings

After his exile from the Soviet Union, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the famous Russian author, asked, “Are we prepared to learn from the past? Are people living in freedom able to learn from those living in need? Can the lesson they have learned be taught to the free world? Yes, it can, but who wants to learn? Our proud skyscrapers point heavenward and they say: It will never happen here. But it will happen. The revolution will come. Tragically, however, the free West will only believe it when it is no longer free. To quote a Russian proverb, `When it happens you will know it is true, but then it is too late.'”

Yes, our skyscrapers and our beautiful churches point skyward as if to say, “It will not happen here.” It can happen and, according to the Bible, it will happen.

Moreover, your land could be next. The Bible indicates persecution will be worldwide. Will we be prepared?

BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES OF PERSECUTION

Persecution reveals who the true followers of Christ are. Nominal Christians will fall away. Only dedicated believers will remain faithful to their Master, even unto death.

In stories about martyrs, the remarkable fact is how they faced death with great courage. They looked upon persecution as an honour and not as punishment. Acts 5 depicts this clearly. The apostles were arrested and thrown into jail. Their crime? Preaching the Gospel and healing the sick in the name of Jesus. During the night an Angel set them free, charging them not to go into hiding but to continue preaching the Gospel. This they did the following morning. A second arrest followed. At the trial they were asked why they did not go home and keep quiet about Jesus.

“We must obey God rather than men,” Peter answered.

The Jewish leaders could not misconstrue those words. It was a straightforward rejection of the established religious leaders. No wonder they were enraged and wanted to kill the disciples. Gamaliel, however, was used by God to prevent this.

Instead of being killed, they were “only” beaten. They left the council with bleeding backs, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His [Jesus’] name” (Acts 5:41).

Persecution was familiar to the disciples. They knew that persecution was part and parcel of their Christian walk. They knew the Biblical principles. Their Master had prepared them: “The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). A friend of Jesus will automatically be an enemy of the World.

“If you were of the World, the World would love his own; but because ye are not of the World… therefore the World hateth you” (John 15:19). Christ makes no exceptions. Nowhere does He say that some Christians will be persecuted and some will not.

 

Thermometer or Thermostat Christians?

Many Christians are like thermometers. Their temperature rises when it is warm and drops when it gets cold. A meeting can often make some of them warm. They sing, pray and look very spiritual until one day they get into the company of non-Christians, and the mercury quickly falls to the World’s level. Thermometer Christians adapt to the circumstances surrounding them.

Christians should be like thermostats. The thermostat does not adapt to circumstances but regulates the temperature. So should Christians regulate the spiritual temperature around them. Their ability to do this will evoke criticism or hatred, but such persecution is a sign of true discipleship. “Blessed are ye when men shall hate you … and shall reproach you … for the Son of Man’s sake! Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy …” (Luke 6:22-23). Nowhere in the Bible is persecution given as a sign of defeat. In fact, being persecuted for one’s faith is to be considered an honour.

Thermometer Christians will never be persecuted. They are Christians while with fellow-believers, but when they are among non-Christians they act as non-believers do. They will not be reviled by the World, but neither will they be honoured by God.

 

When Persecution Comes  

What attitude should we adopt when persecuted? Here are some guidelines taken from the Bible:

1. Fear not. We need never fear, because God cares for us, especially in the day of trial and persecution.
2. Persecution is a mark of true discipleship. A Christian is never a victim of circumstances.
3. Persecution is directed at Jesus and not at the Christian. Saul persecuted the church, yet Jesus said, “Why persecutest thou Me?” (Acts 9:4).
4. Rejoice despite persecution. “Rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ’s sufferings … If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf” (1Peter 4:13,16).
5. Pray for boldness in times of persecution. When the disciples were persecuted, they prayed for boldness to speak His Word (Acts 4:24-30). It was a noteworthy prayer. It contained no disappointment, nor did it ask that persecution be removed. The disciples prayed for power, which they received, because they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with boldness.
6. Do not be surprised when persecution comes. “The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). ” Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial … as though some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter 4:12).
7. Persecution is a privilege. “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you … for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). “Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy …” (Luke 6:23). As strange as it may be, the reaction to persecution according to the Bible can only be, “Praise the Lord for persecution!”

Many people, when they suffer for their faith, say, “What does the Lord have against me? Why am I suffering in this way?” Instead, they should look upon it as a privilege, for the Devil only attacks believers who are really alive.

George, a butler at a stately English home, was one of those people who was always bemoaning the fact that he was being tempted and persecuted by the Devil. One day he confided in his master.

“Sir, I keep having these bad dreams that can only come from Satan himself,” he said.

His employer laughed. “That’s where I am lucky, George. I don’t believe in God or Satan, so I never have a problem like that.”

The conversation took place on a moor in a lonely part of Northern England where the British Lord had gone out for a grouse shoot. George’s task was to carry the guns and look after the hunting dog.

He watched as his employer took aim and shot two birds in quick succession. One spiralled to the ground and lay dead a hundred yards away. The other game bird was hit but not fatally injured. It desperately flapped its wings trying to keep airborne. Slowly it lost height and finally fell to the ground, but was still alive.

“Quick, Rover, get the grouse,” the master ordered the dog, which bounded enthusiastically towards the dead bird. Within a minute, tail wagging proudly, the dog came back with the lifeless bird in its mouth.

“No, you stupid dog, not the dead one! I wanted you to go and finish off the one that was still alive.”

George looked at his master and said, “Now I know why the Devil wants me and not you.”

You see, when we are spiritually dead, we pose no problem for Satan. It’s when we are alive and active that we cause him so many headaches. So he attacks us in every way possible.

Rather than being upset with this, however, we should realise that this is a mark of a true Christian, a real disciple. (To be continued)

Out of This World (part 4)

David Brandt Berg

1977-11-01

Life “in the world to come” (Mark 10:30)

—For the saved

Perhaps you’ve heard the old proverbial question, written on many a traditional, fundamental Gospel tract: “Where will you spend eternity? Heaven? Or hell?” My answer, which may shock some people, is, “I’m not going to spend it in either place, and I hope you aren’t either.”

The place God’s children, the born-again, are going to dwell with the Lord for eternity is not some fanciful dreamland way off in outer space, but an even more amazing dream city that’s going to come down from God, out of heaven to a New Earth, and God’s going to come down and live with us, and us with Him, in that beautiful dream town, described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22.

“I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:2–4).

We’re not going to go away to some far-off place called heaven where God is supposed to live; but we have a real down-to-earth God, who’s going to come live with us, and make heaven on earth.

Nobody’s going to go to heaven except those who die before Jesus comes back, who go to be “with the Lord,” and when we go with the Lord to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb during the Wrath of God, just before we return to earth for the Millennium, when we will rule and reign with Him. So we’re not going to heaven; heaven is coming to us! This is provable, scriptural fact.

It will be the ultimate of heaven on earth, the right kind of society with the right kind of city. In Revelation, we’re told that it is “the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” and looks like “a great and high mountain.” It has its own “light … like unto a … jasper stone, clear as crystal,” with “a wall great and high and … twelve gates” (Revelation 21:9–12).

“The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles. … And the city lieth foursquare” and measures “twelve thousand furlongs (1,500 miles). The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal” (Revelation 21:14,16).

“The wall of it was of jasper: And the city was pure gold like unto clear glass. … And I saw no temple therein: For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the … saved shall walk in the light of it. … And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth … but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:18,22–24,27).

This is where we’re headed for. “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” “Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.” This beautiful, physical/spiritual city of God, the perfection of the entire universe, shaped like a mountain or pyramid, 1,500 miles high—“which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”—it’s forever (Hebrews 13:14; 11:16,10).

—For the unsaved

What about the unsaved, those who haven’t received Jesus’ forgiveness and free gift of eternal life? Is all of mankind divided into just two classes like most religious leaders and church theologians teach? Are all the rest of the people going to go to an eternal burning, torturing, unending hellfire, where there’s no difference in punishment or reward?

If that were true, then God would be a monster. Someone once told me, “I couldn’t believe in a God that’s going to send everybody to hell forever, people that never even had a chance to hear about Jesus, little babies and ignorant natives and the millions of people of different religions who are fairly righteous and are trying to do the best they know how, living up to whatever light they’ve got. I just can’t believe in such a God.”

I replied, “I agree with you. I don’t believe in such a God either.” For I am personally convinced, from my own study of the Scriptures and people and the nature of God, that God has made some other provision for the ignorant unsaved, those who never heard, the unevangelized unsaved.

In the 21st and 22nd chapters of Revelation, you will discover that not only are the saved living inside of the eternal city of the blessed, but there are also people living outside. Only the saved can go into the Heavenly City, although the “kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it” (Revelation 21:24). Who are these “kings of the earth”?

We’re also told that in the city is “the tree of life … And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2). What nations? If there’s not going to be any more pain or death or sickness, sorrow or crying, then what in the world are the leaves of the trees and why do they have to be used for the healing of the nations? Why is healing needed for anybody when there’s not supposed to be any more pain, death, sickness or sorrow and so on?

To me, the answer is apparent. These kings and nations outside the city that need healing are a class of people who are not in hell, not in the Lake of Fire, which the Bible says is in the center of the earth, nor are they the born again, the Bride, those who enter and enjoy the Heavenly City. I believe that this is the provision God has made for those who perhaps never had a chance, never had a choice, never heard of Jesus, never rejected Him because they never really heard about Him. If we’re going to rule and reign with the Lord forever, as Revelation 22:5 says, who are we going to rule over?

I’m not saying that there is no hell, or that no one is going to go there, because the 21st chapter of Revelation makes it quite clear that the most wicked “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). But in the next chapter, Revelation 22, it even says that some people, who sound just like the type who were cast into the Lake of Fire, will also be living outside the city (Revelation 22:15). So apparently the Lake of Fire is where the wicked go to get purged from their sins, or at least purged out enough to let them eventually come and live outside the city.

It will be a better world then, with better people who have learned their lessons of the law of the love of God. And they will be happier than ever before, because at last they will be purged and purified of their sins of rebellion against Him, and healed by the leaves of the trees of life, which we shall minister to them from where they grow by the River of Life within the city.

—Spirits in prison

If there was no hope for the unsaved, and they were all eternally doomed to a fiery torment, then why did Jesus Himself, while spending three days and nights in the heart of the earth between His crucifixion and resurrection, waste his time “preaching unto the spirits in prison” if there was no hope of their salvation, as described in 1 Peter 3:19–22? And why does Peter go on to say in 4:6 that “for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit”?

Jesus went down to hell, and He preached to the spirits that were in prison there. He gave them the Gospel of deliverance. What for? Just as a matter of information so they could be all the more miserable for the rest of eternity in an eternal hell?

If there was no hope for them, why then did He preach to them? Why should He tell them how to get saved if they couldn’t get saved? How do we know but what maybe they had never heard and He was giving them their first chance?

In an Old Testament Scripture that confirms this and apparently refers to these same spirits, God says to His Son, “by the blood of thy covenant (Jesus’ sacrifice) I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit where is no water” (Zechariah 9:11). Jesus saves!

I’m looking forward to the day when everybody, or at least almost everybody, will be saved—at least there won’t be many left in hell, if any, and I think that’s when God will be satisfied too. But that’s a long way off. We’ve still got a lot to do. We haven’t just a few years of our time on this earth—we’ve got thousands to go!

The afterlife

After Jesus’ Second Coming, we will have been resurrected, translated, and changed, and we will have supernatural bodies, thank God. We’ll have spiritual bodies like the Lord had when He was resurrected. He could materialize or dematerialize, and we will have the same power. Think of that! He could pass from one dimension to the other through locked doors and solid walls. This will be a great advantage in being officers of the law and law enforcers, governors and so on, ruling in love over the villagers of this world who live outside of the Heavenly City. (See Luke 24:31–43,51; John 20:19–29; 1 John 3:2; 1 Corinthians 15:50–53.)

So heaven is not the end: it’s only the beginning! God only knows how much more we’ll have to conquer after we’ve conquered the earth and all the souls who have ever lived on it and all the problems. Who knows what other worlds we may have to conquer, what other universes we may yet have to learn to rule.

My idea of heaven is not floating around on a cloud strumming a harp all day long. And it doesn’t seem to be God’s idea of heaven either. His universe is full of movement, and He’ll never stop. We’ll go right on through the coming of Christ and the Millennium and the Heavenly City and right on out to outer space, and God only knows how far we all have to go. We’ll enjoy every minute of it if we’re faithful servants.

We’re a long way from the end. Eternity has no end!

Conclusion

Most people seem to think that God’s spiritual kingdom is some fancy place somewhere in outer space called heaven, only to be reached when you die, if you’ve been good enough while on earth. But Jesus Himself proved this to be a misconception when He said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20–21).

We don’t have to wait till we die to enter it. In fact, it has already entered you if you have Jesus and are filled with His Holy Spirit—and right now you can experience all of its exciting sights, sounds, visions, voices, and even resultant physical thrills—and many other ecstatic joys of the spirit world, the world of His Spirit, where God Himself dwells.

To enter his spiritual kingdom is so simple to do that Jesus Himself said that you must first become as a little child. “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). He even said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

What Jesus meant by this, plain and simple, was that we cannot save ourselves by our own works, our own goodness, our own attempts to keep His laws and to love Him, or even our own endeavors to find and follow His truth. He was saying that salvation is a gift of God performed by a miraculous transformation of our lives when we accept His truth in the love of His Son Jesus by the work of God’s Spirit. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us” (Titus 3:5). All we have to do is receive Him. “As many as received Him (into their hearts), to them gave He power to become the sons (or children) of God” (John 1:12).

“For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9). So you cannot save yourself, no matter how good you try to be. You can’t be good enough, you can’t be perfect enough to earn merit or deserve His holy salvation by His grace, love, and mercy.

For “all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; but God hath laid on Him (Jesus, His own Son) the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). God loved us so much, He gave Jesus to die in our place, to take our punishment for us. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Many people are too proud to accept a gift—they want to work for everything they receive. Jesus, God’s gift of love to us, is just that—a gift—and we just have to receive Him humbly, knowing that we can’t possibly pay enough to buy our way into His heavenly kingdom, or do enough to earn eternal life or to deserve the happiness that He alone can bring.

Jesus stands at your heart’s door and begs to come in. He promised: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). You can have Him and all He has to give, which is everything, right this minute, if you’ll just sincerely pray and ask Him to come into your heart, forgive you your sins, and give you His free gift of eternal life.

You can be born again into the wonderful world of His Spirit where everything is much more beautiful and more lasting than the one which you can now see with your natural eyes at this very moment. For “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9–10). You can personally experience their thrilling and ecstatic joys right now, and even take a trip into that world with Jesus’ Holy Spirit as your guide, like the prophets of old and today. Experience it! “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

Copyright © November 1977 by The Family International

Out of This World (part 3)

David Brandt Berg

1977-11-01

War in the spirit

The powers and conflicts of the spirit world—the eternal world where world destinies are being decided by the struggles of the spirits and archangels—is important. The world’s future is being influenced by the battles in the spirit world between the Lord and His angels on the one hand, and the Devil and his angels on the other.

If you could see what was going on behind the veil of the fifth dimension, you would witness an all-out war of the worlds.—A war between good and evil, God and the Devil, goodness and wickedness, flesh and spirit, angels and devils, love and hate, life and death, joy and misery, a war of the universe between the good spirits of heaven and the evil spirits of hell, contending for our souls as well as our bodies.

We are told in the Bible that the archangel Michael wrestled against a demon “prince of Persia” for 21 days before he finally broke through to answer the prophet Daniel’s prayer with an important prophetic message. (See Daniel 10:11–13,20.)

This is where the most important battles and cataclysmic changes occur, behind the scenes in the spirit world. As the apostle Paul said, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Heavenly councils and court sessions

It is far beyond our comprehension to fully understand how God runs the spiritual government of the universe by means of the Holy Ghost and His angels—“ministering spirits,” as His Word calls them. We do know that he conducts some kind of councils in heaven, report sessions, according to Job 1:6 and other related passages—court sessions in which Satan is “the Accuser of the Saints” (Revelation 12:10).

God and His Son Jesus Christ, the King of kings, conduct court sessions, in which He judges the living, now, like He did Job and others, like the kings and judges of this world, types and shadows of the true.

In these sessions, God is the judge, Jesus is the defense lawyer, and the Devil is the prosecuting attorney who constantly reminds the judge of the law. In fact, the Devil is the most legalistic creature in the universe. Anybody that breaks the law, he wants God to crack down on them and punish them on the spot. The Devil is all for justice and the law. (See Revelation 12:10; Zechariah 3:1; Job 1:9–12.)

But it’s God, who made the laws and the rules, who wants you to have mercy and forgiveness and salvation. This is why He sent Jesus, so that Jesus could be a man and know how men feel. He could be human and know how it is to be human, and therefore could understand us better and have more mercy on us and therefore could be our intercessor and mediator with God Himself (1 Timothy 2:5).

So if Jesus is in our heart, He’s on our side, He’s our intercessor, He’s our high priest (Hebrews 2:17). He is our advocate, our intercessor, our mediator.

So “who is he that condemneth? (The Devil is a liar; there is no truth in him. John 8:44) It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:34). “For Christ is entered … into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24). “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

He took on the form of our own human flesh, that He might know and understand us and our problems better, having suffered with us as one of us. “As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13–14), having worn that frame Himself, suffering in it, dying in it.

Spiritual power

A lot of people today, especially the young, are awakening to the fact that the spiritual world is real, God is real, and the Devil is real. Many people, especially the young, in their pursuit of genuine spirituality and real religion and the actual supernatural and the miraculous, have gone into drugs, ancient mysticism, and the spirit world.

What they don’t perhaps realize is that it’s not just a so-called natural realm of natural physical forces, but there are literally spiritual forces behind the scenes with which they’re dealing, and that in so doing they’re playing with fire. They’re really taking chances because they’re not necessarily protected by the Lord.

Quite a few popular films, such as “The Exorcist,” “The Omen,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” and “The Three Faces of Eve” rekindled people’s interest in spirits and the spirit world—even though most of these have dealt with the dark side of the picture, the horror of the Devil and his dirty work. But it shows the world is awakening to these things, and recognizing and acknowledging that they’re true, although some are trying to explain them away scientifically.

Demons are very common today, as in all ages, and many people are plagued by them, if not actually possessed. Whether possessed, obsessed, or merely oppressed by them, they need complete deliverance, and they can have it, because demons are totally subject unto us, and must do whatever we say in the name of Jesus. (See Luke 10:19.)

You will run into the situation more and more where it’s not a problem of disease, or sin, but more and more it will be demon possession (Revelation 12:12). Another spirit has come in and is living alongside of the human spirit in the same body, and that is what has split the personality. The demon enters in, and then it’s beyond the person’s own control. To a certain point they can control it, but when they submit to the Enemy at some point, then the Devil takes over, unless, of course, you have the Lord. If you have the Lord and ask for His help, you can control it. But of course, if you just let it take over and you don’t ask the Lord for His help, it can get out of control.

What about the cases of so-called witchcraft, wizardry, black magic, etc., where individuals fiddle around with spiritual powers, trying to influence or cast spells on other people? Just as God has His means of communication in the spirit world, so does the imitator, the Devil. Just as God has His children, the Devil has his captives.

Just as God’s Spirit can possess God’s children, the Devil’s spirit can possess his children. And therefore, so-called witchcraft, demonology, etc., are realities in the world of the evil spirits of the Enemy.

In the case of witchcraft and wizardry, the Enemy acts as a relay station. Satan’s child communicates with the Devil, and if it’s in accordance with the Devil’s will, and not beyond the powers God has given him, then he can operate to influence other children of the Devil, one way or the other.

God’s power is creative and loving, but the Devil’s power is destructive and hateful. What is the Devil usually doing with his wizardry and his black magic and voodoo? What is most of it used for? Curses for people who hate other people and who want to curse them.

But we don’t have to fear, because we have a greater power that protects us. Even if they get a dolly of you and go to this devil-man for the pins and he sticks the pins into your dolly, nothing’s going to hurt you at all, because God is protecting you and the Devil can’t touch you.

If you’re a child of God, none of these things can touch you! You don’t have to worry. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of a sound mind,” for “perfect love casteth out fear” (2 Timothy 1:7 and 1 John 4:18).

A strong tower

The Christian is the Lord’s property and possessed by the Lord and His Spirit; he belongs to the Lord and is controlled by the Lord. He’s the Lord’s possession now. Of course, if he has some besetting sin, something that’s not yielded to the Lord, the Devil can use that thing to weaken him or to cause defeat in that particular area of his life.

As long as there’s one little dark unyielded corner of your life that you’re not willing to yield to the Lord, the Enemy can get at you there, and he can bother you in that one little thing, plague you with that one little thing. Like the guy who told the rich man who’d bought the whole village except his little cottage: “Remember, Huddersfield belongs to thee and to me!” In other words, the Devil can say. “Aha, see. He’s yielded everything except this one little thing. So even though he belongs mostly to Thee, a little bit still belongs to me.” Don’t let the Devil be able to say that of you to God! Don’t let him claim any area of your life.

Don’t give him an inch or he’ll take a mile—or more. He plays for keeps! So don’t let it happen to you. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). “Neither give place to the Devil” (Ephesians 4:27).

The power of the Lord, of course, is so much greater. His Word tells His children: “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). In other words, God is saying, “My power in you is much greater than the Devil’s power in the world’s children—much greater!” Their power is so puny compared to ours and is so weak and ridiculous compared to the power of God that they’re like little kids playing with matches while we’ve got lightning bolts.

God’s power is like light which penetrates and destroys the Enemy’s darkness. It’s impossible for the darkness to penetrate the light, no matter how hard it tries. It can’t put out the light, because it’s afraid of the light. It can’t even get close to it, because the light destroys it. For “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

So we don’t have to worry about or fear Satan’s puny power because we are protected by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is far greater than the power of the Enemy. If we have the power of the Lord, if we have Christ and the Holy Spirit, we are overshadowed, we are enveloped. The Lord’s protection is just like a force field around us, and the Enemy cannot penetrate it. It’s impossible for him to penetrate it unless the Lord allows him to do so as a chastening, as a reaping of something you have done that you haven’t confessed or you’re not sorry for. Then the Lord allows you to reap the results.

But the Devil can’t do a damn thing without God’s permission, without authorization from the Lord. He can’t touch you. He can’t let one of his demons touch you, he can’t do a thing, nothing, as long as you have the Lord’s power and are in His will.

Almost the Devil’s total power is in fear. But the moment the Lord’s children are tempted to fear, we immediately think of God and the fears vanish! Anything that is not of the Lord just vanishes. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10). “God shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him, because he trusteth in Him” (Isaiah 26:3). God is bigger than any devil.

So “fear thou not,” He tells us. “I am with thee. Be not afraid; for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10). We don’t need to fear the Devil or any and all of his angels—Jesus is with us. “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Thank God, one little word shall fell him—Jesus, the Master of all. You have but to utter the name of Jesus to fell all the demons of hell, including Satan himself. “Behold, I give unto you power,” Jesus promised, “over all the power of the Enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19).

Death

There comes a time for everyone to pass from the flesh to the spirit world—death. Leaving this life is just like going from one room into another and closing the door. Everybody does it when they die.

Death is the penalty of physical sin, and we all have to suffer the penalty physically of death. According to God’s laws, because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve on down, we all have to die because of disobedience and sin. “By one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

The minute God’s children die, we’re instantly freed spiritually, liberated from the flesh into the world of the spirit. So this is why Paul said in the face of death, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). In other words, we have to die to pay the penalty, but Jesus took the sting out of it.

This is why Jesus said, “Thou shalt not taste of death” (Matthew 16:28). He’s talking about spiritual death there, because we all die. “It is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27). But we’ll never really die in that sense of spiritual death, or taste the agony of death and separation from God, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice and atonement.

The Bible says that this is why Jesus came into the world: “That He by the grace of God should taste death for every man … that through (His) death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:9,14,15).

“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said. “He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die” (John 11:25,26). He’s the only one who can deliver us out of the jaws of death so we pass through it without sting—through the grave with victory for us, not the grave! Hallelujah!

For the saved, those that know the Lord, dying is the easiest thing in the world. It’s so easy to die when you’re a Christian, because you know where you’re going. It’s an abandoning of this world and a desire for the other. It’s similar, I presume, to what the astronauts feel in their weightlessness. Right now we’re burdened by this vile body, but in the spirit you don’t have this weight. You’re no longer weighed down with the flesh and burdened with the problems of this physical life. You’ve graduated from this grade of this earthly life. (To be continued)

Out of This World (part 1)

David Brandt Berg

1977-11-01

An extensive and revelatory look into the spirit world, that mysterious dimension of eternal realities, the living world of forever rather than the dying world of now—the everlasting realm of eternity rather than the temporary space of time, that fascinating dimension which is largely unseen by us in mortal flesh rather than this mundane plane which is so temporary. “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth … for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (Colossians 3:2; 2 Corinthians 4:18).

In search of the fifth dimension

The things and powers and conflicts of the spirit world—the eternal world where world destinies are being decided by the struggles of the spirits and archangels—this is what is really important. Our daily lives and the world’s future are being influenced by the battles in the spirit world between the Lord and His angels on the one hand and the Devil and his angels on the other.

In years gone by I found that many Christians, pastors, and Bible teachers were afraid of the subject of the spirit world because they felt that it bordered on spiritualism or spiritism, and that talking about the personal appearances of angels or of saints long dead sounded to them too much like having to do with familiar spirits, dealing with evil spirits and devils, which God’s Word condemns, along with witchcraft and wizardry. But may God forgive us for condemning the entire spirit world and being afraid of knowledge of it just because the Devil uses it, along with his demons. That would be like some narrow-minded churches that refuse to use music just because the Devil uses it. If we stopped using everything the Devil uses, there wouldn’t be much left—not even for God!

Witchcraft, wizardry, and dealing with evil familiar spirits, demons, and devils are all condemned by God, but this does not mean that we are supposed to blind ourselves, ignore, and shut ourselves off completely in ignorance to God’s own marvelous spiritual world in which He dwells with His Son Jesus, His Holy Spirit, all His ministering spirits, the angels—two-thirds of the spirit world (Revelation 12:4)—and all the millions of the spirits of the departed saints.

Why should we be left in darkness regarding the wonderful world of His Spirit—the eternal, everlasting world, the spirit realm, the heavenly plane, the fifth dimension—that thrilling and exciting and marvelous and glorious and great unseen world of the spirit? Usually unseen, that is, by the natural eyes of man, particularly those of the unbelieving.

The inhabitants of the spirit world

—Almighty God

The Bible tells us that “God is a spirit: And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). It also speaks of Him as “the Father of spirits” in Hebrews 12:9, and “the God of the spirits” in Numbers 16:22 and 27:16. So He is a spiritual God who dwells and operates in the spiritual realm, and from there conducts His behind-the-scene labors which are almost totally invisible: the work of creation that produced the universe and keeps it running, His design and plan for man, and His constant care for His creations.

He’s the genuine basic power and guiding light of the universe that has brought men into being, and, as man’s benevolent fatherly Creator, has a kind and benign purpose in store for him, a final fulfillment of his undeniably human aspirations for love, life, liberty, and happiness.

His visible creation is an illustration of the things in the spirit, of that which is invisible. “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20). Everything God created, everything God ever made, all the visible creation, is in some way an illustration of something spiritual. And what did God create to illustrate what He Himself is like? What creation gives us the best picture of what God is like?

In the first chapter of the first book of the Bible we are told that “God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him” (Genesis 1:27). In other words, God made us very much like Him in many ways, in His image and His likeness. We are like God. We have the majesty of choice, we can do good or evil, and we are similar to God in our ability to think and our emotions and personalities.

Man was created with similarities to God Himself, yet in a body of flesh bound with the earth and earthen things, “and of the earth, earthy” (1 Corinthians 15:47). But man is confined to this world and to a certain environment and to certain limitations, physical weaknesses and restrictions, so that he is on probation and being put to the test of choice.

“But, if this is all true,” we often hear, “and there is an all-powerful God behind the scenes, why does He allow war and pain and suffering and the atrocities of man’s inhumanity to man? Why doesn’t He put a stop to such evils?” Although He hates war and its perpetrators, and deplores the poverty of the poor and their suffering, and is soon going to step in and set things right, He hasn’t yet because He would have had to put a stop to man’s choice, which is the main idea of the whole great design.

Man was created and put here to make a choice between good and evil, to do right or wrong, to serve God or himself, and to learn the benefits of serving God—reaping the joy and happiness and pleasures of keeping God’s loving rules for his own good and worshipping and thanking God for it all in return, as grateful children of their heavenly Father, to believe in Him and have faith in Him and trust Him and His Word and obey it for their own good and His glory.

Those who rebel against God, disobey Him, and refuse to believe His Word, go their own way and suffer the consequences of violating His law of love, which results in misery, pain, suffering, man’s inhumanity to man, cruelty, atrocities, wars, economic ills, unhappiness, mental anguish, and finally death and hell hereafter.

God is interested in our decisions. He’s concerned to see whether we will make the right choices if we are given the majesty of choice. Of course, He is saddened when we make the wrong choices. This is why He put us here and this is what we’re here to learn: how to make the right decisions. So He has had to give us the opportunity to have our own way to see what we will do.

Even if we don’t fully understand why God created us the way He did, I’m sure He did it for whatever reasons He felt best, for His sake and our sake and the sake of a lesson to the universe. Perhaps it’s a great lesson to all the spirit world and the good spirits and evil spirits, including the Devil, to give them all a good sample of what is right and wrong, and how that right pays off, and wrong does, too.

—The Son King

The Bible not only tells us that “God is a spirit” but also that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). God is the Spirit of love, the Great Spirit, the Creator. What is God like? He’s love. And what did God do to prove that He is love, that He loves us? “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God gave “His only begotten Son,” Jesus. He was separated from Him and let Him suffer a cruel, horrible death for us, for our sakes. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). Jesus is the manifestation of the love of God.

“Why can’t you just leave Jesus out of it?” some people ask. “Why do you have to use that name? Why does He always have to be the symbol? Why can’t you just say God and speak of God only? We could accept it much easier if you wouldn’t insist on using the name of Jesus.”

If He really was God’s Son, and God had chosen Jesus to reveal Himself to the world and to show His love, then God Himself has insisted on it. “Love Me, love My Son.” These are God’s conditions, not ours. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also” (1 John 2:23). God has insisted that we recognize and love His Son, and Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

Jesus made the way. He is the way! “Neither is there salvation in any other: For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There is only “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). And, “no man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1:18).

No man can approach God directly. We have to go through Jesus, who said, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). Prior to His incarnation here on earth, He and the Father were together in personal heavenly fellowship, which He had to forsake while He was down here with us. Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (John 17:5). We’re also told that “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1,14).

Jesus actually renounced the rights of His citizenship in heaven, and “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). He adapted Himself to our bodily form and conformed to our human ways of life, so that He might understand and love us better, and communicate with us on the lowly level of our own human understanding. In a sense He became a citizen of this world, a member of humanity, a man of flesh, in all points like as we are, in order that He might reach us with His love, prove to us His compassion and concern, and help us understand His message in simple terms that we could understand.

“Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Philippians 2:5–10).

He came down here to our level to take us with Him back up to His. He didn’t leave the halls of heaven to come and stay down here forever. Nor is He still asleep in the grave. He is risen! And He is now “set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1)—the throne of the Father—God’s broadcasting center, His central studio and principal communication center.

So now you can intimately and personally know and enjoy Him, and we can all enjoy Him together anywhere, everywhere, any time, all the time, in all His power and fullness—just as much for you as for me, and just as precious and intimate as for any—by His Spirit and through His words. “For the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).

—The Holy Spirit

Right after His resurrection, the Lord told His apostles, “Tarry ye at Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). He further explained, “Ye shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This baptism of power will make you want to be a witness and go to the darkest corners of the earth to tell and show others that Jesus loves them.

Some people experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the same time they ask Jesus into their hearts, like the household of Cornelius in the book of Acts. When Peter preached the Word, “the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard (spiritually received) the word” (Acts 10:44). However, with most people the baptism of the Spirit is a subsequent experience to salvation.

Everyone receives a measure of the Spirit upon believing on and receiving Jesus, because Paul said, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:9). The baptism of the Spirit is when Jesus in you baptizes (or fills) you with the Holy Ghost, just as John the Baptist promised He would. “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” (Matthew 3:11).

In order to emphasize the importance of the spiritual over the physical, Jesus said to His disciples, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you” (John 16:7).

Jesus had to leave the few that he might send His Spirit to the many. He had to remove the pleasure of His bodily presence from the handful, in order that He might be with them in the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit—with all of them—with multitudes—with millions—yea, hundreds of millions through the ages—something He never could have done in personal physical presence had He remained here after His resurrection. “For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

As long as they had His bodily presence, they couldn’t really get into the spirit of it all. They didn’t need His Spirit. They had Him! He had to take His body away so they could feel His Spirit—get their minds off the flesh—get their hearts in His Spirit.

Their flesh, even His flesh, had actually gotten in their way and prevented them from sensing the genuine spirit of real truth, of which His body was a mere physical representation. But now that He has removed Himself to headquarters, the throne of the Father, the central broadcasting station, we can all be reached equally, fairly, and simultaneously by His power, the communication of His Holy Spirit. He had to go away so that it would be possible to “pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.” For He “ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10). (to be continued)

03 – The Dragon

The Rise and Fall of the Antichrist

Scott MacGregor

2012-01-01

But what is the real nature of this man, the Antichrist, and the world government that he heads? The book of Daniel has much to say about what he does physically, and in the book of Revelation we get chilling insights as to what is going on in the spiritual realm.

First, let’s look at some great events that Saint John, the author of the book of Revelation, observed and recorded happening before the arrival on the scene of the Antichrist and his satanic anointing.

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Revelation 12:1–6

The woman in this vision is obviously giving birth to Jesus Christ. The first interpretation to come to mind is that she is Mary, the human mother of our Lord when He was on Earth. But things get a bit confusing with this interpretation when it says the woman fled into the wilderness for 1,260 days.

Several times the Bible refers to the second half of the Antichrist’s seven-year reign as the Great Tribulation. “Then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). Daniel talked about this time when he wrote, “At that time Michael [the archangel] shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time” (Daniel 12:1).

The Bible even tells us several times how long this Tribulation period will last, using several different yet synonymic terms: “three and a half years,” “42 months,” or “1,260 days”1 (Daniel 7:25; 9:27; 12:7; Revelation 11:2–3; 12:14; 13:5).¹

If these 1,260 days where “the woman” flees into the wilderness are the Tribulation period—which it seems they are—then the woman described above could not be Mary, as she long ago left this world for her heavenly reward. So the identity of this woman must have a different interpretation. Could this woman symbolize the believers of all time, the people of God, into whose lineage Jesus was born? This seems to be a viable interpretation, as during the 1,260 days of Tribulation the true Christians will be in the “wilderness” of this world. They will be outcasts, persecuted by the Devil and the Antichrist government forces, and many will be on the run and not able to live in the cities that will be the centers of Antichrist domination.

Aside from the great red dragon’s identity being revealed in the next verses of Revelation 12, we also get corroboration that this is the “time of trouble,” because again it mentions the Archangel Michael who goes to war with the evil forces of the spirit world. “And war broke out in Heaven: Michael [the archangel] and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in Heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the Earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7–9). At this time Satan is cast out of Heaven with a “third of the stars of Heaven,” these “stars” being his demons, the angels who have been in rebellion with him against God and who are now cast down to Earth with him.

These Scriptures can be shocking for some, as they infer that Satan and his demons are presently allowed in Heaven. In the book of Job there is a surprising confirmation for this when we are taken to a scene in the courts of the Lord. Job 2:1 says: “There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.” Although Satan is in rebellion against God, he still appears before Him in the courts of Heaven accusing the saints day and night. In Revelation, after Satan is finally cast out, it states: “Then I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down’” (Revelation 12:10).

The heavenly voice then warns: “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the Devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Revelation 12:12). So begins that short three-and-a-half-year Tribulation period, the worst in world history, in which the Devil rampages across the face of the earth. No longer able to soar into the heights of Heaven and accuse us before God, he has been cast down to the earth, confined here, and later to be chained and confined to the darkness of the Bottomless Pit.

Back to Saint John’s vision of the woman and the dragon: Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time [three and a half years], from the presence of the serpent” (Revelation 12:13–14). Although the true believers have to flee into the wilderness during the time of Tribulation, still they are being kept and fed, and away from most of Satan’s venomous attacks.

“And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17). In those last three and a half years Satan will no longer be able to go before the court of God accusing the believers on earth before God in Heaven, but he’s going to be right here, face to face with them, not only accusing them, but persecuting and trying to kill them.

Notes

1. At the time that the book of Revelation was written, there were several competing calendars in use in the world. The Jews had one that John, being Jewish, possibly followed. There was the official Julian calendar that the Romans followed, and there were others followed by the Greeks and Egyptians. All these differed in the number of days in a month (the number of days in a month differed from month to month, as it still does now) and the number of days in a year. This would no doubt have led to considerable difference as to what a month or year may have meant in actual terms of number of days. So it seems that the Lord nailed it down to 1,260 days so there would be no confusion.

The Great Revivals

David Brandt Berg

1983-10-01

My grandfather had a very dear Russian friend, and he had some hair-raising experiences to tell. He got out of Russia, and because he went around the U.S. preaching against the communists, they were out to get him. That was in the Depression when communism was strong in the United States, and communists were doing a lot of bombing and terrorist activity, and they were organized. I think Russia thought she was really going to pull an American revolution at that time, because everybody was poor and out of work.

They kidnapped him once and took him to a deserted farmhouse with a gunnysack tied over his head and a rope around his neck, poured kerosene over him, and were about to light it when some old farmer, probably curious to know why their car was at this deserted farmhouse, drove up, and they all ran. His hands and feet were tied and he almost chewed his lip off trying to get this sack off his head. By gnawing the ropes with his teeth, he finally got it off so he could scream loud enough, and someone heard him and came and freed him.

Another Russian, Peter Dyneka, was head of the Baptist Association in Russia. By that time the communist government was pretending to have religious freedom, so the Baptists were still having large meetings and revivals in Russia. In fact, they were one of the few denominations that were recognized in Russia. Billy Graham even went there and held a Baptist convention.

Peter was able to operate more or less legally in Russia, particularly having become a U.S. citizen. He had a few run-ins and arrests, but he would go in and have meetings, inspire and encourage people, then come back to the U.S. and speak about what was going on there. At that time, about 1940, there was quite a major revival among the Baptists.

Spiritual revivals seem to come in waves. There’s a harvesting and the Lord gets that crop and then it dies down. Things cool off, and by and by it comes again. There was a time when Korea had a tremendous revival among the Presbyterians, in the early 1900s. They had a tremendous, sweeping revival.

So many of these countries have had their chance, they’ve heard—at least the former generations have—but of course you have to evangelize every new generation. Especially when the older generation has had the revival and they’re not taught to witness even to their children. So the parents and the older generation don’t always evangelize their own children or the next generation, and it has to be done all over again.

A lot of countries have had tremendous revivals. China had a great revival back in the last part of the 1800s, at the height of the missionary activity there, and Christianity was booming in China. It seems as though the Lord allows what they call a great revival, a great wave of evangelism and a tremendous wave of interest in religion and a great reaping. Then it seems that the Lord allows persecution—the usual pattern—or war, to try their faith, which often suppresses the whole thing, and they have to go underground to carry on.

They say church leaders going to China are amazed at how many Christians there are and how active the church is. They were just expecting a few hundred thousand or at the most a million Christians, and it turned out to be many more that are still very active. They had gone underground, having meetings in homes, because a lot of the churches were taken over and made into warehouses and factories. So they were driven underground, meeting in homes, and they survived. Now that the government there is more liberal, they’re coming out of their holes and going back to church.

It seems as if faith survives better under persecution and suppression than under freedom and prosperity. It seems that too much liberty and too much ease and luxury can be enemies of the faith. People do better when they’re being persecuted and suppressed, because then they really seek the Lord and live close to the Lord.

You even hear about some very early incursions of Christianity into Japan. There were vestiges even when Admiral Perry went to Japan and found a form of Christianity surviving there. Imagine surviving all that time! But revivals are often followed by persecution and suppression, and then later the next generation has their chance and they’re given a dose of the Gospel. Whether they have a revival or great spiritual upsurge or wave depends on how they receive it.

The Boxer Rebellion in China was a rebellion against the oppressive dynasty at the time. But they did have quite an outstanding revival, and my grandfather was visiting there at that time. He got especially interested in the Chinese because of my grandmother’s work with them in St. Louis. She had a class of about 2,000 Chinese which filled the church every Sunday. She was just one little tiny gray-haired lady who did that marvelous work, and she even learned Cantonese.

The missionaries have their part in the revivals, because they’ve been evangelizing those places, but some of them are quite spontaneous and Spirit-led. There was a famous outpouring of the Spirit in the early 1900s. The Holy Spirit was being poured out on some African American churches, the most famous of which was the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles, where there was a real outpouring of the Spirit and speaking in tongues, gifts of the Spirit, healing and all, leading to the formation of the Pentecostal churches.

At the same time there was an outpouring of tongues, interpretation, prophecy, gifts of the Spirit, and healing across the United States. I remember the Turnbulls telling a story of how in their mission station in India, during their prayer meetings, their Indian disciples began bursting forth in beautiful prophecies in English and speaking in tongues in English under the anointing of the Spirit, those who could never speak a word of English before! It was tongues to them, a foreign language they had not learned. I guess the Lord was trying to show the missionaries that it was a miracle, a move of the Spirit.

The Turnbulls were outstanding missionaries of the Christian Missionary Alliance, and they were swept into the wave of this great outpouring of the Spirit. Then when the old fuddy-duddies of the Alliance began to resist it and fight it and said it was wildfire and Pentecostal, and they became anti-Pentecostal, the Turnbulls pulled out and established the Evangelical Temple in Los Angeles and were leaders in the Pentecostal movement, the largest denomination of which eventually became known as the Assemblies of God.

Apparently this great wave and outpouring comes when the Spirit feels that hearts are open, receptive, hungry, and needy. The Lord really blesses them, usually among the poor and the needy and the downtrodden who really need help and encouragement. Then once the harvest is reaped, it sort of subsides and you don’t really seem to have another great one until the next generation. The great Pentecostal outpouring of the early 1900s was in the days of my parents, and it reaped a great harvest of spiritual inspiration and growth and souls won. People even witnessed, and passed out tracts on downtown street corners and opened missions for the bums, trying to reach the lost. Then they often cool off over time.

That’s how General Booth’s Salvation Army was born in the late 1800s. William Booth was an upper-class aristocrat of the Methodist Church, but he had a great burden to reach the poor of London in that day when things were in a mess. He started preaching to the bums and opening missions, and found out that music would attract people to hear the Gospel out on the streets.

There was a tremendous wave of revival under the Salvation Army in London in those days. Of course, there’d been a great wave under the Methodists when they were still young and on fire under John Wesley a century before that. But by the time Booth came along, they’d solidified into cold, formal churches—everything that Wesley had preached against! He preached against church buildings, hierarchies, denominations, and they just had their meetings in homes and halls and places like that. But then they gradually began to have what they called “meeting houses,” and they became another denomination.

Then Booth came along. He hadn’t planned to start anything; he just wanted to go out and witness and save souls, and he went down to the street corner with his little band. They used to get rocks thrown at them, tomatoes, eggs, all kinds of things, even among the poor down on Skid Row where the people made fun of them and persecuted them. They were made fun of and ridiculed, and at times the police even tried to stop them. Every revival has been met with opposition.

However, it became a raging fire, a revival, because he had a burden for souls and he imparted that burden to others and they got on fire for the Lord and wanted to witness. He finally called it an army, the Salvation Army, and they got the bright idea of wearing uniforms and having categories of cadres and officers. Armies were quite popular in those days, and he wanted a Salvation Army. They became very famous for that characteristic and did a tremendous lot of good, opening all these Salvation Army halls and missions. When he wouldn’t abandon his unorthodox methods, they threw him out of the Methodist church and ostracized him. The formal religions and denominations wouldn’t have anything to do with him, so he started his own.

The Lord has always had His days and His times if a generation was receptive and needy in spirit. Look at the American youth of Huntington Beach; they weren’t hungry physically, although some of them were, because they got kicked out of their homes and spent all their money on drugs. Many were from middle-class and upper middle-class families and had good educations. They were not poor, they were not really hungry; they’d had everything, but they were desperate and hungry spiritually. The Lord knew they were needy in soul and in spirit, so He gave them the revival they needed and the message they wanted to hear.

The Lord is good in giving each generation its chance. It seems this is true all over the world. You can hardly find the history of any country that has not had its revivals, its Jesus Revolutions, we’d say today—the great outpourings of the Spirit, the Pentecostals call it.

There may not have been a great revival, as that depended on the people and how they responded and received, but nearly every generation has had its Gospel, and some of them have had great revivals as a result, even in the East—Korea, the great Presbyterian revival, and China, the great revival there, which as I recall was before the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

So it seems every civilization, every generation has its chance somehow. The Lord has not been unjust or unfair or unmerciful. He’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He is merciful and He’s willing to send His Spirit wherever people are hungry and needy and open and receptive and responsive. A lot of times He sends His prophets even where they’re not, so at least they will have had their chance.

The Lord is faithful. He shows His mercy to all generations. His mercy is everlasting, from generation to generation. His mercy endureth forever (Psalm 100:5; 103:17; 118). There are a lot of verses about how merciful the Lord is from generation to generation. Even Egypt got its chance in the Moses Revival. Later on, Babylon had its chance in the Daniel Revival—Babylon and Medo-Persia both. Those were tremendous revivals. The Lord even gave Israel its last chance under Jeremiah, at least the last chance for that time, but there’s a case of a prophet who came and the people rejected his message. There was no revival, no response. They had hardened their hearts to the limit, so then God lowered the boom on them and Nebuchadnezzar came with his armies and took them captive.

Then the Lord in His mercy 300 years later even sent His son, Jesus. That got a tremendous response, the early church. Of course they killed Jesus and a lot of the early disciples, but they boomed and their message has never ceased to reach every generation since then. The Lord has given successive outpourings of His Spirit, and thousands have been saved and filled with the Spirit, with the witness sweeping the nation or sometimes the whole empire.

The Lord has never been without a witness! He has never been without an outpouring of His Spirit, a great revival in the spirit and a great sweeping evangelistic movement of some kind, a great harvesting, a great reaping. I think the Tribulation is going to be the last great revival, the final great witness, the last great harvest. God’s going to pour out His Spirit in those last days and manifest mighty power and faith, signs and wonders and miracles. God’s going to give His provision and protection. God’s going to take care of His children just as He always has.

God bless and keep you busy for Jesus and souls. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Copyright © October 1983 by The Family International

Would You Like to See Jesus?

February 4, 2026

By Marie Story

An interesting study was done a few years back. Two dogs were given the command “shake.” Both raised their paw to shake hands; however, one dog was given a treat while the other wasn’t. After two or three rounds of this treatment, the dog without a treat quit obeying. The dog knew he was being treated unfairly, and he didn’t like it.¹

If dogs, as uncomplicated as they are, can understand when something isn’t fair, how much more do people know when they’re being treated unfairly, or when there’s a difference in the way they are being treated as opposed to how that person is treating someone else? While it’s unlikely that any of us would intentionally treat others unfairly, it can be an easy thing to fall into without even realizing it.

Deuteronomy 25:13–14 warns about this. It tells us, “Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy and one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small.” This appears to be referring to business dealings. Very simply, it’s saying, “Treat others fairly in business and don’t cheat.” As I think about this command, though, I find the meaning to be a little broader than that.

How often do we walk around with different weights in our bags? How often do we measure out great amounts of kindness to those we care about, yet very little to those we might have a more difficult time getting along with? How often do we show partiality to some and indifference to others?

We offer a smile and a kind word to a friend, but a cold shoulder to that annoying classmate or coworker. We’ve got a ready helping hand for a buddy when he needs it, but our schedules are all booked up when the request comes from someone we don’t care for. We’re willing to give money to a friend in need, but we try not to see the homeless guy on the street corner.

While there are numerous (and sometimes valid) reasons why giving or helping or treating others fairly isn’t always possible in every situation, I think we need to be careful to not make excuses for partiality. Instead of asking ourselves, “Why should I help this person?” or “Why should I show kindness to this person?” we should be asking, “Why not?”

After all, isn’t that how Jesus treated people? While He obviously had a closer relationship with some folks than with others, He was loving and just to each person He came in contact with. What’s more impressive (and a million times more difficult) is that His forgiveness and kindness extended even to those who treated Him badly—those who abused and mocked Him, and those who killed Him.

In my case, I find it difficult to be impartial at times because it means that I have to forget myself and think unselfishly about others. Often we can (perhaps subconsciously) make calculations, weighing things up to see what returns we might get on each investment of ourselves. Our human nature is more inclined to be partial to those who are likely to return the goodwill, the favor, or the kindness. If we’re unlikely to get anything out of it, it’s easier to walk away.

In 1775, a man, who appeared to be a farmer or common laborer, tried to book a room in the fanciest hotel in Baltimore. The manager, afraid for the hotel’s reputation, denied the man a room. He left without a word and found a room elsewhere.

Not long afterward, the manager discovered that the man he had turned away was Thomas Jefferson (then vice president of the United States). Realizing his error, the manager sent a letter to Jefferson, inviting him to come back to the hotel as his guest. Jefferson sent a letter back, saying, “I value your good intentions highly, but if you have no place for an American farmer, you have no right giving hospitality to the vice president of the United States.”²

The manager of that hotel had no idea who he was turning away, and his prejudice ended up costing him. It’s rare that our actions have consequences this obvious, but as the story so aptly portrays, it shouldn’t matter how insignificant a person might seem. The Bible tells us to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than ourselves” (Philippians 2:3). Clearly we are called to  treat everyone with dignity and respect as a person made in God’s image.

Mother Teresa worked with the poorest of the poor—people who had nothing to offer her in exchange for all she did for them. She also mingled with celebrities and heads of state. What I find stunning about her life is that she treated each person with respect and love. She didn’t reserve better treatment for those that the world deemed more important.

One day she was visited by a bishop who had come to observe her works of compassion and love. She asked him, “Would you like to see Jesus?” She then took him to see a man lying on a black pallet. The man was sick and naked; his body was crawling with vermin. As the bishop stood there, stunned, Mother Teresa knelt down and wrapped her arms around the poor man. She held him close and said, “Here He is.”

“Who?” the bishop asked, puzzled.

“Jesus,” replied Mother Teresa. “Didn’t He say you’d find Him in the least person on earth? Isn’t this Jesus challenging us to reach out and love?”³

She considered everyone to be equally deserving of love, because she saw Jesus in each one. Mother Teresa said something beautiful that I think will always stick with me: “[Jesus] makes Himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the sick one, the one in prison, the lonely one, the unwanted one, and He says: ‘You did it to Me.’”⁴

Jesus has told us that whatever we do (or fail to do) for even the “least of these,” we have done (or failed to do) those things to Him (Matthew 25:45). It’s rare that we will be called upon to love in such extreme physical conditions as Mother Teresa faced; more often, we are faced with the unkindness of others, or our own prejudices or indifference. No matter what challenges we face, unconditional love should be our aim so that when Jesus tells us, “You did it to Me,” He is happy about it.

Adapted from a Just1Thing podcast, a Christian character-building resource for young people.

¹ Dogs Understand Unfairness, Get Jealous, Study finds, NPR, December 9, 2008.

² John Barnett, “Godly Impartiality,” Sermon Search, https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-outlines/64720/godly-impartiality/

³ “32 Quotations from Mother Teresa,” http://www.wright-house.com/religions/christianity/mother-teresa.html

⁴ Mother Teresa, Nobel Prize Lecture, December 11, 1979, http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1979/teresa-lecture.html

Copyright © 2026 The Family International

Man’s Heart

Virginia Brandt Berg

1970-01-02

Welcome to Meditation Moments, and again the old-fashioned greeting: May the Lord bless you and make you a blessing.

As I’m sitting here in the heart of Los Angeles and praying about this message, this meditation that we’re to bring to you, not very far from where I am there is this terrible situation, this rioting that really is just like anarchy. It’s more like a war than anything I have known since war days.^[1]

As I’ve been sitting here, I’ve read the 140th Psalm about the violent man, because we are living in an age of violence. This has been a terrible situation—rebellion so vicious that you couldn’t conceive of it unless you had seen some of the things that have gone on here. The brutality of it has been a terrible thing.

Just a few moments ago the announcement came that a mother was sitting with her two children out in the front yard to enjoy a little of the breeze, because it’s such a hot day, and a sniper killed the one child and wounded the other child. Cowards have been shooting in the dark and not even allowing the firemen to get to the fires, trying to stop them from driving the fire trucks, and so the snipers would try to kill the firemen. It just seems impossible that such things could take place.

A hundred million dollars of destruction and burning buildings! One entire block of stores burned to the ground. Up to this time there have been 28 that are dead and nearly 700 wounded. Most of the big markets in this area have been burned, and now even the food problem is acute because of food spoilage.

How can these things be? How can they come to pass in such an age of enlightenment? Let me read this passage first from God’s Word:

Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from violent man; which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually they are gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow our goings. …

I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God; hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked desire, lest they exalt themselves. As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire, into deep pits, that they rise not up again. Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth.—Psalm 140:1–4, 6–11

I pause here at that verse, because last night on the television I heard some of the most evil things that were said, even about our country, and the arguments that came as a result of this awful thing that’s taken place. That verse closes with these words, “Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him,” and I’m quite sure that God will fulfill that verse. Some of these that are so violent, surely they are going to reap that which they have sown. (Galatians 6:7)

“I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name, and the upright shall dwell in thy presence” (Psalm 140:13).

I heard so many excuses made for this riot, for which there was no excuse whatsoever. One excuse from a certain group was that they were hitting back because of police brutality. (And the poor police, I might say, if you ever saw a group of men that worked hard and in a dangerous, dangerous situation.—This awful disrespect for the police!) It’s only a rebellion against law and order, and that’s part of the anarchy that comes from these hoodlums and gangsters that perpetrated this thing, because they’re really a great part of this.

It’s not from the group that you think whatsoever, but there were in the city at this time a vicious element. Well, I might say that this is a rebellion against the old established order of things. As you read in God’s Word, how true it is that there will be a time when men shall “wax worse and worse,” God’s Word says. (2 Timothy 3:13)

We wonder about things getting better, and we hear about the Great Society ushering in so much that’s better, and some people are looking for a utopia. Instead of that, we seem to be moving into an age of violence, just like God’s Word tells us that these things shall happen in the Last Days. (Luke 21:25)

I started to say that this is a rebellion in the heart of men against the old established order of things, against constituted authority, and it’s found today in every avenue of life. We’ve seen it a great deal amongst our teenagers, and we listen to much of it, and we hear it over the air and on television. Some of this violence is even depicted in the movies. You look at the music of the day. Sometimes it sounds like someone has tripped over the lid of hell and let some of the rebellion from there just sound out. Music from the jungle, the beat of jungle savagery is really in some of our music today, and it shows forth this very rebellion against law and order and the old constituted order of things.

The same in art—I remember my trips to some of the art galleries, how perfectly amazed I was at some of the cubist art and the surrealism and all. The first time I ever saw it, I thought one of them was an unfinished painting. It was so ugly and distorted, and it hadn’t a bit of beauty about it. So much of the art today is something like that. I went to the Indian art exhibit some time ago in Long Beach. I couldn’t understand any of it, and I couldn’t see anything beautiful about so much of it, and it looked like some of the paint was sticking to the canvas against its own will. In this surrealism and this cubist art there is this very spirit of rebellion against the order of things.

And in literature.—The pornographic literature so prevalent today, and so much of sex and atheism. So rarely you run across a real good book that’s sweet and pure and uplifting. I don’t have to say anything about the dance, you have seen it if you have ever looked at television.

Some Christians won’t look at anything but the news and something scientific, something of that kind, but if you happen to let the program stay on a little longer, you can’t help but see some of the violence today, suggestive contortions and jungle jittering. Why, it looks exactly as if it comes from savagery.

Now may I just bring this thought to your own heart, because we have so little time on this program: Don’t you see that when you are rebellious towards God, when you are disobedient, then you also are a rebel in your own heart? When God has told you to do certain things, and when He speaks to your heart, it’s always for your own good. God wouldn’t tell you to do something unless it was for your good, unless it was that which would not only please Him, but that which would reap a rich reward for you in the future, as you follow Him.

But when there is rebellion in your heart, then it’s just part of this that we’ve been talking about. It’s just a little taste of what went on in our city in the last few days, this terrifying thing that came to pass here. When you refuse to listen to His voice and you want your own way, that’s some of the rebel that’s in your own heart.

There isn’t any place for compromise today; you have to be on one side or the other. There cannot be any conforming to this rebellious, violent world. There can be no conformity! We have numbers of times quoted the verses of Scripture which some of you know so well, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2) The lines are so clearly drawn.

I know in some places people have tried to erase that clearly defined line that separates the conformity and the transformity. You can’t do it! The lines are gray there in some lives, but if you’re a real Christian, that line of demarcation is clearly drawn. You’re either on the one side or the other today, because in this age of violence and this age of unbelief, when men’s hearts are seemingly turning against God in so many cases, you see that you become a part of this thing.

They look for the causes. I said a while ago, some try to lay it to police brutality; others try to say that it’s because of the conditions among the people in the ghettos, and that they’ve never had a chance, and this and that and the other. But the trouble is that it’s just in the heart of man, which God’s Word says is desperately wicked. (Jeremiah 17:9) And it is desperately wicked. Your only hope is to yield that heart utterly to the Lord Jesus Christ. Your only hope to keep from having a rebellious heart is just to yield absolutely in a full surrender.

You know what surrender means to a soldier: Just throw up your hands and give up completely. That’s what the song is about. There’s one verse that says,

“I work so hard for Jesus,” I often boast and say
“I’ve sacrificed a lot of things to walk the narrow way.
I gave up fame and fortune, I’m worth a lot to Thee.”
Then I heard Him gently say to me,
“I left the throne of glory and counted it but loss.
My hands were nailed in anger upon the cruel cross.
Now we’ll make the journey with your hand safe in mine,
So lift your cross and follow, follow me.”

—Adapted from “Follow Me,” by Ira F. Stanphill, 1953

That’s the only safe place, and oh, the reward. I can tell you what a reward it is, and how He will bless your heart and give you peace and rest. Obey Him, listen to His voice. Do what He bids you. God bless you.

 

^[1] The Watts Riots was a civil disturbance in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, from August 11 to August 15, 1965. The 5-day riot resulted in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests and over $40 million in property damage.—Wikipedia.

The Future Foretold in the Bible

Treasures

2024-08-08

 Is there hope for the future? Are world conditions going to improve? When will the wars and conflicts cease? Many people have struggled with these questions throughout time. In spite of advances made in contemporary times in education, science, medicine, and poverty reduction, the world continues to face economic and political crises and social upheavals, crime, and the collapse of moral standards.

Current predictions about the future of the world run from the utopian to the cataclysmic. Is the world headed for a bright or dismal future, or both? Will humanity ever be able to overcome its legacy of centuries of conflict and shortsighted exploitation and build a society of justice and peace and equity? Or will the earth descend into chaos and become an environmental wasteland?

When Jesus came to our world over 2,000 years ago, the coming of the kingdom of God was a central theme of His teachings throughout the Gospels and in the Sermon on the Mount. However, His message of God’s kingdom and salvation were rejected by the leaders of His own people. They wanted a messiah, a great king, not one born in a barn and raised as a poor carpenter, who chose humble fishermen and tax collectors as His friends and followers. They wanted freedom from Rome and a king who could make them a wealthy and powerful kingdom there and then, and were not seeking the eternal treasures He promised to all who would believe in and follow Him (Matthew 6:31–33).

This man, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Creator of the universe, said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18). He could have taken over the world and made Himself king in one day. He told the Roman governor before whom He was tried, “You could have no power over Me at all, unless it was given to you by My Father” (John 19:11). And He told Peter, “Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53).

When He hung dying on the cross where He was crucified, those who passed by taunted Him and hurled insults. “You saved others. If You’re really the Son of God, save Yourself” (Mark 15:29–32), He could have done that. But He chose to die for you and me.

After He rose from the grave, He could have shown Himself to the religious authorities, the governor, or Caesar himself to prove to them that He was indeed the Son of God, the Messiah. Instead He appeared only to those who already believed in Him and loved Him, in order to comfort them and encourage their faith and prepare them for their mission of bringing God’s gift of salvation to the world.

For over 2,000 years His kingdom has remained largely unseen to this world, manifested in the hearts and lives of those who love and receive Him as their Lord and Savior. This is the mystery that many of His people in His day couldn’t understand, and that many today cannot grasp: He offers each of us a choice to receive or reject Him. This is still the age of grace, when those who believe His Word and receive Him must choose to do so by faith. But the Bible teaches that the day will come when this present age will be over and all the world will “see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:29–31).

When Jesus’ disciples wanted to know when He would return and asked Him, “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3), Jesus replied: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24:6–8). The version in the Gospel of Luke also includes pestilences in this list (Luke 21:11).

These signs also include “this gospel of the kingdom being proclaimed throughout all the world for a witness to all nations” (Matthew 24:14), which we are seeing fulfilled in our time with the global spread of the gospel, made possible by modern media such as radio, television, and the Internet. Jesus also foretold that in the latter days, “because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12), resulting in “people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world” (Luke 21:25–26).

Daniel, a Jewish prophet who lived 500 years before Jesus, wrote that in the end times travel, knowledge, and education would increase, which has happened at an exponential rate in contemporary history. Within 100 years the world has witnessed a dramatic increase in international travel, with “many running to and fro, wandering from sea to sea, as knowledge is increased” (Daniel 12:4; Amos 8:11–12).

There are many prophecies in the Bible about future events and world conditions that will occur before Jesus’ return. Some of these are being fulfilled in our times, and they foretell the fulfillment of yet others in the future. These future events are of such size and scope, and are so momentous in nature, that the Bible warns us to be watchful and prepared for when they happen (Matthew 24:22–24).

One of the most important signs of the final years before Jesus will return and reclaim the earth that the prophets predicted is the rise of a godless anti-Christ world government led by a person referred to in the Bible as a “vile person” and “son of perdition,” but most commonly referred to as the “Antichrist.” He will come on the scene with a seven-year agreement or covenant in which he will promise the world economic stability, peace, and religious freedom (Daniel 9:27; 2 Thessalonians 2:1–4; Revelation 13:5–8).

During the first half of the Antichrist’s seven-year covenant, many will regard him as a “savior,” as he will be able to bring solutions to some of the world’s most intractable problems, such as a more equitable distribution and consumption of resources; resolution of longstanding hostilities between nations, ideologies, and religions; and reduction of economic instability and exploitation. But suddenly, halfway through his seven-year reign, he will break the covenant and will forbid and abolish all traditional religious worship, declaring that he is God and demanding that all the world worship him (2 Thessalonians 2:1–12; Revelation 13:1–10).

While this imitation messiah will at first bring peace and stability, after the covenant is broken, the next three and a half years will see the world plunge into unprecedented social chaos. During this time, known as the “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21–22), the Antichrist and his government will systematically persecute those who refuse to worship him, in particular Christians.

Jesus said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days … the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:29–30). When Jesus returns to earth, He will not come as a babe in a manger, God in the hands of man, but as the almighty King of kings and Lord of lords.

The trumpets of God will sound, and all who believe in Jesus will be caught up together with Him in the clouds, in what is commonly known as the Rapture. When Jesus returns, the bodies of all of the saved people who have ever died will be instantly resurrected—just like Jesus’ body after He was resurrected. All of the believers who are still alive will be raised with them to meet Jesus in the air, “and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (Matthew 24:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17).

A celebration will then be held in heaven, called the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6–9). One of the titles for Jesus is “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), and His bride is made up of all those who believe in Him (Romans 7:4). This marital metaphor is used in the Bible to describe the spiritual union between Christ and His people, and the loving union of heart, mind, and spirit that accompanies this relationship. During this celebration, Jesus will unite His followers throughout the ages, and at His judgment seat, He will reward them with eternal crowns of life (Matthew 16:27; 1 Peter 5:4).

So although the Bible foretells dark times looming in the future, we can take heart that there is hope for everyone who looks forward to Jesus’ coming! Luke 21:28 says, “And when these things begin to happen, lift up your heads, for your salvation draws near.” The Bible encourages us to keep “waiting for our blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble and tribulation. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He warned His followers that without a doubt we would have troubles, problems, and trials in this life, and that those who love Him would even suffer persecution for His name. But He said, “Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:10–12). He also promised to be with us in the midst of everything we face in this life. “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

These events will come to pass as foretold in the Bible, and you can be prepared for the future by inviting Jesus into your life and heart, and living according to His teachings in the Bible. He will answer your prayer and transform your life, and you will be blessed with His presence and love from this day forward and on into eternity. If you believe in Jesus and trust in Him and His Word, you’ll emerge triumphant, despite all the trials and tribulations that come your way.

As the apostle Paul wrote, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39).

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

From an article in Treasures, published by the Family International in 1987. Adapted and republished August 2024. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.

Witnessing

David Brandt Berg

1975-05-01

Our job: Mark 16:15

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” is not an option. It’s a commandment. The message is clear. There’s no denying it or excusing ourselves. We must simply have the faith to obey, even if it means going out not knowing whither we go (Hebrews 11:8).

Jesus made it quite clear that all Christians are ordained to preach the Gospel when He said in John 15:16, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit.”

Therefore, it is not just a nice thing to do when we feel like it, or can find the time, but it is the God-given job and responsibility of all His true children, as Paul expressed, “For though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me: yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16). (See also Ezekiel 3:17–19.)

This is why we devote our time and energies to preaching the Gospel to every creature and winning their souls to Jesus Christ and His service for others (Mark 16:15).  That’s what we’re here for: to win people to Christ! For “herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples” (John 15:8).

Man’s greatest need: Matthew 9:36–38

Regardless of nationality, country, color, or creed, the heart of man is the same the world over, and his heartaches and sorrows and sins and pains and fear of death are the same. His longings, loves, and hunger for God and His truth, for joy and happiness and peace of mind, are God-created, and the same in men the world over.

Even though many people are really seeking genuine love, they seldom, if ever, find it. For there are never enough of God’s people who are willing to show them His real love. As Jesus Himself said, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Therefore,” He commanded, “pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:37–8).—His vast harvest of multitudes of frozen, cold, hungry people, wandering around in darkness without God.

God’s greater solution: Acts 1:8

Only the supernatural, miracle-working power of the Holy Spirit of God Himself can do the job and win their hearts, bring them to a decision, and cause them to be born again as new creatures. Therefore, God has promised an anointing of this very power to His witnesses to help them lead others to him. “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto Me” (Acts 1:8). The purpose of the power is for witnessing.

We’ve got nothing but God, so let’s show them His Spirit! As Paul said, “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4–5). It’s this fiery anointing that counts. If you haven’t got the fire, I don’t care how “good” a witness you are; it’s just cold, dead icicles of facts and figures, and you’ll never set anyone else on fire without it! As Jesus said, “Without Me, ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).

But if you do your part, and “abide in the vine,” yielding yourself to Him in submission and humility, then the Lord will do His part, and inspire you, or fill you with His Spirit, so you can “bear much fruit”—newborn babes into the kingdom of God. (See John 15:1–8.)

As a young preacher with a real love for the lost and a sincere desire to try to win the lost the churches had failed to reach, I tried everything I could think of, dreamed up every method I could imagine to try to carry the Gospel to them. I preached on the streets and in the parks; I sang at the top of my voice; I showed pictures and movies anywhere I possibly could—to reach the people outside of the church with the message of God’s love! But it was still the meeting method and the mass evangelism approach, which only had moderate success.

Then, one day I found out the exciting truth and thrilling fact that you could win more souls witnessing individually to individual people wherever you could find them, without a church or a pulpit or a meeting of any kind, anywhere, any time, and all the time, everywhere to everybody! You have to search them out individually, personally, with tender loving care and personal attention. Jesus said that the good shepherd “calleth his own sheep by name (personally, individually) and leadeth them out” (John 10:3).

As children of God, you should have love and compassion for everyone, not just your own—young or old, rich or poor, strong or weak, even if you don’t like them—“every creature!” However, God’s Spirit will lead you especially to those who really need your loving help, and who will respond in appreciation, just as it will also lead them to you.

God’s Spirit goes where there are open and receptive hearts that are hungry: He seeks the low and the humble and the contrite heart, but resists the proud. His Word says, “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich (or full) He hath sent empty away. … For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (Psalm 34:18; Luke 1:53; 1 Peter 5:5).

Tips to use when witnessing: Proverbs 11:30

In leading people to the Lord, you often have to inspire their faith in you before they can believe God. You are their link with God. As Jesus said, “He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me” (John 13:20).

You must establish points of contact with them. There must be something in common in order for people to communicate. Use the kind of language that will win them. If it takes strong language to get the point across—use it! If it takes sweeter language, use that. Ask God for wisdom (James 1:5).

One of the most needed abilities in witnessing is adaptability: being able to be anything to reach anybody and to become all things to all men. This tactic of adaptability was largely responsible for much of the apostle Paul’s soul-winning success. He said, “To the Jews, I became as a Jew; that I might gain (win) the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them. … I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:20, 22).

Sometimes, all some people need is for somebody to listen, and that’s half the job of being a witness. Let’s not fail them in showing them we’re willing to listen to their troubles. Often they’re really hungriest for fellowship and companionship and real love and sympathy, just somebody to talk to, to relieve their loneliness and to feel like somebody cares and shares their misery and their needs and problems.

(Prophecy:) “To love is to weep with them, to cry with them, to suffer with them that suffer, and to feel the agony of heart with them whose hearts are broken!”

Simplicity of the Gospel

I led a lot of people to the Lord with only John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That’s all you really need to know to win souls. You shouldn’t try to cram the whole Bible into the people you’re witnessing to anyhow. Often it’s good enough to harp on a verse or two until they’ve got them so memorized they can’t forget them.

Beware lest ye be led away from the simplicity of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 11:3). Except ye be as a little child, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3). You’ve got to be a baby! And babies don’t waste most of their time arguing over theoretical, theological, doctrinal shibboleths.

On answering questions

Answer sincere questions honestly and show people the truth, and if they really want to know, God will show them. “My sheep hear My voice” (John 10:27). You don’t necessarily have to always give them the answers they want, but the answers they need.

But it’s good to be aware that there are those that ask questions not because they want the answer, but because their minds are already made up and they don’t want to be confused with the facts, but are only trying to trap you or waste your time. This happened to Jesus, when the self-righteous Pharisees tried to trap Him with His own words. “And the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge Him vehemently, and to provoke Him to speak of many things; laying wait for Him, and seeking to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him” (Luke 11:53–54).

Don’t try to cram the truth down the throats of those who don’t want it. Seek out the hungry sheep. Jesus walked miles out of His way in the heat of day to love and win one wicked woman at a well. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

This lowly lady at the well was so thrilled about her experience with this stranger named Jesus that she “left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, ‘Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?’” And as a result of her personal testimony, “many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman” (John 4:39–42).

So when witnessing, it often helps to give your own personal testimony. They can hardly deny that without calling you a liar, and they’re not likely to do that if you present it with earnest sincerity, love, and power of the Spirit—real conviction.

Lift up Jesus, who said, “If I be lifted up. I will draw all men unto Me” (John 12:32). Preach Christ.

On your greatest witness: Love

Your greatest witness is love, for the only love of God they can see is the love they see in you. If you don’t show them the love they can see and feel, they’re going to have a hard time believing that there is someone up there whom they don’t know and that He really loves them.

So you should always drop a little love into the hearts of those you pass by, even if only with a word, a smile, or a look of sympathy, and they will know that God has loved them that day. His Spirit will tell them so. It never fails, because “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and it’s impossible for Him to fail! And He will help us not to fail if we are willing to win them with the kind of love that led Jesus to the cross to lay down His life for you, to die that you might live.

That is the only kind of love that’s going to win the world: the love of Jesus. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Let them know that the true God is a good God who is kind and loving and concerned about His children, and who hates war and deplores the poverty of the poor and their suffering, and is determined to set things right soon.

 

On prayer power

It’s always helpful to have prayer with them, if the occasion warrants. Never underestimate the power of prayer. There are very few people who don’t respect prayer, or at least your right to pray.

You can show them that Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door (of their heart) and knock: If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20). In other words, they can ask Him to come into their heart with all His love, life, liberty, truth, peace, plenty, and happiness—here, now, and forever.

Sometimes I hang onto my subject’s hand with both of mine for a word of prayer, or to try to get them to make a decision, and often they really break and accept the Lord. There’s something electrifying about prayer. As Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

 

The results and rewards of soul-wooing: Daniel 12:3

Spiritually, everyone you witness to, you’re wooing them in the spirit—wooing and loving and sowing the seed of God’s Word in the spirit. When the soul is receptive, the seed just pours in, and then you bear a spiritual baby!

This is the end result and greatest goal of soul-wooing, a newborn babe in the family of God, a whole new created soul made by the hands of God for all eternity to enjoy—the only thing we can take with us from this world.

As Paul wrote to one of his flocks, “We preached unto you the Gospel” (1 Thessalonians 2:9), and “Ye received the Word of God, which ye heard of us” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). They got saved! Then, referring to Jesus’ return, he says, “For what is our crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye (the souls he had won) in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?” (1 Thessalonians 2:19)

These are the gifts the Lord is most pleased with: the lives and hearts of men. There was always a glorious presentation of gifts before the conquering king. We, God’s victorious army, will lay at His feet—the feet of the conquering King—the souls we have recaptured from the Enemy!

So get out and do your best for Jesus and lost souls, and God himself will reward you with everlasting souls and joy of the Lord for a job well done which has reaped much fruit, whose fellowship we shall enjoy in God’s Family, both now and forevermore, and for which both you and they will be eternally thankful and God everlastingly grateful! “Well done,” He’ll say, “thou good and faithful servant. … Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:23). Hallelujah! They that win many shall shine (Daniel 12:3).

Copyright © May 1975 by The Family International

Changing Lives – Part 2b

Compilation

2004-02-01

What I Know About Being Beautiful

By Enid C. Anfinson

“Pretty is as pretty does,” Mother would invariably say when trying to assuage my wounded ego after some friend (and there were many) had exclaimed, “What a beau­tiful child!”-always staring straight past me to gaze at my sister Ida.

Ida’s dark hair hung shoulder length in silky curls while my kinky locks popped back from Mother’s comb in hundreds of tight corkscrew curls like the coat of a poodle. I knew I would never be pretty, and I resented it.

The summer that I was 11 years old, Lilla Haley returned to our town. For years I had been hearing the praises of this wonderful woman. Mother’s friends never ended a coffee get-together without lamenting our community’s great loss when Lilla moved away. Now after all these years, she was returning.

“Who is this lady?” I asked mother.

“Lilla,” mother explained, “is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. She was a teacher and a nurse and always the Good Samaritan. She has helped find a good home for many a homeless child. She has helped everyone she knows.”

I began to paint mental pictures of Lilla. She would be stately, regal, wide-eyed with long dark lashes, a breathtaking figure, and a fine complexion.

It was nine o’clock one morning, two days before anyone in town expected her, that Lilla breezed into our house. Mother was baking cookies. I was on my knees cleaning the cupboard under the sink. Ida was straightening her room.

I stared at the long-awaited Lilla, and my eyes popped. She was short, with a little stoop to her shoulders. Her sandy brown hair was streaked with white. But what was shocking was her mouth. With protruding jaw and uneven teeth, her mouth was badly misshapen.

After the glad cries of reunion between her and Mother, Lilla noticed Ida and me standing by the door, gaping. “Oh,” she said, “I almost forgot you had two lovely daughters.” Then the miracle happened. Instead of gushing about Ida’s beauty, she looked right past her at me.

“That hair!” she said. “Let me feel it.” I walked slowly to her side. “Beautiful,” she exclaimed, fingering the corkscrew curls. “You’ll never have to bother with curling irons as most of us do.”

From that day until her demise at the age of 80, Lilla was a very special friend of mine, as she was to all who knew her.

One day I asked her the question that was on my mind: “Lilla,” I said, “why are you so nice to everyone?”

She smiled at me. “Enid, I would have been the most miserable and mean person in the world had it not been for my mother. You know I am no beauty and I was very self-conscious about it. One day I blurted out to my mother, ‘Why do I have to have such an ugly mouth?’

“Mother gathered me in her arms. ‘Re­member always,’ she said, ‘it is not the shape of a person’s mouth that makes her beautiful. It is what comes out of the mouth that makes her beautiful or ugly. I’ll promise you if you let only kind words come through your mouth, you’ll be the most beautiful person in the world.

“‘But you will need help, and God is always near to help you. Just remember to ask Him.’ I have tried all my life to do just that.”

It was then I understood my mother’s words-pretty is as pretty does.

* * *

Papaw’s Crab Apple

By Jonnie Launten Shore

I grew up with my two brothers and five sisters on a small farm in rural North Carolina, in the U.S. Our parents often seemed overwhelmed: They had too little time and money, and too much laundry and cooking to deal with, not to mention the never-ending childhood illnesses and injuries.

Luckily, they had help-our mother’s parents, John and Bessie Yokley, whom we called Papaw and Mom. The two of them, my grandfather in particular, seemed as unshakable as the old crab apple tree that kept a solitary vigil in one of the fields. Papaw’s father planted it the day Papaw was born, and the tree had survived drought, heat, floods and natural disasters in much the same stubborn fashion that my grandfather had weathered life’s storms. I often climbed it when I needed to be alone to think.

I took it for granted that Papaw would be around forever. That’s why it came as such a shock when he became ill the winter after I turned 16, and instead of bouncing back as usual, he got weaker and weaker.

As soon as it was warm enough, I climbed the crab apple and settled in a comfortable nook amid its thick, gnarled branches. My head wasn’t filled with the thoughts that typically preoccupied me. I didn’t think about who I was, what I would do when I grew up, or even about God. I thought about Papaw.

In my mind he wasn’t the sickly old man his illness had made him, but the strong, barrel-chested force he had been all my life. Unruly white hair capped his lined, leathery face, and his blue eyes beamed alertly from behind his thick glasses clad in his standard uniform-Jack Rabbit overalls with patches on the knees and scuffed brogans with broken shoestrings-he worked tirelessly beside the eight of us grandchildren in the fields as we planted, picked, hoed, and weeded. A lifelong farmer, Papaw loved and respected the land and its Creator.

Papaw was the backbone of our family and respected throughout the community. He was held in high esteem, as much for his knowledge of farming as for his honesty and integrity. My grandfather was also renowned for his intolerance of what he called slick talkers.

I smiled as I remembered the afternoon a salesman became acquainted with Papaw’s biting wit.

That hot, dry summer day a dust-covered Volkswagen Beetle pulled into our driveway. A red-faced young man emerged, wearing a sweat-dampened seersucker suit. He dragged an unwieldy suitcase from the passenger seat and, putting on his most charming smile, headed for Papaw.

“Afternoon, Grandad. Hot one, huh?” My grandfather didn’t respond but the young man was undeterred and proceeded to launch into a 30-minute speech. When he was finished, the salesman paused expectantly. “Well, whaddya say, Grandad? Pretty impressive, huh?”

Shifting the piece of straw he had been chewing to the other side of his mouth, Papaw growled, “What in tarnation are you talking about?”

“Encyclopedias, sir,” the young man said. “Books that tell you everything you want to know.”

“Well, if anyone around here needs to know anything,” my grandfather snorted, “they can come and ask me.” Without another word, the salesman packed his books and slunk off.

I absently stroked the crab apple’s smooth bark, lost in my reverie. But try as I might, I could not reconcile the tough, spirited presence of my memories with the frail man who had been too weak to take part in our springtime planting. I climbed down, feeling cheated out of the sense of comfort and security I usually got from my perch in the crab apple.

Around the first of June, a severe thunderstorm struck. I had a bad feeling about Papaw’s tree, and after the storm passed I went to check on it. The tree was still standing-but barely. Several limbs had been sheared off, and there was a crack cleaving the trunk almost in two. “He’s going to die.” The unwanted thought sprang from my lips before I was aware I had spoken.

The next day Papaw was taken to the hospital. He hung on for two weeks before a massive stroke ended his pain.

The afternoon of his funeral another thunderstorm raged, toppling the crab apple. To me, Papaw and his tree had epitomized stability. My faith in the order of the world-and indeed, my faith in its Creator-was shaken to its very roots.

I couldn’t talk about my sense of loss with anyone. Instead, I blamed God. He had taken my grandfather and left me to face life on my own. I lashed out at everyone who tried to comfort me. I took innumerable walks, trying to make sense of what had happened.

Always I found myself in the field, staring at the empty space where the crab apple had been. Sometimes I captured a fleeting sense of peace and acceptance. But eventually the thought of life without Papaw caused the deep, almost palpable ache of bitter loss to resurface.

Then one morning I awoke with the smoking remnants of a dream still drifting within my consciousness. I had dreamed I was walking and weeping, when I heard Papaw call my name. Amazed, I turned and saw him standing right where the tree had stood. Beside him was another person I didn’t recognize. I ran up and for some reason knelt before them.

Tenderly chiding me for my tears, Papaw spoke of the happiness he had found in the place where he was now. He reminded me of the pain he had suffered during his life, especially his final days. The other figure stood back. I couldn’t make out his features, but I sensed a radiance emanating from him unlike anything I had ever witnessed.

“Jonnie, it’s time for you to ask the Lord to forgive you for your anger and to heal your sorrow,” Papaw said.

“But He’s the one who killed you and left us all alone,” I protested.

Papaw quoted from Psalms: “And he shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper”(Psalm 1:3).

The other figure leaned over me and asked, “Do you suppose I would fail to watch over what I have so lovingly planted?”

Then both of them were gone.

What did my dream mean? I wasn’t sure, but I knew where I had to go. I dressed quietly and slipped out of the bedroom I shared with my sisters. I headed to the familiar place in the field. When I finally stood at the spot, breathing in the fresh early-morning air, I felt oddly at peace. As in my dream, I suddenly knelt, ignoring the damp ground chilling my knees.

I looked down. There before me-incredibly-were eight small apple-tree shoots, their tender green tips pushing through the soil. They grew in twin clusters, with two shoots grouped on the left, and six shoots grouped on the right. Just like us grandchildren-two boys and six girls. God was looking out for us. Even without our grandfather, the eight of us would be all right. God hadn’t taken Papaw away, but had brought him closer into His embrace.

My tears fell, dotting the earth where the crab apple had once stood. But this time they were the healthy, healing tears of acceptance and gratitude and love-for Papaw and for God.

Changing Lives – Part 2a

Compilation

2004-02-01

A Christian’s Light for the Path publications are distributed free of charge on a strictly non-profit basis to members and friends of The Family.

For more feeding reading, visit our Web site at www.thefamily.org.

Stories courtesy of Guideposts magazine, The Hidden Hand of God-Remarkable Answered Prayers, and Chicken Soup for the Soul.

* * *

Here is another compilation of stories about turning points-moments when God intervenes in the lives of His children, after which they are not the same.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.

(Psalm 103:2-5, 17-18 NKJ)

* * *

Night of the Fire

By Bruce Thomas

The papers called me a hero. The fire department said I was respon­sible for the saving of lives. Wow, are they ever wrong! If it had all been up to me, that whole family might have died.

So that you’ll understand what I’m saying, let me tell you a little bit about myself. For the first part of my high school years I went around kind of lost all the time. I wanted to say things and ask ques­tions, but I was afraid to. Like this one time I called one of the guys from school to see if I could go out with him and his friends. When I told him who it was, he said, “Hi, Bruce, what do you want?”

Then I kind of froze up. So I said, “Oh, nothing,” and hung up. Or like another time in school when I did ask a question. You could hear everybody sort of giggle and the teacher looked like he was going to laugh. He said, “Would you repeat that, Bruce?”

I could feel my neck burning and I just couldn’t ask it again. That’s the way things were always going with me. I even tried drugs, thinking they might help me say and do the right things. But then when I wasn’t high everything seemed worse than it did before.

This one night I had really had it with people and questions. To top it off, my 15-year-old sister, Jama, came into the room. She’d had this religious experience and I knew she was going to bug me about it. Just as I predicted, she went, “Bruce, guess what?”

“Jama, I don’t care what.”

“Jesus Christ is real.”

“Would you quit bugging me about religion?”

“Jesus is real. If you’d only ask Him to come into your life, you’d see He’s real.”

“Get lost, Jama. Go do your homework.”

“Please, Bruce, He’ll change your life.”

I can’t explain it except to say that suddenly she just got to me. I didn’t want to ask any more ques­tions, but finally I said, “Okay, I’ll try it. I’ll ask Him.”

I know that most people get down on their knees for something like that, but I got down on my hands and knees! I asked, “Are You real, Jesus? I don’t know, but if You are, I want what You’ve got to give me.”

Something happened right then. It really did. Zap. Just like that I could feel Him there with me. I knew that suddenly I was different. Jama had been sitting there on the floor beside me. When I looked at her, she was crying and laughing and praying. She knew too that something had happened. Can you imagine a 15-year-old girl being that smart!

As the days went on, I found out that Jesus Christ really cared about me. If I’d ask Him something, He’d answer it. Just a quiet voice in my mind, but so different than any­thing I’d heard before.

Like one time I was working in a restaurant and everything was really hectic and I thought that I’d sneak a few minutes off for a Coke. Then I went, “Jesus, that’s not really right, but I’m bushed. What’ll I do?” He told me that He’d be my strength. Suddenly I never felt so good in my life.

So talking to Jesus has become a really big thing in my life. Of course, that’s the whole point of what I was saying about my not being a hero the night of the fire.

I had met a really great girl, Judy. When it happened, I was taking Judy home from the prom. I was just getting out of the car when I heard a crackling noise like wood burning. I forgot about Judy and ran into the corner of her yard. Across the field a house was on fire. Judy was coming toward me and I yelled at her, “Call the fire department.”

I hopped a fence, ran across a field, hopped another fence and landed in the middle of a drive­way. In front of me was a garage connected to a house and it was covered with flames that were spreading like crazy. The fire looked just like it was gulping the garage. I could hear the sizzling of paint and see black smoke pour­ing into the sky. I got so excited that a really weird thing happened. My body just wouldn’t budge.

The flames kept shooting up and I could imagine that people were sleeping in that house. But my feet wouldn’t move. My voice couldn’t yell.

In my mind I said, Jesus, what shall I do?

Just like that, I started running. I didn’t know what to do, but it seemed like something inside of me did. I went around the house, up the stairs and started banging on the door.

A man, later I found out his name was Mr. Barcott, stuck his head out and yelled, “What’s going on? What’s all the racket?”

“Your house is on fire!”

He ran out the front door and went running to the back. He seemed still half-asleep when he picked up a little hose and started squirt­ing it at the fire. I heard my voice saying, “That isn’t going to help. Let’s get your family out.”

He dropped the hose and ran in­side and I followed him. I saw his wife standing inside the door hold­ing this little girl and looking real confused. Somehow I just knew where to go and I headed into a bedroom. Two little boys were standing there huddled together. Through the smoke I could see the wall was black and beginning to buckle. The boys were just rooted to the floor.

I grabbed each of them by the hand and said, “Come on!” They were so scared they didn’t want to move. As I pulled them to the front door the bigger one yanked his hand from mine and ran back into the room for his shoes. I pushed the little one out the front door and ran back after the other one. Mrs. Barcott had already got an­other little girl and she ran out the front door. I had the other boy and I was running with him. Mr. Bar­cott was right behind me with an­other boy. I heard him say, “We’re all outside.”

Then there was this huge noise, the whole house shook and the room where the two little boys had been standing exploded into flames.

I had shivers going up and down my body. Mrs. Barcott was crying. I heard her say, “Thank God for YOU.”

That jolted me into remember­ing how I had almost stood and watched the whole house burn. I answered her, “Thank Jesus. He saved you!”

So that’s what I mean. When you know all the facts, it’s pretty hard to call me a hero. All I did was get used to asking Jesus my questions and get used to expecting Him to answer.

Changing Lives – Part 1g

Compilation

2003-09-01

How I Got Out

By Henry Shaw

Mine is a story of healing. I’m going to leave it up to you to figure out why I was healed, and even what I was healed of; but when you are though reading this, you’re going to have a feeling of hope. Because if I can be healed, anybody can.

Let’s face it-most of my life has been a disaster. I’ve hated and cheated, I’ve robbed people, pushed them around and been pushed in turn. I’ve done time in prison. At 15 I started smoking marijuana and by 18 I was hooked on heroin. All this is hardly a pretty picture, which makes it hard to believe that today I’m a man who got out of that cycle, a man who is working at life, a man who has been healed.

The first man I hated was my own father. The last man I hated was a cop by the name of Meyer. Maybe my father started me off wrong; I’ll never know and I can’t hold him responsible for my problems, but I remember the way he used to beat my mother and I hated him for it.

My mother and my little sister, Vera, were the two people I loved the most in the world, but before I’d reached my teens they had taken my mother to a mental institution, put my brothers and sisters in foster homes and me in a correctional school for “difficult” boys. Still, the hardest blow of my youth was when little Vera died in a fire. After that, nothing seemed to make sense to me.

The bulk of my life, until I was 40, is lost to me now in a blur of stealing, drinking, jail, and syringes filled with heroin. I can recall short periods of withdrawal, and how I’d soon be down on the street again stealing for another fix. When the veins in my arms would give out, I’d mainline my legs, and I remember one time when my legs were so filled with infected sores that I fell unconscious from the poison. That experience might have been a turning point in my life. It wasn’t. When I came to the hospital, I found the doctors talking about amputating my legs.

“God,” I cried out in desperation, “don’t let them do it!”

I was in traction for 14 days, but my legs were saved. After that I wanted to stay off drugs more than anything.

Five minutes after the hospital doors closed behind me, I had found myself a fix.

That’s the way my life went for a long time, from fix to fix, stealing in between, sneaking away from the sight of cops, being hounded by one cop in particular, Meyer. He thought I was pushing the stuff. I wasn’t, but he hounded me just the same. Once when I was lying half-dead in a flop house, retching after four days of withdrawing, Meyer burst in and began to rough me up, trying to make me tell where my supply was.

The turning point in my life came when I least expected it.

I was out of money and I was getting desperate for a fix when I saw one of those cards loaded with dimes for crippled children. I grabbed the card and ran.

Later, lying on my cot, the shot I’d paid for with the dimes was just taking over when I felt a sharp pain. I rolled over and found that I had been lying on the crippled children’s card and it had jabbed me in the back. I grabbed the card and started to toss it when I noticed the picture on it-a little kid on crutches with a big brace on his leg. That kid was smiling at me, big as life. I quickly shut my eyes, but when I looked again, there he was, still smiling. All of a sudden it hit me. I began to see how rotten I’d become.

“You stole from a cripple,” I shouted. Then I jumped up and stumbled across the room, tearing the card to shreds. All except the kid. His picture seemed to be made of steel. He made me hate myself.

Back on my cot, I took all the heroin I had left and finally I was floating carefree. But suddenly my muscles started to ache. My chest tightened so I couldn’t breathe, and I panicked. “You stupe, you took too much. You’re going to die!” I told myself.

My life rolled before me. I could see how wrong I’d been. For the first time I knew I wanted to live right. Now I fought to live. I wanted to plead to God for life, but I couldn’t. I’d failed Him too much; I couldn’t ask Him. Just then I seemed to be looking right at Vera, my little sister who’d burned to death. “Vera, Vera,” I called out, “you’re up there where all the power is. Get me some help, quick!” My breath came easier, my muscles quit cramping, and I knew that help had come.

This was the odd turning point in my life. Odd, because three days later I was arrested. Somehow even then I knew this was part of God’s plan for me. I was so sure of it that as I fell onto the cot in the padded cell they put me in, as I started the hell of another withdrawal, my mind was at ease. For the first time in 26 years I went to sleep without the help of narcotics.

Five fierce, painful days went by in that cell. But it was different this time. The feeling of goodness I had was stronger than the pain.

I was sent to the penitentiary, and as I settled into prison routine, I sensed that life was getting better. Yet I lived with the fear that once I got out, I’d go right back on dope. One side of me whispered, “God helped you go off it; He’ll help you stay off.” Then my other side would laugh, saying, “You won’t be able to do it!”

This was the two-sided battle inside me until the day I watched a man named Chester Self walk to the gallows. This guy stepped out of the death house looking more confident than I’d ever seen anyone look before. He radiated the confidence I now desperately wanted. When I heard that the chaplain, Father McCabe, was going to talk about Chester Self on Sunday, I went to the chapel because I had to hear.

He told us how Chester had bared his past life, how he had come to trust God in whatever happened to him in the future. And as I listened, I came to realize why the big fight was going on inside me, why I couldn’t be sure I’d stay off the stuff. I knew the only answer was not just to ask God, but to trust Him.

Right then and there in a prison chapel, I, Henry Shaw, a 40-year-old dope addict with tears running down his face, began to pray, “I trust You, God. Take over my life.”

In that moment of knowing, everything changed, and I knew too how filled with hate I was. When I talked this over later with Father McCabe, he told me that I could learn to love. He suggested I make a list of all the good I had ever done, all the times I had loved.

But as far back as I could recall, I’d never done any good. The only thing I could remember was how, whenever I’d come across an addict like me who was sick bad and needed a fix quick, I’d share my stuff with him.

“Write it down, Henry. It shows one thing-it’s a spark of love.”

Then he said, “One way to make your love grow is to pick out the man you consider your worst enemy and begin to pray for him.”

The first man I thought of, the man I hated most, was Meyer, that police detective. The thought of him still gave me the shakes. So I took this cop, Meyer, and prayed for him every morning and every night.

The day I got out of prison I went to the police station to register as an ex-con. Who should be there but Meyer himself. When I saw him there, face to face, I could hardly believe it. I didn’t hate him anymore. I stepped up to him and held out my hand and said, “Well, Meyer, how are you doing?”

“Do I know you?” he said, puzzled.

“Henry Shaw,” I said and smiled. He looked like he’d seen a ghost.

“What happened to you? You look good.”

So I told him how I’d found God in prison and how I’d got down on my knees every morning and night and prayed for him and how I loved him. The next thing you know that big police detective had tears running down his face and the next thing you know I did too.

Then he wanted to know if he could help me. I was pretty well set up myself, but I asked if he could join me in trying to help some of my friends down on the street.

So together we walked down the station hall, a big detective and an ex-con, and I was thinking to myself how trusting God had fanned that little spark of love for a sick dope buddy into a big flame-a flame that would keep me from going back on the stuff again, and might even help me keep that sick buddy from ever being sick again.

*

Since his parole, Henry Shaw has started and managed Seattle’s first halfway house for ex-convicts; started Pioneer Industries, a company that provides jobs for ex-convicts; and works nights counseling addicts and alcoholics.

Changing Lives – Part 1f

Compilation

2003-09-01

Mom’s Angels

By Jacquelin Gorman

“Is there anything in particular you want to talk about?” my mother asked, but with a stranger’s voice. I pressed my body deeper into the vinyl-cushioned side of the ambulance. Her throat was so raw from the tubes and machines, and her lungs so saturated with fluid, that even the simplest words were sometimes unintelligible. It was a language I had learned to interpret these last few months. Still, I could not answer her question at first.

My mother smiled patiently. Her face, stripped by cancer to its barest, fragile essence, remained beautiful. With her hairless, smooth head, she appeared at once impossibly old and impossibly young.

“No, Mom, nothing in particular,” I answered. Then I confessed, unable, as always, to lie to her.

“Just everything, Mom. I just want to talk about everything.”

Every big thing and every little thing that will happen to me, I thought. I need answers to all the questions I would have asked you years before, if I had known to ask them. I want your advice on raising my daughter, your first granddaughter, who, now too young to know you, will have to borrow my memories. But most of all let’s talk about how I am going to live the rest of my life without you.

This is what I wanted to say, but I remained silent.

“I know,” she said, in the saddest tone yet of that stranger’s voice, as if she had just read my thoughts.

I glanced out of the rear window of the ambulance, stroking the back of Mom’s limp hand in a slow, steady rhythm, trying to comfort myself as well as her.

She was breathing so shallowly. I concentrated upon her now-tiny body (tiny except for the huge, swollen abdomen) before I detected a slight, uneven movement of her swaddled form. I had nearly stopped breathing myself as I watched her.

I cried out a desperate prayer: Please, God, wait until we get her home. Let it happen in her own bed, in peace.

“She has a tumor that is growing rapidly and will result in her death in the next twenty-four hours.”

That is what her doctor had said to us late the night before in the hospital corridor.

My sisters had stood with me, flanking our father. I clutched a notepad on which I had carefully written down all our questions. Somehow we had figured that if we just asked this man the right question, he would give us the answer we hoped for. But none of the questions about the quality of our mother’s life mattered anymore after being given the answer of death. Still, my father choked one out.

“Will she make it home?” he asked. The doctor gave my father a look I had seen on his face once before. It was 10 months earlier, when the diagnosis had been made, and after listening to his clinical speech my mother had asked him a single question. The room was so quiet, I remember thinking I actually heard the sound of our hearts breaking as she spoke.

“Do I have one good year left?” she asked.

The doctor had answered my mother then with this same wary expression.

It had not even been a year, and certainly not enough of what had occurred since then had been good.

Then last night, my father had flinched at the doctor’s unspoken message. Then he spoke in a voice I remembered from over 20 years before, an incredibly resonant, strong voice, the way as a child I had imagined God sounded.

“I have arranged for a private ambulance to take my wife home as soon as she wakes up tomorrow morning. I expect you to be there, and take every tube, and I mean every one, out of her so that she can go home the way she should-the way a person who is as loved and cherished as she is should.”

“Yes, of course,” the doctor said simply. He was visibly relieved. There was nothing else for him to do, and best of all, nothing else he was expected to do. The passing of the torch, so to speak, for the homestretch.

I returned from my thoughts of the night before when my mother asked, “Have we gone over the bridge yet, darling?” She was surprisingly alert.

I looked for a familiar landmark and saw that we were slowing down to glide through the sleepy Maryland eastern-shore town that my parents had retired to a couple of years earlier. I recognized a few of our neighbors outside their houses, standing in a solemn salute.

They had been there for her, the way a rural community knows how to be. All during the 10 months of her illness they had been busy for us-leaving freshly baked casseroles on the doorstep, weeding her flower garden when she was away for chemotherapy, clearing brush from the shoreline so that she could see the water from her bed. People made of solid gold.

“Mom, we’re almost there; we’re going through town.”

The ambulance crept up our driveway, and I could see my father and sisters standing outside the front door, waiting. Their vigil struck me. So this is how I must look, how we all look, the exposed faces of grief.

How terrible for her to remember us this way. How equally terrible for us to remember her this way. I threw myself angrily against the doors, just as they opened, and gasped the rain-filled air as I scrambled out.

I have only the filmiest memories of those first hours of my mother’s return, part of the 24 hours that the doctor said would be her last. I do not remember exact words, or precise events, but at some remarkable point during the early evening, right before our eyes, she turned her own corner, one that no physician had foreseen. And the next morning she woke up, her abdomen completely flat, got out of bed, and made a pot of coffee for her incredulous family.

“There were four angels with me last night,” she announced quietly, her soft voice restored.

My sisters and I smiled at the same time, each of us thinking that she was referring to her four daughters, because, angels or not, we had taken turns listening, through the night, from an adjoining room, our ears pressed against a baby monitor, to the sounds of her continued breathing.

“No,” she said. “Four angels came in the night, and each held one corner of the sheet a few inches above my stomach.”

She looked across the table at each of us in succession. My father looked down at his hands.

“And they are waiting for me, but they said that I must have faith because there is still some time left. I know what the doctors have said, but you all must listen to me, because the angels told me. So let’s make some plans now.”

Then she proceeded to give us her wish list. To pick up the new boat and go on a family ride across the creek. To have my daughter flown out to see her one more time. To arrange a small dinner party to thank her closest friends. Small wishes. Yet the day before, they had been beyond our most far-reaching prayers.

My sisters began a grocery list in preparation for the dinner, and I followed my mother into the bedroom.

“Mom…,” I started to say, not even knowing what my question was.

She adjusted her brightly colored silk scarf around her bare scalp, and looked up at me defiantly.

“Darling, it was not a dream. It was not even a vision. It happened; they were here, as surely as you are standing here right now. And,” she added, pointing to Danny, our aged golden retriever in his favorite position on the end of her bed, “he had to shove one of the angels aside last night before he could find a place to lie down. I watched him nudge an angel with his nose so that he could sleep here.”

We both stared at the dog, who rolled his chestnut eyes toward me, tilting his head up proudly, as if he knew full well the importance of being sole witness to my mother’s story.

“So you see, you have time to fly back to California and bring my granddaughter here.”

I buried my face in the dog’s neck, hiding my bewilderment, and listened blissfully to her plans. I had always believed that if God had to choose one animal to enter Heaven, it would be a golden retriever.

“The angel told me that God has chosen my time,” she said, “but He is allowing me to choose the hour.”

Indeed He did. During the next few weeks she hosted the dinner party, although informally attired in her bedclothes, and she had communion in her living room, the minister stepping over the sleeping dog so as not to spill the blessed wine. She went out on the water for a short ride on a calm day in my father’s new boat. She saw my daughter once more and listened to her giggle the way only a two-year-old, untouched by the closeness of death, can. And more small things, but enormous to us by the mere fact of their occurrence. Each one a gift from God, through her to us.

Six weeks later my mother chose her hour. She was home, sleeping in her bed, holding my father’s hand. I am sure God was nearby. And I am surer still that even closer to her side were those friends that only my mother and our dog had been granted the privilege to meet, returning once more to reclaim their precious charge.

Changing Lives – Part 1e

Compilation

2003-09-01

 Our Blue-Eyed Maverick 

By Nelson Pendergrass

It was early December-breeding season on our ranch in eastern Oklahoma. We had 200 heifers to move, separate by breed, and put into pastures with the bulls. My two sons and I saddled our horses and swung up on their backs with that pleasant squeaking of leather on leather.

My 12-year-old, Terry, was riding Big Man, a large bay who had months of training as a cow horse and could do more than his share of work. My nine-year-old, Buddy, was riding his App, another experienced horse. I rode the dun mare. Though she was green at working cattle, she too could help if I handled her properly.

As we rode along, driving the heifers in front of us, our bodies swayed in that comfortable rolling motion that always makes me feel at peace with God and man. The faint odor of hickory smoke drifted on the crisp fall breeze from our neighbors’ house over the ridge. It’s a beautiful day, I thought. It’s filled with the kind of rugged beauty any cowboy would love. But my mind was troubled. I was thinking of the boy who had been living with us for the past year.

David was a nice-looking 16-year-old kid with blue eyes and light brown hair. He was taller and bigger than my boys, and he should have been with us now. But he couldn’t be counted on when it came to doing important jobs. I had sent him to pick pecans with my wife.

David was a delinquent boy from a broken home. I had taken custody of him from the juvenile court, thinking that a good Christian home would be the kind of environment that could change a boy like David. I thought I was the kind of man that could help him change.

But David was a different breed. He had no self-respect, and whenever he was put under any pressure to do a better job, he was ready to quit. The summer before, I got him a job with an electronics repair shop in Bixby. He started out by doing fine work, and his employer gave him more responsibility. But when his boss sent him on errands in his pickup, David would drive like a maniac. When his boss told him to cut out the recklessness, David stormed home.

“He can’t talk to me like that!” David told me that evening. “I’m not working for him anymore.”

“You can’t quit just because your boss corrects you for what you’ve done wrong,” I said. I’d grown up during the Depression, and to me work was honorable wherever it was found. “You can’t just throw away a good job. Life doesn’t work that way. With that attitude you’re always going to have trouble.”

“I don’t care what happens to me. Just leave me alone!” he said, stomping away.

Months had now passed and I had run out of answers for David’s problems. Maybe I should send him back, I thought. But part of me knew I’d try to keep him until he was out of high school. Then he’d be on his own, and it would be a relief to see that sullen boy go. He was simply the kind of kid I couldn’t help. What more could the Lord expect me to do?

Buddy opened the gate and we started herding the heifers into the pasture. To a working cowboy, nothing compares to the feel of a strong horse beneath you as you move into a herd of cattle. But today the confidence I usually felt when riding Big Man was missing. The dun, I could sense, didn’t know what she was about.

And this part of the job took special skill. The corral gate was alongside an oil-and-chat road with wide, grassy shoulders. It was always a scramble to turn the cattle in the right direction and into the corral-and sure enough, about 20 of the heifers headed out to the wrong way.

I tackled the job of driving them back to the main herd. I eased my mare through the 20 and closed in on the lead heifer, a black whiteface. The dun mare, seeming to know she was supposed to stop the heifer, broke into a gallop. Suddenly the heifer swung her head to the right and lurched across our path! My horse reared. We fell. Hard.

When I opened my eyes neither the dun mare nor the heifer was in sight. I was lying on the grassy shoulder of the oil-and-chat road with the short clipped Bermuda grass pricking my cheek.

Through blurry eyes I saw the face of my older son.

“Daddy?” he screamed. Tears streaked his cheeks. “Daddy?”

I didn’t know what he was seeing, but it couldn’t be good. “I’ll be all right, son,” I said, even though I knew something was terribly wrong. “Ride home and tell your mother to call an ambulance.” He hesitated only a moment. Then Big Man’s hooves thundered and he was gone.

I couldn’t move my right arm, I had a burning sensation in my right leg, and my left arm between elbow and hand was bent grotesquely at a right angle. I wasn’t in pain-but I knew that would come later.

The ambulance screamed its way over the country roads to Tulsa, rushing me to St. Francis Hospital. Once I was inside the emergency room, a team of doctors went to work mending my crushed body.

After long hours in surgery with one of Tulsa’s finest orthopedic surgeons, I awoke in the intensive-care unit. Casts encased my elevated arms and one leg. It would be a long time before I would ride a horse again.

As I lay in bed, I thought that now I wasn’t physically able to deal with a delinquent boy. David would probably have to go. In fact, I kind of liked the idea of having our home to ourselves, without a stubborn outsider to take care of. I’d see what would happen once I got home.

On the third day in intensive care, sudden, searing pain tore through my chest. A signal from one of my monitoring machines brought a nurse on the run. A blood clot was passing through my heart. The pain was unbearable. For the first time in my life, I wanted to die.

I gasped for air. But it hurt too much to breathe. Better to just drift away, I told myself. Away from the fear, from the pain. Forever.

But there was the nurse, her face not six inches from mine.

“Breathe! You’ve got to breathe!” she said.

Leave me alone, I wanted to scream. Let me die.

But no, she was still there.

“Breathe,” she said. “Breathe! … Breathe! … Breathe!” I was willing to give up, but she was not. Again and again, I fought to take a breath as she called to me.

The surgeon and heart specialist appeared. But even as they worked, the nurse remained my lifeline. As long as she wouldn’t give up, I couldn’t either. I had to go on. “Breathe!” she said. I did.

The crisis passed somewhere in the middle of the night. I made it through.

As weeks passed, my body mended. I went home with the idea that I’d have to send David away. I didn’t think I would be strong enough to put up with a boy who refused to cooperate.

Then one morning when I awoke I discovered that David and my pickup were gone. He had roared off into the night before without a word-and now it seemed clear he wasn’t coming back. It made me sick and angry at the same time. After all we had done for the boy, how could he treat us like that? As far as I was concerned, that was the last straw. Let the juvenile court deal with this, I thought. He’s hopeless.

Before the day was over I had a call from the sheriff’s office in Russellville, Arkansas. They had David and my stolen pickup. We went to get him the next day. As I followed the jailer, the jingle of his keys echoed in the little block of cells.

“You’ve got company,” the jailer said.

David glanced up at me through the bars, sneered and looked away.

I tried to talk to him. “David, don’t you realize how serious this all is?”

“I don’t care,” he said. “Just go away! Leave me alone!”

In an instant his words brought it all back to me-the pain of the blood clot, my wish that the nurse would go away and leave me alone. I stared at David. This boy was in pain. But the nurse had not given up on me. “Breathe! Breathe!” she had said. “Don’t quit.” That nurse hadn’t quit on me-but here I was about to quit on David. Suddenly I saw myself as an easygoing Christian who was ready to give up when the job the Lord gave him got a little hard.

I thought of my horses. The mare that threw me had only done so because she lacked training. I hadn’t sent her away.

I thought of the nurse who had understood what I was going through. If it hadn’t been for her understanding, I wouldn’t be standing where I was now, ready to pass judgment on David.

Then I understood what I had to do.

“David, as long as you’re under my supervision, you’re not giving up on life.” My voice grew firmer as I spoke. “And I’m not giving up on you either. We’re not quitting. You’re coming home. And you and I and the Lord are going to get through all of this.”

The sneer left his face and his eyes widened in surprise. “Okay,” he said quietly. I turned and strode down the echoing hall out of the cellblock.

As the months passed, working with David was not easy, but I determined that if he couldn’t make it on his own, I would be his lifeline. I would pray for him, talk to him, discipline, him and love him whether he liked it or not. Breathe, I seemed to be saying to him. Breathe, David!

Little by little he became less stubborn and more cooperative. When finally he came of age and moved away, it was like seeing one of our own sons leaving.

David has been gone for many years now. But he writes every so often. He’s married and has two kids that he’s just crazy about. He’s been on the same job for over six years.

David brought his family by to visit the other day. After he ushered his wife and the kids out of the car, he came up to me in the yard where I was standing under an old oak. His eyes were twinkling, his hair was neatly trimmed, and he had a big smile on his face. I raised my arm for a handshake, but surprisingly, he pushed my hand aside, slipped his arms around me and gave me a big hug. “Thanks, Nelson,” he said.

Even a cowboy has a pretty hard time keeping his eyes dry at a time like that.

Changing Lives – Part 1d

Compilation

2003-09-01

Four Hours in a Baby’s Life

By Roger Campbell

When the phone rang late, it caught me scanning newspaper ads in search of a car. I had no idea that call would send me on a miracle journey I’d never forget.

The caller told me his sister had given birth that day to a baby boy who had lived only four hours. He asked if I would visit her the next day to comfort and encourage her.

“Where is she?” I asked.

“She’s at Providence Hospital in Detroit,” he replied.

After assuring my caller I would see his grieving sister the next day, I went back to my auto search and soon spotted an ad for an Olds Cutlass Supreme. A call to the owner brought a tempting description to the car, but the price was more than I could pay.

“Where do you live?” I asked, the price making me question my question.

“Near Providence Hospital in Detroit,” he answered.

Providence hospital is about thirty miles south of my home and I had never visited anyone there, so it interested me that I should suddenly have two reasons to go to that area on the same day.

“I have to go to Providence Hospital tomorrow,” I told this hopeful seller, “so I may come and look at your car.”

The following morning found me making my way through Metropolitan Detroit traffic to Providence Hospital, where I ministered to a hurting mother. Assuring her of God’s love, I reminded her of the hope of Heaven through faith in the One Who always had time for little children and left her somewhat comforted.

Walking across the hospital parking lot, I wondered if it would be worthwhile to look at the car I had called about the night before. After all, I knew I couldn’t afford it. But then I spied an Olds Cutlass Supreme in the lot and there was no turning back.

When I arrived at the address given in my phone conversation with the owner, I was impressed. This car certainly appeared to be everything he had described it to be, and shortly he and I were off for a drive. That was when the miracle began to unfold.

Our conversation started as might be expected: each of us asking what the other did for a living. When he found I was a minister, he told me about the faith of his family. His wife, he said, went to church regularly, as did her parents.

“Do you go?” I asked.

“Once in a while,” he muttered.

When we finished our drive, I made an offer on the car.

“I can’t sell this car for that,” he said.

“I didn’t think you could,” I responded, “but I’m not sure I’m here to buy your car.” Then I explained how he could have a personal faith relationship with God. And within moments, I heard this formerly faithless man thank God for forgiveness and eternal life. Soon he and his wife were hugging and giving thanks for his newfound faith.

As I prepared to leave, talking to this new man through the rolled down window of my old car, I said, “When you get to Heaven you must look up a little boy who lived but four hours,” explaining that if he had not lived and died, we would not have met.

More than a quarter of a century has passed since my meeting with that seeking man who came to faith because of the life and death of one who lived only four hours. But every time this miracle crosses my mind I’m aware again of the responsibility of all believers to share their faith with those who God, in His providence, sends their way.

* * *

My Only Prayer

By Lee Maynard (The Hidden Hand of God)

We are hunkered down at the base of a rock overhang, the summit far above us, watching the rain fall softly. We are tired from climbing and running from the rain.

My eleven-year-old grandson, Tristan, is with me. He knows about Martian land­scaping and cyberspace, and just when you think that’s all he is-an interesting child of a technological age-he names ancient gods and tells how the citizens prayed to them. “Maybe we should pray for a way out of here,” I say, watching the rain grow heavier.

“Does prayer really work?” he asks. “Would it really get us out of here?” I think carefully about what to say next … for I am not a prayerful man. I have had my share of hurts and pains in the wilderness. The stings of scorpions. The snapping of bones. Dehydration so severe my eyes stung. But I never prayed over any of that. I always thought that if I had put myself into those places, it was up to me to get out. God probably wasn’t interested.

Prayer, I have always thought, was the thing you saved for last. But every time I got to the last, there was no time for praying. And when it was over, all I could do was wonder why I was still alive.

And so I never prayed. Except once.

*

It was 1978. In the early hours, when the tops of trees were still lost in darkness, I parked my truck and stepped into New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness. My plan was to hike twenty miles in, then join up with a group of nine Outward Bound School students and their instructors, a “patrol.” I was the school director, and I was wor­ried about this patrol: three New England preppies, a college freshman, three high school graduates from Dallas, and two South Chicago street kids who had been sen­tenced to Outward Bound in lieu of jail.

I looked forward to hiking in the Gila. Even after half a lifetime spent outdoors, I couldn’t seem to see it enough. But it was midsummer, and the sun’s heat poured down relentlessly. At midday I stopped, drank some water, and for the first time noticed the heat in my boots.

The boots were not new. I had worn them some weeks and thought they were ready for the Gila. I was wrong.

I tried everything for relief: stopped and aired my feet, put on extra socks, quick­ened my pace, slowed my pace, tightened my laces, applied moleskin. Nothing worked.

I reached camp in the middle of the evening meal, took off my boots and socks, and padded around on the soft forest floor. I inspected my feet and counted eleven blisters, near blisters and hot spots. Still, I told no one about my problem.

We sat and talked for hours. After two weeks in the wilderness, only one student, a New Englander, seemed disenchanted with the course. He had tried to quit but had been talked out of it by the staff.

In the morning, the New Englander was gone. He had left hours before, thrashing back down the trail I’d come in on. We couldn’t just let him go into the unforgiving wilderness. Since I was the extra man, I put on the devil boots and went after him.

I soon realized I wasn’t just limping anymore-I was walking as though barefoot on hot glass. As I shuffled and stumbled, I tried to keep my mind above my ankles. Again, nothing worked.

A new sound sucked its way into my consciousness, and I realized it was coming from my boots. I sat on a fallen tree, held my feet out in front of me, and looked at the crimson oozing from the eyelets. If I took the boots off, I would never get them on again.

Eventually the trail came out of the brush and straight into the Gila River, flow­ing down from the high country through shaded canyons. By the time it got to me, this narrow, shallow river was still icy, and I couldn’t wait to feel it against my baking feet. But when the water poured into my boots, the burning sensation was replaced with a thousand stabs that seemed to puncture every blister.

My scream cut through the canyon, and I went face forward into the water. Then I got up and staggered across the river.

Since there was no rational solution to my problem, my mind began to create irrational ones. The answer, obviously, was a horse. If I just had a horse, my feet would no longer be a problem, and I could catch the New Englander. Like King Richard III, I began to implore, “Give me another horse. Have mercy!” What was the next word? Oh, yes. “Jesus.”

I knew I had only another hundred paces or so in me, and then I would stop, sit, and wait. I’d probably see no one for days.

The sun was low against my back, and my shadow reached far down the stony trail. I would never get to the end of my shadow. And then I stopped. The right shoulder of my shadow moved, a bulging darkness down on the trail. A huge mass, motionless now, blocked most of the low sun, an elongated head bobbing up in attention to my presence.

It was a horse. A ghost born of pain.

God, I thought, the mind is an amazing thing. It was a beautiful ghost, but I would have to make it go away. So I confronted it directly, dragging myself right up to the horse and grabbing its halter.

It was a real horse.

The animal had a halter and a lead rope but no saddle. Something was going on here that I didn’t understand, but I was not going to question. I gathered up the lead rope and struggled onto the horse’s back. “A horse, a horse,” I mumbled as it calmly carried me down the trail and into the falling darkness. “Jesus.”

The horse walked through the night and did not stop until we got to the trailhead, where I found the New Englander sitting on the bumper of my truck. I took off the hated boots, bandaged my feet, and hobbled the horse in a patch of grass. The New Englander and I slept nearby.

At first light two wranglers showed up looking for the horse. They said it had never run off before and didn’t know why it did this time. They said the horse’s name was King.

*

The rain turns to sleet, and I think maybe Tristan and I will have to sleep out the storm in a mountain where there are no horses. He leans against me, and he is smiling.

“Did you really pray?” he asks. “For a horse?”

“Well, I was a little out of it. Mumbling. I’m not sure anything I said would qualify as a prayer.”

“I think you did pray,” he says. “And you got what you prayed for, and it scared you.” As usual he’s gotten to the heart of the matter.

The sleet disappears, and a thick mist suffuses the mountain. But behind the mist is a bright light, glowing first silver and then gold.

“I did, didn’t I?” I admit. “I did pray.”

We leave the overhang and start down the mountain, the air thick with the nec­tar of after-storm. It is one of the best days of my life.

Prayer still mystifies me. Maybe I shouldn’t save it for last.

Changing Lives – Part 1c

Compilation

2003-09-01

What the Mountain Did to Me

By Ben K. Franklin

I was 18 when the mountain turned on me.

Until then I had been its master-master, for that matter, of an entire range in the Colorado Rockies. Climbing was my great love and avocation. I spent each summer climbing and each winter dreaming of the next summer when I would climb again.

Otherwise, life was fairly bland. Oh, I like to read, play football and baseball. Church bored me, and school was tolerated. But I really started to live when summer enabled me to hunt greater challenges on the slopes. They had, in fact, become my mountains. And sometimes as I pitoned* my way up a granite wall, I felt as if I had created them and all the beauty around me-the piercing scent of pine after a rain, the laugh of a brook as it tumbled to the river below. [[footnote: *piton: a metal spike for driving into ice or a rock crevice, with an eye at the other end so that a rope can be passed through it and then secured]]

But on April 14, 1963, I fell. With two fellow freshmen from the University of Colorado I was scaling a perpendicular facing when my rope frayed on a jagged ridge. It parted and I pitched backward, plummeting the equivalent of seven stories to the canyon floor.

My first sensation was floating within black wool. Through the pain all I could think of was: What happened to my rope? What happened to my rope? The voices of my companions, who had frantically rappelled down, filtered dimly through to me.

By the time the rescue squad had arrived with a stretcher, I’d become delirious. I was strapped into it, and carried down the canyon to an ambulance which screamed the 30 miles into Denver.

Surgeons pieced together my shattered pelvis and labored for hours on my back which was broken in four places. Many days in intensive care followed. Then, as my pain muted and I became more rational, the agony of my spirit began.

The sheet over my body wouldn’t move. I could wiggle my fingers and twist my wrists; but with mounting terror I learned that my body was dead from the waist down. Lose those legs that had lifted me up the mountains? No!

Anger charged through me. Those legs were mine; they would move at my command. Brutally I tried to find some muscle to contract, some nerve to pierce that deathly stillness beneath the sheets. I twisted every emotional fiber in me to will my leg to move. Nothing.

Days dragged by. I struggled for hope-and then my will melted into despair. “Why?” I cried. “Why had I gone climbing that day? Why had the rope broken? Why hadn’t God done something to help me?”

A spark glimmered within me when the doctors said they’d try a special operation. Surely surgery would have the answer. But it didn’t. My spinal cord had been too damaged. Now a wheelchair sat next to me, awaiting my surrender.

Days went on, and my legs began to wither. The doctors introduced me to a new lifestyle-they taught me how to roll over and sit up, and they fitted a steel back brace to me since my chest muscles wouldn’t support me.

And I began to pray-pray desperately to the God I was getting to know. Surely He would help me. Hadn’t Jesus said, “Ask and ye shall receive?” I asked but did not receive. My prayers filled the nights and days. In and around them my frustration festered. And in my grief I stabbed at visitors who came to comfort me. My bitterness, hate, and searing ac­cusations drove them away.

When the page of the sixth month was removed from my bed table calendar, my last drop of hope went with it. Even my hate and bitterness drained out of me. I had nothing left to fight with. My spirit was as dead as my lower body. It was the first time in my life that I’d been so com­pletely spent.

It was in this crisis of utter hope­lessness that I surrendered myself to God. At night, alone in my room, I spoke to Him: “You know that I want to walk again. But I can’t do it. I don’t have anything left, dear God. I’ve tried as hard as I know and have only discovered that my will means nothing. If not my will, then Thine be done.”

I drifted into a deep, relaxing sleep. For the first time since the mountain, I experienced the seren­ity of peaceful dreams. They were so beautiful; my feeling of help­lessness was gone. In that agoniz­ing prayer when I turned all control over to God, I had accepted my accident. In so doing I had relin­quished my will to His. And I didn’t have to fight anymore.

The next evening I moved a toe. Had it really moved? Or was it only a flickering shadow?

I stared in terrible fascination at that point of the sheet, afraid to try again. Then, very cautiously, I did try.

Again the sheet moved. I ex­ploded into ecstatic joy, laughing and shouting. An anxious-faced nurse burst into the room. I tried to kiss her; she bounced right back out again. I poured out a grateful prayer to God, with thanksgiving streaming in tears down my face.

Eight years have passed since that night, but my happiness con­tinues. I am still partially paralyzed. But after only a year in the wheel­chair, I progressed to crutches with leg braces. I have since graduated from college and now work with my father, a lecture manager, and travel around the world on my crutches.

And I am grateful for each step I take, for each sunrise I get to see. I am even thankful to the mountain. For it was through my accident that I discovered deeper joys than climbing.

Through my relationship with God I have learned compassion, the abundance of beauty, and the tremendously rich power available to me when I place my hand in His with complete trust.

I’m happy I was only 18 when it happened.

* * *

How I Found My Voice

By James Earl Jones (1993)

Today I am known for my voice as much as for my acting. It has been my good fortune to receive jobs such as the speaking role of Darth Vader in George Lucas’s Star Wars trilogy and the voice-over announcer for CNN cable televi­sion. I also narrated Aaron Copland’s Lin­coln Portrait on a com­pact disc I recorded with the Seattle Symphony. Perhaps my greatest honor came when I was asked to read the New Testament on tape.

But it took a long time to believe such good things could happen to me. When I was a youngster I stut­tered so badly I was completely un­able to speak in public.

Since I was eight I’d had trouble speaking. It was so bad that when­ever I stood up in class to read, the other kids snickered and laughed. I always sat down, my face burning with shame.

I’m not sure what caused my stut­tering. Perhaps it was an emotional problem. I was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, and when I was about five, I moved to live with my grand­parents on their farm near Dublin in northern Michigan. It was traumatic moving from the warm, easy ways of catfish country to the harsh climate of the north, where people seemed so different.

Fortunately, my granddaddy was a gentle man, a farmer who taught me to love the land. He was short and he had a prodigious amount of energy.

He even built a church to please grandmother, a fervent worshiper of the Lord. All sorts of people were in­vited to our little church; white, black and American Indian came together in a nondenominational fellowship. Granddad’s Irish heritage came out in his love for language; during the week he used “everyday talk,” but on Sunday he spoke only the finest English.

As much as I admired his fluency, I couldn’t come close to it. I finally quit Sunday school and church, not wanting to be humiliated anymore. All through my grade school years, the only way the teacher could assess my progress was for me to write down everything I had learned.

Oh, I could talk, all right. Our farm animals knew that. I found it easy to call the pigs, tell the dogs to round up the cows, and vent my feelings to Fanny, the horse whose big brown eyes and lifted ears seemed to ex­press interest in all I said. But when visitors came and I was asked to say hello, I could only stand, pound my feet, and grit my teeth. That awful feeling of my voice being trapped got worse as I grew older.

Then, when I was 14, Professor Donald Crouch came to our school. He was a retired college professor who had settled in nearby Brethren, a Mennonite community. When he heard that our agricultural high was teaching Chaucer, Shakespeare and other classics, he couldn’t stand not being a part of our school. So he left his retreat to teach us English, his­tory, and Latin.

Donald Crouch was a tall, lean man with gray hair. English was his favorite subject, poetry his deepest love. He’d been an associate of Robert Frost. He held a book of poems as if it were a diamond necklace, turning pages as if uncovering treasures. He memorized a poem every day, ex­plaining that if he ever lost his eye­sight he would still be able to savor all that beauty.

When he learned that I not only loved poetry but was writing it, we found a kinship. There was, however, one difficulty between us. Professor Crouch (we always called him that) could not stand the fact I refused to read my poems to the class.

“Jim, poetry is meant to be read aloud, just like sermons,” he pressed. “You should be able to speak those beautiful words.”

I shook my head and turned away. Then he tricked me. I labored long and hard on a poem, and after hand­ing it in I waited expectantly for his critique. It didn’t come. Instead, one day as the students assembled, he challenged me. “Jim, I don’t think you wrote this.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “Why,” I started, anger flooding me, “‘course I did!”

“Well, then,” he said, “you’ve got to prove it by getting up and reciting it from memory.”

By then the other students had settled at their desks. He looked at me meaningfully and nodded. With knees shaking, I walked up before my peers.

“Jim will recite his latest poem,” announced Professor Crouch.

For a moment I stood breathless. I could see smirks and wry smiles on some faces. Then I began. And kept going. I recited my poem all the way through-without hesitation or fault! I stood amazed and floated back to my desk in a daze, amid wild ap­plause.

Afterward, Professor Crouch congratulated me. “Aha,” he said. “Now we have something here. Not only will you have to write more poetry and read it aloud to know how good it feels, but I’m sure that you will want to read other writers’ poetry before the class.”

I was dubious about that, but said I’d try.

Soon I began to discover some­thing other stutterers know. Most have no problem singing because the lyrics’ rhythmic pattern flows by it­self. I found the same cadences in poetry, and before long my fellow students actually looked forward to hearing me recite. I loved the rolling beat of “The Song of Hiawatha,” espe­cially since I had Indian blood in my veins. “By the shores of Gitche Gum­mee,” I recited. “By the shining Big ­Sea-Waters …”

I discovered I did have a voice, a strong one. Under Professor Crouch’s tutelage, I entered oratorical contests and debates. He never pushed any­thing at me again; he just wanted all his students to wake up. He never even pressed us with religion, but fig­ured if we did wake up we would find God, find our calling and, in so doing, find life.

As my stuttering disappeared, I be­gan dreaming of becoming an actor, like my father, who was then per­forming in New York City. No one in my family had ever gone to college. But encouraged by Professor Crouch, I took exams and won a scholarship to the University of Michigan.

There I entered the drama depart­ment, and after graduation fulfilled my ROTC [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps] responsibility by serving with the Army’s Cold Weather Training Command on mountain maneuvers in Colorado. It was in the Army that a Jesuit chaplain helped me understand who God really was and opened the door to which Professor Crouch had led me.

Later, on the GI Bill, I signed up with the American Theatre Wing in New York and supported myself be­tween roles by sweeping floors of off­-Broadway stages. In 1962 I earned an Obie for my role in an off-Broadway production of Othello, and have been an actor ever since.

Meanwhile, I always kept in touch with my old professor, by letter and telephone. Every time we talked it was always, “Hi, Jim. Read any good poetry lately?” He was losing his sight and I remembered his early explana­tion of why he had memorized poetry. In later years when I was doing Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, I phoned him. “Can I fly you in from Michigan to see it?”

“Jim,” he sighed, “I’m blind now. I’d hate not to be able to see you act­ing. It would hurt too much.”

“I understand, Professor,” I said, helped in part by the realization that though my mentor could no longer see, he was still living in a world vi­brant with all of the beautiful trea­sures he had stored.

About two years later I learned Donald Crouch had passed on. I thanked God for all the professor’s help and friendship.

And so, when I was asked to record the New Testament, I really did it for a tall, lean man with gray hair who had not only helped to guide me to the Author of the Scriptures, but as the father of my resurrected voice, had also helped me find abun­dant life.

Changing Lives – Part 1b

Compilation

2003-09-01

Letters to a Stranger

By Susan Morin (The Hidden Hand of God-Remarkable Answered Prayers)

It was a bitter January evening in 1992 when the phone rang and my fifteen-year­-old son Tajin hollered, “Mom, it’s for you!”

“Who is it?” I asked. I was tired. It had been a long day. In fact, it had been a long month. The engine in my car died five days before Christmas, and I had just returned to work after being out with the flu. I was feeling overwhelmed having to purchase another vehicle and having lost a week’s pay due to illness. There seemed to be a cloud of despair hanging over my heart.

“It’s Bob Thompson*,” Tajin answered. [[footnote: *Name has been changed.]]

The name didn’t register. As I walked over to pick up the phone, the last name seemed vaguely familiar. Thompson … Bob Thompson … Thompson? Like a computer searching for the right path, my mind finally made the connection. Beverly Thompson. In the brief time it took me to reach the phone, my mind replayed the last nine months.

*

As I drove to work last March, some patches of snow were still on the ground, but the river, winding on my left, had opened up and was full of swift-moving water. The warm sun coming through my windshield seemed to give hope of an early spring.

The winter of 1991 had been a hard one for me as a single working mother. The three children were in their teens, and I was finding it hard to cope both with their changing emotional needs and our financial needs. Each month I struggled to pro­vide the bare necessities.

I faithfully attended church and a Bible study, but had very little time for anything else. I longed to serve the Lord in a way that had some significance. So that day I again apologized to Him that I had so little to give back to Him. It seemed I was always asking Him to meet my needs or answer my prayers.

“Lord, what can I do for You? I feel like I’m always taking from You because my needs are so great.” The answer to my own question seemed so simple. Prayer. “Okay, Lord, I will commit this time that I have during my drive to work to prayer. Will You give me some people to pray for? I don’t even have to know their needs, just let me know who they are.” My heart lifted as I continued to speak to Him during the remainder of my forty-five-minute trip from New Hampshire to Vermont.

I arrived at work and proceeded to open the mail and prepare the deposit. I was in charge of accounts receivable for the Mary Meyer Corporation, a company that makes stuffed animals. I opened one envelope and attached to the check was a note that said, “I’m sorry this payment is late. I have been seriously ill. Thank you, Beverly Thompson.”

I can’t explain it, but I instantly knew that this was the person the Lord had given me to pray for. “You want me to pray for her, don’t You, Lord?” I asked Him silently. The answer came in a feeling of peace and excitement combined.-I knew He had just answered my prayer from less than an hour before!

So began my journey of prayer for Beverly Thompson. At first I found it very awkward to pray for someone I didn’t even know. I did know one thing besides her name. She owned Chapter 1 Bookstore in Presque Isle, Maine, and she ordered bulk quantities of our plush animals to sell. I didn’t know how old she was. Was she mar­ried, widowed, single or divorced? What was wrong with her? Was it terminal? Did she have any children?

The answers to these questions weren’t revealed as I prayed for Beverly, but I did find out how much the Lord loved her and that she was not forgotten by Him. Many days I would find myself in tears as I entered into prayer for her. I prayed that He would give her comfort for whatever she would have to endure. Or I pleaded for strength and courage for her to accept things that she might find hard to face. One morning, as my wipers pushed the spring rain off my windshield, I saw muted tones of browns and grays. I prayed that the Lord would give Beverly eyes to see that that same drab landscape could be transformed into the greens and yellows of spring by a single day filled with sunshine. I prayed she could find hope even though it might seem covered up in the muted tones of her life, and rely on a God who can transform winter into spring.

In May, I felt that I should send her a card to let her know I was praying for her. As I made this decision, I knew I was taking a risk. Because I had taken her name from where I worked, I could possibly lose my job. I wasn’t in a position to be with­out any income.

But God, I told Him, I’ve grown to love Beverly Thompson. I know You’ll take care of me no matter what happens. In my first card, I told Beverly a little bit about myself and how I had asked the Lord for specific people to pray for. Then I mentioned how I had come to get her name. I also told her that the Lord knew all about what she was going through and wanted her to know how much He loved her.

I certainly knew how much God loved me. When I first moved into this new town, it had been difficult, especially as a single mom. But only a few weeks after arriving, I bought a Bible for fifty cents at a yard sale. When I got home, I found a folded note inside. When I opened it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Dear Susan,” the handwritten note began, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6 NIV).” Obviously, the writer was encouraging another Susan, since I had randomly picked up the Bible. But for me, it was assurance God was personally interested in me!

Summer came and went and I continued to send Beverly cards and notes. I never heard from her, but I never stopped praying for her, even telling my Tuesday night Bible study group the story. They also upheld her in prayer.

At times I had to admit to God that I really wanted a response; I wanted to know what Beverly thought about this stranger and her steady stream of notes. Did she think I was completely crazy? Did she hope I’d stop?

*

I took the phone from my son’s hand and immediately my hand went clammy. I know why he’s calling. He’s calling me to tell me to stop bothering his wife. They probably think I’m a religious kook. A million scenarios flew through my mind. “Hello, Mr. Thompson,” my voice squeaked nervously.

“My daughter Susan and I have just been going through my wife’s things and found your cards and notes and your phone number. We wanted to call and let you know how much they meant to Beverly and to fill you in on what happened.”

My heart loosened as this grieving husband continued to tell me about Beverly’s last days.

“While we were going through her things, we found your cards and notes tied up with a red ribbon. I know she must have read them over and over because they looked worn.”

Then he said quietly, “My wife had been diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of forty-eight.”

I winced at the thought of Beverly’s physical setback, but Mr. Thompson’s next words comforted me. “She never suffered any pain at all. I know now that this was a result of your prayers.”

Then he answered one of the questions I had nagged God about. “The reason you never heard back from her was because she also developed brain cancer,” he said. “Our relationship with God had amounted to going to church once in a while, but it was nothing that had much effect on our lives,” Mr. Thompson explained. “I wanted you to know that the night before she died she told me it was okay for her to die because she was going home to be with her Lord.”

As Bob Thompson continued to share his wife’s story with me, the drab land­scape of my own life was transformed. As insignificant as my life had appeared to be to me, God used it to shine His love upon another life, resulting in a gift that no one could take away.

The experience increased my faith significantly. God took one of the lowest points in my life and added glints of His glory. It made me realize that when we’re willing to be obedient, God works in profound ways.

Changing Lives – Part 1a

Compilation

2003-09-01

Sometimes in our lives there are events that are turning points, after which we are never the same. Maybe they are brought on by a great heartbreak such as the death of a loved one, or by a time of joy such as a healing from a life-threatening illness. Maybe by a word from a child, something we read, or a prayer that is finally answered in a response of the heart. These true stories compiled from Guideposts and other publications show how much the Lord does to bring us close to Him.

A Christian’s Light for the Path publications are distributed free of charge on a strictly non-profit basis. For more feeding reading, visit our Web site at www.thefamily.org.

Stories courtesy of Guideposts and Roger Campbell Ministries.

Escape to Freedom

By Sergei Kourdakov (1972)

I hesitated at the rail of the plunging trawler and wondered what impels a man to jump from his warm safe ship into a stormy ocean thousands of miles from home? Freedom? I had material free­dom in the motherland, Russia, where at 19 I was attending a Soviet naval academy. Future? As secretary of the Communist Youth League, my success was assured. What was it then that made me want to escape? Could it be that strange light in the eyes of the old woman I had been about to strike that awful night so many months ago? I trembled as I again saw her quiet, upturned face. Then gripping the ship’s cold rail, I prepared to vault over it, into the dark churning waters below.

One thing I knew: No family would grieve for me. My father, an NKVD* officer under Stalin, had been shot when Khrushchev took over. My mother died a few months later. I was then age four and be­came a child of the state in an orphanage near Novosibirsk in western Siberia. [[footnote: * NKVD: Russian acronym for People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, a predecessor agency of the KGB]]

Nursed on Marxism, my religion was communism. Our savior? Lenin. Three times I lined up in Red Square to pay homage to his mummified body.

After entering the naval academy near Vladivostok, I became a cham­pion swimmer, weight lifter, and an expert at beating up people who held illegal meetings.

These people, who called them­selves Christians, were tolerated by the government if they held their meetings under state supervision. But they had this strange habit of secretly gathering in homes, barns, even out in the forest.

And, of course, through police intelligence we always knew where they would gather.

A number of us big fellows at the naval school were paid by the local police as “volunteers” to break up these meetings. Thus the action was not “official” but “of the peo­ple.”

And it was fun. When alerted to a “secret” meeting, we’d get to­gether, laughing and joking. We’d each down a liter of vodka, pick up heavy police truncheons and head for the gathering.

After breaking through the door, we’d grab the Bibles and hand­written hymnals and rip them up. Any cry of protest was our excuse to wade into the people with truncheons flying. After all, they had broken the law and were ene­mies of the state.

The police told us, “Faith will fly out of their heads when they see your stick.”

But I never forgot Natasha, a blue-eyed blonde of about 18 with long flowing hair. We found her in a worship meeting in the little town of Petropavlovsk. One of our group, Viktor, was a giant whose arms seemed the girth of telephone poles. He picked up Natasha by her hair and threw her out the door.

“It would have been nicer to have been friends with her,” he laughed.

A week later on nearby Nagor­naja Street we made another raid. And there she was! We beat her so hard with truncheons that we boasted, “She won’t be able to sit down for a week!”

Three days later we found her again at another meeting. We just ignored her. What can you do with someone like that?

After the raids, we’d haul the literature to the police station where we’d burn it in a potbelly stove.

I don’t know what made me do it. Perhaps it was remembering Natasha and wondering what it was that made these people so stubborn. As I shoved the litera­ture into the stove, I slipped a booklet into my pocket.

Later I read it in a quiet corner at school. It was a handwritten copy of the Gospel of Luke. In it I read about a young man who’d turned on his father, and ran off to a far country where he squandered his money and goods. Yet, when he crawled home, his father welcomed and kissed him!

As I read on, I was flooded with a strange emotion-part disbelief but mingled with it, a fascination with what this book called love. Something within me was touched and I trembled. I sensed this wasn’t a human philosophy but something far greater. I felt like a man who’d spent all his days in a cave and had finally staggered out to see the sun for the first time. I compared the love this God had for us with the coldness and materialism in which I’d been living.

I tore the book into shreds.

On our next raid I followed through mechanically. As I raised my truncheon at an old woman, she said something. I hesitated and heard her praying: “Oh, Lord, save this young man.” Someone or something held my arm and I spun around; there was no one there! I dropped the club and left the melee in a daze, remembering nothing until I was five kilometers away. I went to the police director and told him I was through with the activist group.

He didn’t say much. But three days later I was called before a Party meeting for unseemly be­havior. They dressed me down, but let me off lightly since I was secre­tary of one of the largest Commu­nist youth groups in Siberia. They said I was young and would “re­think.”

I rethought all right. And the more I thought, the more disillu­sioned I became. Here, innocent people were being persecuted only because they believed in some­thing that Marxism could never offer. As I looked around with new eyes, I began to see that what our leaders promised and what was re­ality never seemed to match. It was a repressive system, and de­spite the lofty ideals of the revolu­tion, it didn’t practice what it preached.

I felt I could no longer exist under these conditions and made my decision to leave. I studied dif­ferent escape routes. Swim under the Tisza River from the Ukraine to Hungary? Cross the mountains at the Turkish border? None of­fered much hope.

Then I thought of the govern­ment trawler fleet. At school I’d achieved the rank of lieutenant. Thus I was able to arrange six months’ work experience as a radio operator on a trawler.

On a cold misty April morning I stood at the rail of the USSR Kolivajn as our fishing fleet filed out of Petropavlovsk harbor. For six months we harvested the Pa­cific, from the Bering Sea to Hawaii to California. One night off Los Angeles I thought seriously of leav­ing the ship, but the news about the Lithuanian sailor who’d jumped a Soviet ship only to be returned by the American Coast Guard had been effectively drummed into us.

As we moved north into Cana­dian waters, a tremendous storm began to lash our fleet. We radioed Canadian authorities and received permission to shelter in the lee of the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia.

It was 9:45 Friday night, Septem­ber 3, 1971, when I closed the radio-room door behind me for the last time. Through the mist I could make out the outline of mountains on the horizon. I esti­mated the shore at three miles away. I was alone on deck. This was the time.

I swung over the rail and dived into the blackness. Confident in my swimming ability, I wore no life jacket; its bulk would only slow me down. In the cold foaming waters I cut off my sweater and slashed off my pants legs with a knife lashed to my wrist. Then, sinking into the quiet deep below the waves, I pulled off my boots.

After struggling to the roaring surface, I struck out toward what I thought was shore. It was fright­ening. I would climb one soaring crest only to be buried by another crashing on me. After two hours, a dark shape loomed above me. When I made out what it was, I became sick with shock. It was my ship! I had been swimming in a circle.

My first thought was to give my­self up. I couldn’t go on any longer. But at that moment, the clouds broke, the night sky lightened, and I could see the whole line of our trawlers, their bows all pointed toward shore.

Now I knew where to head.

I struck out again. But after two more hours of fighting waves, I weakened and started cramping. As I choked and gasped, my arms became leaden and I began to sink into the dark depths. I would drown now.

I did not turn to Karl Marx.

Instead, as the water closed over my head, I realized there was an­other world beyond this one, a world that existed between Heaven and Hell. Something from deep within me cried out: “God … if You really are … if You do exist … and I feel sure You do … when my body drowns, take my soul to paradise with You.”

As I relinquished myself to Him, something happened within me. New strength, new courage flowed into my heart. I did not feel alone anymore. I struggled upward, broke water, and began swimming again, using the same powerful stroke that earned me a school swimming award.

After a while a new sound grew in intensity, the crashing of giant breakers. As I looked up, jagged rocks awaited me. But a wave car­ried me into an inlet where I tum­bled onto the shore.

It was about six o’clock in the morning and the sun was coming up over a new land before me. As its rays began to warm me, I gave thanks to Him Who brought me here.

And you, babushka (grandmother)-you who prayed for me as I was about to strike you-I think of you often, as I do all the other brave Christians who serve God in my motherland. Now I know why you do what you do. And I pray that He continues to sustain you. For if your prayers can touch a per­son like me, then surely you will bring many others to the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom I know that my motherland will find freedom, true freedom at last.

*

After his first land­ing, Sergei spent many hours try­ing to find civilization, during which he climbed a high cliff, fell, and was gashed by rocks, then swam two miles across a bay to the town of Tasu where he col­lapsed unconscious on the beach. He was found, just as the tide was coming in, by a girl who usually didn’t walk this way, “except some­thing told me to take this path that morning.” After hospitalization and a month’s internment by the Canadian government, he moved to Toronto’s Russian community. He has been active in Christian work there, including participation in a radio ministry to his former homeland.

(From the CLTP editors: Dear Family, as this article is over 30 years old, we looked on the Internet for an update on Sergei. We found that that he wrote a book, The Persecutor, and a play, Forgive Me, Natasha.

(Several Christian sites give the following information: Knowingly risking his life, Sergei became an outspoken defender of Soviet believers who were undergoing persecution. The KGB assassinated him in Los Angeles just before his 22nd birthday.) (to be continued)

Flesh or Spirit?

David Brandt Berg

1971-02-01

The most raging religious controversy the world has ever known has always been between the do-it-yourself religions and the God-alone-can-save-you kind. Man has always been trying to save himself with just a little help from God thrown in, so he doesn’t have to thank God too much but can give himself most of the credit, and do his own thing and go his own way.

The first murder was committed by a religionist of the do-it-yourself kind when Cain killed Abel—a man who was trusting God—the beginning of the persecution of the true religion by the false religion. Cain was religious, very religious, and he was trying very hard to save himself in his own way, even sacrificing to God and claiming to worship God, and doing his best to ask God to help him earn his own salvation. But his best wasn’t good enough.

His way was not God’s way. It was the way of all false religions. They are all dependent upon self-righteousness and their own way. Most of them claim to be worshiping God and seeking a little help from Him to make it, but working so hard to earn it that they figure they deserve it, with or without His help, and are quite offended if He doesn’t seem to appreciate their goodness. “Why, look at all I’ve done for You, God. You really ought to give me a medal. I really deserve to be saved. If You’re ever going to save anybody, You should save me. If anybody’s going to make it, I should certainly make it!”

On the other hand, Abel just did what God told him to do, “and offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” (Hebrews 11:4), the sacrifice of pure faith in the Word of God—the blood sacrifice of a lamb typifying salvation only through the blood of Christ, showing that he was trusting God alone to do it and that only the righteousness of God could save him. He knew he had only God’s righteousness and none of his own, and it was purely a gift from God.

This made such a fool out of the hard-working Cain, the self-made man and devout religionist devoted to his own form of worship, and so totally exposed the futility of it all, that he was furious at this exposure of his sincere hypocrisy. It so blew his whole thing after all his hard work, the labors of the flesh, his legalistic reasoning, his demands for salvation for all he was doing and his insistence on earning his own way that he tried to wipe out the awful truth of the failure of his religion to save him by killing the man whose simple faith in God’s grace had exposed him (Genesis 4:1–8).

Thus began the battle royal between pride and humility, between the legalistic religionists and the saved sinners, the perpetual warfare that has been waged ever since between carnal Babylon and spiritual Jerusalem, the flesh and the Spirit, works and faith, law and grace, self and God.

This has resulted in some of the greatest misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the Scriptures that have ever existed. People have been trying to save themselves ever since, with as little thanks to God as possible and wresting the Scriptures to prove they could do it.

Since God can’t help you to save yourself, and you can’t save yourself, no matter how much you try to get His help, and you cannot serve two masters, yourself and God—you cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24)—the religionists wound up serving mammon alone without God, and were destroyed in the flood of His judgments. Noah and his family alone were saved by the grace of God in the Ark, a type of Christ, and the very waters which destroyed the working world delivered the trusting believers.

But still they didn’t learn. As the saying goes, “The only thing we ever learn from history is that we never learn from history.”^[1] They were soon at it again, this time building themselves a tower to try to get to heaven by their own works to make a name for themselves and get credit for their greatness. But that didn’t work either. It only resulted in Babel, or total confusion, and we’ve been suffering from this babbling of many voices ever since (Genesis 11:1–9).

Even Abraham tried to pull a few tricks to save himself and his posterity, until God had to show him it was all by faith and the miracle-working power of God, not his own flesh. And yet, his natural children of Jewish descent are still claiming to be saved by his natural fatherhood.

Moses tried it and fell flat on his face before God in the desert when he found he couldn’t make it on his own. The children of Israel tried it, and were defeated many times when they thought their own arm could save them.

Even Samson found he was a weakling without the power of God. And Saul and David and Solomon all found that they only made fools of themselves whenever they tried to go it on their own, whenever they failed to recognize that only God could save them, that it was all God and nothing else.

This was the biggest source of contention among the early Christians: whether you could just believe and be saved, or whether you had to keep the law too. The Jewish Christians just couldn’t help but believe that Jews were a little bit better than Gentiles, even among Christians. “Sure, we believe that Jesus is the Messiah,” they said, “but we still have to help Him save us by keeping the old Law.” This obnoxious mixture of works and grace so nauseated Paul that he bawled Peter out publicly for it (Galatians 2:11–21), and he spent most of his years fighting it in epistle after epistle.

For a few years as a young Christian, I too was deceived, and after years of insecurity and lack of assurance, discouragement, and defeat, I found all I had to do was believe to be saved, and that did it. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). Right now!—No ifs, ands, or buts about it. No “providing you’re a good boy and go to church every Sunday,” none of this sinless perfection of the sanctimonious, self-righteous, holier-than-thou, so-called holiness saints.

I just hadn’t been able to make it, and I knew it. It seemed like the harder I tried to be good, the worse I got. “Oh, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24–25). And that’s all there is to that—nothing else, no other way, no righteousness of your own, none of your own good works. None of these can keep you saved any more than they can save you in the first place. Only Jesus can do it! He not only saves you, but He also does the works through you. It’s all Jesus; none of your own self-righteousness, just Jesus. And was I relieved, because I knew I could never make it otherwise. It had to be God. I just couldn’t do it.

I didn’t need any further doctrinal arguments to convince me, and I couldn’t figure out why Paul had to spend so much time harping on the issue with the Jews until I got to Israel and had this revelation from the Lord. Paul knew his Jews! Even we modern Jewish Christians have always had the feeling we had a slight edge on the rest of the Christians. God had just a little bit more preference for us—just a little more respect of persons in our case, that we were just a little more Christian than any other kind since we had our salvation from both directions. Even though it plainly says, “There’s neither Jew nor Greek in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28), that we’re all one and all equal in Him, we Jewish Christians have always felt a little elite, for whom all other Christians should be very thankful and give due deference.

Even the fanatically Jewish apostle Paul seems to have had a hint of a hangover of this Jewish advantage kick in some places, but I guess we’ll have to forgive him for it. Just as we’ll have to forgive the rest of the Jewish Christians for their “Behold, I am a Jewish Christian” attitude, because there’s no difference, except they were the first to hear and believe, first in chronology, in time, not in preference or prestige.—Which is what is meant by, “To the Jew first” (Romans 1:16). Their advantage was purely chronological and geographical, not in any way spiritual.

For years I had been persuaded by the pro-Jewish Christian doctrinaires, like most of the rest of the church, that the Jews still had some kind of advantage over Christians—that God was still going to somehow bless them without Christ, and they would be somehow received by God without Christ. Humbug! “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34). He doesn’t love you or me any more than anybody else.

The trouble with too many Christians today is that they’re still living in the Old Testament and making of it a works religion. When our missionaries first went to Japan, the Japanese would ask them, “Are you Old Testament or New Testament Christians?” At first they didn’t understand what they meant, but they soon found out that an Old Testament Christian meant those whose major emphasis was on temples, cathedrals, ceremonies, formalism, and tradition, and particularly a religion of works. But a New Testament Christian meant one whose major emphasis was not on buildings and pomp and circumstance and the things which are seen, but rather on the simple life of everyday Christian living, like Jesus and His disciples, and the unseen things of the Spirit. What a comparison, and how true.

Too many religions and religionists are still living in the past, even a pagan past, in which they have inherited too many hangovers from the idolatry of heathenism with its love of buildings, temple worship, sanctimonious priesthood, elaborate trappings, complicated ceremonies, superstitious traditions, and a dictatorial stranglehold on the souls of men, making merchandise of them through their insistence on salvation by works—their kinds of works, their particular religion, the special corner on God that they claim to have.

Even God had a hard time getting the children of Israel out of the idolatry of Egypt and had to lead them through Moses, with the Law as their schoolteacher, by childish little illustrations and rituals, little material object lessons—the Tabernacle, the Ark, animal sacrifices, and the blood of beasts.—Types and shadows, mere pictures of the spiritual realities and eternal verities He was trying to lead them into, almost ridiculous little analogies, like flannelgraphs and motion songs designed to show spiritual truths to little children. He had to take what they understood, the things with which they were familiar in the religions of Egypt and other heathen nations around them, in a fatherly attempt to audio-visualize for them the genuine spiritual truths of the mature adult worship of God Himself. As the apostle says, these were all “figures of the true” (Hebrews 9:24), mere visual likenesses or illustrations of the real unseen things of the Spirit.

The types and shadows, pictures of the Old Testament, are a whole study in themselves. As Paul says, “For now we see through a glass darkly, but then shall I know even as also I am known.” “For when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things” … “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:10–12).

Paul was saying that even the gifts of the Spirit of this enlightened era are almost like childish toys—gifts from a loving Father to His simple little children to help communicate understanding of Himself and His will. How much more, then, were the materialistic object lessons of the Temple worship of the Old Testament even more childish toys for even tinier children spiritually to help them understand the Father’s love.

But “God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). And when Jesus came, He told the woman at the well of Samaria, “The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father, … but the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21–24). And this is the spiritual stage in which we are now living in the Lord.

Paul goes even further than this in his prediction to the Corinthians, and says that the time is coming when we shall see Jesus face to face, and put away even these childlike gifts of communication in the Spirit. For “whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:8–10). Even what we have now is only a sample of glorious realities to come.

In the Old Testament were the illustrations; in the present New Testament time are the spiritual truths which we have now by faith alone (John 1:17). But when Jesus comes again, we shall see him as He is, and be literally like Him, face to face, actually experiencing the fullness of the realities of God and the world to come (1 John 3:2; Philippians 3:21). Hallelujah. Now you only have your salvation by faith and in the spirit; then, it will become a living, visible, tangible reality, including a new body and a new world—complete.

^[1] Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher, 1770–1831.

Copyright © February 1971 by The Family International

Zechariah 14, Part 2

David Brandt Berg

1985-04-05

Zechariah 14:6: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear nor dark.” We’re studying Armageddon, and it looks like the battle is just about over, but it must have kicked up a lot of dust and smoke if it’s such a dark day.

Now here comes the good news. Even Armageddon is good news; it’s getting rid of the Devil and all his minions and dominions and wicked people.

(Verse 8:) “And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.”

In Ezekiel you can get more of a description of this period, a very supernatural, miraculous period, the beginning of the Millennium. It gives all kinds of measurements and talks about these waters that are going out and where they go (Ezekiel 47). It sounds pretty literal, “toward the former and the hinder sea,” the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea.

If God wants to cause a fountain to erupt in the middle of Jerusalem to water those poor Jews that got saved and let the waters flow out, I’m sure He can. If there’s anything that Israel needs, it’s irrigation. It needs water, and God’s going to send them water. I can believe it’s literal.

Some people believe this is going to be a big geyser here in verse 8, an artesian spring that’s going to burst forth in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is on top of sort of a range of hills; therefore the watershed on the east side goes down into the Dead Sea, and the water flowing from the west side would go into the Mediterranean. So that’s a simple physical possibility if it means a natural fountain of water.

Some interpret it spiritually about this fountain that’s going to burst forth in Jerusalem and the waters flow east and west. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s actually going to be a literal fountain, and part of the water is going to flow this way and part of the water that way for irrigation.

Verse 9: “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.” Jesus is going to be the Lord of the earth. Whether they like it or not, one Lord, one King. Praise the Lord?

Verse 10: “And the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem.” This area is now all mountains. Somehow or another, whether through the war or atomic explosions, it’s going to be leveled.

“And it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate”—He’s talking about Jerusalem now—“unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses.” He is describing the boundaries of the Jerusalem that’s going to be existent on the face of the earth. You get an even more detailed description of the boundaries in Jeremiah 31:38.

Today’s boundaries of modern Jerusalem have fulfilled those boundaries exactly. This is the future as far as that particular prophecy is concerned. So there’s another wonderful fulfilled prophecy.

Verse 11: “And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.”

Also look up the references to Ariel (Isaiah 29:1–8). The Lord comes down to save Ariel, which is another name for Jerusalem, kind of a spiritual name. We come down to spare the city and what’s left, which isn’t very much, but apparently enough. “And there will be no more utter destruction.” At least not until the end of the world.

Now He’s going to tell you how He’s going to deal with the rebels of the Millennium. Not all of these people that He spares to give a first chance to understand the gospel and salvation and have an opportunity to receive Jesus are going to be saved. Why? For the same reason not everybody’s saved today. There are still going to be hard, rebellious, willful, idolatrous hearts that are going to rebel against the will of God, against the kingdom of God. There are going to be a few rebels, apparently, throughout the Millennium.

There are still going to be people who will resist the gospel. They’ve had their chance, and now it’s their last chance, and they resist and refuse. Their resistance is going to be pretty weak at first. It isn’t until the Devil comes back with all his demons that they’re going to get in such power that the Devil’s going to lead whole nations once again against the kingdom of God at the end of the Millennium, the Battle of Gog and Magog.

(Verse 12:) “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem.” He’s talking about the end of the Battle of Armageddon and the people who have come up against Jerusalem.

“Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet.” That’s exactly what happens if you’re near an atomic blast. “And their eyes shall consume away in their holes.” This is what happened to some of the people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima who looked at the blast: their eyeballs melted right in their sockets and ran down their cheeks. “And their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.”

(Verse 13:) “And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.” They are going to be fighting among themselves, which happened in the Bible several times. One time a great army of Israel’s enemies was destroyed, thousands of men. The prophet of God prayed against them and they rose up in the middle of the night and got confused and began killing each other until they practically slaughtered themselves (Judges 7:22; 2 Kings 19:35).

(Verse 14:) “And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold and silver and apparel in great abundance.”

(Verse 15–16:) “And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague. And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the king.” It says “everyone that is left” of all those nations. There are going to be Antichrist forces out of every nation, but there are also going to be people left out of every nation who did not go up, who refused to go up against Israel.

These are the good people, the religious people who are sincere and trying to do right. They’re all going to “go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”

(Verse 17:) “And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.” God doesn’t have to send great storms or earthquakes or volcanic explosions, atom bombs and great fires and all kinds of cataclysms and destructions and catastrophes. One of the most death-dealing catastrophes that God can possibly perpetrate on the earth comes very quietly and very slowly; it’s the slowest form of catastrophe. He just withholds the rain, which causes a drought, which causes the crops to fail and the beasts to die, and then the people die. The Bible calls it famine. If they refuse to obey, refuse to thank God, refuse to give Him glory and thanks for the rain and all the things that He’s given to people, finally He just quits sending the rain, the blessing.

God’s Word says that He’s so merciful and loving that He sends the rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). But the day is coming when He’s not going to send the rain on the unjust anymore; they’ve had their chance, especially here in the Millennium. They have seen the visible, personal reign of Jesus Christ and His saints and angels on the earth, and all their miracles and marvels. They no longer have to just believe by faith; they can see it! All the people who said, “Seeing is believing,” are going to get a sample, the earthwide kingdom of God. They’re going to see it. People in that day who won’t believe that and won’t receive the kingdom of God are very bad.

(Verse 18:) “And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain…” Now here He could be speaking of the literal country of Egypt, but Egypt also typifies the world. “There shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.” In other words, those who refuse to worship the Lord.

(Verse 19:) “This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”

I was in the United States when the Dust Bowl occurred, from the Southwestern United States clear into Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, usually very fertile, well-watered prosperous states. The soil was just turned to dust, absolute dust, after not enough rain for two or three years, and finally no rain at all, and the crops were desolated. We came through Oklahoma when it was already the Dust Bowl, and what little was left, the locusts had swept through and there wasn’t a leaf on the trees or a blade of grass, not a green thing left; it was completely gone.

My mother felt so sorry for these poor people. We stopped at a filling station, and the filling station man was grieving over how terrible things were, no rain and no crops and all dust, and the locusts had finished off everything green that was left. The whole place was brown and dusty.

She used to roll up scripture promises in little medicine capsules, give them to people, and say, “Here, this will really help you! Take this and it will heal you.” In other words, “This is the best medicine you can have.” There was a little scripture promise on a piece of paper that was rolled up and tucked inside, and then they closed the capsule. She used to have hundreds of these, and she’d give them out in churches on certain nights. She’d say she was going to give them a gift, a priceless gift, and it was the Word, verses of scripture promises in the capsules.

So she said, “Here, brother, this will help you.” She figured a promise of God would encourage him. Later when we were at a restaurant she kept searching around in her purse, where she had some little capsules about the same size with soap powder in them, for when she went to places that didn’t have any soap in the restroom. And she found she’d given this poor guy a capsule of soap powder! She said, “The Lord let me do it, so maybe he would understand that better than a verse of scripture.” “Here’s soap, brother, now trust God for the water! This is a promise you’re going to have enough water to use it.”

(Verse 20:) “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, holiness unto the Lord.” Horses again, with bells. We’re going to go back to horses and carriages and buggies and sleighs and bells on the horses. And there’s going to be written on the bells “Holiness unto the Lord.”

(Verse 20b:) “And the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.” Ordinary pots are going to be like golden bowls in that day. God’s Word says the time is going to come when gold and silver are going to be as common as the stones in the streets of Jerusalem.

(Verse 21:) “Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts; and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.” He’s saying that everything’s going to be holy then; everything’s going to be right. People are going to sacrifice to the Lord true sacrifices.

They’re still going to be cooking, because there are going to be lots of normal, natural people in the world who need to cook and eat. They’re going to have to be growing food. And the animals will be used for transportation and work and plowing. Things are going to go back to the beautiful, original kind of creation God made, almost like the Garden of Eden. However, because a lot of these people aren’t exactly like Adam and Eve and aren’t that righteous, they’re not going to just wander around picking fruit off the trees. There are still going to be quite a few people who aren’t so good, and God’s going to have to keep them busy with hard work to keep them out of mischief and out of trouble, because idleness is the Devil’s workshop.

They’re going to have plowshares, we know that. Why are they going to beat swords into plowshares unless they need to plow? (Isaiah 2:4). Or what do they need plows for if they’re not going to grow crops? They’re still living just about like they do now, with farms and animals and growing crops. But let me tell you, that kind of an earth of my childhood, especially back in the farm country and up in Canada, was heaven on earth compared to today. Life on the farm is as close as you can get to the beauties of God’s creation in this earth, this time.

Thank You, Jesus, for all these wonderful things You’ve promised us, the wonderful future, the wonderful land, the wonderful period of history You’re going to give us, the heaven on earth of the Millennium, during which we will rule and reign over the survivors of the endtime, teach them, give them all the gospel and get lots of them saved, and win the final victory at last. “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

Copyright © April 1985 by The Family International

Zechariah 14, Part 1

David Brandt Berg

1985-03-05

Zechariah is almost the last book in the Old Testament, and we’re studying chapter 14—the last chapter of one of the last books of the Old Testament. The tenth chapter is sort of an introduction. It tells about the return of the Jews, the fact that some of them are going to be saved, and the Battle of Armageddon. I call it an introduction to the subject of Armageddon. These last five chapters revolve around this central theme of the Battle of Armageddon, and in the 14th chapter we’re going to prove it’s the Battle of Armageddon.

Chapters 10 and 11 are largely introductory, with different themes about different aspects of the coming great event and what’s going to happen before it happens, the regathering of the Jews to Israel. Then the 12th chapter says He’s going to make Jerusalem the center of the scene: “Make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people” (Zechariah 12:3).

He’s already starting to talk about the horrors of the wars in that 12th chapter, but He’s also giving a quick preview of how He’s going to finally save them, some encouragement in spite of all these terrible things that are going to happen. So even the 12th chapter doesn’t get too specific, except giving a glimpse of the past and a glimpse of the future. A lot of Bible prophecy is that way.

The 13th chapter is largely about how He’s going to finally save Israel and the terrible tribulation he’s going to take them through, both the tribulation and salvation of some Jews at the very end. Finally, we come to the 14th chapter.

(Verse 1:) “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh.” There you have the subject right off the bat. Throughout the Bible, “the day of the Lord” doesn’t mean just one single day. God is talking here about a certain time or period. Generally speaking, “the day of the Lord” is almost always spoken of in connection with the day of God’s final judgments, the last event of the Wrath of God. So if He’s talking about the day of judgment, it is the time of God’s judgments, His final judgments on the wicked of that day.

“Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.” He’s talking about how Jerusalem is going to be attacked and conquered and spoiled. That’s what happens when Gog brings Magog’s forces down there and invades Israel time and again.

(Verse 2:) “For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle.” We know this has to be in the future, because that’s never happened yet. “And the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. And half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.” He’s describing how half of them are going to be taken as slaves and the rest of them will be left there. Remember, God looks back at this period of these invasions, the days of the Antichrist, the Tribulation, as a succession of events that cover years.

(Verse 3:) “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations”—all these nations in verse 2 that have come against Jerusalem—“as when He fought in the day of battle.” All through the Bible you read about battles where God fought for His people and helped them to win the battle. So this is another day of battle for the Lord. It’s the world’s next-to-the-last battle, because we know the last one is the Battle of Gog and Magog at the end of the Millennium. But this is the last battle of this dispensation, this time, the last battle of the day of God’s Wrath, that ends the battle of all battles.

If you want to give this chapter a title, you might call it “The Third Coming of the Lord.”

The Rapture, at the end of the Tribulation, is called the Second Coming. Christmas was the first coming of the Lord, and all the time He was here. Then He was crucified, buried, raised again, and associated with the disciples till He took them to the top of the Mount of Olives. And there He told them goodbye, and God’s Word tells us He was taken up into the clouds. God’s Word also tells us that He’s going to come back in the clouds (Acts 1:11; Matthew 24:30).

Some Bible teachers call this “the Revelation.” It means the revealing of the mighty power of Christ, revealing who He really is and how powerful He is. This is why when the Antichrist declares himself to be God, that is what’s called the revelation of the Antichrist. When Jesus comes down from the heavens with a mighty army on horseback and declares Himself that He is the true God and shows His power and proves He’s God, that’s also called the Revelation—the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

The revelation of the Antichrist is in the middle of the last seven years. His true nature won’t be revealed to the whole world until he takes absolute power and demands worship as God. That is going to expose him for what he really is, and a lot of people are going to wake up and turn away from him then, if they hadn’t already.

When Jesus comes back—not as a helpless little baby, knocked around and chased around and buffeted and finally killed by His enemies—but when He comes back as the great King of kings and Lord of the earth and God, that is going to be the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and that’s what this Third Coming is called.

He is going to land right where He took off, on top of the same mountain where He left this world and this life, the Mount of Olives. He’s going to come back in the clouds in the Rapture, but He’s not going to come down to earth. He goes in clouds, He comes back in clouds in the Second Coming, and He comes back in clouds in the Third Coming as well, clouds of horsemen! Billions of Christian saints riding powerful horses.

Jesus is going to land on the Mount of Olives. This mountain must be so sacred and precious to Him, because it was the last place that He fellowshipped with His disciples. It must hold very sweet memories for the Lord, so He wants to come back to the very place where He left. It proves that it’s the same Jesus. It’ll show the world that it’s the same Jesus, because the whole world knows that’s where He took off.

(Verse 4:) “And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.” The Mount of Olives is still there. It’s still covered with olive trees and gardens and parks and churches. There’s a church on the top, supposed to be the exact spot from which Jesus ascended. It has a steeple about five stories high pointing to the sky like a finger, showing that this is where Jesus went up.

“And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof.” When Jesus lands there, it shall cleave. That means it shall part; the Mount of Olives shall break in two.

“It shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west.” The cleavage will be toward the east and the west. “And half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.” There’s probably going to be an earthquake and a roar, and that mountain is going to crack wide open, and there’s going to be a very great valley in the middle, right where Jesus lands. This miracle is going to occur to demonstrate His power and who He is.

He’s going to prove to them that He’s the Messiah as He comes down, not only riding out of the sky on a great white charger, a war horse, but landing on the top of this mountain, and the mountain is going to crack up. Maybe it’s going to crack with a great and mighty laugh. God laughs last. God’s Word says, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh” over the fate of His enemies (Psalm 2:4). “You thought you killed Him. You thought you had gotten rid of Him, but He’s here and He’s my King, and I’m going to split my sides wide open laughing!”

(Verse 5:) “And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah King of Judah: And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee.” He’s talking to God there.

The prophet is going back a little bit before the arrival of Jesus, saying that before Jesus comes they’re going to flee to the mountains. Isn’t that what Jesus told them to do, flee to the mountains? (Matthew 24:16). And He says something very specific in this passage about a place called the “valley of the mountains.” The interpretation that some Bible authorities make is that He is talking about a valley in the middle of some surrounding mountains. There was a special place in southern Israel that was alternately known as the valley of the mountains, in Edom. It’s surrounded by tall cliffs, and the only way to get in and out is through a small passageway, just a narrow tunnel. A small group of people could defend themselves there from a whole army, and it was called Petra.

“And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee.” This is a prediction of the Third Coming, when we descend from heaven with a shout and on horseback, and we invade Israel. The kingdom of God is going to triumph. The truth goes marching on in spite of all the Devil’s forces, and it’s going to win and be victorious in the end. Praise the Lord!

Copyright © March 1985 by The Family International

The Five Wars of the Antichrist (part 2)

David Brandt Berg

1983-05-10

In fact, it sounds like there are two wars during the Tribulation. There’s one when the king of the south rises up against him in the 40th verse, and he goes after him like a whirlwind with many chariots, horsemen and ships, enters into the countries, many countries shall be overthrown, etc. But then after this third war he has trouble in the east and the north. “Therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many.” That sounds like a fourth war. The first one ending the period of peace, the second one breaking the covenant and setting up his world religion, the third one putting down the rebellion of Israel again, apparently against his world religion, and then the fourth one to put down rebellion at home and in the east, and “to make away many,” 44th verse.

So it sounds like there are at least four Antichrist wars during the seven years: one after a temporary period of peace, the second one to break the covenant and set up his religion, the third one to put down another rebellion of Israel, and the fourth one which might be almost like a continuation of it, to completely wipe out all of his enemies, in which case this could be an atomic war! Then the end comes.

It sounds like Babylon falls during the Tribulation, and in some of the passages in Revelation, it sounds like it has fallen just before the rapture. We have all this Tribulation going on and occupation of Jerusalem in the 11th chapter of Revelation and the story of the two witnesses; the 12th chapter tells of the persecution of the church and the Tribulation; and the 14th chapter tells about the gospel being preached in all nations, the announcement that Babylon is fallen, and it gives a warning to those who receive the Mark of the Beast. So the Antichrist’s kingdom is already set up and his religion’s already set up. Then it’s followed by the rapture. And then we have in the 15th and 16th chapters the wrath of God.

Then in the 17th and 18th chapters, we seem to go back once again into the Tribulation period. It’s a flashback, because again it’s talking about the Tribulation and the Antichrist and his ten kings and Babylon the great whore and how she fell. He’s already announced her fall as far back as the 14th chapter, but He doesn’t describe who she is or what happened until the 17th chapter, and it doesn’t actually describe her fall in detail until the 18th chapter. So the 17th and 18th are obviously flashbacks of something that’s already been announced and already occurred, according to the sequence of the scriptures and the chronology, which is then immediately followed by Armageddon, which is the end of the wrath of God.

Obviously the fall of Babylon occurs somewhere during or at the end of the Tribulation period, because God’s people are still there and He tells them to come out of Babylon (Revelation 18:4). So it couldn’t possibly be during the wrath of God—although its position in the Scripture seems to follow the wrath of God—because in the 14th chapter she’s already fallen and the rapture’s already occurred. So chapters 17 and 18 have to occur back before that during the Tribulation.

So then in which one of the Antichrist’s four major wars during the period of his reign is it most likely that Babylon is destroyed? It is the final one described here in Daniel 11 as part of his reign, and would be the final wiping out of his final enemies. Probably at this time he’s got sufficient power and cooperation of the ten kings to wipe out Babylon, which has been the source of his trouble in stirring up the king of the south, Israel, against him! This time he not only totally conquers the south, but he goes forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many! That sounds like the final utter destruction of Babylon (Rev.16:19?) in the final horrible atomic war.

Then, of course, he’s not through with his wars yet. He’s got a fifth war on his hands, and that’s the Battle of Armageddon. So the Antichrist fights five wars during his reign, and the fifth, the Battle of Armageddon, is against Christ and His forces, which finally bring the Antichrist to his end. Five wars in seven years—with one of the wars coming before the Tribulation, one of them to establish the Tribulation, two more in the Tribulation, and one to end the Tribulation, actually the wrath of God. The wrath of God, in a way, is an extension of the Tribulation period, only then it is tribulation against the Antichrist and his kingdom after God’s people are gone. His existence and reign and power are totally destroyed at the end of the wrath of God. The end!

It sounds like most of the Antichrist’s reign will be nothing but wars, one after the other—three of them with Israel, and the final one with the very forces of Christ and the saved at Armageddon, again in Israel. It doesn’t sound like a very happy period! The Lord calls it the worst period in the world’s history, such as the world has never known (Matthew 24:21). A great time of trouble, and then there’s the Resurrection and the Rapture.

“Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up … and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1).

Copyright © May 1983 by The Family International

27 – More Like Jesus: Patience

More Like Jesus

Peter Amsterdam

2017-06-13

In the book of Exodus, we’re told that when Moses was on Mount Sinai, God revealed something of His character:

[Moses] rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai … The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”¹ 

God’s being slow to anger means He is patient. Throughout the Old Testament, we read of His patience with the people of Israel, as they continually sinned against Him.

Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.²

He was patient over centuries.

For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself.³

Jesus made reference to His Father’s patience in the parable of the wicked tenants.⁴ The owner of a vineyard leased it to some tenants who didn’t give him his share of the crop. When he sent one of his servants to collect, the tenants beat him. Likewise when others were sent, the tenants beat some and killed others. Eventually he sent his son, whom the tenants also killed. Jesus then asked, “What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do? I’ll tell you—he will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others.” In this parable, Jesus made the point that His Father had been sending prophet after prophet to help Israel repent, and now He had sent His Son. Amongst other things, Jesus was pointing out His Father’s patience.

The New Testament authors made reference to both God’s and Jesus’ patience. When referring to Israel’s history, Luke wrote:

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.⁵

The apostle Paul wrote:

I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.⁶ What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?⁷

The apostle Peter wrote:

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.⁸

God’s patience is found all throughout Scripture, and numerous times within the New Testament we are called to be patient as well. Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.⁹ In the beautiful “love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13, we’re told: Love is patient.¹⁰ Certainly those who want to be more like Jesus, to live godly lives, should learn to be patient.

There are two Greek words used in the New Testament that are translated as patient or patience, and they are used in two different ways. The first is hypomonē. This is a compound word from hypo (“under”) and monē (“to remain”). This type of patience refers to learning how to live when we are in difficult circumstances and facing the pressures of life. It means to persevere, to bear up under; to not surrender or succumb when going through difficult times or tough circumstances. It’s often translated as endurance, the ability to stand up under adversity, and as perseverance, the ability to progress in spite of the adversity. This type of patience is responding to adversity in a godly manner.¹¹

Adversity in our lives can come from sources such as ill treatment by others, trials caused by the Devil’s attacks, tests or discipline given in love by the Lord to help strengthen our faith, or the normal circumstances of life. Throughout Scripture we read of biblical characters who patiently persevered in difficult or trying circumstances, sometimes for years on end, and were blessed by the Lord at the end of their ordeal. Job, David, Jacob, and Joseph all faced adversity with patience and trust in God, setting an example for believers.

This type of enduring and persevering patience has a strong connection to hope. We are patient in trying circumstances because we believe that the Lord will give us grace and will in His time bring us through to victory, just as He did for the forefathers of faith.

Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.¹²

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame…¹³

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.¹⁴ 

We endure, we persevere, because we have faith in God and in the hope of overcoming, if not in this life, then in eternity. Therefore we can be patient in adversity.

Another aspect of patience (hypomonē) has to do with learning to work according to God’s schedule and not our own. We’re often impatient as we wait for an answer to prayer, healing, a change of circumstances, a fulfillment of a promise. James, the Lord’s brother, wrote about patience, pointing out how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient.¹⁵ He pointed to prophets throughout Scripture who faithfully and patiently served God, yet died before their prophecies were fulfilled, and Job, who suffered greatly and patiently waited for God’s healing.¹⁶ Patience calls for us to trust God’s timing, to have faith that He knows best; when things don’t happen as rapidly as we would like, we acknowledge that He loves us, has our best interest at heart, and we trust Him.

Enduring and persevering patience is a patience which trusts God enough to wait on His timing, while having hope based on faith that He will answer. It’s patience that endures hardships. It’s patience that perseveres through difficulties.

The second Greek word translated as patience is makrothymia. Like hypomonē, this too is a compound word. It comes from makro (“long”) and thymia (“anger”). It expresses the quality of one who is able to avenge him- or herself, yet refrains from doing so. It’s slowness in avenging wrong. It’s often translated as longsuffering in the King James Bible translation. It is understood as not responding to a provocation, deliberately not doing or saying something when you could do or say it. Makrothymia is understood as patience with people. This is the word translated as patience in the list of the fruit of the Spirit.¹⁷ It’s also the word used when Paul wrote love is patient.¹⁸ Peter used it in the verse quoted earlier, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.¹⁹ God is makrothymia. He is able to avenge but often chooses not to—He is patient. We can understand this form of patience as being forbearing or longsuffering with the faults, mistakes, bad attitudes, and sometimes intentional unkindness or cruelty of people around us.

As hypomonē is connected to hope, so makrothymia has a connection to mercy. God is patient with us because He is merciful. In the encounter with Moses mentioned earlier, when God revealed something of His character, He not only said He is slow to anger (patient), but also that He is merciful.

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”²⁰ 

The apostle Paul referred to the connection between mercy and patience when he wrote, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.²¹ In God’s mercy, He is patient with us. By the same token, our being patient with others is akin to being merciful to others.

One area where patience (makrothymia) is needed is when we are mistreated in some way. Patience in such cases is considered longsuffering, as in suffering mistreatment without becoming resentful and bitter. Jerry Bridges wrote:

The occasions for exercising this quality are numerous; they vary from malicious wrongs all the way to seemingly innocent practical jokes. They include ridicule, scorn, insults, and undeserved rebukes, as well as outright persecution. The Christian who is the victim of office politics or organizational power plays must react with long-suffering. The believing husband or wife who is rejected or mistreated by an unbelieving spouse needs this kind of patience.²² (This is not referring to physical violence, which should not be tolerated.)

Though we don’t like being mistreated, when we are, we can patiently commit the person and their actions to the Lord, knowing that He will meet out justice. We can follow Jesus’ example:

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.²³

God is the one who judges justly, and as Scripture tells us, I will repay, says the Lord.²⁴ Therefore we are to be patient when we are in situations where we are mistreated. This doesn’t mean that we don’t try to change our circumstances, but it does mean that we don’t retaliate, we don’t seek revenge. Patience calls for us to trust God, to pray for the Lord to bring changes in others and in our circumstances, and to trust that our just God will bestow justice in His time. As hard as it might be, Jesus told us to Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.²⁵

Another area which calls for patience is tolerance of others’ shortcomings, faults, and failures. Everyone has shortcomings, ourselves included. Usually they’re minor things people do, which aren’t wrong or evil, nor are they directed at us, but they bother us. We notice them mainly in those that we’re around most—our spouse, friends, co-workers, etc. Patience in this case is tolerating the shortcomings of others that we find annoying. We are to patiently make allowance for each other’s faults, out of love.²⁶

It’s helpful to remind ourselves that God is patient with us every day, and not just with our personality quirks, but with our sins as well. He doesn’t get angry or annoyed at our faults and failings; rather, in His love and mercy, He is patient with us time and time again. As His followers, we are called to similarly extend mercy and patience to others. Sadly, we often lose our patience with those closest to us, those we love most, because of familiarity. We get bothered by the small recurring things they do that annoy us, sometimes not realizing that we also do things that annoy them. We don’t like it when they become impatient with us, so we should do to others what we would like them to do to us.²⁷

An interesting thing about patience is how interconnected it is with other virtues. When we practice patience toward someone, we are also showing kindness, compassion, gentleness, and humility—all traits that Jesus manifests. Being patient is a key factor in our growth in Christlikeness.

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ Exodus 34:4–6.

² Psalm 78:37–38.

³ Isaiah 42:14.

⁴ Mark 12:1–11 NLT.

⁵ Acts 17:30.

⁶ 1 Timothy 1:16.

⁷ Romans 9:22–24.

⁸ 2 Peter 3:9.

⁹ Galatians 5:22.

¹⁰ 1 Corinthians 13:4.

¹¹ Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2010), 200.

¹² Romans 15:4.

¹³ Romans 5:3–5.

¹⁴ Hebrews 10:36.

¹⁵ James 5:7–8.

¹⁶ James 5:9–11.

¹⁷ Galatians 5:22.

¹⁸ 1 Corinthians 13:4.

¹⁹ 2 Peter 3:9.

²⁰ Exodus 34:6.

²¹ 1 Timothy 1:16 NIV.

²² Bridges, The Practice of Godliness, 192.

²³ 1 Peter 2:23.

²⁴ Romans 12:19.

²⁵ Matthew 5:44.

²⁶ Ephesians 4:2.

²⁷ Luke 6:31.

Copyright © 2017 The Family International.

26 – More Like Jesus: Self-Control

More Like Jesus

Peter Amsterdam

2017-06-06

In Galatians chapter five, the apostle Paul listed nine aspects of the fruit of the Spirit, beginning with love and ending with self-control. Part of building Christian character, of becoming more like Jesus, is having the ability to control ourselves—our emotions, desires, and feelings—through the power of the Holy Spirit. (The KJV uses the word temperance instead of self-control.) The scriptural concept of self-control implies that as human beings we have desires that we should control instead of satisfy, that there are some impulses which should either be engaged in moderately or not at all.

In the book of Proverbs we read, Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.¹ In Bible times, a wall around a city was its main defense. Without such a defense, there was no safety; and if a wall existed but was breached, an enemy could enter into the city and destroy homes, plunder possessions, and make captives of the residents. In the same way that a wall offers physical protection and safety, self-control is the wall which defends us spiritually against sinful temptations. It helps us to govern our desires, stay within appropriate bounds, and avoid excesses.

Self-control has to do with controlling our physical actions, appetites, and desires as well as our thoughts, emotions, and speech. In the book of Titus, the apostle Paul wrote that the grace of God trains us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.² Each one of us has negative elements in our hearts and minds that we struggle with, which we can limit or restrain through God’s grace and the help of the Holy Spirit, along with our willingness to exercise self-control over them.

Exercising self-control is key to growing in godliness, and for those who desire to live in a Christlike manner, self-control is essential. There are two Greek words which are translated as self-control in the New Testament. The first word, used in the list of the fruit of the Spirit and elsewhere, is egkrateia; it expresses the virtue of one who masters their desires and passions. The second word translated as self-control in the New Testament is sōphrosynē; it means soundness of mind, or sound judgment.

Self-control, then, as described in Scripture, can be understood as having the inner strength of character which empowers us to control our passions and desires, as well as to be able to exercise sound judgment when it comes to our thoughts, emotions, actions, and decisions. Sound judgment enables us to determine the right course of action, the proper way to respond to a situation, the ability to not only distinguish between good and bad but also between good and the best. Inner strength is needed to help us do what our sound judgment shows us is best. It’s one thing to know what to do; it’s quite another to have the inner strength to do it, especially when we don’t really want to. Self-control is the exercise of inner strength combined with sound judgment that enables us to think, do, and say things that are pleasing to God.³

One area that we as believers want to have self-control over is our bodies. When we look at the world God created, we see many beautiful and wonderful things we enjoy, and we are meant to enjoy them. God … richly provides us with everything to enjoy.⁴ The difficulty is that, due to sin, we tend to allow the pleasurable things God created to become overly important, to the point that they begin to dominate us. There are any number of activities which are perfectly acceptable in moderation, but problematic in excess. Drinking alcohol, eating, playing computer games, or watching television are examples. If we overindulge in such activities to where they lead to unhealthy or ungodly outcomes, or they become an overly important part of our lives to where they keep or hinder us from doing things that are more important and that we know we should be doing instead, then we have a problem. We have allowed legitimate, relaxing, pleasurable activities to get out of control to our detriment. There’s nothing inherently wrong with enjoying a pleasurable activity, but we need to exercise self-control to keep it in moderation.

Self-control is also needed when we are faced with doing things that are necessary but difficult for us. Exercising is an example. We know that exercise has many health benefits, strengthens our bodies, and even makes us feel good, and yet for many of us, it can be difficult to exercise consistently. Another example is setting aside a specific time each day to spend with the Lord and His Word. We know we need to do it and that it will benefit our relationship with God, but it can still be difficult to stick with it. Doing the things we know we should do is part of exercising self-control.

Resisting things that are detrimental to us or others is also part of self-control. For example, anger and untoward speech. One of the most difficult parts of our body to control is our tongue. James, the brother of Jesus, called the tongue a restless evil, full of deadly poison.⁵ He said, With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.⁶ We are told to watch over our words, to keep from shooting off our mouth in reckless speech.

I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle.⁷

Scripture speaks against gossip.

A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.⁸

A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.⁹

Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.¹⁰

The King James Bible uses the word talebearer, while other translations use whisperer or gossip to convey the concept of one who spreads gossip, betrays confidences, and slanders people. All these actions are wrong. A problem with gossip is that it involves more than one person. The first is the one gossiping, which is wrong and sinful, but there is also the one who listens to, or revels in, hearing “juicy news” about others. It takes self-control to keep from gossiping and from listening to gossip about others.

We’re also warned against slandering people, making false and malicious statements, smearing or defaming others.

Whoever utters slander is a fool.¹¹

You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people.¹²

Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.¹³

Practicing self-control over what we say is crucial to Christlikeness, so it would be wise for us to pray:

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!¹⁴

In addition to exercising self-control over our physical actions, we are also called to harness our thoughts. While we take action with our bodies, those actions reflect what goes on first in our minds—our thoughts, decisions, self-talk, memories, etc. Some Christian authors refer to this as our “thought life.” What happens within our thoughts, or our thought life, is the basis for our actions and words. And since we are to exercise self-control in our actions and words, it stands to reason we must also use self-control in our thought life.

Jesus spoke of what is within us:

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.¹⁵

The Greek word translated here as heart means the soul or mind as the seat of the sensibilities, affections, emotions, desires, appetites, and passions, as well as the will and character. As the saying goes, “The thought is the father of the deed.”

Exercising self-control over our thoughts is central to living in a Christlike manner. Author Jerry Bridges wrote:

The gates to our thought lives are primarily our eyes and our ears. What we see or read or hear largely determines what we think … We must not allow that which panders to sexual lust, greed (called materialism in our present society), envy and selfish ambition to enter our minds.¹⁶

As Christians, we should guard our thoughts. We often allow in our mind what we don’t allow in our actions; but in allowing such things in our thoughts, we risk them becoming actions. Having self-control in our thought life is a two-part process: one part is doing our best to avoid taking in what is ungodly, and the other is renewing our mind by thinking about the right things.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.¹⁷

Another aspect of self-control is keeping certain emotions in check. Anger, rage, resentment, self-pity, and bitterness are all examples of emotions which cause damage to ourselves and others. There are times when anger is justified, such as when it is righteous indignation (but even so, it should be kept in check); but the focus here is on anger which is manifested in outbursts of temper. Such outbursts are harmful in two ways—they release an ungoverned and ungodly passion, and they wound those who are the recipients of our anger. Jerry Bridges wrote:

Temper is a unique challenge in the area of self-control. Ungoverned thoughts and other emotions are sins within our own minds; they harm only ourselves, unless of course they lead to sinful words or actions. But an uncontrolled temper damages the self-respect of others, creates bitterness, and destroys relationships.¹⁸

The book of Proverbs has a fair bit to say about anger:¹⁹

A hot temper shows great foolishness.²⁰

A hot-tempered person starts fights.²¹

Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming.²²

An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered one commits many sins.²³ 

People who are unable to control their anger often have a tendency to lash out at others. They are usually sorry for doing so after the fact, but anger can leave hurt and broken relationships in its wake that can’t be easily restored. Self-control may not keep you from getting angry, but it can keep you from lashing out at others and hurting them.

People with understanding control their anger.²⁴

Sensible people control their temper.²⁵

Other emotions such as resentment, bitterness, and self-pity don’t necessarily harm others in the same way that anger does, but they are destructive to us and to our relationship with the Lord. They also usually affect those we have close relationships with. They eat away at our spiritual lives like a cancer. These emotions are destructive to our spiritual health, and they also dishonor the Lord.²⁶ Controlling our emotions isn’t an easy thing to do, but when we look at these emotions within the template of living in Christlikeness, we can see that working to control them is vital.

Growing in Christlikeness means letting God’s Spirit have full sway in our lives, including our thought life. It calls for us to be surrendered to the Lord both in mind and body, to think right thoughts and to take right action. This is done through self-control, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. As fallen human beings, we all have areas of our lives which are difficult for us to control. For some they may be physical; for others spiritual—their pride, their emotions, impure thoughts, or addictions.

The road to developing self-control starts with recognizing areas in our life where we lack it, and where if we had more self-control, we would live more closely in alignment with God’s Word. The next step is to acknowledge that such areas are a problem and bring the problem to the Lord in prayer, asking Him to change us. Then, we put feet to our prayers by practicing self-control—either by saying no to the things that we know we shouldn’t be doing and yet are, or by saying yes to the things we know we should be doing but aren’t. Making such changes in our mental and physical habits takes discipline and time. It’s a fight.

The apostle Paul likened mastering self-control to training hard like an athlete.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.²⁷

Developing self-discipline is a lifelong endeavor, a process in which we sometimes take two steps forward and one step back. It requires prayer, as we work to change areas that don’t align with God’s Word. But the more we take a stand against our sins, the more our will is strengthened. The more we say no to ungodly desires, the more we are able to say no. The more we take action to do the things that are good even if difficult at times, the more we will have the strength to keep doing them. Growth in self-control helps liberate us from the bondage of self-indulgence, and empowers us to be more like Jesus.

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ Proverbs 25:28 NIV.

² Titus 2:12.

³ Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2012), 152–53.

⁴ 1 Timothy 6:17.

⁵ James 3:8.

⁶ James 3:9–10.

⁷ Psalm 39:1.

⁸ Proverbs 11:13 NIV.

⁹ Proverbs 20:19 NIV.

¹⁰ Proverbs 26:20 NIV.

¹¹ Proverbs 10:18.

¹² Leviticus 19:16.

¹³ 1 Peter 2:1.

¹⁴ Psalm 141:3.

¹⁵ Mark 7:21–23.

¹⁶ Bridges, The Practice of Godliness, 158.

¹⁷ Philippians 4:8.

¹⁸ Bridges, The Practice of Godliness, 160.

¹⁹ The verses in this paragraph are quoted from the NIV and NLT translations, as in this case they are expressed in a more contemporary English, which I thought would be helpful.

²⁰ Proverbs 14:29.

²¹ Proverbs 15:18.

²² Proverbs 27:4.

²³ Proverbs 29:22.

²⁴ Proverbs 14:29.

²⁵ Proverbs 19:11.

²⁶ Bridges, The Practice of Godliness, 160–61.

²⁷ 1 Corinthians 9:25–27.

Copyright © 2017 The Family International.

26 – More Like Jesus: Self-Control

More Like Jesus

Peter Amsterdam

2017-06-06

In Galatians chapter five, the apostle Paul listed nine aspects of the fruit of the Spirit, beginning with love and ending with self-control. Part of building Christian character, of becoming more like Jesus, is having the ability to control ourselves—our emotions, desires, and feelings—through the power of the Holy Spirit. (The KJV uses the word temperance instead of self-control.) The scriptural concept of self-control implies that as human beings we have desires that we should control instead of satisfy, that there are some impulses which should either be engaged in moderately or not at all.

In the book of Proverbs we read, Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.¹ In Bible times, a wall around a city was its main defense. Without such a defense, there was no safety; and if a wall existed but was breached, an enemy could enter into the city and destroy homes, plunder possessions, and make captives of the residents. In the same way that a wall offers physical protection and safety, self-control is the wall which defends us spiritually against sinful temptations. It helps us to govern our desires, stay within appropriate bounds, and avoid excesses.

Self-control has to do with controlling our physical actions, appetites, and desires as well as our thoughts, emotions, and speech. In the book of Titus, the apostle Paul wrote that the grace of God trains us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.² Each one of us has negative elements in our hearts and minds that we struggle with, which we can limit or restrain through God’s grace and the help of the Holy Spirit, along with our willingness to exercise self-control over them.

Exercising self-control is key to growing in godliness, and for those who desire to live in a Christlike manner, self-control is essential. There are two Greek words which are translated as self-control in the New Testament. The first word, used in the list of the fruit of the Spirit and elsewhere, is egkrateia; it expresses the virtue of one who masters their desires and passions. The second word translated as self-control in the New Testament is sōphrosynē; it means soundness of mind, or sound judgment.

Self-control, then, as described in Scripture, can be understood as having the inner strength of character which empowers us to control our passions and desires, as well as to be able to exercise sound judgment when it comes to our thoughts, emotions, actions, and decisions. Sound judgment enables us to determine the right course of action, the proper way to respond to a situation, the ability to not only distinguish between good and bad but also between good and the best. Inner strength is needed to help us do what our sound judgment shows us is best. It’s one thing to know what to do; it’s quite another to have the inner strength to do it, especially when we don’t really want to. Self-control is the exercise of inner strength combined with sound judgment that enables us to think, do, and say things that are pleasing to God.³

One area that we as believers want to have self-control over is our bodies. When we look at the world God created, we see many beautiful and wonderful things we enjoy, and we are meant to enjoy them. God … richly provides us with everything to enjoy.⁴ The difficulty is that, due to sin, we tend to allow the pleasurable things God created to become overly important, to the point that they begin to dominate us. There are any number of activities which are perfectly acceptable in moderation, but problematic in excess. Drinking alcohol, eating, playing computer games, or watching television are examples. If we overindulge in such activities to where they lead to unhealthy or ungodly outcomes, or they become an overly important part of our lives to where they keep or hinder us from doing things that are more important and that we know we should be doing instead, then we have a problem. We have allowed legitimate, relaxing, pleasurable activities to get out of control to our detriment. There’s nothing inherently wrong with enjoying a pleasurable activity, but we need to exercise self-control to keep it in moderation.

Self-control is also needed when we are faced with doing things that are necessary but difficult for us. Exercising is an example. We know that exercise has many health benefits, strengthens our bodies, and even makes us feel good, and yet for many of us, it can be difficult to exercise consistently. Another example is setting aside a specific time each day to spend with the Lord and His Word. We know we need to do it and that it will benefit our relationship with God, but it can still be difficult to stick with it. Doing the things we know we should do is part of exercising self-control.

Resisting things that are detrimental to us or others is also part of self-control. For example, anger and untoward speech. One of the most difficult parts of our body to control is our tongue. James, the brother of Jesus, called the tongue a restless evil, full of deadly poison.⁵ He said, With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.⁶ We are told to watch over our words, to keep from shooting off our mouth in reckless speech.

I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle.⁷

Scripture speaks against gossip.

A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.⁸

A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.⁹

Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.¹⁰

The King James Bible uses the word talebearer, while other translations use whisperer or gossip to convey the concept of one who spreads gossip, betrays confidences, and slanders people. All these actions are wrong. A problem with gossip is that it involves more than one person. The first is the one gossiping, which is wrong and sinful, but there is also the one who listens to, or revels in, hearing “juicy news” about others. It takes self-control to keep from gossiping and from listening to gossip about others.

We’re also warned against slandering people, making false and malicious statements, smearing or defaming others.

Whoever utters slander is a fool.¹¹

You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people.¹²

Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.¹³

Practicing self-control over what we say is crucial to Christlikeness, so it would be wise for us to pray:

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!¹⁴

In addition to exercising self-control over our physical actions, we are also called to harness our thoughts. While we take action with our bodies, those actions reflect what goes on first in our minds—our thoughts, decisions, self-talk, memories, etc. Some Christian authors refer to this as our “thought life.” What happens within our thoughts, or our thought life, is the basis for our actions and words. And since we are to exercise self-control in our actions and words, it stands to reason we must also use self-control in our thought life.

Jesus spoke of what is within us:

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.¹⁵

The Greek word translated here as heart means the soul or mind as the seat of the sensibilities, affections, emotions, desires, appetites, and passions, as well as the will and character. As the saying goes, “The thought is the father of the deed.”

Exercising self-control over our thoughts is central to living in a Christlike manner. Author Jerry Bridges wrote:

The gates to our thought lives are primarily our eyes and our ears. What we see or read or hear largely determines what we think … We must not allow that which panders to sexual lust, greed (called materialism in our present society), envy and selfish ambition to enter our minds.¹⁶

As Christians, we should guard our thoughts. We often allow in our mind what we don’t allow in our actions; but in allowing such things in our thoughts, we risk them becoming actions. Having self-control in our thought life is a two-part process: one part is doing our best to avoid taking in what is ungodly, and the other is renewing our mind by thinking about the right things.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.¹⁷

Another aspect of self-control is keeping certain emotions in check. Anger, rage, resentment, self-pity, and bitterness are all examples of emotions which cause damage to ourselves and others. There are times when anger is justified, such as when it is righteous indignation (but even so, it should be kept in check); but the focus here is on anger which is manifested in outbursts of temper. Such outbursts are harmful in two ways—they release an ungoverned and ungodly passion, and they wound those who are the recipients of our anger. Jerry Bridges wrote:

Temper is a unique challenge in the area of self-control. Ungoverned thoughts and other emotions are sins within our own minds; they harm only ourselves, unless of course they lead to sinful words or actions. But an uncontrolled temper damages the self-respect of others, creates bitterness, and destroys relationships.¹⁸

The book of Proverbs has a fair bit to say about anger:¹⁹

A hot temper shows great foolishness.²⁰

A hot-tempered person starts fights.²¹

Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming.²²

An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered one commits many sins.²³ 

People who are unable to control their anger often have a tendency to lash out at others. They are usually sorry for doing so after the fact, but anger can leave hurt and broken relationships in its wake that can’t be easily restored. Self-control may not keep you from getting angry, but it can keep you from lashing out at others and hurting them.

People with understanding control their anger.²⁴

Sensible people control their temper.²⁵

Other emotions such as resentment, bitterness, and self-pity don’t necessarily harm others in the same way that anger does, but they are destructive to us and to our relationship with the Lord. They also usually affect those we have close relationships with. They eat away at our spiritual lives like a cancer. These emotions are destructive to our spiritual health, and they also dishonor the Lord.²⁶ Controlling our emotions isn’t an easy thing to do, but when we look at these emotions within the template of living in Christlikeness, we can see that working to control them is vital.

Growing in Christlikeness means letting God’s Spirit have full sway in our lives, including our thought life. It calls for us to be surrendered to the Lord both in mind and body, to think right thoughts and to take right action. This is done through self-control, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. As fallen human beings, we all have areas of our lives which are difficult for us to control. For some they may be physical; for others spiritual—their pride, their emotions, impure thoughts, or addictions.

The road to developing self-control starts with recognizing areas in our life where we lack it, and where if we had more self-control, we would live more closely in alignment with God’s Word. The next step is to acknowledge that such areas are a problem and bring the problem to the Lord in prayer, asking Him to change us. Then, we put feet to our prayers by practicing self-control—either by saying no to the things that we know we shouldn’t be doing and yet are, or by saying yes to the things we know we should be doing but aren’t. Making such changes in our mental and physical habits takes discipline and time. It’s a fight.

The apostle Paul likened mastering self-control to training hard like an athlete.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.²⁷

Developing self-discipline is a lifelong endeavor, a process in which we sometimes take two steps forward and one step back. It requires prayer, as we work to change areas that don’t align with God’s Word. But the more we take a stand against our sins, the more our will is strengthened. The more we say no to ungodly desires, the more we are able to say no. The more we take action to do the things that are good even if difficult at times, the more we will have the strength to keep doing them. Growth in self-control helps liberate us from the bondage of self-indulgence, and empowers us to be more like Jesus.

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ Proverbs 25:28 NIV.

² Titus 2:12.

³ Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2012), 152–53.

⁴ 1 Timothy 6:17.

⁵ James 3:8.

⁶ James 3:9–10.

⁷ Psalm 39:1.

⁸ Proverbs 11:13 NIV.

⁹ Proverbs 20:19 NIV.

¹⁰ Proverbs 26:20 NIV.

¹¹ Proverbs 10:18.

¹² Leviticus 19:16.

¹³ 1 Peter 2:1.

¹⁴ Psalm 141:3.

¹⁵ Mark 7:21–23.

¹⁶ Bridges, The Practice of Godliness, 158.

¹⁷ Philippians 4:8.

¹⁸ Bridges, The Practice of Godliness, 160.

¹⁹ The verses in this paragraph are quoted from the NIV and NLT translations, as in this case they are expressed in a more contemporary English, which I thought would be helpful.

²⁰ Proverbs 14:29.

²¹ Proverbs 15:18.

²² Proverbs 27:4.

²³ Proverbs 29:22.

²⁴ Proverbs 14:29.

²⁵ Proverbs 19:11.

²⁶ Bridges, The Practice of Godliness, 160–61.

²⁷ 1 Corinthians 9:25–27.

Copyright © 2017 The Family International.

10 Practicing All the Virtues

Virtues for Christ-followers

Peter Amsterdam

2024-12-10

As we come to the end of this series, I thought it would be helpful to consider how we can cultivate all nine virtues of Galatians 5:22–23—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—in our lives and grow in our practice of these fruits of the Spirit.

One of the key elements to growing in these virtues is our relationship with the Lord. Our love for Him results in our desire to build a deep relationship with Him and to invest time and effort into strengthening that relationship, including reading His Word, communicating with Him through prayer, and following the example Jesus set for us.

When we understand God’s love for each of us personally, we become aware of His desire to bring others into relationship with Him as well. Realizing His unwavering love for those who don’t yet know Him motivates us to do our best to let people know that there is Someone who deeply loves them and wants to be a part of their life. Sharing the message of God’s love for all humankind becomes our mission—and growing in Christlikeness becomes our passion.

Our love for Christ motivates us to love Him fervently—with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength—and to cultivate a close relationship with Him. This love compels us to strive to be like Jesus, to emulate His qualities, and to share God’s love with others so they can know Him too.¹

One of our goals, as followers of Jesus, is to imitate Christ. We want to take on His nature and attributes. As we grow in our relationship with Him, we manifest the fruit of His Spirit—we exhibit godly attitudes, we live by godly ethics, we have integrity, we live His words. As we grow to become more like Jesus, He shines through us, and when He does—when others see us imitating Him—they have the opportunity to see God’s love in action.

Following in Christ’s Footsteps

The great American evangelist Dwight L. Moody had a pithy phrase to describe character: Character is what you are in the dark.

As Christians, we all want to grow in spiritual maturity and Christlikeness. We want to become all we can be with Christ’s help, to put aside sin and who we are in our worst moments and replace that with behavior that demonstrates the fruits of the Spirit—love, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and so on.

Ultimately, we want to become like Jesus, to think as He thought and behave as He behaved. The Bible encourages us to aspire to follow in Christ’s footsteps: “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6 NLT). We want our character to be a testimony of God’s truth to others, even during our darkest, most trying times.

Building and developing virtuous characteristics can’t just be learned from a book or a sermon or by willpower or striving alone. It doesn’t happen automatically, accidentally, or suddenly. Nor is it something we can muster up in our own strength or determination alone: it is the transformative work and fruit of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

First Peter 2:21 says, “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” The apostle Paul took it a step further when he wrote that God can even use problems and trials to strengthen our faith and help us to grow in Christlikeness: “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation” (Romans 5:3–4 NLT).—Ronan Keane²

God’s Power to Bear Fruit

You need more power than just willpower in your life. You need God’s power. The fruit of the Spirit is the qualities that God puts in your life when the Holy Spirit lives in you: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23 NLT).

How does God produce the fruit in your life? Not by willpower. You could go out and say, “I’m going to be a more patient person!” but that doesn’t mean it’s going to work.

The Holy Spirit has to grow it on the inside. You try to say, “I’m going to be more patient. I’m going to be more loving.” It’s like tying some oranges on a eucalyptus tree and calling it an orange tree. It doesn’t work that way. The fruit of the Spirit can only come from the inside—God’s Spirit living through you.

How does the Holy Spirit work in your life? The answer is gradually: “And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT).—Rick Warren³

Cultivating the Fruits of the Spirit

The first step in cultivating the fruits of the Spirit is surrendering to God. In Matthew 16:24–26, Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” Surrendering to God means giving up our own desires and plans and submitting to His will for our lives.

The second step in cultivating the fruits of the Spirit is walking in the Spirit. Galatians 5:16–17 says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.” Walking in the Spirit means living a life that is directed by the Holy Spirit rather than our own desires.

The third step in cultivating the fruits of the Spirit is abiding in Christ. In John 15:4–5, Jesus says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Abiding in Christ means staying connected to Him through prayer, reading the Bible, and worship.—Errick Ruffin⁴

*

I thought the following article by Max Lucado would provide a fitting reflection for this series. May we all continue to grow in all the gifts of the Spirit so that as we “contemplate the Lord’s glory” we can be “transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”⁵

I Choose

In a few moments the day will arrive. … The calm of solitude will be replaced by the pounding pace of the human race. The refuge of the early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met. For the next twelve hours I will be exposed to the day’s demands. It is now that I must make a choice. Because of Calvary, I’m free to choose. And so I choose.

I choose love. No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves.

I choose joy. … I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.

I choose peace. I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live.

I choose patience. I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. … Rather than complain that the wait is too long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clinching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.

I choose kindness. I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated me.

I choose goodness. I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I will accuse. I choose goodness.

I choose faithfulness. Today I will keep my promises. My debtors will not regret their trust. My associates will not question my word. My wife will not question my love. And my children will never fear that their father will not come home.

I choose gentleness. Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice, may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.

I choose self-control. I am a spiritual being. After this body is dead, my spirit will soar. I refuse to let what will rot rule the eternal. I choose self-control. I will be drunk only by joy. I will be impassioned only by my faith. I will be influenced only by God. I will be taught only by Christ. I choose self-control.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek His grace. And then, when this day is done, I will place my head on my pillow and rest.—Max Lucado⁶

A Prayer for the Fruits of the Spirit

Dear Heavenly Father,

I approach You today with profound gratitude and a heart brimming with love. I thank You for the words You have shared with us in Galatians 5, reminding us of the fruits of the Spirit that guide our lives. Your wisdom, Lord, is a precious gift, and I seek to live in accordance with Your teachings.

Lord, I pray that You would help me bear these fruits in my life, for I know that they are a reflection of Your character. Father, fill my heart with love, so that I may love others as You have loved me. Help me to spread joy and be a source of peace in a world filled with turmoil. Grant me patience and kindness to show to those who cross my path, and may I always strive to do good as a testament to Your grace.

I ask for faithfulness, Lord, to remain steadfast in my devotion to You, trusting in Your promises even in the face of adversity. Please grant me the gentle spirit that seeks to build others up rather than tear them down, and may I exercise self-control in all aspects of my life, surrendering my desires to Your will.

You encourage us to “keep in step with the Spirit.” I pray for the guidance of Your Holy Spirit to lead me on this journey of faith. Help me to walk in Your ways, to live by Your Word, and to rely on Your strength.

Lord, I confess my shortcomings and ask for Your forgiveness and transformation. I long to bear the fruits of Your Spirit not just for my own benefit but to be a shining light in this world, reflecting Your love and grace. Amen.—Rich Bitterman⁷

Food for Thought

“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9).

“If we pray that God would help us grow in the fruit of the Spirit, we can be 100% confident that He will do it. He loves to help His children become more like Jesus. So ask the Holy Spirit to fill you freshly today with new strength … to help you grow in the fruit of the Spirit.”—Love Worth Finding

“Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12 NIV).

“We often try to live the fruits of the Spirit in hopes of being chosen by God, loved by Him, and set apart by Him, when in reality it’s the other way around. Because we are chosen, made holy, and set apart, we are now able to bear the fruit as Jesus has taken up residence in our hearts.”—Kelly Minter

Note
Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ 2 Corinthians 5:14 NIV.

² Ronan Keane, “The Character Builder” (adapted), Activated, July 2019.

³ Rick Warren, “Sometimes the Change Is Gradual,” PastorRick.com, February 22, 2024, https://pastorrick.com/sometimes-the-change-is-gradual/.

⁴ Errick Ruffin, “The Secret to Cultivating the Fruits of the Spirit: Steps to Develop a Christ-Like Character,” Medium, April 14, 2023, https://medium.com/@littlepreacher68/the-secret-to-cultivating-the-fruits-of-the-spirit-steps-to-develop-a-christ-like-character-a609d745b2ef.

⁵ 2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV.

⁶ Max Lucado, “It’s a New Day: The Choice is Yours,” https://maxlucado.com/new-day-choice/.

⁷ Rich Bitterman, “Fruits of the Spirit Prayer (Galatians 5),” Medium, September 9, 2023, https://medium.com/@richbitterman/fruits-of-the-spirit-prayer-galatians-5-d471e3e2cb2c.

Copyright © 2024 The Family International.

09 Virtues for Christ-Followers: Self-control

Virtues for Christ-followers

Peter Amsterdam

2024-11-26

Self-control (or self-discipline, depending on the Bible translation) is the last virtue in our list. We find several references to self-control throughout the New Testament.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul gives a descriptive picture of self-control when talking about the race we run: “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”¹

When speaking of the last days, Paul tells the believers, “But understand this, that in the last days … people will be lovers of self, lovers of money,” “without self-control,” and “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”² Elsewhere he says, “So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.”³ In his first epistle, Peter likewise warns that “the end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.”⁴

Self-control, as described in Scripture, can be understood as having the inner strength of character which empowers us to control our passions and desires, as well as to be able to exercise sound judgment when it comes to our thoughts, emotions, actions, and decisions. Sound judgment enables us to determine the right course of action and the proper way to respond to a situation.

Growing in self-control in our lives starts with recognizing areas in our life where we lack it, where we need to bring our lives more closely in alignment with God’s Word. The next step is to acknowledge our insufficiency to overcome our weakness and sin by our own efforts, and to seek the Lord in prayer, asking Him to change us. Then, we put feet to our prayers by practicing self-control—either by saying no to the things that we know we shouldn’t be doing or by saying yes to the things we know we should be doing. (For more on this topic, see More Like Jesus: Self-control.)

The biblical concept of self-control implies that as human beings we have desires that we should control instead of satisfy. Growing in the virtue of self-control means learning to control ourselves—our emotions, desires, and feelings—through the power of the Holy Spirit, as the following articles highlight.

Building Self-control

The secret to building self-control is to yield our lives to God and let His Holy Spirit guide our thoughts, our actions, and our life. “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world,” Paul advises, “but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”⁵

That doesn’t mean we won’t face temptation or continue to work to overcome bad habits and weak areas in our lives. We need to do our part, of course. We need to put up some resistance when temptation comes knocking, and we need to work on strengthening our weak areas. But the fact of the matter is, we all sometimes fall prey to temptation, give in to our personal weaknesses, or overindulge in some things that would be fine in moderation. The apostle Paul could have been speaking for us all when he wrote:

“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?”⁶

But then Paul hit upon the answer: “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”⁷—Rafael Holding⁸

God’s Power

“Every athlete in training submits to strict discipline, in order to be crowned with a wreath that will not last; but we do it for one that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25 GNT). “No pain, no gain” is the way fitness trainers put it, and they are right. Peak performance requires self-discipline and self-control. Olympic athletes train for years to have a chance to win a brief moment of glory. But the race we are running is far more important than any earthly athletic event. So self-control is not optional for Christians…

Three times in 1 Peter, God reminds us to be clear-minded and self-controlled. Why? Because a clear mind has a lot to do with self-control. God gave us the power to change our habits when he gave us the power to choose our thoughts. Does Romans 12:2 tell us to be transformed by working hard or by sheer willpower? No. What are we to be transformed by? The renewing of the mind. When your self-control is being tested, you need to fill your mind with the promises of God…

The Bible says that God puts his Holy Spirit in us to give us power. All Christians have God’s Spirit in their lives, but not all Christians have God’s power in their lives. Jesus gives a beautiful illustration of this in John 15. He compares our spiritual life to a vine and its branches: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NKJV)…

The secret of depending on God’s Spirit is to be incessantly in prayer. Pray about your decisions. Pray about your needs. Pray about your interests. Pray about your schedule. Pray about problems you are facing. Pray about people you are going to meet. Pray about purchases. Pray about everything. That is what it means to “abide”—to be aware that God is always with you, to practice his presence. As you pray, you will start to see the fruit of the Spirit developing in your life.—Rick Warren⁹

A Spirit of Power and Self-control

Self-control helps us to resist temptation and avoid conforming to the things of this world. It guides our decisions, and it correlates with how we show the other fruits in our lives. For example, forbearance, or patience, requires self-control. Proverbs 14:29 says, “Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly.” Our sinful nature leads us to give in to our temper, but we are called to rise above this and show patience. Self-control can be applied to all of the fruits of the Spirit in the same way it is applied to forbearance…

Jesus Christ gives us the perfect example of self-control, because He lived a sinless life and possessed every fruit of the Spirit. Jesus demonstrated self-control because He was sent to earth to carry out the Father’s will. He was to live a perfect life in order to set an example for us, and in the end, He died for our sins so that we may have eternal life.

In Matthew 26:53–54, Jesus says, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”

Jesus knew what He was sent to Earth to do, and despite His own [trepidation], He demonstrated self-control in submitting to the Father’s perfect plan. Without the self-control of Jesus, we would face death as the punishment of our sin.

2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” With the Holy Spirit inside of us, we are able to possess self-control and demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit. As a result, we can live in a way that is honorable to God.—Lauren Abraham¹⁰

A Gift of the Holy Spirit

Biblically, self-control, or lack thereof, goes to the deepest part of us: the heart. It begins with control of our emotions, and then includes our minds as well. Self-control is often paired with “sober-mindedness” (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; Titus 2:2; 1 Peter 4:7), and in several places the language of “self-control” applies especially to the mind…

We want to control ourselves in the power He supplies. We learn to say no, but we don’t just say no. We admit the inadequacy, and emptiness, of doing it on our own. We pray for Jesus’ help, secure accountability, and craft specific strategies. We trust God’s promises to supply the power for every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8; Philippians 4:19) and then act in faith that he will do it in and through us (Philippians 2:12–13)…

Ultimately, our controlling ourselves is about being controlled by Christ. When “the love of Christ controls us” (2 Corinthians 5:14), when we embrace the truth that he is our sovereign, we can bask in the freedom that we need not muster our own strength to exercise self-control, but we can find strength in the strength of another. In the person of Jesus, “the grace of God has appeared … training us”—not just “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,” but “to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11–12). …

Because self-control is a gift, produced in and through us by God’s Spirit, Christians can and should be the people on the planet most hopeful about growing in self-control. We are, after all, brothers and sisters of the most self-controlled man in the history of the world.

All his life he was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). He stayed the course even when sweat came like drops of blood (Luke 22:44)… When reviled, he did not revile in return (1 Peter 2:23) … In every trial and temptation, “he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), and at the pinnacle of his self-control he was “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). And he is the one who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).

In Jesus, we have a source for true self-control far beyond that of our feeble selves.—David Mathis¹¹

*

Benjamin Carson is one of the world’s most renowned physicians. He was raised in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of Detroit by a divorced mother who had to hold down several jobs to make ends meet. Though she had only a third-grade education, she radically improved the flagging school performance of young Benjamin and his brother by forcing them to turn off the television and read books instead.

But though Carson’s academic work prospered, he faced another obstacle to success—a violent temper. By his own account, he often hit people with a bat or rock, including one incident that broke the glasses of a neighbor and almost destroyed an eye.

The climax came in ninth grade when Carson tried to stab a boy in the gut. Fortunately, the intended victim was wearing a large metal belt buckle that broke the blade. “I realized that a temper like that was going to land me in jail, reform school or the grave,” Carson recalled.

He “started praying and asking God to deliver [him] from this temper.” Then, seeking guidance amid youthful misery, he began reading from the Old Testament’s Book of Proverbs. This verse particularly hit home:

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (16:32).

After undergoing this spiritual crisis, Carson says he found himself able to control his temper. He graduated third in his class at Southwestern High and won a scholarship to Yale. No doubt self-control enabled him to become a healer and a star surgeon.—Richard Ostling¹²

God Is Faithful

There I was, scrolling Instagram mindlessly once again and getting sucked into the black hole of the pages of “influencers” advertising product after product, sale after sale, deal after deal. It was getting so out of hand that I was finding myself clicking “add to cart” and hiding the packages from my husband when the boxes showed up on our doorstep a few days later. I knew it was wrong, but it felt like the temptation was too strong to stop this familiar cycle of impulsive buying. But this was a lie. No temptation is too strong for us to overcome.

It is important to remember that we don’t base truth on our feelings. We must look to what God’s Word says to renew our minds with His truth and gain wisdom on making healthy and [godly] choices. When it comes to self-control and overcoming any temptation that we face, we can find truth in 1 Corinthians. The apostle Paul states:

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV)…

We may feel like the temptation is too much to bear, but God always provides us a way of escape; we must ask the Lord to give us wisdom and spiritual eyes to see the way out. For me, personally, the wisdom was to unfollow these influencers’ Instagram pages so that the temptation of what they were sharing was no longer before my eyes continually.

The Holy Spirit is faithful to continue to give us wisdom and guidance and strengthen us when we submit our ways to Him. He will convict our hearts, remind us of what the Bible says, and cultivate the fruit that we have received, especially the fruit of self-control. As believers, we have received the fruit of the Spirit, and just like fruit in the natural, it must be cultivated. The longer we walk with the Lord and study His Word, the more our fruit is developed and strengthened within us.—Emily Massey¹³

A Prayer to Grow in Self-control

Dear Lord, as I face the day ahead, I invite You to guide my thoughts, words, and actions. Grant me the strength to embrace discipline, not as a burden, but as a path to freedom. Help me to find joy in the small acts of self-control and to remember that each choice I make is an opportunity to reflect Your love and grace.

In the hustle and bustle of today’s demands, be my steady calm. Teach me to prioritize not just the urgent but the important. Remind me that self-discipline is a form of worship, a way to honor You in every aspect of my life. Let Your Spirit guide me to choices that bring life, joy, and peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.—Laura Mendenhall¹⁴

Food for Thought

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11–13).

“True self-control is not about bringing our selves under our own control, but under the power of Christ.”—David Mathis

“Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love” (2 Peter 1:5–7).

“Self-control is the exercise of inner strength under the direction of sound judgment that enables us to do, think, and say the things that are pleasing to God.”—Jerry Bridges

(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ 1 Corinthians 9:24–27.

² 2 Timothy 3:1–4.

³ 1 Thessalonians 5:6.

⁴ 1 Peter 4:7.

⁵ Romans 12:2 NLT.

⁶ Romans 7:18–19, 21–24 NLT.

⁷ Romans 7:25 NLT.

⁸ “Developing Biblical Self-Control,” Anchor, June 2014.

⁹ Rick Warren, God’s Power to Change Your Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006).

¹⁰ Lauren Abraham, “Weekly Devotional: Fruit of the Spirit – Self-Control,” Grand Canyon University blog, January 29, 2016, https://www.gcu.edu/blog/spiritual-life/weekly-devotional-fruit-spirit-self-control.

¹¹ David Mathis, “Self-Control and the Power of Christ,” Desiring God, October 8, 2014, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/self-control-and-the-power-of-christ.

¹² Richard N. Ostling, “An Angry Teen’s Experience Demonstrates Bible’s Power,” AP via The Gadsden Times, July 9, 2004, https://www.gadsdentimes.com/story/news/2004/07/09/an-angry-teens-experience-demonstrates-bibles-power/32313102007/.

¹³ Emily Rose Massey, “A Prayer for More Self Control,” Crosswalk, https://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/your-daily-prayer/a-prayer-for-more-self-control.html.

¹⁴ Laura Mendenhall, “Prayer for Discipline,” Love Fast, Live Slow, July 17, 2024, https://lovefastliveslow.com/prayer-for-discipline/.

Copyright © 2024 The Family International.

08 Virtues for Christ-Followers: Gentleness

Virtues for Christ-followers

Peter Amsterdam

2024-10-29

Gentleness, our eighth virtue in the list of fruits of the Spirit, is one that is less frequently focused on than the others. We find it referenced throughout Scripture in relation to both Jesus and His Father.

We see God’s gentleness in His forgiveness of our sins, in the mercy He has bestowed upon us, in the patient long-suffering and steadfast faithfulness He has shown us. He is kind and gentle toward us. He is called “the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.”¹

Gentleness is manifested by actively showing goodness and kindness toward others and treating people in a gentle manner which shows concern and care for them. It is shown by being considerate, kind in our attitude, tender toward others, polite. A gentle person is mild-mannered, thoughtful, and friendly. Such a person doesn’t use force to get things done, but rather shows humble and genuine lovingkindness in their interactions and relationships with others.

The gentleness of Jesus can be seen in situations such as His interaction with the woman at the well.² Jesus wasn’t condemning of her but treated her with love and respect. When we read the story of the woman caught in adultery, we see that Jesus didn’t condemn her either, but loved her and forgave her in gentleness.³ When Jesus saw Martha’s rudeness toward her sister Mary, He addressed the situation with gentleness.⁴

There are issues where we should stand firm and be uncompromising as part of our convictions. But we can be gentle in our approach, even when taking a stance on a moral issue. If we want to become more like Jesus, we should be known for our gentleness. Jesus said: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.^”5

If we seek to grow in gentleness, we may want to spend time meditating on and praising God for the gentleness and kindness He shows us daily. As we do, it can remind us that we too are to be gentle with others, as He is with us.

The apostle Paul instructed, “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace^.”6 He also directed believers “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.”⁷

It’s helpful to remember that God has been ever so gentle with each of us. He loves us. He sent His Son to die for us and gave us the gift of salvation. We didn’t have to earn it or labor for it; it was a gift He graciously bestowed upon us. May the gentleness of Jesus shine through us as we reflect Him and His love to others.

The following articles provide helpful definitions and explanations of the fruit of gentleness in our lives and how to cultivate it in our interactions with others.

Cultivating a Gentle Spirit

Jesus is pictured in the Bible as a lamb,⁸ a mother hen,⁹ and a gentle, concerned shepherd.¹⁰ He said of Himself, “I am gentle and lowly in heart.”¹¹ He didn’t force anyone to believe in or follow Him. He showed compassion, and gently led people into His heavenly kingdom by His loving example. If you want to lead others to the Lord, follow His example. “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”¹²

We are called to be gentle and “kind to everyone” and “patient with difficult people.”¹³ If this sounds easier said than done, don’t worry. God can help each of us to be more like Jesus in this respect, too, if we let His Holy Spirit work through us.—Rafael Holding¹⁴

Contagious Calm

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:5–6).

The Greek word translated here as “gentleness” describes a temperament that’s seasoned and mature. It envisions an attitude fitting to the occasion, levelheaded and tempered. This gentleness is “evident to all.” Family members take note. Your friends sense a difference. Coworkers benefit from it.

The gentle person is sober minded and clear thinking. The contagiously calm person is the one who reminds others, “God is in control.” Pursue this gentleness. The Lord is near—you are not alone. You may feel alone. You may think you’re alone. But there is never a moment in which you face life without help. God is near—be anxious for nothing!—Max Lucado¹⁵

Practicing Gentleness

What is gentleness? Based on the original Greek word used in the New Testament, the word gentleness literally means “strength under control.” The word was used to describe a wild stallion that had been tamed or broken. The tamed stallion still had as much power and energy as when it was wild, but it could now be controlled and made useful for its master…

Gentleness is important for so many reasons. It defuses conflict. It disarms critics. It’s persuasive. It’s attractive. It communicates love.

Most importantly, gentleness makes you more like Jesus. In Matthew 11:28–29, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (NIV).

Do you feel weary and burdened today? Do you want to find rest and be at peace instead? Rest and peace come from being like Jesus—from being gentle.

You can’t just walk out your door and force yourself to be gentle. Gentleness needs to be an “inside job.” It should be the fruit of God’s Spirit in you. Jesus is gentle, and when you walk alongside Him, you’ll learn to be gentle too.

For more than 30 years now, I’ve prayed the same prayer almost every day: “Lord, help me to treat people the way Jesus would.” Why? Because I am not by nature a gentle person. So I have to let God produce gentleness in my life.

Here are three simple ways for you to practice gentleness with God’s help this week:

1. When somebody serves you, be understanding, not demanding. The next time you’re in a long line at a government office or coffee shop, be considerate—be understanding—of the person who eventually helps you.
2. When somebody disagrees with you, be tender without surrender. You’ll never get your point across by being cross. You don’t have to back down from God’s truth, but you can treat people with gentleness and respect.
3. When somebody disappoints you, be gentle, not judgmental. Ephesians 4:32 says it like this: “Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you”(MSG).

As you walk alongside Jesus and put these things into practice every day, you’ll find yourself becoming gentler and more like Jesus.—Rick Warren¹⁶

Choosing Gentleness

In the Bible the word for “gentle” is sometimes translated as “meek.” Being meek is probably not something most people aspire to. In our way of thinking, meekness not only sounds like weakness; the two words mean virtually the same thing. But true gentleness resembles strength more than weakness.

Gentle people have the potential to be rude or proud, but they have deliberately decided not to behave that way. They have intentionally chosen gentleness. That actually takes more strength than it does to treat others harshly. Unleashing our anger is usually easier than restraining ourselves. So meekness is hardly weakness. A decision not to retaliate may look like inaction, but it’s actually humility at work. What appears to be a lack of assertiveness is robust spiritual action.

In his book Grace for the Moment, Max Lucado offers a pledge that we could all make our own: “Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle…”

Those words convey how demanding it can be to choose gentleness. But we can do that because we have experienced the Lord’s tender love. We can trust that he will abundantly provide the strength we need to be gentle. His meekness is greater than our weakness.—Peter Hoytema¹⁷

The Strength of Gentleness

My dad was a big man. Even as an adult, I couldn’t put my hands around his forearm. His size and strength were intimidating. I remember him (as owner/operator of the local Dr Pepper Bottling Company) coming up to my high school, tipping the vending machine onto his back and moving it. Alone. He told me later he did it mostly as a warning to the boys. I guess it worked because I’ve had more than one tell me they were too scared of him to ever ask me out. They saw only strength, but not his gentleness.

But in my mind and heart, my father was a gentle giant. Yes, he was authority. He was a protector, but he was a snuggler, and often a man of good humor. His massive hands embodied a gentleness that I find hard to describe…

Jesus’ death on the cross is the epitome of gentleness. He could have called an angel army to pull Him from the cross! I picture those heavenly beings with their swords drawn, leaning forward, agonizing over the treatment Christ received. Just waiting for His order—that He never gave because of His profound love for you and me.

But the same Son of God who cleared the temple and overturned the tables chose gentleness as the path to repair our broken relationship with His Father. And He is self-described as gentle in Matthew 11:28–29, “Learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.”…

And it’s also seen in Colossians 3:12–13 (NIV), “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” What a powerful standard to live up to!—Kathy Shaull¹⁸

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Gentleness is often seen in the world as a sign of weakness, but gentleness is actually power that is harnessed and used wisely and lovingly. When people behaving with gentleness stand up for the truth and godliness, they do so in a humble and gracious manner. Gentleness is to be applied when we witness and teach or explain our faith.

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15 NIV).

“The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness” (2 Timothy 2:24–25).

It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to be gentle in our speech, especially when we face confrontation or differing opinions. At such times it’s easy to fly off the handle and speak angry, cruel, or disparaging words. But the fruit of gentleness helps us respond with tenderness toward others, and leads us to show lovingkindness, as the following quotes express.

A believer should always be ready to tell others the good news of salvation in Jesus’ death and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:2–4). … All Christians need to be prepared to give an answer or defense when someone asks them the reason for the hope that they have…

To properly answer someone who asks about one’s faith, the Christian must use “gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience” (1 Peter 3:15). There’s no place for harshness or disrespect in a Christian’s life, especially as he represents Christ and gives an answer to explain his faith. Peter exhorts the believer to answer unbelievers gently, respectfully, and with the example of one’s life (cf. Colossians 4:6). Believers should reflect Christ’s teaching of gentleness and “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15 NLT).

The command to “always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” presupposes a faith that causes us to live out our hope in Christ visibly before others. When unbelievers see a Christian’s great hope in the face of persecution or suffering, they will naturally want to know the reason for that hope (Matthew 5:16). We need to be prepared to share the gospel in a way that is gentle and respectful.—Got Questions¹⁹

Gentle Words

It is interesting to think of the new era of love which Jesus opened. Of course there was gentleness in the world before He came. … Yet the world at large was full of cruelty. The rich oppressed the poor. The strong crushed the weak. Women were slaves and men were tyrants. There was no hand of love reached out to help the sick, the lame, the blind, the old, the deformed, the insane, nor any to care for the widow, the orphan, the homeless.

Then Jesus came; and for three and thirty years He went about among men, doing kindly things. He had a gentle heart, and gentleness flowed out in His speech… There was never any uncertainty about the heartbeat in the words which fell from the lips of Jesus. They throbbed with sympathy and tenderness.

The people knew always that Jesus was their friend. His life was full of rich helpfulness. No wrong or cruelty ever made Him ungentle. He scattered kindness wherever He moved. … As one might drop a handful of spices into the brackish sea, and therewith sweeten its waters, so these teachings of Jesus fell into the world’s unloving, unkindly life, and at once began to change it into gentleness. Wherever the gospel has gone these sayings of the great Teacher have been carried, and have fallen into people’s hearts, leaving there their blessings of gentleness.—J. R. Miller

A Prayer for Gentleness

Heavenly Father,

We come before you with gratitude for all that you are, for all that you have given us, for your mercy and grace towards us, for your presence and faithfulness. You created us to reflect your image, and in doing so, to bring you glory. …

Jesus, we see in you what is most needed in our own lives and in the world. You tell us to learn from you for you are gentle and humble in heart (Matthew 11:29). You modeled gentleness and humility while you lived here on earth. You have dealt gently with us in our sin. Help us to learn from you and follow your example.

Gentleness is a soothing disposition and meekness from strength. We recognize that we need this, Jesus. So many people need a kind word, an act of compassion, a quiet voice of reason, a softly spoken encouragement, a tender touch. Help us, Jesus, to be the peacemakers. Help us to be mild-mannered. Help us to be careful with our responses and interactions with others. Help us to be those who bring calm to the storms raging in this world…

Father, we ask that your Spirit would develop and grow gentleness within us. We know that we cannot bear fruit if we are not connected to you, so we cling to you, Jesus. By following closely in the steps of our Rabbi, we seek to emulate you … so that we may reflect your gentleness and in doing so bring you glory. Amen.—Ashley McCullough²⁰

Food for Thought

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5 NIV).

“We must not only speak gently to our neighbour, but we must be filled, heart and soul, with gentleness.”—St. Francis de Sales

“God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So you should always clothe yourselves with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other, and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:12–13 NCV).

“Gentleness includes such enviable qualities as having strength under control, being calm and peaceful when surrounded by a heated atmosphere, emitting a soothing effect on those who may be angry or otherwise beside themselves, and possessing tact and gracious courtesy that causes others to retain their self-esteem and dignity.”―Charles R. Swindoll

(For more on gentleness, see More Like Jesus: Gentleness. To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ 2 Corinthians 1:3.

² John 4:4–29.

³ John 8:1–11.

⁴ Luke 10:40–42.

⁵ Matthew 11:29.

⁶ Ephesians 4:1–3.

⁷ Titus 3:2.

⁸ John 1:29; Isaiah 53:7.

⁹ Luke 13:34.

¹⁰ John 10:14–15.

¹¹ Matthew 11:29.

¹² 1 Peter 2:21 NIV.

¹³ 2 Timothy 2:24 NLT.

¹⁴ “The Wonder of Gentleness” (adapted), Anchor, November 2018.

¹⁵ Max Lucado, “Let Your Gentleness Be Evident to All,” April 17, 2020, https://maxlucado.com/listen/let-your-gentleness-be-evident-to-all/.

¹⁶ Rick Warren, God’s Power to Change Your Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006).

¹⁷ Peter Hoytema, “Choosing Gentleness,” Today Devotional, January 26, 2012, https://todaydevotional.com/devotions/choosing-gentleness-2012-01-26.

¹⁸ Kathy Shaull, “The Strength of Gentleness,” 13 Prayers, September 8, 2020, https://13prayers.com/strength-gentleness/.

¹⁹ Got Questions, “What Does It Mean to Always Be Ready to Give an Answer (1 Peter 3:15)?” January 26, 2023, https://www.gotquestions.org/always-be-ready-to-give-an-answer.html.

²⁰ Ashley McCullough, “Gentleness—Prayer,” Ultimate Outcomes, June 28, 2020, https://www.ultimateoutcomes.org/gentleness-2/.

Copyright © 2024 The Family International.

07 Virtues for Christ-Followers: Faithfulness

Virtues for Christ-followers

Peter Amsterdam

2024-10-15

The seventh virtue in our list is faithfulness. Much is written throughout both the Old and New Testaments about faithfulness. In biblical terms, faithfulness expresses the concept of being reliable, steadfast, and unwavering.

Throughout Scripture, God is spoken of as being faithful. When God revealed Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, He declared: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.^”1 He is described as “a God of faithfulness^,”2 and in the Psalms, we read that “the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.^”3

God is faithful, unwavering in His promises and His love for us. Even if we weaken or lose faith, “He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.^”4

In the context of cultivating the virtue of faithfulness in our lives, faithfulness means being true to our commitment to live in accordance with God’s Word, to put Him first, and not give anything else priority over our commitment to Him. This concept is expressed in the first of the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me.”⁵ The commitment for us, as Christians, is to be faithful to God by giving Him our primary allegiance, our love and dedication.

Faithfulness also means being trustworthy. When you give your word, you keep it. You fulfill your obligations. Someone who is faithful, who keeps their word, who acts honorably, will do so no matter what the situation.

As Christians, we are called to be faithful, honorable, trustworthy, and reliable in our speech and our interactions with others. In so doing, we reflect the Lord to others. “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.^”6

The following articles provide helpful encouragement on how we can grow in faithfulness and manifest this fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The One-Day-at-a-Time Fruit

Faithful people are dependable and true. They’re faithful to God, faithful to the work He has called them to, whatever that may be, and faithful to keep their word and fulfill their obligations to others. All of these things are part of their Christian duty.

Faithful people are that way because they are full of faith. Their faith is what gives them the strength to be responsible. They’re full of God’s Word, which is the source of faith,⁷ so it comes naturally for them to do what it says. Theirs is a living faith, and it shows.⁸ Faithful people keep going through thick and thin because they know Him in whom they believe and are persuaded that He will work everything out for their good in the end.⁹

How can you remain faithful? Stay close to Jesus. If you strengthen your faith through reading God’s Word and do your best to be faithful today, you’ll stay faithful, and that will be a testimony to others.—Rafael Holding¹⁰

What does faithfulness look like?

When a person walks consistently with God, in humble service to Him, he or she can be called “faithful.” When Nehemiah had to leave Jerusalem to return to Persia, he put Hanani and Hananiah in charge. The reason for his choice of these men was that they were “more faithful and God-fearing … than many” (Nehemiah 7:2 ESV). Nehemiah needed men of character whom he could trust. Men who would not take bribes, who were committed to the welfare of the people, and who would uphold the integrity of the office.

Notice, also, that faithfulness is associated with fearing God. The better we truly know God, the more we will want to imitate Him (Ephesians 5:1). Other examples of faithfulness include Silas (1 Peter 5:8), Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21), Epaphras (Colossians 1:7), Onesimus (Colossians 4:9), and Moses (Hebrews 3:2). Some of the names included in this “faithful list” are unfamiliar to most people. Not much is known of Tychicus or Epaphras, for example. But faithfulness, even in small matters, is known to God and rewarded in the end (Luke 19:17).—Got Questions¹¹

Never Give Up

The difference between faithful people and unfaithful people is that unfaithful people give up at the first sign of difficulty. Faithful people keep on keeping on.

Faithful people are determined. Faithful people are diligent. Faithful people are persistent. Faithful people don’t know how to quit. You know how a little acorn becomes an oak tree? An oak tree is just an acorn that refused to give up…

You are never a failure until you quit, and it’s always too soon to quit. God uses tough times to test your persistence.

When we started Saddleback Church, I thought we’d quickly get into a building. But we went 15 years without one. In the first 13 years of the church, we used 79 different facilities. You know how many times I felt like giving up? Just every Monday morning!…

If you’re going through tough times right now, then this verse is for you: “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:16–17 NLT).

God is more interested in what you’re becoming than what’s happening to you. He often allows trials, troubles, tribulations, and problems in your life to teach you diligence, determination, and character. What about the problems you’re going through right now? They’re a test of your faithfulness. Will you continue to serve God even when life stinks?

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9 NIV).—Rick Warren¹²

Choices for Eternity

Here are some ways you can make choices now that will positively impact your eternal destiny:

• Be consistent as you serve God, striving to be faithful in little things as well as big things. You don’t have to worry about trying to impress God with huge accomplishments that impress other people. For example, God will smile on you if you diligently change your baby’s diapers day after day. If God has called you to that mundane task and you’re faithful to it, God will be as pleased with you as if you had written a Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Even when no one else notices your service, God does, and He applauds you for it. Doing whatever God wants you to at a particular moment is what’s most important.
• Arrange your priorities around loving God and loving the people He has made. If you strive to do that in every situation, every aspect of your life will fall into place in ways that please God.
• Realize that you don’t have to wait until you have better circumstances in your life to be faithful to God. If you’re faithful with what you have right now, God will know He can trust you enough to give you more…
• Strive to handle every situation with integrity, and fulfill the commitments you have made.
• Persevere in your service by spending regular time in prayer with God each day and asking for fresh grace to strengthen you and keep you growing. Don’t ever quit; remember that God has a prize waiting for you in heaven.—Kent Crockett¹³

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“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”—1 Corinthians 4:2

Picture yourself standing before God on the day that he rewards believers. You are longing to hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” but as you glance to your left you notice Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China. To your right stands Corrie ten Boom, the saint who put her life on the line to hide Jews from the Nazis. Somehow, you feel a little small and insignificant.

There’s no need to. God is only looking for you to be faithful in what he’s called you to be and do. No matter if your calling is lofty or lowly, it is faithfulness for which he will commend you on that day when all believers stand before him. That means that your faithfulness may be rewarded by God with as great a glory as that reserved for the Billy Grahams of this world!…

So remember: God requires you to be faithful. That’s enough. That’s everything.—Joni Eareckson Tada¹⁴

The following anecdotes express touching stories, especially for those of us who are now in our senior years. It is encouraging to see how God continues to use His faithful followers throughout their lives to bring people to Him and to share the good news through words and actions with their neighbors and communities.

Biblical Greatness

I had the great privilege of seeing my grandfather cross the finish line. One moment he was sucking stale air through an oxygen mask; the next moment he was inhaling the glories of heaven.

By worldly standards, my grandpa wasn’t great. He didn’t have a single Facebook friend or Twitter follower. He never wrote a book, never spoke at a conference, never created a viral video. He didn’t have a popular blog.

Despite his lack of public fame, my grandpa was truly great in God’s eyes. That’s the funny thing about true, biblical greatness. Biblical greatness almost never goes viral, because biblical greatness almost always involves doing things no one ever sees.

No one saw my grandpa help his blind neighbor, Homer, pay his bills.

No one saw my grandpa give weekly Bible lessons at Saint Andrews Retirement Home.

No one saw my grandpa take Tom and Tony (older men on welfare) out to get groceries every week.

Every month my grandpa hand-painted approximately thirty birthday cards, which he sent to friends and members of the church. Over the course of his life he painted somewhere around 6,000 cards.

In our celebrity-infatuated culture, my grandpa was the quintessential anti-celebrity. He shopped at Wal-Mart. He once pulled out a rotten tooth with a pair of pliers. He kept score at local church softball games. He was a WWII vet who was most certainly not impressed with himself.

But my grandpa was most certainly great in God’s eyes. Shortly before he took his last breath, I read Matthew 25:20–21 to him: “And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”

I wish I could have heard the cheers when Jesus said those words to my grandpa.—Stephen Altrogge¹⁵

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Dr. Charles McCoy was a pastor with seven degrees. His church expected him to retire at 72 and move into a retirement home.

But Dr. McCoy was an explorer at heart. He retired to India. His friends said, “You might die in India.” He replied, “It’s just as close to heaven from there as it is from here.”

He shared Christ before political leaders, educational institutions, large crowds. He planted churches in Calcutta and Hong Kong. At age 86, he died. A friend said, “He had come to the end of his great adventure. … He had been faithful.”

God intends for us to be rivers, fresh and flowing, ever growing, never stagnant. He wants us to press on, to keep the wonder, and to think of our life in Christ as a Great Adventure.—David Jeremiah¹⁶

*

One of the great things about being around Christian mission work is associating with people who are more faithful, more committed and more passionate about serving God than you are. They are a “cloud of witnesses,” as Hebrews 12:1 describes the saints of old, who motivate the rest of us to pursue a higher calling.

Anna, a 98-year-old lady in my church, participates in multiple ministries during a typical week. Recently she spoke at a women’s detention facility and 14 inmates gave their lives to Christ. Anna has a great sense of humor, too. No one can top that! But we can listen to her wisdom, learn from her life and follow her example with God’s help.

To paraphrase Forrest Gump, faithful is as faithful does.—Erich Bridges¹⁷

*

I have never met Mary Ruth, but I’ve received inspiring letters from her. She has known Christ as her Savior for 63 years, and she is investing her life in doing business for Him until He returns. Here is an excerpt from one of her letters:

“Each night before I go to sleep, I say, ‘Good night, Lord Jesus. I love You. I’ll see You in the morning, either here or there (heaven).’ When I awake and see that I am still here, I say, ‘Good morning, Lord. I love You. I see we have another day together.’ Immediately I report for duty and ask Him to let me know, moment by moment, His plans for the day so we can ‘get with it’ together. I aim to help everyone I can to get ready to meet Him.”

Mary Ruth then wrote about recent opportunities she and her brother had to witness to people from other countries, and she said that several had received Christ. “God reached Chinese, Vietnamese, Buddhists, and a Jew—all in 3 days, and I didn’t need a passport, visa, or plane ticket. God brought them to us, and all I had to do was report for duty.”—Joanie Yoder¹⁸

Prayer for Faithfulness

Dear Heavenly Father, I am humbly reminded of my commitment to You—a commitment that calls for faithfulness in both the calm and the storms of life. I understand that faithfulness is not determined by the absence of storms, but by my unyielding allegiance to You in the midst of those storms.

When the winds blow and the waves rise, when I am tossed to and fro by the challenges of this life, help me to remain steadfast and faithful. I am acutely aware, Lord, that faithfulness during the storm is a testament to my trust in You. It means looking beyond the raging storm, beyond the unsettling waves, and focusing my eyes on You.

I need Your strength, Lord, to remain anchored to You, to hold on to Your promises… Teach me to not only be faithful in the storm but to also find joy in the midst of it. Amen.—ChristiansTT.com¹⁹

Food for Thought

“Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is reliable and trustworthy and faithful [to His word]” (Hebrews 10:23 AMP).

“I know of nothing which I would choose to have as the subject of my ambition for life than to be kept faithful to my God till death, still to be a soul winner, still to be a true herald of the cross, and testify the name of Jesus to the last hour.”—Charles Spurgeon

His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23).

You are writing a Gospel, a chapter each day,
By the deeds that you do and the words that you say.
Men read what you write, whether faithful or true:
Just what is the Gospel according to you?—Paul Gilbert

(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ Exodus 34:6.

² Deuteronomy 32:4.

³ Psalm 117:2.

⁴ 2 Timothy 2:13 NKJV.

⁵ Exodus 20:3–5.

⁶ Proverbs 3:3–4 NIV.

⁷ Romans 10:17.

⁸ James 2:18, 21–26.

⁹ 2 Timothy 1:12; Romans 8:28.

¹⁰ “Faithfulness—the one-day-at-a-time fruit” (adapted), Activated, August 2013, https://activated.org/en/life/the-whole-you/personal-growth/faithfulness-the-one-day-at-a-time-fruit/.

¹¹ Got Questions, “What does the Bible say about faithfulness?” August 9, 2024, https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-faithfulness.html.

¹² Rick Warren, “It’s Too Soon to Quit,” PastorRick.com, February 26, 2024, https://pastorrick.com/its-too-soon-to-quit/.

¹³ Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity (Crown Publishing, 2001).

¹⁴ Joni Eareckson Tada, Diamonds in the Dust (HarperChristian, 2010), 42.

¹⁵ Stephen Altrogge, “True Greatness Never Goes Viral,” The Aquila Report, February 26, 2014, https://theaquilareport.com/true-greatness-never-goes-viral/.

¹⁶ David Jeremiah, “First-Person: Finding the Lost Path to Spiritual Renewal,” Baptist Press, June 16, 2011, https://townhall.com/columnists/print/1201695.

¹⁷ Erich Bridges, “Faithful is as faithful does,” Baptist Press, May 13, 2010.

¹⁸ Joanie Yoder, “Reporting for Duty,” Our Daily Bread, November 3, 2000, https://odb.org/2000/11/03/reporting-for-duty.

¹⁹ Martin, “Prayer – Be Faithful To God, Even During The Storms Of Life,” ChristiansTT, July 19, 2024, https://christianstt.com/prayer-be-faithful-to-god/.

Copyright © 2024 The Family International.

07 Virtues for Christ-Followers: Faithfulness

Virtues for Christ-followers

Peter Amsterdam

2024-10-15

The seventh virtue in our list is faithfulness. Much is written throughout both the Old and New Testaments about faithfulness. In biblical terms, faithfulness expresses the concept of being reliable, steadfast, and unwavering.

Throughout Scripture, God is spoken of as being faithful. When God revealed Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, He declared: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.^”1 He is described as “a God of faithfulness^,”2 and in the Psalms, we read that “the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.^”3

God is faithful, unwavering in His promises and His love for us. Even if we weaken or lose faith, “He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.^”4

In the context of cultivating the virtue of faithfulness in our lives, faithfulness means being true to our commitment to live in accordance with God’s Word, to put Him first, and not give anything else priority over our commitment to Him. This concept is expressed in the first of the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me.”⁵ The commitment for us, as Christians, is to be faithful to God by giving Him our primary allegiance, our love and dedication.

Faithfulness also means being trustworthy. When you give your word, you keep it. You fulfill your obligations. Someone who is faithful, who keeps their word, who acts honorably, will do so no matter what the situation.

As Christians, we are called to be faithful, honorable, trustworthy, and reliable in our speech and our interactions with others. In so doing, we reflect the Lord to others. “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.^”6

The following articles provide helpful encouragement on how we can grow in faithfulness and manifest this fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The One-Day-at-a-Time Fruit

Faithful people are dependable and true. They’re faithful to God, faithful to the work He has called them to, whatever that may be, and faithful to keep their word and fulfill their obligations to others. All of these things are part of their Christian duty.

Faithful people are that way because they are full of faith. Their faith is what gives them the strength to be responsible. They’re full of God’s Word, which is the source of faith,⁷ so it comes naturally for them to do what it says. Theirs is a living faith, and it shows.⁸ Faithful people keep going through thick and thin because they know Him in whom they believe and are persuaded that He will work everything out for their good in the end.⁹

How can you remain faithful? Stay close to Jesus. If you strengthen your faith through reading God’s Word and do your best to be faithful today, you’ll stay faithful, and that will be a testimony to others.—Rafael Holding¹⁰

What does faithfulness look like?

When a person walks consistently with God, in humble service to Him, he or she can be called “faithful.” When Nehemiah had to leave Jerusalem to return to Persia, he put Hanani and Hananiah in charge. The reason for his choice of these men was that they were “more faithful and God-fearing … than many” (Nehemiah 7:2 ESV). Nehemiah needed men of character whom he could trust. Men who would not take bribes, who were committed to the welfare of the people, and who would uphold the integrity of the office.

Notice, also, that faithfulness is associated with fearing God. The better we truly know God, the more we will want to imitate Him (Ephesians 5:1). Other examples of faithfulness include Silas (1 Peter 5:8), Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21), Epaphras (Colossians 1:7), Onesimus (Colossians 4:9), and Moses (Hebrews 3:2). Some of the names included in this “faithful list” are unfamiliar to most people. Not much is known of Tychicus or Epaphras, for example. But faithfulness, even in small matters, is known to God and rewarded in the end (Luke 19:17).—Got Questions¹¹

Never Give Up

The difference between faithful people and unfaithful people is that unfaithful people give up at the first sign of difficulty. Faithful people keep on keeping on.

Faithful people are determined. Faithful people are diligent. Faithful people are persistent. Faithful people don’t know how to quit. You know how a little acorn becomes an oak tree? An oak tree is just an acorn that refused to give up…

You are never a failure until you quit, and it’s always too soon to quit. God uses tough times to test your persistence.

When we started Saddleback Church, I thought we’d quickly get into a building. But we went 15 years without one. In the first 13 years of the church, we used 79 different facilities. You know how many times I felt like giving up? Just every Monday morning!…

If you’re going through tough times right now, then this verse is for you: “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:16–17 NLT).

God is more interested in what you’re becoming than what’s happening to you. He often allows trials, troubles, tribulations, and problems in your life to teach you diligence, determination, and character. What about the problems you’re going through right now? They’re a test of your faithfulness. Will you continue to serve God even when life stinks?

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9 NIV).—Rick Warren¹²

Choices for Eternity

Here are some ways you can make choices now that will positively impact your eternal destiny:

• Be consistent as you serve God, striving to be faithful in little things as well as big things. You don’t have to worry about trying to impress God with huge accomplishments that impress other people. For example, God will smile on you if you diligently change your baby’s diapers day after day. If God has called you to that mundane task and you’re faithful to it, God will be as pleased with you as if you had written a Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Even when no one else notices your service, God does, and He applauds you for it. Doing whatever God wants you to at a particular moment is what’s most important.
• Arrange your priorities around loving God and loving the people He has made. If you strive to do that in every situation, every aspect of your life will fall into place in ways that please God.
• Realize that you don’t have to wait until you have better circumstances in your life to be faithful to God. If you’re faithful with what you have right now, God will know He can trust you enough to give you more…
• Strive to handle every situation with integrity, and fulfill the commitments you have made.
• Persevere in your service by spending regular time in prayer with God each day and asking for fresh grace to strengthen you and keep you growing. Don’t ever quit; remember that God has a prize waiting for you in heaven.—Kent Crockett¹³

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“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”—1 Corinthians 4:2

Picture yourself standing before God on the day that he rewards believers. You are longing to hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” but as you glance to your left you notice Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China. To your right stands Corrie ten Boom, the saint who put her life on the line to hide Jews from the Nazis. Somehow, you feel a little small and insignificant.

There’s no need to. God is only looking for you to be faithful in what he’s called you to be and do. No matter if your calling is lofty or lowly, it is faithfulness for which he will commend you on that day when all believers stand before him. That means that your faithfulness may be rewarded by God with as great a glory as that reserved for the Billy Grahams of this world!…

So remember: God requires you to be faithful. That’s enough. That’s everything.—Joni Eareckson Tada¹⁴

The following anecdotes express touching stories, especially for those of us who are now in our senior years. It is encouraging to see how God continues to use His faithful followers throughout their lives to bring people to Him and to share the good news through words and actions with their neighbors and communities.

Biblical Greatness

I had the great privilege of seeing my grandfather cross the finish line. One moment he was sucking stale air through an oxygen mask; the next moment he was inhaling the glories of heaven.

By worldly standards, my grandpa wasn’t great. He didn’t have a single Facebook friend or Twitter follower. He never wrote a book, never spoke at a conference, never created a viral video. He didn’t have a popular blog.

Despite his lack of public fame, my grandpa was truly great in God’s eyes. That’s the funny thing about true, biblical greatness. Biblical greatness almost never goes viral, because biblical greatness almost always involves doing things no one ever sees.

No one saw my grandpa help his blind neighbor, Homer, pay his bills.

No one saw my grandpa give weekly Bible lessons at Saint Andrews Retirement Home.

No one saw my grandpa take Tom and Tony (older men on welfare) out to get groceries every week.

Every month my grandpa hand-painted approximately thirty birthday cards, which he sent to friends and members of the church. Over the course of his life he painted somewhere around 6,000 cards.

In our celebrity-infatuated culture, my grandpa was the quintessential anti-celebrity. He shopped at Wal-Mart. He once pulled out a rotten tooth with a pair of pliers. He kept score at local church softball games. He was a WWII vet who was most certainly not impressed with himself.

But my grandpa was most certainly great in God’s eyes. Shortly before he took his last breath, I read Matthew 25:20–21 to him: “And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”

I wish I could have heard the cheers when Jesus said those words to my grandpa.—Stephen Altrogge¹⁵

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Dr. Charles McCoy was a pastor with seven degrees. His church expected him to retire at 72 and move into a retirement home.

But Dr. McCoy was an explorer at heart. He retired to India. His friends said, “You might die in India.” He replied, “It’s just as close to heaven from there as it is from here.”

He shared Christ before political leaders, educational institutions, large crowds. He planted churches in Calcutta and Hong Kong. At age 86, he died. A friend said, “He had come to the end of his great adventure. … He had been faithful.”

God intends for us to be rivers, fresh and flowing, ever growing, never stagnant. He wants us to press on, to keep the wonder, and to think of our life in Christ as a Great Adventure.—David Jeremiah¹⁶

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One of the great things about being around Christian mission work is associating with people who are more faithful, more committed and more passionate about serving God than you are. They are a “cloud of witnesses,” as Hebrews 12:1 describes the saints of old, who motivate the rest of us to pursue a higher calling.

Anna, a 98-year-old lady in my church, participates in multiple ministries during a typical week. Recently she spoke at a women’s detention facility and 14 inmates gave their lives to Christ. Anna has a great sense of humor, too. No one can top that! But we can listen to her wisdom, learn from her life and follow her example with God’s help.

To paraphrase Forrest Gump, faithful is as faithful does.—Erich Bridges¹⁷

*

I have never met Mary Ruth, but I’ve received inspiring letters from her. She has known Christ as her Savior for 63 years, and she is investing her life in doing business for Him until He returns. Here is an excerpt from one of her letters:

“Each night before I go to sleep, I say, ‘Good night, Lord Jesus. I love You. I’ll see You in the morning, either here or there (heaven).’ When I awake and see that I am still here, I say, ‘Good morning, Lord. I love You. I see we have another day together.’ Immediately I report for duty and ask Him to let me know, moment by moment, His plans for the day so we can ‘get with it’ together. I aim to help everyone I can to get ready to meet Him.”

Mary Ruth then wrote about recent opportunities she and her brother had to witness to people from other countries, and she said that several had received Christ. “God reached Chinese, Vietnamese, Buddhists, and a Jew—all in 3 days, and I didn’t need a passport, visa, or plane ticket. God brought them to us, and all I had to do was report for duty.”—Joanie Yoder¹⁸

Prayer for Faithfulness

Dear Heavenly Father, I am humbly reminded of my commitment to You—a commitment that calls for faithfulness in both the calm and the storms of life. I understand that faithfulness is not determined by the absence of storms, but by my unyielding allegiance to You in the midst of those storms.

When the winds blow and the waves rise, when I am tossed to and fro by the challenges of this life, help me to remain steadfast and faithful. I am acutely aware, Lord, that faithfulness during the storm is a testament to my trust in You. It means looking beyond the raging storm, beyond the unsettling waves, and focusing my eyes on You.

I need Your strength, Lord, to remain anchored to You, to hold on to Your promises… Teach me to not only be faithful in the storm but to also find joy in the midst of it. Amen.—ChristiansTT.com¹⁹

Food for Thought

“Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is reliable and trustworthy and faithful [to His word]” (Hebrews 10:23 AMP).

“I know of nothing which I would choose to have as the subject of my ambition for life than to be kept faithful to my God till death, still to be a soul winner, still to be a true herald of the cross, and testify the name of Jesus to the last hour.”—Charles Spurgeon

His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23).

You are writing a Gospel, a chapter each day,
By the deeds that you do and the words that you say.
Men read what you write, whether faithful or true:
Just what is the Gospel according to you?—Paul Gilbert

(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ Exodus 34:6.

² Deuteronomy 32:4.

³ Psalm 117:2.

⁴ 2 Timothy 2:13 NKJV.

⁵ Exodus 20:3–5.

⁶ Proverbs 3:3–4 NIV.

⁷ Romans 10:17.

⁸ James 2:18, 21–26.

⁹ 2 Timothy 1:12; Romans 8:28.

¹⁰ “Faithfulness—the one-day-at-a-time fruit” (adapted), Activated, August 2013, https://activated.org/en/life/the-whole-you/personal-growth/faithfulness-the-one-day-at-a-time-fruit/.

¹¹ Got Questions, “What does the Bible say about faithfulness?” August 9, 2024, https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-faithfulness.html.

¹² Rick Warren, “It’s Too Soon to Quit,” PastorRick.com, February 26, 2024, https://pastorrick.com/its-too-soon-to-quit/.

¹³ Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity (Crown Publishing, 2001).

¹⁴ Joni Eareckson Tada, Diamonds in the Dust (HarperChristian, 2010), 42.

¹⁵ Stephen Altrogge, “True Greatness Never Goes Viral,” The Aquila Report, February 26, 2014, https://theaquilareport.com/true-greatness-never-goes-viral/.

¹⁶ David Jeremiah, “First-Person: Finding the Lost Path to Spiritual Renewal,” Baptist Press, June 16, 2011, https://townhall.com/columnists/print/1201695.

¹⁷ Erich Bridges, “Faithful is as faithful does,” Baptist Press, May 13, 2010.

¹⁸ Joanie Yoder, “Reporting for Duty,” Our Daily Bread, November 3, 2000, https://odb.org/2000/11/03/reporting-for-duty.

¹⁹ Martin, “Prayer – Be Faithful To God, Even During The Storms Of Life,” ChristiansTT, July 19, 2024, https://christianstt.com/prayer-be-faithful-to-god/.

Copyright © 2024 The Family International.

06 Virtues for Christ-Followers: Goodness

Virtues for Christ-followers

Peter Amsterdam

2024-10-01

Goodness is the sixth virtue in the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Goodness, which is very similar to kindness, is mentioned in only a few places in Paul’s writings. Goodness is an attribute of God, and part of His very nature, as we read in Psalms:

“He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”¹

“The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”²

In the New Testament, we read of the wonderful goodness exemplified by Jesus coming to earth and dying for our sins: “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”³

Christians filled with the Spirit of God are given strength to emulate the goodness of God and to live lives of goodness and of moral beauty, which shines into the needy world, as the following articles highlight.

Goodness—The Exemplary Fruit

Christians are expected to be good people. In fact, many non-Christians expect more from Christians than they do from themselves or anyone else. Jesus Himself told His first followers, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”⁴

This is certainly a tall order and one that is not easy to live up to. Sad to say, as Christians we can take on the mistaken idea that we’re supposed to be perfect, which no one is, of course, or can be. We’re far better off if we honestly and humbly admit our faults and mistakes, and then give God the glory for anything good that is accomplished. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”⁵

As you work to exemplify His goodness to others—trusting God to work in and through you—His goodness will shine through.—Rafael Holding⁶

What Is True Goodness?

Growing up, we were often told to “be good.” Maybe this looked like helping your mom with the household chores or getting good grades in school. I think the true meaning of the word “goodness” is commonly overlooked, though. Goodness is action; it’s not something we do only for the sake of being virtuous.

When we strive to be “good” only for our own benefit, it is not truly goodness that we possess. In Greek, the word goodness, “agathosune,” means “an uprightness of heart and life.”⁷

When we act out of true goodness of the heart and reflect the fruit of the Spirit, we are obedient to God’s commandments and seek the benefit of others. Our actions come from a place of selflessness, and we place the needs of others before our own.

The life of Jesus Christ is the perfect example of goodness, as He died on the cross for the sins of humanity in order to give us the gift of eternal life. His ministry and sacrifice are an example of God’s goodness toward mankind. After all, the term “gospel” means “good news.”

Peter, a disciple of Jesus, talks about the goodness of Jesus’ ministry in Acts 10:38: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” In addition, Jesus is called the “good shepherd” in Scripture, because He laid down His life for His sheep.

We are called as Christians to live in a way that reflects the character of Christ. Matthew 5:16 says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Goodness is not about doing elaborate things to gain recognition. Oftentimes, it is the small acts of goodness we do throughout our day that mean the most to those around us. Is your friend having a bad day? Write them a note to let them know how much you care about them. Is someone putting you down? Pray for them.

It is in these acts of goodness that we reflect Christ’s character and possess the fruit of the Spirit. While it may seem like no one notices, God does. Ultimately, when we show goodness, we bring glory to God’s name.—Lauren Abraham⁸

The Fruit of Goodness

The sixth fruit of the Spirit is goodness. What exactly is goodness? The word “good” is used so frequently in our everyday lives that it almost loses its meaning. For example, how many times a day do we say, “good morning” and “good luck” and “good work”? But, the Bible tells us that the word “good” actually means holy, pure and righteous. Literally, goodness is godliness.

Goodness can often be seen in our actions, but our heart also has to be pure. The goodness of Christ is to be demonstrated in our lives every day. Psalm 23:6 says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

God calls us to be filled with goodness from the inside out, being holy in what we do and say because Christians should have a heart that seeks goodness. We are not to just do good works, because doing good works without a good heart is empty. The “goodness” described as a fruit of the Spirit is not merely moral behavior, but an excellence of character. This goodness is only possible through God’s grace and mercy.

We often say, “God is good all the time. And all the time God is good.” Does this mean that our lives are always good? No, of course not. It means that … God is good, and He wants us to grow in the fruit of goodness so we can live a fulfilling life full of righteous love.—Kelly Wise Valdes⁹

God at Work

Doing good for the purpose of blessing or benefiting others occurs when the Holy Spirit makes us alive in our spirits. It is an act that stems from our very soul or being. No one is good except God (Mark 10:18), so it is the indwelling of God Himself in the believer’s life that generates good deeds.

The Bible is clear that in and of ourselves, mankind is incapable of being or doing good (Isaiah 64:6; Titus 3:5; Ecclesiastes 7:20). It is God who works in a believer’s life to become more like Jesus (Galatians 5:16), which is the whole point of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23)—to make us into the image of Christ.

As the characteristic of goodness grows in a believer, it is acting out God’s love to others by helping others. It manifests itself from within the heart, so a believer does everything heartily (from the soul), as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23). This can only occur through the living out of the Holy Spirit in our lives.…

God, by nature, is inherently good. He is the ultimate example of goodness (Psalm 34:8). … The Goodness of God is evident in all His creations and accomplishments (Genesis 1:31). We cannot earn and do not merit His goodness. It is available to us just because of who God is (Psalm 145:9). And God’s goodness is personal. He is good to each of us personally, in ways that meet our individual needs (Psalm 119:68).

God is our perfect role model. Being good, demonstrating good, for the purpose of benefiting others, is what God demonstrated to all of mankind (Romans 5:8). … Goodness is not a quality we can manufacture on our own (James 1:17), neither for us nor by us. Allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us, we grow the characteristic of goodness. As others see our good works, they will praise our Father in Heaven (Matthew 5:16).

The Holy Spirit indwelling us allows us to experience the fullness of God’s goodness (Psalm 84:11) in the fullness of His time. When the Holy Spirit indwells us, seals us, and grows His fruit within us, we can state with the Apostle Paul that we are full of goodness (Romans 15:14). It is He who is good.

It is He who can transform us into good. It is the fruit of the Spirit that allows us to demonstrate zealous goodness to help and benefit others so that they may have a strengthened relationship with God Himself.—Randy DeVaul¹⁰

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We see from these articles that the virtue of goodness is not based on our own goodness, but the goodness of God. Reflecting God’s goodness to others is a part of our witness and being the salt and light that He has called us to be to bring people to Jesus and transformation to the world around us, as the following excerpts from the “Force for Good” series I wrote some time ago highlight.

Manifesting God’s love to those whom the Lord places in our path each day is at the heart of becoming a force for good. As the apostle Paul said, “the love of Christ compels us.”¹¹ In whatever specific ways the Lord leads each of us to reach our part of the world with His love, He has called us as Christians to be “the light of the world.” He has told us to “let your light shine before people, so that they will see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”¹² Letting that light shine in such a way that people will see your good works and see them as a reflection of God’s love is at the heart of the concept of being a force for good in your community, in your neighborhood, and in the lives of others.

Throughout the centuries, since the earliest days of Christianity, Christians have often reached the world through becoming known as a force for good in their community. Even when others didn’t necessarily embrace the Christians’ faith or understand their religion, or when they were persecuted and maligned, their kind deeds and good works shone brightly before all men, resulting in people wanting to know what made them so different from much of society. As the apostle Peter said in his Epistle, “Live such good lives among the [unbelievers] that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God.”¹³

As we each strive to reach out to share the good news with others; as we provide assistance—spiritual or practical, or both—to those the Lord puts in our path; as we do our part to bring God’s love to others and to better their lives in whatever ways we are able, our witness and our works will grow and serve as a “candle on a candlestick” to shine forth His light and a “city set on a hill” to draw others to Him.¹⁴

Reaching our part of the world is ultimately about reaching our neighbors (whether they’re those who live near us or those who don’t) and translating our faith into tangible actions and “good works” that express our love and concern—being a living example of our faith and God’s love, which is manifested in “walking the talk.” Showing our neighbors, colleagues, and community that we genuinely care, in ways that are meaningful to them and that tangibly express our faith and our values, provides a real-life application of our witness.¹⁵

Cultivating the virtue of goodness in our lives starts with reflecting on the goodness of God and His wonderful works in our lives and in the world around us, as the following quotes bring out:

Occasionally it’s helpful to spend a few quiet moments looking back over our lives to review how indebted we are to God for His goodness and mercy. Of course, no two personal histories are the same. But we can all echo the words of David in Psalm 23:6: “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” If we are trusting Jesus Christ, those few words sum up the whole of our experience in life.—Vernon Grounds

Praise consists in the love of God, in wonder at the goodness of God, in recognition of the gifts of God, in seeing God in all things He gives us, and even in the things that He refuses to us; so as to see our whole life in the light of God; and seeing this, to bless Him, adore Him, and glorify Him.—Henry Edward Manning

God’s goodness imparts what we don’t deserve; His mercy withholds what we do deserve. In times of pain and sorrow, our heavenly Father faithfully meets our needs, comforts our hearts, and gives us strength to bear our burdens. Although we are believers, we still sin and fall short of the holy standard set by His Son, Jesus Christ. Yet He keeps on pouring His forgiveness into our souls as we confess our sins. We may think of ourselves as decent people, but we must still admit that “we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done” (The Book of Common Prayer).

May gratitude continually fill our hearts, because God’s goodness and mercy will follow us all the way to glory. We are indebted to Him forever.—Vernon Grounds

A Prayer for God’s Goodness

Loving Savior,

Help me to live your goodness and kindness each day. Remind me that my actions express who I am even more than my words. May I love as you love. Let me be good to those who wish me harm, forgive those who need forgiveness, and reach out in kindness to all I meet so they can experience the unconditional love of God. Set our hearts on fire for you. Amen.¹⁶

Food for Thought

“Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” (Psalm 107:8 NKJV).

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.”—Brennan Manning

“Pursue righteousness [true goodness, moral conformity to the character of God], godliness [the fear of God], faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11 AMP).

“We cannot become good on our own. We need to abide in Jesus, depending on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. The Spirit can transform our inner being so that God’s goodness flows out of us.”—Joel Kime

(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ Psalm 33:5 NKJV.

² Psalm 145:9 KJV.

³ Titus 3:4–5.

⁴ Matthew 5:14–16 NLT.

⁵ Philippians 2:13 NIV.

⁶ “Goodness—The Exemplary Fruit” (adapted), Activated, July 2013.

⁷ Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995).

⁸ Lauren Abraham, “Weekly Devotional: Fruit of the Spirit – Goodness,” Grand Canyon University blog, December 25, 2015, https://www.gcu.edu/blog/spiritual-life/weekly-devotional-fruit-spirit-goodness.

⁹ Kelly Wise Valdes, “The Fruit of The Holy Spirit: What Is Goodness?” Osprey Observer, September 2, 2020, https://www.ospreyobserver.com/2020/09/the-fruit-of-the-holy-spirit-what-is-goodness/.

¹⁰ Randy Devaul, “How Is Goodness a Fruit of the Spirit?” Christianity.com, July 22, 2022, https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/how-is-goodness-a-fruit-of-the-spirit.html.

¹¹ 2 Corinthians 5:14 NKJV.

¹² Matthew 5:14, 16.

¹³ 1 Peter 2:12 NIV.

¹⁴ Matthew 5:15, 14 KJV.

¹⁵ From “Becoming a Force for Good” (adapted), Anchor, May 2013. https://anchor.tfionline.com/post/becoming-force-good/.

¹⁶ Sisters of the Divine Savior, “Goodness and Kindness Prayer,” https://www.sistersofthedivinesavior.org/pray_archive/goodness-and-kindness-prayer/.

Copyright © 2024 The Family International.

05 Virtues for Christ-Followers: Kindness

Virtues for Christ-followers

Peter Amsterdam

2024-09-03

The fifth fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22 is kindness, which is closely interconnected with the other virtues. First Corinthians 13 describes love as kind. One version translates it as “Love is very patient and kind,” and goes on to say that it is “never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.”¹

Kindness means loving words spoken and caring deeds done. It is having a compassionate heart and putting that compassion and love into action.

If we seek to grow in kindness and to become more Christlike in our interactions with others, we can start by following the example Jesus gave us in His daily interactions with others. As we read God’s Word, as we strive to apply it in our lives, it is helpful to take some time to meditate on how we can put it into practice in our daily living, so that we can pour out His kindness on those around us.

Paul highlighted these principles when he wrote “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”²

The following articles describe ways that we can cultivate the virtue of kindness in our lives and “put on” hearts of kindness—and bless people with God’s love in the process.

Parables about Kindness

In one story Jesus told, a young man left home hoping to make his fortune but ended up wasting his share of the family’s wealth on wild living. Finally, penniless and humbled, he returned to his father’s house, probably expecting and psyched up for an angry—or at least condescending—attitude and a stern lecture. His father, however, welcomed him back with open arms and tears of joy.

In another story, a man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when thieves robbed him, beat him, and left him for dead. After a priest and a Levite had passed without helping, a Samaritan (a people despised by the Jews of Jesus’ time) had compassion on the poor man and brought him to an inn in the next town, even arranging to pay all of his expenses until he had made a full recovery.

The parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan are some of the better-known that Jesus told, and they both focus on kindness. In the first, which pictures a loving, forgiving father, Jesus was describing God’s kindness toward us, an unconditional kindness that is at the very root of His nature. In the second, He was enjoining us to be kind to others, even those we don’t like or who don’t like us.

It can often take effort to be kind. It doesn’t come naturally to us, the way it does to God, but the Bible tells us that “God is working in you to help you want to do and be able to do what pleases him,”³ and Jesus told us that “if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”⁴—Ronan Keane⁵

Clothed in Kindness

In 1975, John Molloy wrote a book called Dress for Success, which became the fashion guidebook for many people trying to climb the corporate ladder. Molloy’s advice centered on a basic premise—always dress like your boss. Every day, for work, school, or recreation, we all have to decide what to wear. But we must also make choices about another wardrobe—our attitudes and actions. If we claim to be followers of Christ, our spiritual apparel is of far greater significance than our physical clothing.

Take a look at God’s dress code for us. As His chosen people, we are to clothe ourselves with “kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering” (Colossians 3:12). We are to demonstrate patience and forgiveness (Colossians 3:13). And above all, we must “put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14). Do I begin each day by acknowledging Christ as the Person in charge, the One for whom I work? Do I take time to clothe myself with attitudes that please Him? Am I wearing what people are most longing to see—compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love? If so, I’ll be dressed for success in God’s service.—Our Daily Bread⁶

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Kindness is a selfless action practiced and valued by people around the world. And Jesus provided a superlative example of love and kindness with his life and sacrifice on the cross. Love and kindness are fundamental characteristics of God and are “fruit” reflected in a life surrendered to God. The Apostle Paul calls us to be kind to each other—to serve one another humbly in love (Galatians 5:13) and to do good to all people (Galatians 6:10).—Compassion.com

The following articles highlight the source of kindness, which is produced by the Holy Spirit in our lives as we seek to imitate the kindness of God and the kindness Jesus taught and lived.

The Source of Christian Kindness

Obviously, you don’t have to be a Christian in order to demonstrate kindness. In fact, some unbelievers show more kindness than certain Christians. So what’s up?

The biggest difference between natural kindness and Christian kindness is the source. For many unbelievers, behaving in a kind manner just seems like the right thing to do. And it definitely makes the world a better place. Acts of kindness are always a refreshing source of encouragement.

For the Christian, the fifth item Scripture lists as “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22) is kindness. Christian kindness flows supernaturally within the soul of someone who is saved, redeemed, born again, justified and forgiven. …

Christians desire to be kind primarily because of how kind and merciful God has been to us. The Lord has forgiven our sins even though we do not deserve to be forgiven. God has freely given us the gift of eternal life in Heaven (Romans 6:23). And for what? Did we do something to merit God’s kindness toward us? Of course not. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). It was the love of God that brought about our eternal salvation.

And it was “God’s kindness that led us toward repentance” (Romans 2:4). We are in his family today, tomorrow and forever. And he has “put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1:22). This guarantee produces tremendous motivation to be kind. Our kindness as Christians is rooted in God’s love for us in Christ.

Man’s natural assumption is that he can be kind enough and nice enough to make it into Heaven. In reality, there is only one act of kindness that has the power to wash away sins, and that is the kindness God demonstrated toward us when he sent his only Son to suffer and die on the cross for our salvation (1 Peter 3:18; Romans 5:9; Hebrews 9:28)…

Do you want to receive the kindness of God in the person of Jesus Christ? Once you receive the kindness of God by trusting Jesus to forgive your sins, you will instantly be motivated to be kind to others because of how kind God has been to you. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).—Dan Delzell⁷

Christian Kindness

Kindness is underrated. We equate it with being nice or pleasant, as though it’s mainly about smiling, getting along, and not ruffling feathers. It seems a rather mundane virtue. But the Bible presents a very different, and compelling, portrait of kindness…

True kindness is Spirit-produced (Galatians 5:22). It’s a supernaturally generous orientation of our hearts toward other people, even when they don’t deserve it and don’t love us in return. God himself is kind in this way. His kindness is meant to lead people to repentance (Romans 2:4), which implies they haven’t yet turned to him… Our kindness reflects the heart of our Father. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32)…

Kindness is no small thing. It yields marvelous fruit both in our lives and the lives of those around us. “Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor” (Proverbs 21:21). We open ourselves to the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit when we ask him to produce in us kind hearts that overflow through kind lips.—Stephen Witmer⁸

The following story provides a living example of kindness and how acts of kindness can change the course of a person’s life.

The Reward of Kindness

A series of traumatic losses had left me angry at God. Alone, without any means of support, and with no hope in sight, I had tried to end my life. I regained consciousness in a hospital, where I spent the next few days recovering. It was Valentine’s Day, the first without my husband, and as I sat alone in a hospital lounge, I cried the only tears left in me.

A man and a woman walked past, and then stopped. “Wait here for a minute,” I heard the man say. Then he walked back and with one finger lifted my tear-stained face … and he kissed me on the cheek. The man was a fellow patient with whom I had spoken briefly the night before. But why would this near-stranger give me a kiss? What had compelled him to reach out to lift me from my darkness? What had I done to deserve that?

After a few minutes I began to come to my senses. I have received a wonderful gift, the gift of hope, and I need to share it with others. With that thought I took the first small step to climb out of the deep pit into which I had fallen.

A few days later, after being released from the hospital, I looked at all that remained of my savings—just a few coins. The last food in my cupboard was a box of polenta and a can of tomato sauce. It looks like it’s going to be polenta with tomato sauce for the next three days, so I might as well cook it all at once, I reasoned.

I had just finished cooking and was about to sit down to eat when the doorbell rang. When I opened the door, there stood a young woman who looked to be on the brink of starvation. Beside her was a child of five or six and just as malnourished. The woman said that she was a refugee and couldn’t find work. She asked if I had some change I could spare, and my thoughts went to those few coins I had left. How much good could they do her—or me?

“Some change is all the money I have myself,” I said, “so I know what it’s like to be without. But I just made some polenta with tomato sauce. Would you like to join me?”

The mother and child timidly accepted, and we ate at my kitchen table. Then I remembered that someone had given me a chocolate bar a few days earlier, which I had tucked away for even harder times. I gave it to the child in exchange for a hug I will never forget.

When I found out that they lived nearby, I invited them to return. I couldn’t promise full-course meals, I explained, but we would share whatever I had. With a smile and a handshake, they left. I haven’t seen them since.

Three days later I saw a job offer in the newspaper and applied, even though I didn’t have any credentials or prior experience for that job. Only a few minutes into the interview, I was asked one question I hadn’t prepared myself for. “Would you like to start tomorrow?” Before I could answer, a thought struck me like a lightning bolt. Had those two strangers at my door been angels on a mission?

I felt like I had not just passed a job interview, but an exam. First God had sent that man to show me that He loved and hadn’t forgotten me, and then He had sent the mother and child to see if I would keep my promise to pass on that love and hope. When I did, He opened the floodgates of His blessings.—Erika Blečić

[At the time of the writing of this article, Erika was happy and fulfilled in her work as a newspaper reporter, and just as happy in her “other work” of helping to spread God’s love. Seniors in the retirement homes she visits appreciate her friendship, concern, and listening ear.]⁹

A Prayer for Kindness

Dear God, I come before you today with a humble heart and a desire to be more like you. Fill me with your Spirit of kindness and compassion so that I may be a light to those around me. Help me to remember Philippians 2:3 as I go about my day. Remind me to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but to value others above myself.

Lord, I know that kindness is not always easy, especially when I encounter difficult people or situations. I pray that you would give me the strength and wisdom to respond with grace and love. May I be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

I also ask that you would help me to see the needs of those around me. Sometimes people are hurting, and they don’t know how to ask for help. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear so that I can be a source of comfort and support to those in need.

As I go about my day, I pray that you would help me to be intentional about showing kindness to others. Whether it’s a smile, a kind word, or a simple act of service, may I be a reflection of your love and grace.

Finally, Lord, I ask that you would bless me with a heart of gratitude. Help me to recognize the blessings in my life and to be thankful for them. May my gratitude overflow into acts of kindness and generosity toward others.

Thank you, God, for your love and grace. I pray that you would help me to be more like you each day. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.—Stephanie Reeves¹⁰

Food for Thought

“His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 117:2 NKJV)

“Kindness is an essential part of God’s work and ours here on earth.”—Billy Graham

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

“Kindness is a language that everyone understands. As Christians, we are ambassadors of God’s love to others; the kindness we show conveys God’s love and care and helps draw them to Him.”—Rafael Holding

(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ 1 Corinthians 13:4–5 TLB.

² Colossians 3:12–14.

³ Philippians 2:13 NCV.

⁴ John 14:14.

⁵ “Helping Ourselves,” adapted, Activated, June 2013.

⁶ David C. McCasland, “Dress for Success,” Our Daily Bread, May 19, 1997, https://www.odb.org/1997/05/19/dress-for-success.

⁷ Dan Delzell, “The Difference Between Natural Kindness and Christian Kindness,” Christian Post, December 15, 2022, https://www.christianpost.com/voices/the-difference-between-natural-kindness-and-christian-kindness.html.

⁸ Stephen Witmer, “Kindness Changes Everything,” Desiring God, September 4, 2016, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/kindness-changes-everything.

⁹ “The Renewal Exam,” Activated, February 2013.

¹⁰ Stephanie Reeves, “A Morning Prayer for Kindness,” Abide, June 14, 2023, https://abide.com/blog/a-morning-prayer-for-kindness/.

Copyright © 2024 The Family International.

04 Virtues for Christ-Followers: Patience

Virtues for Christ-followers

Peter Amsterdam

2024-08-06

God’s patience is found all throughout Scripture, and in the New Testament we are called to cultivate this virtue in our lives, as we learn to be patient as well. Patience is interconnected with the other virtues, as we see in the beautiful “love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13 that “love is patient,”¹ and when we practice patience toward others, we are also showing kindness, compassion, gentleness, and humility. Patience is a work of God’s Spirit that empowers us to endure difficult situations and face the pressures of life without losing calmness and composure.

The word patience is often translated as endurance, the ability to stand up under adversity, and as perseverance, the ability to progress in spite of adversity. The Bible provides us examples of people who patiently persevered in difficult or trying circumstances, such as Job, David, Jacob, and Joseph, who all faced adversity with patience and trust in God, setting an example for believers. “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”²

The following articles highlight these principles.

God’s Process

Christians find process troubling. We want to rush people through their grief. We’re uncomfortable when forgiveness takes time. We look for instant healing and push for total transformation in others without any incubation period.

Reflecting on the birth of Christ, here’s what I realized: Jesus becoming a baby automatically put God’s seal of approval on a slow process.

The angel announced salvation to the shepherds, but what they saw in the manger was an ordinary-looking infant—an infant who needed time to grow up. It would be more than three decades before the meaning of God’s redemption plan would be visible.

In the intervening years, Jesus had to endure teething and potty training and puberty. He had to learn to walk and talk. He had to experience sleepless nights and countless conversations and calloused hands and fish breath and stubbed toes.

Why would God do that? Why not send his son as a grown man who went straight to the cross, or at least straight to his public ministry?

Jesus spent the bulk of his earthly life in process, “growing in wisdom and stature,” as Scripture says. … That means God’s full and unreserved blessing must rest on process as well as completion. The “becoming” was as much part of his plan as the ending. Grace for slowness is built into the very nature of the Incarnation. …

We complain about God’s delays. But remember what Peter says: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NIV).

When we bought our house 12 years ago, the builder was pumping out homes at a record pace. That was just fine with us; we couldn’t wait to move in. But some aspects of homebuilding weren’t intended to go quickly. We learned that when the sewage pipes backed up five days after we got the keys. To this day there are “character flaws” we live with in the house, [due] to rushed construction.

God moves slowly for our good. What is needed on our part is not patience but surrender.

God is at work even when I don’t see it. [That] creates room to be gracious with other people, because we’re all in process. If God isn’t expecting you to have arrived already, how can I set a higher bar for you?

One of the cries of the Bible is “How long, O Lord?” But Jesus coming as a baby gives me permission to accept—and yes—even enjoy my own slow progress.—Jeff Peabody³

God’s Master Plans

In Acts 17:26 (NIV) the apostle Paul talks about a plan that encompasses every plan ever made. He said, “From one man, [God] made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.” In other words, from the very beginning, God had a plan: the act of creation wasn’t haphazard. God wasn’t in need of something to do on a Sunday afternoon, so bang—the earth! There is an overarching plan that is being played out every day of humankind’s existence on planet earth.

But there’s something even more personally awesome in this for you and me: every human put on earth was an intentional act of creation. God is a planner; He has plans for everyone. King David affirms about God, “Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”⁴ And in a talk Job gives describing God’s nature, Job says to God, “You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer.”⁵

Imagine God planning out Moses’ life. Chapter One doesn’t have Moses parting the Red Sea; it actually doesn’t even start with Moses receiving God’s directives at the burning bush on Mount Horeb. There are roughly 80 years’ worth of chapters and pages that come before either of those events. When studying Moses’ life, it’s easy to marvel at the 40 years Moses spent tending sheep—we think of how patient he must have been at the end of that ordeal. I’m realizing now that God is the one who exemplified the virtue of patience in this story. Imagine creating a character that would only be ready to do what you planned for him to do 80 years after his creation.

In a letter to the Romans, Paul calls God “the God of patience.”⁶ God is described as patient and longsuffering in the Bible; it’s one of the characteristics attributed to Him. If God was that patient with His plan for Moses, and His plans for all of mankind, I’m thinking it’s not a far stretch to imagine that God wants us to also be patient with what He is doing in our lives. If God believes we’re worth the wait, then we should believe that too.—T.M.⁷

The Patience of Job

In a society in which we prize instant everything, waiting for anything seems old-fashioned and maybe even distasteful. But patience is a deeply biblical concept, the practice of which has the potential to allow us to live wisely and well in a fallen world, trusting in the purposes and promises of our good God. The Bible instructs us to be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12). Job is one of those highlighted in Scripture for his remarkable patience.

In the Bible, Job is a godly man who God allows to go through many trials. He loses his wealth, his health, and his children, and his wife and friends question him and turn against him. Through his many losses and sorrows, Job wrestles with questions and doubts but stays connected with God through prayer, actively waiting on God to bring him through the season of intense adversity.

He declares: “Though he slay me, I will hope in him” (Job 13:15), and “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25–26).

In the end, Job’s patience is rewarded. Though God doesn’t fully explain the “why” of everything that has happened, he vindicates Job by rebuking Job’s friends for criticizing him and restoring Job’s family and fortunes. In the book of James, believers are encouraged to emulate Job: “You also, be patient. … Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (James 5:8–11). …

Job is not the only one commended for his patience in the Bible. In the same passage in James where [Job] is mentioned, it also says: “As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord” (James 5:10). The book of Hebrews mentions that “Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise” (Hebrews 6:15).

The example of Job and others in Scripture who demonstrated patience can be instructive for our own lives as we seek to cultivate God-honoring patience instead of demanding instant-everything. …

Some of the most beautiful moments in the book of Job are when he expresses his faith in the goodness of God’s character despite the fact that he is not feeling that goodness at the moment of his prayer. In the same way, when we are experiencing what feels like clouds obscuring the goodness of God, we can trust that His goodness remains, as certain as the sun which will shine again…

And we [can] pray along with Paul: “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy” (Colossians 1:11).—Jessica Udall⁸

Persevering Patience

It’s hard to imagine that a man with a gentle grin and a small, crippled body could turn the world upside down. Yet William Wilberforce, once described as “a shrimp,” did—but not by might.

The slave trade in the late 1700s involved thousands of Africans, hundreds of ships, and millions of pounds; upon it depended the economies of Britain and much of Europe. Few were aware of the horrors of the so-called “Middle Passage” across the Atlantic, where an estimated one out of four Africans died.

Wilberforce was aware, and he was deeply disturbed.

In May 1788, Wilberforce, with the help of researcher Thomas Clarkson (whom Wilberforce praised as central to the cause’s success), introduced a 12-point motion to Parliament indicting the trade. But the motion was defeated. Planters, businessmen, ship owners, traditionalists, and even the Crown opposed the movement. Abolitionists were viewed as dangerous radicals.

Yet Wilberforce refused to give up, introducing another anti-slave trade bill in 1791, which was also defeated.

Another defeat followed in 1792.

Another in 1793.

Others still in 1797, 1798, and 1799. And in 1804 and 1805.

But gradually the public came to support the abolitionists’ efforts, and in 1806 Parliament abolished the slave trade throughout the British Empire. Wilberforce wept in joy.

Not one to rest on his laurels, he next set his mind to the freeing of all slaves. This too required remarkable persistence. But in the summer of 1833, Parliament finally passed the Emancipation Act. Three days later, Wilberforce died.

Wilberforce and his allies (he never acted alone nor took credit alone) managed to rid Britain, the greatest world power of the day, of the greatest evil of the day—and only with the steady application of faith, politics, and persistence.—Mark Galli ⁹

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This type of enduring and persevering patience has a strong connection to hope. We are patient in trying circumstances because we believe that the Lord will give us grace and will in His time bring us through to victory, just as He did for the forefathers of faith. As Paul taught in the book of Romans, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”¹⁰ And James speaks to letting patience complete its work in our lives: “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”¹¹

The following quote illustrates this principle:

The fruits of the Spirit are the perfect picture of who Jesus is and how he acts: “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23 NLT).

So how does God produce this kind of fruit in your life? He puts you in situations that are opposite of the fruit he’s growing in you. It’s easy to love people who are lovely; God will teach you love by putting you around unlovely people, so you have to learn love. During periods of grief, you’ll learn joy. You’ll learn patience when it’s tested.

God wants to build character in your life. You might want the process to be quick and easy, like a vending machine. A vending machine gives you what you want immediately, but much of what it offers is just junk that will harm you in the long run. How God works is the opposite of a vending machine. It’s slow and sometimes difficult, but over time it will build strong character in you.

Remember that growing up spiritually is a lifelong journey. Be patient.—Rick Warren¹²

Another area which calls for patience is tolerance of others’ shortcomings, faults, and failures. Everyone has shortcomings, ourselves included. Patience in this case is tolerating the shortcomings of others that we find annoying. We are to patiently make allowance for each other’s faults, out of love.¹³

It’s helpful to remind ourselves that God is patient with us every day, and not just with our personality quirks, but with our sins as well. He doesn’t get angry or annoyed at our faults and failings; rather, in His love and mercy, He is patient with us time and time again. As His followers, we are called to similarly extend mercy and patience to others, and to do to others what we would like them to do to us,¹⁴ as Jerry Bridges points out:

“Every day God patiently bears with us, and every day we are tempted to become impatient with our friends, neighbors, and loved ones. And our faults and failures before God are so much more serious than the petty actions of others that tend to irritate us! God calls us to graciously bear with the weaknesses of others, tolerating them and forgiving them even as He has forgiven us.”—Jerry Bridges

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“Nothing but seeing God in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will be to us then only the instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes towards us, and we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessings they bring us.”—Hannah Whitall Smith

“When the Bible speaks of patience, … it speaks of it as a virtue that goes far beyond the mere ability to await some future gain. It involves more than the rest or peace of the soul that trusts in God’s perfect timing. The patience that is in view here focuses more on interpersonal relationships with other people. It is the patience of longsuffering and of forbearing in the midst of personal injury. This is the most difficult patience of all.”—R.C. Sproul

A Prayer for Patience

Lord Jesus, the old meaning of patience is “long suffering,” and you indeed suffered infinitely rather than give me the punishment my sins deserved. You have been unspeakably patient with me. Let that truth make me patient with people around me, and with my circumstances, and with your every disposal of my life. Amen.—Tim Keller

Food for Thought

“Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer” (Romans 12:12 KJV).

“Waiting is difficult, but if you are going to walk with God you have to cultivate a heart of patience to wait upon Him.”—James K. Saah

“Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:5 KJV).

“Patience is the transcendent radiance of a loving and tender heart which, in its dealings with those around it, looks kindly and graciously upon them.”—Billy Graham

(For more on the virtue of patience, see More Like Jesus: Patience. To be continued.)

Note
Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ 1 Corinthians 13:4.

² Romans 15:4.

³ Jeff Peabody, “What Christmas Says to the Impatient Pastor,” Christianity Today, December 22, 2015.

⁴ Psalm 139:16 NIV.

⁵ Job 14:5 NLT.

⁶ Romans 15:5 NKJV.

⁷ Adapted from a Just1Thing article, “Patience and God’s Plans,” published on Anchor in 2017.

⁸ Jessica Udall, “What Does it Mean to Have the Patience of Job?” Crosswalk, June 21, 2021, https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/what-does-it-mean-to-have-the-patience-of-job.html.

⁹ Mark Galli, “The Power of Patience,” Today’s Christian Woman, March 1998, https://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/1998/march/power-of-patience.html.

¹⁰ Romans 12:12.

¹¹ James 1:3–4 NKJV.

¹² Rick Warren, “You Were Created to be Like Christ,” PastorRick.com, September 13, 2022, https://pastorrick.com/you-were-created-to-be-like-christ/.

¹³ Ephesians 4:2.

¹⁴ Luke 6:31.

Copyright © 2024 The Family International.

03 Virtues for Christ-Followers: Peace

Virtues for Christ-followers

Peter Amsterdam

2024-06-11

The next virtue in our list is peace, which is rooted in our being in right relationship with God, made possible because of Jesus’ gift of salvation. Through salvation we find peace with God, which makes peace with ourselves and others possible. As we place God at the center of our lives and we entrust our lives into His care, we experience His peace, which is a fruit of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Peace is also the outworking of our trust in God and our confidence in His love for us. Jerry Bridges wrote that “Peace should be part of our character because God has promised us His peace, because He has commanded us to let peace rule in our lives and relationships, and because peace is a fruit of the Spirit and therefore an evidence of His working in our lives.”¹

In the “More Like Jesus” series, I wrote the following about the difference between biblical peace and peace in the absence of struggle:

We tend to feel at peace when things are going well; when we’re healthy, happy, doing well financially, and not facing any major challenges. But biblical peace goes far beyond the peace we experience when everything is running smoothly. It’s a steadying anchor even in turbulent waters. True peace transcends circumstances. It has to do with God’s presence with us, with living in His kingdom, letting Him reign in our lives, and trusting that He is our Father who loves us and always has our best interests at heart. We have peace because we have Him.

While we may have peace with God through salvation, this doesn’t necessarily mean we have the peace of God in our lives. Often we are robbed of peace because we worry and fret over fairly minor events or challenges. We try to deal with them ourselves, instead of bringing them before the Lord and casting our burdens upon Him in faith and trust that He is with us and cares for us. But Jesus promised that we could have peace in Him. We are to take heart in times of difficulty and uncertainty because Jesus has overcome the world. This awareness brings us peace, as we put our trust in the Lord.

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God’s Peace: Shalom

Peace (shalom) is defined as a condition of freedom from disturbance, whether external or internal. It is not freedom of disturbance—meaning everything is without conflict or disturbance—but rather free from being overcome or distraught from the disturbance because of being confident in God’s promises given and His faithfulness to us.

Peace, then, is a state of mind in which the person may be in difficult circumstances, but is content, confident with hope, and in a state of being “at rest.” Being at peace means being “at rest”—experiencing God’s rest. When we are in God’s presence, allowing Him to be with us and work in us, He provides rest.

When we realize that we cannot earn or merit God’s favor on our own because of sin, we end the turmoil and strife in our inner spirit; we are no longer conflicted with warring against God or trying to work to gain His acceptance (Hebrews 4:9–10).

As a believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, He provides comfort (John 14:15–18; 2 Corinthians 1:3–4) and strength in our weaknesses (Romans 8:26). The Spirit will also bring to remembrance all that Jesus taught (John 16:13–14)—that He has all authority in and over all things so no matter what happens in or to our lives, He is in control, performing everything for our good (Romans 8:28).

He is always with us (Matthew 28:19–20), so we never experience our trials alone. We have nothing to fear (John 6:20) because He is the “I am,” eternal and present.

And we are eternally secure in Him (Romans 8:35–39), so we can never be separated from Him or His unconditional love for us, sealed by Jesus and secured through the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13–14). God’s Word (Jesus) is faithful, and He will perform all that He has promised to carry us through to the day of our redemption (Philippians 1:6).

No matter our circumstances, we can “think on these things” (Philippians 4:8), which leads us to still waters, where He restores our souls (Psalm 23:2–3), providing comfort and rest, which gives us peace in the midst of the storm (John 14:27; Philippians 4:7; Isaiah 26:3)…

Experiencing God’s peace, loving and serving others within the family of God, and outwardly demonstrating God’s love for others so that we can live peaceably with all people (Romans 12:18), we as believers experience and demonstrate God’s peace through the growing fruit of the Spirit in our lives.—Randy DeVaul²

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Jesus promised that we could have peace in Him. We are to take heart in times of difficulty and uncertainty because Jesus has overcome the world. This awareness brings us peace, as we put our trust in the Lord, which the following articles illustrate.

The Peace Jesus Gives

When you make room for Jesus, he gives you one of the greatest gifts: “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart! And the peace I give isn’t fragile like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27 TLB).

The peace that comes from the world is totally circumstantial. If you have a good job, then you’re at peace. But if you lose your job, then you’re not at peace anymore. If you’ve got money in the bank, then you’re at peace. But when that money is gone, then you’re not at peace anymore.

Jesus gives you a different kind of peace. The Bible calls it “peace … which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

What does that mean? It means you have peace when there’s no obvious or visible reason why you should be at peace. Everything around you could be in chaos, but for some unexplainable reason, you are at peace. That is the peace that surpasses understanding—and it can only come from Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Jesus wants to give you that kind of peace so you won’t be troubled or afraid.

Whenever Jesus walks into a room, he fills that room with peace. Do you have rooms in your heart that are full of worry, upset, anxiety, or fear? Those are the rooms you haven’t invited Jesus into. Your worries reveal the areas you have not given over to God. That could include your finances, your dating life, your career, your parenting, your schedule, or your ministry. Whatever it is, you have to let it go. You have to give it over to Jesus.

Here’s the only way you’re going to have real peace: Give every part of your life to God to use for his purpose. Then you’ll have peace that will stand up to all of life’s pressures.—Rick Warren³

Do Not Be Afraid

“Do not be afraid” is the most frequent command in the Bible. … In the face of everyday fear, Jesus points to a lily, or a sparrow, and calmly says, Trust. Seek first the kingdom of heaven.

Trust does not eliminate the bad things that may happen, whatever sparked our fear in the first place. Trust simply finds a new outlet for anxiety and a new grounding for confidence: God. Let God worry about the worrisome details of life, most of which are out of my control anyway. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” Paul wrote. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7 NIV).

When I question the practicality of those words in view of all the terrible things that have happened to Jesus’ followers over the years, I remind myself that Paul wrote them from a Roman prison cell. God’s peace indeed “transcends all understanding.”—Philip Yancey⁴

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The remedy for fear and worry is to bring our cares to the Lord in prayer and trust that He knows all our troubles and that He loves us. The Bible doesn’t promise us that when we bring our burdens to Jesus we will always be delivered from them, but we are promised that He will sustain us with His peace. Once we’ve made our requests known to the Lord in prayer, we can have His peace. Our part is to pray for peace and trust in God for it, even in the midst of life’s storms, as the following articles illustrate:

Peace in Christ

Bethany Hamilton, one of the top female surfers in the world despite having only one arm, proclaims … that God can change tragic events into opportunities to glorify Himself.

In an “I Am Second” video, Hamilton recalls how she climbed back on her surfboard after only a month following her near fatal collision with a shark that bit off her left arm. By her third try, the then 13-year-old was able to ride the wave all the way back to the beach.

Within a “split second” around Halloween of 2003, a shark attack left the young Hamilton without her left arm. She had lost about 60 percent of her blood after the freak accident and recalls a paramedic on the way to the hospital whispering in her ear, “God will never leave you nor forsake you.”

“I just laid there and prayed the whole way in, asking God for help.”

But with a smile on her face, she recalls that she had a “sense of peace and calmness” despite missing her left arm and losing more than half her blood because she was “able to turn to Jesus during this crazy moment in my life.”

“I think that is the one thing that just kept me alive,” Hamilton states.—Jennifer Riley⁵

Paved with Prayer

Want to worry less? Then pray more. Rather than look forward in fear, look upward in faith. “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done” (Philippians 4:6 NLT). This command surprises no one. Regarding prayer, the Bible never blushes. Jesus taught people that “it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit” (Luke 18:1 MSG). Rather than worry about anything, “pray about everything.” Everything? Diaper changes and dates? Business meetings, broken bathtubs, procrastinations? Yes, pray about everything. The path to peace is paved with prayer. Less consternation, more supplication. Fewer anxious thoughts, more prayer-filled thoughts. And as you pray, the peace of God will guard your heart and mind.⁶

Believing prayer ushers in God’s peace. Not a random, nebulous, earthly peace, but his peace, imported from heaven. The same tranquility that marks the throne room, God offers to you. Do you think he battles anxiety? You suppose he ever wrings his hands or asks for antacids? Of course not. A problem is no more a challenge to God than a twig is to an elephant. God enjoys perfect peace because God enjoys perfect power. And he offers his peace to you. A peace that will “guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7 NLT). The Philippians, living in a garrison town, were accustomed to the Roman sentries maintaining their watch. God oversees your world. He monitors your life. Listen carefully and you will hear him say, “Everything is secure. You can rest now.”—Max Lucado⁷

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Recently I was battling a war against worry, given my recent pain levels. I happened to read these words by Francis of Assisi written hundreds of years ago. He said, “Be at peace. Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life; rather look to them with full hope as they arise. God, whose very own you are, will deliver you out of them. He has kept you in the past, and will lead you safely through all things, and when you cannot stand it, God will bury you in his arms. As it concerns tomorrow, he will either shield you from suffering or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.” That’s good advice, and I have no doubt God inspired Francis of Assisi to write those words—after all, it was Jesus who originally said, “Peace be with you.”—Joni Eareckson Tada⁸

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If we are to grow in the virtue of peace, we need to exercise our faith. The apostle Paul wrote: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”⁹ It’s in communion with the Lord, abiding in Him, trusting Him, following Him, that we find the path of true peace. Our possessions, relationships, finances, or circumstances are not what bring us peace. Abiding in God, living His Word, trusting Him for everything, is how we find and live in the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.

Prayer for the Day

You are a tower of refuge to the poor, O Lord, a tower of refuge to the needy in distress. You are a refuge from the storm and a shelter from the heat (Isaiah 25:4 NLT). Thank You for the peace You lavish upon all who put their trust in You, even in the midst of the hustle and bustle and the ups and downs of our daily lives.

Thank You, Lord, that You are the firm foundation upon which my life is built. You are the anchor that steadies my ship. You are the strong support beam that holds up my house—my life, my body, my spirit. You give me peace, faith, and rest. I know that no matter what happens in this life, You will hold me fast.¹⁰

Food for Thought

“Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble” (Psalm 119:165).

“Jesus didn’t promise to change the circumstances around us, but He did promise great peace and pure joy to those who would learn to believe that God actually controls all things.”—Merlin Carothers

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

“When we place God at the center of our lives, we find unexplainable joy, balance and peace.”—Brittany Ann

(To be continued.)

Note
Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2024 The Family International.

01 – Laboring to Enter into His Rest

Resting in the Lord, Part 1

Words from Jesus

2006-05-23

 Resting in Me is not a new principle, it goes all the way back to when My Father set the seventh day as a rest day, when He instructed the children of Israel in the Ten Commandments to “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.”¹ This was a safeguard put in place from the beginning, because I knew how important it was to learn to rest—to have a mandatory time when people would set the burdens down that they were carrying.

No matter how light, any burden that you don’t ever set down, anything you carry for too long a time, will wear you down. This is true mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And for you who are engaged in the spiritual warfare of being My light to the world, one of the only ways to get true respite from the battle and strengthening is by not only resting physically and mentally, but by being recharged spiritually through coming to Me, committing your burdens to Me, and receiving My strength.

As the world grows darker, it’s important for all My children to take the time to set their burdens down, to step away from the challenges and struggles to receive renewed strength from Me. You need to do this physically and spiritually; both are important. Neglecting either form of rest will open the door to problems.

So often you sacrifice your personal needs and time, and while your intentions may be good, you need to learn where to draw the line, realizing that if you don’t take care of your need for physical rest and spiritual recharging, you run the risk of wearing out. The only way to know that you’re going to hold up under the stress or strain you face is by learning to rest in Me, take shelter in Me, and pace yourself. Remember My promise that “the people who know their God shall be strong and do great exploits.”²

Choosing the way of the Spirit

When you set aside time to rest in Me, you’re choosing to strengthen your faith and to activate trust and peace in your heart and life. You’re choosing dependence on Me over anything you can see or do in your own strength. You’re choosing to place all your bets on Me—the author and finisher of your faith—and trust that I am able to keep and strengthen you. You’re choosing to lean on Me, on My power. You’re resting in Me, trusting in Me, believing in Me.

You can make the choice to refuse to let pressure settle on your spirit. You can resist the temptation to start moving things faster and faster, and instead commit them to Me and ask Me to help you to find the right pace and stride. You can consciously slow things down, give yourself more time, and then use that extra time to commit things to Me, rather than trying to sort them out yourself. In stopping to rest in Me, you find your strength. But it takes you coming to Me, that you stop all feverish activity and rest in Me, putting all else aside.

Resting in Me also means leaning fully on Me as you go about your work, putting your full weight down on Me. Resting in Me is casting your burdens and your cares on Me. It’s not always a “full stop”; it’s also going ahead—but the difference is that you are going ahead in faith, with the quiet confidence and assurance that comes from resting in Me.

While you are resting in Me, you are receiving My signals, being recharged and energized with My power. Resting in Me is constant renewal. It’s putting yourself in a position where I am the wind beneath your wings, and because of this, you feel confident. You are secure in Me because you know that I am with you and will keep you from falling.

Overcoming stress

I will always give you what you need as you enter new situations and face new challenges and you need more strength, even at times when the struggles you face go far beyond anything you can manage yourself. You may face times where you feel that you are on the brink of collapse and are barely hanging on, trying to keep from falling, and you realize you are unable to rely on your own strength.

Do you feel like the mountains of work you see before you are never going to go away? Do you feel like the heartbreaks, the despair, and frustration are making your whole life seem useless? Or like in the final analysis all you did can still never outweigh all you neglected to do?

It is in stopping to rest in Me that you find your strength, and it is in resting so fully in Me that you have submitted your will and have chosen to commit completely in your heart that you gain the faith and peace that will allow you to trust Me for whatever you may face.

Don’t wait till you’re floundering or overwhelmed to rest in Me and commit every care into My hands. When you open your eyes in the morning, place yourself, your mind, and your heart completely in My hands. Ask Me to help you to rest fully in Me throughout the day. Then when pressure begins to build during the day, take a moment to stop and release the pressure by reminding yourself that it’s not your burden, it’s Mine now. Then as we walk together, let Me guide you, and trust Me for the rest.

You can become so addicted to stress that you feel as if you’ll collapse if you don’t keep driving yourself. And you will collapse, if you don’t learn to commit your cares to Me and rest in Me. If you are feeling stressed, if the pressure is causing you to feel the warning signs of irritability, despair, or frustration, it is time to stop, take a moment, cast your cares on Me, and rest in Me.

It’s one thing to feel very tired at the end of the day, but if that tiredness is mixed with anxiety, frustration, negativity, or a sense of pressure that shrouds the joy of My Spirit, and you don’t have a peace and inner joy of knowing you are fulfilling My will, it is time to come to Me so that I may give you rest. You may be doing a great work, but it may crumble and collapse unless I am the mortar that is holding it together. The sand of your own works isn’t going to last.

Come to Me. Simply place yourself in My hands and ask Me to give you My peace, and My strength to do what I want you to do—not what you think you need to do and think you need more strength for, but what I want you to do. Determine that your life is now blended with Mine, and ask that My will be done in your life.

Originally published October 2006. Adapted and republished May 2019.
Read by Simon Peterson. Music by John Listen.

¹ Genesis 2:2–3; Exodus 20:8.

² Daniel 11:32.

The Book of Daniel Chapter 12, “The End and Beyond”

A New Day, a New Start

A compilation

2025-01-14

Morning by morning new mercies I see! Great is Thy faithfulness, dear Lord, unto me.—Thomas Chisholm

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The dawning of every new day could be seen as a symbol of God’s light breaking through the darkness and His mercy overcoming our troubles. Every morning demonstrates God’s grace, a new beginning in which gloom must flee. We need look no further than the breath in our lungs, the sun that shines upon us, or the rain that falls to nourish the soil. The mercies of God continue to come to us via a multitude of manifestations.

There is no expiration date on God’s mercy toward us. His mercies are new every morning in that they are perpetual and always available to those in need. We have our ups and downs, and “even youths grow tired and weary” (Isaiah 40:30), but God is faithful through it all. With the dawn of each day comes a new batch of compassion made freshly available to us. God’s compassion is poured out from an infinite store; His mercies will never run out.—GotQuestions.org¹

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Every morning is a new chance to do things differently, better than we have before—especially when we take time to connect with God, get His perspective on the areas we want to improve in, and ask Him to help us make the necessary adjustments in our thinking, attitudes, and actions.

A wonderful way to start your day is with a prayer of thanksgiving to God for His loving care. Take a few minutes first thing in the morning to do this and see what a difference it makes in your day. You can pray the following prayer and adapt it to your situation.

Thank You for this new day, fresh and clean, unspoiled by yesterday’s messes and mistakes. You made all things new.

Thank You for brand-new mercy, brand-new love, brand-new forgiveness, renewed strength, and Your unfailing promise of help. You’re so wonderful to me, so patient with my shortcomings and my weaknesses.

I leave all my mistakes and failures behind. Help me to go forward, with my hand in Yours.—Activated magazine

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I want to give you a new start. When you feel discouraged about a mistake you’ve made or a weakness you have, remember that I use weak, fallible people to show My love to the world. I allowed the disappointments and setbacks you’ve experienced in order to make you gentler, more compassionate, more understanding of others’ weaknesses—more like Me—so you can be a greater help to others.

Even your difficult experiences can work together for good for you. If you will put yourself into My hands and be soft and moldable, like clay in the hands of a master potter, I will remake you. I will take your broken dreams, heartaches, disappointments, and with My hands of love, I will make you into a better “pot.” It may not be as grand or beautiful or perfect as what you had in mind, but it will be perfect in My sight, perfect for the role I have for you to play, and perfect for your place in My heavenly kingdom.—Jesus

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What does the Bible say about new beginnings?

New beginnings happen in season. Life can be so wonderfully measured by seasons and stages. Fall begins with the shedding of colorful leaves; winter begins with a cold bed of snow; spring begins with the sprouting of new life; and summer begins with warm sunny days. Ecclesiastes 3:1–5 says: “To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing.”…

The former things pass away and all things are made new. God doesn’t remember our past, he gives us a fresh start. Isaiah 43:18–19 says: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

Perseverance is the path to new beginnings. Perseverance is the pathway to a new start because a new beginning often requires patience. James 5:11 says: “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the LORD finally brought about. The LORD is full of compassion and mercy.”

A new beginning can start right where you are. A new beginning awaits anyone who is willing and wanting to make Jesus Christ the Lord of their life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”—The Billy Graham Library²

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I had deep questions on an ordinary day when I looked in the mirror and asked, Who am I now that my life is so different again? What am I supposed to do, and who do I want to be in this new season?

So much had changed in my life over the past 10 years that I found myself pondering my identity in this new phase of life and my desires for the future.

I knew I had to let go of what was gone, appreciate what remained, determine what was next. …

God is always at work, bringing forth newness and transformation in our hearts and lives. … Perhaps you are in a transition period right now—a career change, a relationship transition, a personal challenge, or just a new and unfamiliar season of life. Maybe you are longing to reinvent yourself and reshape your life, but you feel unsure of how to begin and doubtful of whether you have what it takes. Below are five steps to help you move into the new thing God has for you.

Step 1: Identify what you want to change or improve. Allow yourself to consider who you want to be and what you want to accomplish.

Step 2: Determine any skills you may need to develop to move forward, and be willing to invest in yourself.

Step 3: Map out a life plan. A dream without a plan is just a wish. Without setting goals for ourselves, we’ll stay stuck right where we are.

Step 4: Spend time in solitude and prayer, asking God to guide your steps.

Step 5: Get out of your comfort zone and start working toward your goals! Maintain a positive attitude, and stay focused on your aspirations.

It’s natural to feel apprehensive about the unknown, but God’s ability to bring about transformation and renewal in our lives never fails. We can trust in His sovereignty, remembering He is the master of making all things new … including helping us to become the best version of ourselves and to enjoy the lives He has given us.

Lord, You know the desires of my heart. Walk beside me, and help me embrace my new season with optimism and excitement. Thank You for the promise of new beginnings. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.—Tracie Miles³

Published on Anchor January 2025. Read by Jerry Paladino. Music by John Listen.

¹ https://www.gotquestions.org/mercies-new-every-morning.html

² https://billygrahamlibrary.org/blog-5-things-the-bible-says-about-new-beginnings/

³ https://proverbs31.org/read/devotions/full-post/2024/06/07/when-its-time-to-reinvent-yourself-and-your-life

24: Thy Kingdom Come

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 22

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

Revelation chapter 22: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” We’re in the Holy City now, the new Jerusalem, come down from God out of heaven to a new earth, the capital city of the world to come, kingdom come.  “And in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

There is a river which flows through this city of God, this beautiful new Jerusalem, the place that Jesus has gone to prepare for you and me, where there are many mansions in His Father’s house for us (John 14:2). On each side of the river are these beautiful trees called the trees of life, and they bear fruit.—Twelve kinds of fruit on one tree. A different kind of fruit every month.

“And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Outside the Holy City is the surface of the renewed earth, whose surface and atmosphere had been destroyed in the last great war of Gog and Magog. The wicked of that time had been killed and then judged in the Great White Throne Judgment of God. Now we’re on the renewed surface of the earth at the beautiful new Heavenly City, a new heaven and new earth. And through it flows this beautiful river of life flanked by the trees of life, which have 12 fruits, a different one every month, and leaves that are able to heal the nations outside of the city.

There will still be nations outside of the city. We will have leaves from the tree of life for their healing. Apparently they’re still going to need help and still need healing and salvation, and we will have the answer to their problems.

They will not be allowed inside the Holy City, the beautiful new Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom of God to come, but they will be allowed upon the surface of the earth in a beautiful new earth where there will be no more sea. No more Pacific, no more Atlantic, no more Indian Ocean, no more Arctic Ocean, no more sea. It will all be land and these nations will still be there, but they’ll need healing, and we will have the answer to their problems, in the leaves of the tree of life for the healing of the nations.

“And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun” (Revelation 22:3–5). That is in the city; this isn’t talking about outside on the surface of the earth.

The surface of the earth outside will still have sun, moon, stars, day and night, seasons, etc. But in the city there’ll be no need of sun or moon or stars or candle. There’ll be no night there because it’ll be eternally lighted, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The inhabitants of the earth will be able to look up and view that beautiful city and know that God is there, that God now lives here with man. He’s come down out of heaven to make His dwelling place with man, and that’s His beautiful city, His capital city. Even if you’re not one of the denizens or one of the citizens of the city living inside the city, you’ll be able to look up from the surface of the earth and be thankful that you’re even there at all.—Even outside the city, the unsaved, one of those on probation, still learning to love the Lord.

You can look up at night and see that beautiful city. “And they shall reign forever and ever!” Who shall reign? The saints of God; all the Christians who love Jesus. They are all saints sanctified by His blood, purified, and set apart to serve the Lord.

“And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book” (Revelation 22:6–7). Quickly? John received Revelation 2000 years ago, and Jesus isn’t here yet. Jesus didn’t say He was coming soon. He said He was going to come quickly when He came. But He didn’t say “I’m coming soon” because it’s been 2000 years since then and He hasn’t come yet.

“And I John saw these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: Worship God” (Revelation 22:8–9). He said, “Don’t worship me. I’m just another prophet like you. I’m one of your fellowservants. So don’t worship me; only worship the Lord!”

“And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand” (Revelation 22:10). The book of Revelation began in John’s time. The sayings of this book, the predictions and prophecies of this book began right then in John’s day. That’s why he says “the time is at hand.” This book reviews the whole history of the world, prophetically, from the days of John till the very end. In fact, right on into heaven.

He says, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:11–12). He’s going to come very suddenly when He comes. He’s just warning them, even 2000 years in advance, that when He finally comes, He’s going to come very quickly. He says that about three times in this passage.—Not that He’s coming soon, but that He’s going to come very quickly. He does tell John that the events talked about in this book are at hand, starting right then, and this book covers the whole period from John to the end, even to heaven.

The saved will be rewarded at the judgment of Jesus Christ, the throne of Christ. Every saved Christian will be rewarded according to his works then. The judgment of the unsaved does not come until a thousand years later, when all the unsaved are raised to meet God at the Great White Throne Judgment described in chapter 20.

We who are resurrected and raised and raptured to be with the Lord at the end of the Tribulation, we get our rewards right away up in heaven at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, where there’s a great feast and a great ceremony, and God passes out the wedding gifts. He passes out the rewards to all of those who love the Lord. Isn’t that wonderful?

Verse 13: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” Jesus is speaking again. Alpha and Omega are the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet, meaning the beginning and the end. “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” All those who do the commandments of Jesus Christ can eat of that tree of life that grows on both sides of the river of life that flows through the city.

The leaves of those trees will be able to heal the people outside the city that are still sin-sick, and sick from their disobediences and their rebellion against God. We’re still going to be witnesses for the Lord and we’ll be able to take those leaves outside the city to heal the nations outside. But we who live in the city are saved and have a right to the tree of life, to drink of those beautiful waters that keep us living forever so we can help those people outside.

We won’t just be sitting around floating on clouds, fiddling with harps—that’s some worldly cartoonist’s idea. We’re going to be very busy going in and picking leaves off of the tree of life. There are still going to be lots of unsaved people outside on the surface of the earth. They’ve been resurrected, they’ve been to the Great White Throne Judgment of God and each one’s judgment was decided upon, where they should go, some to the flames of hell itself and the Lake of Fire where the Devil and the Antichrist and the False Prophet are, those three beasts—the Dragon, and the Beast and the False Lamb. Those three animals are going to be in hellfire. But out on the surface of the earth after the Great White Throne Judgment of the unsaved, God’s going to let some of those people live outside the city to learn their lessons and to be healed.

“And I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” Jesus is the morning star. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:16–17).

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18–19). You mustn’t add anything to this book and you mustn’t take anything away from it.

Some people say that means the whole Bible. But he’s just talking about this particular book, the book of Revelation. You shouldn’t add anything to it and you shouldn’t take anything from it. Some Christian fundamentalists seem to think that this is the last time God ever spoke, to John on the Isle of Patmos, and these are the last words that Jesus ever said, and He hasn’t spoken since then. Isn’t that ridiculous? We have a dead God who’s been dead and quiet and silent for 2000 years now, according to these fundamentalists who accept just the Bible alone and don’t believe that Jesus has ever said anything since then.

God has spoken since then. And down through the ages, after this book was written, God still had many prophets and prophetesses who continued to prophesy and speak with tongues and interpretation and prophecies throughout the whole 2000 years of church history, since the days of John and since this book was finished. God’s prophets and prophetesses have been continuing to prophesy in these last days according to the Word of God, throughout the church of Jesus Christ, throughout all Christendom, to Christians everywhere, millions of them.

And “He which testifieth of these things saith, Surely I come quickly.” Again, Jesus didn’t say He was coming soon, He said He was coming quickly! There have been 2000 years since then. But He said when He comes He’s going to come very suddenly, by surprise to the whole world.

But we won’t be surprised; we’ll be ready for Jesus when He comes. “Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” the prophet says. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (Revelation 22:20–21).

Copyright © 1981 The Family International.

23: The New Heaven and New Earth (part 2)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 21

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

I believe in the eternal universal reconciliation of man because Jesus said He died that all might be saved (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9), that the whole world might be saved, and I believe that’s going to happen someday! But only the saved, only those of us who have voluntarily chosen to love Jesus, to receive Him as our Savior now in this life on this earth, are going to walk the streets of that golden city and be able to enter through those gigantic pearly gates.—Unless some are also saved in the Millennium and the world hereafter.

You won’t have to ask Saint Peter for his permission either. Peter doesn’t have the keys; Jesus has the keys. If you have Jesus, you have your own key and you can go in and out whenever you want. Peter is just another one of the saved, just another saint of God just like you, a lost sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.

We each have our own key that God gives us through salvation. Every one of you who are saved will be able to go in and out and enjoy the splendors of heaven. You’ll be able to look down on the surface of the earth and see it as if you were in a satellite. It’ll look like a map below, with people who God in His mercy will permit to live outside the city on the surface of the earth. Even that will be like heaven on earth. It will be even better than the Millennium.

How good is God! How kind, how loving, how merciful. The Bible says there’s no end to His mercy, His mercy is from everlasting unto everlasting (Psalm 103:17). He is forgiving, kind, gracious, and loving, and He’s not going to lose one of His sheep—not one soul! He’s going to save them all in the long run, even those outside the city who will never be able to enter the city. But we will go out into the world to help other people who are still learning how to believe and receive God and to love Him and serve Him.

It’s thrilling to think we’re not just going to be sitting around on clouds playing harps and doing nothing. We are still engaged in the marvelous, soul-satisfying process of the redemption of man, of all men everywhere, the whole world for whom Jesus died. God’s Word says so, that He died for all men. “That all men might be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4), even those who don’t receive Him now but who will believe and receive Him later.

It may be too late for them to enter the Holy City, but not too late to enjoy the mercy and love of God and His forgiveness upon the surface of the earth, healed by the leaves of His tree of life (Revelation 22:2). The sun and moon will still continue. Day and night and seasons will still continue. The very first chapter of the Bible says that as long as the sun and the moon endure, there shall be seasons, summer and winter, spring and fall throughout the world (Genesis 1:14).

Outside the Holy City will live people who were not saved and who are only then learning to love the Lord and appreciate Him and respect and honor Him and worship Him with our help, who live under similar conditions, like it was in the Garden of Eden. It’ll be a pleasure just to live outside on that new heavenly earth that God is going to make for all mankind and all His creatures.

Not one shall be lost, not one of all God’s wonderful creations, immortal souls of man, not one. They’ll all be there either in the city or on the surface of the earth.

“And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it”—in the city—“and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it”—or literally unto it (Revelation 21:24). There will still be nations and kings on the surface of the earth outside the city. Of course, nations ordained by God—righteous kings teaching the people to love and serve the Lord, and they’ll be bringing honor to the city.

“And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there” (Revelation 21:25). The gates will be open night and day, 24 hours a day. What a city! Man thinks some of his cities today are pretty wonderful; they stay open till two, three, or four o’clock in the morning.

But that city’s going to be open day and night, 24 hours a day. Can you imagine what that place is going to look like at night from the earth outside all lit up? The most beautiful city in this whole world! Man has never seen anything like it. This gorgeous pyramid, 1500 miles high and 1500 miles wide, shining with a golden light all night long, glowing almost like the sun. It will no doubt light up the countryside, the surface of the earth for hundreds of miles around.

It’ll be a blessing just to live anywhere within sight of that city, to be able to see it at night and thrill to its splendor, resplendent with golden supernatural light of God. It will vie with the moon and even the sun for beauty and splendor. God’s word says that when He shall build up Zion, even the sun and the moon shall be ashamed in comparison with the glory and the beauty and the light of that Holy City here on the surface of the earth (Isaiah 24:23). It will outshine the sun, outshine the moon. This reminds me of an old song we used to sing:

When we go to be with Jesus
We shall outshine the sun.
When we shall be with Jesus
We will outshine the sun
And walk those streets of gold.
—Adapted from “We Shall Outshine the Sun” by C.F.W.

The saved will enjoy both worlds—the inside world of the beautiful Holy City of the saved, and be able to go out and minister to the poor folks who are lost but being rehabilitated and reconciled.

“And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27). Nothing unclean there: no dirty city streets, no vile vice, no filthy crime, no sin. Not Sin City as today, but the sacred City of God. The Holy City, the pure city, the beautiful city. Everything absolutely clean and perfect and pure and sinless!

The Lord has a city prepared for you and me whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). It comes down like a bride out of heaven adorned for the husband, out of heaven from God to the earth (Revelation 21:2). He says that the tabernacle of God or the dwelling place of God is now going to be with men (Revelation 21:3).

Are you running the race for Jesus? Or are you in the rat race of the system for the world? If you’re running the race for Jesus, it’ll be worth it all. If you’re running the rat race of this world, you will regret over there that you didn’t run for Jesus and work for Jesus and live for Jesus.

One of the most beautiful verses in the Bible is also one of these last verses of the Bible, when He says: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.
Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ.
One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase.
So bravely run the race till we see Christ.
—From “When We See Christ,” by Esther Kerr Rusthoi

Copyright © 1981 The Family International.

23: The New Heaven and New Earth (part 1)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 21

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

Revelation chapter 21: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away: and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

“And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.

“And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues”—that is the wrath of God—“and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” Like a diamond, in other words.

“And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations”—or twelve levels—“and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

“And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and height of it are equal.”—12,000 furlongs, or 1500 miles wide, 1500 miles long, and 1500 miles high!

That is a very big city: 1500 miles in each direction (2400 km), wide, long, and high, with about 5280 feet to the mile. That’s almost beyond comprehension! Such a city would cover half of the United States, all of Europe, or half of Africa, and extend far above the stratosphere, higher than many of the satellites which are fired into space.

“And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits”—that’s 216 feet high (about 75 meters)—“according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.” Two hundred and sixteen feet high, that’s pretty high. That’s higher than most men would be able to climb, a sheer wall or cliff. That’s the equivalent of about a 25-story building. “And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.” This is a sort of golden crystal glass, transparent.

“And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones: The first foundation was jasper.” That’s diamond. “The second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony (sparkling quartz); the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx (striped onyx); the sixth, sardius (ruby); the seventh, chrysolite (olivine); the eighth, beryl (magic crystal aquamarine); the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus (green emerald or jade); the eleventh, a jacinth (amber); the twelfth, an amethyst (clear purple quartz)” (Revelation 21:1–20). These are precious jewels of all colors of the rainbow. What a city!

Each level of the foundations of this wall was composed of a different kind of precious stone. Imagine a wall 216 feet high of 12 levels, each about 18 feet or two stories high, each level a solid diamond, a solid emerald, a solid amethyst, etc.—A wall 1500 miles long and 1500 miles wide, a total of 6000 miles long, completely around the city. Six thousand miles of solid diamonds, 6000 miles of solid emeralds, 6000 miles of solid rubies, etc. Man has never seen such beauty, such riches, such luxuries, such wealth of precious stones as you’re going to see in the day of the Heavenly City come down to earthl! Even the wall is gorgeous. The wall alone would be enough to thrill the heart of any connoisseur of precious stones.

But the wall is nothing compared to the city itself, one gigantic beautiful crystal golden city—a huge pyramid 1500 miles wide and long. That’s 1500 miles each direction, and 1500 miles high. Commercial planes fly from 30,000 to 40,000 feet up, from six to seven or eight miles high. The Holy City is going to be not a mere six or seven or eight miles high; it is going to be 1500 miles high and 1500 miles square, covering an area of 2.25 million square miles at the base.

Some critics and skeptics have said, “Well, if heaven is to contain all of the billions of souls who have passed on through 6,000 years of history, even the few billion who were saved, how’s it going to hold so many people?” You can figure it out for yourself if you’re a good mathematician or you have a calculator handy. Figure this pyramid’s volume by squaring the base and multiplying it by one-third the height—1500 miles by 1500 miles by 500 miles—and you’ll find it contains about 1.125 billion cubic miles.

Verse 21: “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several (single) gate was of one pearl.” Can you imagine a gate of such a city with a wall 216 feet high? The gates in any way comparable to the size of the wall would have to be at least large enough to permit a man to pass standing erect, and probably on horseback, which would add at least another four feet, probably 10 or 12 feet high at the least, if not bigger.

Can you imagine a pearl with a diameter of 10 or 12 feet? That’s the size of the gates, each gate a pearl, 12 gates altogether, three gates on each side of the city, north and south, east and west. Being gates, they must be made for the purpose of going in and out of the city.

So we, the rulers of this earth in that day, will be able to pass through these gates of pearl, each gate a single beautiful huge pearl. Think of that! But not those on the outside; they’re excluded from the city because they have a lot to learn. They were unsaved, and they’re still in the process of learning righteousness and being healed of their sins. It’s in the Bible.

Verse 21: “And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.” The gold of this earth is not transparent and it doesn’t look like glass; it’s very heavy, solid. The gold of the city will be transparent glass like golden crystal.

Verse 22: “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” You say, “Here’s a contradiction in the Scripture, a mistake. John saw a temple in heaven; he even saw the Ark in the temple. He saw the altar in the temple and the souls under it, several glimpses of the temple in heaven.” Yes, he did, but that was before this time—before the new earth, before this holy city came down from God out of heaven to the earth so that God can dwell among men, His temple.

This gigantic, amazing city, 1500 miles square and 1500 miles high, has no temple, no church, no cathedral, no synagogue, no mosque. Before this time John saw a temple in heaven, but now in the final marvelous, eternal city of God there is no temple. Why?

“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” God Himself and His Son are the temple of it; they are the place of worship. You’re going to worship in the Lord without benefit of buildings or temples or synagogues or mosques or cathedrals or churches.

God is against temple worship, and the great temple that He allowed to be built was destroyed. It was only built because David wanted it, Solomon insisted, and so the Lord allowed them to build Him a temple, though they themselves acknowledged that it was ridiculous to think that they could build Him a house that He could dwell in, when not even the whole universe could contain Him (1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles 2:6).

He later said, “I want to live in the hearts of men, I want to live in your heart. The Father seeketh such to serve Him. For the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, but the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20–21). For Jesus said, “The time is coming and now is when ye shall neither worship God here nor there, but everyone that worships the Lord shall worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21–24). That’s the place of worship, in your heart and in His truth, His Word.

If you’re saved, you’ll not spend eternity in heaven. You’ll go up to be in heaven with the Lord until the Rapture and the Resurrection occurs at the end of the Tribulation, but then we’re going to come back to earth.

He’s going to purify and completely purge the surface of the earth with fire and destroy the atmospheric heavens and bring a new heaven and a new earth, where we’re going to be forever. Not up in faraway space, but right here on the earth in this new earth and this new heaven.

That beautiful Holy City, the new Jerusalem, the city of God is going to come down, it says here, “from God out of heaven.” It’s going to come right down here to this earth. Whether it’s going to sit down here on the earth or whether it’s going to float above the surface of the earth, we don’t know, but it sounds like it’s going to be right on the earth, because it has gates for people to come in and go out of. It says “the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it” and that we will go out of it to heal the nations with the leaves of the healing of the tree of life. So it sounds like it’s going to sit right here on the earth.

But there’ll be plenty of room on earth then, because right now only around a third of the earth’s surface is land. Whereas then there will be no more sea; it’ll all be land. The seas are the world’s great septic tanks, its great cesspools where all the waste of the world drains off into. That’s why it has to be salty, or it would stink like a toilet! Some places it does, where they dump their sewage and garbage into the sea, polluting the earth. The Lord says He’s going to destroy those that pollute and destroy the earth (Revelation 11:18).

There will be much more land area then, lots of room for the great Heavenly City to sit down where once was the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean or the Arctic or Antarctic Oceans. Maybe it’ll move around, so it can minister to different parts of the world. If it can float down from outer space from God out of heaven to the earth, then it probably can still float around the earth and hover or set down here or there.

Science fiction’s got nothing on the Bible or the future as foretold by the Lord! I have never seen anything in sci-fi movies to compare with this, have you? Nothing so enormous and magnificent as that beautiful city, full of precious stones and jewels, and best of all, full of precious souls. Immortal saved souls that love Jesus. Billions of people will be there because there were millions of faithful witnesses down through man’s history, from the time of Adam and Eve until the Millennium.

Verse 23: “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” It doesn’t say there’ll be no moon and no sun, but it says in the city they won’t need the moon and the sun. It has its own light, the light of God and His Son Jesus. But the sun and moon will still continue on the world outside the city on the planet earth, which still exists with a new Garden of Eden-like surface with the people who are unsaved out there, whom God is giving another chance to learn what they need to learn to be restored, to be reconciled. (To be continued)

21: The Millennium

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 20

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

The twentieth chapter of Revelation is a very important chapter. It’s one of the shortest chapters and yet it covers one of the longest periods of over 1,000 years in Bible history of the future. The nineteenth chapter covered the invasion from outer space of Christ and His forces, and the destruction of the forces of the Enemy on earth, the kingdom of terror and terrorism of the Devil in the Antichrist, in the final great Battle of Armageddon in which Jesus and His children are the conquerors.

Who are the winners in the Battle of Armageddon? You’ve heard so much about the Battle of Armageddon, maybe you never heard about who’s going to be the winner. Some people say about sports that it’s not important who wins, it’s how you play the game. Let me tell you, we’re playing this game to win and it is important who wins! It is the forces of good and righteousness and Christ and God that will win this battle over the forces of the Devil and the Antichrist, and his forces of evil in the nineteenth chapter.

In the twentieth chapter the victory’s already won, and the reason we’re going back to that chapter here is that thousand years which is so important. It is mentioned six times in this one short chapter. First of all, we are told in the second verse that Satan is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years. Then there will be nobody left to take care of his business and he’ll go out of business for a while. I can imagine what the little boy said when somebody told him, “Oh, you don’t believe in the Devil, do you? It’s old-fashioned to believe in the Devil.” The little boy said, “Well, if there isn’t any Devil, who is taking care of all his business?” Because he’s still got a lot of business going on right now.

This amazing thousand-year period is known to theologians and Bible students as the Millennium. This millennial period is a very important period of the Endtime. It is the period during which Jesus Christ and His saints have won a victory over the Devil and his demons and the Antichrist kingdom of hell on earth. The Devil is bound or cast as a prisoner into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, with nobody left to run his business. We’re rid of him, thank God!

For a thousand years he no longer bothers us, no longer leads his legions and his demons across the face of the earth to plague the world and its citizens. Not only that, while he is in prison for a thousand years, it says that the saints who rejected the Mark of the Beast, who gave their lives rather than deny Christ, lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years (Revelation 5:9–14). The Devil is bound and imprisoned in the bottomless pit a thousand years, while the saints are living and reigning and ruling with Jesus Christ on the earth for a thousand years.

It says that the rest of the dead—meaning the unsaved dead, because the righteous dead have already been resurrected and raptured to be with the Lord—“lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” There is no resurrection of the unsaved until this thousand years is finished, until the end of the Millennium. The only ones who have been resurrected and raptured to be with the Lord are the saints of God, the Christians, those who love Jesus. This is the first resurrection. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:5).

As dear St. John was writing this—perhaps in Greek the meaning was a little clearer—if he had turned that around a little bit, it would have been more understandable. When he says in the last part of the fifth verse, “This is the first resurrection,” he is talking about the first resurrection which has already taken place, of the Christians in the Rapture. “This is the first resurrection”—which shows that the resurrection which occurred at the time of Jesus Christ and the saints who rose from the dead shortly after His crucifixion was a part of this same first resurrection. It’s all called the first resurrection. “That they without us might not be completed” (Hebrews 11:40).

So the first resurrection has already taken place, and I think if he had put that statement first in the fifth verse, it would have been a little bit clearer and easier to understand. It would have read like this: “And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. This is the first resurrection.” That would have been clearer.—And then said, “But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished.”

Some people have been misled and confused by this, thinking that he’s talking about the rest of the dead being the first resurrection. If you read the passage and if you followed the scriptural study, this resurrection of the rest of the dead, of the unsaved dead, obviously is not the first resurrection or he wouldn’t even state it like that. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Obviously some resurrection has already taken place, and as he says, the first resurrection has already taken place. But the rest of the dead, who come up in the second resurrection, will not be resurrected—the unsaved dead therefore—until the thousand-year millennial period is finished.

What’s going on during this thousand years? Satan is in hell. We saints are here upon the face of the earth, ruling and reigning with Christ over the kingdom of God on earth, heaven on earth, the Garden of Eden restored. For the rest of the dead, there’s no other resurrection until the thousand years is finished.

It says in the sixth verse that “We shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” The Devil’s in hell for a thousand years and he is not allowed to come out again till the thousand years is finished.

He therefore has a blessing to give to those who take part in the first resurrection, the Rapture of Jesus Christ to be with Him at the end of the horrible Tribulation, the end of the Antichrist rule, the end of the Devil’s reign. We have a glorious, wonderful resurrection either from the dead or are raptured from the very face of the earth from among the living, and we go to be with the Lord and have the Marriage Supper of the Lamb while God’s judgments are being poured out on the wicked upon the earth.

Then we come back in that mighty Battle of Armageddon and we conquer Satan and all his forces and cast them into hell. We take over the world and rule and reign over it and run it the way it should have been run to begin with and would have been if man had not believed the Devil’s lies and disobeyed God and gone his own way. At last the Lord is going to redeem the earth again, and He’s going to cause the beautiful Garden of Eden to blossom in righteousness as we rule and reign with Christ upon the earth for a thousand years. This is spoken of time and again in the Bible.

Then, in the seventh verse it says that “When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of prison,” and then we have the Battle of Gog and Magog. It’s a sort of a second Armageddon, only far worse than the first. All hell lets loose and in one mighty effort Satan for the last time tries to destroy this kingdom of God on earth, this Millennium of a thousand-year personal rule and reign of Jesus Christ and His saints upon the earth over the people remaining, those who have survived the holocaust of the antichrist reign of the Tribulation and the wrath of God and Battle of Armageddon.

There will be some who will survive. There will be some who will be left on the earth; otherwise we’d have no one to rule or reign over if all the people were killed. Many of them are still alive. It’s almost as though the Lord is giving them another chance, a last chance to repent all the way through the Millennium, through a thousand years of the perfect rule and reign of Jesus Christ and His saints and angels on the earth in the perfect world government, nothing wrong, everything righteous, no corruption, every judgment righteous in the government of God.

Yet, as Isaiah says, “Let mercy be shown to the wicked and yet he will not learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:10). Therefore even some of these people who remain upon the earth, over whom we rule with a rod of iron, rebel during the Millennium.

So Satan is briefly allowed out of his prison where he’s been for a thousand years, just long enough to deceive the nations again, the people of this world over whom we have been ruling to show them the kingdom of God and His Law of Love and what God expects of man and the way He expected man to run the world.

The minute the Devil is let out of the pit, many of these ignorant, willful, easily deluded people follow him, believe his lies, obey his orders, and as a result they begin to attack God’s people, of all the silly things. Trying to attack us then will be like trying to attack angels. They can’t touch us! We will have resurrected spiritual bodies which have enormous powers like the angels of God, like Jesus when He was resurrected.

He was able to walk through walls and locked doors and appear and disappear at will, but He was still also able to enjoy physical pleasures. He was able to eat and to drink and even cook a little meal out by the seaside for the hungry fishermen who had toiled all night (John 21:4–13). Wasn’t that sweet? Jesus was working for them, His children, even though He already had His resurrection body, this marvelous supernatural instrument and vehicle that the Enemy can never touch anymore.

It’s so foolish for the Devil to raise a rebellion against these forces of God in our supernatural bodies. So foolish for the Devil to think he can conquer the camp of the saints—but he tries. When Satan is loosed at the end of the thousand years, he’s able to go out and rally quite a crowd behind him, “the number of whom is as the sand of the sea” (Revelation 20:8).

“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about” (Revelation 20:9). The Jews and the Arabs have a longstanding controversy over who Jerusalem belongs to and who should rule over it. The Antichrist is going to try to settle it by making it an international city where those of all religions can feel free to come and worship, whether they are Christian, Jew, or Muslim.

But Jesus is not going to make it an interfaith city. When Jesus takes over Jerusalem at the beginning of the Millennium He’s not even going to make it an international city, because there’s just going to be one-world government, and that’s the kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth, one great nation. He’s not going to make it an inter-faith city either, as the Antichrist has already tried to do, until he abolished all other religions and set himself up as god, as the false messiah and the false millennium and caused everyone to worship him.

In this case Jesus will set Himself up to be worshipped by all mankind as the Son of God, and it will be one-world government and one-world religion. The only religion in the world in that day will be the religion of Jesus Christ, of those who worship Jesus. It will be the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus, the kingdom of love.

And yet, after a thousand years of that in our personal rule and reign with Jesus Christ on the earth over the whole world with the perfect government of love and fairness and justice and mercy and forgiveness, when the Devil is finally loosed, many run right after him, and he even tries to fight the kingdom of God. He again tries to rebel and fight against us, who by this time are the rulers of this earth by the power of God. So foolish for Satan to try to rebel against us, because he hasn’t got a chance!

This time God is so fed up with him that He sends down fire out of heaven to devour him completely and wipe him and all his anti-God, anti-Christ forces off the face of the earth. In fact, He causes such fire to come down from God out of heaven that it wipes out the entire earth completely. Not the ball itself, as we can prove from other scriptures, but the surface of the earth is completely burned and purified from all pollution, all the horrors of man, and God starts all over again with a new creation, as we’ll read in the next chapter—a new earth.

He re-creates the surface of the earth not like a paradise, but the paradise of God, and we will have a beautiful new earth under a new heaven! But notice that this thousand years comes before that. It comes at the end of the Battle of Armageddon, when Satan and his crowd are cast into hell and we rule and reign on the earth in the millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ over what’s left of unsaved man. We will rule over them for a thousand years. Then the Devil is allowed out for a little while to deceive the nations once again, and they try to come against God’s people and God wipes them all out with fire. In fact, He wipes the whole surface of the earth out with fire. Then occurs the great Judgment Seat of God when all the wicked are raised and are judged.

There’s this beautiful period of heaven on earth which occurs between that Battle of Armageddon and the Battle of Gog and Magog. A great battle begins it—Armageddon—and a great battle ends it—Gog and Magog. The participants and the belligerents and the main forces are the same, a conflict between the forces of heaven and the forces of hell: the forces of God and His son Jesus Christ, and the forces of Satan and his son the Antichrist. There is one beautiful thousand-year period between these two battles; a thousand years of peace and harmony and heaven on earth such as the world has never known.

Copyright © 1981 The Family International.

20: Satan in Hell—Heaven on Earth

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 20

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

Revelation 20: “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the Beast, neither his Image, neither had received his Mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years (the Millennium).

“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”—The one that’s already taken place. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are”—are already—“and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”—An age and an age.

“And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

This is one of the shortest chapters in this amazing book, and yet it is one of the most amazing of all. This chapter covers one of the longest periods of time covered by this book, because it follows the Battle of Armageddon in which Satan, the Antichrist, the false prophet, and the forces that have accepted the Mark of the Beast are defeated. In chapter 19 they are all defeated by the forces of heaven, by a triumphal charge upon white horses out of the sky.

An invasion from outer space takes place. Jesus and those of us who love the Lord will come charging out of the sky upon white horses! You say, “What do you mean, white horses? If God is so supernatural and miraculous that we can be up in the sky and the heavenlies and in outer space in the first place, what in the world does He need with horses?” There is just something magnificent about a horse. God created horses. God sculptured the first horse out of the dust of the earth and made it a living creature, and He made it the way He made it and designed it perfectly for man to ride.

A horse was made for man to ride. Look at the shape of the horse. Its back is perfectly shaped to take the body of a man astride, and then its neck rising just in front of him with its head before him so that its head is almost even with the head of man. The average man is just tall enough to see right over the head of the average horse. It is made perfectly to size, made to fit man. Man was not made to fit the horse, but the horse was made to fit man.

Throughout the world even today horses are still used by some military forces, cavalry and police forces. It’s said that there is something about a policeman on a horse galloping through a city street or nudging a mob away from wherever they aren’t supposed to be, that gives a policeman a certain majesty, a certain authority that a policeman on foot cannot have. In some of the most modern cities in the world, they have a horse-borne police force, a segment of their police who are mounted police.

We’re going to ride into this earth from the sky, from the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Then, in the twentieth chapter, the Devil is finally going to be shackled by a great angel, bound by a chain—if not a literal chain, something to bind him. He’s a great spirit, a great evil power, so a literal iron chain is probably not what this is, but some type or form of bondage. He’s going to be bound, cast into the bottomless pit for one thousand years.

This period of a thousand years is mentioned six times in this chapter: once in the second verse, once in the third verse and once again in the fourth verse, and again in the fifth, sixth, and seventh verse. It is a very important thousand years, so important that theologians and Bible students have called it the Millennium, which is Latin for a thousand years.

During that thousand years, according to the sixth verse, we who have had part in the first resurrection, the Rapture, are going to rule and reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years, on whom the second death has no power at all. If you’re born twice, you only die once.

If you’re born physically of the flesh and then born again of the Spirit, spiritually saved with Jesus in your heart, then you only die once physically. But if you’re only born once, just physically, you’re going to die twice. First of all, the natural physical death; second, the spiritual death, the second death. So, born only once, you die twice; born twice, born and born again, you die only once and then you go to be with the Lord forever.

You don’t spend that first thousand years in heaven. If Christians die now before Jesus comes, they’ll go to heaven, and when Jesus comes, He’ll resurrect and rapture them up to heaven for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This takes place during the horrible hell on earth of God’s judgments, and then we come charging back to win this Battle of Armageddon in the nineteenth chapter, and the False Prophet and the Beast are cast into the Lake of Fire. Then in the twentieth chapter, the Devil himself is cast into the Lake of Fire with them.

What are we who love the Lord going to be doing during that time? We’ve already been resurrected, raptured, had the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, charged in and won the Battle of Armageddon, and now we’ve taken over the world. We’re going to rule and reign with Jesus Christ on the earth for one thousand years. That’s what the thousand years is going to mean to us. For the Devil and his crowd, it’s going to mean a thousand years in hell, the Lake of Fire.

But one more little thing is going to happen before the final heaven. This is not the final heaven; this is the Millennium. This is the heaven on earth of the restoration of the earth in its pure, pristine original beauty and perfection without the curse and without Satan and without most of the wicked. This is going to be the Millennium, the thousand years of our reign with Jesus on earth.

Then the Devil’s let out for a little while to show that “though mercy be extended to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:10). God lets Satan out and He lets him deceive the world to show that the people still left who survived the Tribulation and the wrath of God and lived through the Millennium under us deserve the judgments they’re going to get.

Even after a thousand years of perfect government under Jesus Christ and His saints and angels here on the earth, these wicked people rebel and follow Satan to their final destruction. Fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours the satanic forces of the Devil and his whole crowd completely, and wipes out all the wicked on earth in a gigantic fire in which the entire surface of the earth is burned up and the atmospheric heavens explode and roll back like a scroll, until God sits upon His judgment seat to judge the wicked.

This is not the Judgment Seat of Christ; that already occurred at the beginning of the Millennium, when the saints were judged and rewarded according to their works. That’s a different scene at the beginning of the kingdom of God on earth. (See 2 Corinthians 5:10.) This is the final great judgment, the judgment of the unsaved. This is their first resurrection, when they are resurrected to face God at His almighty throne of judgment for their sins. It is their first resurrection, but the second death for those who are cast into hell. And then after that, “Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire” (Revelation 20:15).

Copyright © 1981 The Family International.

Heavenly Communication (part 2)

“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).

1984-03-28

Desperate prayer power

The Lord wants us to be happy, and thanks to Him, we usually are. But there should be times when you really seek the Lord for a needed change and pray desperately, pouring out your heart to the Lord. He says, “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). All our little prayers are sincere and we mean them, but we also need to get desperate in prayer about any serious situations that arise. There are times when we really need to get down to business with the Lord about problems.

A lot of people have sort of a lazy attitude and seem to think that the Lord will just do it all no matter what. But the truth of the matter is that a lot depends on us. Many times what God does depends on your will and your actions and what you want and how you pray. You’re not supposed to just stand there and let God and the Devil fight it out!

Although God can do anything, He has committed Himself to work through you, and your prayers can do mighty things. Of course God’s overall plan has never changed, His overall will has never changed, but in certain details you can bring about change through prayer. Otherwise, if prayer can’t change anything, you might as well forget it! If you’re in His Spirit, in His will, desiring only those things which glorify Him, delighting your heart only in Him, you can ask Him for the desires of your heart, because all you want is what He wants and what is for His glory.

I’ve never really put myself out on a limb and asked God to do a certain thing, but that He did something. It wasn’t always the thing that I was asking for—usually it was—but He did something. He showed me the answer or answered somehow. When you cry unto Him with a whole heart, He promises, “I will answer thee” (Jeremiah 29:13, 33:3).

So next time you really need His help and are on the spot, call on the Lord and His power. Jesus never fails! He always answers when we stir ourselves to call upon Him with a whole heart.

More prayer principles

For a good prayer life, one of the main things you need to know is God’s Word. Faith grows by faithful study of His Word. “Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). Even though God can answer anyway, if you’re going to have real desperate prayer, you’ll find that if you have a devotional, inspirational reading of the Word first, it will inspire you and give you more faith for your prayers.

God has made promises in His Word, and when you pray, you should bring those promises with you to remind Him. When you remind God of His Word, it shows you have faith in it. And it’s a positive declaration of your faith and your knowledge of the Word which pleases Him. For “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these (His promises) ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). You have to quote the terms of the Contract (the Bible) to the Contract Maker (God), and hold Him to it. He is bound by His Word. So remind Him of it, cling to His promises, memorize and quote them, and never doubt for a moment that God is going to answer—and He will!

But always remember His conditions, His terms of the contract: faith and obedience! Faith and obedience come first, then God answers prayer. If we are obeying the Lord and are faithful and trusting and believing, then God’s got to bless and answer. Of course, sometimes God likes to test our faith. He likes to see how much we really believe, and often He will not give us answers until we obey what He’s already told us or shown us.

It’s helpful to remember that God’s delays are not necessarily denials, and that sometimes we just have to have faith and wait for Him to answer, which usually results in “the trying of our faith, which worketh patience” (James 1:3). Learning patience seems to be one of God’s most frequent lessons, yet one of our own rarest virtues, as it really tests our faith and drives us to the Lord and His Word.

Another important prayer principle is to be specific with the Lord. We need to ask for and expect specific answers when we pray. Being specific is a sign of your faith. A lot of times people pray generally because they don’t expect to be answered anyhow. Whereas if you are specific when you pray, you’re showing your faith that you expect to get that specific answer. And you don’t expect to be disappointed. You really expect it or you wouldn’t be so specific.

Remember, God takes you exactly at your word! I remember a preacher I knew once who said, “Lord, give me a car. I need a car. I’m desperate for a car, Lord—any old car!” And that’s exactly what he got, a real junker! He said, “Next time I prayed specifically for a good car and got it.” So be careful what you ask the Lord to do, because He’ll take you literally. He’ll give you what you ask for, and certainly what you have the faith for.

Watch out about some of the things that you insist on the Lord giving you: He sometimes even lets people have things that aren’t good for them to teach them a lesson. He said of the children of Israel that “He gave them their request, but sent leanness to their souls” (Psalm 106:15). Watch out that what you’re seeking is for His glory and within His will.

If you’ve read our lesson on God’s precious Holy Spirit, “The Spirit of Love,” then you know what a powerful effect the Holy Spirit can have on your prayer life, as once you are filled with the Spirit, you can pray in the Spirit and your prayers have more effect because you’re praying by the Spirit. “Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26). You can speak in tongues, letting the Spirit pray through you.

Once you’ve prayed about something and have committed it to the Lord, you just need to have faith. “Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24). Faith is not surprised at the answer to prayer; faith believes it. But the word “believe” as it’s used today is hardly strong enough. Faith expects it to happen. So once you’ve prayed about something and committed it to the Lord, from then on it’s God’s problem. You don’t need to worry about it. Just trust the Lord and praise Him and thank Him for hearing and answering your prayer—even if you don’t see the answer right away.

In fact, you should not only end your prayers with praise and thanksgiving, but you should also begin your requests that way. His Word says that “in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6). King David said that we should “enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise” (Psalm 100:4). It’s like coming before the King and salaaming, giving Him due reverence and honor.

Even if you’re tired or discouraged or don’t feel like praising Him, you should go ahead and praise Him anyway, simply because He said to and you know that it pleases Him. It’s a little bit like priming an old pump: you pour a little in, but you get a lot out. When you go ahead by faith, praising the Lord, priming the pump and getting started, pretty soon you’ll feel happy in the Lord and really glad you praised Him, because He’ll pour out His Spirit on you and He’ll bless you for it.

Even when you feel a little down in the dumps or discouraged, look up and count your blessings. Thank God for all your blessings and get your eyes on the Lord and on the good things. (See Philippians 4:8.) Praise the Lord! Start your prayers by lifting your heart unto Him in praise! “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15).

Also remember: “One can chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight” (Deuteronomy 32:30). It helps greatly to have someone else pray with you sometimes, especially during times of trial. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). And, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

There is great power in united prayer together! So never be ashamed to ask for help or prayer from someone else when you need it. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed” (James 5:16).

One last, but certainly not least, final reminder is about praying in the name of Jesus: All through the New Testament the Lord tells us how important it is to pray in the name of Jesus, to ask things in the name of Jesus, to use the name of Jesus and its power in prayer. Jesus is the one we have to approach God through. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). People need to realize the power of the name of Jesus! For without that name, there is no power. Jesus said, “If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14).

Do you know Jesus? If not, ask Him into your heart right now—and Jesus will come in. Then you can learn to really know Him personally, intimately, as you learn to fellowship and communicate with Him through prayer.

Copyright © March 1984 by The Family International

Heavenly Communication (part 1)

“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).

1984-03-28

To cry to the Lord in prayer is something that should come naturally to every truly born-again child of God. God expects each of His children, those who really know Him, to touch Him personally and make direct contact with Him, not just through somebody else’s prayers or faith. Therefore each of us must learn to individually make personal, intimate contact with the Lord through prayer, the heavenly link, the divine telephone between us and heaven.

Even though our “heavenly Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him” (Matthew 6:8), He likes us to confess that we alone can’t solve all of our problems and that we need His help. He likes us to be humble and willing to pray, to acknowledge His power and show our faith in Him by asking Him for help. Then, of course, He likes to answer, not only to remind us that we need Him, but also because He likes us to appreciate His help and to love Him for it—like a father.

That’s the way we parents often feel with our own small children—we like to answer their questions and solve their problems and give them answers—if they’ll ask. But a lot of times they just try to struggle through on their own. I’ve often told one of my frustrated young children, “Why didn’t you ask me to help you?” And it’s the same sort of situation with us and the Lord: He likes for us to ask Him for His help, as this is what shows our faith in Him and His Word, divine guidance, and parental love.

The Lord loves to give us the answers to our problems and questions and troubles. He knows exactly what to do and how to do it, and wants us to ask Him for His guidance. He says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7–8).

He even goes on to say, “For what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” (Matthew 7:9–11).

All we have to do is ask and He promised we’d receive. If we really seek the answer, we will find it! So don’t ever think you have to try to figure out all your problems and decisions yourself. Get down in prayer and get God’s answers. He says, “Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3).

“Without Him you can do nothing” (John 15:5), but with Him, you can “do all things through Christ which strengtheneth you” (Philippians 4:13). So when you really need help, tell it to Jesus. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. Cast all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you” (Psalm 55:22; 1 Peter 5:7). Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” But there’s one condition to it—“come unto Me” (Matthew 11:28–30). When you come to the Lord in prayer and faith, and ask Him for the answers, you’ll get them.

This is what prayer is all about. It is not merely some kind of religious ritual, but a living relationship. As that dear hymn says:

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry,
Everything to God in prayer.

Oh, what peace we often forfeit.
Oh, what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry,
Everything to God in prayer.
—Joseph M. Scriven (1820–1886).

The Lord’s shoulders are broad enough to carry any load—all the burdens put together, including His own. So it’s really important to learn to pray and commit our burdens, trials, and needs to Him.

Hearing from heaven

With many people, prayer is a one-way conversation, and they do all the talking. They pray, “Hear, Lord, Thy servant speaketh,” instead of like dear Samuel, the child prophet, who at five years of age said, “Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:10). You’ll get a lot further that way, listening to the Lord instead of talking so much that you don’t even have a chance to hear what He has to say.

Prayer is not just getting down on your knees and speaking your piece, but letting God speak His, too. This is why each of us is supposed to know the Lord personally and be filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore be led by the Spirit individually, so that we can personally seek the Lord and find the answers for ourselves that we need for our own individual cases.

This is actually the greatest thing that each of us needs to learn—to follow God and to hear from Him fresh every day. You can’t just get inspired once and let that do for the rest of your life. It’s like eating: One meal doesn’t last you even one full day, and it certainly doesn’t last you for weeks and months. And just as you’ve got to eat every day, you’ve also got to get inspired every day. You need fresh food of the Spirit, fresh power of the Spirit, milk of the Word, fire from on high to inspire you day after day.

We all need to hear from God. It doesn’t have to be out loud; it doesn’t have to be with an audible voice. It can just be in that “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12) that you feel inside of you, sometimes not even words, just an impression that you have. God doesn’t have to communicate in words; He can just give you a feeling or a picture or an idea.

His Spirit is like a broadcasting station, broadcasting all the time; you just have to learn how to tune in. If you’ve got an open channel and tune in, the Lord will fill you—your mind, your heart, your ears, your eyes. You just have to have faith. Jesus can speak anytime, anywhere, if you believe. So when you ask the Lord for an answer, expect an answer.

If you really believe and ask the Lord, and you want to hear or see, you won’t be disappointed. And that thing you see or hear with the eyes or ears of your spirit will come from the Lord—and it will be such a comfort to you. Expect God to answer. Just open up your heart and let the sunshine in. If you’re really desperate and crying with your whole heart and are asking Him, He’ll answer.

Quiet time

If you’re always hurrying and rushing around, fretting and impatient, you’ll never be able to focus your full attention—your eyes, your ears, your mind, your heart—on the Lord for the solutions to the problems, the answers to the questions, the best decisions for the situations.

Unless you get quiet and try to seek the Lord, how are you ever going to get anything from the Lord? He says, “Be still, and know that I am God. In quietness and confidence shall your strength be” (Psalm 46:10; Isaiah 30:15). You’re going to have to get quiet by yourself—somewhere, somehow, sometime—if you’re going to hear from the Lord.

Every great man of God, from Moses to Jesus, had to retreat alone to his mountain for a while in order to have time to meditate, pray, and commune with God. My Lord, if Jesus Himself had to do it, how much more we need to do it! Jesus had to get up at the break of day before His disciples got up and walk out across the hills or up in the mountain to get alone with God and get His orders for the day from His Father (Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12).

So start the day off right: hear from the Lord. You need it, or things just won’t go as they should. If you neglect your fellowship with the King of kings because you’re so busy with the affairs of the kingdom, it can be disastrous to your spiritual life and communion with the Lord. You cannot do the Master’s work without the Master’s power and guidance. And to get it, you must spend time with the Master.

So try a little prayer time early in the morning before your day’s work. Asking the Lord for the solutions to problems is the easiest way in the world to get them. If you’d spend a little more time praying, you’d probably spend a lot less time working and trying to get things done.

He’ll solve a lot of your problems before the day even starts if you listen to what He has to say. But if you go plunging into all your troubles and your work without stopping to talk to the Lord and get directions from your Commander in Chief, then you’re going to be like a soldier who’s trying to fight the war all on his own without listening to headquarters, with no guidance from the top.

We all need more quiet time with the Lord in rest and refilling, drinking of the living water of His Word and fellowshipping with Him in the communion of prayer and the sweet lovemaking of the Spirit. It just totally renews you and completely refreshes you and gives you new vision and fresh inspiration, new strength, rest and peace and joy. For “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

“In all thy ways acknowledge Him” (Proverbs 3:6).

Although we should spend some quiet time with the Lord every day—time in prayer and reading His Word—Jesus also told us that we should always pray, that we should continually pray all the time, all day long, that in everything we do we ought to be “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2).

“Men ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). He also says, “Watch and pray” (Matthew 26:41), and Paul says “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). He knows that we need to, and it’s one way the Lord has of keeping us close to Him and in His presence continually, constantly dependent upon Him and His protection.

Prayer is something you should be doing all the time, no matter what else you’re doing. You can’t wait until you’re through doing this or that, and then pray. It’s like thinking on your feet. Or like breathing—just breathing the Holy Spirit all the time, being in constant communication with the Lord.

He says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6). This is one of the most wonderful verses in the Bible to hang on to, especially when making decisions. We don’t have to know all the answers, we don’t have to lean on our own ideas or wisdom; we just have to lean on the Lord and His leadings.

The Lord can save you a lot of work, a lot of trouble, and a lot of time if you’ll just remember to pray before you start a job. Whatever you have to do, pray about it. The Lord is always right there with you. He says, “I’ll never leave thee nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). He’s always there. So it’s never God who’s not there; it’s us who are sometimes not always there, when we run off someplace else and leave Him behind when we forget to pray.

When we don’t pray for His help, it’s usually either because we just plain forget—and it’s very negligent to forget to pray—or we’re not willing to admit that we don’t know the answer and that we have to ask Him for it. Either way, it’s a mistake. When you don’t pray and get in tune and ask the Lord to lead you and help you to do the right things, you can sure make mistakes and blow-its and really make a mess of things and can sure get off the track.

Some of the biggest mistakes that Christians ever make are through following their natural reasoning and common sense, when the Lord had something entirely different in mind, contrary to natural expectation, which could only be revealed by His Spirit. Many is the time in the Bible when men made decisions on their own by their own natural reasoning, and it turned out to be exactly the wrong decision because they hadn’t sought the Lord or been led of the Spirit.

It’s important to remember that you cannot possibly solve the multitude of problems that you will encounter in your own wisdom, your own strength, your own mind, your own understanding, your own trying to put two and two together. Jesus said, “Without Me, ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).

The most important thing in our lives is Jesus and to stay close to Him, to let Him lead and guide us. He’s the one who has got to lead us because only He can! Without Him, we don’t know where we are going or how to get there. But He knows exactly where and how, and all we have to do is just sit in the back seat and let Him drive. He knows where to go and the best way to get there.

He’s promised that if you acknowledge Him, He will direct your paths. He says, “You shall hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21). So ask the Lord about everything before you do it. Make sure it’s what He wants you to do. Seek Him about everything—every problem, every decision—and He will never fail you or let you down! (To be continued)

How to Talk So Your Teenager Will Listen (part 5)

Raise’em Right

Paul W. Swets

1989-01-01

(Word Books, Waco, Texas. 1988)

MARRIAGE: WHO WILL I MARRY?

It sounds pretty clinical, but psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan described love well when he said, “When the satisfaction or security of another person becomes as significant to one as one’s own satisfaction and security, then the state of love exists.” Still, for most teens, some questions remain: “If I feel love for more than one person, how will I know which is the right one for me? If I don’t have strong feelings for anyone right now, is something wrong with me? What if a friend feels strongly about me, but I don’t feel as strongly about that friend? How will I know when I’m ready to marry? Who will I marry?”

Such questions are not easily decided, and many smaller decisions must be made before the big one about who can be answered.

Points to ponder about marriage.

–“Falling” in and out of love is a normal adolescent activity. Dating provides a valuable experience in interacting with several different personalities and learning about characteristics of a relationship that really matter.

–In psychological terms “like attracts like.” One key ingredient in happy marriages is compatibility–similarity in areas such as faith, education, family background, interests or attitudes.

–Considerable evidence suggests that problems in marriage could be detected during the dating period. We can help our teens develop early detection skills by providing them a standard of values with which to discern behavior and character.

–In 1870, one of every 34 marriages ended in divorce; two generations ago, one in every 12 marriages; in the last generation, one in every three; and at present, almost one out of every two marriages is dissolved (based on statistics from the last 10 to 15 years). How then do we keep our marriage from becoming one of these awful statistics?

–In a study of 3,000 families, researchers Nick Stinnett and John Defrain found six major characteristics of strong families. They

–are committed to the family

–spend time together

–have good family communication

–express appreciation to each other

–have a spiritual commitment

–are able to solve problems in a crisis

–One study surveyed couples who had been happily married for 30 years or more. The common ingredient? Good communication: The ability to listen well and express thoughts and feelings without fear of reprisal.

–Many teens are confused about the difference between love and infatuation. In response to the plea of one young woman, Ann Landers distinguished the two this way.

“Infatuation leaps into bloom. Love usually takes root and grows one day at a time. Infatuation is accompanied by a sense of uncertainty. You are stimulated and thrilled, but not really happy. You are miserable when he is absent. You can’t wait until you see him again.

“Love begins with a feeling of security. You are warm with a sense of his nearness, even when he is away. Miles do not separate you. You want him near, but near or far, you know he’s yours and you can wait.

“Infatuation says, ‘We must get married right away. I can’t risk losing him.’ Love says, ‘Don’t rush into anything.’ You are sure of one another. You can plan your future with confidence.”

Door-openers to try. When your teen seems interested, share your own search for “the right one” to marry. Include the humor, the mistakes, the feelings, hopes, and dreams, but don’t get carried away and talk forever.

Encourage your teen to consider what characteristics in a potential mate are important.

When your teen is in a talkative mood about marriage, ask questions or make statements in a non-threatening way that keep your teen talking, discovering, learning. You can say:

“This relationship seems really important to you.”

“I sense that you are troubled by the way Ken talks to you.”

“I’ve never seen you so excited about anyone as you are about Kimberly. She seems very special.”

“You’ve talked about a number of characteristics you are looking for in a marriage partner. Which do you think are most important to a healthy marriage?”

Talk about your values. After thinking through what you believe is important for a happy marriage, aim for dialogue by encouraging your teen’s questions and listening intently.

When it seems appropriate, pray about your children’s future marriage within their hearing. Some teens never hear their parents pray for them and they miss a great source of strength and guidance. Pray for your teen and for the person your teenager will one day marry.

“Lord, I ask Your blessing not only upon my son/daughter, but also upon the one whom he/she will someday marry. Even now keep them in the center of Your Will. When they marry, grant them the grace of a life-long commitment to each other. May their love be strengthened with a growing respect. May they be ever ready to forgive and bring out the best in each other. May they keep the channels of communication open in difficult times as well as times of ease. Jesus, may their faith in You enable them to rise above their difficulties and experience the joy and happiness of life together. Amen.”

MESSAGES TEENS WANT TO HEAR

In a survey I asked over 800 teenagers what they most wanted to hear from their parents. From their responses, five messages stand out.

1. “I’m proud of you.” Do you remember how good it felt when your parents said, “I’m proud of you”? Maybe your parents rarely told you how proud they were and you remember how bad that felt. Maybe your parents complimented you on your appearance or accomplishments, but never actually said the words, “I’m proud of you.”

Ever since we can remember, we have sought the praise of our parents and the people whom we respect. After a preschooler draws a picture, he runs to Mommy for approval. If an elementary school student makes an A on a test, he is sure to tell Mom and Dad about it because their approval is certain. A junior high school student may get an unorthodox haircut because it meets with his peers’ approval. A high school student seeks approval from members of the opposite sex. But during the teenage years, parental approval is perhaps most important to a teenager because it is the key to forming an identity and building positive self-esteem.

A parent’s pride should be related to a teenager’s effort and ability as an individual, not compared with anyone else. If a teen tries out for football and attends every practice, it should not matter to the parent if he spends every game on the bench. “I’m proud of you,” can be said any time that teenagers:

–choose to put in an extra effort to achieve a personal goal

–choose to overcome peer pressure and make their own decisions

–determine to learn from mistakes and try again

–use their natural abilities to the fullest

An “I’m proud of you” message encourages teenagers to set higher goals and fuels their desire to reach those aims. It raises self-esteem and gives confidence. Don’t miss a single opportunity to say, “I’m proud of you.”

1. “You can always come to me with anything and I will be there to listen.” I think we would all agree that good listening is the first step to good communication. Teenagers consider this a great message because it assures them that the first and hardest step will be taken. A parent’s failure to listen is a major reason teens keep things to themselves. Can you afford to miss what you may be missing?

These rules are essential to getting your teens to talk to you. They underscore the kind of listening that teenagers expect from their parents.

1. Give undivided attention. This means stop cooking, stop reading the newspaper, stop watching TV or thinking about other things and concentrate on what your teen says.
2. Do not talk when you are trying to listen. A good listener is not always talking. Empathy is sometimes best communicated by intentional silence and focused attention.
3. Do not ridicule. Teenagers have many impractical dreams or ideas, but some of them are fresh and challenging. You will not get a chance to hear them if you are notorious for criticism.
4. Listen with a willingness to understand. Simply make complete understanding of your teen a goal and strive to reach that goal.

It is also important to point out the dangerous effects of not listening. When parents do not listen, or give the impression that they are not listening, teens may infer the following negative messages from their parents.

“You are not that important to me.”

“I couldn’t care less about what you are interested in.”

“I’d rather be somewhere else.”

“I don’t really love you enough to listen to you.”

Of course, most parents do not mean to imply such messages, but they are easy to convey. Be aware that such inattentive listening immediately destroys conversation and tends to keep future conversations from happening.

When teens do not talk freely about their problems, parents can still indirectly help them by referring them to a third party. Before there is a problem, say to your teen, “I want you to know that I am always here to listen to you, but if you ever have something that you feel that you can’t talk to me about for some reason, please talk to _______________ about it. He has agreed to keep everything you say confidential, even from me. He will try to help you the best he can if you should ever need it. OK?”

III. “I understand you” or “I want to understand.” Here are 3 goals to aim for when trying to reach an understanding with your teen:

1. Let the teenager know that you understand him or her even when there is a differing of views.
2. Discover all the motives and desires behind a certain problem or request before forming an opinion.
3. Try to reverse the accusation of not “understanding” into an awareness of your empathy by expressing that your desire to understand is based on the love and concern you have for your teen.

Unfortunately, conveying understanding is complicated. Cheap understanding can backfire. If you say to your teen, “Honey, I know exactly how you feel,” chances are you will get an, “Oh no you don’t!” response. If you are charged with not understanding, ask your teen to help you understand. If it is a matter of disagreement, state what your teen has said to his satisfaction and then restate your views. If it is a matter of not identifying with how your teen feels, your teen will at least know that you are trying your best to understand.

1. “I trust you.” Trust develops gradually. Let’s looked at an example where there is a disagreement between the parent and the teen about curfew. The teen says, “Don’t you trust me?” The parent is stuck. He doesn’t want to say that he does not trust his teen and yet that seems to be the case. A great response would sound something like this: “Son, I do trust your intentions, but staying out past 12 o’clock increases the temptations you face. I would not be doing my job as a parent if I allowed you to be in a situation where the temptations are greater than you can handle and so I must set a few limits.”

A balance must be achieved. Some degree of trust must be given in order for that trust to be proven. Always be sure to give that second chance (not necessarily without consequences) when your teen has failed and is truly sorry.

When parents say, “I trust you,” it is an especially important message for the teenager. It assures teens that they are trustworthy. They remember that message and think, “My parents trust me.” It will make them want to live up to your trust. It also boosts their self-esteem and gives them the feeling that they are growing up.

1. “I love you.”

I wish my dad would say, “I love you,” more. I think he thinks I would be embarrassed if my friends heard him, but I definitely would not.

–Susan (17)

Love is the essential ingredient in healthy family relationships. The other four messages can never replace the need for love. Teenagers need to feel love communicated and demonstrated. How can teens be certain that they are loved if they are never told? How can teens feel certain that they are loved if their parents never spend time with them? The way to spell demonstrated love with your teenagers is T-I-M-E.

Keeping in mind what your teens most want to hear will guarantee you better communication. Express your pride in them, verbalize your willingness to listen with an open mind, state your desire to understand, assure them of your trust, and always remind them of your unconditional love!

——————————

A woman sat by a hearthside place

Reading a book with a pleasant face,

Till a child came up with a childish frown

And pushed the book, saying, “Put it down.”

Then the mother, slapping his curly head,

Said, “Troublesome child, go off to bed;

A great deal of God’s Book I must know

To train you up as a child should go.”

And the child went off to bed to cry

And denounce religion–by and by.

 

Another woman bent o’er a book

With a smile of joy and an intent look,

Till a child came up and joggled her knee,

And said of the book, “Put it down–take me.”

Then the mother sighed as she stroked his head,

Saying softly, “I shall never get it read;

But I’ll try by loving to learn His Will,

And His Love into my child instill.”

That child went to bed without a sigh

And will love her Jesus–by and by.

–Aquilla Webb

How to Talk So Your Teenager Will Listen (part 4)

Raise’em Right

Paul W. Swets

1989-01-01

(Word Books, Waco, Texas. 1988)

PARENTAL AUTHORITY: THE ART OF SAYING NO…AND YES!

“Youth today have detestable manners, flout authority, and have no respect for their elders. What kind of awful creatures will they be when they grow up?”–Socrates, 399 B.C.

In every age, parents of teens have been concerned about how to exercise their authority. Applying six principles related to parental authority will prevent us from making too many mistakes and will increase our chances of saying No and Yes effectively.

Principle 1: Make decisions based on goals. Without a standard by which to make decisions, parents are lost in confusion, inconsistency, and not knowing what to say next. Goals provide parents a reference point for choosing appropriate words and actions. Goals guide our communication in the direction we want to go. I find the following goal helpful: To train my children how to make wise decisions and take full responsibility for their choices.

When we set goals for the development of our teens, it’s important to talk about them with the teenagers. They need to know that we appreciate their built-in drive for independence, that we want them to become fully functioning, mature adults.

You may want to clarify (in writing) your own parental goals, especially your goal regarding the growing independence of your teen. Talk enthusiastically about it so that your teenager knows your rules and regulations are not arbitrary, unfair, or meaningless, but designed rather to bring him or her to full maturity and independence as an adult in due time.

Principle 2: Build Relationship Power. Parental authority, to be effective, must be backed by some form of power. By the teenage years, the most effective form of parental power will be centered in the relationship between the parent and the teenager.

It’s a force within our teens based on respect rather than fear. It is built by listening intently, by looking at their side of the issue as well as our own, by spending time with them, by letting them know of our love for them. Relational power does not mean the absence of discipline or the refusal to apply logical consequences when necessary. It includes them. What it precludes is the need to resort to threats, insults, yelling and physical force.

Principle 3: Choose an Effective Parenting Style. Authoritative (democratic) parents combine a firm, flexible authority with a healthy amount of freedom in parenting. The authoritative parent affirms a child’s unique personality and way of approaching things, but at the same time holds the child accountable to standards for behavior, attitudes, conversation, and the quality of their relationship. Authoritative parents give their children the chance to talk over rules that they do not like or understand. As a result of talking them over, the parents may modify the rules if there is good reason to do so, but they do not just give in to whatever the child or teenager wants.

A striking illustration of the contrasting effects of parental approaches is seen in a study of the use of marijuana by college students. The findings showed high use of marijuana by students of permissive parents, medium use by students who viewed their parents as dictatorial, and low use by students who viewed their parents as democratic.

If our parenting styles have been less than effective, we can begin now to make the changes we want to make. It is important not to continually blame ourselves for the mistakes we have made. The past is over and done.

Principle 4: Discipline with Respect. Most parents would agree that teenagers still are in need of discipline, but they often confuse discipline with punishment. They are not the same. Of course discipline is preferred and should be used as much as possible. However, there are times when punishment for wrongdoing is necessary if all else fails, or if it’s needed to drive a point home if the child doesn’t respond. Discipline refers to words and actions that instruct, train, and correct. Discipline comes from the same root word as disciple, which means “learner.” Discipline involves the positive use of parental authority to bring about desired change.

Principle 5: Say “No” Calmly. “OK,” you say, “I’ll try again. But how do I stay calm when I have to say No to my teen and my teen starts yelling at me? How do I stay calm when everything around me is in a state of chaos and I am made to feel that I’m the reason everyone is upset?”

Use the “No Sandwich”: Say no when necessary, but sandwich it between two cushioning statements that help to soften the blow of a negative response.

For example:

1. I know that you want me to agree with you.
2. But I see the issue from a different point of view.
3. I acknowledge your right to your point of view and I hope you will acknowledge the same right for me.

+ + +

1. I understand that you want to go to the party at Pete’s house.
2. But the answer is No because we both know there have been drugs at other parties Pete has had.
3. I would be happy for you to have a party for your friends at our house. I am willing to help you prepare the food if you want me to.

+ + +

Try the “Broken Record” Technique. If you have tried the “no sandwich” and your teen persists in trying to control you or get you to change your mind, you can stay relaxed and simply repeat No or a one-sentence refusal in a calm but firm voice until the message gets through. For example, you could repeat, “My decision is that for the reasons I stated, you cannot go to the party.” Don’t use sarcasm or a disgusted tone of voice.

Deal with Principle, Not Pressure. Your principles, values, or goals help you know when to say No and when to say Yes. It may take some time and effort to clarify them in your own mind. But once you have established them, it is relatively easy to say No (or Yes) on the basis of your principles. Do not yield to pressure. If you do, you will teach your teen to keep on exerting pressure in greater amounts until you give in.

Practice Calm Responses. It could take a lot of practice because your teen might be “programmed” to respond only when you are angry. You will need to tell your teen that you are changing your style of responding. Explain why. Say that it will be a mistake to interpret your calmness as a lack of commitment or as indecisiveness. Enlist your teen’s cooperation if possible. Then practice the variety of ways a calm No can be expressed.

“I know this is important to you and I would like to say Yes to you if I could, but I can’t. The answer is No.”

“It might be true that all the other boys your age are drinking. But you’re not ‘all the other boys.’ You are you. And you are my son. For the reasons we discussed, the answer is No.”

“I am willing to negotiate with you whenever I can. But this is not one of those times. I’m afraid the answer is No.”

Principle 6: Affirm Your Teen. Saying No must never become a habit. Whenever possible, we need to affirm our teens with votes of confidence, with a willingness to let them try their wings and sometimes fail.

My wife and I say Yes to anything that will help build healthy self-esteem in our children. We want them to be psychologically strong, to believe that they have inherent worth and dignity no matter whatever anyone else may tell them. We want them to believe that they can do their work well and that they have the capacity to achieve their own worthwhile personal goals.

Action Steps for Positive Communication.

1. Think about what your real goal is for the development of your teenager. Then write it down. Revise it until you are satisfied that it represents the direction you want to go as a parent. Complete the sentence: My goal is to:

 

2. List 3 things you will do this week to build the relationship you have with your teen (i.e. spend time together, go shopping, or go out for a hamburger together).

a.

b.

c.

 

HOW TEMPERAMENT INFLUENCES COMMUNICATION

Accept the differences in temperaments. Although you and your teen might have similar temperaments, the chances are good that you might not. That’s OK. Beware of putting your teen in a box, of categorizing him or her in ways that don’t allow the expression of distinguishing traits. Unless we realize that differences in temperaments are legitimate, we may fall into the trap of wanting our teens to be carbon copies of ourselves. Our teens need to be accepted as individuals. Acceptance will make them feel more at ease, less defensive, and more accepting of the character traits they might not like in us.

Beware of selective perception. Temperaments can cause us to view our teens through filters that block out a realistic picture. School teachers and police officers complain that some parents refuse to see or believe negative behavior patterns in their teenagers. It’s always somebody else’s fault–not their teen’s. But temperament filters can also prevent us from seeing strengths in our teens. If you are pragmatic and your teen is amiable, you may not fully appreciate the value of your teen’s ability to establish strong friendships. When we understand the strengths inherent in our teens’ temperaments, we can relate to their strengths and draw out the best in them.

Practice open communication. Conflicts arise when misunderstanding is not dealt with properly. Open communication gets to the heart of issues. It is not defensive. It makes us unafraid to risk the fact that our teens might not like what we say. Open communication is being honest, straightforward, truthful.

The Need for Parental Teamwork. First, agree on basic parenting principles. If we sense an important disagreement with each other developing in front of the children, we tell them that Mom and Dad need to talk over the matter and then we will discuss it with them or give them our decision. This is not dishonest; it’s smart. Undermining each other’s authority would be the first step toward loss of parental control. It would give a message to the children that they can take sides, that they can “divide and conquer.” In the matter of parenting our children, it’s more important to be unified than it is to be “right.”

Second, compensate for your spouse’s weaknesses. If my wife and I were both alike, one of us would be unnecessary. But I need her help and she needs mine. Because of that fact, we both fight against any tendency to criticize the other because we know by experience that road leads to nowhere. Instead we try to compensate for each other’s weaknesses, to fill in the gaps.

Third, draw out the spouse’s strengths. To change negative habits of personality and communication, most of us need help. Few are in a better position to help us than our spouses. When they focus their attention on the best in us, they set in motion the law of positive reinforcement. That is, when we are supported in an area of strength, we are encouraged to make the effort and take the time necessary to build upon that strength, to increase its frequency, to try again when we fail. Happily, it works that way for our spouses, too.

 

RESOLVING CONFLICT

State your views calmly. Begin by saying, “I think…” or “The way I see it…” and then calmly and briefly state your opinion. The objective here is to help teens see our point of view as well as their own, and to persuade them to work with us in solving the problem.

“I think that our getting-off-to-school routine is not working. Somehow we have to stop the yelling and last-minute panic. Neither of us likes it when the other is angry. If we start breakfast at 6:30 a.m., we can make it without undue pressure.”

“The way I see it, you’re not getting the sleep you need. When one feels exhausted, everything suffers: Health, personality, grades. Nothing seems to go right. I think it is reasonable to ask you to be in bed by 11 p.m. on school nights.”

“Son, I want us to solve this problem together. I would like to give you an opportunity to suggest options that would be acceptable to us both.”

Notice the emphasis on calmness. If calmness is not your normal reaction to discord and stress, you will have to work extra hard to establish a new pattern, but it can be done. Decide whether the old pattern of yelling and screaming is working. Is it drawing you and your teen together or forcing you apart? Does it help achieve understanding or destroy it?

Following are a few examples of how to resolve conflicts–as well as how not to:

Problem Area: Curfew

Teenager, 15: I’ll be late getting home tonight. The guys are having a party at Jack’s house after the game.

Discord Exchange

Parent: Not tonight. You have to be home by 11 p.m.

Teen: No way!

Parent: Don’t talk back to me! You heard what I said!

Teen: You just don’t understand.

Parent: I understand perfectly! The problem is that you never listen! etc…

Resolution Exchange

Parent: What do you mean by late?

Teen: About 1:00 a.m.

Parent: I hear you saying you want to stay out that late even though curfew on school nights is 11 p.m.

Teen: I know, Dad, but I hate to be the first one to leave.

Parent: I agree that it’s hard to be the one to leave first. I understand that you might feel embarrassed, right?

Teen: Right.

Parent: I think that we need to remember that you’ve gotten to sleep late the past few nights and you’ve complained about being very tired. I know it will be tough, but I’d like you to be home by 11:00.

Problem Area: Chores

Teenager, 13: I’m going to Judy’s house to listen to some records!

Discord Exchange

Parent: Have you done your chores? (with a negative tone of voice)

Teen: I just did!

Parent: Then please fold your clothes.

Teen: Mom, I have plans!

Parent: You can take five minutes to do that for me.

Teen: No! (muttered)

Parent: Go to your room!

Teen: (leaves, slamming door)

Resolution Exchange

Parent: Have you done your chores? (with a positive tone of voice)

Teen: What chores?

Parent: The ones we discussed this morning.

Teen: Well, some of them.

Parent: I heard you saying that you want to go to Judy’s, but you haven’t completed your chores as we agreed.

Teen: But it’s getting late and if I don’t go now there won’t be any time left.

Parent: I agree that time is a factor. I understand that you might feel frustrated by so much to do and so little time to do it. Right?

Teen: Very!

Parent: I think that if you had started sooner you would have been finished by now. True?

Teen: I guess so.

Parent: What you agreed to do will not take long if you hop to it. Let’s get it done.

Teen: OK, Mom.

Problem Area: Music

Teenager, 17: (playing loud rock music)

Discord Exchange

Parent: I hate that music! Turn it off.

Teen: I like it!

Parent: I heard it’s devilish.

Teen: It’s harmless! Everybody listens to it!

Parent: I don’t want you to listen to it!

Teen: Why not?

Parent: Turn it off!

Resolution Exchange

Parent: Tom, I hear some lyrics that are unacceptable.

Teen: I don’t listen to the lyrics. I just like the sound.

Parent: I agree that this group has a sound that most teenagers would like.

Teen: It makes me feel good.

Parent: I understand that you might feel happy when you hear that sound. But I’m more concerned about what might be getting into your head without your knowing it. Let’s listen to the lyrics together and I’ll point out what I mean.

The following summarizes what to aim for when we face conflict.

1. Take the time to discover and define the real problem.
2. Look for areas of agreement to reduce threat and signal a desire to resolve the conflict.
3. Listen actively to understand how the other person feels.
4. State your viewpoints calmly, but firmly. (continued)

How to Talk So Your Teenager Will Listen (part 3)

Raise’em Right

Paul W. Swets

1989-01-01

(Word Books, Waco, Texas. 1988)

HOW COMMUNICATION WORKS AND WHAT TO DO WHEN IT DOESN’T

“Communication” comes from the Latin word “communicare,” which means “to make common, to share.” It refers to the process of transferring a message or meaning from one person’s mind to the mind of another through such means as words, body signals and tone of voice. Actually, no real communication takes place until the other person interprets the message the way the transmitting person intends it to be understood. Only then is there a common meaning, a shared message, a meeting of the minds.

Words effective in one situation can have negative results in another. I recently overheard an argument between a father and his teenager. The boy had just come home from mowing a lawn. He was hot, sweaty and exhausted. The father was exasperated that his son had not done something asked of him. Neither was ready to be civil or listen to the other. The result was a nasty tirade of words that could not help but damage a relationship. Perhaps if the father had waited until both were more comfortable, the damage could have been prevented.

Part of the wisdom of King Solomon was his awareness of the importance of timing:  “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under Heaven…a time to be silent and a time to speak…”–Ecc.3:1,7.

Warning lights about the possibility of communication problems should come on when we or our teens are:

–tired

–busy with a project

–studying or reading the paper

–trying to solve some problem

–watching TV

–in the presence of friends or other people

–not feeling well physically

–depressed or moody

Watch for the warning lights mentioned above. If any of these conditions exist, you might say: “I need to discuss something with you, but I can see this is not a good time. When can we talk?”

Action Steps for Positive Communication. When you feel the relationship with your teen is strained, determine to make it stronger. Choose at least one thing you can start doing immediately to make it strong and take action on it.

If communication sometimes breaks down because of the wrong time and place, think of some creative ways to provide a setting that generates freedom of expression (taking a walk, moving to another room of the house, going out for something to eat).

RESPONDING CALMLY TO STRONG EMOTIONS

As parents, we are not well-trained to respond to strong words and feelings. We are often baffled by the intensity and the unpredictability of our teens’ emotional outbursts. Perhaps just as often, we are surprised at our own responses–our angry reactions and ineffective attempts to regain control.

It is not easy to respond effectively. To reduce the number and severity of communication breakdowns and to increase understanding, we need to use a clear plan we can remember. When strong feelings are present, parents and teens need to respond CALMLY, an acronym suggesting a six-point plan.

C = Control Your Responses. When asked what happened when emotions get hot in the home, one 7th grader quipped, “Let the yelling begin!” More than 70% of the teenagers in our survey complained that their parents yell at them. Some parents admit that in the heat of the moment their feelings get the best of them. They claim that usually there is a good reason for screaming (“It’s his fault!” or “she made me mad!”) and that “the words just came out.”

I believe we can control our emotions. Feelings are subject to thoughts and thoughts are subject to choice.

Consider the father who is snarling mad at his son. The phone rings. A very important client wants to talk with the father. What happens to the father’s tone of voice? His choice of words? His raging anger? They are immediately brought under control by choice.

When we notice feelings such as anger, frustration, hurt, insecurity, bitterness, envy, or revenge, we can and must choose our words carefully.

At a parenting conference I attended, a mother announced unashamedly, “I want my daughter to know how badly I feel when she embarrasses me in public so I make a point of embarrassing her in front of her friends.” If we want our relationship to be healthy and satisfying, we must avoid the vicious cycle of attack and counter-attack.

Break cycles. Any vicious cycle requires two or more people. If you know what the pattern is, you can break it by not responding as you usually would. You can’t control how your teen will respond, but you do have a number of options about what you can say that can break the cycle.

–Our words and tone of voice are not coming out right. How can we say what we are feeling a better way?

–Both of us need time to cool off. Let’s talk again at another time.

Delay reaction. When you are not clear about how to proceed, give yourself time to think, time to control your emotions instead of letting them control you.

A = Always stay calm. Don’t fight anger with anger.

L = Listen to the Teen Perspective. What seems to frustrate teens most are the times when they think their parents are not listening to them.

Parents can be downright insensitive and teens can be completely unreasonable, but unless we fully hear each other’s perspective on an issue, we may very well argue about something of no consequence or something we really do agree upon!

I have often wondered how many painful arguments could be avoided if only we made the effort to see how things look from the other’s point of view. If we listen well enough to see our teens’ perspective, the chances are great that they will reciprocate by listening to our point of view.

Strategies–

1. a) Understand feelings. When emotions are high, focus your attention on understanding the feelings your teen is experiencing.
2. b) Ask questions. This draws out the thoughts and feelings of our teens. Perhaps it has been your experience, as it has been mine, that what you really think and feel is not clear, even to you, until you’ve had a chance to express yourself to a trusted friend who will hear you out, blow away the chaff, forget the silly parts, and credit you with the best of what you have been able to conclude. That is the kind of friend our teens need in us.
3. c) Listen. Sometimes our teens may ask our advice on certain matters, but they really want us to just listen. They want a sounding board. They want someone to whom they can entrust their thoughts and feelings. Thus, our first response to strong emotion in our teens ought to be to listen intently.

Seeing the “other side” is not easy. Issues between parents and teens are never totally black and white. Numerous shades of meaning are involved, and we must try to get as close as possible to the shade they see.

M = Motivate Reconciliation. What happens if emotions have gotten out of hand and in our anger we have said some things that have really hurt our teenagers? If the feeling of being wronged is not dealt with constructively, it plagues a relationship. It becomes a source of mistrust and friction. We need to be the first to bury the hatchet and motivate reconciliation. We need to ask the greatest healing question: “Will you forgive me for my contribution to the problem?”

Rarely is any problem between two people the fault of only one of them. Normally both contribute to the problem. The healing question, as stated above, works powerfully because both parties can say it honestly without feeling that one must bear the blame alone. When forgiveness is granted, there is an exhilarating feeling of freedom, of being able to start again, unshackled by the past.

L = Learn Verbal Self-Defense. Some teens develop a mean streak. They will say whatever is calculated to hurt. The reason for their verbal attack may range from feelings of inferiority to a perverted need for power. But whatever the cause, they can become expert at finding the tender place and making their parents squirm.

Effective verbal defense can easily be learned if we keep in mind the following principle.

–Take charge. The parent is in charge, the president of the family “firm.” Quietly exercise the authority that is yours. Don’t try to prove your superiority by getting into power struggles. Just assume it. It is necessary to realize internally your rightful place as a parent.

–Don’t shout. Strength is shown by a firm, quiet assertiveness, not in yelling or becoming belligerent. Yelling is a sign that you have lost control. It’s counter-productive.

–Model behavior. Teens tend to do what we do, so it is important to commit ourselves to treating them as we would want to be treated.

Frustration. Teen: I’m sick and tired of you telling me what to do! I’m 16, for Heaven’s sake! Get off my back!

Ineffective response

Parent: I’m sick and tired of having to tell you a hundred times to do what any responsible 16-year-old would already be doing!

Effective response

Parent: Kim, I really dislike telling you what to do, too. Yet, for this family to function smoothly, some things have to be done that are not being done. How do you suggest we solve this problem?

Y = Yield When Your Teen is Right. Suppose you and your teen had an argument and you begin to realize that your teen is right.

I remember feeling a sense of euphoria when my father would say, “Son, I think you’re right” or “Paul, I guess I made a mistake.” Sometimes the euphoria resulted from the feeling that I had won a personal victory, that even as a teen I had something to say that made sense, that I could talk on an adult level and make some valid points. It made me feel very good about myself. But usually the euphoria was based on more than that. It was a sense that my father had won a victory too… a victory over stubborn pride, having to prove he was always right. He was strong and secure enough to admit mistakes and I respected him for it.(To be continued)

How to Talk So Your Teenager Will Listen (part 2)

Raise’em Right

Paul W. Swets

1989-01-01

(Word Books, Waco, Texas. 1988)

GETTING THROUGH TO TEENS

Why is it so hard to get through to teens? Could it be for some of the same reasons teens have a hard time getting through to us? One of the most common complaints from teenagers is that although they want to communicate with their parents, they are turned off by what their parents say and how they say it.

The following steps will lead us past most conversation barriers and keep us close.

Earning the right to be heard. In an interview with journalist Ann McCarroll, 15-year-old Bob said that he has “some mother!” He explained: “Each morning she sits with me while I eat breakfast. We talk about anything and everything. She isn’t refined or elegant or educated. She’s a terrible housekeeper. She uses double negatives. But she’s interested in everything I do and she listens to me–even if she’s busy or tired.”

Spending time, showing interest, listening, talking about “anything and everything”–this is behavior that wins the right to be heard.

Developing a clear purpose. We all slip up in what we say because the tongue tends to function without purpose or direction. Words fly out of our mouths without our considering their effect. The pay-off for lashing out may be a feeling of temporary relief. But at what cost? Terrible damage can be done when we speak without a clearly defined purpose.

Avoiding conversation killers. Conversations with our teens may be going along perfectly well when, without notice, they end abruptly. A “conversation killer” could be the culprit. Although sometimes disguised, these killers usually can be identified by one or more of the following characteristics: Incessant talking, contradictions, putdowns, dogmatic statements, a judgmental tone of voice, unfair generalizations, and responses that reveal one has not listened. For example:

–No, it cost $5.50, not $4.50.

–Teenagers are terrible drivers.

–When will you grow up?

Controlling our emotions. We all over-react at times, and that is not all bad. But while it is possible to pull something positive out of occasional eruptions of feelings, most of us likely would agree on the basis of experience that to maintain healthy communication with our teens, we need to control how we express our emotions.

Here are some strategies that work for most parents.

–Call “time out” when emotions get hot. When we notice that tempers are about to flare, we can say, “Let’s take a break and talk more after dinner.”

–Respond to frustrating behavior in our teens with healthy action before we lose control. The longer we wait, the harder it is to respond objectively.

–Choose wisely what you will battle for. Many things just are not worth fighting about. In “Parenting Isn’t for Cowards,” psychologist James Dobson tells the story of a woman who told him she had a very strong-willed 12-year-old daughter. The mother said, “We have fought tooth and nail for this entire year. It has been awful! We argue nearly every night, and most of our fights are over the same issues.” When Dr. Dobson asked her the cause of the conflict, she replied, “My daughter is still a little girl, but she wants to shave her legs. I feel she’s too young to be doing that and she becomes so angry that she won’t even talk to me. This has been the worst year of our lives together!” Dr. Dobson looked at the mother and exclaimed, “Lady, buy your daughter a razor!” (Editor: The point being not that 12-year-olds should be allowed to shave their legs as they please, but that building a relationship is sometimes more important than smaller issues.)

Investing time with our teens. According to one study, men were spending twice as much time with their children in 1980 as they did in 1960, but that merely means that they had increased their time from 6 to 12 minutes a day–12 minutes to establish understanding, to really listen!

How will we find the time in our busy schedule? The answer, of course, is that we won’t “find” the time; we need to create it. Here are some helpful tips:

–Control the TV before it controls you. The A.C. Nielson Company announced that the average American TV set is on for 43 hours, 52 minutes a week. That’s more than 6 hours a day.

–Prioritize your activity schedule. In our fast-paced living, it is possible to have our time eaten away by activities that “demand” our time, but are not really significant to us. It may be helpful to list our activities on paper, including time spent with our teens, and organize them according to their importance to us. Then we can schedule time with our teens…fishing, shopping, going out to lunch, or just talking. I find my teen is usually ready to talk at night. All I need to do is to help get a snack, pull up a chair, and talk and listen like a friend.

–Make the most of mealtime conversation.

 

HOW TO LISTEN SO TEENS WILL TALK

At first thought, the whole process of listening seems rather simple. It is, after all, part of communication that we learn first and use most. (Listening takes 45% of our communication time on the average, speaking 30%, reading 16%, and writing 9%.) Yet we don’t listen very well. We catch ourselves saying, “How’s that again?” “What did you say your name is?” “Did you say I should turn right or left?”

One listening study reveals that after one 10-minute oral report, the average listener has heard, understood, and retained half of what was said. Within 48 hours, retention drops off another 50%, yielding a final comprehension of 25%. Fortunately, listening is a skill we can improve.

We will focus on how to make the adjustments that produce significant improvements.

“My Teen Won’t Talk to Me!” Sometimes teens will talk for hours to their friends, but hardly at all to their parents. Teens do not always know how to make sense of what they are thinking and feeling. Sometimes they fear that if they try to express themselves, it will come out all wrong. They are overly sensitive to being criticized or laughed at. Their not talking then becomes a defensive pattern designed to avoid confrontation and embarrassment.

We may be part of the problem. From our survey of over 800 teenagers, I compiled a list of their common complaints. According to them, adults commonly:

–jump to conclusions

–get angry when they don’t immediately comply with our wishes

–interrupt

–give the impression we are too busy to be bothered

–talk too long without giving them a chance to speak

–become preoccupied with our own thoughts and feelings

–never ask questions

–never seem to want to know what they think

–don’t understand how they feel

You may find it interesting to ask your teen to be very candid and rate you on these complaints by putting a check in front of the ones that apply to you. Try not to be defensive or contradict what your teen says. Just listen.

Listening vs. hearing. One teen said, “My parents say they want me to come to them with problems, but when I do they’re busy or they only half listen and keep on doing what they were doing–like shaving or make a grocery list. If a friend of theirs came over to talk, they’d stop, be polite, and listen.”

These comments point to an important difference between hearing and listening. Imagine how effective listening would benefit your relationship with your teenager.

ACE Listening Skills. Here is what I call the ACE Model for achieving expertise in listening: Attending, Clarifying, Evaluating.

First, attending (paying attention) is making sure we are getting the message our teens are communicating. We need to:

–calmly look in the eyes of our teens (but don’t stare)

–hear the actual words being said

–pay attention to body signals, such as sad eyes, nervous hands, and tense lips

–eliminate distractions whenever possible (i.e. turn down the volume on the TV or shut a door)

–listen to the tone of voice

Second, clarifying gets the meaning of the message. It is normal for us to interpret messages according to our experience, our mental frame of reference, but it is detrimental since our experiences are likely to be vastly different from that of our teens. To me, homework includes studying for a test. But when I asked Jud, “Do you have any homework?”, he said “No” even though he had 3 tests the next day because, to Jud, studying for a test is not the same as homework that is assigned.

To clarify whether our teens mean what we think their messages mean, we can paraphrase what we hear them say (“So what you’re saying is ________. Right?”).

Third, evaluating is the stage where we mentally reflect on the information we have gathered and decide how we will respond. For example:

–asking for more information

–remaining silent

–expressing our feelings

–stating our opinions

–choosing our words

–selecting our tone of voice

We need to ask ourselves, “Which of the several options I have for responding to my teen will produce the most honest and effective communication?”

ACE skills generate positive responses by encouraging our teens to talk to us further.

 

Negative: Did you fail your test again today?

Positive: How did things go today at school?

Negative: You think that’s bad? When I was young…

Positive: Tell me about it.

Negative: You’re out of your mind.

Positive: That’s a new idea.

Negative: You’re just getting yourself worked up.

Positive: This seems important to you.

Negative: You’ll get over it.

Positive: You must have felt frustrated.

 

Effective listeners make the ACE Model for listening a habit. They are fun to talk to, a delight to be around. Even if they are not brilliantly articulate, they know how to bring out the best in the one talking to them. I like the way someone once described this kind of listening ace:

His thoughts were slow,

His words were few, and never formed to glisten.

But he was a joy to all his friends

You should have heard him listen.

Admitting our mistakes not only to ourselves but also to our teens can break down listening barriers. For example, we can say to our teens: “In the past, I have tuned you out. I’m really sorry. Will you forgive me? I want to do much better. If there are times when you feel that I’m not listening, please let me know. I won’t hold what you say against you. I really want to know.” But parents can do only so much. Teens must take responsibility too. (to be continued)

How to Talk So Your Teenager Will Listen (part 1)

Raise’em Right

Paul W. Swets

1989-01-01

(Word Books, Waco, Texas. 1988)

COMMUNICATING WITH TEENS

Developing a perspective. I remember that when my son Judson was an infant, I thought of him as a bundle of energy eager to be released, as an artistic masterpiece in the process of formation. Consequently, I treated him with great care and respect. Now that he is a teenager I realize that the image I have of my son still colors what I say and how I say it. It also influences the development of his self-concept. If I call him a loser, he will tend to act like a loser. If I treat him as a winner, he will be more apt to act like a winner. Since teens are in the vulnerable process of identity formation, how we think of them and what we tell them will influence what they become.

Trained, not blamed. In addition to learning grammar, vocabulary and writing, some of us may have had courses in public speaking. But how many of us were trained in listening techniques?

The Sperry Corporation discovered that by training employees in listening skills, they could decrease communication error and save millions of dollars. Research showed that those who had been trained in listening techniques became more highly motivated, made fewer mistakes, and enjoyed their work more than those who did not receive the training. We can all enjoy the advantages of being trained–not blamed.

Five steps towards better communicating:

1. We can make slight adjustments. When things go wrong in communicating with our teens, as they undoubtedly will, we can review what happened and make any changes that are necessary. Even small differences in tone of voice, choice of words, facial expressions, or the way we listen can alter teens’ views of us and their responses to us.
2. We can set communication goals. Here are some examples that help me.

–Think before I speak

–Listen without interrupting

–Avoid a judgmental tone of voice

–Speak calmly without raising my voice

–Ask questions that promote interesting conversation

–Talk to my teen the way I want my teen to talk to me

2. We can choose our words.

Choice 1

Daughter: Do you know where my shoes are?

Parent: You never put them away. That’s why you’re always losing them!

Daughter: Oh yeah? Why are you always losing your keys?

Choice 2

Daughter: Do you know where my shoes are:

Parent: I believe you left them by the blue chair.

Daughter: Thanks, Mom.

In choice 1, the parent reacts to the daughter’s question with a judgmental statement, attempts to correct a behavior, and generates hassle. In choice 2, the parent responds without judgment and generates gratitude.

4. We can draw upon our native knowledge. From our memory banks, we can recall how we felt when adults talked to us with respect, or yelled at us in disgust, or asked us how we felt about some matter, or complimented us on jobs well done. That recall, combined with new insights and fresh skills, will help us to meet the challenge of communicating with our teenagers.
5. We can commit ourselves to making the most of our best. I believe there is a better self inside each of us that can make a positive difference in the way we communicate with our teenagers. How do we find it? By committing ourselves to making the most of our best. Without commitment, we will give up when we fail. With commitment, when we fail (and we will at times), we will adjust, try again, and eventually succeed.

Action Steps for Positive Communication:

1. Since motives are the backbone of any commitment, why do you want better communication between you and your teenager?
2. What are some obstacles you and your teen have experienced that interfere with good communication?
3. When obstacles do arise, what can you do to get around them?

A QUICK VIEW OF ADOLESCENCE

What is an adolescent? No couple embraces and says, “Let’s have an adolescent!” If that were part of the process, there might be a lot fewer of us!

What is adolescence? It’s a time of transition roughly equivalent to the teenage years, but often extending beyond them in both directions. Adolescence is defined as the period between the onset of puberty and the attainment of full adulthood. It is a time of major development physically, socially, mentally, emotionally, morally, and spiritually. It is that dramatic passage from one stage to another in which everything about our teens is both fascinating and confounding–to us and to them.

Physical development. Be prepared to provide accurate information and clear values regarding sex.

Never joke about physical characteristics such as height and weight. Some parents attempt to motivate their children through sarcasm or ridicule. They believe teasing or pressuring teens about excess weight or untidiness will force positive changes. But these pressure tactics only create resentment and strong resistance.

Think and talk about wellness, not sickness. It is a mistake to shower our teens with attention, affection, and our time only when they are not feeling well. The message we need to convey to our daughters is that a period is not the end of the world. We need to help our sons realize that scrapes and bruises are no big deal. Emphasize getting well.

Social development. Teens often give the impression that the whole world revolves around them and they seem surprised when others don’t recognize this fact. My son has the following cartoon above his desk.

 

Children normally accept their friends pretty much as they are, warts and all. But with puberty, they begin to idealize each other. Boys and girls who may have held each other in contempt as children now find the opposite sex interesting to look at and be around. Especially in romantic relationships, teenagers imagine the other person to be more than he or she is. The person on whom they have a “crush” seems perfect in every way. But these crushes don’t last long because soon the reality of the human being sets in; they are shocked to find flaws in appearance, character, values, or irritating personal habits.

Strategies: a) Communicate. This means that we listen when our teens are willing to talk, and ask questions. The goal is to keep the lines of communication open so that our teens feel they can come to us at any time with their questions or concerns.

1. b) Model resistance to peer pressure. We face it too, don’t we? At her 93rd birthday party, one grand woman stated that “the best thing about being over 90 is that you outgrow peer pressure!” We can help our teens by our own example.

Mental development. Listening to our teens’ ideas does not necessarily mean that we agree with them, but it conveys the message that we think their ideas are important. That encourages them to continue talking and thinking. In the process, they often sort out false ideas themselves and come to a clearer understanding of what really is important to them.

Talk as a friend. Talk about ideas and feelings that are important, much like we would to our friends. Work toward a mutual dialogue that is honest and reflective. One 16-year-old girl in our survey wrote: “I am able to talk with my parents openly about almost anything. My mom is so terrific because she manages to see my side of the situation even when she doesn’t agree with me. When she’s wrong, she admits it. When she’s right, she takes the time to explain why.”

Emotional development. At times we feel teenagers are on an emotional roller coaster–one moment riding high on a burst of confidence, optimism and fun-loving play, and the next plummeting to the depths of insecurity, pessimism and depression. While to us these ups and downs may be senseless, to our teens they are real, even though they may not be able to give us “reasons” for what they feel.

Don’t minimize feelings. “Cheer up. That’s nothing to get upset about” is not helpful. On top of feeling bad, the teen is challenged to defend why his feelings are as strong as they are. Having to do this makes the teen think the adult is insensitive and further communication is likely to be cut off.

Don’t over-react to emotional lows or highs. Adolescents need freedom and time to gain emotional balance. Learning to feel deeply and strongly is a significant part of a fully functioning human being. If our teens can learn to express feelings in a healthy manner and avoid the really damaging side of emotions (the release of feelings in words or actions that hurt another person), they will have accomplished one of the significant tasks of adolescence.

Moral/Spiritual development. Psychologist David Elkind writes: “Teenagers need a clearly defined value system against which to test other values and discover their own. But when the important adults in their lives don’t know what their own values are and are not sure what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, the teenagers’ task is even more difficult.” When a parent says, “I don’t know what’s right,” the teenager hears, “I don’t care what you do.”

Strategies–a) Do mean what you say. Teens are quick to spot hypocrisy.

1. b) Admit mistakes. There is nothing worse or more foolish than a parent who presumes to be perfect or appears self-righteous. Our teens know us too well. On the other hand, there is nothing more persuasive about the rightness of our standards when we admit we have failed to live up to our standards and say, “I’m really sorry. I was wrong.”(to be continued)

Success with Teens

21 Ways to Win Your Teen’s Love and Admiration

Compiled from the writings of Maria Fontaine and Derek and Michelle Brookes

There’s no question about it. Raising teenagers is one of life’s special challenges. The teen years are difficult, and often teens will “share” those difficulties with those living around them.

Their sometimes crusty, disrespectful, or rebellious exteriors can be intimidating and leave parents in a state of shocked confusion, wondering where they went wrong. This is when many parents, not knowing how to try to help their teens, pull back. That’s a tragic mistake, because all the while, inside, their teens are desperate for direction, encouragement, love‚ support, understanding, and guidance. Teens have an intense need to feel secure and loved unconditionally. They need to know someone notices their problems and is concerned enough to help them at any cost. It’s not an easy ride by any means‚ but parents who hang on and keep loving and reaching out to their teens are far more likely to see them through to victory than those who take a less active role.

Here are 21 tried and true ways to improve your relationship with your teen.

1. Accept your changing role.The transition from childhood to young adulthood is so gradual that many parents don’t see the need to stop treating their teens like children until it’s long overdue. Teens are in the process of discovering their own personalities, abilities, and goals, and separating themselves to a greater extent from their parents is part of that process. Teens want to be treated as emerging adults and respected for the individuals they are. In their quest for independence, teens put up their guard against their parents’ “parenting.” If you can learn to treat your teens as friends when appropriate, they’ll be much more likely to drop their guard.
2. Put yourself in your teen’s place.Feelings of insecurity are normal during the teen years. Teens are no longer children, but neither are they fully adults. Their bodies are going through huge changes, and their emotions and hormones are running wild. They are learning to handle more independence and the responsibility that comes with it, and they face decisions and pressures they’ve never faced before. Remembering these things should help you to not take their emotional and verbal outbursts personally. If you sincerely try to empathize, you’ll gain a better understanding of them and their problems and they will feel they have an ally in you.
3. Keep your cool.Don’t allow yourself to be offended by some of the outlandish things they say or do. Sometimes teens say and do odd things just to see what kind of reaction they’ll get. Sometimes they’re trying to express what’s going on inside, but don’t know how or don’t understand themselves. Other times they’re simply being self-centered, as teens tend to be. Your getting upset or expressing shock or horror will only make matters worse. Learn to roll with the punches. If your teens know you will try to understand and sympathize when they vent themselves, they will feel safe around you.
4. Respect your teen.Respect is a sign of faith. When teens are having a hard time having faith in themselves, a little respect can boost their confidence, spur them on, and help them succeed. Conversely, if they think you don’thave faith in them, they’ll be much more likely to give up before reaching their potential.
5. Don’t tease or belittle.When your teen is feeling vulnerable—which is most of the time—he or she is likely to take things said in jest personally and consider it ridicule rather than innocent fun.
6. Be positive and supportive.Most teens feel inferior in some way or another, and their negative view of themselves often spills over into their actions. Try to remain consistently positive and supportive in your reactions. You can’t gloss over serious problems or wrongdoing, of course, but you can put a positive spin on almost any situation by talking mostly in terms of solutions and lessons behind them, rather than expressing anger or disappointment. Dwelling on the positive is a sign of unconditional love, which counteracts low self-esteem. Praise your teen every chance you get.
7. Avoid unnecessary rules.Too many rules and restrictions can cause almost any teen to rebel. At the same time, some rules are needed because it’s unwise to give your teen complete free rein. When you feel a new rule is necessary, try to discuss and decide together, rather than dictate. Explain your reasoning, hear your teen out, and get his or her agreement on the terms and consequences for breaking the rule, as much as possible.
8. Give your teen responsibility.Teens need guidelines, but they also want to be independent and feel trusted. Trust your teen with adult responsibilities, and he or she will try harder to act like an adult. A wise person once said, “Treat people as though they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.” Your teens will make mistakes, as everyone does, but when they see that doesn’t diminish your love and faith in them, they will keep trying and eventually succeed.
9. Earn their confidence by being confidential.Teenagers are sensitive about the things they are going through. No one likes to be the subject of gossip or careless conversation—especially teens. When teens confide in you, they like to know that what they say will be kept as confidential as possible. It may seem like a small matter to you, but it may be a very big matter to them. Betray their confidence, and it will probably be a long time before they confide in you again.
10. Pray.Whenever you aren’t sure what to say or how to react when your teen is having a problem, pray. Send up a silent prayer for wisdom, asking the Lord to give you His understanding and solutions.
11. Spend time together.Many parents spend a lot less time with their teens than they did when their children were younger. That seems natural since teens need less supervision than children and teens want to assert their independence, but it’s often a mistake. Teens need lots of support, guidance, and fresh challenges. They need someone to coach, mentor, and teach them, and no one is in a better position to meet that need than their parents. No other investment will form stronger bonds between parent and teen or pay higher dividends.
12. Admit your own shortcomings.Teens hate double standards. It takes humility to admit your shortcomings and to apologize when you’ve made a mistake or you’ve hurt your teens, but being honest about your own faults and failures will help your teens be honest and open with you about theirs. It will help you and them put their problems in perspective.
13. Have a sense of humor.There’s a time to be serious and focus on long-term goals, but there’s also a time to lighten up. Teens admire adults who know how to have fun and enjoy life. Just make sure your humor is in good taste and not at someone else’s expense, because teens emulate adults whom they admire.
14. Express your love.Teens may not like to be kissed and cuddled the way they did when they were younger, but we never outgrow our need to feel loved. Try not to let a day go by without you putting your love for your teen into words and backing up those words with actions.
15. Listen.Every teen needs a confidant—a true friend they know they can trust with their innermost secrets. Teens have so many things going on inside that it can be quite confusing, yet often they’re afraid to talk about it for fear of being misunderstood, ridiculed, or considered naive. Take time to hear them out. They need to feel that someone understands (but avoid “when I was your age” responses, which most teens hate to hear). A common mistake parents make is not listening long enough and therefore jumping to the wrong conclusions. Rather than “showing them the light,” gently guide them to come to the right conclusions themselves as they articulate how they feel.
16. Befriend your teen’s friends.Show a sincere interest in your teen’s friends. Look for the best in them, and they will probably consider you the coolest parent they know. Then don’t be surprised if your house becomes the main hangout for your teen and his or her circle of friends. The noise level and food bill may go up, but the trade-off in knowing where they are and what they’re doing will be worth it.
17. Forgive and forget.Face it—your teens will make mistakes for which they will need to ask and receive forgiveness. Like the rest of us, teens often feel they can’t confess their mistakes or wrongdoing because they will forever be labeled by their mistakes. They need to be convinced of your love and readiness to forgive and forget and start anew.
18. Have conviction.If you’re not careful, parental pride, emotional attachments, and the instinctive desire to protect your child can cause you to give in‚ go easy, pull back, or run to the rescue at the wrong time. You may even feel their anger, frustration, and rebellion as your own. That’s when it’s important to remember that your teen is learning to exercise good judgment, and that whether or not they act like it, they will take their cues from you. If you don’t have the conviction to do what is right, despite some unpleasant consequences, chances are they won’t either. Sometimes “tough love” is the best love. Teens are very idealistic and will respect you more if you stand up for your convictions, even when it’s hard on them or they don’t agree, than if you’re too lenient.
19. Be genuine.Teenagers can smell a fake a mile away! Even if you’re sincerely trying to relate to them, if you’re trying too hard and laying it on too thick, they won’t take you seriously. The secret is to be natural. Teens don’t want to be patronized or cajoled, but they do want friends—people they know they can count on and feel comfortable with. If you accept them the way they are, they will feel comfortable around you and accept you the way you are.
20. Be willing to change.You may need to work on changing a few habits or the way you react to things. Why not let this be the motivation you need to get out of the rut you’ve been in, or to make changes in areas you’ve known for a while that you need to? It’s often easier to change for someone else’s sake than solely our own. What better reason could you have to strive to be a better person in every way? Seize it!
21. Point them to Jesus.The teen years are turbulent times. It’s like being lost at sea in a small boat during a storm. Be a lighthouse, pointing your teens to the safe harbor—Jesus. No matter how much you love your teens, Jesus alone can answer their deepest questions and meet the deepest needs of their spirit. You’re not their Savior; Jesus is. You can’t be with them every second or rescue them from everything, but you can point them to the One who can.

Never Give Up Parenting a Difficult Teen

Mark Gregston

2009-07-17

If you’re dealing with a wayward teen, you know how relationally fatigued, emotionally beaten up, and personally worn down you can get. In fact, you may right now be thinking, “I’ve been pushing against this wall forever; I just can’t do it anymore.” But let me encourage you to never give up—keep parenting, even when the going with your troubled teen gets toughest. …

 

Overcome worry and find peace

I have learned that in the midst of the worst storms with teenagers, peace is still possible, and peace can spread from you to your teen. It’s infectious! The first step to find peace is to shift from worrying to meditating on God, entrusting the problems—and your teenager—to Him.

Peace is the direct opposite of worry. The situation with your teen won’t improve when you worry. In fact, when worry takes control, it usually makes matters worse for everyone. So, where does the tendency to worry come from? Well, we know it doesn’t come from God. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Peace can grow in your heart when sitting in the presence of the Lord, “being still.” It is difficult to accomplish these days, as every minute seems to be filled with the hustle and bustle of 21st century life. However, when quality time with the Savior is given priority, peace can come amidst the turmoil.

Begin by spending a few minutes daily focusing on your relationship with God and reading His Word. It may mean changing your sleep schedule in order to wake up a little earlier, before everyone else. Or, it may mean you need to take regular breaks away from home to calm down, collect your thoughts and meet with God. You will come to know that God is able to quiet the worry in your heart with His love.

You might also visit someone who is a positive spiritual encouragement; attend a retreat to focus on God, or simply go on relaxing walks. When you do, avoid the distraction of electronic media, which can overpower what God may have to say to you. It is in those quieter moments, alone with God, that He can provide you with a new idea, a new approach for managing your problem with your teen, and a new perspective of resting in Him.

 

Seek help with change

If you could fix the problem with your teen yourself, you would have done so by now. After all, your best thinking has you where you are at this point, and it doesn’t appear to be working. So, it could be time to get some help from a pastor, a professional counselor, a medical doctor, or a psychiatrist. Find a support group and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Try something different, and keep trying. It may even be that something within you or your spouse needs to change before you will see difference in your teen’s behavior. If so, be open to whatever change needs to take place.

 

Learn to recognize progress

It’s easy to be so overwhelmed by problems with your teen’s behavior that you fail to recognize any progress. Progress is not “problem solved.” Progress means steady improvement. So, if your child is screaming at you every day, and then only yells at you once every other day, then that’s progress! Finishing some of his homework, when he previously did no homework, is progress.

Effective parenting requires that you look at the big picture while focusing on just a few problems at a time; then applauding any progress, no matter how small. Refuse to make your teen’s lack of a complete turnaround to be your constant disappointment. Turnarounds rarely happen overnight. Instead, applaud every step in the right direction, even if it is a small one.

Change is a personal matter for teens. They bristle at the thought that their parents or authorities are trying to “change them.” They may or may not be comfortable in their own skin, but they’ll fiercely defend who they are now and how they think.  When they feel you are trying to “change them” you’ll have an even bigger battle on your hands. Instead, recognize progress when it happens, and shift the discussion from “changing them” to the specific things they can do to improve their own future.

 

Adjust your expectations

Huge expectations hardly help anybody. It is better to realize that parenting teens is more like a marathon amidst a minefield, than a sprint through a flower garden. Chances are high that your teen will not have a smooth run down the road of adolescence, and it is better to expect some difficulties and prepare for them.

I say this because most of the parents of the kids I help are great parents. The kids I deal with are also usually great kids; they’re just experiencing a blip on the radar screen of their life. Their spin-off into another realm has caught their parents by surprise, and they are at a loss to know what to do. I give them advice and help them know how to handle things, but most of all I say to them, “Don’t expect perfection, and don’t quit.”

 

Keep in mind that teen problems are usually short-lived

Teen problems usually have to do with hormones, immaturity, and brain development. They are fueled by struggles for independence, identity, and the testing of beliefs. But all of this is just a phase! That’s why, in the midst of the turmoil, you still need to stick with them, even if you don’t feel your teen deserves it. The goal during the battle is to keep your relationship with your teen alive. God doesn’t give up on us when we fail. He gives grace. Are you willing to give your teen the same grace?

Over time, your relationship with your child will change for the better, but only if you don’t quit on them. It is tempting to just give up and let them run (and ruin) their own life, but for the rest of your life, knowing you hung in there will be your rich reward. So decide right now, “I’ll never, ever quit.” And through it all, remember this; the wrong idea of God is that He is too great to care. The right idea of God is that He is too great to fail.

___________________________________________________________________

 Reference:

Gregston, Mark. “Never Give up Parenting a Difficult Teen.” Crosswalk, 2009. crosswalk.com/family/parenting/never-give-up-parenting-a-difficult-teen-11610383.html. Accessed 17 July 2025.

The Age of Decision

David Brandt Berg

1984-08-09

The early teens—12, 13, and 14—are really the crisis age for teenagers. It seems like if they can make it over that hump, then they’ll be okay. They’re even recognized by the educational system as the most difficult disciplinary age in school. They can be the wildest, most boisterous, and most difficult to control. They become about as big as adults, but in a way they still have the minds of children, so they’ve got that big body with that little mind pulling it around doing silly, foolish things.

My father and some preachers used to call it the age of decision, because by that time many children had made their decision to receive the Lord and follow the Lord. It’s an age of decision. You might say those preteen and early teen years are a period when they’re making a lot of decisions regarding which way they’re going to go.

In schools they’re considered the most difficult age for discipline, the most rowdy and the most disobedient and naughty and getting into all kinds of trouble. It seems if they get over that hump into the upper grades, like senior high school, they sort of settle down and get with it and work at it. But in those early teen years they’re still almost children and haven’t really gotten control of themselves yet.

It’s an age of great uncertainty—they wonder who they are, what they are, what they’re going to be, what can they do? They really need a lot of understanding and encouragement, because sometimes they get pretty difficult to live with at that age. They even find it difficult to live with themselves because they are really sort of in a quandary, in a state of flux. They don’t really know what they’re going to do or be or who they’re supposed to be, and it sort of worries them.

That’s an age when they actually begin to sort of worry about the future. They realize they’re growing up and they’ve got to start thinking about what they’re going to do or be. Before that age, children very seldom worry about the future or life or death or their work or occupation, even education, but by that time the Lord has made them start getting a little bit serious about those things and wondering about those things, and sometimes it worries them and upsets them or bothers them. They get bothered with everybody else too.

They can sometimes be very idealistic, and at the same time very critical of parents and adults who aren’t perfect. It’s a very idealistic time of life when they’re looking for the perfect world and the perfect people in their adults and parents. So it also becomes sort of an age of disillusionment, because of course they don’t find anybody perfect unless they find the Lord. That’s where the Lord comes in, to help them bridge that gap.

Little children up to that age are often still quite trusting and believing. They’re pretty well protected and they seldom get disappointed or disillusioned in people. They still think they’ve got the greatest mother and dad and adults in the world and the greatest life and home—I have in mind of course the usual, normal middle-class Christian Westerners. Western children in rich countries, the middle class, are not exposed much to the hard realities and heartbreaks and disappointments and disillusionments of life as early as poorer children.

They have love affairs and crushes and heartbreaks and they begin to realize their parents aren’t perfect and churches aren’t perfect and adults aren’t perfect and the world isn’t perfect, and they even begin to question whether God is perfect! So if they really know the Lord at those crucial turning-point ages, those early teen years, I believe that is their salvation. Then they can understand those things; they have the answers to their questions.

There’s nothing better than the Lord to help bridge those years to bring them from childhood to adulthood, as they begin to understand that life isn’t always perfect and people aren’t always perfect, the world isn’t perfect, and a lot of their dreams are broken and they’re going to have disappointments and disillusionments. That’s where the Lord comes in, where He can help them understand and comfort them and give them answers and reasons and purposes and get them over the hump. There’s nothing like the Lord to help them make it through.

Thank God He helps them through all these problems and helps the young teens find answers to their problems and pulls them through and gets them over that hump of that early teen years when they’re often so rebellious and independent. In a way, it’s partly a result of naturally coming to adulthood, where they want to be their own bosses and live their own lives.

Dr. Fakkema [president of the National Association of Christian Schools in the 1940s] used to say that at that early teen age they become little judges, judging everybody and measuring everybody and trying to figure out everybody. They’re often extremely critical and have very high, idealistic standards for everybody, and expect everybody to be perfect, and if they’re not, they really have no mercy. Everything is either black or white, and they can really see a lot of the difference, what’s wrong with people, and they often just blurt it out. Those early teens are not very tactful or diplomatic; they just tell you off and call a spade a spade! That was the age that I taught in school for three years, so I learned a lot about them.

I found them a wonderful age, a challenging age! They want leadership, they want direction, and they want you to catch them if they’re bad or wrong; they really want help. They know they need it and they want it. But you’ve got to win their confidence and they’ve got to know you really care and you’re really trying to help them. They don’t always want to receive it, but they want you to try to give it to them, at least, and often they’ll make the right decision after they have made the wrong one. They’ll turn around and make the right one with a little love and patience and counsel.

When my first four began to be teenagers I really counseled with them, reasoned with them, prayed with them, and tried to get them to make decisions. I’d say, “Well, you know what’s right and wrong. What do you think you ought to do?” They’d try to finagle us parents into making decisions for them so they wouldn’t have to take the blame. They’d try to persuade us to let them do something, overpersuade us, wheedle us and pressure us into letting them do something they knew they shouldn’t do, to try to get us to say yes so we’d be guilty and not them!

But I just used to tell them, “Don’t ask me. You know what’s right and wrong. What does the Bible say? What does the Lord say? What should you do?” And lots of times they knew they should make the decision, but they really didn’t want to. They’d rather have somebody else make it for them or sort of force them into it so they could blame somebody else for it and they wouldn’t have to take the blame. Actually, I really believe afterward they were glad that we gave them a choice, because they knew it was the right thing to do. They knew what was right and they made the right choices most of the time.

So if they’ve got a real good strong foundation and they know the Word, know the Lord, and know what’s right and wrong and they know what they’re supposed to do, the Lord will lead them and guide them and help them, if they know how to pray and ask the Lord for His help. And if you give them something to do, a worthwhile cause to work for and fight for, it’s an age when they’ll want to do something important and worthwhile and feel like they’re doing something that’s worthy.

It’s a pretty hard and rugged road, and sometimes it’s a heavy load for teenagers, and the people you meet aren’t always kind—like the old song my teenagers used to like to sing—and that one that my son, Aaron used to sing, “I’ve Got a Lot of Problems.” That’s certainly true of teenagers, because that’s an age when they’re making decisions.

Copyright © 1984 The Family International.

Fight the Good Fight of Faith

David Brandt Berg

1975-01-01

Remember that not all voices are of God, and you must “try the spirits” (1 John 4:1) to make sure that what you’re hearing is of the Lord. If it is not according to His Word or causes you to be discontent, bitter, dissatisfied, unhappy, or critical of others—these things are not of the Lord, and you must rebuke the Enemy in Jesus’ name when he tempts you with these negative thoughts.

One of your best protections is to keep busy for God and obedient to Him, and also to fill your mind and heart with positive, encouraging, strengthening and faith-building thoughts from His Word, remembering, memorizing and continually quoting to yourself and even to the Enemy when he attacks you, claiming such promises of God constantly as you cling to His Word.

Some scriptures which have been a great blessing to me in times of distress, mental anguish, doubts and fears and battles with the Enemy have been those like: “For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18). “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusteth in Thee” (Isaiah 26:3).

“For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds” (Hebrews 12:3). “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). “And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).

The Twenty-third Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer have always been a great comfort to me in time of need, to know that the Lord would never leave nor forsake me nor leave me comfortless (Hebrews 13:5; John 14:18). And I am always convicted by that part: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12), and where Jesus said we know that “If we forgive not others their trespasses, neither will our Father in Heaven forgive us” (Matthew 6:15).

So we must ask Him in all humility to help us have mercy on others, knowing that we ourselves must also be forgiven for many sins. Remembering continually what sinners we are and how many mistakes we’ve made helps greatly to keep us humble and to avoid that spirit of self-righteous pride which causes us to criticize and condemn others.

It helps to always remember we’re all sinners and that we all make mistakes and that we must “forgive one another even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven us” (Ephesians 4:32). “For it is no longer you that live but Christ that lives in you, for you are now dead and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).

You don’t have to offer God your life, for He has already taken it. When you yielded on His altar of sacrifice and asked Him to take it, He did, and He’s been trying to use it for His glory ever since, as much as you will let Him.

So keep it that way: it’s in His hands. You are His and He loves you and is doing His best for you in trying to make you useful and happy in His service for others, so that you might bring them life and happiness as you have found it in Jesus.

Stay close to Him and He’ll never fail you. He’ll never forsake you. He’ll never let you down. Even though He may not always answer just the way we’d like, keep trusting Him and He’ll never fail.

Keep loving others and they will love you. Keep serving Jesus and He’ll serve you—well! “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19). “Resist the Devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Also remember: “One can chase a thousand, but two can put ten thousand to flight” (Deuteronomy 32:30), and it helps greatly to have someone else pray with you when you feel oppressed or distressed or attacked by the Enemy. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). And, “If any two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

So there is great power in united prayer together. Never be ashamed to ask for help or prayer when you need it. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed” (James 5:16).

Meanwhile, despise not the day of small things (Zechariah 4:10) or whatever humble tasks the Lord may call you to perform. The less responsibility you have, the less you will be held responsible for; but if you are faithful in the small things, the Lord will commit greater things to your care when you have proven that you can be trusted with them. Remember that “It is better to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm 84:10).

In the meantime, “In everything give thanks.” Be thankful for all things (1 Thessalonians 5:18), and “in whatsoever state you’re in,” whether “abounding or abased” (Philippians 4:11–12), be thankful for your many blessings and that Jesus loves you and your loved one loves you. We are praying for you that you’ll make it by continuing to be faithful—full of faith and love in Jesus.

God bless and keep you and make you a blessing.

Copyright © January 1975 by The Family International

22: The Millennium—Old Testament Millennial Scriptures (part 2)

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

“Our God shall come and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness: for God is Judge Himself” (Psalm 50:3–6). That’s the way it’ll be when Jesus comes.

“Through the greatness of Thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee. All the earth shall worship Thee, and shall sing unto Thee; they shall sing to Thy name” (Psalm 66:3–4). “O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for Thou shalt judge the people righteously”—not all judges today judge righteously—“and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. Let the people praise Thee, O God; let all the people praise Thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase: and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him” (Psalm 67:4–7).

For “Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men”—the greatest being salvation—“yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them” (Psalm 68:18). God is even going to be good to the wicked who will—some of them—survive all the horrors of hell of the Antichrist and the Tribulation and the plagues of the wrath of God and the Battle of Armageddon to finally come into this millennial period through which we will rule and reign over them with Christ with a rod of iron for a thousand years.

“Give the king Thy judgments, O God.” This is Psalm 72, and almost the whole psalm is a prediction of the Millennium—“and Thy righteousness unto the king’s son.” Who is the king’s son? Jesus. “He shall judge Thy people with righteousness”—that means Jesus—“and Thy poor with judgment.” The world is going to see a righteous judge, a righteous king, a righteous ruler at last, who will have a righteous government. No corruption, no vice or crime or payola or bribery or crooked judges and crooked politicians, but a righteous government and righteous justice.

“The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations” (Psalm 72:1–5).

Don’t think that something’s going to happen to destroy the sun or the moon or the earth! God didn’t make this creation to be destroyed. He’s going to have to destroy the surface of the earth and burn it up because of the pollution of mankind and its wickedness, but He’s not going to destroy the ball, the planet earth, or the sun or moon. They’re going to continue to shine upon the earth.

We won’t need them in the holy city that comes down from God to the earth. There’ll be no need of sun or moon or stars there. Jesus will be our sun. But outside on the earth where others are still learning and still being healed, they’ll still need sunlight and moonlight and the stars, and God will be merciful to them. But that is the new earth and new heaven, which comes after the Millennium.

“He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” Here it’s speaking of the kingdom of Christ on earth, how it’s going to be over the whole world.

“They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents.” The British. “The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.” The Saudi Arabians are going to become Christians.

“Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him.” There won’t be any religion then but Christianity; there won’t be any kingdom except that of Jesus Christ. “For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and the needy and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in His sight.

“And He shall live, and to Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Prayer also shall be made for Him continually; and daily shall He be praised. There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon. And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.” That is, of the great city of God.

“His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed” (Psalm 72:6–17). Isn’t that a wonderful story and a happy ending?

He says, “All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off.” Remember those ten horns on the beast in Daniel and the ten horns on the beast in Revelation? He’s going to cut off all the horns. “But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted” (Psalm 75:10).

“Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still. When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah” (Psalm 76:8–9). Do you know what selah means? It’s a kind of musical rest note. It means “pause and think about that.” “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain” (Psalm 76:10).

“Arise, O God, judge the earth: for Thou shalt inherit all nations” (Psalm 82:8). “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good: and our land shall yield her increase” (Psalm 85:10–12). Men are still going to till the land and build houses and marry and be given in marriage. The earth is going to be much the same as it is today, only God’s people are going to be the rulers and the policemen—the supernatural resurrected saints who are going to run the world as it ought to be run.

“All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; and shall glorify Thy name” (Psalm 86:9). “Also I will make Him My firstborn”—Jesus—“higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for Him for evermore, and My covenant shall stand fast with Him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and His throne as the days of heaven. His seed shall endure for ever, and His throne as the sun before Me” (Psalm 89:27–29,36).

“Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: He shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof.” Let the unrighteous roar against Him, it doesn’t matter; God will reign over them. “Let the field be joyful, and all there is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth” (Psalm 96:10–13).

“The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about Him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.” The wicked are going to tremble in His presence during that thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ and His saints upon this earth. “The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth” (Psalm 97:1–5).

“The Lord hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel”—the Christians, the new Israel of God, the chosen people of God. The former children of the kingdom, Jesus said, would be cast out and we would come in (Matthew 8:12). We will inherit the kingdom, all those who love Jesus: Jew or Gentile, bond or free, Greek or Roman or whatever, anybody who loves Jesus. You, if you love Jesus, are going to inherit the kingdom of God on earth. “The Lord hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Psalm 98:2–3).

“Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for He cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity.” Equality, with evenness, fairness, and justice (Psalm 98:7–9).

“So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory” (Psalm 102:15–16). He’s building up Zion today. His church is increasing, His worldwide spiritual Zion. His spiritual Israel is increasing day by day around the world! “When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.” That’s when it’s going to happen on a vast scale.

“Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish (the old atmospheric heavens and the old surface of the earth), but Thou shalt endure” (Psalm 102:22,25–26). He’s saying even when the old world perishes and He sets up the new heaven and new earth, He will still endure.

The atmospheric heavens are going to perish, but He’s going to create a new beautiful atmospheric heavens and heaven on earth in the new heaven and new earth which follow the Millennium.

“Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed” (Psalm 102:26). When you change your clothes, you don’t throw away your body too. You just take off the raiment, the surface clothing, and that’s what He’s going to do to the earth one of these days.

The earth today is clothed with its dirty surface and its polluted atmosphere, but He’s going to remove them both by fire and make a completely clean new earth and new heavens.—Clean air, no pollution, no contamination upon the earth, no poisonous gases and chemicals; it’ll all be washed clean with fire one of these days.

“But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end. The children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before Thee” (Psalm 102:27–28). God’s going to keep you forever, praise God?

The 110th psalm is almost entirely a messianic psalm: “The Lord said to my Lord, sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” “The Lord said to My Lord.” Jesus brought that up to the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 22:44). What was He talking about? Was God talking to Himself? No, He was talking to Jesus, His Son.

“The Lord shall send the rod of Thy strength out of Zion: rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: Thou hast the dew of Thy youth. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:2–4).

There’s a beautiful symbolism here about Christ, that He was a priest to God. Although He was not a Levite, He was not of the priesthood, yet God chose Him as a priest like He did Melchizedek. (See Hebrews 6:20.) “The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, He shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall He lift up the head” (Psalm 110:5–7). What a wonderful day that’s going to be! A day of victory and glory, a day of great power of His salvation!

Then “the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.”—Of this new kingdom of God (Psalm 118:22). “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord” (Psalm 118:26). (to be continued)

A Christmas Story: The Handmaiden of the Lord

David Brandt Berg

2012-12-25

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”¹ What does this mean, “espoused”? Let’s not use that word “engaged.” It doesn’t necessarily mean much in today’s world. Betrothed, promised. They hadn’t actually lived together yet.

“But the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.” Certainly she was surprised. “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.”²

I’m trying to bring it down to earth and show you how human it was, how literal it was, how real it was. It happened to a woman, who was a woman just like you. And it happened literally! She literally conceived and bore a child without any human agency. How it happened, we don’t know. We have God’s Word, and that’s all we know. How the Holy Ghost did it, we don’t know.

“And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”—which shows obviously she hadn’t yet married her husband. “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”³

“And behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.”⁴ Where was Mary? What was her hometown? Nazareth. That was way up north near the Sea of Galilee, quite a ways north of Jerusalem—a long journey. I think it was about three days’ journey. They figured about 25 miles a day in those days; it was quite a distance north. Elisabeth and Zacharias must have lived fairly close to Jerusalem, because he was a Levite and a priest and a regular minister there. So later when Mary came to visit her cousin Elisabeth, she had to make quite a trip.

So God is appearing, His angel is appearing to these two different women in two different places, and also to the husband Zacharias.

Mary was so yielded to God, so dedicated, so consecrated, and loved the Lord so much, that though she was already betrothed to another man, she was willing to answer: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word. And the angel departed from her.”⁵ “Here am I, Lord. Take me. Whatever You want to do, Lord.” Are you willing to say, “Lord, here am I. Behold, I’m Your handmaiden, I’m Your servant”?

We gloss these things over sometimes with such beautiful little Sunday school pictures and we don’t really know the agony and the torment of soul and the battle that some of these people may have had. Mary was just as human as you are. Joseph was just as human as you are. All these characters were.

Mary said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; Be it unto me according to Thy word.” Not according to her betrothal, not according to her love for her loved one, not according to her family, not according to the society of her day, but “be it unto me according to Thy word.” She must have had a lot of faith in the Word of God.

“And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah, and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass that when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb.”⁶ He was filled with the Holy Ghost, even in his mother’s womb, and the Holy Spirit within him, even though he was not yet born, caused him to leap at the sound of Mary, his Lord’s mother’s voice—as you’ll see by what she said.

“And Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.” You mean people got filled with the Holy Ghost even before the Day of Pentecost? Certain special people. And she spoke out with a loud voice and said one of the most beautiful of all prophecies. What was she doing? Prophesying! This is commonly known in the liturgy of the church as “The Magnificat,” this and Mary’s prophecies together. “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”⁷ In the Rosary they say this seven times to every time they mention the Lord; they praise Mary. “Hail Mary full of grace, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Very good saying, but it’s not to be used out of proportion, above praising the Lord.

“And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy! And blessed is she that believed.” Now who’s she talking about? The Spirit is speaking through Elisabeth about Mary.

“Blessed is she that believed” because she believed the Word of the Lord. It took faith for Mary to accept what Gabriel said. “Blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.”⁸

“For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden.” Did she think she was somebody? She felt she was very small and insignificant, a humble young woman around 16 years old.

“For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”⁹ The whole Catholic church calls her blessed, hundreds, thousands, no doubt millions of times every day, and have for centuries, generations. “All generations shall call me blessed.”

“For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name. And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with His arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.”¹⁰ Did God pick for the mother of His Son the wife of the high priest? The wife of the Roman governor? The wife of the king? No. But the Lord regarded the low estate of His handmaiden.

“He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away.”¹¹ Who are the hungry? Those willing to receive him. “He hath filled the hungry with good things.” Has He satisfied your hearts? But those rich He hath sent empty away. What can you give the man who has everything? He sent the rich empty away. They think they’re full, but they’re empty.

“He hath holpen His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy.” Now that has great significance. Through sending Jesus, how did He help Israel? Who were Israel at that time? The Jews, His church of that day. “In remembrance of His mercy.” He remembered what He had promised, and in mercy He gave them the Messiah. “As He spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.”¹² In other words, He’s fulfilling His word to Israel.

“And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.”¹³ How do you think Mary looked by this time? She was about three months pregnant. When do you think it was that Joseph discovered that she was with child? Probably after this visit with her cousin Elisabeth. Do you think it was easy for her to go home? To face Joseph? Gone from home for three months, she comes home pregnant. If you were Joseph, what would you think? “My wife was gone to visit her cousin for three months and comes home pregnant.”

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.”¹⁴ Apparently Mary hadn’t had the courage to tell him what the Lord had said, or if she had, he didn’t believe it. Would you believe it if your wife came home from a visit with her cousin and told you, “The Spirit of God came and did this to me.” I doubt if you’d believe it! He probably thought, “Well, my poor wife got in trouble and this is the story she cooked up.” So what did God have to do?

“But while he thought on these things, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.”¹⁵ Some of us God has to put to sleep before He can get us in the spirit. Sometimes God can talk to some people easier in a dream or asleep than while they’re awake.¹⁶

“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”¹⁷ So then what did Joseph do? “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: and knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn Son: and he called His name Jesus.”¹⁸

Here we’ve got somebody else exercising faith! He was willing to not live together as husband and wife for nine months, at least six months after he probably discovered she was pregnant, until the baby was born. Here’s another man who was obedient and had faith. He was a little confused at first and it wasn’t easy, but he obeyed.

“Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called his name Zacharias, after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John.”¹⁹ Why? The angel of the Lord told him to call him John.

Again, obedience to the Lord. Obedience is so important! You see, disobedience struck him dumb, but when he finally exercised faith and obeyed the Lord: “His mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. And fear came upon all them that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea.”²⁰ Just like the newspapers.

“And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, what manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied.”²¹ Now how many prophets have we got? Elisabeth prophesied, Mary prophesied, and now Zacharias is going to prophesy. It sounds like Old Testament poetry, doesn’t it? “Saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David; as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began.”²² How long had this event been predicted?—Since God talked with Eve in the Garden of Eden. “Her seed shall crush thy head.”²³

“That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us: To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He sware to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.”²⁴ The Devil tries to make you afraid sometimes, but that’s one thing they marveled at: their boldness, that they weren’t afraid. Who gives you that kind of courage? God has to.

“And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways: to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”²⁵

Can you take that to heart? Does that sound like your ministry, “To give light to those that sit in darkness”? Isn’t that a beautiful ministry? “To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”

(Prophecy:) Make known, proclaim the good news of the Gospel, Emmanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ! So therefore go and preach the Word, preach the Gospel; be instant in season and out of season. Proclaim the good news through all the land, in the highways and the streets and the hedges. Go therefore, My children. Go forth and tell them of My love, My wondrous love, My great love and My mercy that endureth forever. Teach and preach the love of Jesus.

From a talk originally given on Christmas Eve 1968. Adapted and republished
December 2012. Read by Simon Peterson.

¹ Luke 1:26–27.

² Luke 1:28–30.

³ Luke 1:31–35.

⁴ Luke 1:36–37.

⁵ Luke 1:38.

⁶ Luke 1:39–40.

⁷ Luke 1:41–42.

⁸ Luke 1:43–47.

⁹ Luke 1:48.

¹⁰ Luke 1:49–52.

¹¹ Luke 1:53.

¹² Luke 1:54–55.

¹³ Luke 1:56.

¹⁴ Matthew 1:18–19.

¹⁵ Matthew 1:20–21.

¹⁶ See Job 33:14–17.

¹⁷ Matthew 1:22–23.

¹⁸ Matthew 1:24–25.

¹⁹ Luke 1:57–63.

²⁰ Luke 1:64–65.

²¹ Luke 1:66–67.

²² Luke 1:68–70.

²³ Genesis 3:15.

²⁴ Luke 1:71–75.

²⁵ Luke 1:76–79.

2 Thessalonians: Chapter 3 (Part 2)

1 and 2 Thessalonians

Peter Amsterdam

2023-06-20

Earlier in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, Paul made the point that he and his partners had the right to receive financial aid from the Thessalonian church, but chose not to accept such aid in order to be an example for the believers to imitate. Paul had reminded the Thessalonians that they should follow his and his partners’ example. He continued his instruction.

For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.¹

The necessity of working was part of the ethical tradition of the church. In other epistles, Paul states:

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.²

Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.³

Later church writings said that if a traveler visits, the church may help him for a few days, but if he stays longer, he is to work for his bread.

For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.⁴

Paul explains the problem which caused him to prescribe disciplinary action against those who were disorderly (v 6). Some members of the church were idle, even after Paul had sent his first letter to them. It’s likely that he got this information from someone who had come from Thessalonica. Paul responds to the situation by pointing out that some, not all, of the church members were idle. They were not living in accordance with Paul’s teaching regarding labor, and they did not work for their bread.

Paul refers to these people as busybodies. Other translations refer to them as those who walk irresponsibly, not working at all, but interfering with the work of others (CSB); leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies (NAS); they are not busy; they are busybodies (NIV); refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business (NLT). Clearly, Paul felt strongly that individuals should earn their own living. It has been suggested that Paul was referring to members of the church who were not working and earning their keep, but were rather depending on wealthier Christians to support them, while meddling in other people’s business. (See earlier article: 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4, Part 2.)

Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.⁵

Here Paul writes something almost identical to what he wrote in his first letter to the Thessalonians: aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you.⁶ He instructs the believers to earn the bread they eat. They should work with their hands and earn their own living.

As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.⁷

At this point, Paul stops addressing the disorderly and speaks to the other believers about what they should do regarding the disobedient believers in their midst who had not obeyed Paul’s earlier instructions.

He begins in a positive vein. They should not become weary in well doing; they should not give up their efforts. Paul stressed this point elsewhere in his writings.

Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.⁸ We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.⁹

Though Paul has said that anyone who was not willing to work should not expect to be fed by the labors of others (v 10), this didn’t mean that they should stop helping those who were in genuine need.

If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.¹⁰

The disorderly had rejected Paul’s teaching when he was in Thessalonica and had also not responded well when he wrote them his first letter.¹¹ Therefore, Paul took more drastic measures to cause them to conform, by giving further authoritative commands. The believers were not to associate with any members who were not obeying what he had written in his letter.

The believers were to take special note of any individual who didn’t obey. Then the next step the church was to take was to not associate with that person. The purpose of this disassociation was not to excommunicate the unruly from the church, but rather to help them repent and change. The separation meant that the members of the church shouldn’t meet with such a person, nor allow them to participate in the assembly, nor engage with them socially.

Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.¹²

While Paul had instructed the Thessalonian believers to have nothing to do with the disorderly person, he nevertheless also instructed them to refrain from seeing him as an enemy. They were not to express hostility toward them, nor should they attack them for their lack of conforming to the norms of the church. Though the person was to be excluded from the community, there was still some contact available which allowed members of the church further possibility to “admonish” him with the hopes that he would correct his conduct.

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.¹³

This begins the closing of Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. Unlike the prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, which is addressed to the God of peace, here the prayer is offered to Jesus, who is the Lord of peace. While the prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 asked God for the sanctification of the church, the appeal here is that Jesus will give you peace at all times in every way.

The peace Paul prays for is not an internal state of tranquility, but rather refers to a political or social reality. Peace could be the state of a nation that is not involved in war,¹⁴ but here it refers to the absence of discord and conflicts between citizens. It was a term used to describe public order or social harmony. The prayer ends with a blessing, The Lord be with you all, which reflects the belief of the early church that the Lord was always with them. “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”¹⁵ “I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you.”¹⁶

I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write.¹⁷

While Silvanus and Timothy in some way contributed to this letter, Paul was the principal author and therefore he added the final greeting. It’s likely that Silvanus, Timothy, or someone else acted as the secretary/amanuensis, who wrote what Paul dictated to them. Dictating a letter to a secretary was common in Paul’s time. In Romans 16 we find a comment from Tertius, the secretary who wrote down what Paul had dictated. I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.¹⁸ In similar fashion we see that Silvanus, who worked with the apostle Peter, wrote what Peter dictated. By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you.¹⁹

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.²⁰

The second letter to the Thessalonians ends very similarly to 1 Thessalonians. The main difference is that this ending is directed to you all. This may be because Paul is including the disorderly, who are still considered brothers in the church. Because of the grace of Jesus Christ, the church can continue in the faith they have received from the apostles and can stand firm in the face of opposition. In the midst of their suffering and their struggle against false teaching, they couldn’t have gotten by without the grace of Jesus. This holds true for all Christians; we are always dependent on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This brings us to the end of 2 Thessalonians and therefore to the end of this series on the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. I hope that this series has in some way helped in your understanding of Paul’s letter to the believers in Thessalonica during his time. I pray that it also has been helpful in seeing how to apply Paul’s teaching in our lives today.

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

² Ephesians 4:28.

³ 1 Thessalonians 4:11–12.

⁴ 2 Thessalonian 3:11.

⁵ 2 Thessalonian 3:12.

⁶ 1 Thessalonians 4:11.

⁷ 2 Thessalonians 3:13.

⁸ Galatians 6:9.

⁹2 Corinthians 4:16.

¹⁰ 2 Thessalonians 3:14.

¹¹ 1 Thessalonians 4:11–12.

¹² 2 Thessalonians 3:15.

¹³ 2 Thessalonians 3:16.

¹⁴ Acts 24:2; Revelation 6:4.

¹⁵ Matthew 28:20.

¹⁶ Acts 18:10.

¹⁷ 2 Thessalonians 3:17.

¹⁸ Romans 16:22.

¹⁹ 1 Peter 5:12.

²⁰ 2 Thessalonians 3:18.

Copyright © 2023 The Family International.

2 Thessalonians: Chapter 3 (Part 1)

1 and 2 Thessalonians

Peter Amsterdam

2023-06-06

This third chapter of 2 Thessalonians is the final chapter of Paul’s epistles to the Thessalonian believers.

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.¹

Paul begins with the word finally, which indicates that he is moving on to a new section of the letter, and in this case, coming to the end of the letter. As he did in his first letter to the Thessalonians, he asks the believers to pray for him and his partners.² His request for their prayers follows his prayer for the Thessalonians in the previous two verses:

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.³

His first prayer request was that God’s Word would spread rapidly. The word of the Lord refers to the gospel which Paul and his companions proclaimed.⁴ This request for the word to spread echoes Psalm 147:15, He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. Paul used running the race as a metaphor for the mission of spreading the message of Christ.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.⁵

The second request is that the word of the Lord may be honored, as happened among you. Paul likely had in mind the recent acceptance and honor of the gospel in various cities of the Roman Empire. The book of Acts tells us that the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.⁶ The combination of “run” and be honored points to Paul’s seeing God’s Word as a runner participating in a race and winning the prize and thus receiving honor.

Paul goes on to ask the Thessalonians to pray for the security of his team, that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men.⁷ At other times, he asked the believers to pray that he would be delivered from those who opposed him.⁸ Paul and his companions knew that God was their only hope, considering the strong opposition to their message. The people they needed God’s protection from were said to be wicked and evil. Wicked is the opposite of “good” or “kind,” and means that they are morally evil. The second description, evil, is almost synonymous with wicked. These two words indicated a high degree of aggression from these people. Paul and his partners experienced antagonism from both their Jewish opponents and the Gentile persecutors.

The opposition that Paul and his companions experienced was due to the rejection of the gospel: For not all have faith. Here, faith likely refers to the positive response to the message of the gospel; and those who reject the message had earlier been described by Paul as the ones who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.⁹

But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.¹⁰

Having asked the Thessalonian church to pray for him and his companions, Paul once again focused on the Thessalonian believers. They were suffering persecution at the hands of unbelievers. Paul reminded them that the Lord is faithful. God’s faithfulness is connected to the protection of the Thessalonians in their suffering. In this verse, the Lord is seen as a protector/patron in His faithfulness to the believers who are suffering persecution. As another translation of this verse says, the Lord will strengthen and protect you (NIV). God would establish them in the midst of their trials.

The verb guard means to “watch over,” which expresses that God protects His people. While the Thessalonian church had no social power, the Lord was with them, so they were not without defense, and the evil one was unable to triumph over them.

We have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command.¹¹

Having shown confidence that God would establish the Thessalonians in the midst of their persecution (v. 3), Paul trusted in the Lord that the Thessalonian believers would continue to be obedient to the moral instruction he had given them. Despite the problems the church faced—the hostility and persecution,¹² and some believers’ rejection of Paul’s teaching about work (covered in the next few verses)—the believers continued to live the Christian way of life.

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.¹³

Paul now presents the second prayer, in the form of a wish, before moving on to his teaching about work. The prayer asks Jesus to direct their hearts. As seen earlier in 2 Thessalonians 2:17 and 1 Thessalonians 3:13, the heart is the center of the believers’ lives: The Lord guides their hearts, resulting in His purposes being accomplished through them.

Paul’s request is that the Lord will direct the Thessalonian believers in a way that will show love and perseverance, imitating the virtues of God the Father, who loves them, and Jesus, who suffered for them. The call is to “act as God acts.”

Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.¹⁴

This verse signals a change of topic when Paul uses the word “brothers” at the beginning of this text. At this point, Paul’s instruction is not a suggestion which the church could choose to follow or not, but rather a command. He repeats this style of command two more times in this chapter.¹⁵ The authority behind the command is not Paul’s own, but is rooted in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul didn’t need to emphasize that he had the Lord’s backing in what he was teaching; however, now he considered it important to make that point. What he was telling them was authoritative, and he expected the Thessalonian community to obey.

Paul instructed the church in how to respond to the disorderly, those believers who walked in idleness. In his first letter to the church, he had also addressed the idle believers: we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle.¹⁶ The word idle here doesn’t mean “lazy,” but rather identifies people who were disorderly because they didn’t follow the rule of the community. The rule they ignored had to do with work. Paul pointed out that those walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition were disobedient. They had received Paul’s instruction regarding work, and had seen that Paul and his companions worked, but they paid no attention to it.

Paul instructed the church to keep away from those who refused to work. Later in this chapter, he instructs the believers not to treat the person as an enemy or somehow outside the church, but says that they should “warn him as a brother.”¹⁷ They could continue to be members of the church, but they were subject to the correction and discipline of the community. They had heard Paul’s teaching more than once, and had chosen to be disobedient, which called for stronger measures to be taken.

Social separation was the way the early church corrected members who didn’t keep the moral teaching of the faith. For example, in Romans, Paul wrote: I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.¹⁸

For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.¹⁹

In these verses, Paul reminds the Thessalonian church of the example he and his team gave them regarding the believers’ responsibility to work. Earlier, Paul spoke about the Thessalonian church becoming imitators of the Lord, of the churches in Judea, and of the apostles. Now he states that the church should imitate his and his team’s conduct regarding work. They worked with their own hands, and they didn’t become clients of any benefactors, which set an example to these new believers.

He went on to explain that he and his companions were not a burden on the Thessalonian believers and paid for their own food (bread). Paul and his team supported themselves through their own work and with offerings sent to them from the Philippian church.

You Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.²⁰

In 1 Corinthians, Paul taught that receiving financial support for Christian service was an acceptable practice, though he didn’t make use of that privilege.

Do we not have the right to eat and drink?²¹

… Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?²²

… If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.²³

Elsewhere he wrote:

One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches.²⁴

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”²⁵

Having explained how they took care of themselves without becoming clients of the Thessalonians, Paul commented on the fact that they had the right to be given support from the church, but that they didn’t make use of that right.

It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.²⁶

Paul stated that he and his team refrained from having patrons in order to be an example for others to follow. He and his team set the example for the members of the church who were disorderly and who refused to work.

(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ 2 Thessalonians 3:1–2.

² 1 Thessalonians 5:25.

³ 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17.

⁴ 1 Thessalonians 1:8; 4:15.

⁵ 1 Corinthians 9:24–26. See also Galatians 2:2, Philippians 2:16.

⁶ Acts 13:49.

⁷ 2 Thessalonians 3:2.

⁸ Romans 15:31.

⁹ 2 Thessalonians 2:12.

¹⁰ 2 Thessalonians 3:3.

¹¹ 2 Thessalonians 3:4.

¹² 2 Thessalonians 1:4–7.

¹³ 2 Thessalonians 3:5.

¹⁴ 2 Thessalonians 3:6.

¹⁵ 2 Thessalonians 3:10, 12.

¹⁶ 1 Thessalonians 5:14.

¹⁷ 2 Thessalonians 3:15.

¹⁸ Romans 16:17.

¹⁹ 2 Thessalonians 3:7–8.

²⁰ Philippians 4:15–16.

²¹ 1 Corinthians 9:4.

²² 1 Corinthians 9:6.

²³ 1 Corinthians 9:12.

²⁴ Galatians 6:6.

²⁵ 1 Timothy 5:17–18.

²⁶ 2 Thessalonians 3:9.

Copyright © 2023 The Family International.

2 Thessalonians: Chapter 2 (Part 2)

1 and 2 Thessalonians

Peter Amsterdam

2023-05-23

Previously, in chapter 2:1–8, Paul wrote that the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. He then continued to describe the lawless one:

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.¹

The mention in verse 8 of the coming of the Lord, which will bring the destruction of “the lawless one,” leads to Paul’s description that the “lawless one” will do signs and wonders. In verse 9, we’re told the power he will display will be satanic. The phrasing activity of Satan (work of Satan in other translations) highlights that the lawless one, by means of supernatural signs, will deceive those who have not accepted the gospel. Paul wants to protect the Thessalonians from being deceived in this way, as already the false teaching concerning the day of the Lord had entered the church (v. 2).

The miracles of the lawless one will include false signs and wonders. Elsewhere in the New Testament, signs and wonders are referred to positively.² However, this time they refer to satanic activities. Paul states that the power behind these wonders is Satan himself, and he calls them counterfeit. One author explains:

A number of ancient texts testify that false miracles accompanied a number of cults, and such were even characteristic of the imperial cult [the worship of emperors as divine]. Such wonders included images that could talk and move as well as the production of thunder and lightning. Although the apostle recognized the tricks that “the lawless one” would play, according to the religious conventions of the day, he is careful to note that real satanic power was working in him.³

Verse 10 goes on to describe the lawless one’s deception, along with the rejection of the truth of the gospel and the consequences of that rejection. The lawless one comes with false miracles, signs, and wonders, and will use any other method to promote his deception, which those who have rejected the gospel will embrace. This deception is called wicked; in other translations it’s referred to as evil deception (NLT), unrighteous deception (NKJ), all the deception of wickedness (NAS). Those who believe the lawless one are those who are perishing, meaning those who are not saved, who are lost. The power of Satan operates to make sure that people will be eternally lost. Paul’s letter expresses his conviction that a person’s final destiny is connected to the truth, the gospel which had been preached in Thessalonica.

Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.⁴

Because the unbelievers rejected the truth of the gospel, God judged them in a surprising way. He sent them strong delusion so that they would believe what is false. Since they didn’t receive the truth, God sent them confusion, so they were unable to distinguish between truth and lies, resulting in them believing a lie as if it were the truth. Elsewhere in Paul’s writings we find more references to God giving unbelievers over to the sins and errors they have accepted and embraced.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.⁵

As it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”⁶

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.⁷

People who reject the truth and believe what is false, as promoted by the lawless one, ultimately choose to believe a lie. They believe it because they are persuaded due to the strong delusion which has overtaken them because they have rejected the truth of the gospel.

In verse 12, Paul continues to explain the divine judgment which will come upon those who have believed the lawless one. The result is that they will be condemned. These are people who have rejected the message of the gospel and have aligned themselves with the lawless one. They not only rejected the gospel, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

At this point, the theme of the letter moves on to Paul’s thanksgiving to God for how the gospel came to the Thessalonians and their belief in its truth. He reassures the Thessalonian church that, contrary to the unbelievers who have rejected the gospel, they have accepted God’s call, are beloved by God, and were chosen by Him to be saved when Jesus returns.

But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.⁸

This mirrors the first expression of thanksgiving found earlier, in 2 Thessalonians 1:3. It expresses the obligation that Paul and his partners felt to give thanks to God. Paul refers to God’s choosing of the Thessalonian believers and His love for them. He doesn’t explain why God loved and chose the Thessalonians, but only offers thanksgiving that He did so. Paul explains that these believers were the first fruits of this church. The NLT Bible expresses this well: We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation—a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth.⁹

To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.¹⁰

God called the Thessalonians to belief through the preaching of the gospel. He made sure that the message of salvation reached them through Paul and his partners. He gave Paul the vision to preach the gospel in the province of Macedonia,¹¹ and when they came to the city of Thessalonica, the people heard and received this message from God. Thus Paul could write that God called you through our gospel. It wasn’t Paul’s speaking abilities that won them, but rather God was active in Paul’s teaching, and He called them through the message.

The reason for this calling was so that the Christian Thessalonians would share in Jesus’ glory. The promise of receiving glory was one of the hopes of the Christian faith, as seen throughout Paul’s writings.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.¹²

If children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.¹³

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.¹⁴

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.¹⁵

Paul’s main concern was that the Thessalonian believers would stand strong and remain stable in their faith, that they would hold on to the teachings of the apostles in spite of Satan’s activity. They should faithfully continue in the apostles’ teaching and should hold on to it and not waver, even if they faced opposing opinions. Paul refers to the teachings as the traditions, which here are referred to positively. Within the New Testament, sometimes traditions have a negative sense.¹⁶ However, Paul’s reference here to the traditions describes the teaching he has imparted to the Thessalonian church.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.¹⁷

At this point, Paul prays the first prayer of this letter in the form of a wish or desire. The prayer is directed to both God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, which puts them on the same plane. (Earlier, in verses 13–14, Paul included the full trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.) It’s interesting to note that unlike most verses where both the Father and Jesus Christ appear together,¹⁸ the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in this instance is placed in the first position.

However, though Jesus is placed in the first position, it is God the Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace. This points to some event in which God the Father demonstrated His love, likely referring to His choosing of the Thessalonians. Whatever act of love Paul had in mind, the purpose was to encourage and strengthen the church in the midst of persecution and in their fight against false teaching. As they were facing these adversaries, the love of God our Father was the foundation of their hope.

(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ 2 Thessalonians 2:9–10.

² Acts 2:22; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Hebrews 2:4.

³ Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), 321.

⁴ 2 Thessalonians 2:11–12.

⁵ Romans 1:24.

⁶ Romans 11:8.

⁷ Romans 1:28.

⁸ 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

⁹ 2 Thessalonians 2:13 NLT.

¹⁰ 2 Thessalonians 2:14.

¹¹ Acts 16:9–10.

¹² Romans 5:2.

¹³ Romans 8:17–18.

¹⁴ Colossians 1:27.

¹⁵ 2 Thessalonians 2:15.

¹⁶ Matthew 15:2–3, 6; Mark 7:8–9, 13.

¹⁷ 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17.

¹⁸ Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Ephesians 1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 3.

Copyright © 2023 The Family International.

2 Thessalonians: Chapter 2 (Part 1)

 2 Thessalonians

Peter Amsterdam

2023-05-09

After writing 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, which provided an introduction to his second letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul moved on to the body of his letter in chapter 2.

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.¹

Paul begins by instructing the Thessalonians to not become unsettled or alarmed by a false teaching that had entered the community. He was responding to how the wrong understanding of the day of the Lord had affected the believers’ comprehension of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gathering of the church to Him. Paul appears to indicate that the false teaching may have entered the church by means of a false letter forged under his name, a letter seeming to be from us. He had already given instruction about the day of the Lord,² but still questions continued, and some Thessalonians believed the incorrect teaching which affirmed that this day had already come.

Paul had already addressed the coming of the Lord and what it would entail in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17:

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

The flawed teaching that the Thessalonians had received had caused confusion and distress among the believers. The instruction to not be quickly shaken meant that they shouldn’t waver in their beliefs; they shouldn’t be confused or alarmed, no matter what the source.

While Paul didn’t know specifically where the false teaching had come from, he called the Thessalonian believers to not disregard what he had taught them earlier. He seems to suspect that even with all the teaching he had given about carefully examining prophecies, it was still possible that false prophecies could have entered the church. In other New Testament writings, there are mentions of preachers who went among the churches and promoted heterodox teachings.

Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.³

Avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.⁴

The Thessalonians had received teachings from Paul about the day of the Lord, and therefore had some understanding concerning it and hope in its coming.

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.⁵

You are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.⁶

Even though Paul had written them regarding their inquiries, still the questions continued, and some of the Thessalonians believed the false teaching that the day had already come or was imminent.

Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.⁷

Due to his concern over the erroneous doctrine about the day of the Lord which had entered the church, Paul presented a clarification of the events that had to occur before the day of the Lord. In doing so, Paul pointed out that these events had not yet occurred, and therefore they were not on the verge of that day.

The other event which will happen before the day of the Lord is that the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. Jesus also spoke of the coming of false prophets and lawlessness.

Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.⁸

Jesus and Paul both indicated that Christians could expect that some believers would desert their faith before the end. In the face of the severe persecution that the church experienced in the first century and the temptation to return to their former lives, many believers abandoned their faith. This leaving the faith became an example for what was to be expected in the last times. Paul and his companions hoped that the Thessalonian church would not take part in such an abandonment.

[The man of lawlessness] opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.⁹

Paul goes on to give further information regarding the “man of lawlessness,” focusing on his unchecked pride. He will oppose every other deity, including those which are worshipped throughout the ancient cities as well as the God of the Christians. He will set himself up against anyone or anything that receives worship. He will raise himself up in self-exaltation over God. This man of lawlessness will oppose everything which is called divine—false gods as well as the true God. While this refers to the antichrist when projected to the endtime, it could also refer to someone living at the time Paul wrote this letter.

Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?¹⁰

Paul was not giving the Thessalonians new information in his letter. While he was with them in Thessalonica, he had given them instructions about these matters. He reminded them of what he had said earlier. He implied that the believers had been taught enough to enable them to assess and reject the false teachings which had brought turmoil into the church. They needed to remember and apply what they had been taught by Paul and his team.¹¹ Instead of using the first-person plural, which would refer to Paul and his partners, here he uses the first-person singular, which reminds the reader that he was the principal teacher. His use of the first person is also seen when Paul writes about the activity of Satan against his ministry¹² and against the church.¹³

And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.¹⁴

In the preceding verse, Paul mentioned that he had told the Thessalonians “these things.” Unfortunately, he did not explain some aspects of what he shared with the Thessalonian believers. So verse 6 is rather unclear to us today. What Paul is referring to when he writes of what is restraining him now and he who now restrains is not known, and various theories exist as to its meaning.

The Thessalonian Christians understood that there was something holding back the “man of lawlessness.” In verse 6, Paul noted that the Thessalonians knew of the existence of a power that restrained the man of lawlessness. Now he observes that this power, which is described as the mystery of lawlessness, is not simply a future threat but a present reality. The verb at work is also found earlier in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 and implies some kind of supernatural activity. Paul doesn’t suggest that this secret power is divine, but only that it is supernatural, and in this context is malignant and satanic (which will be seen in verse 9). Paul calls this power the mystery of lawlessness. This power aligns itself with the lawless one. Normally Paul uses the term translated as “secret power” to refer to the “mystery of God” that is now revealed in the gospel,¹⁵ but in this verse the “mystery” refers to an evil, satanic power.

Before the revelation of “the lawless one” (v.8), one more event must take place: Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.¹⁶ Here, the one who restrains is presented as a person, with the reference being to the one demonically possessed. This figure anticipates the revelation of the “the lawless one.” All this signaled to the Thessalonians that the end was not immediately upon them.

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.¹⁷

After the one who restrains moves away from the scene, the lawless one comes to the fore. Earlier, this person was referred to as the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction.¹⁸ The text indicates that the veil will be removed so that he will be revealed to all. Paul informs the Thessalonians of the destruction of the lawless one, whom Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth. In spite of the lawless one’s appearance and his supernatural power, the epiphany of the Lord will be so mighty that it will destroy this evil one and his power.(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ 2 Thessalonians 2:1–2.

² 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11.

³ 2 John 1:7.

⁴ 2 Timothy 2:16–18.

⁵ 1 Thessalonians 5:2.

⁶ 1 Thessalonians 5:4.

⁷ 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

⁸ Matthew 24:11–13.

⁹ 2 Thessalonians 2:4.

¹⁰ 2 Thessalonians 2:5.

¹¹ 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 3:4; 4:1; 5:1–2.

¹² 1 Thessalonians 2:18.

¹³ 1 Thessalonians 3:5.

¹⁴ 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7.

¹⁵ 1 Corinthians 4:1; Ephesians 1:9.

¹⁶ 2 Thessalonians 2:7.

¹⁷ 2 Thessalonians 2:8.

¹⁸ 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

Copyright © 2023 The Family International.

New Life, New Love (part 4)

Changing the world with love

Our job, the job that God has given to each of His children, is to give His Word and His love to others, to preach the Gospel, to sow the seed, to witness. That’s what God has called us for. Jesus commanded His disciples to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel (Good News) to every creature” (Mark 16:15). And we must do the same. For “the harvest (of hungry, searching souls) truly is plenteous, but the laborers (the workers who will gather them in) are few” (Matthew 9:37).

But perhaps you’re discouraged and think, “Well, who am I? What can I do? It all seems so hopeless and impossible. It looks like there’s nothing that one person can do to change things for the better, so what’s the use of trying? What’s the use of doing anything?” And maybe you’re tempted to just give up and let the world go to hell, which it sometimes seems to deserve.

Although you may not be able to change the whole world, you can change your part of the world. Don’t ever think that because there’s so much darkness, it’s no use to have just a little light, because even one candle can be seen a mile away when it’s dark. (See Matthew 5:14–16.)

Everybody has influence. Your life is bound to affect others. No man is an island. Everybody’s influencing somebody—even when you seem to be all alone. “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself” (Romans 14:7). Whether we live or die, we have some effect on others and the world. You’re either going to pull people up to your level or drag them down to yours—one or the other. It’s up to you!

The place to start is with you—your own heart, your own mind, your own spirit, your own life. If you can change just one life, even your own, you have changed a part of the world, and you have proven that there is hope that it can be changed. The very atmosphere around you will be changed if you even change yourself by the power of God’s love.

Then change not only your own life but also those of your own family, of your own home. You’ll have a new home, a new family, with new lives, new minds, new hearts, new spirits, filled with the truth and the love of God, the life of God, the Word of God. Then your little family can start trying to change the people you contact from day to day.

You can even go out and make a special effort to reach lonely, hungry, needy hearts, seeking love, seeking truth, seeking they know not what, but seeking happiness, desperately seeking to satisfy their longing, yearning hearts.

You will find that there are many around you who are lonely and longing for love, just waiting for you to make the first move. So many poor folks today who are always seeking genuine love, seldom, if ever, find it simply because there are so few of God’s people who are willing to show them His love and manifest it by action, to help them with their physical needs.

It is not enough to merely say to them, “I love you,” and yet not try to help them physically in whatever way they may need—food, clothing, shelter, companionship, and so on—this is not love. True, the need for real love is a spiritual need, but it must be manifested physically in works—“faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6).

The only love of God they may see is the love they see in you, and if you don’t show them the love they can see and feel, they’re going to have a hard time believing that there is someone up there whom they don’t know and that He really loves them.

So step out by faith and talk to someone today about God’s love. Be a faithful witness and testimony of what has happened to you, what God has done for you personally, and you can start changing your part of the world.

If you want to know how to witness personally, just read the Gospels. See how Jesus handled personal witnessing, how He handled questions. It is just beautiful!

If we preach Christ and God’s love to others and they receive it as such, then they will be saved. Those you win to the Lord will be your brothers and sisters forever. They’ll be thankful to you for all eternity that you told them about Jesus and showed them His love.

What everybody needs is love. The first and most important thing to show them is that you love them. The greatest need of all is love. “The greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). So love someone today. Find out what wonders love can do!

You’ll find a whole new world of love you have only dreamed of. There are wonders of love that you can enjoy along with some other lonely soul if you will only try. If you give love, you’ll get love. So love! “For God is love” and “Love never fails” (1 John 4:8; 1 Corinthians 13:8).

 

Giving your all to God

When you have yielded your life to God on His altar of sacrifice and asked Him to take it, He will—and He will try to use it for His glory as much as you will let Him. (See Romans 12:1.) You are His, and He loves you and will do His best for you in trying to make you useful and happy in His loving service for others, that you might bring them life and happiness too, as you have found it in Jesus. Since He has been preparing you for His service all of your life, He will undoubtedly use what you’ve learned in the past, your hidden talents, at some time or other, sooner or later, for His glory. (See Matthew 25:14–30.)

Life, liberty, and the giving of happiness to others: these are things that only God can give, and the only things that will ever truly satisfy your spirit. So if you want to be happy and make others happy, “seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

For He desires your love and for you to love Him first of all, above all, and seek first His kingdom. If you do, He’s happy to add all these other things unto you, including every desire of your heart—as long as you delight yourself in Him. “Delight thyself in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4).

All He asks is for us to commit ourselves. He’ll do everything else for us—give us strength, power, wisdom, life, and love. Only God can do this, but we must be willing and yielded to Him, and make the decision to put Him first without reservations.

Only then can we find the fullness of faith that we seek, when we really begin to forsake all and follow the Lord. When we’re willing to “take up our cross and deny ourselves” (Luke 9:23), and yield our pride and will and follow Him, all the rest will come, because He’ll give us the power as we surrender to Him.

We’ve simply got to do the obeying. We’ve got to do what we know God has told us to do. We have to first of all do the forsaking, the dedicating to God, the commitment to God, and then He will do the rest. Do what you can do and He will do what you can’t do.

So don’t make the mistake of putting the cart before the horse. The blessings don’t precede obedience. You can’t say, “Lord, You bless me and do this or that for me, then I’ll obey.” God tests you first to see if you’ll obey, and then He can bless you. It’s such a common mistake people make.

If you obey what you know God wants you to do, then He will show you more truth; and when you obey that, He’ll give you a little more, and step by step, as you follow Him, He shows you more and more. The trouble with some Christians is that they stopped obeying the little truth they did have, and as a result, God hasn’t been able to give them any more.

He can make something out of nothing—even you—if you’ll just yield, trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Are you willing to do both? The one cannot go without the other. You can’t obey without trusting, and you can’t trust without obeying.

If you’re willing to be what God wants you to be—not what you are, but what God wants you to be—then He can mightily use you. In fact, there is no limit to what He can do with a man who is yielded and willing to do His will.

“Choose this day whom you will serve. If the Lord be God, then follow Him. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (1 Kings 18:21; Joshua 24:15).

You are no fool to give a life you cannot keep for a love you will never lose. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: But whosoever will lose his life for My sake,” Jesus said, “the same shall save it” (Luke 9:24). May God bless you with a new life and a new love in Him.

Copyright © June 1978 by The Family International

New Life, New Love (part 3)

When things go wrong

We know that God does not fail and will never let us down if we are trusting and obeying Him and operating according to His will and what He knows is best. Therefore, when things begin to go awry, we usually know that either He’s trying to show us something or we’re missing the mark somewhere, failing in some area or being mistaken in some way about the way we’re doing things, or not moving in the right direction in the way we’re going about it.

With those of us who really love the Lord and are doing our best to serve Him as best we know how, often at considerable personal sacrifice and even some measure of suffering, inconvenience, discomfort, or simple dissatisfaction, we know that God loves us and is doing His best to help us if we’re doing our best to help Him.

So if things aren’t going quite right, we certainly know it’s not God’s fault, but that we must just not be getting our signals straight somehow or our wires are crossed somewhere in some way that’s not suitable or pleasing to Him.

So of course, the first thing to do is to look around and see and ask Him what we are doing wrong or how we could do it better or if we’re making some kind of mistake, or even in some way actually disobeying Him.

God always has a reason, and I believe nothing happens by accident to one of His children. I have found in my own life, and that of many others, that He always has a purpose for them, although it is not always revealed immediately. He gets some of his greatest victories out of seeming defeats!

Sometimes things happen to draw us much closer to the Lord—to keep us humble and more dependent on Him—such as chastenings or spankings from the Lord. He says in Hebrews 12, “Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6).

Like any good father, it hurts Him to see His children be bad, because He loves them, and He knows their badness hurts them, so He tries to correct them. When we won’t keep His commandments or heed His loving warnings, in love He is forced to chasten us with the rod to rescue us from the ruin of our folly.

Although God’s spankings are sometimes hard to take, they’re a token of His love, His intolerable compliment, and are good for us if we learn our lesson thereby, and are thus brought into harmony and happiness with Him and His creation and each other through truth, faith, love, repentance, confession, forgiveness, and restoration.

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19). And this is one thing that helps keep us so righteous: our many afflictions. “But if ye be without chastisement, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” So thank God for the rod. It’s always good for us, and “yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:5–13). (To be continued)

“The trying of your faith” (1 Peter 1:7)

Another reason the Lord allows these things to befall us is to test our faith—to see how much we really love the Lord and what price we’re willing to pay to serve Him.

God tests our faith to see if it’s real gold faith and if we’ll still believe and obey Him no matter what happens. He says that “the trying of your faith is more precious than gold”—the testing of it. “Yea,” He says, “than much fine gold.” Gold will go through the fire and still come out pure gold, even purer gold, if it is real gold. (See 1 Peter 1:7, Psalm 19:10.)

Real gold—no matter how hot the fire or how long the fire, how hot the test or how long it lasts—will still come out gold, even finer gold. “Yea, than much fine gold.” Because the fire burns away all the dross and the impurities.

Real faith can stand the test and go through the fire and still come out better than ever before, like gold. But faith that cannot stand a test is no faith at all. If it doesn’t go through the fire, it’s not faith. If it doesn’t come out as pure gold, it’s not faith. Because real faith stands the test—whatever it may be.

So “think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:12–13).

When things look darkest, don’t look down. Look up! Don’t murmur and complain. Start praising the Lord, and you’ll often praise your way right out of the pit into which the Devil is trying to cast you. The Lord loves praise; the High and the Holy One dwelleth in the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3).

Doubt, fear, discouragement, and murmuring kill. Look at all that murmuring older generation of Israel who died in the wilderness for their lack of faith. (See the book of Exodus.) But faith, trust, courage, and praising the Lord “maketh alive” (1 Samuel 2:6). If you want to knock the Devil for a loop, just start praising the Lord no matter what happens. “In everything give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). The Devil just can’t stand it. He turns tail and runs. “Resist the Enemy and he shall flee from thee” (James 4:7).

So let’s try to be able to take our testings and our temptations. The Lord says He will never give you more than you’re able to bear and that He will always make a way of escape. Somehow He’ll make it easier for you or at least help you to bear it.

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Keep your eyes ahead on the goal, like those in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. By faith, by faith, by faith—they looked ahead, they looked forward. They weren’t satisfied with being a citizen of this world; they looked for a country made by God, a heavenly country, a heavenly city, built by the Lord.

They were willing to go through all the trials and tribulations and be strangers and pilgrims here and people without a country, because they knew they had one coming. And they knew it was worth fighting for, living for, and dying for.

So keep going for God. Keep believing and obeying, no matter what happens. The outlook may not always be easy, but the uplook is great. “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

The breaking process

My mother once asked the great evangelist, Paul Rader, “Why are the laborers always so few?” And he replied: “They can’t seem to be broken fast enough, and God can only use truly broken men and women.” How true! God only uses broken men and women—no others will do. Others are too self-confident in their own flesh.

God has to break them, melt them, and mold them again in the hands of the Potter to make them a better vessel—but He won’t force it. The breaking depends upon you and your yieldedness and willingness to be made willing, total humility, which is synonymous with total love, so you’re willing to go anywhere, anytime, and do anything, for anybody, and be nobody, to please Him and help others.

He even uses our mistakes as a way to keep us humble and often gets some of His greatest victories out of seeming defeats—victories of brokenness, humility, and more utter dependence on Him, which you must have to be able to truly inspire and lead others.

In fact, the list is almost endless of all the people throughout the Bible that God had to humble before He could use them—of all the leaders God had to bring down to the depths before they could stand to be exalted—lest they would have taken credit to themselves and not given God the glory. Because, by the time God’s ready to make you really great, He makes absolutely nothing out of you, so there’s nothing left of you at all—and it’s only Jesus.

For unless you have been broken, humbled, humiliated, and come to the end of yourself and have nothing left but God, He will never be able to use you as greatly as He would like. But when He can get you out of the way, then He has a chance.

“That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” “When we are weak, we are strong, for then His strength has a chance to be made perfect in our weakness”—to show it’s God, and not us, that He may be glorified (2 Corinthians 4:7; 12:9–10). Sometimes the weaker you get in the flesh, the stronger you are in the spirit. When you’re so weak you don’t feel capable or sufficient, then God has a chance to take over and do things to suit Himself. When you become nothing but a tool and a channel, then He can really use you.

All glory be to Jesus! He’s the one that does it all. We’re merely His yielded instruments, vessels of clay in the hands of the potter (Isaiah 64:8).—Merely doing His will and serving His purpose, for which we were called and foreordained before the foundation of the earth. (See Ephesians 1:3–6.) It is God that gives us the strength and God that has done it all (Philippians 2:13). We are the work of God—the work of His fingers. So give Him all the glory.

The minute you start patting yourself on the back, God will see to it that you’re humbled to bring you out of it. He’s a jealous God and He wants and deserves the glory and will have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:5). So you’d better not start admiring your own arm of flesh or you’re apt to lose it. Give God all the glory!

The biggest failures in the Word of God were the big-shot boys who thought they could do it in their natural wisdom and went out and fell flat on their faces. The danger only came when they thought they themselves were doing it, and that it was their strength that was saving them, their arm that was saving them.

One of the biggest dangers you have is to begin thinking it’s you. It’s God’s anointing. If He withdraws it, you’re just as flat as ever. “Pride cometh before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). For unto him who truly hath what it takes it shall be given, but from him who thinketh that he hath and boasteth of it, it shall be taken away from him even that which he thinketh that he hath (See Luke 8:18).

So for God’s sake, be honest with yourself. Confess to yourself continually how hopeless you are without God. Give Him all the glory for anything good about you. “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). “Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above” (James 1:17). Give God all the glory.

Give God all the credit all the time at every turn for every little thing, and He will never fail to continue to prosper you and empower you, and protect you and keep you.

Sainthood: Pious perfection versus honest humility

God’s idea of saintliness is not sinless perfection. It’s a sinner saved by grace, a sinner who has no perfection, no righteousness of his own at all, but is totally dependent on the grace and the love and the mercy of God by faith. Believe it or not, those are the only saints there are—there are no others.

King David was one of the worst sinners that the world had known, but he was also one of the greatest saints, because he knew he was totally dependent on the love and the mercy and the grace of God for forgiveness. In other words, he gave God all the glory. He knew it was all the Lord and that he was a hell of a mess and blew it every time, except for the Lord.

God knows you’re anything but perfect and can’t be perfect and never will be perfect, and usually you’re pretty much of a mess, like the rest of us. The only question, the only standard is: Do you depend on the Lord totally, trust Him and His grace and His love and His mercy, and give Him all the glory and all the credit?

Most people don’t realize what God’s idea of righteousness is. Their idea of righteousness is so different from God’s. When you feel so righteous and good, it’s because you are self-righteous and not closer to God, but closer to yourself! It’s a perverted idea of righteousness—a kind of “sinless self-perfection.”

If you’re trusting so much in your own righteousness, your own perfection, it’s almost impossible to confess your own mistakes and shortcomings, because it destroys your self-confidence and it nearly shatters your self-reliance, because it proves you’re not perfect—but you hate to even admit it to yourself.

This is one reason why we really need to confess our sins—because it helps keep us humble. It helps you to be honest with yourself. And if you’re honest with yourself, you will be honest with the Lord, your loved ones, and those around you.

This takes humility of the kind that only God can give, because the flesh is not willing to do these things. It’s always vindicating itself, protecting itself, justifying itself, and trying to prove it can do it. The flesh likes to think of itself as all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing, and that there are no alps. Because it’s just the inborn sinful nature of man to want the glory and so be unable to confess.

So the hardest one to confess our faults to is ourselves. We hate even to admit to ourselves our own mistakes, sins, and shortcomings, it is sometimes so discouraging, humbling, and humiliating. So we try to excuse ourselves to ourselves, and defend ourselves from ourselves, and exonerate and absolve ourselves from all sin, so that we can stand to face ourselves.

This only tends to make matters worse, because when we’re not honest with ourselves and we keep trying to fool ourselves, we try to do the same with God and others, and the result is one awful mess. You make a mess of your own life, hurt all those associated with you, and hurt God most of all, as well as hinder your testimony and ministry to others who need you.

So may God help us all to be honest with ourselves, others, and God. It will help us to keep from being false to any man. Falsification is the product of pride, an effort to hide the awful truth of which we are ashamed.

Confessing that you’re a sinner, really exposing yourself and your sins, reminds you that you’re no picture of purity and innocence. Although you no longer feel quite as angelic, you’re a whole lot more saintly according to God’s idea of saintliness. The person who knows he’s a sinner and therefore gives God all the glory if anything good comes of what he’s done—that’s what the Lord looks on as saintliness. As Paul said, “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18). There’s nothing good about us or our flesh; it’s only the Lord.

In fact, every one of us is a hell of a mess, and if we don’t keep our eyes on the Lord and our mind on His Word, we’re doomed to defeat, doubt, disillusionment, and final failure. None of us can stand the sight of ourselves. We’re a mess and nothing without the Lord, and only He can do it, if we will just yield to Him. As Jesus said, “without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).

When Peter walked on the water and started looking at himself, he started to sink. If you start looking at yourself, you’re going to sink sink sink, when you think think think, because you stink stink stink! You have to keep your eyes on Jesus. Let go and let God. You can’t do it yourself. You can’t get the victory. Only God can give it. You can’t earn it, work for it, work it up, pray it down, pray it through, and become so wholly sanctified that you’re some kind of sinless saint.

So let’s forget about trying to be perfect, because we never will be. Let’s just follow the Lord and do the best we can. Amen?

New Life, New Love (part 2)

1978-06-01

Heavenly communication—hearing from God

The greatest thing that each new generation of God’s children has to learn for itself is to follow God and hear from Him fresh every day. Moment by moment learn something new every day, because only God is way out there in front and knows what’s going to happen and is able to lead you and guide you and show you what to do.

Every day should be a new day, a new experience, a new listening to the voice of the Lord. You can hear from God every day, and you should be hearing from Him every day. God expects His children, those who know Him personally and know His will and His Word, to touch Him personally, directly, and make a direct contact with Him, not through somebody else’s faith or prayers.

This is what is most important: our fellowship with God—hearing from the Lord. Contrary to popular opinion, prayer is not just to get down on your knees and speak your piece, but to let God speak His, too. And wait until He answers. You’ve got to get not only in prayer, but you’ve got to get in the Spirit. If you do, He’ll tell each one of you what you’re supposed to do.

You just have to have faith. Jesus speaks anytime, anywhere, if you believe. So when you ask the Lord for an answer, expect an answer, and take the first thing that comes. If you really believe and ask the Lord, and you want to hear or see, you won’t be disappointed. And that thing you see or hear with the eyes or ears of your spirit, that’s the Lord—and it will be such a comfort to you.

Expect God to answer. Just open up your heart and let the sunshine in. If you really want to hear Him, He’ll talk to you. In fact, He’s more willing to give than we are to receive. He just keeps sending and broadcasting as long as we are willing to receive.

The power’s always on and the message is always there. God’s Spirit is like a broadcasting station broadcasting all the time. All you have to do is throw the switch of faith and tune in. If you’re really desperate and crying with your whole heart and are asking Him, He’ll answer.

It doesn’t have to be out loud; it doesn’t have to be with an audible voice. It can just be in that “still small voice” that you feel inside (1 Kings 19:12). Sometimes it’s not even words, just an impression that you have. God doesn’t have to communicate in words. He can just give you a feeling or a picture or an idea.

He’ll solve a lot of your problems before the day even starts if you listen to what He has to say. But if you go plunging into all your problems and troubles and your work without stopping to talk to the Lord and get directions from your Commander in Chief, then you’re going to be like a soldier who’s trying to fight the war all on his own without listening to headquarters. You need to learn to pray and listen to the Lord.

True, God has set down the general rules for the war in His soldier’s handbook, the Bible, but He has also furnished us with an excellent means of communication with headquarters: prayer. So whenever you can’t find the answer or solution to a specific situation in your Rulebook, all you have to do is call heaven and they’ll let you know what to do.

God’s children, His army, have got to be mostly directed from their headquarters in heaven, by the communication of the Holy Spirit, since our ground communications are very slow and very poor and extremely inadequate and frequently disrupted. But if you follow the Lord, you’ll never go wrong. He’s right out there with you, and He knows exactly what to do, and all you’ve got to do is ask Him, and you can get an answer in a split second.

Have you heard from the Lord lately? You can and ought to be hearing every day. Keep in touch with heaven. Jesus never fails.

Some prayer principles

Prayer is powerful! When we pray, things will happen and things will be different. God will answer prayer. He says, “Call unto Me and I will answer thee” (Jeremiah 33:3).

You’d be surprised how much God depends on your prayers—how concerned you are and how interested you are. He wants you to show concern and pray about things, and be specific about them. If you really believe, every prayer is heard and answered. But if you don’t pray, it is not.

A lot of people have sort of a lazy attitude and seem to think the Lord will do it all no matter what. But the truth of the matter is, an awful lot depends on us, our faith and our prayers and what we want done. If we stir ourselves, then God will stir Himself. The very intensity with which you pray and really mean it or desire it is reflected in the answer.

If you only cry with half a heart, you may only get half an answer. But if you cry with your whole heart, you get a wholehearted, strong answer. If you turn it on real strong, then it reflects strong. Like a beam of light focused on a mirror, prayer will reflect or be answered with the same intensity as it originates. It will bounce back with as much power as it began with.

He says, “In the day that you call upon Me with a whole heart, I will answer thee” (Jeremiah 29:13). Our little prayers are sincere and we mean them, but we also need to really get desperate in prayer about serious situations or anything that needs it.

Jesus never fails. He will always answer when we stir ourselves to call upon Him with a whole heart. However, He does not always answer us right away, which sometimes tests our faith and draws us closer to Him as we are driven to His Word to try to find some answers from what He has already said while waiting for more direct and specific answers in prayer.

But if you stay close to Him, He’ll never fail you. He’ll never forsake you. He’ll never let you down. His delays are not denials. Even though He may not always answer just the way we’d like, keep trusting Him and He’ll never fail. Even “if we believe not, yet He remaineth faithful: He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). And He cannot break His Word—He is going to see you through.

God has made promises in His Word, so when you pray, bring those promises with you to remind Him. When you remind God of His Word, it shows you have faith in it. It’s a positive declaration of your faith and your knowledge of the Word which pleases Him. (See Hebrews 11:6.) It’s like a lawyer in a courtroom reminding the judge of the law of the land.

“Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these (His promises) ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). The Lord even says, “I will give thee the desires of thine heart”; “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly”; “And our God shall supply all your needs” (Psalm 37:4; Psalm 84:11; Philippians 4:19).

You have to quote the terms of the contract (the Bible) to the contract maker (God), and hold Him to it. So it’s important to familiarize yourself with His Word. Faith is built on the Word; that’s the contract and the law. That’s why you can claim it and hold the Lord to His promises.

He is bound by His Word. So remind Him of it, cling to His promises, memorize and quote them continually, and never doubt for a moment that God is going to answer—and He will. He wants to! Trust Him. And thank Him for the answer, even if you don’t see it immediately.

But always remember His conditions, His terms of the contract: faith and obedience. For “without faith it is impossible to please Him: For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). And “if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land” (Isaiah 1:19).

Faith and obedience come first, then God answers prayer. If we are obeying the Lord and are faithful and trusting and believing, then God’s got to bless and answer. He can and wants to give you what you need in every area. But if He’s not, it’s not His fault. Something’s wrong somewhere.

If you’re not fully obeying the Lord, then you can’t have faith for God to bless you. How can God bless disobedience? He cannot protect, prosper, or bless you when you are out of His will and running around outside of the secret place and from under His shadow—His wings—and His fortress of perfect fellowship with Him. (See Psalm 91.)

But if you delight yourself in the Lord most of all and truly want to do His will, it is His delight to also give you the desires of your own heart, because He’s the one who puts them there when we’re pleasing Him (Psalm 37:4). He gives us what we have faith for. So “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and then all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

“Fighting the good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12)

A lot of people seem to think that as soon as they receive Jesus they’ll really get happy and all their problems will be solved and they’re never going to have any more and things are going to go real smoothly.

Just because they won one battle, salvation by grace, a God-given victory, they think they have some kind of permanent victory. Well, the battle for their soul is won and it is a permanent victory of salvation forever; they will never have to fight that one again, thank God!

They’re saved, they have the Lord, they’ve got the Holy Spirit, they’ve got the greatest power in the world. You’ve got eternal life; you’re not going to hell; you don’t have to worry about death anymore; you don’t have to worry about life anymore, and you’ve got the Lord on your side, or you’re on His side.

The Devil can’t get you back once you’re saved—you’re the Lord’s forever. (See John 6:37; 10:28–29.) But he tries hard to keep you from serving God, so he gives you a lot of trouble. If the Devil can’t keep you from being a Christian, he’ll try to keep you from being a revolutionary Christian. He’ll try to make a dead one out of you instead of a real live one!

He’ll try to put you to sleep and put you out of action, so you at least won’t get in his way. He’ll try to keep you from being a good or effective witness or a good testimony. If he can’t destroy you, he’ll try to destroy your testimony.

The biggest thing the Devil will try to do is defeat you from being a good example to win others, because he knows now he’s going to lose others from his clutches because of you. You’ve already gotten there, but he knows he’s now going to lose others too through you.

If he can scare you out before you begin, then you’ll never even get started and you’ll never accomplish what God wants you to do. So for God’s sake and the sake of others and your own sake, don’t let the Devil frighten you or bluff you out of what the Lord wants you to do before you even get started. That’s when he attacks you the worst and that’s when the Lord allows him to attack you the worst, because the Lord is testing you to see if you really mean business.

It’s like in the old days of World War I trench warfare: Things were usually comparatively quiet in no-man’s land—the unconquered territory between two enemies—until one or the other of them decided to attack. Then the other side really opened up and let them have it with all barrels. The minute you go over the top, the Devil starts shooting!

The Lord lets the Devil do it to keep us humble and close to Him. Because you can be almost as sure as shooting that the Enemy doesn’t start shooting until you start charging into his territory and attacking him. Then he really starts socking you back.

We’re fighters. We’re at war! So get tough and fight the Devil and his forces, and if you keep fighting, he cannot win. He can only win if you surrender; he can only win if you chicken out and quit and wave the white flag of sickening surrender.

You can’t let the Devil say “boo” and scare you out and make you run. You have to stand up and fight him and attack him and resist him so he will run and flee from you! “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

When the Devil tempts you to get down and discouraged, fight! Don’t even listen to him, much less surrender. He’s a liar and the father of them, the father of deceit, the father of lies, Jesus said, so why should we listen to him (John 8:44). Why listen to his doubts and fears and lies when he says terrible things and tries to scare you?

So don’t just stand there; do something! Sing, shout, praise the Lord, quote scriptures. Sock it to him with the Word. That’s the way Jesus did it when the Devil tempted Him and lied to Him. He just quoted the scriptures: “It is written.” (See Matthew 4:1–11.) The Devil is a liar and the father of it, and he can’t take the Word. Resist the Enemy and he’ll flee from you. He’ll turn tail and run!

Take up that white-hot sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and cut the Devil to the heart. “For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Instead of surrendering, attack! Conduct an aggressive warfare. “Greater is He that is in you (Jesus), than he that is in the world (the Devil).” So “fight the good fight of faith” and “neither give place to the Devil.” “Put on the whole armor of God.” “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Don’t give up. (Hebrews 4:12; 1 John 4:4; 1 Timothy 6:12; Ephesians 4:27, 6:11–19; Romans 16:20.) (to be Continued) 

New Life, New Love-part 1

1978-06-01  

Introduction

The instantaneous, miraculous, and supernatural change of mind, heart, and life which occurs by the power of God’s Spirit when we receive His Son Jesus into our hearts is so drastic that God’s Word likens it unto spiritual rebirth. The newborn child of God then enters for the first time into the whole new world of a whole new life in the incredible spiritual kingdom of God.

Such “rebirth” or “conversion” experiences have been a very common miracle of God throughout history. Jesus called it being born again of His Spirit, and Paul called it the new birth in which “old things are passed away and all things are become new,” and “ye are become new creatures in Christ Jesus.” The Bible also calls it “putting off the old man and putting on the new,” and it is often such a remarkable transformation and actual personality change that God’s Word likens it to the death and burial of the old and a resurrection of the new to an entirely new life and way of living (John 3:1–8; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:22–24; Romans 6:3–11).

For “except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Therefore “ye must be born again” (John 3:7), in spirit: First, by believing the words of God; then, recognizing your own need of a Savior from your sins, by receiving the spirit of Jesus Christ Himself into your own heart personally in a definite individual decision, forever thereafter proclaiming Him as the Son of God and your Savior, as well as the Savior of all those who will believe and receive Him and His words.

His coming into your life not only renews and purifies and regenerates your spirit, but it also renews your mind, literally breaking old connections and reflexes, and gradually rebuilding it and rewiring it into a whole new computer system with an utterly different outlook on life, a new way of looking at the world, and with new reactions to nearly everything around you.

So do not be surprised if you actually feel different and even think differently and are happier than you have ever been before.

You’re born again, a new man, God’s new child. Usually when this happens, the new man frequently testifies that he even feels better physically, He now likes to face life and finds a thrill in his newfound tasks and the greatest of pleasure in the fellowship of his newfound family of fellow believers and the greatest of satisfaction in his newfound faith.

His whole life, nature, mind, heart and all is changed. His whole outlook, desires and aims in life are usually much different than before. I have often heard some even claiming that the grass actually looked greener, the sky bluer, the trees more beautiful, the sunshine more glorious and golden, and they feel like they’ve entered a whole new world of heaven on earth compared to the lives that they were living before. It’s just that wonderful!

But of course, like all new babies, you have a lot to learn and a lot of growing to do. So don’t be discouraged if you don’t understand everything all at once about your new life and the whole new world in which you live and your great new family of faith.

 

The “milk of the Word”

If you imbibe the milk of His life-giving words from the Bible, you will begin to grow in faith and understanding. “As newborn babes,” His Word tells us, “Desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). If you will read His words and put them in your heart, they will be a “lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path” and a guide to you in your new life, your new experiences and your new relationships (Psalm 119:105).

The Bible is God’s personal word to each of us. In it you can find the answer to almost every question and every problem you will ever have in life. Just ask God for the answers, search the Scriptures, and let Him speak to you through His Word.

This is also where your faith will come from: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). It’s not a sudden boom. Faith is something that is built by faithful study of God’s Word. Faith comes—it grows by hearing the Word of God. So read the Bible and you will find a constant and continual greater revelation of more and more truth, fitting more and more missing pieces into the great and puzzling picture of God’s complete and perfected and final overall design.

Nothing will ever take its place! There’s nothing on earth more powerful than the Word of God—inspired, beautiful, and poetic, just the naked Word of God. The only reason I and others have to write anything at all is to help others understand it and relate to it.

The true plan and foundation of God as outlined in the Bible has been almost totally buried under the rubble of churchianity and the traditions of man. As Jesus told the Pharisees, the religious leaders of His day, “In vain do ye worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, … making the Word of God of none effect through your traditions” (Mark 7:7, 8, 13).

Many people today have put the stories of Jesus and His disciples way back in the past. They’re looked on as fairy tales; they’ve no real reality to them. But when suddenly it’s brought up to you in the present, the fact that the things of the Lord can still happen today—that He’s just as real and can still do the same, and even more so (see John 14:12)—that’s what shakes and wakes people up!

We’ve got to try to clear away the rubble to try to uncover once again what the Bible really says and means, what Jesus taught, how He lived, and what the disciples were really trying to show by their example. In other words, we’re rediscovering what God’s plan was. It’s been there all the time and is as good as ever, but we can’t build on that foundation again till we get rid of all the rubble of the rabbis.

Besides, we are living in a new day and we have to know how to follow God under present circumstances. Today many churches condemn any new messages from God. They as good as say that God doesn’t speak anymore. Well, such a God would be a dead God. Thank God He still speaks today!

So read and study His words, “old and new” (Matthew 13:52), for it is His Word by His Spirit in His love that makes you strong. Please do not neglect it, for it is food for your soul and gives you strength for the battle. Read, study, memorize, and enjoy it, and you shall have strength for your souls.

 

Holy Ghost power

Shortly before His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus promised His disciples that He would send them a comforter, the Holy Ghost, to strengthen, empower, lead and guide them in their spiritual lives and relationship with Him. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you … I will send Him unto you … and when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 14:26; 16:7, 13).

Receiving the full anointing, infilling, or “baptism” of the Holy Spirit is usually a subsequent experience to that of salvation (when we decide to believe on and receive Jesus). This is why the apostle Paul inquired of certain disciples that he met, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” (Acts 19:2). The Scriptures also say that “they that believe on Him (Jesus) should receive the Holy Ghost” (John 7:39).

Like a mother, tender and gentle with a little baby, the Holy Spirit will hover over the newborn child of God, waiting, comforting, nursing, and nurturing. We all certainly need this baptism of God’s love and power and to be filled to overflowing with His precious Holy Spirit in order to have the strength to pull through.

You cannot do the Master’s work without the Master’s power. And the means of power that God has provided for His children is His Holy Spirit. Christians really need the power and boldness of the Spirit. As Jesus told His disciples, “Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me” (Acts 1:8).

This is the primary purpose of the power: for witnessing (telling others about Jesus). The greatest thing that happened on the Day of Pentecost (when the first disciples received the Holy Spirit) was not that they merely had miraculous manifestations of the “gifts of the Spirit,” but that those gifts resulted in the salvation of 3,000 souls. (See Acts Chapter 2.)

However, we should not belittle nor neglect the “gifts of the Spirit.” As His Word tells us, “covet earnestly the best gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31). The most common gifts are listed in 1 Corinthians chapter 12: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, other tongues and interpretation. These are all gifts from a loving heavenly Father to His children to help communicate understanding of Himself and His will, a mere sample of glorious realities to come.

You not only need the infilling of the Holy Spirit to have the power and strength to witness to others, but also to help you in your own personal communication with the Lord. When you get baptized and start communicating with the Lord, such as speaking in tongues, for example, there’s a real yielding. You’ll then know the spiritual ecstasy of which the physical is just an illustration. You’ll have a much closer relationship with the Lord.

You can then pray in the Spirit—and your prayers will have more effect because you pray by the Spirit Himself, by His power, which is exactly what God wants. “Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us … according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26, 27).

It’s like the Holy Spirit is the power of our prayers. Just like a radio cannot transmit a message unless it is plugged into an electric current, your prayer transmission won’t have any power at all unless it’s plugged into the current, the Holy Spirit, God’s power. But if you’re in tune, the Holy Spirit empowers and directs your prayers.

By the supernatural, miraculous power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord can even give you downright, outright, upright revelations, heaven-right, straight from Him, to show you exactly what to do when you need His guidance. “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:6). So “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), so you can have the power and boldness to witness, and so you can experience the exciting sights, sounds, visions, voices, and even resultant physical thrills, like talking in tongues—and the many other ecstatic joys of the world of His Spirit, where God Himself dwells.

Have you received the miraculous infilling of the Holy Spirit since you believed? If not, all you have to do is open up your heart and simply pray and ask Jesus to fill you with His Spirit—and He will. His Spirit will flow in to you in all His power. Jesus said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” (Read Luke 11:9–13.) (To be continued)

It’s So Because God Said So

Virginia Brandt Berg

1970-01-02

Welcome again to Meditation Moments. God bless you, indeed that old fashioned greeting: The Lord bless you and make you a blessing. We’re so glad to have you with us and we do trust that some of God’s Word will be a help to you, just because you’ve tuned this way.

God will lead you along if you’ll let Him. If you’ll listen to His Word, and if you’ll be obedient and follow that leading, God will lead you along. I’ll never forget when this deep conviction first came to me: that we’re able to absolutely know the will of God and that He would not fail us in giving us the desire of our heart when it came to know that will.

I was thinking today of the deep conviction that dawned on my soul: that God could not and would not fail His Word. I kept saying, “This is the Word of the Almighty God. It cannot fail; you can depend upon it.” And that’s the time when I first learned that. You know at that time, I came into a spiritual alertness and I saw through the years that the Bible had never been a living, vital thing to my heart, but rather a sort of combination of creeds and doctrines and wise sayings and printer’s ink. I had never known the power in the Word of God or believed at all that it could bring to pass miracles by its very creative power.

I don’t know why it was that someone hadn’t told me the truth of these things. But at this time, this deep conviction dawned on my soul that God could not fail His Word. I kept saying over and over, that it’s true; God said it and it’s true. How did it come about?

But first let me say that I had known church membership and much of church organization before this time, but I’d never really believed God’s Word, nor had I met Christ personally. My experience with the church had been a little disappointing with that particular church I was in. It seemed tediously humdrum, without any power.

It was through a little tract folder that was put in my hand by a Christian Missionary Alliance preacher that I came into the most glorious experience. Oh, excitingly wonderful! It brought into my life unbelievable victory and complete healing of my sick body.

Gone was the unbelief and that sense of futility and disappointment, and there arose in my heart an unnamed hunger. Christ came into my life to fully satisfy! When that conviction dawned upon my heart I was a total invalid at that time, utterly helpless, given up by a number of physicians. But I had been newly born again now, and my faith had been encouraged to look to the Lord to restore my health and to raise me up. I was really blind at that time, had been, to the way of faith, and I felt I must have some evidence before I could believe—which is really walking by sight and not by faith.

I had been prayed for for my healing, and I had waited for God to let me see something to prove that He had heard and answered, because for me then to see was to believe, which of course isn’t the right way. The world says see and you will believe, but the Bible says believe and you will see. But I hadn’t known it that way.

It was at that time that God brought certain scriptures to my mind to show me that I must believe simply because God said so. Soon that faith came into my heart, simply on what God’s Word said, not by anything I saw or felt. I believed God had heard our prayers, and He had answered. I believed that He had reached down and had healed me! It was so, simply because God said so, and that was enough.

My heart leaped with joy, and when that realization came, in that moment there was born something in my soul which has never changed from that day to this: an abiding, unshakable faith in God’s Word. Again and again lying there so helpless I had whispered over and over, “It is the Word of God, it cannot fail. It’s God’s Word and He cannot lie.”

I seemed to see this marvelous Word of God just marching down the centuries of time, indestructible, infallible, inexhaustible, unchangeable. What a joy came into my heart as I realized I had such an anchor to hold on to! There was in my heart the substance of things hoped for, the belief in things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1).

So far as God was concerned, I believed the work was done, for we had met His conditions and there was His promise very plain and sure, that He would not, could not fail His Word, and I was not going to doubt that Word.

Well, it happened. It happened just as He had promised, exactly, and I was completely healed! Yes, that was many years ago and I have lived these many years to serve Him, and I’m still on the firing line. From that day to this, I have never doubted the power of the Word of God.

John 6:63 says, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” When we come into that realization—that is the power there is in what God says in His Word—then we have hold of the truth that makes all things possible. Oh, to meditate on these verses.

Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that he should lie, neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said it and shall he not do it?” Take that to your heart. Whatever the need is in your life right now as you are listening, just hug that to your heart. Let it quicken your faith. Don’t care what people say, or how the world is living about you.

That’s the word of the living God. God said it and so it’s true. “Hath he said it and shall he not do it?” He will do it for you. The Scripture continues this way: “Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?” Isn’t that wonderful? God has spoken and He’s going to make it good.

Don’t you let them shake your faith! Don’t you believe any of the doubts the Devil puts in your mind. “Hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?” Well, God made it good in my case and He raised me up off of that sickbed. I had been an invalid for five years. Some of you have heard me say it so many times; I never get tired of talking about it. But that isn’t the important thing. It’s the faith that came in my heart, that because God said it, it was true. In 1 Kings 8:56 God’s Word says, “There hath not failed one word of all his good promises.” He’s not going to fail in any of them for you. That burden you carry today, cast it upon Him.

He’s not failed in “one word.” Not just in “one promise,” but in “one word” of all of His good promises He has not failed. Psalm 89:33 says, “He will not suffer his faithfulness to fail.” Then He says in another place, “I will not fail you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

God grant that His Word will have a preeminent place in your life. When you’re obedient to that Word, His blessings will be poured out. When we yield ourselves to His Word, He does guide. Yes, He leads His dear children along just as He promised He would. So He led me along step by step just like He will you.

Though sorrows befall us and Satan oppose,
God leads us along.
Through grace we can conquer and defeat all our foes,
God leads His dear children along.
Some through the waters and some through the flood,
And some through the fire, but all through the blood.
Some through great sorrows, but God gives a song.
In the night season and all the day long.

—Adapted from “God Leads Us Along,” by George A. Young

God will lead you along. It is His Word; He has promised to do it. When you yield yourself to His Word, He will guide your life daily and faith will spring invincible. And then you’ll shout triumphantly also, “It’s so because God says so. What He has promised, He is able also to perform.” (Romans 4:21) Say it over and over to yourself, “What He has promised, He is able also to perform.”

If you are not a saved one, why do you carry the burden of sin? Remember in 1 John 1:9 it says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Then why don’t you confess your sin? God will keep His Word. He’ll not fail His Word. It’s so. He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

He says, “If thou wilt confess with thy mouth Christ is lord, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). Don’t you want to be free from the burden of sin, and have peace come into your heart and let God lead you along? Lead you all the way?

How wonderful to have such a power to lead you along! He’ll keep His Word. He will not fail you. You will be a saved man or woman. It is so because God said so. Amen.

My Yoke Is Easy

David Brandt Berg

1972-06-01

Leadership is a very great responsibility, a heavy burden, and just a plain big job of a lot of hard work, tension, confusion, excitement, concerns, and physical, mental, and nervous strain which tends to be pretty hard on you. Even the Lord Himself could not bear the continual strain and virtue drain of a constant ministry to the multitudes, so He frequently had to get away from it all and take His disciples up into the mountains or out to sea or on a private visit to friends, for a spiritual retreat, rest, and recuperation and inspiration—sometimes even all alone.

No one can continue to keep pouring out to others without spending some time alone with the Lord getting filled up again. I’ve been in the Lord’s work for half a century, and my mother for half a century before me, and my grandfather for half a century before her, so I know what I’m talking about. As A. B. Simpson, that grand old man of faith, once said, “You cannot do the Master’s work without the Master’s power!” And to get it, you must spend time with the Master!

We all need more quiet time alone with the Lord in rest and refilling, drinking at the living water of His Word and fellowshipping with Him in the communion of prayer and the sweet lovemaking of the Spirit.

None of us can stand these constant pressures of continuous demands on our time, strength, body, soul, and spirit to which we are so often forced to submit, without relief, by the press of time, necessity, need, and one emergency after another so prevalent in a fast-moving and rapidly expanding work such as ours where the laborers are so few, the harvest so big, and there’s so much to be done to gather it in before the storm!

The Lord Himself has said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30). And His Word also warns us that we must be temperate in all things (Titus 1:8) and “let your moderation be known to all men” (Philippians 4:5).

If the yoke gets too hard and the burden too heavy, it’s not His yoke nor His burden, but our own or someone else’s which we’ve unwisely undertaken or permitted to be placed upon us beyond the Lord’s knowledge of our strength and abilities. He Himself will never suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Sometimes we’re tempted to take too much upon us, but certainly not by the Lord. Sometimes we allow our strength to be taxed beyond what we know we can wisely endure, and in so doing, we often allow ourselves to be pushed beyond the measure of our own faith and suffer the consequences in a physical, mental, nervous, or spiritual collapse or breakdown. Please don’t let it happen to you! “Take time to be holy.”^[1] Wholly His, and whole in body, mind, and spirit. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee” (Isaiah 26:3).

Trust the Lord, and He’ll take care of you. He never fails, no matter what the conditions. God bless and keep you and continue to make you a blessing!

^[1] Hymn written by William D. Longstaff, 1882.

Copyright © June 1972 by The Family International

The Creation of Humankind as Male and Female (part 2)

December 8, 2025

By Peter Amsterdam

Audio length: 10:20

Download Audio (9.4MB)

Different roles

Man and woman, though equally made in the image of God and equal in personhood and essence, also have different roles according to Scripture. In the verses about the creation of woman, the concept of different roles is expressed (Genesis 2:18–24; 1 Corinthians 11:3).

Some of the indications of a difference in roles are that Adam was created first and was given the responsibility to name the animals, and also was the one to call Eve “woman”; God spoke to Adam first after they both had sinned; Adam is seen as being the representative for humanity (Romans 5:12–18). These indicate that Adam is given a place of leadership.

While there was a difference in roles between Adam and Eve, harmony is inferred in the relationship. Authors Lewis and Demarest express it like this:

Prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve enjoyed unbroken fellowship with their Creator and Sustainer. Apparently it was common for them to consciously encounter their Maker morning and evening (Genesis 3:8). The first pair enjoyed also faithful loving relationships with each other. No evidence of suspicion, envy, jealousy or hatred occurred before the Fall. Male and female were like God in having mutual relations of respect, love, and trust.⁴

In conclusion, God made man and woman in His image and likeness. That image and likeness still exists, though marred by sin. In God’s eyes, men and women are equal. As Christians, in marriage we should strive to be a union of two equal human beings fulfilling the roles He has given us to play in harmony, mutual understanding, and love one for another. And as new creatures in Christ, we are all meant to be transformed more into His image, and thus to reflect Him in our relationships. “We all … are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Originally published July 2012. Adapted and republished December 2025. Read by Jon Marc.

¹ J. I. Packer, Concise Theology (Tyndale House Publishers, 1993), 81.

² Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (InterVarsity Press, 2000), 456.

³ Amy Orr-Ewing, Isn’t the Bible Sexist?

⁴ Gordon R. Lewis and Bruce A. Demarest, Integrative Theology, Vol. 2 (Zondervan, 1996), 206.

Copyright © 2025 The Family International

The Energy of Heaven

Maria Fontaine

2020-11-07

“The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”¹ So often our limited strength and physical inabilities fall far short of what is needed to fully implement the passion and vision of what we want to accomplish for the Lord in this world. That can skew our perspectives and cause us to feel like we’re failing compared to all we’d like to be doing.

It can be helpful to remind ourselves that Jesus has promised to provide what we need as we trust in Him. It’s not a matter of us doing more than our circumstances, our resources, or our bodies permit us to do. It’s a matter of trusting Him that if He wants us to do more, then He’ll supply His heavenly energy, which is unlimited. He remembers that we are dust, and all He ever asks of us is that we do what we can and His power will do what we can’t.

In these times we’re learning to lean on Him more and trust in Him with all our heart rather than leaning on our own understanding and physical stamina. He wants us to acknowledge Him in all our ways, and He will direct our paths.²

When that mustard seed of faith that Jesus talked about moves mountains, it certainly isn’t our strength doing it. It’s the power of the Spirit of God.

Science overall has concluded that everything in this world is made up of energy, including the things that we can touch and feel. When energy vibrates at a precise speed, it takes on specific characteristics that determine how we see it or interact with it. The thesaurus describes “energy” using words such as life, spirit, vitality, animation, vivacity, spiritedness, verve, enthusiasm, zest, vibrancy, spark, sparkle, effervescence, ebullience, exuberance, buoyancy, strength, stamina, forcefulness, power, dynamism, drive, fire, passion, ardor, zeal, zip, zing, pep, pizzazz, punch, bounce, oomph, get-up-and-go, vim and vigor. Of course, those are just some of the visible effects of energy on our bodies, emotions, and things around us.

You could say that His love is the energy that brought everything into being. God’s Spirit of love is the essence of life and existence. But God went even further in His love for His human creations, as distinct from His other creations in this world. He did the most amazingly wonderful thing. He created us in His own image and gave us the ability to make choices and discover the secrets of His spectacular creation. He has been helping us, both through the good times and the hard ones, to gain wisdom from our experiences and the choices we make.

We are cared for by Him, and even our challenges in this life have a purpose. We’re not here just to scrape through and survive. We’re here to progress and grow and overcome. There’s pain and sorrow and troubles galore, but none of that can defeat us as long as we keep on trusting in Him. In fact, these experiences can strengthen us and help us to be partakers in the process of spreading His love even further.

It’s like those commercials for cleaning agents or other things like vacuums where they provide the filthiest, most disastrous situation they can show you. Then they use their product to demonstrate how not even that seemingly hopeless mess can withstand the cleaning power of their product. When our response to troubles is looking to Jesus, it’s a testament to His power and love. When others see that troubles that they also face don’t cause us to collapse, but rather only drive us closer to Jesus, it encourages them to do the same.

God’s energy never wears down or gets used up. It will never cease to exist. It just manifests itself in new and even more wonderful ways to fulfill His plan. As John said, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.³ Though the outward man perish (these time-bound bodies and the world around them), yet the inward man is renewed day by day.⁴

Even when you leave this earthly life, you are only changing forms. That spark of His life and power that has become your spirit will carry on. Here in these time-bound bodies we only see tiny glimpses of what will be, but even those brief peeks into what awaits us can be awe-inspiring, amazing, and wonderful.

For those of us who seek to have Jesus’ energy pulsing through our lives right here and now in the fullest ways possible, it begins with building a direct connection with Him. That’s our part.

God can use us in tremendous ways, regardless of what we see as weaknesses. As we do what we can, His Spirit working in us will accomplish the rest. Because we have been given the responsibility of free choice, we are the ones who choose to enhance or diminish the volume and flow of His love and Spirit through our lives by how much we are willing to trust Him and depend on His power. He has promised His children that He will never leave nor forsake us, and that even when we are faithless, yet He abides faithful. If He is willing to go that far even when we fail to stay close to Him, imagine how much more we can have available as we look to Him continuously for help.

When God’s Spirit is pouring through a yielded vessel, people are drawn to Him, even when they can’t understand why. I love to contemplate what becomes possible when we seek to be conduits of God’s Spirit and love. I love to ask the Lord for more of the compassion, strength, wisdom, power, and all the manifestations of His Spirit in me. He wants to fill us to overflowing with His Spirit, so we can do our job for Him to the best of our abilities.

Below are some thoughts I’ve considered and things that the Lord has said in various prophecies about some aspects of the love of God.

1. Through Jesus we have been given the priceless privilege of availing ourselves of God’s power under His guidance to help others. Though men and women have struggled for millennia to understand many aspects of God’s Spirit with their natural reasoning and logic, it hasn’t proven to be sufficient. It often comes down to faith and trust. And as we trust in Jesus, we have been granted the privilege of accessing even what we don’t necessarily understand. We know His love for us. We know He will never fail us. We know He loves us and we love Him. Our faith welcomes His heavenly energy to accomplish whatever God knows is needed.
2. God’s love for us is the source of our existence. It is so vast that we will spend our lives on earth and on into eternity learning how to grasp the fullness of it. Yet it can be encapsulated in the simple verse, John 3:16. God’s love for us is manifested in an endless variety of ways—from the moment He gave us life, through Jesus’ sacrifice for our sakes, to the Holy Spirit helping us to bring truth to others. It reminds me of the verse in Psalm 8: “He has made us a little lower than the angels and has crowned us with glory and honor.” Sometimes I feel like we are God’s most profound miracle of all: that He can take something as flawed and hopeless as human beings, and with the power of His love and grace, He can transform us into His bride.
3. God has granted us so many ways to access the life-giving power of His Spirit: through praise and prayer; through the keys of the kingdom; through the music that portrays His Spirit; through miracles; through the many angels and ministering spirits who assist us in our tasks; through the still, small voice of God, whispering in our hearts; through godly counselors; and so many more. God’s Spirit provides encouragement and support to us in many forms, even when we can’t see the next step to take.
4. The eternal, life-giving Spirit of God can never be used up. The more we reflect His love to others, the more it can expand and grow in our own lives. God’s love blesses the lives of those we reflect it to without diminishing it in our own hearts.
5. God’s love is the greatest force in the universe, yet as vast as it is, it is intimately attuned to the most minute detail. His care extends to the tiniest flower and gently holds the hand of a tiny baby to offer comfort and care.
6. (Jesus, speaking in prophecy:) When you praise Me in any situation, My power will renew your strength. You will mount up on the wings of My Spirit; you will run and not be weary, you will walk and not faint.
7. I believe that every act of love never ends; it is an expanding burst of the energy of God that keeps spreading throughout eternity.
8. God’s love is often manifested in giving. It began with God, in love, creating life in all its forms. It continued in Jesus, who sacrificed Himself to bring us closer to God, and His love continues to inspire us to sacrifice in order to share what we’ve found with others.
9. We often consider His love as something we can never hope to repay, but love isn’t meant to be repaid. A helpful way to look at how love operates is described in the concept of paying it forward. In a sense, we can only “repay” God, the source of all love and life, by giving as much of Him away as we can. Even what seems like a small gift of love given to another person can grow to touch many others. If you feel like the love you are able to share seems small compared to all you wish you could do, remember that the smallest act of love can ultimately bear great fruit.
10. If you are feeling sad, unloved, lonely, or empty, reach out to give to someone else who is in even greater need, and you will sense the light of the life of God within you start to grow stronger, warmer. His peace and contentment in your heart will begin to provide more of what you need. Lift up someone else, and you will find that He will lift you up in ways that are even greater. Give mercy and compassion to someone who cannot repay you, and trust that God’s Spirit will provide what youneed as well.
11. The Spirit of God in us grows stronger as we do what we can to live in accordance with what Jesus is showing us to do. It was His example of love for us that reached our hearts. It’s what spurs us to offer what we have to others in need. When the love that Jesus has shown to you is manifested to others who are seeking what is good, that example of love can then begin to grow in their hearts, changing them too.
12. (Jesus, speaking in prophecy:) Each part you play in the process of caring and sharing My love with someone else is important. Perhaps you give them a boost of encouragement until their faith begins to grow again or their hope is restored. When I inspire you to take a step to help someone else, to pause in your busy life to say something that expresses compassion for someone, you are offering them a touch of My Spirit and love. That may be the impetus that is needed to inspire them to move in a new direction. Your faithfulness to share My love with others is the part you are called to play in bringing people to Me.
13. (Jesus, speaking in prophecy:) I want to use every opportunity to pour down My blessing on your life. I love to see the glow of My Spirit of love shining within you when, out of love, you see the need of others and respond. I give you the opportunity to invest your time, attention, prayers, and support, to lift the burdens of others and make their path easier to traverse. Your freewill choice to manifest My love for others is building on what I have begun. It provides Me with the opportunities to shout from the rooftops, “Well done, My good and faithful friend; enter into the joy of My heavenly kingdom!”

¹ Matthew 26:41.

² Proverbs 3:6.

³ 1 John 3:2.

⁴ 2 Corinthians 4:16.

Copyright © 2020 The Family International.

A Personal God

Peter Amsterdam and David Brandt Berg

2015-03-19

God is a personal and active being. His personhood is seen in that He has self-awareness, rational consciousness, self-determination, intelligence, emotions, knowledge, and will, all of which are necessary for personhood. We, as human beings, are personal and possess personhood. We have personhood because we are made in the image of God.

The difference between human beings and all other created things on earth is that we are made in God’s image and they are not; we possess personhood and they don’t. As William Lane Craig said, “Man is a person because God is personal, and that is what enables us to relate to God.” God being personal and possessing personhood doesn’t mean that God is human; rather it means that we as humans share personhood with God.

God personally interacts with humankind, as can be seen throughout the Bible. He enters into relationships with people. He has made agreements or partnerships, called “covenants,” with them. He speaks to them throughout the Bible. These are personal acts.

In the Old Testament, God actively involved Himself with His people, Israel, in their times of need—such as by parting the Red Sea and the Jordan River, giving them food and water, providing them with land, and so on. He sent messengers, the prophets, who delivered His words, and He rewarded or punished people in accordance with whether they obeyed or disobeyed those messages. Throughout the Old Testament it’s plain that God was personally and actively involved with His people.

The book of Genesis shows God interacting in a personal way with His creatures in many instances, including in the creation of the world, in His actions and conversations with Adam and Eve, through His entering into personal covenants with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He continued to show Himself as personal through His dealings with Moses and the children of Israel.

God’s Word ascribes emotions to God: love, hatred, anger, repentance, grief, compassion, indignation, abhorrence, patience, longsuffering, joy, and others.

When Moses asked, God spoke His name—Yahweh, I AM. Having a name and giving that name to another is a personal act. He also has titles that depict Him as personal, such as Father, Judge, Shepherd, or Husband.

Nothing showed that God is personal as clearly as His revelation of Himself in Jesus. Jesus was God walking the earth, and He was personal in every way, in every act, so much so that He personally died so that we could receive salvation.

Our God is not some faraway disinterested being. He is a God who is personal, who has a relationship with His creation. He has made Himself known to us through His Word. He has shown us some of what He’s like. He is interested in us as individuals. He has made a way for us to live with Him forever, through salvation. Through belief in Jesus, the Son of God, we become God’s children. This enables us to touch Him personally, to communicate with Him, to hear His voice, to share our hearts with Him. He communes with us, abides in us, and loves us. We commune with Him, abide in Him, and love Him. We have a personal relationship with the Personal God. How incredibly wonderful!—Peter Amsterdam

God so loved the world

Some of the world’s major religions do not believe in or worship a personal God at all. Instead, He is viewed as a sort of “supreme reality,” “ultimate principle,” or “absolute” that is underlying the universe. This rather indefinable concept of the Almighty is usually perceived as a God who generally remains rather distant and aloof from specific human needs, individuals, and circumstances. However, the Bible tells us that the true God is very personally concerned about each one of us, and that “as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who love Him.”¹

Other religions, recognizing the marvelous wonder of the beauty and balance of nature, have concluded that the physical creation itself must be God, that everything we can see is a manifestation or part of God. Such a view is actually very close to what the Bible itself says: “For He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things, and in Him we live and move and have our being.”² Because He is the great power who has created all things, in a sense God is a part of all things and all things are a part of Him, from the vast galaxies of the heavens to the cohesive power of the tiniest atom.

Perceiving the close link between the invisible Creator and the visible things He has made, some religions give reverence and worship to the creation itself—the sun, the moon, the mountains, the wind, the seasons, etc. But the Bible tells us that we can worship and personally know and have a living relationship with God Himself, so therefore we do not need to “worship and serve the creation more than the Creator.”³ He is pleased when we admire, marvel, and wonder at the beauties, glories, and miracles of His handiwork, His gorgeous creation, but He doesn’t want us to glorify or worship the things that are made while neglecting their Maker.

God is so great, so high, so almighty, so beyond our limited human understanding and comprehension, that it is impossible for us to fully understand or grasp Him or His ways. He says, “As the heavens are high above the earth, so high are My ways above your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”⁴ But He so much wanted to help us and to become our close friend that He sent somebody who could show us His love, somebody who could live with us as a man, who could embody and show us what God Himself is like.

God loves us so much, He doesn’t want us to have to suffer separation from Him. When we’re without God’s love, our hearts can never be truly satisfied, and we will remain spiritually empty and lifeless. So to bring us His everlasting life and salvation, He sent His own Son, Jesus, to earth almost 2,000 years ago.

Jesus was miraculously conceived by the Spirit of God and born to a young virgin girl named Mary. He grew up to become, in a sense, a picture of His Father, so we could see what the great invisible Creator is like. And that picture is a picture of love, for Jesus went about everywhere doing good, helping others and teaching about God’s great love for us all.

Finally, Jesus completed His task of proclaiming the good news of salvation to the world, and He gave His life, and was cruelly crucified by His religious enemies. Then, three days after His lifeless body was laid to rest in the grave, Jesus arose from the dead, conquering death and hell forever. The Bible tells us, “God so loved the world (you and me) that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus), that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.”⁵—David Brandt Berg

Originally published August 2011 and May 1988 respectively. Adapted and republished March 2015. Read by Jerry Paladino.

¹ Psalm 103:13.

² Colossians 1:17; Romans 11:36; Acts 17:28.

³ Romans 1:25.

⁴ Isaiah 55:9.

⁵ John 3:16.

A Child of God

David Brandt Berg

2021-08-19

If you believe in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you are one of God’s children, one of His saved and wonderful family of believers in His Son. You are a son or daughter of God, and your eternal home is heaven.¹

Although you may not look like a child, you had to become as a child in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven. For Jesus said, “You must be born again” to enter into His kingdom. That of course means to be born of His Spirit, to become a new creature in Christ Jesus, with old things passed away and all things become new—a wonderful new person with your sins forgiven and living an entirely new life for Jesus.²

Your spirit and personality were fashioned by the very hand of God Himself, and then given a special mission to show others His love and tell them the good news of the gospel of His wonderful salvation and how to receive Him as their Savior and therefore be bound for heaven to dwell in His presence forever.³

The eternal kingdom of God will cover the whole earth when Jesus comes again. He will make the world over again into an entirely new earth, with His new heaven resting upon it and accessible to those who love Him. In fact, He said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.” And He said, “Now I go to prepare a place for you, that there you may be with Me also.”⁴

God wants His children to live according to His truth and love in every way and share with others how much God loves them, how much He has done for them, how Jesus, His Son, died for every one of us so that God could forgive our sins—your sins, my sins—for that’s the only way we can be saved. Not through our own righteousness and piety, but through simple faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and in His blood shed on the cross of Calvary for the sins of all mankind.⁵

Anyone can receive His gift of love and free salvation by simply believing and receiving Jesus into their heart personally and telling others of His love, confessing Him before others. We are God’s children, and you are too, if you are a child of God and His love. For He is love.⁶

We believe in His holy book, the Bible, written by His prophets and disciples. Every word of it. We believe that it is all absolutely true. It was inspired by His Holy Spirit, to tell you about God’s love and His wonderful salvation from sin and His coming kingdom of heavenly peace on earth.⁷

Jesus called to the fishermen of His day, “Come. Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men! From henceforth you will catch men!”⁸ The souls of men are far more valuable than any fish those disciples could have ever caught. They began following Jesus about and witnessing His love and winning souls for Christ. Until finally He went away to heaven to prepare a place for them and for us, called the New Jerusalem. He’s going to take us there when He comes back again.⁹

God’s children are part of His big family. We belong to many different denominations and groups, but we are all the children of God, born again, saved believers in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and His death on the cross for our sins.¹⁰

But “strait is the gate”—that means very narrow—“and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life eternal, and few there be that find it,” because Jesus is that door, He is that way, He is the truth and the life. As He told His disciples: “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”¹¹ Jesus is the only way to God and the only way to heaven.

Jesus tried to help the poor people and heal and feed them and save them and love them. He reached out even to the drunks and the harlots and the publicans and sinners, whom He said would enter in before the hypocritical religious leaders of their day. So they killed Him, their own Messiah—or He would have been if they had received Him.

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. For if it were of this world, then would My servants fight.” To His disciples, He said: “If you were of this world, the world would love his own, but because you are not of this world, therefore the world hates you.”¹² The kingdom of God is not like the kingdoms of this world, but the kingdom of God is within you, now.

The Bible says that Jesus is going to return to the earth. He’s going to appear in the clouds with bright light like lightning shining over all the earth, from the east to the west. He’s going to send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, the voice of God, and a great shout to call His own beloved children who are still alive to meet Him in the air.¹³ He promised it in His Word, and the Bible says, “So shall we ever be with the Lord. Comfort one another with these words.”¹⁴

Then will the curses of sin be removed, and we will live again as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden, in love and fellowship with God. That will be heaven on earth again, paradise regained.¹⁵

Have you not yet come to know God or His Son Jesus Christ? Perhaps you have been looking for answers to the problems of your life, the questions of why you’re here and where you’re going, and what for. Maybe you’re wondering about death and the hereafter.

God has the answer for all of these questions and problems and burdens of life. All you need to do is receive His Son, Jesus Christ, into your heart, and He will destine you to live in His love with Him forever on that beautiful new earth and in that heavenly new city.¹⁶

Your salvation is already paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for your sins on the cross of Calvary, and all you have to do is believe it and receive Him and repent of your sins and confess Him before others.¹⁷

It’s so wonderful to know Jesus personally, the Son of God, and His precious Holy Spirit! Once you have received Him and learned how much He loved you to save you by dying on the cross for your sins, you can spend the rest of your life telling others about Jesus and His love.

Originally published October 1985. Adapted and republished August 2021.
Read by Simon Peterson.

¹ John 1:12; Galatians 3:26; 1 John 3:1–2.

² Matthew 18:2,3; John 3:3–8; 1 Peter 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:17; John 3:16.

³ John 17:3.

⁴ John 14:2–3.

⁵ Romans 3:23, 6:23; Titus 3:5.

⁶ Romans 10:9–10; Matthew 10:32; 1 John 4:7–8.

⁷ 2 Timothy 3:16.

⁸ Matthew 4:19–20; Luke 5:10.

⁹ John 14:2–3.

¹⁰ Galatians 3:27–28; Revelation 7:9.

¹¹ Matthew 7:13–14; John 14:6.

¹² John 18:36, 15:19.

¹³ Matthew 24:29–31.

¹⁴ Matthew 24:29–31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16–18.

¹⁵ Revelation 20:1–4.

¹⁶ Jeremiah 33:3.

¹⁷ Hebrews 10:10; 1 Peter 2:24.

A Changed Relationship: Salvation Results

Peter Amsterdam

2020-10-05

God’s love for us is the motivation behind His plan of salvation, and that love was manifested in the death of His Son, Jesus, as a propitiation for our sins. The sacrificial death of Jesus resulted in a changed relationship between God and us. The price Jesus paid for our salvation was the supreme price; the sacrifice was immeasurable. Our redemption is due to the boundless love of God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Three significant results of Jesus’ death and resurrection are justification, adoption, and regeneration. These results bring about massive change in the lives of those who become reconciled to God through Jesus. Justification refers to our “legal” status before God, adoption speaks to our personal familial relationship with Him, and regeneration to a change in our spiritual nature.

Justification

Through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, God forgives our sins. They have been imputed to Christ, meaning they became His and are no longer ours. At the same time, Jesus’ righteousness has been imputed to those who receive Him and accept His gift of salvation, so God no longer sees us as sinners worthy of punishment, but rather as righteous in His sight. Our “legal” guilt and condemnation are removed, and the separation between God and us is no longer there.

Our justification means that God declares us righteous, or declares us no longer guilty and condemned. This doesn’t mean that we who have received His gift of salvation are now sinless, as we are all still sinners, but it means that “legally” we are seen by God as righteous.

All of this is God’s work, not our own. There is nothing we could do or achieve to deserve this forgiveness and righteousness. In His love He made the way for us to be righteous in His sight—not by our works or good deeds, but by His grace, mercy, and love. It’s a gift of love, costly on God’s side, free on ours. “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”¹

Scripture makes it clear that people are not saved by being good or doing good works or keeping the laws of Moses—or anything we do ourselves. Salvation, which results in justification, depends solely on God and His plan. All we have to do is believe that God has made it available through Jesus and accept it by faith.²

A beautiful feature of justification is that, as Christians, we no longer need to feel anxiety regarding our standing with God. Though we still sin, our status of having the righteousness of Christ does not change. We no longer need to question whether we’ve done enough or are close enough to God to merit salvation. God has done it all, and through Jesus’ death and resurrection we are and will always be seen as righteous by God.

When we sin, we need to repent and ask God to forgive us, as well as actively strive to become stronger in resisting temptation. The Bible teaches that we will appear before the judgment seat of Christ in the afterlife. However, sin doesn’t cause us to lose our salvation or justification, and “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”³

The love and sacrifice of God, through Jesus’ death on the cross, has resulted in our justification before God. It has removed our separation and has reconciled us with Him. What a precious and valuable gift has been offered by the God of love to humanity!

Adoption

We experience another significant change in our position and relationship with God through salvation. With sin no longer separating us from God, our relationship with God changes, as we become part of God’s family—we become His children. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”⁴

This change of relationship, this entry into God’s family as His children, is called adoption. We are not the sons and daughters of God in the same sense as Jesus, who is the only begotten Son, but we are adopted into His family. In one sense this change is a legal one, since as God’s children we become heirs of God with all the rights of heirs. But more than that, we now have a relationship based on being members of God’s family. God is our Father.

“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”⁵

While God was seen as Father in the Old Testament, the emphasis was more on God’s holiness, and that holiness largely defined the relationship between humans and God. The general portrayal of God in the Old Testament is that He is mighty, holy, pure, and separate, and sinful humans need to be humble before Him, obey Him, and venerate Him.

Redemption through Jesus changed this relationship to a much more personal one. We can now relate to God as a child relates to his or her loving father. This closeness to God as Father, and His love for us, is seen in things that Jesus said about His Father:

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”⁶“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”⁷“The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.”⁸

We see God’s deep love in our adoption. He didn’t have to invite us into His family, He didn’t have to adopt us, but He did. Adoption is an act of love by someone who is not obligated to take in, care for, and love a child—it is by choice. God doesn’t adopt us because of how great or wonderful we are, or because we do good things for Him. He adopts us because He loves us—He loves humanity. He made it possible—at great personal cost to Himself—for sinners, separated from Him, to be redeemed, to be forgiven, and to enter His family. This is the love, mercy, and kindness of our God, who is love.

Regeneration

Another result of Jesus’ death and resurrection in the lives of believers is a spiritual change which is referred to in the following ways: being born again, rebirth, regeneration, being born of the Spirit, and becoming a new creation.⁹

All of these concepts generally refer to a spiritual change which occurs in the heart of one who is redeemed by Christ. The Holy Spirit transforms the redeemed person’s sinful nature in a way that renews them and brings a spiritual change in the person. This new birth is the clean slate or fresh foundation on which the new Christian begins his or her spiritual life, and from that point forward can grow in it.

This rebirth is a result of belief in and acceptance of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for us. When someone believes in and accepts God’s plan of salvation, when they acknowledge that Jesus is their Savior, they are reborn. The person may or may not feel the change, but the change has occurred. They are born of God because they have believed in Him.

Becoming a new creation doesn’t mean that the original created nature of the individual no longer exists and is replaced, but rather signifies his or her sinful nature being changed or re-created. It’s a spiritual or moral renewal of the redeemed individual’s nature. It’s a new self that is in alignment with the likeness of God.

God’s loving plan of salvation has justified us so that we are seen by Him as righteous. We have become His children by adoption. We are members of His family and no longer separated from Him. We are heirs of eternal salvation and of God’s other promises. We also become a new creation, as we are born again. These precious gifts are the fruits of God’s costly love, of Jesus laying down His life for us. We have been reconciled to God, and nothing will ever change that.

“I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.^”10

Originally published November 2012. Excerpted and republished October 2020.
Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.

¹ Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV.

² Romans 10:9–10; Galatians 2:16.

³ 1 John 1:9.

⁴ John 1:12 NKJV.

⁵ Galatians 4:4–7 ESV.

⁶ Matthew 6:26 ESV.

⁷ Matthew 7:11 ESV.

⁸ John 16:27 ESV.

⁹ John 3:3–8; Titus 3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:17.

¹⁰ Romans 8:38–39.

A Citizen of Heaven

A compilation

2023-04-11

Where you come from is one of the most significant things about you. It forms your worldview, dictates your opportunities, and plays a major part in your identity. It’s one of the first things strangers ask one another. …

There’s a more concrete identity that goes far deeper than simply the personality we have or the place we come from. Whatever the image or color of our passports, if we’re a Christian, then our nationality doesn’t define us. Jesus does.

Philippians 3:20 puts it like this: “But, our citizenship is in heaven.”

Don’t misunderstand. Nationality is important and we should thank God for where He allows us to live. However, through adoption into the family of God, our primary allegiance isn’t to a flag, a state, or a country. It’s to Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to be a citizen of heaven?

Well, like a citizen of any country, there are benefits that come with our divine citizenship. We are under the protection of the King of kings, which is more powerful than any earthly army. We have permission to enter His presence at any time, just as we have the right to be in our home nation.

These benefits come with responsibilities too. Citizens adopt the culture and behaviors of their nation. As citizens of heaven, we have the responsibility to demonstrate God’s kingdom here on earth. That’s why Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

Wherever you’re reading this and wherever you’re from, you can choose today to live like a citizen of heaven. This mentality will transform the way you love and serve the world around you!—Fin Sheridan¹

*

A citizen is a person who legally belongs to a country and has the rights and protection of that country. Citizens adopt the culture and practices of the nation or kingdom to which they belong. …

When we are born again by faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:3), we are born into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 3:2; 7:21; Romans 14:17). Speaking of those who have had that spiritual rebirth, Philippians 3:20 says, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus spent much of His earthly ministry explaining the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 4:17). …

When God grants us citizenship in the kingdom of heaven, we become “new creatures” (2 Corinthians 5:17). He sends His Holy Spirit to indwell our spirits, and our bodies become His temple (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19–20). The Holy Spirit begins to transform our sinful, worldly desires into those that glorify God (Romans 12:1–2). His goal is to make us as much like Jesus as possible in this life (Romans 8:29). We are given the power and privilege of exiting the world’s flawed value system and living for eternity (1 John 2:15–17). To be adopted into the family of God means that we become citizens of an eternal kingdom where our Father is the King. Our focus turns toward eternal things and storing up treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19–20). We consider ourselves ambassadors to this earth until our Father sends for us and we go home (Ephesians 2:18–19; 6:20).

We live for a short time in these physical bodies, anticipating the bright future in our real home. While here, we share Abraham’s experience, living “like a stranger in a foreign country … looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:9–10).—GotQuestions.org²

*

When we join the kingdom of God through the grace of Jesus and the power of His resurrection, our citizenship is transferred from the world ruled by Satan to the heavenly kingdom ruled by God (John 3:3). … Philippians 3:20–21 says: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

The Bible tells us that our entry into this heavenly citizenship is like being born again (John 3:3; Matthew 3:2; 7:21; Romans 14:17). The Gospels record Jesus speaking of the kingdom of heaven repeatedly. He likened it to a field where wheat and weeds grew together, appearing similar. Jesus said the two would be identified and separated at harvest (Matthew 13:24–30). God knows the difference between those who belong to Him and those who only appear to. There are those who act like citizens of heaven, but have no relationship with Jesus and have not experienced a rebirth in their hearts (Matthew 7:21).

When we are reborn into the kingdom of heaven we are also made into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) by the Holy Spirit’s indwelling (John 14:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20; Ephesians 1:13–14). He then begins His work of transformation, replacing worldly desires with godly desires, making us more like Jesus (Romans 12:1–2; 8:29). Matthew 6:19–20 tells us that we can store up treasure in heaven. Additionally, as citizens of heaven, we are given the role of ambassador to others until we are recalled, in a way, back home (Ephesians 2:18–19; 6:20; 2 Corinthians 5:20–21).

Our time on earth is relatively short compared to eternity. We are called to live here as strangers in a land that is not our own, looking forward to living in our home land (Hebrews 11:9–10).—CompellingTruth.org³

*

Your citizenship is in heaven. Someday I will transform your lowly body so that it will be like My glorious body. You will have an eternity to enjoy your perfect, glorified body. So don’t be overly concerned about your physical condition now. Many of My followers cling desperately to their earthly lives when they are at the very portals of paradise. Yet once they let go and pass through that fine veil into heaven, they experience ecstatic Joy surpassing anything they’ve ever imagined!

Your times are in My hands. I have planned out all your days, and I know exactly how many you have left. Since your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, I expect you to take care of it, but I don’t want you to be too focused on its condition. This can make you anxious and distract you from My Presence. Instead, receive each day as a precious gift from Me. Look for both the pleasures and the responsibilities I’ve placed before you on your path. Hold My hand in joyful trust; I am always by your side.—Jesus⁴

*

God’s city is going to be perfect and pure and beautiful. In fact, it’s not going to be beautiful, it already is beautiful. Two thousand years ago Jesus told His disciples, “In My Father’s house are many mansions. … I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2–3). It will be the culmination, the ultimate of heaven on earth, inhabited only by heavenly beings and earthlings made heavenly, in a perfect atmosphere, a heavenly environment, with the most excellent housing the world has ever known, the whole place shining like precious stones and jewels. But best of all, it will be full of billions of people living in harmony and love with God and each other.

Will you be there? You can be. Jesus is waiting to welcome you there. You can receive Him as your Savior by saying a short prayer like this one:

Jesus, I believe that You are the Son of God and that You died for me. I ask You to come into my life, forgive me of my sins, and grant me the gift of eternal life in heaven. Thank You. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer with sincerity, then you are now a citizen of heaven, with full entry rights into the heavenly city of the future.—And not only a heavenly future but heaven in your heart and mind now. Jesus will be with you now and will be there to welcome you on the day that you pass through heaven’s gates.—Activated magazine

Published on Anchor April 2023. Read by John Laurence. Music by John Listen.

¹ https://www.praise.com/articles/what-does-mean-be-citizen-of-heaven.

² https://www.gotquestions.org/citizenship-in-heaven.html.

³ https://www.compellingtruth.org/citizenship-in-heaven.html.

⁴ Sarah Young, Jesus Always (Thomas Nelson, 2017).

The Real Victors of the Tribulation

We’re “More Than Conquerors” (Romans 8:37)

David Brandt Berg

1983-09-01

In the case of the outstandingly gifted prophets and prophetesses and witnesses of the last days, particularly the Tribulation period, their powers to fight off the Enemy and to continue to protect their witness and witnesses may be similar to some of the powers we’ll be using in the Millennium to force evildoers into submission. The Lord uses the words “rod of iron” (Revelation 2:27), which certainly symbolizes the use of force.

There comes a time when even good has to use force against evil, and this is certainly clear throughout the Bible, because force is almost the only thing that evil understands. That’s why the Lord says that the police are officers of God who bear not the sword in vain (Romans 13). This means they need to bear swords, weapons, and not in vain, which means that if necessary, they use them. Even some of Jesus’ disciples carried swords. But our weapons are not carnal but are much more powerful, unto the tearing down of strongholds, spiritual strongholds, fighting and opposing the spiritual wickedness in the spiritual realm (2 Corinthians 10:4).

Therefore, we have to have weapons that are more powerful than normal physical, carnal weapons. We have to have powerful spiritual weapons, and we don’t carry these in vain. We’re supposed to use them if necessary to resist the powers of evil and to protect ourselves from the Devil, and we even have some of these powers available now. Men and women of God have always had these powers available from the very beginning. God had to give godly people godly powers to defeat and oppose and defend themselves from the powers of the Devil.

So there’s nothing new about it, and it could happen with others and will happen definitely during the Tribulation when we need particularly strong powers for self-defense and to make our witness possible and to protect us to the very end. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any live Christians left for Jesus to rapture! We would all have been killed by the Enemy.

It says that power is going to be given to the Antichrist to overcome the organized church and to destroy its temporal power (Daniel 7:21–25; 8:24; Revelation 13:7). But that doesn’t mean that they’re going to defeat or dominate or destroy all of us, the true believers and those who have the supernatural powers and miraculous defenses of the Lord. “For they which do know their God shall do exploits and shall instruct many, but even some of these shall fall,” it says (Daniel 11:32–33). But when they fall, it says that they’ll be helped. The Lord is going to enable us to continue till the end and to survive all the onslaughts of the Antichrist and his forces. Otherwise there wouldn’t be anybody left to rapture. So the Lord is going to have to give His true believers, men and women of God, prophets and prophetesses and witnesses, supernatural, miraculous powers of self-defense and even of attack in order to survive and continue witnessing until the Lord comes.

It says that the Antichrist forces weren’t able to do anything against the final two witnesses until the very end because they were able to cause curses and plagues on the evil and to call down fire from God out of heaven to devour their enemies. That’s a picture of mighty men and women of God fighting a victorious battle over the demons of hell right until the very end, even though some of them were allowed to be martyrs. Obviously most of them are going to survive and endure all of that until the very coming of the Lord when they’re raptured out of it all, and that’s no little mean handful. It’s going to be millions. So they must have survived somehow with some kind of supernatural, miraculous help.

I believe, according to the Scriptures, that certain very powerful men and women of God like the ancient prophets and prophetesses of old are going to have miraculous powers to protect and defend their flocks and followers and help them to survive to the very end, the final great witnesses depicted in Revelation, even the famous two last witnesses described in Revelation 11. It doesn’t say that they are the only ones, but it shows how victorious they are right up to the very end, that the Antichrist and all his forces and all the forces of hell are not able to really touch them until only 3½ days before the Second Coming of the Lord and their rapture. Their bodies are left in the streets for 3½ days while the wicked rejoice over them, thinking they have won the victory, when suddenly to their surprise they arise from the dead and are raptured into the heavens at the Second Coming of the Lord (Revelation 11:11–12).

So I believe there are going to be millions of Christians who survive until the Rapture.—Some by hiding out in the wilderness as the Scripture says (Revelation 12:6,14), others by defying the forces of Satan face-to-face and being victorious over all the powers of the Enemy till the very end! “Where sin doth abound, grace doth much more abound” (Romans 5:20). And where satanic power is going to abound, then God’s power is going to much more abound to protect His own. God’s purpose is not going to be defeated; He’s going to have millions of witnesses right up to the end, at least 144,000.

The Tribulation period is not going to be a defeat for the church of God, for genuine Christians. It’s going to be a time of waging war on the Antichrist and all his forces right up to the end! Otherwise there’d be nobody to survive to be raptured. So don’t worry about it! Those who live during those times will have what it takes when the time comes—power for the hour, and every hour. Even at the darkest hour they’ll still have power for the hour to meet every difficulty and every problem and every opposition—the supernatural, miraculous power of God.

Just think, there will be nothing the Antichrist can do against the famous two witnesses of Revelation 11, nothing he can do to stop them until 3½ days before the Lord comes. Then he will be allowed to kill them, so that the cup of the iniquity of the wicked may be full, and while they’re actually rejoicing over their deaths, suddenly the Lord will come and resurrect them and rapture them. That in itself is a mighty victory, showing that God can even be victorious over the deaths of martyrdom and slaughter. What is death if you can be resurrected?—And be raptured on top of it! So it will still wind up a mighty victory for the Lord right in the sight of the whole world. And the world will be amazed, as the Lord will show His wrath then with a great earthquake and hail as He rains wrath on the wicked as He resurrects and raptures His saints.

So we don’t have to think that those who live through that time are just going to be cowering, hunted victims, although some may be. Obviously most are not going to be cowering but powering in their fight and battle and defense of the Gospel right up to the end, with all the forces of heaven on their side, including the curses and plagues of God on the Enemy, and the Lord’s defense by all kinds of strange monsters described in the Bible that appear during the Tribulation period to defend His children.

It is not a period of complete defeat and destruction as some have pictured, particularly some of our teachers and writers of the past who seemed to enjoy drawing the most gruesome kind of pictures to terrify us about that period. We’ve been given too much hell about the Tribulation. We need to show a little more of what heaven can do and is going to do for God’s children during that time of trial. There’s going to be a lot of hell—in fact, the most hell the world has ever known—but the world is going to get most of it, not the Christians! Although there’s going to be the most hell the world has ever known, there is also going to be the most power of heaven that we have ever known, the most heavenly power and defense and help and protection in order that we can be powerful witnesses to the truth right up to the end.

So why have this terrible picture of constant defeat of the saints and the Christians? The Tribulation period is not going to be a period of just defeats and horrors for the Christians. It’s going to be a time of probably our greatest victories and greatest battles and greatest powers that the true church has ever known, to defeat the forces of evil in spite of all the satanic power of the Antichrist forces of the Devil.

The Tribulation period is going to be mostly a time of horror and suffering for the Antichrist forces and his people. They’re the ones that are pictured as suffering the most, and in a sense, it’s the time of their greatest defeat. For despite the fact that they’ve finally got the whole world under their power and control, they still can’t defeat the true Christians or stop them or even stop their witness.

We need a picture of the Tribulation as a time of great battle, that’s true, a great struggle, great tribulation, but most of the horrors are for the world and the wicked, not for God’s children. It’ll be a time of some of our greatest victories and greatest witness and greatest miracles and greatest manifestations of the supernatural.

So we shouldn’t be always painting such a horrible gloomy picture of the Tribulation. It’s true, it’s going to be a time of great persecution and great battles. But it’s also going to be a time of great, phenomenal, supernatural, miraculous victories that will spare us and protect us and help us to survive and witness to the very Coming of the Lord, when “We which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). There are going to be a lot of us who are still alive and remain right to the end.

The Lord is going to take care of His children and He’s going to have mighty saints and men and women of God, prophets and prophetesses at the last day to continue our witness until the very end and the Coming of the Lord.

We need to show our people the other side of the Tribulation: the victorious view of what marvelous witnessing His children are going to do then, in which the whole world will know about us and even see us on television and hear of our mighty wonders and miracles and supernatural protection in spite of everything the Devil and his Antichrist can do. What a defeat for Satan to do everything he can to kill us and be unable to! How humiliating that’s going to be for the Antichrist when he has declared war on God’s people and said we should all be killed, and yet he can’t. That will surely be a time of frustration and humiliation for the Antichrist and his forces.

So why get so worried about the Tribulation? It’s going to be a period when God’s children are going to have a greater testimony and a greater witness and even more miraculous survival and supernatural defense, and in some ways it’s going to be a time of great victory and marvelous testimony, so that the whole world will know, and every last person that can possibly be saved is going to be saved. The whole world will hear the Gospel and our witness will have gone out to the ends of the earth. Even angels will be preaching the Gospel from the heavens so that the whole world will hear it and be without excuse, and so that everyone who can possibly be saved then will be saved.

The greater the battle, the greater the victory; the greater the test, the greater the testimony. And the greater the trial or tribulation, the greater the triumph! You can’t have a triumph and a victory and a testimony without a war and without battles. So it is going to be a time of great battle and great war between the forces of good and evil, but it’s also going to be a time of great victory, tremendous triumph and terrific testimonies of the victories of the forces of God over the forces of evil. For the greater the battle, the greater the victory, and the more tremendous the trial, the greater the triumph!

So quit looking on the Tribulation as a horrible defeat with nothing but persecution and suffering. There will be some of that, but I’m convinced from Scripture and the nature of God and His dealings with man that it’s going to be primarily a time of great victory over the forces of Satan and tremendous triumph over the Antichrist wicked. So don’t fear it. Don’t worry about it!

When you watch those Superman and Wonder Woman movies and others of that sort, you don’t really worry about what’s going to happen to them, because no matter what happens to them, you know they always win in the end. They’ve got to win. They’re the hero and the heroine of the series. If anything happens to them, it would be the end of the series. God’s people are the heroes and the heroines. We’ve got to win! The forces of God cannot be defeated and the plan of God cannot be frustrated. We’re bound to win. We can’t lose!

Copyright © 1983 The Family International.

The Book of Daniel Chapter 12, “The End and Beyond”

https://youtu.be/5CKJI3hLbqE?si=LG9VYoRQGrjuDG2M

Daniel 11-a, verses 1 to 31

https://youtu.be/3Ff4YxocXQ0?si=HnSkQzndF41y-lcR

Daniel 11 b, “The Last 3½ Years”

https://youtu.be/3iP-H6LhlcU?si=E_sqKhMknGiUkqWe

Mark McMillion

The Book of Daniel Chapter 10

https://youtu.be/HsXKPn5boDA?si=cbtiEzGMCNngmxLw

Daniel 9-a The 69 Weeks

https://youtu.be/Lcye3OtZS64?si=wqR0TI1iKbe3VoDW

The Last 7 Years -Daniel 9:27-

https://youtu.be/iPRDpUvrldo?si=yEg8dx9E-oBx906_

Alexander the Great comes to Jerusalem

https://youtu.be/75O_iv6uqTk?si=zvjjXh8-7Ha7nFem

Daneil chapter 8

https://youtu.be/IS7OPcimXds?si=WAmGz–aQsrSpyaf

Daniel chapter 7

Daniel Chapter 2

https://youtu.be/KI0L74c-VUE?si=-NZJY_HsMfv8KNIJ

 

An Introduction to Prophecy in History

Daniel First – Prophecies of Daniel

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! Psalm 100:4

With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving he shall bring his offering with loaves of leavened bread. Leviticus 7:13

and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,” the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, 2 Chronicles 5:13

proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds. Psalm 26:7

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, Psalm 50:14

The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” Psalm 50:23

I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! Psalm 95:2

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! Psalm 100:4

And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy! Psalm 107:22

I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. Psalm 116:17

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre! Psalm 147:7

Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who celebrate. Jeremiah 30:19

Thanksgiving:

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 1 Corinthians 1:4

For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 4:15

You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 2 Corinthians 9:11

For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 2 Corinthians 9:12

Thanksgiving and Prayer

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, Ephesians 1:16

Philippians 1:3

Thanksgiving and Prayer

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, Philippians 1:3

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6

Thanksgiving and Prayer

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, Colossians 1:3

rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:7

For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 1 Thessalonians 3:9

Pray for All People

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 1 Timothy 2:1

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 1 Timothy 4:4

saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Revelation 7:12   (ESV)

Creation or Chaos?

David Brandt Berg

2020-04-27

If you look closely at creation, you can’t help but believe in the God who created it. If you have a reasoning mind, all you have to do is look at the world around you to know that somebody had to design it, pattern it, put it together, and make it work as it does. It’s obvious when you look around you that our world, the planets, the solar system and the universe didn’t just happen by accident. Somebody had to plan it and figure it out, because God’s creation works so beautifully, in such synchrony, so systematically, so perfectly.

God designed it; it is all created by Him. If you look at the sea, the sky, the clouds, the mountains, the valleys, the trees, the flowers, they’re all virtually shouting, “There is a God. Look at what a beautiful world He made for you to live in!”

The Bible says that “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”¹ Many people who claim they don’t believe in God actually do believe, but they’re in rebellion against God. They don’t want to confess that He exists, because if they did, then they would have to recognize Him. And if they recognize Him, then they would have to admit that they owe Him some kind of acknowledgment, obeisance, and obedience.

The greatest proof of the existence of God is His creation. That’s why the theory of evolution is so damnable and ridiculous, because it tries to explain away creation by saying that it just happened by accident and it threw itself together.

“For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”² His invisible existence is manifested or evidenced by the things you can see—His creation. The existence of our invisible God is proven by His visible creation.

That is why many people reject creationism and opt to believe in chaotic evolution. If the world and its inhabitants are God’s creation, then they’re His property—and if they’re His property, then He’s got the right to be boss—and they don’t want God to be boss. Therefore “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.”³

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”⁴ They decided that they could do without God and the Bible, and so they became absolute fools, who “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man … Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.”⁵

Evolution—the theory that it all just happened by accident, that it all just kind of fell together—is the hardest thing in the world to believe. Just as there had to be a watchmaker behind the synchronized perfection and order of every watch, so there had to be a Creator behind the synchronized perfection of the universe.

Evolutionary theory has become the general theme of modern scientific theory regarding the Earth’s beginning. And yet, evolution has never been proved to be either a truth or a fact. There is no proof for evolution—it has to be believed. Even Charles Darwin, who developed this theory, confessed that “the belief in natural selection (evolution) must at present be grounded entirely on general considerations… When we descend to details, we can prove that no one species has changed … nor can we prove that the supposed changes are beneficial, which is the groundwork of the theory.” Some of the fossils that were supposed to be the missing links to prove Darwin’s theory were debunked. Some were even confessed fakes, like Piltdown Man and Java Man.

“In the beginning, God,” not chaos, not some nebulous cloud of gases, but “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The first verse of the first chapter of the first book of God’s book, the Bible.

“And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.”⁶ Mankind didn’t look like some ape man or monkey, or some fish or bird. “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”⁷ Creation is the premise and preface and foundation of the entire Bible.

Evolution has no foundation in fact; there’s no evidence for it and no discovery has been made to prove it. The Bible prophesies that in the last days, “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”⁸ This time has come and these days are here, and people’s ears have turned from the truth to fables—like evolution.

Do you question the existence of God? Take a look at the world around you, the trees, the flowers, the sea, the sky! Do you wonder whether God loves you? You can see His love and you can feel it in the beautiful world He’s given you to live in.

God is the only one who can give meaning to the universe and purpose to the planets and love to our hearts and peace to our minds and health to our bodies and rest to our spirits and happiness to our lives and joy to our souls. He gives us the wisdom to know that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” and “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.”⁹ Place your faith in Jesus and His truth. God bless you!

Originally published January 1983. Adapted and republished April 2020.
Read by John Laurence.

¹ Psalm 14:1.

² Romans 1:20.

³ Romans 1:28.

⁴ Romans 1:21–22.

⁵ Romans 1:23, 25.

⁶ Genesis 1:27.

⁷ Genesis 2:7.

⁸ 2 Timothy 4:3–4.

⁹ Proverbs 9:10; 1 Corinthians 3:19.

159 – Jesus—His Life and Message: John 14: I Go to the Father

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2021-06-29

(You can read about the intent for and overview of this series in this introductory article.)

In this last segment of John chapter 14, Jesus is still speaking with His disciples after Judas Iscariot has left the dinner. Having told His disciples that the words He had spoken to them were not His own, but were from His Father who sent Him, Jesus continued:

These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.¹

His time with His disciples was soon coming to an end, and He was speaking to them while He was still able to. His final teaching to His disciples continues on through the next three chapters in this Gospel.²

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.³

Jesus then began to speak to His disciples about the Holy Spirit, whom His Father was going to send to them. The Greek word paraklētos is translated here (ESV, as well as in NAU and NAS) as Helper, and in other Bible translations as Comforter (KJV), Counselor (NIV, CSB), or Advocate (NLT).

Earlier in this chapter, the Helper was called the Spirit of truth,⁴ but now is referred to as the Holy Spirit. Jesus points out that the Holy Spirit will be sent by the Father in the name of the Son, which shows that the Spirit is closely related to both the Father and the Son. The Spirit’s mission comes from both the Father and the Son. Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit is “sent” from the Father; however, the Spirit is sent in Jesus’ name, meaning in response to Jesus’ intercession.

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.⁵

The Spirit would be the guide and teacher of the church and would remind the disciples of the things that Jesus had taught them. While the disciples didn’t always understand the importance of what Jesus taught, and they probably forgot some of what He said during the time He was with them, Jesus told them the Holy Spirit would bring back to their memories and emphasize all that He had said to them.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.⁶

The peace which Jesus gives comes from the presence of the Holy Spirit within believers, which He has been speaking about. When speaking of peace here, Jesus is speaking about a special gift He is giving to His disciples.

In the Hebrew language, “peace” is often used as a greeting when someone is arriving or as a way of saying goodbye.⁷ However, here Jesus isn’t using this word in this manner. Having stated that He gives peace, He makes the point that the peace He gives is different from the peace the world gives. The peace He gives doesn’t depend on outward circumstances; it is an inner peace. Since He gives such inner peace, He can tell them not to be troubled in heart or afraid.

“You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”⁸ 

Earlier in this chapter (verse 3), Jesus stated that He was going to go away and then come back again. Here the focus is on His departure. If they really loved Him, they would rejoice that He was returning to the Father.

Jesus returning to His Father is a joyful matter; though for the disciples, the thought of it likely brought sorrow, as it would mean Jesus would no longer be with them. Jesus’ statement that the Father is greater than I can present some confusion, as the understanding of the Trinity is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all equally God. In this instance, however, when stating that the Father is greater than I, Jesus was not referring to His essential being but to His incarnate state as a human being at the time, which involved a certain subordination.

Now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.⁹

What Jesus had told them would have a greater impact on the disciples in their future, when these things would come to pass. They would remember what He predicted, and it would increase their faith. They would grow in their trust and belief in Him when they saw His words come true.

I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.¹⁰

Jesus said He would not speak much more with His disciples, because Satan was coming. Judas and the soldiers were on their way to arrest Jesus, and in them Jesus saw the coming of the evil one. Satan has no claim or hold on Jesus, however; as his hold on people is due to their sins, and Jesus was without sin.

He pointed out that He does exactly what the Father has commanded Him to do. While this was true throughout His life, in this context the focus is probably on the cross and Jesus’ soon-coming death. He was about to lay down His life in obedience to the command of His Father, and in doing so, He would demonstrate to the world that He loved the Father.

He then instructed His disciples to stand in preparation to leave. Some commentators feel that this seems out of place, as in the next three chapters Jesus is still speaking with and instructing His disciples, indicating that they probably remained in the room during that time. Other commentators propose that while Jesus and the disciples were walking toward the garden of Gethsemane, He continued to teach them. We can’t really know, neither does it matter. The Gospel writer most likely had a reason for putting things in the order that he did, and because he did, we are blessed with a beautiful account of Jesus’ last teaching before His death on the cross.

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ John 14:25.

² John 15, 16, 17.

³ John 14:26.

⁴ John 14:17.

⁵ John 14:16–17.

⁶ John 14:27.

⁷ John 20:19, 21, 26.

⁸ John 14:28.

⁹ John 14:29.

¹⁰ John 14:30–31.

Copyright © 2021 The Family International.

158 – Jesus—His Life and Message: John 14: The Helper

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2021-06-15

(You can read about the intent for and overview of this series in this introductory article.)

John chapter 14, which we started going over in the previous article, continues with Jesus speaking to His disciples just prior to His arrest and trial. Earlier, He had spoken to them about believing in Him. He had also given the disciples a wonderful promise:

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.¹

While Jesus continued instructing His disciples, He changed the topic in verse 15 as He began to speak to them about the Holy Spirit.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.²

Jesus began this short segment with an “If” clause: If you love me, you will keep my commandments.³ He reminded His disciples that if they truly loved Him, their love would be shown by their keeping His commandments. He makes this point again in verse 21. His language echoes the language of the Old Testament, where God speaks of showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.⁴

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.…⁵

Soon, Jesus would no longer be physically with the disciples, but in His place, the Father was going to send another Helper who would remain with them permanently. In this translation (ESV, and also NAS and NAU), it says that the Father will send a Helper; other translations refer to a Comforter (KJV), Counselor (NIV, CSB), or Advocate (NLT, TNIV). The Helper will be with believers forever; the Holy Spirit will not be taken away.

…Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.⁶

The Advocate is now referred to as the “Spirit of truth.” This is interesting, as Jesus had just described Himself as “the truth,” and earlier in this Gospel we read that “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”⁷ Truth is connected to the Trinity.

Jesus then contrasted the attitude of the world with that of the disciples when it comes to their attitude toward the Spirit. The world neither sees, meaning that they do not perceive, nor can they accept the Spirit. They are unaware of the Spirit’s activities, presence, or existence, and therefore they don’t enter into relationship with the Holy Spirit. However, believers do know the Holy Spirit because the Spirit dwells within them.

Jesus went on to speak of the way He would manifest Himself to His disciples.

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.⁸

Three times in this Gospel Jesus has spoken about going away from His disciples.⁹ Earlier in this chapter, He stated that after going away He would return. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.¹⁰ In that instance, His coming again is understood to be referring to His second coming. However, in this instance, when Jesus says the world will see me no more, but you will see me, He is speaking about His resurrection, His rising from the dead. Though He would die, He would also rise from the dead and once again physically be with His disciples.

In saying yet a little while, Jesus indicated that He was not referring to events in the far future, but rather was speaking about what was to happen soon. After His soon-coming crucifixion, the world would see Him no more. However, in that day, after His resurrection, His disciples would see Him. In the book of Acts we are told that after Jesus rose from the dead, He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.¹¹

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was the guarantee that His disciples (and all future believers) would not be overcome by death. Because I live, you also will live. Since Jesus rose from the dead, all believers will live forever—a point that Jesus made earlier in this Gospel. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.¹²

When saying, In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you, Jesus was referring to the literal day of His resurrection. Once the disciples saw the risen Jesus, and had spent 40 days with Him, they would understand more fully about Christ’s indwelling in the Father and the mutual indwelling of Christ and believers. Jesus was in His Father and the disciples were in Jesus as He was in them.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.¹³

Those who make Jesus’ commands their own, who take them into their hearts and souls, are the ones who love Him. He speaks not only of “having” the commandments but also of “keeping” them. This points to the importance of obeying Jesus’ teachings and making them part of our daily lives. Those who do are those who love Him, and those who love Him are loved by the Father. It is to these that Jesus says He will manifest Himself. He doesn’t explain this further, but makes the point that in some way He will manifest Himself to those who love Him.

Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”¹⁴

According to two lists of the disciples (Luke 6:14–17 and Acts 1:13), this Judas is referred to as the son of James. Some commentators say that he may be the same person as Thaddeus, who is mentioned in other lists of the apostles.¹⁵ This Judas asked a question that was probably on the minds of the others. He wanted to know what it meant that Jesus would manifest Himself to the disciples but not to the world. Judas likely had standard Jewish thinking in that he expected the Messiah to show his glory in the eyes of all the people, and it was sounding like something had changed.

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”¹⁶

Earlier Jesus made the point that real love is expressed in deeds.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.¹⁷

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.¹⁸

Those who love Jesus will keep His word, meaning that they obey His word in their daily lives, rather than just having knowledge of His word. He also stated that those who love Him and keep His word will be loved by the Father, and that both the Father and the Son will make our home with him. Such a home is not a temporary place to lodge, but a permanent dwelling. Jesus was saying that believers will experience the presence of God in their lives.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.¹⁹ 

Jesus also pointed out the reverse or negative side. Those who don’t love Jesus will not keep His words, His teaching. This Gospel views love as something practical rather than as something emotional. Love involves obedience. Jesus stresses that His words, the things He teaches, are not His own but are the Father’s. He has said this several times throughout this Gospel.

My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.²⁰

I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.²¹

I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.²²

The Son, who was sent by the Father, delivers the Father’s message.

(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ John 14:13–14.

² John 14:15–17.

³ John 14:15.

⁴ Exodus 20:6.

⁵ John 14:16.

⁶ John 14:17.

⁷ John 4:23–24.

⁸ John 14:18–20.

⁹ John 13:33, 36; 14:2–4.

¹⁰ John 14:3.

¹¹ Acts 1:3.

¹² John 6:57.

¹³ John 14:21.

¹⁴ John 14:22.

¹⁵ Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18.

¹⁶ John 14:23.

¹⁷ John 14:15.

¹⁸ John 14:21.

¹⁹ John 14:24.

²⁰ John 7:16.

²¹ John 8:28.

²² John 12:49.

Copyright © 2021 The Family International.

Proof of the Trinity

David Brandt Berg

1985-04-10

Daniel 7, verse 13, says: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven.” He’s always coming in the clouds. He went away in clouds, comes in clouds, always associated with clouds. “The Son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of days.” The Ancient of days is God the Father. Here we have one of the most specific verses about Jesus in the Old Testament. They bring the Son before the Father.

The Jewish people often say, “You worship three gods. We just worship the one god.” Well, I’ll grant you the Old Testament says a lot about one God, but when they’re saying one God, they usually say Elohim, which is the plural.

They have been told by their rabbis and they have recited it since they were little children, “The Lord our God is one God.” But in the Hebrew it literally says, “The Lord our Gods are one.” Elohim, plural!

The secret of life, the secret of knowing why you’re here, is to know that someday you’re going to die. So that makes you want to do all you can while you’re alive. Get the mission accomplished that you’re here for. Finish the work. Isn’t that what Jesus said as He hung on the cross? He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). “It is finished!” He came, He did His job, and He finished it. It was finished when He died.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful that when you die you’re able to say, “It is finished. I did the job You gave me to do, Lord. I finished it.” He says to you as He greets you in heaven, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” If you were faithful, you did it; if you were good, you did a good job of it. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

That’s the whole idea of life. That’s what you were put here for! How does the catechism put it? The whole duty of man is to love God and enjoy Him forever.

But of course if you know and love Him, you’re not just going to sit around and twiddle your thumbs. You’re going to get out and get busy for the Lord, and go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, hoping as many as possible will get saved and will be up there in heaven with you. I’ll tell you, stars like that in your crown will give you a crown of glory! “He that winneth souls is wise, and they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars” (Daniel 12:3). The world’s got their stars, but God’s stars are going to outshine anything that’s ever been before. If you are a soul winner, a witness, you serve the Lord well, you’re going to shine in heaven.

Daniel 7:13 is a good verse to use when witnessing to Jews. And you can also give them the first chapter of Genesis, “Let Us make man in our image—male and female” (Genesis 1:26). That’s more than just one personality. Then you can use that one also if you know your Hebrew. They say, “The Lord our God is one God.” Actually the Scripture says in the Hebrew, “The Lord our Gods are one!” This is a marvelous verse proving the plural personality of the Godhead or the Trinity.

Copyright © 1985 The Family International.

Seducing and Beguiling Others

Word Topics

1998-01-01

Definitions: To seduce means to lead away from duty or proper conduct; to entice or beguile into a desired state or position; to win over; attract; to induce to engage in sex. Beguile means to deceive by cunning means; to distract the attention through trickery or charm.

1. Seduction and deceit are commonly used devices of the Devil.

• Genesis 3:1-6 — [Satan used lies and promises of supernatural powers to tempt Eve to disobey God.] Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? ² And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: ³ But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. ⁴ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: ⁵ For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. ⁶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. [See also Genesis 3:13.]
• 1 Kings 11:1-12 — [Solomon’s many unbelieving wives drew his heart away from God and brought about his demise as well as the downfall of his kingdom.] King Solomon loved many strange [foreign] women. ² Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. ⁴ For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. ⁶ And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. ⁸ Likewise did he [build pagan temples] for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
• Proverbs 16:29 — A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good.
• 2 Corinthians 11:3 — But I fear, lest by any means, as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity [sincerity, purity] that is in Christ. [See also John 8:44b.]

2. Seducing spirits are one of the signs of the Time of the End.

• Matthew 24:24 — For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
• 1 Timothy 4:1 — Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the Latter Times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.
• 2 Timothy 3:1-9,13 — [Paul describes the wickedness of man in the “Last Days”:] This know also, that in the Last Days perilous times shall come. … ¹³ Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
• 2 Peter 3:3b,4 — There shall come in the Last Days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, ⁴ And saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation.
• Jude 1:16-19 — These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. ¹⁷ But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; ¹⁸ How that they told you there should be mockers in the Last Time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. ¹⁹ These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
• Revelation 12:9 — [The Devil’s ability to deceive the world reaches its peak in the Endtime.] And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
• Revelation 13:13,14b — [The Devil uses signs and wonders to seduce and trick the world.] And he [the false prophet] doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, ^14b And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the Beast.

3. The use of charm to deceive:

• Psalm 12:2 — They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
• Proverbs 9:13-18 — A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple [cheaply seductive], and knoweth nothing. ¹⁴ For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, ¹⁵ To call passengers who go right on their ways: ¹⁶ Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, ¹⁷ Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. 18 But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of Hell.
• Jeremiah 5:26-31 — [Beware the seduction of worldly commercialism, materialism and religion:] For among My people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. ²⁷ As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. ²⁸ They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. ²⁹ Shall I not visit for these things? Saith the Lord: shall not My Soul be avenged on such a nation as this? ³⁰ A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; ³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
• Matthew 7:15,16a — Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. ^16a Ye shall know them by their fruits.
• Acts 20:30 — Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
• Romans 16:17b,18b — [Paul warns of those who cause division and who lead people astray while pretending to be “good.”] Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. … ^18b By good words and fair speeches [they] deceive the hearts of the simple [naïve].
• 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 — For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. ¹⁵ Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
• Colossians 2:4,8,18 — And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. … ⁸ Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. … ¹⁸ Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.
• 2 Peter 2:3a — [False teachers who deceive for profit:] And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.
• 2 Peter 2:18,19 — For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean [newly] escaped from them who live in error. ¹⁹ While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. [See also Acts 20:30.]

4. Charmers and seducers use a pretense of love in their attempt to achieve selfish goals.

• Ezekiel 33:31b — For with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
• Genesis 39:7,10 — [Potiphar’s wife attempts to seduce Joseph:] And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. … ¹⁰ And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. [See also verses 11-20, which show how the master’s wife, when she couldn’t get her way, lied, falsely accusing Joseph, resulting in his imprisonment.]
• Judges 16:6,16,17a — And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. ¹⁶ And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death; ^17a That he told her all his heart. [Upon learning the secret of Samson’s strength, Delilah betrayed him to the Philistines, who imprisoned and blinded him.]
• Matthew 14:6-8 — But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. ⁷ Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. ⁸ And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger.

5. Considering where their “come-ons” lead to, ungodly seducers really aren’t so “charming” after all!

• Proverbs 5:3-5 — [In Proverbs, the analogy of a seductress is often used to represent materialism or the worldly materialistic system.] For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: ⁴ But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. ⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Hell.
• Proverbs 7:21-25 — With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. ²² He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; ²³ Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. ²⁴ Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. ²⁵ Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

6. Those who are spiritually attuned see through the charm of ungodly seducers and distance themselves.

• Deuteronomy 13:6a,8 — If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, … ⁸ Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him.
• Proverbs 1:10 — My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
• Proverbs 2:10,11,16 — When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; ¹¹ Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: ¹⁶ To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
• Ephesians 4:14 — That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
• Ephesians 5:6-11 — Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. ⁷ Be not ye therefore partakers with them. ⁸ For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: ⁹ (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
• 2 Timothy 3:5,6 — Having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. ⁶ For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.

7. Truth resisted loses its power over the soul; and the Lord lets us be deceived or deluded because of our rejection of His Word.

• Isaiah 66:4,5 — I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not. ⁵ Hear the Word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His Word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My Name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
• Ezekiel 12:2 — Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.
• Ezekiel 14:7-9 — For every one … which separateth himself from Me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me; I the Lord will answer him by Myself. … ⁹ And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:10b,11 — Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
• James 1:13,14 — Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: ¹⁴ But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
• [See also 1 Kings 13.]

8. God can keep us from temptation.

• Psalm 32:7 — Thou art my hiding place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.
• Psalm 121:4-8 — Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. ⁵ The Lord is thy keeper. … ⁷ The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. ⁸ The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
• Proverbs 3:26 — For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.
• Proverbs 6:23,24 — For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: ²⁴ To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
• 2 Thessalonians 3:3 — But the Lord is faithful, Who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
• 2 Timothy 4:18 — And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His Heavenly Kingdom: to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

9. Prayers for the Lord to keep us from the seductions of the worldly system:

• Psalm 16:1 — Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust.
• Psalm 25:21 — Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on Thee.
• Psalm 40:11 — Withhold not Thou Thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth continually preserve me.
• Psalm 116:6 — The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me.
• Psalm 140:1 — Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
• Proverbs 2:8 — He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of His saints.
• Matthew 6:13 — And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
• John 17:15 — [Jesus ever lives to intercede for us.] I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

Copyright (c) 1998 by Aurora Productions

Life After Death (part 2)

What happens when you die? A review of Dr. R. A. Moody’s Life After Life

David Brandt Berg

1978-06-01

“But they didn’t all have good experiences, and it wasn’t all good. Some of them were really worried and some of them had a lot of fear and were really frightened in the experience. Others felt very lonely and deserted, and others felt very convicted and guilty about some things.”

The moment they met the being of light, they all felt good, very good. They felt love and compassion, understanding and sympathy. You can’t say that this person actually said anything, was the testimony of all of them. Nothing actually came in words, but the message was, “Do you think you’re ready to die? What have you accomplished with your life? Are you satisfied with the life you lived?”

Obviously, God chose in these cases, where the people were allowed to come back, people He felt deserved another chance, so they must’ve been fairly good folks. A lot of them felt like God was actually giving them a choice as to whether they wanted to stay right then, if they were satisfied with what they’d done, or if they wanted to go back and do what they were supposed to do.

When the loved one or friend or somebody showed up to guide them, it was not always someone they knew personally, but sometimes an angel or a saint or some religious personage whom they admired, perhaps because that particular dying individual did not have any loved ones who were saved and in heaven. No one they knew well was there to meet them, but it was somebody that they knew of, who gave them confidence and reassurance, like one of the apostles or saints, or somebody that they recognized, like an angel or someone they knew was sent to guide them.

The preceding terrible loneliness, the self-examination, conviction, and feelings of guilt were sometimes a very strong emotional experience, a very disturbing emotional experience, an emotional upheaval in which some of them were really upset at having found out they were dead. Before they met anybody, while they were still all alone, they had a very big emotional trauma of sorrow and conviction. But some of them didn’t. With some it was just all a great thrill, and they didn’t feel bad at all. I’m sure it’s according to your individual conscience.

Then there was the guide, the trip, the light and the question. The question varied a bit with different ones, but was usually about the same: “Are you ready to die? Do you want to die? Are you satisfied with the life you’ve lived? Do you feel like you’ve accomplished what you should have?” Then, as though to help them with the answer and not even waiting for their reply, suddenly this being of light begins to show them their entire life. You have heard of this before, how people just about to die or get killed, suddenly review their whole life. It often happens before somebody dies, or thinks they’re about to die.

One guy went to sleep at the wheel of a big tractor-trailer truck, and it turned over and slid toward a bridge abutment, and he knew it was going to crash. In the few seconds between the time the truck tipped over until it hit the bridge abutment, he saw his entire life. He went through kindergarten, grade school, grammar school, high school, college—the whole thing in just one flash, every detail. After people come back, they can remember their past life vividly, like they have never remembered it before—every single thing for a while, then it begins to fade.

They all said this life review was in full color, three-dimensional and in motion. They did not feel as if they were actually in it, but they watched themselves from a little child. The history usually began from about two to seven years of age, the age when God begins to hold you accountable for your sins.

They saw all the little selfish things they did against their sister, all kinds of little things they did that were unkind or unloving with their playmates—every little detail, everything they ever did. And the good things, too: how that sometimes they had been sacrificial and would surrender a toy to a brother or a playmate, and all that sort of thing.

You see your whole life right up to the present. Yet when it was all over, they felt this review was very fair. Nearly all of them had this experience; if they got as far as the being of light, they were shown this review of their whole life. It’s like the Lord opens the book of remembrance (Malachi 3:16; Daniel 7:10; Revelation 20:12).

At the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10), He opens the book and turns the pages, and you’ll see scene after scene after scene, all the way through your whole life. Yet when it’s all over, the book closes, and they have the feeling that this review only lasted a few moments, or even a split second.

They saw it all from start to finish, the whole thing, like in one big scene. See what miracles God can do?

At the review, every one of them had the feeling that this was not being shown to them because the angel had to examine their history, but it was being shown to remind them of their life, as though God was letting them be their own judge of what they’d accomplished.

You see for yourself where you failed and where you succeeded, and you know it’s the truth. The being of light sort of fades out of the picture while your history is going on, but then at the end reappears and asks, “Now what do you want to do? Do you want to go back and do better and finish your work and help others? Do you want another chance? Or are you satisfied and want to stay?” It’s like being given a second chance.

It reminds me of some of those quiz programs where, if you made it on the first question and won, now you answer the next one for more money—and you may get more or you may go broke. In other words, “Do you want to die now and get what reward you are going to get as is? Or do you want to go back and do better, so you’ll have a better reward?”

Most of them decide they want to go back and do better. But a few don’t want to go back, because life has been very hard. They don’t even like life, they don’t like the old world, and they are so thrilled and happy in this new world, they even dread the thought of having to go back.

Others he has to almost make go back: “You have to go back and finish what you started to do,” or, “You have to go back and help some people,” or, “You have to go back and take care of your children,” etc.

Next comes the barrier. By this time you have come to a place of decision, the point past which there is no return. The barrier appears sometimes as a wall, a gate, a fence, a stream, a body of water, a mist or a cloud—it’s represented in different ways. But they have the distinct feeling that if they go any further, there’s no going back; they’ll pass the point of no return.

The next step is the return to their body. Most of them expressed that this was the saddest part, having to go back to their body, especially when they’re all messed up in a wreck or they’re undergoing a painful operation and sick or injured and in pain. Some of them really resented having to go back, and some pled not to have to go back, but some of them were compelled to go back anyway.

Once they returned, they had a strong impression, a distinct feeling that they should tell others about what happened. So the Holy Spirit put a burden on their hearts to witness it, that it was to be a testimony and warning to others as well as themselves, to live better lives.

But then comes the shock they get when nobody believes them. People think they’ve lost their minds. So they stop telling about it until they finally meet somebody or find out about somebody who has had a similar experience, and they are anxious to share and compare notes and discuss it with somebody else. And finally, it makes a real change for the better in all their lives.

The one who’s come back from the dead finds the experience has profoundly changed and affected his whole life, and he lives differently after that. So even though they may stop telling people, they live better lives; they try to help people and be more loving, etc.

The principal message that the being of light was trying to get across to them was the importance of love. And the secondary message was learning or wisdom. Keep your minds open to the truth, and of course, the Word. They were definitely given the impression that in the afterlife they would continue to learn, and that there was a lot left to learn. We will still be learning lessons even in the afterlife. This is a process which will continue. Isn’t that beautiful?

One of the common sights that they saw when they got to the border was the city of light, brilliant shining buildings surrounded by beautiful fields and trees and hills and streams. Isn’t that wonderful?

They looked across the border and they saw the city of light and the beautiful landscape. It shows you that the next world is not going to be too much different from this one—only better. They also all testified to the brilliance of the colors. One woman said the city was a city of light, a sort of pale golden light, more beautiful than anything she had ever seen on earth (Revelation 21 and 22).

It so encouraged me to read this, to find out that so many other people have had the same experiences as me. Obviously his stories are from the people who came back, those who died and then were allowed to come back. So they must’ve been good folks headed in the right direction. I hope this will encourage you, to know a bit about what’s going to happen to you when you die.

 

(Prayer:) We thank You for this book, Lord, and how You’re trying everything You can to persuade people of the existence of the world of the spirit, the supernatural and the miraculous, and Your own existence. If all this exists, then they have to admit that You exist.

Thank You for how we can know that even when death comes, we’re going to be with You. That’s our release, and it’s not at all bad. There may be a moment of pain, but then we’re released and relieved and we have a wonderful life to live with You forever.—With eternal peace and joy and happiness and bliss and love and beauty forever.

So we shouldn’t fear death. No matter what happens, we shouldn’t fear it. If anything, in a way, it’s harder to live than it is to die. But we want to stay here and do what You want us to do and get our job done, before we’ll feel satisfied we’re finished and ready to go.

We only want to please You and finish what You’ve given us to do. We don’t want to have to face You with an unfinished task or things left undone that we should have done. Help us to finish all we can, so that when we see You, we will be thankful that we did the best we could and all we could, and receive Thy “well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21).

“For when I was sick, ye visited me, and in prison ye visited me, and when hungry ye fed me, and when thirsty you gave me to drink” (Matthew 25:35–36). It will be such a joy, Lord. Because then we’ll all be so hungry and thirsty for the truth and Thy Word and the knowledge of it all.

Bless and keep us for Thy use as long as we’re needed in this world. Then take us to be with You forever! In Jesus’ name, amen. Are you ready?

Copyright © June 1978 by The Family International

Life After Death (part 1)

What happens when you die? A review of Dr. R. A. Moody’s Life After Life

David Brandt Berg

1978-06-01

The author of the book Life After Life, Dr. R. A. Moody, first got his subjects who told him their experiences from his own patients and university classes. He began to sound them out on these things when he was teaching philosophy, and some phase of the subject brought this up: “What do we know about death?”

He brings out the taboos of death, which is very interesting—how that here is something that should be a very popular subject, because it happens to everybody, and yet it’s something that we know the least about of almost any human experience. Even talking about death is a human taboo. You just don’t talk about it, you try not to even think about it. People don’t like to talk about it; they don’t really seem to want to know. They would rather forget it, even though they know it happens to everybody and is going to happen to them sometime.

He also discussed the two schools of thought about death. Some people believe it’s just unconsciousness—“the annihilation of consciousness.” Then there’s the other school of faith in the afterlife, far more popular throughout the ages and history, and a basic belief of most religions and cultures, the most widely held view of all. By far the vast majority of peoples and cultures in history have believed that there is life after death; that’s the majority opinion.

About 150 near-death experiences form the foundation of Dr. Moody’s death research. His book’s foreword is by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, already famous for her books on dying, including actual cases of those who died and came back.

Most of the cases Dr. Moody presents died temporarily during operations, serious illnesses, car accidents, etc. One was a man drowning out in the middle of a lake, a good swimmer who suddenly had a heart attack and felt himself up in the air, watching his body bobbing up and down drowning in the water below, before he was rescued and revived and rejoined his body.

Their stories are very interesting to me because they were so similar to the experience I went through the time I died and Dr. Koger came to get me. That was most vivid! Although I was lying partly in my body, I felt like I was as light as a feather and I could have just floated up to the ceiling—just floated away.

One of the greatest problems in getting these stories from the people was that they were simply almost indescribable in any language. There was just nothing to compare it with, no words for it. Some of the people almost gave up and said, “Well, it’s just impossible, I can’t describe it!” How can we have words for things that nobody has ever experienced before? At least not many have come back to tell us about it.

Language is really a difficult barrier, because unless we use words that most of us understand and have experienced, it means nothing to us. The best form of communication is that which is in common to all. But when only a few people have had this experience and come back to tell us about it, there are just no words for it; there is no way they can describe it.

He divided people’s experiences into three classifications:

1. Close calls with death in which the person nearly got killed or nearly died.
2. Those who were momentarily dead for just a few moments, and
3. Those who were actually declared clinically dead for several minutes or more.

There are about 15 common characteristics of people’s after-death experiences, many of whom have been declared clinically dead from a few minutes up to half an hour or so. Their hearts had failed or respiration had ceased and they had been dead for a short time. Not all characteristics are present in everybody’s story, nor always in the same order, but these are the most common and most usually present or experienced:

First they hear or feel a sound, a ringing or bells or buzzing or music in their ears or in their head, a whistling, roaring, or whirling feeling. Then, the floating feeling of detachment from the body, an almost inexpressible feeling of freedom and exhilaration. People recounted floating above their body and looking back down on it from above or a distance, watching the life-saving and/or resuscitation efforts of doctors, nurses, or rescuers, and hearing the voices of those present and even the pronouncements of their own death, and yet having a feeling of perfect peace, complete painlessness, warmth, comfort, and weightless relaxation and no worry, though it’s sometimes lonely at first.

Then they feel movement, like they are moving very rapidly through a long narrow dark tunnel, hollow, or valley. One fellow said, “Now I know what it means by ‘the valley of the shadow of death’ in Psalm 23!”

After moving through the long dark tunnel or valley, there was a light at the other end. The light at first was very dim, but grew dazzling, brilliant as they approached it—a brilliant being of light, like an angel, a distinct personality. They said they had the impression that it was definitely a person, a brilliant person of light. Most never saw the distinct form of the person, although some who were Christians were convinced it was Jesus.

This being of light approaches them very rapidly, or they are approaching the light very rapidly—they couldn’t always tell which—and the light grows and grows until it’s just absolutely dazzling. But strangely, it does not hurt their eyes, nor does it blind them to other things going on around them.

So first there’s the buzzing, the blackness, then suddenly they wake up hanging in the air above the scene of their death with the doctors and nurses feverishly working on their body trying to bring them back to life. Or they were looking at the auto accident, standing a few feet away from it, and saw their body all messed up inside the car. It was not like a vision or a dream—they were actually there and they were seeing it.

They all distinctly felt a specific consciousness and location. They felt that they were someplace. They were above their body, or they were standing off on one side, or they were hanging just under the ceiling. They felt a consciousness of being somebody, in some kind of body, with their consciousness, mind, spirit, or whatever you want to call it—the spiritual body.

They are right there watching what’s happening. They watch their body and the people trying to get their body out of the wreck and all. But they could feel nothing, no pain whatsoever. In this new body they only had a wonderful, delightful feeling of weightlessness, feeling light as a feather, as if they were floating. They only had the feeling of having a new body totally separated from the old one, merely watching the old one and what was going on.

One old lady said they were pounding on her body, trying to bring her back to life. Then they attached this electrical shock machine, trying to bring her back to life. She said it really made her angry the way they were treating her body, although she couldn’t feel it. Then all of a sudden, while they were doing it, she fell down from the ceiling into her body and woke up, because they had resuscitated her—and she was terribly disappointed.

That’s one of the most common feelings when people come back; they’re terribly disappointed they had to come back—especially when they wake up again in pain and still sick or injured. In this ecstatic, floating, light-as-a-feather, weightless, out-of-their-old-body feeling, they have the most wonderful feelings of peace and joy and contentment and no worries. They feel perfectly at ease and just wonderful.

During those moments before they see anybody else in the spirit world, they suddenly discover that they can’t contact or communicate with human beings anymore. They try to yell at them and tell them things, but they don’t hear them. People even look straight at them, straight through them, but don’t see them. In fact, they even walk through them! One fellow was standing in the hospital hallway and a guy walked right through him. Some try to take hold of a human by the shoulder and shake them to get their attention, but their hand passes right through their body. One tried to go through a door, but as he reached for the doorknob, his hand passed right through it. Then he just walked right on through the door.

For a few moments when first in that state, some feel a great feeling of loneliness, total isolation. For a few moments, God allows you to be almost totally alone, separated from the whole world, and not yet having met anyone in the spiritual world, and not yet knowing that there is anybody else there with you in that other world. Some feel totally alone and totally isolated, a great feeling of loneliness.

You go through a real heart-searching time there when you are all alone and realize you’re dead—a heart-searching time of real loneliness. It’s as if the Lord allows that to help you appreciate what happens next. Because usually after you’ve been looking back on your death scene that you are leaving, the operating table or the accident or whatever, a dear loved one or an old friend that has long been dead shows up, and friends and relatives and others long dead begin to show up and start communicating with you, and you are happy to find that you can communicate with them.

Then, having met relatives or friends, you’re immediately put at ease. This is a great assurance to you, to have relatives or friends to welcome you and guide you and help you get adjusted to this new world.

In some cases they didn’t see the scene of their death that they were leaving; they just felt the valley or tunnel, and then there was the light.

Next you see this light begin to appear, and it grows and grows. Either it’s coming toward you or you’re moving toward it, until the whole place is filled with brilliant warm light, and you sense a great feeling of love and compassion. It’s definitely a personality of some kind, not just some kind of impersonal material radiation. It’s a person! Although some saw no form, no outline, no figure, nothing—just the light—they still felt it was a person of love and compassion and understanding.

Some said you then have the most marvelous feeling you’ve ever had in your whole life. This is when most of them did not want to turn back—they just loved it! Some of them, during the lonely interim waiting period between, are kind of sorry they left, sorry they had to leave loved ones, and felt like maybe they needed to go back to finish some things.

It’s a sort of testing period, that first period of loneliness, a test to see if you’re sorry to leave the earth, sorry to leave life, still attached to the past. But then, once they get bathed in the light, most lose all interest in returning to earth at all. You feel so wonderful and so loved. So, when the light comes, you feel completely enveloped in this warm, loving light, and you are then completely put at ease.

One of the doctor’s critics said, “How come in all of these experiences, nearly all of them were good? There weren’t any bad people and they didn’t have any bad experiences—much less any hell or hellfire or anything like that.” The doctor said that nobody that he has talked to had ever seen anything like that, hell or hellfire. He said, “Of course, I must admit that nearly all of my testimonials were from people who were what I would call good people, church people, and students in my classes in university. I would not say that any of the people I talked to were bad, wicked, evil, criminals, or anything like that. These were all fairly good people. (to be continued)

13: The Queen of Heaven and the Dragon (part 2)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 12

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

 

So the Devil in his fury, knowing that his time is short, possesses this Antichrist and makes him a superman, a devil-man, the Devil in the flesh, son of Satan, like Jesus was the Son of God in the flesh. He is the great counterfeiter! The Devil doesn’t know anything new, he can’t do anything different; he just watches what God does and he tries to imitate Him.

Since God had a Son who was God in the flesh, the Devil has this son, who is the Devil in the flesh, possessed by Satan himself. Then the Devil tries to set up on earth the false kingdom of God, the false millennium, only it’s the kingdom of the Devil and it’s the kingdom of hell on earth instead of the Millennium of heaven.

He even has his own trinity! The Devil is the father of his trinity, the Antichrist is his son, and then he has the false prophet, his unholy spirit. Here we have the false trinity, and he becomes the false messiah of the false millennium of the false kingdom of the people who take the Mark of the Beast. All an imitation of what God is about to do—a brief and pitiful imitation.

The Devil tries to imitate God because he always wanted to be God, so when he’s cast out of heaven and he can’t annoy God Himself and God’s angels, then he decides to lord it over the earth and to become the king of this earth. He has been the prince of the power of the air, but now he becomes the usurper king of this world (Ephesians 2:2).

That’s what Jesus even calls him. He says, “I saw him cast out” (Luke 10:18). You may wonder, then, whether he was cast out in Jesus’ day. No, Jesus was looking forward into the future, seeing the day when Satan would be cast out to the earth and possess this Devil-man, the Antichrist, the superman the world is waiting for to solve its problems and set up this false millennium, his kingdom of hell on earth, during which time he chases and persecutes the woman, obviously the church.

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. Yet they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. But woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea. For the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (Revelation 12:10–12).

We’re being told that now that the Devil is cast out of heaven and heaven is purged, there’s good riddance of bad rubbish, and heaven is rejoicing! But the voice says to the inhabitants of the earth, we who dwell upon the earth and even the church of Jesus Christ still on earth, “Woe unto you people on earth, for the Devil is come down to you and he knows that his time is short and he has great wrath.”

So look out for his wrath during these last three and a half years, these 1260 days, these 42 months of Tribulation mentioned throughout Old and New Testament prophecies. Here’s another proof that the church is here throughout the Tribulation, because the Enemy chases her and she flees into the wilderness.

All these centuries, yea, millenniums, thousands of years, the Devil has been accusing the saints of God. He came before God and accused Noah, Job, and nearly every person of God who has ever lived. He has accused you day and night before the Lord, bringing up your sins and reminding God of the law and saying that you should be punished. He’s the prosecuting attorney who demands the execution of the law. And of the culprit—you!

But you have an advocate, a defense lawyer—Jesus Christ, God’s own Son. God is the judge, the Devil is the prosecuting attorney and executioner, but Jesus, God’s Son, is your defense attorney, your advocate, your lawyer defending you. When the Devil reminds God of all your sins and all your iniquities and your mistakes and your shortcomings and your failures and accuses you for every little flaw and fault he can find, all you have to do is look to your defense lawyer, Jesus.

Say, “Please, Lord, plead my case before the Father. Because You know I’m no good. You know I’ve failed. You know I can’t be good enough. You know I’m not righteous enough. I just have to plead Your blood on the cross, that You died for me and You took the rap. You took the punishment. You paid the price. You fulfilled the law and You died in my place, so therefore You said that God has pardoned me. Plead my case with Your Father.”

Jesus just looks to the Father and says, “This is another one of Mine, Father, who has received Me and believed on Me. He has received My sacrifice in his place and believes that I took his punishment for him. Therefore, Lord, You can hand him one of those pardons that You have stacked up there on Your desk for everyone who loves Me and believes in Me and has received that forgiveness from You because of Me.”

God hands down the pardon, and Jesus hands it to you, and the Devil slinks away with his tail between his legs, defeated again. “Foiled again. Curses!” There used to be an old comic strip in which the villain appeared, looking like the Devil, and every time he got defeated, he slunk off all angry with his tail between his legs, saying, “Curses, foiled again!”

So that’s what happens every time the Devil accuses you now or tries to accuse you. But in these last three and a half years he’s no longer even going to be able to go before the court of God in heaven; he’s going to be right here accusing God’s children and persecuting and trying to kill them.

“And when the dragon saw that he was cast out unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent” (Revelation 12:13–14). She is given wings like an eagle.

Beloved, don’t worry about the Tribulation. Don’t worry about the persecution of Satan. God’s people are going to be given wings to fly away out of his reach into the wilderness! “Given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly”—and for how long? Three and a half years again. A time, two times, and a half a time, three and a half years. So this frustrated, foiled, cursed villain finds out he’s been foiled again, and what does he do in the fifteenth verse?

“And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:15–17).

When he couldn’t touch her—God wouldn’t let him lay a claw on her or one fang—he cast a big flood of water out of his mouth. Obviously the Devil himself is not an actual dragon; this is all symbolic. What is this flood the Devil casts out of his mouth? What is the Devil’s major business from the beginning in the Garden of Eden to the end? What does the Devil, Satan, that old serpent, cast out of his mouth and flood the world with?

He tries to drown the world in all of this propaganda and lies. The world will swallow all his propaganda while the church escapes into the wilderness, hidden and protected by God as though she had two wings to live through that awful time to the very coming of her Husband, her Bridegroom, from the sky, to rescue her and take her out of this hell on earth the world will have become.

Are you ready? Are you one of the believers in Jesus? Are you a part of His great bride? Have you accepted Him as your Husband and your Bridegroom and your Savior? Then you don’t have to worry. He’ll take care of you right on through the Tribulation, if He has to give you wings. He’ll hide you in the wilderness if He has to make you disappear. He’ll feed you there and take care of you just as He says here, all the way through that 1260 days or three and a half years of Great Tribulation. And you will be saved and brought through and you will survive till Jesus’ coming.

Copyright © 1981 The Family International.

13: The Queen of Heaven and the Dragon (part 1)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 12

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

We’re studying the twelfth chapter of this final book of the Bible, the Revelation of the endtime, the grand finale, and in this we have the exciting, dramatic story of the queen of heaven and the great red dragon.

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another great wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

“And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne” (Revelation 12:1–5).

I think by the time you read this fifth verse you begin to catch on who this was and who this child was. That’s the key, the clue to who the woman is. “For she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.”

Scripture says this about Jesus several times, that He is going to come some day and rule the world, rule all nations, and even rule over the wicked who refused to love and obey Him voluntarily. Now He’s going to rule them with a rod of iron, by force! This is obviously talking about Jesus. “And her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.” So after His ministry, Jesus was caught up to God and to His throne.

You say, “I know who his mother is. It was Mary.” But the passage says that she was a woman clothed with the sun, bright and shining like the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Mary, as far as we know, never looked like the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars. And though she had a child, travailing in birth and pained to be delivered, Mary never had a great red dragon standing beside her waiting to devour the child.—A great red dragon whose tail drew the third part of the angels of heaven and cast them down to the earth.

So who is this woman and how come she looks like the sun and has the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars? This woman is far more than Mary. Mary in a way almost symbolizes this woman, and in a way this woman symbolizes Mary, but obviously her description goes far beyond the 16-year-old Jewish girl who had Jesus as an unmarried mother, to the surprise and chagrin of her husband Joseph, to whom God had an angel appear to explain what was happening so he wouldn’t feel bad and refuse to take her for his wife.

God Himself gave Mary a child—Jesus, unbeknownst to her own husband-to-be Joseph. God had to explain it to them by His angels.—To Joseph in a dream, to Mary by an actual presence, an appearance of God’s angel Gabriel. But this woman in Revelation was far greater than Mary. It isn’t very likely you’re going to see any woman sitting in the sun with her feet on the moon and stars in her crown. Also, it’s not too likely you’re going to see a great red dragon like this standing around waiting to devour her child, literally.

So therefore, if you cannot interpret the vision or the picture or the revelation or the dream literally throughout, it must have symbolic significance. That means each figure of the dream or revelation or vision must symbolize something, must illustrate something. Therefore who was this woman? If it was not literally Mary who brought forth Jesus, if it was greater and beyond Mary, then who was this woman who brought Jesus into the world and who was then attacked or chased by this great red dragon? Obviously this great red dragon is Satan himself, who leads a third of the angels out of heaven with him when he deserts the forces of God.

If the woman symbolizes some greater figure than just Mary herself, who could that be? If this woman is the queen of heaven, she must be the wife of the king. And who is the King of heaven?—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, her Bridegroom, her Husband, her King—and she is the queen. Then who is this woman, if she is the bride of Christ, the queen of heaven?

She can be no other than the complete church of Jesus Christ from the beginning to the end, from the Garden of Eden to the Revelation, from the beginning to the end of the world, all those who are true believers, who loved God, who received Christ the Messiah as their Savior, all those who love Jesus, all those who believe He is the Son of God, all those who are married to the Bridegroom, all those who are the bride of Jesus Christ.

She is the bride of Christ. No other woman could be so glorious, shining like the sun with the moon under her feet and twelve stars in her crown. This woman typifies the whole church of God from the days of Genesis to the final days of Revelation, God’s human bride.

We find this great red dragon, obviously Satan—in fact, he’s later called the old serpent, the Devil, and Satan in the ninth verse, so we know who he is—and he creates a rebellion in heaven, a revolution, a civil war, as we’ll find out a little bit later here, and he’s cast out of heaven with a third of the angels. He tries to destroy the church, he tries to destroy Jesus, and we then find that this woman has to flee into the wilderness.

We’re only getting a little preview here; in fact, we’re having a little flashback, first of all about the coming of Jesus into the world, who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron, becoming the King of kings and literally her Bridegroom, her Husband, she becoming a queen of heaven, as well as queen of earth. But in the sixth verse we find that after her child is caught up to heaven to God and His throne, out of reach of His enemies, she is left behind upon the earth—apparently almost at the mercy of this cruel dragon.

“And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (Revelation 12:6). Here we have the 1260 days once again, the three and a half years of the Tribulation period. One thing that gets a bit confusing about the book of Revelation is that it goes back again and rehashes the story from a different angle and a different perspective. We’ve had the coming of Christ already described in this book about three or four times, but then it goes back and it gives a new angle.

You’ve seen movies like this sometimes. You’ve seen a movie of some family or various characters on a boat or in a plane or a hotel, and it gives you flashbacks of their former life and where they came from and who they are and how they got there, then finally they all get together in this hotel or they’re all together in this plane crash, or they’re all together in this sinking boat.

You’ve followed the narration of each life story until they’re all headed on a crash course to this grand finale—and that’s like the book of Revelation. It gives you a picture of each segment of the history of man from these different angles and shows you how it’s going to end from a different standpoint and a different view with different characters and what’s happening to them.

In the preceding chapter we just had the death of the two famous witnesses and their resurrection and their rapture to be with the Lord. And yet, now the seventh angel has just blown and we haven’t heard the whole story.

Now all of a sudden we’re going back again to the birth of Christ and how He was caught up to heaven to be with the Lord. The church was left behind on the earth to be chased and persecuted by the dragon, who is now furious because he couldn’t get rid of Jesus. He came back to life and went where the Devil couldn’t touch Him anymore. Then it speaks of this church in a period of time, of 1260 days—that’s about 42 months or three and a half years. And what period of time is that that we’ve been studying over and over and over again all through the Old Testament and all through the New Testament? The Great Tribulation.

This book is not supposed to be a history book. It’s supposed to be a revelation of the future, and particularly a revelation of the endtime, the very end of history, of man, of his kingdoms, the very end of his history on earth, and so naturally its main emphasis is the endtime.—Although it may give you a few flashbacks into the historical background, as it does in this chapter.

It flashes back to the old history of the church, in a sense, from the time of Eve, who brought forth a line which was to bring forth this man who was to crush the head of Satan. It says, “Her seed will crush your head, Satan. You’ll bruise His heel, but He’ll crush your head” (Genesis 3:15). So it is a flashback to give you the history, in a sense, of the church, only just a flashback enough to show what’s happening now in these last three and a half years of horrible Tribulation and persecution of the church.

“And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7–9). Now we have the picture.

Who is this great red dragon? The ninth verse says specifically that he was that old serpent, the Devil, Satan, “which deceiveth the whole world.” At this time here, obviously at the beginning of this three and a half years, 1260 days, 42 months of Tribulation, he is cast out of heaven by Michael and his angels, the archangel of God who defends God’s people. He’s cast down to earth with a third of the rebellious angels that follow him for the last three and a half years of earth’s history—the Great Tribulation.

No wonder the Antichrist is so powerful and such a superman and wonder worker, because Satan at last is cast out of heaven. There’s a purge in heaven, and the rebels and the demons and the devils are cast out. You say, “What do you mean? I didn’t know there were demons and devils and rebels in heaven.” Well, you haven’t read your Bible very well.

Satan is even called one of the sons of God in the book of Job, and here as being one of God’s creations who is in rebellion against Him and yet appears before Him in the courts of heaven, accusing the saints day and night. Until in this last three and a half years he’s finally purged and cast out with his rebel demons, so that they have no more power in heaven, can no longer come into the presence of God and accuse His saints (Job 2:1; Isaiah 14:12–15; Revelation 12:9–10). (to be continued)

Satan’s Saints

David Brandt Berg

1983-02-01

God not only has good angels, He also has good saints who become like angels in the afterlife, some of them very important saints, important spirits, good spirits, part of the forces of God—and so important that He says the saints are even going to judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).

Some of us and them are going to judge the angels, the created spirits. Some of the human saints who passed on, such as perhaps the patriarchs, prophets, great men and women of God of all time, will even be appointed judges of angels. These departed saints are obviously still active agents or angels of God, messengers, agents.

If some of God’s saints are now even greater than the angels of God, then couldn’t some of the Devil’s forces and his leading demons and leading devil gods be some of his departed evil human spirits who have gone on into the other world and are still working and fighting on his side? If God’s good saints have become even greater than angels, why can’t the Devil’s evil saints become part of his evil spirits?

Throughout heathen paganism and idolatry, the Devil’s demons and devils had names, and Satan has his archangels and great angels and generals and captains and leaders of his forces. Therefore could some of these so-called gods of the pagan religions be some of these departed saints of the Devil, evil spirits working for the Devil in the other world just like good spirits are working for God?

Could some of the departed saints of the Devil and chief opponents of Christ and antichrists of this human race have gone on to the other world and become chief officers, agents, emissaries, messengers, and forces of Satan? For example, when Gabriel wrestled with the Prince of Persia, that’s been taken to mean that the Prince of Persia was one of the Devil’s angels, the spiritual ruler of Persia. Who knows but that perhaps he was a former king of Persia on the Devil’s side, who after being loyal to the Devil in this life was made a prince over Persia in the afterlife (Daniel 10:13).

The Devil and all his angels have not yet been judged. They have not even yet been cast out of heavenly places to the earth as they will be at the time of the Antichrist and the abomination of desolation and the image set up at the beginning of the Tribulation. It is only at that time, according to Revelation, that the Devil and his angels are cast out of heaven to the earth and he’s very angry (Revelation 12:9,12). This is when he possesses the Antichrist and pursues and persecutes the church, because they are not cast out until then. This is only one step in their demotion. Earth is their last step or steppingstone before they’re cast into hell, into bondage, like Satan in the heart of the earth for a thousand years.

If the time of final judgment for the angels of Satan and perhaps some of his departed evil characters who helped to create hell on earth in this life has not yet come and their final fate has not yet come, why could they not continue to serve him in the afterlife? As the evil spirits said to Jesus, “Art Thou come to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:29). What time? The time coming when they will be judged and damned and punished—the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11–15).

When does that time begin? Jesus came and was casting out demons in this time, the era in which we are living now, the last days. There’s not any particular period during these last days that the Bible speaks of as having become a time of the judgment of the evil spirits or devils or demons or even Satan himself. This is all left to the time of the coming of Christ, and then the return in the Battle of Armageddon, at which time Satan’s forces are completely vanquished and Satan is imprisoned in the heart of the earth. And not until the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the Millennium after the Battle of Gog and Magog are all the wicked and evil raised to the judgment.

So if the final judgment of the wicked does not come until after the Millennium and the Battle of Gog and Magog, then could it be that some are allowed to remain as the Devil’s angels, agents, and serve him in the afterlife, just like many saints of God are serving God in the afterlife? In other words, if God has His honored saints and powerful spiritual forces consisting of saints, departed humans, on the other side, why not also the Devil?

This would begin to explain the Devil’s kingdom and how it’s organized and how he operates and how he uses perhaps even some of the agents he had on this earth in human form after they have departed into the next world. We know the Devil has his angels, why not also his departed saints still serving him until the day of judgment? Because Satan is not finally cast into the Lake of Fire until the Great White Throne Judgment.

This would also explain why the wicked are not judged until the final second resurrection after the Millennium and the Battle of Gog and Magog at the Great White Throne Judgment! Why would God wait so long unless they were also filling their cup of iniquity in the hereafter right now, continuing to do evil in the next world and serving Satan there?

Copyright © February 1983 by The Family International

147 – Jesus—His Life and Message: The Coming of the Son of Man (Part 1)

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2021-03-09

(You can read about the intent for and overview of this series in this introductory article.)

The previous article, the last of the series about the Jewish temple, ended with Jesus telling the people of Judea that tribulation would come upon them when the Romans would destroy the temple and the city of Jerusalem. He said:

Then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.¹

Jesus continued by saying,

“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”²

Jesus warned that during the coming trouble, some would take advantage of the situation by claiming that they were the Messiah. Some would even falsely appear to do miracles and prophesy. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus had warned of such people:

“Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.”³

“And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.”⁴

The Jewish historian Josephus wrote about a number of Jewish nationalist leaders who, in the time before the siege of Jerusalem, manifested such signs and wonders. Of course, the New Testament gives examples of Jesus’ disciples performing “signs and wonders” as they went about doing God’s work.

Awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.⁵

Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico.⁶

In the book of Acts, as well as in some of the Epistles of Paul and in Revelation, there are references to nonbelievers who performed magic and displayed signs and wonders, as well as references to those who would do so in the future.

There was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.⁷

Then the lawless one will be revealed. … The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders.⁸

Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. … It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people.⁹

Jesus also pointed out that due to the signs and wonders, it is possible that even some believers could be led astray by the false christs and false prophets.

“See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.”¹⁰

Having warned that false prophets would perform signs and wonders, Jesus gave further instructions to help believers not be led astray during the time leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem. One author explains:

These trying to lead them astray will be claiming that they have special knowledge; whereas ordinary people do not know where the Messiah is, they do. If people will only trust them, they will lead them to him. Jesus says definitely, “do not believe it.” His followers must not be led astray in this way.¹¹

Jesus’ Future Return

As the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.¹²

This verse draws a sharp distinction between the events during the siege of Jerusalem and the still future return of Christ. The Greek word used for Jesus’ return or second coming is parousia. He made the point that His parousia would not be a secret event; rather, the coming of the Son of Man will be as clear as a flash of lighting which lights up the sky. When Jesus returns, everyone will see it, as He will make clear later in this chapter. Jesus was setting His return and the end of the age apart from the coming destruction of the temple.

Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.¹³

Bible commentators have a wide range of interpretations for this verse. It seems likely that the meaning is that the parousia, the return of the Son of Man, will be as obvious as the presence of a carcass upon which vultures descend.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.¹⁴

Jesus’ words are closely modeled on two Old Testament passages.

Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.¹⁵

All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.¹⁶

Throughout the Old Testament there is similar imagery proclaimed by prophets. (See Ezekiel 32:7–8; Amos 8:9; Joel 2:10, 30–31; 3:15.)

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.¹⁷

This Gospel speaks of the sign of the Son of Man appearing in heaven. In the Gospels of Mark and Luke we read “they will see the Son of Man,” with no mention of the sign. This Gospel also mentions the effect that the Son of Man’s coming will have on the people of the earth—they will mourn. His return will not be met with joy by all. People will recognize that Jesus’ return changes everything and will put an end to life as they have known it.

Jesus clearly stated that He will return to earth. However, His return will be different from the first time, when He was born as a child. This time, He will come with power and great glory, a phrase which refers to the majestic appearance of a king. Clouds are often associated with the presence of the divine, which is the meaning here.

He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.¹⁸

The appearance of the King brings about the gathering together of those who are His, those who have received Him and believed in Him. The sending of His angels with a loud trumpet is also mentioned by the apostle Paul.

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.¹⁹

The gathering of his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other, makes the point that no believer will be left behind, none will be missing.

From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.²⁰

Fig trees are abundant in Palestine, and those to whom Jesus was speaking were familiar with how and when figs grow. As the appearance of the fig tree’s new shoots is indicative of the coming of summer, in like manner, when believers see the events Jesus has spoken of make their appearance, such as those described in verse 29, they are to understand that His return is near.

Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.²¹

While a variety of interpretations have been made by Bible commentators as to who “this generation” is, it is clear that Jesus is referring here to the generation that will be alive at the time of His return.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.²²

Jesus followed up by stating the certainty that what He has said will happen. While heaven and earth have lasted through the lifetimes of generation after generation, they will eventually pass away; but, in contrast, Jesus’ words will last forever. What He has said will be fulfilled.

(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ Matthew 24:21–22.

² Matthew 24:23–24.

³ Matthew 24:5.

⁴ Matthew 24:11.

⁵ Acts 2:43.

⁶ Acts 5:12. See also Acts 4:16, 29–30.

⁷ Acts 8:9.

⁸ 2 Thessalonians 2:8–9.

⁹ Revelation 13:11, 13. See also Revelation 16:13–14.

¹⁰ Matthew 24:25–26.

¹¹ Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, 607.

¹² Matthew 24:27.

¹³ Matthew 24:28.

¹⁴ Matthew 24:29.

¹⁵ Isaiah 13:9–10.

¹⁶ Isaiah 34:4.

¹⁷ Matthew 24:30.

¹⁸ Matthew 24:31.

¹⁹ 1 Corinthians 15:51–52.

²⁰ Matthew 24:32–33.

²¹ Matthew 24:34.

²² Matthew 24:35.

Copyright © 2021 The Family International.

The Kingdom of God: Present and Future

Peter Amsterdam

2021-07-12

The “kingdom of God” was a central theme of Jesus’ teaching throughout the Gospels, and is found in key points within the Gospels, such as in the Lord’s Prayer, the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper, and in numerous parables. While the phrase “kingdom of God” is not found in the Old Testament, the concept of God’s kingdom, His kingship, is present in numerous Old Testament verses, such as: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations.”¹

Throughout the centuries the Jewish people saw God as a king, both in a universal sense of ruling over all the earth and specifically as their king, with themselves as His people.² God called the ancient nation of Israel in a special way to live under His rule and to acknowledge His kingship—His reign and His commandments. Unfortunately, Israel didn’t generally live in the manner God laid out in His commandments. Because of this, the prophets sent by God began to speak of the need for renewal of heart:

“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. … And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”³

Scripture spoke of one who would come, who would sit on the throne of David, who was understood to be the coming Messiah:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.^”4

In Jesus’ day, this Messiah was long anticipated. The general understanding regarding the Messiah was connected to the hope and expectation of deliverance or salvation from the foreign occupation the Jews had been under after their return from exile in Babylon. For centuries they had been under the rule of the Greeks, Ptolemies, and Seleucids. Then, after 100 years of self-rule, they fell under the rule of Rome. They longed for the time when they would no longer be ruled by foreigners. They looked forward to the promised Messiah delivering them from foreign rule and setting up the kingdom of Israel—which they considered the kingdom of God—once again.

Thus there was excitement when people heard of a man who was doing miracles and speaking of the kingdom of God. Perhaps the time had come for the deliverance of the nation of Israel, freedom from the foreigners, and the setting up of the physical national kingdom that they had been waiting for. However, Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom went beyond the expectation of a political or geographical entity. Instead, He in essence redefined and replaced the Jewish expectations regarding the kingdom.

A present or future kingdom?

When Jesus spoke of the kingdom, sometimes He said that the kingdom had arrived and at other times spoke of it as yet to come at the end of the age/world. One author explains that the Old Testament time period was the preparation for the kingdom; Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection was the kingdom’s establishment; and the final judgment will be the completion.⁵

Following are verses which speak of God’s kingdom entering this world through Jesus and His ministry.

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”⁶

Jesus points out here that not only is the kingdom not something physical, but that it is presently in their midst. While these verses speak of the kingdom being present, the following verses put it in the future:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”⁷

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.^’”8

Other sayings and parables that speak of the kingdom also set it in the future.⁹ So is the kingdom something that was present in Jesus’ day (and continues to be present today), or is it only a future kingdom which arrives at the time of judgment?

When the kingdom is seen as the dynamic reign of God, it can be understood to be both a present reality initiated through the ministry of Jesus as well as a future manifestation which will be perfect and complete.

Entering the Kingdom of God

Jesus’ miracles were an indicator that the kingdom of God had come and was present, at least in part, during His ministry. Jesus also conveyed the meaning of the kingdom of God through His actions and teaching. When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He was “the one” or if they should look for another, Jesus responded by saying: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”¹⁰

Jesus was revealing information about the kingdom through His teaching. He told numerous parables illustrating what the kingdom of heaven is like or can be compared to: a grain of mustard seed; a man who sowed good seed in his field; leaven; treasure hidden in a field; a net that was thrown into the sea; a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.¹¹

His dining with the outcasts of Judaism—the tax collectors and sinners—touching the unclean, forgiving sins, and healing on the Sabbath all gave a deeper understanding of the Father’s grace, love, care, and mercy, and the nature of His kingdom.

His teaching the disciples to pray “Our Father in heaven” brought them into a new relationship with God, making them part of His family.¹² Entering the kingdom of God means entering a new relationship with God. It is through making a decision for the kingdom that one becomes part of it.

We see the need for such a commitment through the Gospels’ call to repentance: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”¹³ The woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair possessed a new attitude of love and gratitude toward God because her sins had been forgiven.¹⁴

When God reigns in our lives, our attitude of trust and faith reflects what is expressed in the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”¹⁵ For those who put their trust in God and enter a relationship with Him through the sacrifice of His Son, the kingdom of God becomes a present reality.

When people enter the kingdom, the center of their life shifts. They become regenerated, born of the Spirit. They yield to God’s reign and put their trust in Him. As is seen in Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere, one is to live a higher ethic: forgive others, love one’s enemies, and more.

While Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom had some similarities to what was generally taught in Judaism, His teachings went beyond traditional Judaism as He redefined its meaning. He demonstrated through His life and death and resurrection that the kingdom of God wasn’t an ambiguous future hope; through Jesus’ coming, it had become imminent and demanded an immediate response.

On top of that, He taught that entrance to the kingdom was not limited to the Jewish people, but anyone could enter. The focus wasn’t on physical Israel, but rather on all those who would become God’s people through their renewed hearts and new birth. Jesus made it clear that entrance into God’s kingdom wasn’t limited to Israel when He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well, telling her that “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.”¹⁶

The completion of the kingdom comes when Jesus returns to set up His kingdom on Earth. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”¹⁷

Living in the Kingdom

Entering the kingdom through belief in Jesus grants us eternal life, but eternal life isn’t something which only begins once one dies. Eternal life, like the kingdom of God, is also a present reality. Eternal life for us as believers has already begun. While our physical body will eventually die, our spirit will continue to live eternally with God. Our spirit, our essence, the person we are today, will simply exit the door of our present earthly life through death and step into the eternal continuation of our lives.

In the meantime, we are also meant to be living within the kingdom of God in the present. How? By relinquishing what can be seen as our own “kingdom.” Each of us has been given a measure of autonomy and authority from God in the form of free will. As such, we have in a sense been given a “realm” in which we can make freewill choices. This is part of being made in the image of God.

When we enter the reign of God, the call is for us to integrate our “kingdom”—what we have reign over—with His kingdom. We are to align our will with God’s and let His will guide our lives, including our inner thoughts and outward actions.

Living in God’s kingdom means living day by day as one who has a personal, interactive relationship with Him—a relationship which encompasses our earthly life and then continues on throughout eternity.

Originally published July 2015. Adapted and republished July 2021.
Read by John Laurence.

¹ Psalm 45:6; Psalm 22:28 NAU.

² Psalm 103:19.

³ Ezekiel 36:26–27.

⁴ Isaiah 9:6–7.

⁵ J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology: Systematic Theology from a Charismatic Perspective (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 290.

⁶ Luke 17:20–21. See also Luke 16:16.

⁷ Matthew 7:21.

⁸ Matthew 25:34.

⁹ Matthew 8:11–12; 5:18–20; 13:24–30, 47–50.

¹⁰ Luke 7:22.

¹¹ Matthew 13:31, 24, 33, 44, 47; 22:2.

¹² Matthew 6:9.

¹³ Mark 1:15.

¹⁴ Luke 7:36–50.

¹⁵ Matthew 6:10.

¹⁶ John 4:23.

¹⁷ Revelation 11:15.

The Resurrection of the Saved, the Living, and the Dead

Daniel 12, 1 Thessalonians 4, and Revelation 20

David Brandt Berg

1985-01-28

In the first part of Daniel 12, the Rapture is taking place, the resurrection of the righteous. He also specifically mentions the Tribulation: “A time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation,” and “at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1).

“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake” (Daniel 12:2). All of the saved are raptured at this time. Dead or alive, we’re all raptured, but only the dead are resurrected. It says we who are alive and remain shall be changed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17; 1 Corinthians 15:52). When the trumpet is blown to call us up, we’re changed immediately, instantly!

Not all Christians will be resurrected, because millions of Christians will live through to the Rapture. The Antichrist is not going to be able to get them all. He may kill a few thousand; he might even kill a few hundred thousand, who knows? But there will be millions of Christians, those who believe in Christ as their Savior and have received Him into their hearts—many Catholics, Protestants, and other denominations, and many without denominations.

God’s Word says that those who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air! Who goes first? The resurrected dead go first. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,” and the trump of God shall sound and “the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Those who are alive and remain are going to be here standing on the earth watching the dead rise from the dead! God wants them to see that glorious sight. He wants them to see the resurrection of the dead along with the rest of the world. You talk about weekend thrillers, weekend shockers, there’s nothing ever going to shock the world as much as when they see the dead start popping out of the graves by the millions. Millions and millions, billions maybe, all the people who’ve been saved since the previous resurrection. When was that?

It’s in the description of Jesus’ crucifixion. “And the graves were opened; and many of the bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection” (Matthew 27:52–53). Paul calls Jesus the firstfruits, and after that, every man in his order (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). Revelation 20 describes two more resurrections: the first resurrection and the second resurrection.

Revelation 20:4 says: “And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the Beast, neither his image, neither had received his Mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” We know this refers to all the saved. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (v. 5). That statement should have been in parentheses to set it off distinctly because it’s a parenthetical remark. It’s just inserted to let you know about the rest of the dead. Then when He says, “This is the first resurrection,” it’s obvious it doesn’t mean the rest of the dead, because it says they’re not going to live again till after the Millennium.

In this first resurrection, he is talking about the saved; all the saved take part in this first resurrection. Therefore in the mind of God He lumps both the resurrection at the time of the Rapture of all the Christian saints who died during the Christian era, right along with the resurrection of the Old Testament saints who were raised at the time of Christ’s resurrection. There was already another resurrection after the resurrection of Jesus, right in His day. Right after His resurrection the graves opened and the bodies of the saints came forth and many people saw them.

These are actually two resurrections. The first is a resurrection of the Old Testament saints and the next at the time of the Rapture is a resurrection of the New Testament saints, but God counts it all as one great resurrection of all the saints, both Old and New Testament—the first resurrection.

We know there was a resurrection at the time of Jesus’ resurrection and we know there’s going to be a resurrection at the time of the Rapture. Literally, technically, there are two different parts of this first resurrection. You might want to call them two resurrections, but the Lord just calls them one resurrection, the first. The first resurrection is all one resurrection, the resurrection of the saints. Although the Old Testament saints were raised at the time of Christ’s resurrection, and the New Testament saints will not be raised until Christ’s return, in the mind of God it’s all one great resurrection of all the saints—the first.

Revelation 20, verse 5 and 6: “This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” He’s already said that once before in verse 4, now He says it again in verse 6. These are the two actual parts of the same resurrection. All the saints who were resurrected, both Old Testament and New, are all counted as one great resurrection in the mind of God, called the first resurrection.

Then there’s another resurrection: “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” That is at the end of the Millennium. The Battle of Gog and Magog occurs and the earth is burned with fire, then the Great White Throne Judgment takes place where the rest of the dead are judged—the unsaved dead. He describes those dead at the Great White Throne Judgment beginning with the 11th verse, and the 12th verse describes the second resurrection:  “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

These are all unsaved people. Some are going to be found in the Book of Life. That’s what the judgment is about; otherwise there’d be no point in even having any judgment! The White Throne Judgment is to divide the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares.

By this time the Judgment Seat of Christ has been past for over a thousand years. The Bible speaks of the Judgment Seat of Christ as taking place at the beginning of the Millennium at the Marriage Supper, when He rewards everyone according to their works and according to their words. You’ll find the Judgment Seat of Christ used especially in some of Paul’s writings (Matthew 25:31–32; Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10). But this is the Great White Throne Judgment, when God is judging out of the Book of Life all the other people who weren’t saved, but who were resurrected at this time.

Are all the unsaved dead people raised in the second resurrection going to be sent to hell? The 12th verse, 20th chapter of Revelation says: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life.” Although the Lord used the term “book”—because man didn’t know anything but books in the way of records in those days—He’s probably got something vastly superior to computers. Most people who have had an after-death experience have said that their whole life just flashed through their mind in pictures in what may have been just a few seconds. Everything they ever did or ever said from the time they could first remember as children on up till their death flashed through in just a few seconds.

They know that your brain has memory chips; not like man-made computer memory chips. Your brain is just full of little cells which act as memory chips and store information. They say that nothing you’ve ever seen or heard or said or done is forgotten; it’s all still there! Most of it, thank God, is in your subconscious and you don’t have to think about it or remember it, or it doesn’t bother you most of the time until maybe you’re dreaming, or it comes to the surface when you try to remember it. But the brain is a far more amazing, phenomenal miracle of God, far superior to the biggest computer that man will ever build, even greater than the Antichrist and his Image, because it’s so small and has got all that in it that’s never forgotten. God can reel it off whenever He wants to, to make you remember all those things and know why you’re getting judged and the way you’re getting judged.

“And the books were opened.” The minds of all those people are going to be opened to all their sins and all their good deeds and whatever they did in that day. “And another book was opened, which is the book of life: And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” According to these verses here, apparently the Book of Life is mostly names.

He’s pulling out a book called the Book of Life, which most people usually just think means the book of the saved, but the saved have already gone to heaven. So that’s not what this book is, although there might be some relationship. Why are they pulling out this Book of Life at the Great White Throne Judgment before the people, none of whom were ever saved, if God isn’t going to give some of them some kind of life? Not death! He speaks of hell and that kind of judgment as death; in fact, He calls it the second death later in this chapter. Certainly people who are written in the Book of Life are not going to take part in the second death! I’ll admit it’s not very clear here, but you have to go by logical deduction.

Verse 13: “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.” Spirits are going to be in a lot of different places, both good and bad spirits. He’s just trying to cover the scope of it: everywhere, from the bottom of the sea and death and hell, they all delivered up their dead. Here you again have Hades and Gehenna, these different places where the dead are: Hades apparently being a place that’s somewhat paradisiacal even though not heaven—kind of a waiting room, waiting for this day, this judgment—and hell, Gehenna, the Lake of Fire, being a place of torment.

God even has differences in the places where the people are waiting for this judgment. Those that deserve to go to hell and the Lake of Fire go to hell right away, and they’ve been in hell now, some of them, for thousands of years. Others who were better people, good people but unsaved, they’re in some other kind of waiting places, either in Hades or perhaps in Purgatory, in this place called Paradise that Jesus went to when He spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40; Ephesians 4:9; 1 Peter 3:19; 4:6). He went straight to the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, and yet He said to the dying thief, “This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). So it’s not all hell down there; it’s not all Lake of Fire.

“The Book of Life was opened and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works” (v. 12). And then the 15th verse says: “And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.” So here again is your logical deduction. Certainly people found written in the Book of Life were not going to be rewarded with death.

These people found written in the Book of Life who are going to be allowed to live on the surface of the new earth were dead, but they’re found in the Book of Life, so God allows them to live. Now we’ve got all humanity classified in three major groups: the saved, the living, and the dead. The first class are the saved, the second class the living, and the dead are no class at all.

I think that’s a good term for those people—the living. They’re not dead, they’re not in hell, they don’t suffer the Lake of Fire and that kind of torment, but apparently they were good enough that God felt they did the best they knew how—righteous people, good people who did good works even though they knew not their Master’s will. But they were sinners, because everybody’s a sinner. Therefore since they sinned, they must have done some things worthy of punishment. He said, “Those who knew not their Master’s will shall be beaten with few stripes”—very little punishment (Luke 12:47–48).

Copyright © January 1985 by The Family International

The Right Man and the Right Message

David Brandt Berg

2014-08-25

 Our ministry must be based on the right foundation, for “no other foundation can any man lay than this, the man Christ Jesus.¹ He is the foundation of our entire building made of living stones.² He and His Father’s love are the reason and purpose for all things and “of whom all things do consist,”³ and for which the worlds were made and man was made and all creation exists.

“For this is the whole duty of man, to glorify God and to keep His commandments.”⁴ And to glorify God we must praise the Lord, give Him credit for everything and “acknowledge Him in all our ways; then He’ll direct our paths.”⁵ We must praise Him, thank Him, and give Him all the glory. “Whatsoever we do in word or in deed, do all to the glory of God.”⁶ We should strive to glorify God in all that we do and to keep His commandments of love and service to both Him and our fellow man.

We are not the whole body or the whole church, thank God. There are millions of others who love the Lord, who truly trust Jesus Christ for their salvation and are born-again Christians following or serving the Lord in various degrees and ways and places. There are millions of us the world over, and in the other world as well, praise God. Billions!

We know we have the right foundation, thank the Lord. We are building a house of living stones on the only possible foundation that can stand and last and endure and be strong enough to bear us and survive, including the cornerstone, Christ Jesus.⁷ He’s not only the foundation, but the cornerstone as well. I would say He’s even the capstone too, and we are all a part of His body, so it’s all Jesus.

We not only have the Man, we have the message. The Man is our message! We preach Jesus. We preach His Word, we preach His love, we preach His Gospel, the Good News of salvation. We preach faith in Him. We preach Him as the answer to our earthly needs—physical, spiritual, mental, and with hope for the future and heaven at last. This message answers our questions, meets our needs, and is the solution to the problems of the world if they would just listen and receive it and obey it. Thank God, it is changing the world, wherever it is preached and believed and received and obeyed!

Although we know we have the right Man with the right message, the right Man with the right message is not sufficient; we must have the right men and women to preach it. In order to have this, we must recruit soldiers for His great army of witnesses. We must win souls to faith in Jesus Christ, salvation in Him, for transformation of their lives and to make them disciples. He tells us that we have to “go into all the world to preach the Gospel to every creature” and “make disciples of every nation.”⁸

We must not only win souls, but we must make disciples of those souls, or we are going to become a fruitless, dying church like so many, dying of self-genocide because of failure to be productive and self-propagating.

To make these disciples fruitful and productive, we must teach and train them and show them how to witness and win souls. We must, as in 2 Timothy 2:2, teach others to teach others to teach others in the endless chain reaction of constant witnessing, soul-winning, and discipling! The name of the game being multiplication of citizens for the kingdom of God, to glorify the Lord, to love Him, which is the reason for it all. God made us to love Him because we need to love Him and be thankful for Him and His love.

So we’ve got the right Man, the right message, and we are reaching the right men and women. Lastly we must be sure that we are using the right methods—both to love Him, to glorify Him and preach Him, and spread the Gospel and faith in Him and hope of heaven, a bright and glorious future here on earth, both in the Millennium and the new heaven and new earth!

What are the right methods? Whatever gets the job done, of course. The most important and first and foremost, primary and generally the most effective, efficient, and fruitful is personal witnessing, personal evangelism, personal soul winning in whatever way you may do it. Whether it’s to friends and acquaintances that you know, workmates, schoolmates, business co-workers, or on the street or in private or with literature distributed by hand or by mail or by whatever method possible.

*

Our Mission

By Maria Fontaine and Peter Amsterdam

Witnessing to others and teaching them about Jesus and the Gospel is the commission that was given to all Christians. Every Christian has a responsibility to witness; this isn’t unique to the Family.

We exist as an organization for the purpose of actively fulfilling the mission. There are many other important elements that make TFI what it is, such as the spiritual values we hold dear that are part of the soul of TFI, that inspire us to commit our time and resources for the Lord’s service. But the mission is the purpose for our existence as an organization.

At the heart of it all, the Family International is committed to fulfilling the mission of witnessing to others about Jesus and His love and salvation, teaching them spiritual truths, and training more laborers to help us to reap the harvest.⁹ This is our purpose, focus, and conviction, as a movement.

There isn’t an inflexible 1-2-3-step method for carrying out the mission, because each person you meet is an individual mission field and will have different spiritual needs.

You might meet someone in passing and only have time to offer them a tract that explains the message of salvation. Someone else you meet or collaborate with may already be saved, but they don’t yet know how to have a deep personal relationship with Jesus, so you start from there. Many of the people you witness to may not become witnesses themselves, but you can help improve their lives spiritually through manifesting Jesus’ love to them, and teaching them the Word and spiritual truths. As they grow in faith and spiritual understanding, they will also experience improvement in other aspects of their lives. You will meet others whom the Lord shows you to challenge to discipleship, or to dedicate their lives in service to the Lord and others in some way.

Each person will have different needs. Each person’s spiritual growth rate will be different. We can’t group together all of the people in one country as being a particular way when it comes to witnessing, or expect a certain “receptivity rate” from people within a particular demographic or culture, because each person we meet is unique, and we must be Spirit-led in witnessing to them and helping to meet their spiritual needs.

Some people come more slowly to the point where they’re ready to personally receive Jesus, but meanwhile, they may still generally believe in God, or they may be searching for truth, or be spiritually receptive. They might like or support what the Family does and stands for, or read Activated mags or other Family publications. Even though they may not be saved, they’re growing in the Word and are benefiting spiritually from their contact with you. That’s one facet of fulfilling the mission.

Jesus said, “He that receiveth you receiveth Me.”¹⁰ When it comes to witnessing, there’s no black-and-white way to determine how to maintain your friendships or associations with people who either may not be saved or who may not be noticeably receptive. Just because someone isn’t immediately receptive or open to the truth doesn’t mean that they aren’t in need of the Lord’s words. Sometimes it takes a long while before someone is ready and willing to open their heart to the Lord fully, and it’s your extended contact with them, friendship, and long-term testimony of “being the Bible bound in shoe leather” that convinces them that you have what they need. Be motivated by love; be Spirit-led.

Garnering success in our mission doesn’t happen overnight. It takes love, time, patience, and faithfulness to sow, water, develop, and reap lasting fruit. Our job is to be instant witnesses, to offer people salvation, to share Jesus’ love and truth with the world. Receiving God’s gift of salvation through receiving Jesus is a work of the Holy Spirit, not something that we can do for people or make them do. “God gives the increase.”¹¹ As you’re faithful to do your part, to minister the Word to people, to manifest Jesus’ love, you can trust the Lord and the Holy Spirit to do what only they can—the work of changing and transforming lives and spirits.

Your personal family, friends, and those you come into contact with in the course of your life may receive the witness through your kindness, respect, and common courtesy, and by seeing Jesus’ love and Spirit manifested in you, as part of your Christian example. Some people may never seem interested in Jesus or in having you witness to them, but they know that you are Christians and will take note of your words and actions; they will be attracted to Jesus’ Spirit in you.¹²

We reach out to others in kindness and good faith as part of living a godly life, as part of our personal responsibility and Christian example. You never lose by being loving, and you never know how far a loving example will go in someone’s life.

As you’re faithful to do your part, to minister God’s Word to people, to manifest Jesus’ love, you can trust the Lord and the Holy Spirit to do what only God can do—the work of changing and transforming lives and spirits.

Originally published November 1983 and May 2009. Adapted and republished
August 2014. Read by Jon Marc.

¹ 1 Corinthians 3:11.

² 1 Peter 2:4–5.

³ Colossians 1:17.

⁴ Ecclesiastes 12:13.

⁵ Proverbs 3:6.

⁶ Colossians 3:17.

⁷ Ephesians 2:20.

⁸ Mark 16:15 and Matthew 28:19.

⁹ Matthew 9:38.

¹⁰ Matthew 10:40.

¹¹ 1 Corinthians 3:7.

¹² Matthew 10:40–42.

Are You Willing to Sign a Blank Sheet of Paper?

Maria Fontaine

1985-02-26

No one likes to confess their faults and failings to another, but it can strengthen you if you do. It certainly helps to tell the Lord. If we want the answers and want His will, then we need to be honest and open our hearts to Him. He knows everything, but we still have to be honest with Him. Even though He knows it all and what our problems are and what our deepest thoughts are and all about our failings, He still requires us to be honest with Him. He wants us to tell Him and to present the problem and ask for His help.

He not only requires us to be specific and honest with Him, but He asks us to do so with each other too. “Confess your faults one to another, that ye may be healed” (James 5:16). It’s not only for our own sake, but sometimes the Lord wants us to do it for other people’s sakes too. So there are a lot of reasons we have to be open and honest with people, including the fact that it keeps us humble.

If you “trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, and in all thy ways acknowledge Him, He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6). In order for Him to direct our path, we have to do the first three things: trust Him, acknowledge Him, and don’t lean to our own understanding. Can you trust Him for the future and give Him a blank piece of paper that you’ve signed your name to? Should we put limits on Him in any area by saying we can’t do something?

If we set limits on what He can do with us, if in some areas we say, “I can do this, but I can’t do that,” maybe that’s not complete surrender or submission. It’s not exactly signing a blank sheet of paper if we’re putting some conditions on it. It is not complete surrender to His will if we set down certain conditions. If we set these conditions, then maybe He can’t really fulfill His will until we take those conditions away.

You know, sometimes when you are trying to make a decision, the Devil fights extra hard, and the Lord allows that to test you, to see if you’re going to give up even before you get started. Sometimes we think something the Lord may be asking of us is going to be completely hell and that we’re not going to be able to take it. It may seem like that to us at the time, but it’s not always going to be that way. At the beginning while we’re making the decision, things may seem worse than they’re actually eventually going to be, because the Enemy is trying to get us to give up. As long as he thinks he has some hope that he can get us to not do what we’re supposed to do, then he keeps fighting ferociously and he makes it seem like the worst possible thing.

It’s like when people get saved. That’s the worst battle some people ever have. They think of all the terrible things that are going to happen to them, what they’re going to have to give up and who they’re going to have to forsake. All hell breaks loose emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes even physically or literally. But when they say “yes” to the Lord, it usually turns out not so bad after all and they get a lot more back than they thought they had to give up. But at the time when they’re making that decision, it’s a terrible battle. At the time, it seems as if it’s the most terrible thing in the world to get saved, when actually it’s the most wonderful thing.

Sometimes the Lord will put His stamp of approval on our plans, if it’s His will; but if not, then He won’t! So it’s better to be safe and not to plan out what we’re going to do and to put these conditions on the sheet of paper and then hand it to the Lord and say, “Here, sign this.” It’s always safer for us not to get quite so definite about things, because if it isn’t His will, then the thing we thought we could do, maybe we can’t do. Of course, on the other hand, if we are in His will, then the thing we didn’t think we could do, we probably can do, because He gives us the strength and power to do it.

In some cases, if you insist on having your way, then the Lord may allow it, sort of like His second best. If you love Him and you make the wrong decision, He’s not going to render you useless and completely devoid of fruit. Wherever we work for Him and whatever we do for Him, I think He lets us bear at least some fruit. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, He is going to let it bear some fruit, but not as much fruit as if you’re in the center of His will where you can accomplish much more and where the Lord is going to bless your life to the fullest.

Even if we make a wrong choice, the Lord still uses us and accomplishes things with us. If we really love the Lord and we want His will, then we aren’t going to be put on the scrap heap just because we missed His will at some time. We may lose a blessing in some ways, but the Lord’s blessings are many and varied, and He doesn’t usually stop with just one blessing. So if we miss one, there will still be others later. It seems that usually He blesses all of us wherever we are and whatever we’re doing in proportion to our obedience to His will. I don’t think we can really understand His great system of justice and mercy.

So if we do miss God’s will, He is not going to strike us dead or stop using us, especially if we love Him and we really want to serve Him. A lot of us have missed the Lord’s will at certain times, but He is merciful and He has different blessings, and He gives us a lot of leeway and a lot of mercy.

Sometimes when we put our all on the altar, the Lord doesn’t require it of us, but He still requires the surrender. We don’t always end up having to do the things that He asks us to do, but sometimes He makes us decide to do it and then He releases us from it. It’s not so much the place, but the willingness to fill the place. Sometimes He just does it to see if we are willing.

Lord, You know the battles, the difficulties, the pain, but You also know that the joy and the fulfillment and the satisfaction will be much greater than all the battles as we submit to You and follow You in complete surrender to Your will. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). It shows all the more, Lord, Your power and excellency and strength in our weak vessels.

Copyright © 1985 The Family International.

10 – Love. Live. Preach. Teach.—Conclusion

Love. Live. Preach. Teach.

Peter Amsterdam

2012-01-17

In speaking about the four elements of being a disciple—Love Him, Live Him, Preach Him, Teach Him—my focus has been on the principles of being an active Christian, a disciple of Christ. The Love Him and Live Him principles have to do with our communion or connection with the Lord, and living the Christian life, as well as how to interact with others. The Preach Him and Teach Him principles have to do with the job Jesus gave to His disciples, the job of participating in the Great Commission.

Within those principles, how you Love Him and how you Live Him are personal matters. Your relationship with God is yours. If you know the principles laid out in the words of Jesus, and throughout the Bible, and you apply those principles—you live them—then you will build a living personal relationship with God. It will be your personal relationship with Him based on applying His words, the principles He put forth for those who choose to follow Him. If you follow the principles He put forth through His teaching and His personal example, then He will show you how to apply those principles in the situations you will come across in your life. The key is that you Love Him, and that you Live Him in the way He shows you to, based on the principles He has given in His Word.

The same holds true for Preaching Him. There’s not only one manner in which to witness to others. God’s call is to preach the Gospel, to share His love and life with others, and that’s part of being a disciple; but where and how and to whom you preach the Gospel depends on where God has you, the life He’s called you to lead, and the people He’s placed in your path.

When Jesus calls, He says, “Follow Me.” A disciple does just that—he follows where the master leads. He leads some to minister to the multitudes, others to their circle of friends and acquaintances. Some He leads to a foreign land, others to their neighborhood, others to their own children. His call is to preach the Gospel in the realm He has called you to. Obedience to that call means reaching those He brings across your path.

The same principles apply to Teaching Him. For some, holding Bible studies with groups of people is a great way to teach, but for others, teaching will be more subtle—perhaps reading a little of God’s Word together with someone, or sharing some verses, or expressing spiritual principles in your own words. It may be teaching your children or your friends’ children. It might be bringing others in to the spiritual fellowship that you are already having with family or friends, and through that, teaching them how to Love Him and Live Him.

A person’s spiritual life is like a journey. The place each person is coming from will be different. The pace at which they travel will be different. The Lord might call you to walk alongside someone for a while, to impart His love and truth and Word and share fellowship. You may be sowing, or watering, helping them toward discipleship, or helping them grow within discipleship if they are at the place on their journey where they are ready to commit more of themselves to God. You’re there to help, to give them counsel when they ask, to share God’s principles with them, to help them understand His Word and ways, to encourage and support, to share your discipleship life journey with them.

Teaching and discipling someone takes time. But when we effectively disciple even one person, it’s time well spent. We may be inclined to view our success in teaching others based on the size of the group we are teaching, but that isn’t necessarily the way it works. I happened to read an article that had an interesting outlook on this, written by Dr. David A. DeWitt:

In ten years, an evangelist reaching 1,000 people a day would reach 3,650,000 people. Someone discipling one person a year, who reproduces that with one other person a year, would reach 1,024 people. In 25 years, an evangelist reaching 1,000 people a day would reach 9,125,000 people. Someone discipling one person a year, who reproduces that with one other person a year, would reach 33,554,432 people.^[1]

If you don’t feel you can have a large work, don’t put yourself down. Just do what God has called you to do, and witness to and teach those whom He brings across your path, and you will make a difference.

Francis of Assisi said, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.” My hope is that reading about the four elements that Jesus taught His disciples about—Love Him, Live Him, Preach Him, and Teach Him—has served as a reminder of the principles Jesus has called us to live our lives by, so that our walking will be our preaching. Our strength and our motivation for sharing Him starts with our Loving Him, our being connected to Him. Then because we are Loving Him, we will also be Living Him, and others will feel Him through us. When they do, we can then Preach Him and Teach Him, because they will be interested and will want to know what we know and have what we have, which opens the door to giving them Jesus.

In bringing out some of the principles of being a fruitful Christian, an adherent of the teachings of Jesus, I want to highlight the concept of living Christianity—not according to rules and regulations, but according to the guiding principles of the Gospel.

How you live your life, how you project Jesus, how you Love Him, Live Him, Preach Him, and Teach Him, will make a difference in how the Great Commission is accomplished in your neighborhood, city, province, or country.

We’ve been talking about the individual, about you—what it means to be a disciple, what Jesus expects of His disciples based on His own words. He said those things to His original disciples, and throughout the 2,000+ years of Christian history He has said them over and over again through the Bible to all Christians, to all disciples, to all those He has called to follow Him. Yet it’s an individual call—His call to you.

The ability of the Christian to witness, to live the life of a disciple, to preach Jesus, to teach Him, comes from doing those things that God has called disciples to do. It starts with the individual—the individual loving Him and living His principles, and then also having the conviction, the drive, the desire to witness, to win, to preach, to teach. Every one of us has some opportunity, some network, some realm in which we can be connecting with others and strengthening their faith, their hope, their spirits, through living our discipleship and bringing discipleship principles into our relationships. The effectiveness of an individual disciple does not depend on the size of the church to which he or she belongs, or the number of people that the individual or church is able to minister to; it depends on the individual ministering to those the Lord brings across their path.

Of course, it’s much easier to progress in mission work, in teaching Him and preaching Him, if you have a body of believers around you who are working with you, or at least if you have people whom you are able to have spiritual fellowship with. That is important.

For one, being part of a community, a fellowship, a body of believers, gives you strength and resources as an individual that empower you as you engage in the mission. Disciples need spiritual fellowship. Praying together, connecting with the Lord together as a body, whether the group is small or large, is something that individuals who care about their discipleship should do. Sharing such spiritual fellowship is the bedrock of a spiritual community. It’s where iron sharpens iron; it’s where the hot coals keep each other burning.^[2]

In addition, having a spiritual community gives you a wonderful platform from which to reach others, because you can bring those you meet, who are interested in spiritual things, right into that circle of fellowship and friendship. They can join in on those times when you gather as a community. Whether it’s just two or three of you in a neighborhood or city, or twenty of you, as you create and perpetuate that kind of fellowship, it can become a “nest” of faith and love, of support and encouragement, that can benefit both long-time believers and new ones. You could say that gathering for spiritual fellowship provides an environment that helps disciples to Love Him and Live Him, as well as one where you can Preach Him and Teach Him.

A group that meets for spiritual fellowship may decide to join together in prayer and praise, singing, reading, and worshiping the Lord. Or they may collaborate to enact a mission work, or to collectively teach others. Or maybe a combination of some or all of those things. Whether there are three of you or ten of you or dozens of you, spiritual fellowship and community can expand your options and multiply your efforts.

Spiritual fellowship and united worship is part of what will help you to reach your town or city or country. It’s part of what causes the church to grow. By uniting and giving others the opportunity to pray and praise and love God with you, you will create a community—a network of people who can grow together in loving and living Him, and who will then work together in the task of preaching and teaching Him.

Creating and expanding a spiritual community fosters discipleship. It helps you as a disciple to stay spiritually connected to God and others, because you Love Him and Live Him together. It fosters growth in the mission, because it gives you more strength to Preach Him and a platform to Teach Him to others. New believers are nurtured as your spiritual fellowship is also their spiritual haven, a place where they can spiritually grow and become disciples themselves.

The commission that Jesus has given to His disciples is to bring the Gospel to all the world. Wherever the Lord has called you to is your mission field, and you are called to reach those He puts in your path. On an individual basis, you will most likely engage in the mission one on one with the people that you meet, the people that you work with, the people that you come in contact with. Then, there’s also the aspect of combining your efforts with those of others. It could happen by joining forces in mission endeavors, or by meeting and praying together.—And ideally by bringing others into that meeting and praying together. That spiritual community becomes the seedbed, so to speak, from which the mission in your city or country can grow.

Every nation on earth has people who need Jesus. Every city and every neighborhood contains those who need Him. You can bring Him to them. They need the unconditional love of God. They need disciples who can not only help them find salvation in Jesus, but also walk alongside them on their path in Christian growth and discipleship. They need you.

Are you willing to Love Him? To Live Him? To Preach Him? To Teach Him? If so, then do your best to do those things in whatever circumstance you’re in, and if it’s possible, find others who are willing to do them with you.

The job of the disciple is to win others. If you feel you can’t do much, just do what you can. The Lord will bless your efforts. Like the quote from Saint Francis, “make your walking your preaching.” Even if you can’t devote much time, or any time, to preaching right now, your life can be an example of Jesus’ love.

Be a disciple. Bring Jesus to others. Do what you can to propagate the mission. Propagating the mission is the purpose of TFI, it’s a key aspect of discipleship, and it’s the commission of God. Someone brought the Gospel to you. Someone led you to Jesus. You have eternal life. You’ve been called to share that with others. Find out how to best do it where you are, in your city, in your neighborhood, among the people that you know, or to a wider audience through the Internet or e-mail, or through taking mission trips from time to time. Reach whomever God is calling you to reach in the manner He’s showing you to reach them. Work to change your part of the world, to change those that God has brought across your path.

Be instant in season and out of season. Share the Gospel with those He brings you in contact with. That’s what Jesus did. That’s what His early disciples did. That’s how Christianity has continued to grow. And that’s how you, as a disciple, are fruitful.

^[1] Seven Principles of Biblical Discipleship, by Dr. David A. DeWitt.

^[2] Proverbs 27:17.

Copyright © 2012 The Family International.

085 – Jesus—His Life and Message: The “I Am” Sayings (The Light of the World)

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2018-02-13

The Light of the World

(You can read about the intent for and overview of this series in this introductory article.)

The second of Jesus’ “I Am” sayings is found in John chapter 8.

Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”¹

Understanding the context of when and where Jesus made this statement adds extra insight to its meaning. The eighth chapter of John begins with the story of the woman who was caught committing adultery,² and then moves on to Jesus’ statement about being the light of the world. Most commentators consider the story of the woman to be out of context within the story line of the Gospel. If one skips over the first eleven verses (the story of the woman), then the second part of chapter eight seems to flow from chapter seven. Let’s take a closer look:

Chapter seven begins by stating that Jesus was in Galilee and that the Feast of Booths was at hand. (This feast is also sometimes referred to as the Feast of Tabernacles, and is still practiced today in the Jewish faith. It’s called Sukkoth.) The Feast of Booths is a seven-day festival celebrated in September or early October during which believers dwell in “booths.”³ At the end of the festival, there is an eighth day of rest as per God’s command:

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. … You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.⁴

Jesus delayed going to Jerusalem for the feast, and when He did go, He did so privately.⁵

About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.⁶

His teaching stirred controversy, as some who heard Him thought He was the Messiah while others wanted Him arrested. It’s at this point in the story where the woman caught committing adultery enters the picture, but once that story ends, the account returns to Jesus speaking at the festival. While it doesn’t specifically state that He was still at the festival, what He said suggests that He was.

There were two ceremonies associated with the Feast of Tabernacles in Jesus’ time—the “pouring out of water” and the “temple illumination.” On each day of the festival, the priests drew water from the Pool of Siloam and brought it in a procession to the temple with the joyful sounding of the trumpet, which celebrated God’s supply of water from a rock during the desert wandering of Israel.⁷ In chapter seven, we read that On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.⁸ Jesus speaking about living water during this festival would have been understood within the context of the water procession.

Another part of the festival was the temple illumination. During the festival, in a part of the temple complex called the court of women, four huge golden lamp stands, each with four large lamps, were lit in an evening ceremony. The bright light from the lamp stands lit up the whole temple area. This ceremony commemorated the pillar of fire which led the Israelites in the wilderness:

The LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.⁹

When Jesus made the statement I am the light of the world in John chapter eight, it was probably in this setting. Within this chapter, this is a stand-alone statement, as once He said it, the Pharisees began disputing with Him. However, John includes several references to Jesus being light, especially in the first chapter:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God¹⁰

… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us¹¹

… in him was life, and the life was the light of men¹²

… the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.¹³

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.¹⁴

Later in this Gospel—when the crowd asked Jesus, How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?¹⁵—Jesus responded in a manner that once again pointed to Himself as light:

The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.¹⁶

The call to believe in the light is the same as Jesus saying, “Believe in Me.” Becoming sons of light means becoming people who belong to God.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.¹⁷

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.¹⁸

In John chapter three, right after saying that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son, Jesus referred to Himself as the Light:

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.¹⁹

Those who do not believe in the Light are condemned, while those who believe aren’t; just as Jesus had said earlier that whoever believes in God’s Son should not perish but have eternal life,²⁰ but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.²¹ Believing in the Light is required for salvation, and that Light is Jesus.

In the Old Testament, light is sometimes used as a metaphor for God’s presence:

You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.²²

Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!²³

There are also many references to God’s light, for example:

The LORD is my light and my salvation.²⁴

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!²⁵

Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!²⁶

Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.²⁷

With you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.²⁸

In the book of Isaiah, when speaking of the coming age of the kingdom, reference is made to the “Servant of the Lord” who would be as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth,²⁹ and that the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.³⁰ In the book of 1 John, we read:

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.³¹

God, who is Light and the giver of light, sent His Son Jesus, the Light which has come into the world,³² to bring life. Those who follow this Light will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.³³

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.³⁴

Jesus likens those who believe in Him to stationary light sources: a city on a hill, a lamp on a lamp stand. Our light, as believers, reflects the light of Christ, the Light of the world, the Light which has come into the world. As we walk in His light, we reflect Him and are a witness to others.

At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).³⁵

For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.³⁶

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.³⁷

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.³⁸

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ John 8:12.

² John 8:1–11.

³ A “booth” or as it’s known today, a sukkah, is a temporary structure which is built on the ground, an open porch, or balcony. It has three walls and is positioned so that all or part of its roof is open to the sky. The roof covering, known as s’chach in Hebrew, must consist of something that grew from the earth but is currently disconnected from it. Palm leaves, bamboo sticks, pine branches, wood and the like can all be used for s’chach. Many people hang decorations such as streamers, shiny ornaments, and pictures from the interior walls and ceiling beams of a sukkah. Some families also line the interior walls with white sheeting, in order to recall the “Clouds of Glory” that surrounded the Jewish nation during their wanderings in the desert (Wikipedia).

⁴ Leviticus 23:39, 42–43. See also Deuteronomy 16:13–16.

⁵ John 7:10.

⁶ John 7:14.

⁷ Morris, The Gospel According to John, 372, 388.

⁸ John 7:37–39.

⁹ Exodus 13:21.

¹⁰ John 1:1.

¹¹ John 1:14.

¹² John 1:4.

¹³ John 1:5.

¹⁴ John 1:9.

¹⁵ John 12:34.

¹⁶ John 12:35–36.

¹⁷ 1 Peter 2:9.

¹⁸ Ephesians 5:8–9.

¹⁹ John 3:18–21.

²⁰ John 3:16.

²¹ John 3:18.

²² Psalm 90:8.

²³ Psalm 4:6.

²⁴ Psalm 27:1.

²⁵ Psalm 43:3.

²⁶ Psalm 4:6.

²⁷ Isaiah 2:5.

²⁸ Psalm 36:9.

²⁹ Isaiah 49:6.

³⁰ Isaiah 60:19.

³¹ 1 John 1:5.

³² John 3:19

³³ John 8:12.

³⁴ Matthew 5:14–16.

³⁵ Ephesians 5:8–9.

³⁶ 1 Thessalonians 5:5.

³⁷ Romans 13:12.

³⁸ 2 Corinthians 4:6.

Copyright © 2018 The Family International.

09 – Love. Live. Preach. Teach.—Teach Him

Love. Live. Preach. Teach.

Peter Amsterdam

2012-01-10

We’ve covered the first three elements of discipleship: Love Him, Live Him, and Preach Him. Now we’ll discuss the last element: Teach Him.

Teaching Him has to do with the continuance of the faith. It’s in this element that Christianity is carried forward into the future. It’s in this element that you, as a disciple, contribute to the furtherance of the faith. It’s the part where you develop the spiritual lineage from the present to the future. The concept of teaching, of passing on the knowledge of God and of Christ, is well expressed by Paul in the book of Timothy:

The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.^[1]

When Jesus was about to ascend into heaven, He commanded His disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. He said:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.^[2]

Part of the definition of the word disciple is someone who strongly believes in the teachings of a leader. By instructing His disciples to make disciples of all nations, He was saying that they should teach His teachings to others—something which He had done throughout His public ministry.

Jesus worked at teaching His followers what they needed to know to propagate the faith. He spent about three years teaching them all He could so that they would be able to carry on without His physical presence. This was a vital part of His ministry, as without Him teaching the disciples, the news of salvation would not have spread throughout the world in their lifetime. And had they not done the same, it would have died out within their generation. Teaching is an important element of discipleship and of the continuation of the faith.

There’s a relationship and also a difference between preaching and teaching. The Greek word used in the New Testament for preaching is kerusso (kay-roos’-so), which means to proclaim after the manner of a herald; also, to publish, to proclaim openly. The New Testament Greek word used for teaching is didasko (did-as’-ko), meaning to teach, to hold discourse with others in order to instruct them, to impart instruction, to instill doctrine into. Throughout Jesus’ ministry He did both—He preached and He taught.

When Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.^[3]

People recognized that Jesus was a teacher.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”^[4]

When Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine: For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.^[5]

Coming to His hometown He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?”^[6]

And He left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to Him again. And again, as was His custom, He taught them.^[7]

Early in the morning He came again to the temple. All the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them.^[8]

Jesus was a teacher. He taught both the multitudes and His disciples. His goal in preaching was to proclaim the kingdom of God. His goal in teaching was to disciple individuals, to find and teach those who would, in turn, disciple others; so that process could be repeated over and over, person by person, century by century.

Leading someone to salvation is a tremendous thing! It brings them to the Lord, it gives them everlasting life, and it’s the beginning of the path of discipleship for some. Helping someone along the path of discipleship is a further step, one which requires vision—the realization that discipling someone is an investment in the future of the faith.

The discipling that Jesus did resulted in your eventually being a disciple today. He discipled not just the 12 apostles, but according to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, after His resurrection He appeared to the 12 and also to more than 500 other brethren, most likely disciples whom He had taught at least to some degree.

He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.^[9]

Discipling is key to the growth and continuance of Christianity. Without it, the church can’t grow. Without it, there would be no one to preach, to disciple others, and to carry on Christ’s commission.

Discipling a person involves having a personal connection with them, teaching them, mentoring them, praying with and for them. It’s giving them time, answering their questions, spiritually feeding them and showing them how to feed themselves.

To disciple someone, you don’t have to be a gifted Bible teacher or have to know all there is to know about God; rather, discipling means that you do what you can to help others along their spiritual path. Not everyone is a good teacher, but pretty much everyone can share some of what they have learned about faith, God, love, Jesus and salvation with someone. You can give them a Bible or a New Testament or other reading material. You can try to answer their questions, or share what you have learned. You can pray with them, thus showing them how to pray and providing the spiritual support that comes when “two or three are gathered together in My name.”

Teaching someone doesn’t necessarily mean guiding them through every stage of their Christian life, but rather sharing with them what you know, what you’ve experienced, and directing them to the Lord and His Word. Interacting with them will result in your adding to their knowledge of God; it will cause them to grow in faith. Often a person will need various spiritual teachers and counselors along the way, and while you may be one of them, the Lord may call others to help them at different times or in other ways.

Teaching others doesn’t necessarily mean having a formal class with someone; it can be having spiritual fellowship with them. It can be answering their questions. Jesus’ followers often asked Him questions—they asked Him to explain parables they didn’t understand, or about things stated in Scripture, like about Elijah, or why they couldn’t cast out a certain demon, about the endtime, about why a certain man was blind, about forgiveness.^[10]

Teaching others is walking with them and assisting them on their spiritual path. It’s not only a teacher/student relationship. Yes, you do some teaching, but it doesn’t have to be teaching in terms of you being the Bible teacher and others being your students. You don’t need to place yourself above the person you are teaching, who you are helping to become a disciple. Discipling someone doesn’t necessarily need to be something that is formal and methodical. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s often about friendship. Remember, Jesus called those He was discipling His friends.

I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.^[11]

The friendship aspect is so important! When you are walking with someone on their spiritual path, you want to play the role the Lord wants you to in bringing them into a deeper relationship with God. This is generally best done gently on a friend-to-friend basis.

I want to share with you an excerpt of an article I read some time back which I feel is worth repeating, as it makes the point of friendship being more important than trying to develop a teacher/student relationship with those you are trying to bring along the path of discipleship. The article was written by someone whose ministry is trying to strengthen and disciple men within the church.

Many years ago my wife and I got to know a couple at our church. We seemed to have a lot in common, so we invited them over. The husband had a real heart for discipleship but his approach was hard to take. We stepped outside to chat and for the next two hours he tried to disciple me. I can’t even remember what he talked about because all I could think about was ‘Is this ever going to end?’ I wasn’t looking for a master/student relationship. I was looking for a friend. I could not wait for that night to end and that relationship faded away. Even though his intentions were good, he made zero impact in my life. Even though I was struggling spiritually at the time, I needed a relationship more than a lecture.

When I meet men for discipleship, it is not a mentorship. It is a friendship. I learn from them and hope they learn from me. Just starting a Christ-centered friendship can be like laying a fire on dry wood that causes our desire for Christ to ignite. I love to discuss the Bible and I really enjoy being around men who enjoy the same. However, I don’t place anyone below me. We each stand on the same ground at the same level. Even if we are not at the same place spiritually, we can still be eye-to-eye in our friendship. Only in friendship can the walls come down and will we allow ourselves to have the vulnerability to share our real needs. This is a hard concept to get across. When someone comes to Christ, people try to disciple them as a leader instead of as a friend. A person is much more open to share struggles and ask questions to a friend than with someone on a pedestal.^[12]

We are commissioned by Jesus Himself to help bring others to discipleship.

Disciples make disciples. From the words of Jesus recorded in the Bible, as Christians, as disciples, we are supposed to Love Him, Live Him, Preach Him, Teach Him. This is what Jesus has asked of us.

We love, strongly believe, and follow the teachings of Jesus. We also assist in spreading the teachings, the Word of God. We are to do those things that Jesus said to do, and teaching others so they can grow into discipleship is part of the package.

Of course, not every disciple is able to do all the things disciples do all the time. It’s understandable that in some circumstances you may not be in a position to preach or teach. But even if you aren’t preaching and teaching yourself at a particular time, you can assist in spreading the teachings of Jesus, through your prayers and your pocketbook. If you aren’t in a position to preach to and teach others, then pray for and financially support those who do. In doing so you are assisting in spreading Jesus’ teaching. Do something to help those who are able to preach Him and teach Him.

While Jesus was busy preaching, He also put an emphasis on teaching—on consciously discipling His converts. It’s disciples who carry on and propagate the faith, and since the goal is to make disciples of all nations, teaching is vital. Teaching makes stronger Christians out of those whom you lead to the Lord.

It’s in teaching, in grounding people in their faith, in understanding doctrine, in experiencing Jesus, in developing a closer walk with God, that disciples are born. Teaching is a vital component of the Great Commission, of doing the job Jesus called disciples to do.

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

^[1] 2 Timothy 2:2 NKJ.

^[2] Matthew 28:19.

^[3] Matthew 11:1.

^[4] John 3:2.

^[5] Matthew 7:28–29 KJV.

^[6] Matthew 13:54.

^[7] Mark 10:1.

^[8] John 8:2.

^[9] 1 Corinthians 15:4–6.

^[10] Luke 8:9–15; Mark 9:11–13; Matthew 17:18–20; Matthew 24; John 9:2–3; Matthew 18:21–22.

^[11] John 15:15.

^[12] Eddie Snipes.

Copyright © 2012 The Family International.

Out of This World (part 4)

David Brandt Berg

1977-11-01

—For the unsaved

What about the unsaved, those who haven’t received Jesus’ forgiveness and free gift of eternal life? Is all of mankind divided into just two classes like most religious leaders and church theologians teach? Are all the rest of the people going to go to an eternal burning, torturing, unending hellfire, where there’s no difference in punishment or reward?

If that were true, then God would be a monster. Someone once told me, “I couldn’t believe in a God that’s going to send everybody to hell forever, people that never even had a chance to hear about Jesus, little babies and ignorant natives and the millions of people of different religions who are fairly righteous and are trying to do the best they know how, living up to whatever light they’ve got. I just can’t believe in such a God.”

I replied, “I agree with you. I don’t believe in such a God either.” For I am personally convinced, from my own study of the Scriptures and people and the nature of God, that God has made some other provision for the ignorant unsaved, those who never heard, the unevangelized unsaved.

In the 21st and 22nd chapters of Revelation, you will discover that not only are the saved living inside of the eternal city of the blessed, but there are also people living outside. Only the saved can go into the Heavenly City, although the “kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it” (Revelation 21:24). Who are these “kings of the earth”?

We’re also told that in the city is “the tree of life … And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2). What nations? If there’s not going to be any more pain or death or sickness, sorrow or crying, then what in the world are the leaves of the trees and why do they have to be used for the healing of the nations? Why is healing needed for anybody when there’s not supposed to be any more pain, death, sickness or sorrow and so on?

To me, the answer is apparent. These kings and nations outside the city that need healing are a class of people who are not in hell, not in the Lake of Fire, which the Bible says is in the center of the earth, nor are they the born again, the Bride, those who enter and enjoy the Heavenly City. I believe that this is the provision God has made for those who perhaps never had a chance, never had a choice, never heard of Jesus, never rejected Him because they never really heard about Him. If we’re going to rule and reign with the Lord forever, as Revelation 22:5 says, who are we going to rule over?

I’m not saying that there is no hell, or that no one is going to go there, because the 21st chapter of Revelation makes it quite clear that the most wicked “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). But in the next chapter, Revelation 22, it even says that some people, who sound just like the type who were cast into the Lake of Fire, will also be living outside the city (Revelation 22:15). So apparently the Lake of Fire is where the wicked go to get purged from their sins, or at least purged out enough to let them eventually come and live outside the city.

It will be a better world then, with better people who have learned their lessons of the law of the love of God. And they will be happier than ever before, because at last they will be purged and purified of their sins of rebellion against Him, and healed by the leaves of the trees of life, which we shall minister to them from where they grow by the River of Life within the city.

—Spirits in prison

If there was no hope for the unsaved, and they were all eternally doomed to a fiery torment, then why did Jesus Himself, while spending three days and nights in the heart of the earth between His crucifixion and resurrection, waste his time “preaching unto the spirits in prison” if there was no hope of their salvation, as described in 1 Peter 3:19–22? And why does Peter go on to say in 4:6 that “for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit”?

Jesus went down to hell, and He preached to the spirits that were in prison there. He gave them the Gospel of deliverance. What for? Just as a matter of information so they could be all the more miserable for the rest of eternity in an eternal hell?

If there was no hope for them, why then did He preach to them? Why should He tell them how to get saved if they couldn’t get saved? How do we know but what maybe they had never heard and He was giving them their first chance?

In an Old Testament Scripture that confirms this and apparently refers to these same spirits, God says to His Son, “by the blood of thy covenant (Jesus’ sacrifice) I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit where is no water” (Zechariah 9:11). Jesus saves!

I’m looking forward to the day when everybody, or at least almost everybody, will be saved—at least there won’t be many left in hell, if any, and I think that’s when God will be satisfied too. But that’s a long way off. We’ve still got a lot to do. We haven’t just a few years of our time on this earth—we’ve got thousands to go!

The afterlife

After Jesus’ Second Coming, we will have been resurrected, translated, and changed, and we will have supernatural bodies, thank God. We’ll have spiritual bodies like the Lord had when He was resurrected. He could materialize or dematerialize, and we will have the same power. Think of that! He could pass from one dimension to the other through locked doors and solid walls. This will be a great advantage in being officers of the law and law enforcers, governors and so on, ruling in love over the villagers of this world who live outside of the Heavenly City. (See Luke 24:31–43,51; John 20:19–29; 1 John 3:2; 1 Corinthians 15:50–53.)

So heaven is not the end: it’s only the beginning! God only knows how much more we’ll have to conquer after we’ve conquered the earth and all the souls who have ever lived on it and all the problems. Who knows what other worlds we may have to conquer, what other universes we may yet have to learn to rule.

My idea of heaven is not floating around on a cloud strumming a harp all day long. And it doesn’t seem to be God’s idea of heaven either. His universe is full of movement, and He’ll never stop. We’ll go right on through the coming of Christ and the Millennium and the Heavenly City and right on out to outer space, and God only knows how far we all have to go. We’ll enjoy every minute of it if we’re faithful servants.

We’re a long way from the end. Eternity has no end!

Conclusion

Most people seem to think that God’s spiritual kingdom is some fancy place somewhere in outer space called heaven, only to be reached when you die, if you’ve been good enough while on earth. But Jesus Himself proved this to be a misconception when He said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20–21).

We don’t have to wait till we die to enter it. In fact, it has already entered you if you have Jesus and are filled with His Holy Spirit—and right now you can experience all of its exciting sights, sounds, visions, voices, and even resultant physical thrills—and many other ecstatic joys of the spirit world, the world of His Spirit, where God Himself dwells.

To enter his spiritual kingdom is so simple to do that Jesus Himself said that you must first become as a little child. “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). He even said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

What Jesus meant by this, plain and simple, was that we cannot save ourselves by our own works, our own goodness, our own attempts to keep His laws and to love Him, or even our own endeavors to find and follow His truth. He was saying that salvation is a gift of God performed by a miraculous transformation of our lives when we accept His truth in the love of His Son Jesus by the work of God’s Spirit. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us” (Titus 3:5). All we have to do is receive Him. “As many as received Him (into their hearts), to them gave He power to become the sons (or children) of God” (John 1:12).

“For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9). So you cannot save yourself, no matter how good you try to be. You can’t be good enough, you can’t be perfect enough to earn merit or deserve His holy salvation by His grace, love, and mercy.

For “all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; but God hath laid on Him (Jesus, His own Son) the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). God loved us so much, He gave Jesus to die in our place, to take our punishment for us. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Many people are too proud to accept a gift—they want to work for everything they receive. Jesus, God’s gift of love to us, is just that—a gift—and we just have to receive Him humbly, knowing that we can’t possibly pay enough to buy our way into His heavenly kingdom, or do enough to earn eternal life or to deserve the happiness that He alone can bring.

Jesus stands at your heart’s door and begs to come in. He promised: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). You can have Him and all He has to give, which is everything, right this minute, if you’ll just sincerely pray and ask Him to come into your heart, forgive you your sins, and give you His free gift of eternal life.

You can be born again into the wonderful world of His Spirit where everything is much more beautiful and more lasting than the one which you can now see with your natural eyes at this very moment. For “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9–10). You can personally experience their thrilling and ecstatic joys right now, and even take a trip into that world with Jesus’ Holy Spirit as your guide, like the prophets of old and today. Experience it! “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

Copyright © November 1977 by The Family International

Out of This World (part 3)

David Brandt Berg

1977-11-01

Spiritual power

A lot of people today, especially the young, are awakening to the fact that the spiritual world is real, God is real, and the Devil is real. Many people, especially the young, in their pursuit of genuine spirituality and real religion and the actual supernatural and the miraculous, have gone into drugs, ancient mysticism, and the spirit world.

What they don’t perhaps realize is that it’s not just a so-called natural realm of natural physical forces, but there are literally spiritual forces behind the scenes with which they’re dealing, and that in so doing they’re playing with fire. They’re really taking chances because they’re not necessarily protected by the Lord.

Quite a few popular films, such as “The Exorcist,” “The Omen,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” and “The Three Faces of Eve” rekindled people’s interest in spirits and the spirit world—even though most of these have dealt with the dark side of the picture, the horror of the Devil and his dirty work. But it shows the world is awakening to these things, and recognizing and acknowledging that they’re true, although some are trying to explain them away scientifically.

Demons are very common today, as in all ages, and many people are plagued by them, if not actually possessed. Whether possessed, obsessed, or merely oppressed by them, they need complete deliverance, and they can have it, because demons are totally subject unto us, and must do whatever we say in the name of Jesus. (See Luke 10:19.)

You will run into the situation more and more where it’s not a problem of disease, or sin, but more and more it will be demon possession (Revelation 12:12). Another spirit has come in and is living alongside of the human spirit in the same body, and that is what has split the personality. The demon enters in, and then it’s beyond the person’s own control. To a certain point they can control it, but when they submit to the Enemy at some point, then the Devil takes over, unless, of course, you have the Lord. If you have the Lord and ask for His help, you can control it. But of course, if you just let it take over and you don’t ask the Lord for His help, it can get out of control.

What about the cases of so-called witchcraft, wizardry, black magic, etc., where individuals fiddle around with spiritual powers, trying to influence or cast spells on other people? Just as God has His means of communication in the spirit world, so does the imitator, the Devil. Just as God has His children, the Devil has his captives.

Just as God’s Spirit can possess God’s children, the Devil’s spirit can possess his children. And therefore, so-called witchcraft, demonology, etc., are realities in the world of the evil spirits of the Enemy.

In the case of witchcraft and wizardry, the Enemy acts as a relay station. Satan’s child communicates with the Devil, and if it’s in accordance with the Devil’s will, and not beyond the powers God has given him, then he can operate to influence other children of the Devil, one way or the other.

God’s power is creative and loving, but the Devil’s power is destructive and hateful. What is the Devil usually doing with his wizardry and his black magic and voodoo? What is most of it used for? Curses for people who hate other people and who want to curse them.

But we don’t have to fear, because we have a greater power that protects us. Even if they get a dolly of you and go to this devil-man for the pins and he sticks the pins into your dolly, nothing’s going to hurt you at all, because God is protecting you and the Devil can’t touch you.

If you’re a child of God, none of these things can touch you! You don’t have to worry. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of a sound mind,” for “perfect love casteth out fear” (2 Timothy 1:7 and 1 John 4:18).

A strong tower

The Christian is the Lord’s property and possessed by the Lord and His Spirit; he belongs to the Lord and is controlled by the Lord. He’s the Lord’s possession now. Of course, if he has some besetting sin, something that’s not yielded to the Lord, the Devil can use that thing to weaken him or to cause defeat in that particular area of his life.

As long as there’s one little dark unyielded corner of your life that you’re not willing to yield to the Lord, the Enemy can get at you there, and he can bother you in that one little thing, plague you with that one little thing. Like the guy who told the rich man who’d bought the whole village except his little cottage: “Remember, Huddersfield belongs to thee and to me!” In other words, the Devil can say. “Aha, see. He’s yielded everything except this one little thing. So even though he belongs mostly to Thee, a little bit still belongs to me.” Don’t let the Devil be able to say that of you to God! Don’t let him claim any area of your life.

Don’t give him an inch or he’ll take a mile—or more. He plays for keeps! So don’t let it happen to you. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). “Neither give place to the Devil” (Ephesians 4:27).

The power of the Lord, of course, is so much greater. His Word tells His children: “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). In other words, God is saying, “My power in you is much greater than the Devil’s power in the world’s children—much greater!” Their power is so puny compared to ours and is so weak and ridiculous compared to the power of God that they’re like little kids playing with matches while we’ve got lightning bolts.

God’s power is like light which penetrates and destroys the Enemy’s darkness. It’s impossible for the darkness to penetrate the light, no matter how hard it tries. It can’t put out the light, because it’s afraid of the light. It can’t even get close to it, because the light destroys it. For “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

So we don’t have to worry about or fear Satan’s puny power because we are protected by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is far greater than the power of the Enemy. If we have the power of the Lord, if we have Christ and the Holy Spirit, we are overshadowed, we are enveloped. The Lord’s protection is just like a force field around us, and the Enemy cannot penetrate it. It’s impossible for him to penetrate it unless the Lord allows him to do so as a chastening, as a reaping of something you have done that you haven’t confessed or you’re not sorry for. Then the Lord allows you to reap the results.

But the Devil can’t do a damn thing without God’s permission, without authorization from the Lord. He can’t touch you. He can’t let one of his demons touch you, he can’t do a thing, nothing, as long as you have the Lord’s power and are in His will.

Almost the Devil’s total power is in fear. But the moment the Lord’s children are tempted to fear, we immediately think of God and the fears vanish! Anything that is not of the Lord just vanishes. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10). “God shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him, because he trusteth in Him” (Isaiah 26:3). God is bigger than any devil.

So “fear thou not,” He tells us. “I am with thee. Be not afraid; for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10). We don’t need to fear the Devil or any and all of his angels—Jesus is with us. “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Thank God, one little word shall fell him—Jesus, the Master of all. You have but to utter the name of Jesus to fell all the demons of hell, including Satan himself. “Behold, I give unto you power,” Jesus promised, “over all the power of the Enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19).

Death

There comes a time for everyone to pass from the flesh to the spirit world—death. Leaving this life is just like going from one room into another and closing the door. Everybody does it when they die.

Death is the penalty of physical sin, and we all have to suffer the penalty physically of death. According to God’s laws, because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve on down, we all have to die because of disobedience and sin. “By one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

The minute God’s children die, we’re instantly freed spiritually, liberated from the flesh into the world of the spirit. So this is why Paul said in the face of death, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). In other words, we have to die to pay the penalty, but Jesus took the sting out of it.

This is why Jesus said, “Thou shalt not taste of death” (Matthew 16:28). He’s talking about spiritual death there, because we all die. “It is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27). But we’ll never really die in that sense of spiritual death, or taste the agony of death and separation from God, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice and atonement.

The Bible says that this is why Jesus came into the world: “That He by the grace of God should taste death for every man … that through (His) death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:9,14,15).

“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said. “He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die” (John 11:25,26). He’s the only one who can deliver us out of the jaws of death so we pass through it without sting—through the grave with victory for us, not the grave! Hallelujah!

For the saved, those that know the Lord, dying is the easiest thing in the world. It’s so easy to die when you’re a Christian, because you know where you’re going. It’s an abandoning of this world and a desire for the other. It’s similar, I presume, to what the astronauts feel in their weightlessness. Right now we’re burdened by this vile body, but in the spirit you don’t have this weight. You’re no longer weighed down with the flesh and burdened with the problems of this physical life. You’ve graduated from this grade of this earthly life.

Life “in the world to come” (Mark 10:30)

—For the saved

Perhaps you’ve heard the old proverbial question, written on many a traditional, fundamental Gospel tract: “Where will you spend eternity? Heaven? Or hell?” My answer, which may shock some people, is, “I’m not going to spend it in either place, and I hope you aren’t either.”

The place God’s children, the born-again, are going to dwell with the Lord for eternity is not some fanciful dreamland way off in outer space, but an even more amazing dream city that’s going to come down from God, out of heaven to a New Earth, and God’s going to come down and live with us, and us with Him, in that beautiful dream town, described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22.

“I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:2–4).

We’re not going to go away to some far-off place called heaven where God is supposed to live; but we have a real down-to-earth God, who’s going to come live with us, and make heaven on earth.

Nobody’s going to go to heaven except those who die before Jesus comes back, who go to be “with the Lord,” and when we go with the Lord to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb during the Wrath of God, just before we return to earth for the Millennium, when we will rule and reign with Him. So we’re not going to heaven; heaven is coming to us! This is provable, scriptural fact.

It will be the ultimate of heaven on earth, the right kind of society with the right kind of city. In Revelation, we’re told that it is “the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” and looks like “a great and high mountain.” It has its own “light … like unto a … jasper stone, clear as crystal,” with “a wall great and high and … twelve gates” (Revelation 21:9–12).

“The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles. … And the city lieth foursquare” and measures “twelve thousand furlongs (1,500 miles). The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal” (Revelation 21:14,16).

“The wall of it was of jasper: And the city was pure gold like unto clear glass. … And I saw no temple therein: For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the … saved shall walk in the light of it. … And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth … but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:18,22–24,27).

This is where we’re headed for. “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” “Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.” This beautiful, physical/spiritual city of God, the perfection of the entire universe, shaped like a mountain or pyramid, 1,500 miles high—“which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”—it’s forever (Hebrews 13:14; 11:16,10). (to be continued)

Out of This World (part 2)

David Brandt Berg

1977-11-01

—Holy Ghosts

Besides God the Father, the Creator and Lord of the universe, His Son Jesus, the King of kings, and the Holy Spirit, who together are known as the Trinity, there are many other good spirits, including the seven Spirits of God of Revelation 4:5, the seven stars or angels or spirits of the seven churches of Revelation 1:20, the four spirits of the heavens of Zechariah 6:5, and the multitudes of other celestial messengers, angels, or spirits of God mentioned in the Bible, which are obviously all good spirits.

To deny that they are good spirits is to deny all the angels and spirits of God, as well as all the spirits of the dear departed saints of God, including those who appeared or spoke to men of God throughout the Bible, like the souls under the altar in heaven in Revelation 6:9–11, and even your own personal spirit, saved by the grace of God, which shall join a heavenful of millions of the saved spirits of all the saints of God when you die or go to be with Jesus when He comes!

These are they of whom Paul speaks in Hebrews 12:1 as a great cloud of witnesses which compass us about—here and now. “Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.” Paul saw them. He knew they were there. Thank God for His Spirit. Thanks be unto God for all the good spirits of God and His saints.

Thank the Lord for the many counselors and the multitudes he has given. Ask God to open your eyes as He did the young man to see the multitudes of His hosts. “And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: And, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).

Thank God for these who work with us within the veil of the fifth dimension. Thank God for His angels, who are watching over us continually, even your personal angel, whose job is you. The Lord told us one time to thank Him for His angels that guarded and protected us.

“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” “For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” “The Lord … who maketh His angels spirits; His ministers a flaming fire … ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Psalm 34:7; 91:11,12; 104:4; Hebrews 1:14).

God has sent different “ministering spirits” to reveal His mysteries to us in the spirit, by the spirit, through the Spirit, of the Spirit and for the Spirit. They came this way in the Bible in many cases where angelic messengers were sent to convey a message to some prophet of God, or a man or woman of God. Time and again when the prophets revealed something, they said the angel of the Lord said it or was there showing them. Search the Scriptures and see if these things be so.

In the book of Revelation, for example, when the apostle John was so astonished by the great glad tidings and mysteries of God that were being shown to him, he wrote, “And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God” (Revelation 22:8–9).

A couple of departed saints even appeared and ministered to Jesus, God’s own Son. We’re told that, shortly before His crucifixion, “Jesus went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and behold, there talked with Him two men which were Moses and Elijah: Who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease” (Luke 9:28–31). These two former prophets, Moses and Elijah, had departed from this life many centuries previous to the day Jesus was praying on the mount, yet God sent them to counsel and confer with His Son.

So God can use His servants who have already passed on from this life. These spirits, then, are on assignment. They don’t just drift around in space with no place to go, nothing to do, and not knowing what their specific duties are. They’re all busy. There’re a lot of places where they’re working, not only in this world but in the world of the spirit. The Holy Spirit uses these spirits, His angels and these spirit beings, these departed saintly spirits, to guide God’s children.

So God Himself and all these others dwell and operate in the glorious universe of good spirits to which His Word welcomes and introduces His born-again children: “Ye are come unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” (Hebrews 12:22–24).

—Satan, the fallen archangel

So far, we have dealt primarily with the wonderful realm of God and His heavenly forces, but there is also a dark side of the picture, sad to say, which I don’t care to talk too much about, because I think it tends to glorify the Enemy too much, giving him too much credit. However, God’s Word does tell us not to be ignorant of the Devil’s devices (2 Corinthians 2:11).

It doesn’t pay to try to say that there’s no Devil or no demons or no such thing as evil, and just try to ignore the facts. Especially when God’s book, the Bible, warns us explicitly of such spiritual forces and tells us exactly how to overcome them.

These wicked spiritual powers are led by a fallen archangel, Satan, whom the Bible calls “the prince of the devils” (Matthew 12:24) and “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Speaking of him, Jesus said, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18). And the book of Jude speaks of his forces as “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation” (Jude 6).

Before becoming the Devil, Satan had been the light-bearer (translated in the King James Version of the Bible as Lucifer), a mighty archangel. But he wasn’t satisfied with that; he wanted to be God. He did not have to fall—he chose to, because of his lust for power. In the account of his downfall, God’s Word says, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. … I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isaiah 14:12–15).

He was the first would-be dictator, who didn’t want to listen to either God or the other angelic forces. Obviously the majority of them were opposed to his rebellion, for when he totally leaves heaven at the start of the Great Tribulation he’ll only take one-third of them with him. So he and his demons are in the minority, thank God. (See Revelation 12:4.)

The Devil, having refused to listen to either God or the majority of the angels, rebels and becomes the Devil, Satan, the wager of wars upon the world and all peoples and all governments and even God. He is the rebel of all rebels, the terrorist of all terrorists, the delinquent of all delinquents, and the criminal of all criminals and the worst monster of all ages!

He declares his independence from all righteous rule and people and goes about doing his dirty work among the whole universe as a dandy bad example of what not to be and what not to do. So we have hell on earth and even some hell at present in the spirit world, until God throws him out completely, and all his devils, in the coming Great Tribulation. (See Revelation 12:7–10.)

In the meantime, however, he’s still busy trying to be God and trying to establish his counterfeit kingdom on earth. You see, he’s not really a creator at all; he’s only an imitator and destroyer, a fake god. In fact, the Devil can’t do anything; he doesn’t know what to do, except to imitate God. He knows that what God does works, and so in everything he does he is trying to imitate the Lord.

Unlike God or Christ or the Holy Spirit, the Devil is not omnipresent; he’s limited. He’s limited in his scope of operation, because he is only one of God’s creations and limited to one personality in one place at any one given time. Therefore, he has to carry on most of his business through his demons, other evil angels—and through these, the various satanic princes of this world. Through these devils he manages to rule a good deal. This is why the Bible calls him “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). (See also Luke 4:5–7.)

War in the spirit

The powers and conflicts of the spirit world—the eternal world where world destinies are being decided by the struggles of the spirits and archangels—is important. The world’s future is being influenced by the battles in the spirit world between the Lord and His angels on the one hand, and the Devil and his angels on the other.

If you could see what was going on behind the veil of the fifth dimension, you would witness an all-out war of the worlds.—A war between good and evil, God and the Devil, goodness and wickedness, flesh and spirit, angels and devils, love and hate, life and death, joy and misery, a war of the universe between the good spirits of heaven and the evil spirits of hell, contending for our souls as well as our bodies.

We are told in the Bible that the archangel Michael wrestled against a demon “prince of Persia” for 21 days before he finally broke through to answer the prophet Daniel’s prayer with an important prophetic message. (See Daniel 10:11–13,20.)

This is where the most important battles and cataclysmic changes occur, behind the scenes in the spirit world. As the apostle Paul said, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Heavenly councils and court sessions

It is far beyond our comprehension to fully understand how God runs the spiritual government of the universe by means of the Holy Ghost and His angels—“ministering spirits,” as His Word calls them. We do know that he conducts some kind of councils in heaven, report sessions, according to Job 1:6 and other related passages—court sessions in which Satan is “the Accuser of the Saints” (Revelation 12:10).

God and His Son Jesus Christ, the King of kings, conduct court sessions, in which He judges the living, now, like He did Job and others, like the kings and judges of this world, types and shadows of the true.

In these sessions, God is the judge, Jesus is the defense lawyer, and the Devil is the prosecuting attorney who constantly reminds the judge of the law. In fact, the Devil is the most legalistic creature in the universe. Anybody that breaks the law, he wants God to crack down on them and punish them on the spot. The Devil is all for justice and the law. (See Revelation 12:10; Zechariah 3:1; Job 1:9–12.)

But it’s God, who made the laws and the rules, who wants you to have mercy and forgiveness and salvation. This is why He sent Jesus, so that Jesus could be a man and know how men feel. He could be human and know how it is to be human, and therefore could understand us better and have more mercy on us and therefore could be our intercessor and mediator with God Himself (1 Timothy 2:5).

So if Jesus is in our heart, He’s on our side, He’s our intercessor, He’s our high priest (Hebrews 2:17). He is our advocate, our intercessor, our mediator.

So “who is he that condemneth? (The Devil is a liar; there is no truth in him. John 8:44) It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:34). “For Christ is entered … into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24). “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

He took on the form of our own human flesh, that He might know and understand us and our problems better, having suffered with us as one of us. “As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13–14), having worn that frame Himself, suffering in it, dying in it. (To be continued)

Out of This World (part 1)

David Brandt Berg

1977-11-01

An extensive and revelatory look into the spirit world, that mysterious dimension of eternal realities, the living world of forever rather than the dying world of now—the everlasting realm of eternity rather than the temporary space of time, that fascinating dimension which is largely unseen by us in mortal flesh rather than this mundane plane which is so temporary. “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth … for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (Colossians 3:2; 2 Corinthians 4:18).

In search of the fifth dimension

The things and powers and conflicts of the spirit world—the eternal world where world destinies are being decided by the struggles of the spirits and archangels—this is what is really important. Our daily lives and the world’s future are being influenced by the battles in the spirit world between the Lord and His angels on the one hand and the Devil and his angels on the other.

In years gone by I found that many Christians, pastors, and Bible teachers were afraid of the subject of the spirit world because they felt that it bordered on spiritualism or spiritism, and that talking about the personal appearances of angels or of saints long dead sounded to them too much like having to do with familiar spirits, dealing with evil spirits and devils, which God’s Word condemns, along with witchcraft and wizardry. But may God forgive us for condemning the entire spirit world and being afraid of knowledge of it just because the Devil uses it, along with his demons. That would be like some narrow-minded churches that refuse to use music just because the Devil uses it. If we stopped using everything the Devil uses, there wouldn’t be much left—not even for God!

Witchcraft, wizardry, and dealing with evil familiar spirits, demons, and devils are all condemned by God, but this does not mean that we are supposed to blind ourselves, ignore, and shut ourselves off completely in ignorance to God’s own marvelous spiritual world in which He dwells with His Son Jesus, His Holy Spirit, all His ministering spirits, the angels—two-thirds of the spirit world (Revelation 12:4)—and all the millions of the spirits of the departed saints.

Why should we be left in darkness regarding the wonderful world of His Spirit—the eternal, everlasting world, the spirit realm, the heavenly plane, the fifth dimension—that thrilling and exciting and marvelous and glorious and great unseen world of the spirit? Usually unseen, that is, by the natural eyes of man, particularly those of the unbelieving.

The inhabitants of the spirit world

—Almighty God

The Bible tells us that “God is a spirit: And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). It also speaks of Him as “the Father of spirits” in Hebrews 12:9, and “the God of the spirits” in Numbers 16:22 and 27:16. So He is a spiritual God who dwells and operates in the spiritual realm, and from there conducts His behind-the-scene labors which are almost totally invisible: the work of creation that produced the universe and keeps it running, His design and plan for man, and His constant care for His creations.

He’s the genuine basic power and guiding light of the universe that has brought men into being, and, as man’s benevolent fatherly Creator, has a kind and benign purpose in store for him, a final fulfillment of his undeniably human aspirations for love, life, liberty, and happiness.

His visible creation is an illustration of the things in the spirit, of that which is invisible. “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20). Everything God created, everything God ever made, all the visible creation, is in some way an illustration of something spiritual. And what did God create to illustrate what He Himself is like? What creation gives us the best picture of what God is like?

In the first chapter of the first book of the Bible we are told that “God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him” (Genesis 1:27). In other words, God made us very much like Him in many ways, in His image and His likeness. We are like God. We have the majesty of choice, we can do good or evil, and we are similar to God in our ability to think and our emotions and personalities.

Man was created with similarities to God Himself, yet in a body of flesh bound with the earth and earthen things, “and of the earth, earthy” (1 Corinthians 15:47). But man is confined to this world and to a certain environment and to certain limitations, physical weaknesses and restrictions, so that he is on probation and being put to the test of choice.

“But, if this is all true,” we often hear, “and there is an all-powerful God behind the scenes, why does He allow war and pain and suffering and the atrocities of man’s inhumanity to man? Why doesn’t He put a stop to such evils?” Although He hates war and its perpetrators, and deplores the poverty of the poor and their suffering, and is soon going to step in and set things right, He hasn’t yet because He would have had to put a stop to man’s choice, which is the main idea of the whole great design.

Man was created and put here to make a choice between good and evil, to do right or wrong, to serve God or himself, and to learn the benefits of serving God—reaping the joy and happiness and pleasures of keeping God’s loving rules for his own good and worshipping and thanking God for it all in return, as grateful children of their heavenly Father, to believe in Him and have faith in Him and trust Him and His Word and obey it for their own good and His glory.

Those who rebel against God, disobey Him, and refuse to believe His Word, go their own way and suffer the consequences of violating His law of love, which results in misery, pain, suffering, man’s inhumanity to man, cruelty, atrocities, wars, economic ills, unhappiness, mental anguish, and finally death and hell hereafter.

God is interested in our decisions. He’s concerned to see whether we will make the right choices if we are given the majesty of choice. Of course, He is saddened when we make the wrong choices. This is why He put us here and this is what we’re here to learn: how to make the right decisions. So He has had to give us the opportunity to have our own way to see what we will do.

Even if we don’t fully understand why God created us the way He did, I’m sure He did it for whatever reasons He felt best, for His sake and our sake and the sake of a lesson to the universe. Perhaps it’s a great lesson to all the spirit world and the good spirits and evil spirits, including the Devil, to give them all a good sample of what is right and wrong, and how that right pays off, and wrong does, too.

—The Son King

The Bible not only tells us that “God is a spirit” but also that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). God is the Spirit of love, the Great Spirit, the Creator. What is God like? He’s love. And what did God do to prove that He is love, that He loves us? “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God gave “His only begotten Son,” Jesus. He was separated from Him and let Him suffer a cruel, horrible death for us, for our sakes. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). Jesus is the manifestation of the love of God.

“Why can’t you just leave Jesus out of it?” some people ask. “Why do you have to use that name? Why does He always have to be the symbol? Why can’t you just say God and speak of God only? We could accept it much easier if you wouldn’t insist on using the name of Jesus.”

If He really was God’s Son, and God had chosen Jesus to reveal Himself to the world and to show His love, then God Himself has insisted on it. “Love Me, love My Son.” These are God’s conditions, not ours. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also” (1 John 2:23). God has insisted that we recognize and love His Son, and Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

Jesus made the way. He is the way! “Neither is there salvation in any other: For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There is only “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). And, “no man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1:18).

No man can approach God directly. We have to go through Jesus, who said, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). Prior to His incarnation here on earth, He and the Father were together in personal heavenly fellowship, which He had to forsake while He was down here with us. Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (John 17:5). We’re also told that “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1,14).

Jesus actually renounced the rights of His citizenship in heaven, and “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). He adapted Himself to our bodily form and conformed to our human ways of life, so that He might understand and love us better, and communicate with us on the lowly level of our own human understanding. In a sense He became a citizen of this world, a member of humanity, a man of flesh, in all points like as we are, in order that He might reach us with His love, prove to us His compassion and concern, and help us understand His message in simple terms that we could understand.

“Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Philippians 2:5–10).

He came down here to our level to take us with Him back up to His. He didn’t leave the halls of heaven to come and stay down here forever. Nor is He still asleep in the grave. He is risen! And He is now “set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1)—the throne of the Father—God’s broadcasting center, His central studio and principal communication center.

So now you can intimately and personally know and enjoy Him, and we can all enjoy Him together anywhere, everywhere, any time, all the time, in all His power and fullness—just as much for you as for me, and just as precious and intimate as for any—by His Spirit and through His words. “For the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).

—The Holy Spirit

Right after His resurrection, the Lord told His apostles, “Tarry ye at Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). He further explained, “Ye shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This baptism of power will make you want to be a witness and go to the darkest corners of the earth to tell and show others that Jesus loves them.

Some people experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the same time they ask Jesus into their hearts, like the household of Cornelius in the book of Acts. When Peter preached the Word, “the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard (spiritually received) the word” (Acts 10:44). However, with most people the baptism of the Spirit is a subsequent experience to salvation.

Everyone receives a measure of the Spirit upon believing on and receiving Jesus, because Paul said, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:9). The baptism of the Spirit is when Jesus in you baptizes (or fills) you with the Holy Ghost, just as John the Baptist promised He would. “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” (Matthew 3:11).

In order to emphasize the importance of the spiritual over the physical, Jesus said to His disciples, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you” (John 16:7).

Jesus had to leave the few that he might send His Spirit to the many. He had to remove the pleasure of His bodily presence from the handful, in order that He might be with them in the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit—with all of them—with multitudes—with millions—yea, hundreds of millions through the ages—something He never could have done in personal physical presence had He remained here after His resurrection. “For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

As long as they had His bodily presence, they couldn’t really get into the spirit of it all. They didn’t need His Spirit. They had Him! He had to take His body away so they could feel His Spirit—get their minds off the flesh—get their hearts in His Spirit.

Their flesh, even His flesh, had actually gotten in their way and prevented them from sensing the genuine spirit of real truth, of which His body was a mere physical representation. But now that He has removed Himself to headquarters, the throne of the Father, the central broadcasting station, we can all be reached equally, fairly, and simultaneously by His power, the communication of His Holy Spirit. He had to go away so that it would be possible to “pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.” For He “ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10). (to be continued)

Second Thessalonians 1–2

David Brandt Berg

1981-03-23

We’re now studying the second epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians, beginning with the second verse of chapter 1:

“Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:

“Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

“Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power: That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

He thanks God for your faith and your faithfulness, and he glories in your faithfulness and your faith in spite of persecution and tribulations. He says that since you have been persecuted and troubled and tribulated by the world, that it’s a righteous thing with God to recompense and to give tribulation to them that trouble you. And so he says:

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day!” (v. 7–10)

Paul was thanking the Lord for the faithfulness of His disciples and His saints. He says, “Don’t worry about those people who are giving you a lot of trouble right now. The Lord’s going to tribulate them and give them a lot of trouble too!” When? “When He shall come!” Verse 10 of that first chapter: “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day!” What day? Let’s drop down to the second chapter.

He says, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand” (v. 1–2). Here he calls it the day of Christ. In the preceding chapter he calls it the day when God will wreak vengeance on His enemies and trouble them that tribulate us.

He talks about the day when Jesus will wreak vengeance on our enemies—the day when God will trouble them who have tribulated us in the Great Tribulation. We’ve had Great Tribulation, then Jesus comes to give them a lot of trouble, a lot worse than the Tribulation ever was! That day. What day? Verse 10 of the first chapter: “When He shall come!”

He’s talking about the day when Jesus will come again; the day when Jesus will come back again. The day when Jesus will come to be glorified in His saints. In that day! So he says in the second chapter, first verse: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto Him.”

What happens at His coming? Our gathering together unto Him, what’s it called? The Rapture! The exodus! Yes, exodus, that’s for sure—ecstasy! The exodus of the church, of the Bride, from this horrible world that has persecuted her and tribulated her with Great Tribulation, whom God is now going to trouble because of the way they treated His Bride. The day when Jesus comes and He raptures His saints, taking His Bride out of this world.

Jesus is going to come and take us up to be with Him, unite us with Him in the Rapture. That’s the day of our uniting to the Lamb! That’s the day of our union, followed by this Marriage Supper that lasts about 30 days (Revelation 19:9). What a shindig, what a party! Hallelujah!

That’s what Paul is talking about here when he’s talking about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him. And back in verse 10 of the first chapter: “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, in that day!” The day of our Rapture, when we are raptured into His very arms to be His Bride, wedded and married forever.

Copyright © March 1981 by the Family International

Abundant Life

A compilation

2021-10-05

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”—John 10:10¹

The story is told of an artist who sculpted a beautiful angel and wanted the master artist, Michelangelo, to inspect it and offer his opinion. So Michelangelo was called in. The master artist carefully looked at the sculpture from every angle.

Finally, he said, “Well, it lacks only one thing.” Then he turned around and walked out.

The artist didn’t know what it lacked, and he was embarrassed to go and ask Michelangelo. So he sent a friend to Michelangelo’s studio to try and find out what his statue lacked.

The great artist replied, “It lacks only life.”

The same could be said of a lot of people today. They have the house, the car, the spouse, and the kids. They have the career. They have money in the bank. They have everything going the way that things ought to go to supposedly live life to its fullest. But there is something still lacking. They are still lacking life.

Jesus has something to say about that, and in John’s Gospel, He tells us what our lives ought to be about… “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

The context of John 10 is that of a shepherd and his sheep, where Jesus is the Shepherd, while we are the sheep. But we are reminded that Jesus is not just our Shepherd; He is the Good Shepherd. It is important to know that the word used here for “good” doesn’t just mean morally good, though it includes that. It also could be translated “beautiful” or “winsome” or “lovely,” even “attractive.” Jesus is the beautiful, attractive, winsome Shepherd, and the Shepherd’s plan for His flock—more specifically, the Lord’s plan for you—is that your life would flourish. It is His absolute joy to bless you. …

The abundant life that John 10:10 speaks of is not necessarily a long life, though it may be, but it certainly is a full one. Medical science seeks to add years to our lives, but only Jesus can add life to our years. …

If somehow the Bible read differently and there was no promise of heaven and no afterlife, if we simply stopped existing when we die, but everything else about the Christian life remained the same, I still would be a Christian on that basis alone. To have Christ in my life, to have His leading, to have His guidance, to have His blessing, to have these standards to live by and to guide my life by … I would be a Christian for these things alone.

If neither heaven nor God’s plan to live eternally were promised to me, it has been worth it just having the Lord in my life. But the good news, friend, is there is a heaven. There is an afterlife. There is the hope that every Christian has: life—and that more abundantly.—Greg Laurie²

What did Jesus mean when He promised an abundant life?

In John 10:10, Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Unlike a thief, the Lord Jesus does not come for selfish reasons. He comes to give, not to get. He comes that people may have life in Him that is meaningful, purposeful, joyful, and eternal. We receive this abundant life the moment we accept Him as our Savior.

This word “abundant” in the Greek is perisson, meaning “exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous, a quantity so abundant as to be considerably more than what one would expect or anticipate.” In short, Jesus promises us a life far better than we could ever imagine, a concept reminiscent of 1 Corinthians 2:9: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” …

Before we begin to have visions of lavish homes, expensive cars, worldwide cruises, and more money than we know what to do with, we need to pause and think about what Jesus teaches regarding this abundant life. The Bible tells us that wealth, prestige, position, and power in this world are not God’s priorities for us.³ In terms of economic, academic, and social status, most Christians do not come from the privileged classes. Clearly, then, abundant life does not consist of an abundance of material things. If that were the case, Jesus would have been the wealthiest of men. But just the opposite is true.⁴

Abundant life is eternal life, a life that begins the moment we come to Christ and receive Him as Savior, and goes on throughout all eternity. “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”⁵ This definition makes no mention of length of days, health, prosperity, family, or occupation. As a matter of fact, the only thing it does mention is knowledge of God, which is the key to a truly abundant life.

What is the abundant life? First, abundance is spiritual abundance, not material. In fact, God is not overly concerned with the physical circumstances of our lives. He assures us that we need not worry about what we will eat or wear.⁶ …

True abundant life consists of an abundance of love, joy, peace, and the rest of the fruits of the Spirit,⁷ not an abundance of “stuff.” It consists of life that is eternal, and, therefore, our interest is in the eternal, not the temporal. Paul admonishes us, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”⁸—From GotQuestions.org⁹

Living abundantly

Words can’t describe the riches to be found in Jesus, and the closer the walk with Him, the greater the revelations of His power and glory and inheritance that you will have as a Christian! I wish I had some new way of telling you what it means to come closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.¹⁰ He wants you to draw closer. He longs that you will have His peace and rest and joy.

He says, “My peace I give,” and “Ask and receive, that your joy may be full.”¹¹ He wants you to have all this fullness. He wants you to draw closer to Him. He even desires that you may prosper. The first Psalm tells of the righteous man, who prospers in all that he does.¹²

He wants you to draw closer to Him, so that you can know the abundant life that He has offered, that He comes to give—this life above the common, a life above the mediocre, a life above the ordinary. You’ll never know it by just a passing acquaintance with Him! “Draw me closer, closer, just a closer walk with Thee, dear Lord.”

He wants to show you the reliability of every promise in His Word. If you’ve got a need today, He wants to supply that need.¹³ He promised to give you the desires of your heart if you delight yourself in Him.¹⁴

Are you delighting yourself in Him? God is all that will ever satisfy you! “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”¹⁵

He is your “satisfying portion.” Draw closer to Him, read His Word, and meditate upon Him—your forever portion.—Virginia Brandt Berg

Abundance and hope

God through Jesus Christ offers us so much—“exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”¹⁶—both in this present physical life and the spiritual life to come. For God’s desire for us is not for calamity … but to give us a more abundant life now and a hope for the future.

He came to give us rest and rejuvenation from the cares and stresses of daily living. He beckons us to come to Him when we are burdened down with cares and troubles: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest … for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”¹⁷ In this harried world, we all need times of quietness and time-out to speak with God and listen to God speak to us through His Word.

He came as well to inspire and encourage us in this world of war and turmoil with His encouraging words in John 16:33, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” It’s easy to become depressed if one focuses too much on the state of today’s world affairs. But He tells us, when we see these things happen, to “lift up [our] heads, because [our] redemption draws near.”¹⁸

He also assures us that He will be with us always, even to the end of this age. That means He will always be with us to carry us through life’s storms, to give us peace and encourage us right through the end.¹⁹ …

He sends us the Comforter or Helper in the form of God’s Holy Spirit—a Spirit that results in a life of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.²⁰

As we face the end of our physical lives, He tells us not to mourn like those who have no hope.²¹ For our physical life is merely a preparation for eternity. … This includes the kind of life in which we will possess a glorified spiritual body that will be made and fashioned like Christ²² and an inheritance that will never fade away, reserved in heaven for us.²³ …

The kind of life in Christ described above only scratches the surface of what God has in store for those who truly remain faithful to Him. One could go on to describe the next life as one of blessings, health, prosperity, happiness, fulfillment and purpose. Even in this life, Christ’s followers have a wonderful appetizer of those future blessings!

He truly did come so that we can have life and have it more abundantly. It is no wonder, then, that the psalmist David was inspired to write, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”²⁴—Hector Earle²⁵

Published on Anchor October 2021. Read by Jerry Paladino.
Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ AKJV.

² https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/a-new-beginning/read/articles/abundant-life-10479.html.

³ 1 Corinthians 1:26–29.

⁴ Matthew 8:20.

⁵ John 17:3.

⁶ Matthew 6:25–32; Philippians 4:19.

⁷ Galatians 5:22–23.

⁸ Colossians 3:2–3.

⁹ https://www.gotquestions.org/abundant-life.html.

¹⁰ John 10:10.

¹¹ John 14:27, 16:24.

¹² Psalm 1:3.

¹³ Philippians 4:19.

¹⁴ Psalm 37:4.

¹⁵ Psalm 73:26.

¹⁶ Ephesians 3:20.

¹⁷ Matthew 11:28–30.

¹⁸ Luke 21:28.

¹⁹ John 10:28; Philippians 1:6; 4:13; Hebrews 13:5.

²⁰ Galatians 5:22–23.

²¹ 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

²² 1 John 3:2.

²³ 1 Peter 1:4.

²⁴ Psalm 16:11.

²⁵ https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/take-it-or-leave-it-reflections-on-john-1010.

A Heart Full of Heaven

1984-01-01

All God’s children of faith since the beginning of time have been looking for “a city which hath foundations”—eternal foundations—“whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). They were not satisfied with being citizens of this world. But rather they looked for a country made by God, a heavenly country, a heavenly city, built by the Lord.

For these all “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:13–16).

So if you’re still looking for the perfect city and the perfect government in the perfect country with perfect people, just wait a little longer—it’s coming. Jesus promised, “In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2–3).

That’s the only country where we really belong—the kingdom of God, the heavenly city. We seek a better country, the kingdom of heaven. That’s our nationality, our citizenship, our country—a country that has never persecuted the poor or oppressed the weak or destroyed the minorities of the world; a country that has never lost a battle and never fought a war for the wrong reasons.

We are citizens of the only righteous nation in the universe, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We, in effect, renounced our citizenship in this world when we received the King of kings and the Prince of Peace, Lord of lords, God of heaven, Son of Righteousness and His kingdom into our hearts.

When you think about heaven, it helps you to bear some of the things you have to go through now. This is one reason that Moses could do it, because he had “respect unto the recompence of the reward, as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:26–27). He looked past all the troubles he had in Egypt and all the problems, and he saw the Lord and His reward in the future. He could put up with the present by foreseeing the future. Seeing heaven helped him endure all that he had to go through here on earth.

Revelation chapters 21 and 22 offer the most detailed, specific description in the entire Bible of what heaven is like. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1). God is going to re-create a beautiful new earth and new heaven—clean air, no pollution, no contamination, no poisonous gases or chemicals. The new earth and the new heaven will be without sin, without war, destruction, death, sickness, tears, pain, without any of these things we suffer today.

The place we’re going to dwell with the Lord forever hereafter is not some fanciful dreamland way off in outer space, but an even more amazing city that’s going to come down from God, out of heaven, to a new earth, and God’s going to come down and live with us, and us with Him. We’re not going to go off to some faraway place called heaven where God is supposed to live, but we have a real down-to-earth God, who’s going to come live with us, and make heaven on earth.

Heaven is not the end. It’s only the beginning.

Are you ready for it? Have you got your reservation in? Are you going to be able to walk in that city? It says, “Only the saved shall walk therein” (Revelation 21:24).

Admission to this great heavenly city is free—already paid for by the blood of Jesus on the cross. All you have to do is receive Jesus as your Savior. Take Him now. Have your name put in the Lamb’s Book of Life in heaven so you’ll be sure you’ve got your reservation confirmed for one of those dwelling places in God’s golden city. That’s the place you’ll be happy forever with Jesus. If you love and receive and live for Him now, you can enjoy Him and heaven forever.

Jesus loves you and is waiting to come into your heart right now.—Will you let Him in? Simply pray: “Lord Jesus, I believe that You are the Son of God and that You died for me. Please forgive me for all my sins. I now open the door of my heart and I ask You to please come in and grant me Your free gift of Eternal Life. Help me to love You and to love others by telling them about You and Your Love. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

“And the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17). God bless you with His wonderful gift of eternal salvation and a truly heavenly future to look forward to.

Copyright © 1997 by The Family

The Five Wars of the Antichrist (part 2)

“But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him. Therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many” (Daniel 11:44). Now he has invaded Israel for the third time, left Jordan alone, but this time conquered Egypt with the help of the Libyans and the Ethiopians. But there’s trouble in the north, back home, and trouble in the east, coming maybe from China or Japan. So he goes forth “with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.” That sounds like either another war or a continuation of the same war.

Verse 45: “And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain.” He obviously wins this war! How else could he set his tabernacle up there? He has already set himself up in the temple and the abomination of desolation and all of that, at his second return when he breaks the covenant. It also seemed as though that would be the logical thing, that at the same time he sets up his image in front of the temple and sets himself up on a throne in the temple declaring himself to be god, that would be the time when he also makes Jerusalem his palace and his headquarters. But it doesn’t actually say that happens until after this third war, 11th chapter, last verse: “He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain.”

That’s the end, because the next thing that comes is the Resurrection, right after it says he finally sets up his palace in Jerusalem and makes that his world headquarters of his world government.

So after the covenant and any period of peace which follows—and which from Daniel 11:23–24 obviously for a while does follow—there is another war; there is an invasion. Despite the covenant, Israel, the king of the south, rises up against him, so the Antichrist comes down and defeats him. But it’s still not the end of the king of the south. The next time the Antichrist comes back against the holy covenant, the king of the south along with the ships of Chittim rise up against him. But he again wins, breaks the covenant, sets up the abomination of desolation, puts himself in the temple, calls himself god, and that’s the Tribulation!

It sounds to me like after the covenant is made, there’s peace for a while—according to the 21st through the 24th verses—but then beginning with the 25th verse there’s obviously a big war, following this temporary period of peace. And quite obviously this big war occurs before the Tribulation, during the first 3½ years, because the Tribulation doesn’t begin until the abomination of desolation occurs in the 31st verse. The abomination doesn’t even occur until after the second invasion, beginning in the 29th verse.

And then after the Tribulation is in progress, once again the south rebels: The king of the south “pushes at him” again (v.40). So he comes down “like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, many ships, and he shall enter into the countries and overflow and pass over, and enter into the glorious land.” Here’s the third invasion of Israel during the seven-year period.

It sounds like three separate invasions of Israel during the seven years—one invasion during the first half of the seven years, another invasion right in the middle at the breaking of the covenant, and another invasion during the Tribulation. Then, having conquered the whole world, including Babylon, he sets up his palace “between the seas in the glorious holy mountain,” which means Jerusalem, and makes that his world capital. He has conquered the world, he has established his world religion, the worship of himself, and now he makes Jerusalem specifically and definitely his world capital of his world government (Daniel 11:45).

In fact, it sounds like there are two wars during the Tribulation. There’s one when the king of the south rises up against him in the 40th verse, and he goes after him like a whirlwind with many chariots, horsemen and ships, enters into the countries, many countries shall be overthrown, etc. But then after this third war he has trouble in the east and the north. “Therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many.” That sounds like a fourth war. The first one ending the period of peace, the second one breaking the covenant and setting up his world religion, the third one putting down the rebellion of Israel again, apparently against his world religion, and then the fourth one to put down rebellion at home and in the east, and “to make away many,” 44th verse.

So it sounds like there are at least four Antichrist wars during the seven years: one after a temporary period of peace, the second one to break the covenant and set up his religion, the third one to put down another rebellion of Israel, and the fourth one which might be almost like a continuation of it, to completely wipe out all of his enemies, in which case this could be an atomic war! Then the end comes.

It sounds like Babylon falls during the Tribulation, and in some of the passages in Revelation, it sounds like it has fallen just before the rapture. We have all this Tribulation going on and occupation of Jerusalem in the 11th chapter of Revelation and the story of the two witnesses; the 12th chapter tells of the persecution of the church and the Tribulation; and the 14th chapter tells about the gospel being preached in all nations, the announcement that Babylon is fallen, and it gives a warning to those who receive the Mark of the Beast. So the Antichrist’s kingdom is already set up and his religion’s already set up. Then it’s followed by the rapture. And then we have in the 15th and 16th chapters the wrath of God.

Then in the 17th and 18th chapters, we seem to go back once again into the Tribulation period. It’s a flashback, because again it’s talking about the Tribulation and the Antichrist and his ten kings and Babylon the great whore and how she fell. He’s already announced her fall as far back as the 14th chapter, but He doesn’t describe who she is or what happened until the 17th chapter, and it doesn’t actually describe her fall in detail until the 18th chapter. So the 17th and 18th are obviously flashbacks of something that’s already been announced and already occurred, according to the sequence of the scriptures and the chronology, which is then immediately followed by Armageddon, which is the end of the wrath of God.

Obviously the fall of Babylon occurs somewhere during or at the end of the Tribulation period, because God’s people are still there and He tells them to come out of Babylon (Revelation 18:4). So it couldn’t possibly be during the wrath of God—although its position in the Scripture seems to follow the wrath of God—because in the 14th chapter she’s already fallen and the rapture’s already occurred. So chapters 17 and 18 have to occur back before that during the Tribulation.

So then in which one of the Antichrist’s four major wars during the period of his reign is it most likely that Babylon is destroyed? It is the final one described here in Daniel 11 as part of his reign, and would be the final wiping out of his final enemies. Probably at this time he’s got sufficient power and cooperation of the ten kings to wipe out Babylon, which has been the source of his trouble in stirring up the king of the south, Israel, against him! This time he not only totally conquers the south, but he goes forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many! That sounds like the final utter destruction of Babylon (? *) in the final horrible atomic war.

Then, of course, he’s not through with his wars yet. He’s got a fifth war on his hands, and that’s the Battle of Armageddon. So the Antichrist fights five wars during his reign, and the fifth, the Battle of Armageddon, is against Christ and His forces, which finally bring the Antichrist to his end. Five wars in seven years—with one of the wars coming before the Tribulation, one of them to establish the Tribulation, two more in the Tribulation, and one to end the Tribulation, actually the wrath of God. The wrath of God, in a way, is an extension of the Tribulation period, only then it is tribulation against the Antichrist and his kingdom after God’s people are gone. His existence and reign and power are totally destroyed at the end of the wrath of God. The end!

It sounds like most of the Antichrist’s reign will be nothing but wars, one after the other—three of them with Israel, and the final one with the very forces of Christ and the saved at Armageddon, again in Israel. It doesn’t sound like a very happy period! The Lord calls it the worst period in the world’s history, such as the world has never known (Matthew 24:21). A great time of trouble, and then there’s the Resurrection and the Rapture.

“Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up … and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1).

Copyright © May 1983 by The Family International

* Theologians have also concluded that Babylon the Great is just that, a revived and rebuilt Babylon. The futurist interpretation of Revelation sees Babylon the Great as an evil world system, based in Babylon (possibly signifying Rome) and controlled by the Antichrist, during the last days before Jesus’ return. Our article will follow the futurist interpretation. (got questions.org)

Seventh Bowl:

The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. Rev.16:19 ESV (that’s the wrath of God after the rapture)

The Five Wars of the Antichrist (part 1)

David Brandt Berg

1983-05-10

In Daniel 11, after describing the rise of the Antichrist, it says, “And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army.” That sounds like a war. “And the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army. And many shall fall down slain” (Daniel 11:25–26). And the 28th verse: “Then shall he return into his land”—this is the king of the north returning to his north land, likely Russia—“with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant.”

Here is another proof that this is about the time of the end, because in the 27th verse it says: “For yet the end shall be at the time appointed.” It starts talking about the end, showing that these events are at the end, contrary to the historicists and preterists who claim that all these events occurred long ago in ancient history at the time of the Greek and Roman invasions. This cannot be, because, beginning with the 21st verse, it’s talking about the same Antichrist king all the way through to the very end, clear through the Tribulation to the Resurrection—the king of the north. It’s talking about the king of the north at the time of the end, who can be no other than the Antichrist.

Daniel 11:25: “And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle”—against him, in other words—“with a very great and mighty army; but he”—the king of the south—“shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him. Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him”—the king of the south. “And his army (king of the north) shall overflow; and many shall fall down slain.” In other words, the king of the south is defeated by the king of the north.

There’s only one area south of the north spoken of in the Bible, and the invasion by the king of the north is spoken of by Jeremiah and other prophets, meaning an invasion of Israel and Israel’s allies. Only the Mideast is south of Russia, and Israel is the king of the south. So it’s apparently a war between Russia, the king of the north, and the king or kings of the south, which can only be the Mideast, led by Israel. “A very great and mighty army,” he says. In spite of this very great army the king of the south musters up, the king of the north wins.

Two great armies. One’s called a great army and the other’s called a very great and mighty army. And it says that many fall down slain. These are obviously kings of the end, because it says, “for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.” It starts talking about the end right here, and the story continues right up to the end. Then it says in the 28th verse that this king of the north returns into his land with great riches, but his heart is against the holy covenant.

Verse 29: “At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south, but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.” In some way it’s going to be different when he comes back. But again it is going to be some kind of a war, because it says in the 30th verse: “The ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation”—anger—“against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.” He’s very angry with Israel and its allies, Chittim, which symbolizes both Cyprus and Greece.—The second war.

Apparently his heart’s not in the holy covenant from the beginning; it’s just a farce and hypocrisy. It’s a compromise he only makes in order to have a temporary peace to get into a stronger position of power. He goes home very rich, but then he comes back again in fury against the covenant. Obviously it’s not working, at least not working his way.

The word “covenant” is mentioned six times in these passages. The first mention of this covenant is in Daniel 9:27 when it is made: “He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week”—or seven years—“and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate.” This is a verse virtually quoted by Jesus in Matthew 24:15. So first, according to Daniel 9:27, he makes the covenant. Second, according to Daniel 11:22, he is the prince of the covenant, again confirmation that he has made this covenant. Third, his heart is against the covenant, Daniel 11:28. Fourth, he has indignation against the covenant, Daniel 11:30. Fifth, he works against the covenant, also Daniel 11:30. And sixth, he corrupts with flatteries those who do wickedly against the covenant, Daniel 11:32.

He is already the prince of the covenant and has made the covenant before this big invasion, but it doesn’t give you any idea how long it is from then until his invasion of Israel. But there are all kinds of things going on between the time he’s called the prince of the covenant and the invasion. “After the league (covenant) made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up and shall become strong with a small people, he shall enter peaceably,” etc. (Daniel 11:23–24). All those things about the rise of the Antichrist occur between the covenant and this big invasion.

Then in the 25th verse: “He shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army.” After he has made the covenant and he has become strong, then he makes war on the king of the south and invades Israel and wins. The covenant is still in existence; he hasn’t actually broken it yet. But it says in the 28th verse that his heart is against it, and in the 30th verse that he works against it, has fury or indignation against it, and he works with those that work against it! Apparently, it was only a treaty of necessity, a pact for temporary peace until he could do away with the whole thing.

It is not completely broken yet, but he’s working against it. But then in the 31st verse he must finally resort to force, because it says: “And arms [forces] shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.” That sounds like another war, or certainly a threat of war! In other words, he has the greatest arms strength and is able to enforce his will now. Whether he uses those arms and this is another war or not, it doesn’t make very clear, except for the fact that if ships of Chittim come against him, it certainly sounds like another forceful invasion of Israel! Maybe not as big a war, but a second invasion.

The first one is definitely a major war after the covenant has been made. Yet after this war, he comes down and works against the covenant and breaks it, with what sounds like another war, a second invasion of Israel. It talks about arms, it says that he returns, comes toward the south and the ships come against him, but the arms stand on his part.

At this time, the covenant is definitely broken and the abomination of desolation is set up, which is specifically mentioned by Jesus as the beginning of the Tribulation (Matthew 24:15, 21). Everything that follows that second invasion of Israel is the Tribulation, because the Tribulation begins with the breaking of the covenant and the abomination of desolation. Then it goes on and talks about the Tribulation in the next few verses and how he makes himself to be god, rules over many, divides the land for gain—the total description of the Antichrist.

Then Daniel 11:40 sounds like a third war: “And at the time of the end”—pinpointing the very end—“shall the king of the south push at him.” It must be toward the end of the Tribulation because the Tribulation is already in progress, according to what’s said here. Apparently there’s a rebellion, no doubt instigated by his enemies. Not everybody submits willingly and not everybody worships him, and there are powers and countries and even kings who rebel against him. It could even be people who might already have the mark, but they finally recognize that he’s not the Messiah, so they rebel. The king of the south is epitomized by Israel, because this is spoken of other places in the Bible about the invasion of Israel from the north.

“And the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.” He totally conquers the south. “And he shall enter into the glorious land”—obviously Israel—“and many countries shall be overthrown.” This is a third major invasion of Israel and the surrounding countries by the northern country.

“He shall enter into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand”—and it says those that are going to escape, apparently because they didn’t fight against him, are Edom, Moab, and Ammon, which constitute Jordan today (Daniel 11:41).

Verse 42: “He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.” In other words, the other countries who sided with the king of the south or Israel, including Egypt. “But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps” (Daniel 11:43). He not only conquers Israel this time, he invades Egypt and takes over Egypt too, apparently with the help of the Libyans and the Ethiopians. (To be continued)

Antichrist Wars

 Before the Covenant

David Brandt Berg

1986-05-02

The Antichrist may already be in power when he signs the seven-year pact, the covenant. We usually think of the Antichrist’s rule beginning with the covenant, but that isn’t necessarily so. It’s possible he will be in power for more than seven years.

It’s a little ridiculous to suppose that he would have enough power to get the world to sign the seven-year covenant unless he already had enough power and influence to persuade them to sign that covenant. He’s not just some nobody who suddenly stands up and offers the world the solution on a silver platter without already being known and having some influence and some power. Otherwise they wouldn’t listen to him. So he’s got to get into some position of power before that, and from reading over Daniel 11 again, I’m convinced that he is even having wars before he finally persuades them to sign the covenant.

In Daniel 11, verse 21, that’s where he really begins. “And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.”

(Verse 22:) “And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him.” He carries on a war or God knows how many wars or against whom, in order to establish his worldwide power. “And shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.” Here again, we remember that they will be broken, not him. “And yea, he’s also the prince of the covenant.” That doesn’t necessarily mean the covenant’s been made yet; it could be just identifying him as the one being talked about, although it’s quite possible this is when the covenant is made.

(Verse 23:) “And after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully.” Now this probably implies the covenant, “the league made with him.” “For he shall come up and shall become strong with a small people.”

(Verse 24:) “He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and the spoil, and riches.” Spoil is something you rob from somebody. Prey is something you usually kill. And he takes it by the arms of a flood. In other words, he’ll come in with arms like a flood; he’ll conquer.

It says, “They shall be overflown from before him, and shall be broken.” There are arms, he comes in like a flood, they’re overthrown, they’re broken. And then they’re apparently forced to sign a covenant or a league, “the league made with him.”

Then he stirs up his great army against the king of the south, and it sounds like he defeats him. But then they sit down and lie at one table and make some kind of pact. Maybe that’s the covenant. The covenant is made, but it is made by force. The first league is forced. Then sitting down at the same table with the king of the south that he’s just defeated, that’s obviously a forced covenant, if that’s the covenant. Whichever one it is, it’s got to be by force, by war, or threat of war, or by the preponderance of arms.

This idea that there can’t be any war before the covenant is signed is a misconception. There are already a bunch of wars, and apparently he’s going to come to power with more show of force. When the Antichrist arises, he’s apparently going to be powerful enough to be feared by the religions, and that’s why they insist that he confirm the covenant. Then he goes on with his climb to power and his war with the south, and when he’s finished that and made peace, he is ready to attack the covenant and break it and introduce the Tribulation.

But just how and when he’s revealed, or just exactly how and when he signs the covenant and with whom, these are points that are not too clear. It’s clear that they’re going to happen, but it’s not too clear when. It appears to me to be fairly clear that he’s got to be a world leader before he can sign such a covenant with all the religions of the world. Therefore I don’t see how his signing of this covenant could be secret, because to have any effect it’s got to be known worldwide, both by him and by the religions.

God bless and keep you to the end! Or as far as the Lord wants you to go. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Copyright © May 1986 by the Family International

More on the Rise of the Antichrist

David Brandt Berg

1989-12-05

One thing that’s not made clear is exactly when the Antichrist is going to be revealed. The way it’s worded in 2 Thessalonians 2, it almost sounds like he won’t be revealed until he sits in the temple of God acting like he is God. There it says specifically that the day of the Lord’s coming will not come until the Antichrist is revealed, the man of sin, the son of perdition, who sitteth in the temple of God, claiming he is God—which is one of the most specific references in the Bible that they’re going to rebuild the temple (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4).

Maybe the Bible doesn’t consider that he’s actually revealed, his true nature and all of that, until he breaks the covenant and puts up the abomination of desolation. But he’s obviously known as a world leader or ruler and a fighter of war with the king of the south. (See Daniel 11:25–31.) He couldn’t fight a war with the king of the south without being known, without being seen or heard of. He is the king of the north.

If he has not been fully revealed by then, he certainly will be quite apparent. Perhaps his true nature as the Antichrist is not yet revealed, but he is a known king or leader, who comes in peaceably, obtains the kingdom by flatteries, and makes this covenant, a league with his enemies (Daniel 11:21–23). At first he works deceitfully. Then finally in the 25th verse, “He shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army.” This is obviously after the covenant was made.

Many Bible teachers believe that the holy covenant has something to do with a peace settlement between the religions over Jerusalem, and that it is to be made an international shrine governed by the U.N., so that all three major religions will be able to go there and freely worship. When he breaks the covenant, he stops the worship and even pollutes the sanctuary and places the abomination which maketh desolate, which Jesus said specifically was the starting of the Tribulation. He says, “Then shall be great tribulation” (Matthew 24:15, 21).

When he breaks the covenant, he apparently stops all worship of other religions and gods. Daniel 11:31 specifically states that he’ll “pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice”—which hasn’t been started yet. Which, if taken literally, means the Jews have to rebuild their temple and reinstitute daily sacrifice before it can be stopped.

By this time, obviously the temple has been rebuilt and sacrifice resumed, and he then later breaks the covenant. He stops their worship and obviously the worship of all religions, because he declares himself to be God and he places the abomination that maketh desolate.

In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul says of the day of Christ’s coming, “That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed.” Which simply means that Jesus is not going to come until after the Tribulation, after the Antichrist. “The son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4).

Verse 6, “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.” In other words, the Lord is just holding back the flood of iniquity until the Antichrist is revealed.

Verse 7, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: but only he who now letteth (holds back) will let, until he be taken out of the way.” Most have interpreted this as being the Holy Spirit holding back the flood of iniquity, “until he be taken out of the way.”

Verse 8, “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” “Then shall that Wicked be revealed”—when? “When he who now letteth”—or prevents it—“be taken out of the way.” Then the Antichrist will be revealed. Here it sounds like that’s when he sits in the temple.

According to this passage in 2 Thessalonians 2, it doesn’t seem that the Antichrist is fully and clearly revealed at the making of the covenant. It’s clear that he’s definitely revealed as the Antichrist and known as the Antichrist when he breaks the covenant and sets up his Image. So even if he’s not revealed at the making of the covenant, we know he’s definitely revealed at the breaking of it—at least to the world.

In 2 Thessalonians 2 it does not make any specific prophecies about when he’s revealed, except saying that he is going to be revealed before the Lord comes, and that he’s going to sit in the temple claiming he’s God before the Lord comes. He obviously does this at the breaking of the covenant, the stopping of all religious worship, the setting up of his idol to be worshipped, when he sits in the temple of God claiming he’s God. That’s what it says about his revelation.

He says, “Now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time” (2 Thessalonians 2:6). In other words, the Lord is holding back the flood of iniquity until the Antichrist is completely revealed, and then there will be almost a flood of iniquity. You can certainly believe that, the way the world already is.

And Paul says, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.” This wickedness was already working, clear back in Paul’s time, of course. “Only He”—the Lord—who now holds it back, who now prevents it from flooding, will prevent it—“until He be taken out of the way.”

“Then shall that Wicked be revealed.” Only when the Lord stands back and lets the wicked have their way, “then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the brightness of His coming.”

It doesn’t say anything any more specifically about it or his revelation, except that he’s going to sit in the temple of God claiming he’s God, but it does sound like it might be then. But as to the timing of his revelation, it merely says it’s going to come before the coming of Christ.

This is one of the clearest scriptures in the Bible proving that the Antichrist is going to come before the coming of the Lord. Jesus also makes that very clear in Matthew 24, that the Antichrist and the Tribulation come first, before His coming. Because right after those verses about the Tribulation, you see Christ coming in the clouds with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:29–31).

Copyright © December 1989 by the Family International

Matthew 24, Part 3

The Finish

David Brandt Berg

1981-03-24

We’re continuing the study of Matthew 24, the signs of the times. The signs of the last days in the endtime, and the signs to look for and expect: to know the end is near and how near the end is and what is going to happen at the end.

The Tribulation begins with the image of the beast in the holy place in Jerusalem. It ends exactly three and a half years, 42 months, or 1260 days later when Jesus comes for His own, to rescue His children out of this hell on earth which has been engineered by the Devil himself. Jesus comes and takes those who remain out of it all. Many will have already been martyred and have been slain and will have died for Jesus and for their testimony. “For they loved not their lives unto the death” and they shed their blood for Jesus and for others (Revelation 12:11). He will come and take His own out of this earth.

What other signs will show that this endtime is near? That the time of the Antichrist is near, the false messiah who appears to set up a false millennium just a few years before Jesus returns—the false god with his false religion and his False Prophet, all imitating God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the Millennium. He is the imitation Christ, the imitation Messiah. He is the imitation Son of God, son of the imitation god, Satan, and he attempts to set up an imitation Millennium with the help of his imitation Holy Spirit, the False Prophet.

It’s all an imitation of God and His Trinity and His own plans, and according to Scripture, it will deceive many.

What will be other signs of the times, signs that these things are going to happen very soon? Jesus said in the 32nd verse: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh.” How do you know summer is coming soon? The trees begin to blossom, the flowers begin to bloom. The grass turns green, the balmy breezes blow, and the sunshine glows.

“So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors” (v. 33). He said that just as you see the blossoms of the trees and the flowers and you know summer is nigh, so you’ll know that His coming is very near.

You may say, “That doesn’t sound like blossoms and flowers to me! It sounds more like thorns and thistles and briars and horrors.” Not for us who love Jesus.

Every sign that appears, no matter how bad it may look to the world and how horrible it may seem, is another blossom. Every sign of the soon coming of Jesus is another flower. Every bit of news we read in the newspaper to show that the end is near is good news to us. No matter how bad it is, it’s good news because we know it’s got to get very bad before it can get good. And the worse it gets, the sooner it’s going to get better! So every bit of bad news to us is good news, because we know that the worse it gets, the sooner it’s going to get better and the sooner He’s going to come.

To us, all these signs are flowers and blossoms, beautiful fulfillments of His prophecies and signs of His coming. The springtime is near the coming of Jesus and the springing up of His flowers from the earth, the dead in Christ that shall rise first—the resurrection. What is spring like? It’s like a resurrection! Throughout the winter it seems like everything is dead; the grass is brown, the trees are leafless, and it looks as though the ground is lifeless. But as it grows warmer day by day, then things begin to spring from the earth.

That which seemed to be dead arises and there’s a resurrection of the earth in the springtime. The flowers seem to just jump out of the soil; the trees begin to blossom, and that which seems to be dead comes to life again. Because the Sun is coming, Jesus is coming! Jesus is likened unto the sun, that great ball of fire which God causes to shine upon us and gives us life and health and food and warmth, and the earth’s place in space (Malachi 4:2).

Jesus is like the sun to us. The sun is a type of what He is like: a bridegroom, like the sun, coming out of His chamber, God’s Word says (Psalm 19:4–5). God’s Word likens Jesus to the sun. As He draws nearer, it gets warmer—in fact, it gets hotter—but we begin to blossom. The almond tree begins to really blossom. When Jesus comes, it’s going to be like spring, and you’re going to see the signs of that coming even ahead of His coming.

He says, “When ye see all these things happening, know ye that the end thereof is nigh. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (v. 34). He says, “Verily I say unto you,” and He’s talking to the twelve or whoever was there 2,000 years ago in Israel, “this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” How could that be this generation? They died nearly 2,000 years ago and it wasn’t all fulfilled. What generation was He talking about then?

It’s clear by what He said in the 33rd verse, the preceding verse: “So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things”—He’s not talking to His disciples, because they didn’t see all these things fulfilled. But He says “ye, when ye shall see all these things fulfilled”—you who are living in the endtime in these last days. He says, “When you see these things fulfilled! Your generation will not pass away till all these things are fulfilled.”

In the 35th verse He gave a wonderful promise: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (v. 36). Of the day and the hour, He said, “knoweth no man.” But having told us exactly how long the Tribulation’s going to be from the setting up of the image of the Antichrist, exactly 1260 days till the end when Jesus comes, I don’t see how we can help but know the day. We’ll be counting the days through that horrible Tribulation, looking for the day of Jesus’ coming. Of course, then when He made this statement He said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Nobody knew then. They didn’t have to know; they weren’t living in the last days. The angels didn’t have to know either, only the Father in heaven.

But I think those who live through those final days are going to know when the end comes, and He’s made it very clear exactly how long it’s going to be and when it’s going to be.—Exactly 1260 days from the day the Antichrist’s image is set up until the end of the Tribulation, and that’s when Jesus comes.

So what’s it going to be like in these last days before Jesus comes? Just like it is right now. “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage”—in another place it says they planted and they built and so on—“until the day that Noah entered into the Ark.” They didn’t pay a bit of attention to Noah’s message. They just went right on, business as usual, living as usual until the day that he entered into the Ark, a type of our resurrection and rapture by Jesus.

“And knew not until the flood came and swept them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be” (v. 37–39). People will be eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building and going on with business as usual.

“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left” (v. 40). If one is a believer, the Lord will take her up and leave the other one. “Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left” (v. 41). Two women working together, and one is going to be taken by the Lord because she loves Jesus while the other will be left behind because she rejected the witness and the message.

“Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your lord doth come” (v. 42). You may know the day, but you’re not necessarily going to know the hour. You’ll want to be ready and be doing that which you know is pleasing to Him and be thankful that you’re serving Him.

“But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready” (v. 43–44). Jesus is going to come like a “thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). God’s Word is comparing Jesus to a thief? Yes, not only God’s Word, but Jesus Himself. He’s saying, “I’m going to come like a thief in the night.” Not that you’re not going to know when it happens, but it’ll be so sudden that some are going to be caught by surprise. Some are not expecting it; some are not prepared and ready.

He says, “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods” (v. 44–47). Who is the Lord going to bless when the time comes? Who is the Lord going to make ruler over all His goods and one of the rulers of the world? That servant which the Lord finds feeding His sheep, caring for His household when He comes.

Verse 48: “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart my lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Here Jesus Himself is talking about an evil servant who says “my lord”—even calls God his Lord, Jesus his Lord—but is disobedient and mean to his fellow servants, and is eating and drinking with the drunken. He says, “The Lord of that servant shall come when he looks not for him”—when he’s not expecting Him—“and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Is this guy saved or not? Was he a servant? Was Christ his Lord? Jesus calls him a servant, but an evil servant. Jesus says the man says “Lord” to Him. It doesn’t say He sent him to hell. It doesn’t say He sent him to damnation. It says He’s going to punish him for his unfaithfulness and his meanness and his disobedience. He’s going to be cut asunder, probably going to have to suffer like some of the wicked are suffering at that time. “And appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.”

Some people are going to be raised from the dead ashamed, to suffer everlasting shame and contempt, according to the first few verses of Daniel 12: “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” They’re going to be raised, yes. Saved, yes, but in everlasting shame and contempt because they failed God and disobeyed Him and did things which were evil in His sight.

For those of us who love Him and who He knows, He’s going to say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21). You’re going to knock at the door and say, “Here I am, Lord.” And He’ll say, “Thank God you’ve come! Here you are, just in time for the wedding.” In fact, the door won’t even be shut. It’ll be wide open for you because we’ll all be streaming in for that great wedding feast, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in heaven, while God is pouring out His judgments upon the Antichrist and his followers and his False Prophet and his idol and all the wicked upon the earth who rejected Him and persecuted and killed His followers!

Do you have Jesus? Do you love Him? Are you ready for these things that are coming?

Just ask Jesus to come in and forgive you for your sins. Tell Him you believe on Him and receive Him and you want to serve Him and tell others about Him and be part of His work. May the Lord bless you and keep you and continue to make you a blessing, in Jesus’ name.

Copyright © March 1981 by The Family International

The Waiting Servants

Peter Amsterdam

2024-05-27

Within the Gospels of Mark and Luke, Jesus spoke of His return in two different parables. While they’re somewhat different from each other, they both make the same point.

The first parable, found in the Gospel of Mark, is told by Jesus, followed by explanations for His disciples regarding the parable’s application. Prior to telling this parable, Jesus was speaking about events which would precede the parousia (His return at the end of time). He said that only the Father knows when that time will come, but in the meantime, His disciples were to “Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come” (Mark 13:32–33).

He then proceeded to tell them the parable:

It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake (Mark 13:34–37).

The master of the house set things in order by making sure each of his servants knew what they were to do during his absence. He made a point of telling the doorkeeper to stay awake, to be ready for his return, and to open the door upon his arrival. Generally the duty of a doorkeeper was to keep out possible intruders, but in this case he was instructed to be prepared to open the door on the master’s return. However, he wasn’t given any indication as to when that would be.

Jesus then went on to tell His disciples that they too are to stay awake and alert, because they don’t know when their Master will return. Jesus made reference to the four watches of the night that the Roman soldiers used—the evening, midnight, cockcrow, and morning. His inference that the master could come suddenly didn’t mean soon, but unexpectedly—that he could come at any time and no one would know exactly when he would arrive. If the servant was found sleeping when the master arrived, he would have failed in his duty.

Similar calls to stay awake and to be alert are found throughout the Gospels: “Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36). “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42). “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13).

To be discovered sleeping when one is supposed to be on duty would be considered a shameful failure to fulfill one’s obligations. We read of this very thing happening on the eve of Jesus’ crucifixion when Jesus told Peter, James, and John to “remain here and watch” as He prayed. Later we read that “He came and found them sleeping,”and said to Peter, “Could you not watch one hour?” (Mark 14:34–37).

Jesus stressed that His disciples must be alert, awake, aware, and vigilant, for no one knows the time of His coming. What Jesus said to His disciples, He says to all Christians in all times, including us today. Jesus calls us to vigilantly live our faith in a manner that ensures we will be ready to meet the Lord. In Matthew 24, Jesus says, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes” (Matthew 24:45–46).

It’s easy to let our spiritual lives drift to the neglect of our faith and relationship with God. The cares of our everyday lives require us to focus on our daily duties, work, family, friends, and the never-ending affairs of everyday life. It takes intentionality, as well as time and effort to actively live our faith, to feed our souls, to keep our spiritual lives vibrant and relevant, to fulfill Jesus’ call to us: Stay awake!

The second parable, which has a similar message, is found in Luke 12:

Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! (Luke 12:35–38).

Jesus opens this parable with a call to “be dressed for action.” This expresses the idea of being in a constant state of readiness to act, as 1 Peter 1:13 reiterates: “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Jesus follows this call to be ready for action with another phrase which makes the same point: “Keep your lamps burning.” This reflects being prepared to take action at night. Both point to an attitude of preparedness that Jesus is calling His disciples to have as they wait for His return.

The third word picture completes the idea of being prepared: “Be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.” Wedding feasts during that time period could last for days, and even up to a week, so the servants had no way of knowing when their master would come home. They had to be constantly ready and alert as they waited.

Jesus used three examples of readiness—being dressed for action, keeping the lamps burning, and being prepared at all times for the master’s return—to express the need for His followers to live in a manner which reflects His teachings. We are to live a life guided by His Word, with one eye heavenward looking expectantly for His return.

He then focuses on the reward of those who are ready. “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.” Those who are awake at the master’s return will receive God’s favor. They have been spiritually vigilant, living their faith.

Jesus then spoke of the behavior of the master who has returned home and found his servants awaiting him. “Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” The master will reverse roles with the servants, which in essence means that the servants no longer have the same status as before. The actions of the master in this parable reflect the actions of Jesus at the Last Supper when He washed His disciples’ feet (John 13:4–5).

After doing so, He said to them: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:14–15).

This concept of Jesus as the one who serves is found throughout the Gospels, such as when Jesus said that He “came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), and “I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:27).

Jesus went on to say: “If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!” Unlike the four Roman watches of the night used in Mark’s parable above, in this case Jesus refers to the three watches of the night used by the Jews. He tells those who follow Him that the time of His return is uncertain, and that those who are awake and ready no matter what time the master comes will be blessed.

Twice Jesus called those servants who are ready and awake when He comes blessed. Scripture teaches that Jesus will return, but that no one knows when His second coming will happen. Like the servants in the parable, none of us know the day or the hour of our Master’s return, but we are exhorted to always be vigilant in spirit in anticipation of that time. At some point the Lord will return, and we want to be ready when He does.

We can also take the same principles to heart regarding the time of our death. No Christian in history has experienced Christ’s return, but all Christians who have passed on from this life have come into His presence. None of us know exactly when we will die, we only know that we will. From what Jesus taught in these parables, we should recognize that we don’t know when the Master will call us home, and therefore we should strive to be spiritually awake and ready at all times.

Originally published July 2018. Adapted and republished May 2024. Read by John Laurence.

02 – Laying Aside Every Weight

Resting in the Lord, Part 2

Words from Jesus

2006-10-01

 Have you ever reached that point where you find yourself saying, “I don’t know if I can give any more than I already have. I don’t have anything left! I’ve already gone beyond what energy levels I had. I don’t have any more of me left. I’ve used it all!” You feel that you have used all your strength, energy, and time, and you don’t have any more of yourself to pour out. You are like the widow; you have given everything you had.

When you pass through these deep waters, you discover that the only way through is to cast the weights on Me. It is a realization that dawns on your consciousness. It is like having to cross a deep gorge continually in your work each day, and discovering that the only practical, viable way to do this is to walk over a small bridge rather than wandering to the edge of the gorge and struggling to get down, across, and up the other side.

You realize you have to cross at the bridge in order to be safe and effective, so your plans become built around returning to the bridge whenever you need to cross the gorge. Your paths are channeled to it; your work is built around the fact that this is the only viable way to cross. This bridge is found when you rest in Me and cast your cares on Me.

Likewise, when you come face to face with the deep gorge of your personal limitations, you need to have enough common sense to make the decision to change your former ways of doing things that took you to other points along the gorge, and determine that this essential part of your life of committing all things to Me and entering into My rest is a priority.

Truly commit it to Me

Taking the time to rest in Me costs, but the cost is yourself—not effort, time, or work. It’s not a new load to bear, more time to invest, more effort to drag from a weary and stretched body and mind. Resting in Me replenishes you; it gives you the renewed peace of knowing that you can give all your burdens to Me and I will sustain you.

If you are just beginning to lay things hesitantly at My feet, watching to see if I’ll even notice they are there, while you wait around, ready to jump in and grab them back to make sure they get done, then make a decision that once you’ve laid something at My feet, you will commit it fully to My care.

You can send Me reminder prayers, but don’t come running back to push your concern closer to Me in case I didn’t see it. Trust Me. When I need you to take a step of faith in some area, or do something to roll away the stone, I’ll let you know. But the goal is to commit everything to Me so that you can then rest fully in Me. When you do that, it becomes a DSL connection—a Dedicated Spiritual Link that’s open all the time.

Come into My presence

To all who labor and who are heavy laden, I will give rest, but you must come to Me. As you acknowledge Me and come to Me, you will find the calm, peace, patience, and love that you need. As you labor to rest in Me, casting your cares on Me, letting Me carry the weight to a greater degree, I will give you rest, and it will calm your spirit and slow you down, and you will find My strength.

Your spirit needs time to relax and be fed and healed from its battle wounds—not just when you stop and rest one day a week. You need to learn how to maintain a rested and healthy spirit throughout the entire week, and you do that by taking time to be quiet and time to meditate on My Word. As resting in Me becomes a part of your everyday life, you will reap the benefits, both physically and spiritually. You will have more peace of mind, less stress in your life, and having less stress means you will be happier, and the people around you will be happier and find you easier to work and live with.

You will have more patience and look forward to getting up in the morning because you won’t be carrying your burdens on your shoulders. You’ll have the faith to trust Me to take care of the problems, because you’ve committed them to Me, which will help you to stop worrying.

Doing the difficult

When you come to Me and let Me help you carry the weights of your work, ministry, children, or finances, whatever it is that is making you feel so stressed, I will relieve the pressure. You will still have to do all those things, but when you look to Me for the strength, then the work and the challenges and struggles that accompany it are much more bearable.

I didn’t say it would be easy, but it will be doable, and I will help you overcome the stress and pressure. If you can do your work or fulfill your responsibilities without feeling tense or worried or stressed, then you can approach these with a positive attitude. You’ll still have big boulders to move, but you’ll have an attitude of faith, and progress will be made.

When I give you a commission, something that you know is going to be hard to do, trust that I will also give you the strength and the anointing to do it. You will receive that strength and anointing by looking to Me, acknowledging Me in all your ways, and seeking My face.

The pressure valve is released when you come to Me. But if you don’t come to Me, even in the midst of work deadlines and big pushes, then you get overworked and stressed out, and that’s when you start to feel like it’s not fair and the burdens are too heavy.

I know it’s not easy to discipline yourself to get quiet, to calm your spirit so that you can absorb My strength and peace, especially in the middle of a hectic job, but that’s the way to handle the pressure of your work without allowing it to overwhelm you. Otherwise, you can find yourself going from one work push to another, to another major upheaval of some kind in your life, and you will always feel stressed out about something. You’ll be tempted to feel like “this is too hard,” “this isn’t fair,” and that you can’t handle it. You can end up constantly doing things and going places, but without a sense of peace and calm of spirit that comes from resting in Me. You can feel like you’re never making enough progress, and your to-do list can constantly weigh on you if you don’t cast your burdens on Me.

I’m not going to remove your work or make your to-do lists shorter or tell you you’ll never have a crisis situation or stressful deadline to deal with, or that you’ll never have to learn to work with new co-workers or adapt to new situations. You’ll still have to do all these things and more. But I can promise you that if you learn to truly rest in Me, you will be able to do all these things with a much calmer, more trusting spirit, and you’ll be happier. I’m not promising that you’ll never feel pressure, because sometimes a degree of pressure comes with the job or a project as you work to meet deadlines. But I will give you the grace and faith for it, and the peace that comes with keeping your mind on Me.¹

Before you begin your day, talk to Me and ask for My help and anointing for that day. Find ways to bring more of My Spirit into your day. Although you have to work and get things done, you can bathe your work more in My Spirit. When you commit something to prayer and ask for My help, that’s leaning on Me. In doing so, you will see a difference in your level of peace and faith and calm, as you surround everything you do with more of My Spirit.

Originally published October 2006. Adapted and republished June 2019. Read by Simon Peterson. Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ Isaiah 26:3.

01 – Laboring to Enter into His Rest

Resting in the Lord, Part 1

Words from Jesus

2006-05-23

 Resting in Me is not a new principle, it goes all the way back to when My Father set the seventh day as a rest day, when He instructed the children of Israel in the Ten Commandments to “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.”¹ This was a safeguard put in place from the beginning, because I knew how important it was to learn to rest—to have a mandatory time when people would set the burdens down that they were carrying.

No matter how light, any burden that you don’t ever set down, anything you carry for too long a time, will wear you down. This is true mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And for you who are engaged in the spiritual warfare of being My light to the world, one of the only ways to get true respite from the battle and strengthening is by not only resting physically and mentally, but by being recharged spiritually through coming to Me, committing your burdens to Me, and receiving My strength.

As the world grows darker, it’s important for all My children to take the time to set their burdens down, to step away from the challenges and struggles to receive renewed strength from Me. You need to do this physically and spiritually; both are important. Neglecting either form of rest will open the door to problems.

So often you sacrifice your personal needs and time, and while your intentions may be good, you need to learn where to draw the line, realizing that if you don’t take care of your need for physical rest and spiritual recharging, you run the risk of wearing out. The only way to know that you’re going to hold up under the stress or strain you face is by learning to rest in Me, take shelter in Me, and pace yourself. Remember My promise that “the people who know their God shall be strong and do great exploits.”²

Choosing the way of the Spirit

When you set aside time to rest in Me, you’re choosing to strengthen your faith and to activate trust and peace in your heart and life. You’re choosing dependence on Me over anything you can see or do in your own strength. You’re choosing to place all your bets on Me—the author and finisher of your faith—and trust that I am able to keep and strengthen you. You’re choosing to lean on Me, on My power. You’re resting in Me, trusting in Me, believing in Me.

You can make the choice to refuse to let pressure settle on your spirit. You can resist the temptation to start moving things faster and faster, and instead commit them to Me and ask Me to help you to find the right pace and stride. You can consciously slow things down, give yourself more time, and then use that extra time to commit things to Me, rather than trying to sort them out yourself. In stopping to rest in Me, you find your strength. But it takes you coming to Me, that you stop all feverish activity and rest in Me, putting all else aside.

Resting in Me also means leaning fully on Me as you go about your work, putting your full weight down on Me. Resting in Me is casting your burdens and your cares on Me. It’s not always a “full stop”; it’s also going ahead—but the difference is that you are going ahead in faith, with the quiet confidence and assurance that comes from resting in Me.

While you are resting in Me, you are receiving My signals, being recharged and energized with My power. Resting in Me is constant renewal. It’s putting yourself in a position where I am the wind beneath your wings, and because of this, you feel confident. You are secure in Me because you know that I am with you and will keep you from falling.

Overcoming stress

I will always give you what you need as you enter new situations and face new challenges and you need more strength, even at times when the struggles you face go far beyond anything you can manage yourself. You may face times where you feel that you are on the brink of collapse and are barely hanging on, trying to keep from falling, and you realize you are unable to rely on your own strength.

Do you feel like the mountains of work you see before you are never going to go away? Do you feel like the heartbreaks, the despair, and frustration are making your whole life seem useless? Or like in the final analysis all you did can still never outweigh all you neglected to do?

It is in stopping to rest in Me that you find your strength, and it is in resting so fully in Me that you have submitted your will and have chosen to commit completely in your heart that you gain the faith and peace that will allow you to trust Me for whatever you may face.

Don’t wait till you’re floundering or overwhelmed to rest in Me and commit every care into My hands. When you open your eyes in the morning, place yourself, your mind, and your heart completely in My hands. Ask Me to help you to rest fully in Me throughout the day. Then when pressure begins to build during the day, take a moment to stop and release the pressure by reminding yourself that it’s not your burden, it’s Mine now. Then as we walk together, let Me guide you, and trust Me for the rest.

You can become so addicted to stress that you feel as if you’ll collapse if you don’t keep driving yourself. And you will collapse, if you don’t learn to commit your cares to Me and rest in Me. If you are feeling stressed, if the pressure is causing you to feel the warning signs of irritability, despair, or frustration, it is time to stop, take a moment, cast your cares on Me, and rest in Me.

It’s one thing to feel very tired at the end of the day, but if that tiredness is mixed with anxiety, frustration, negativity, or a sense of pressure that shrouds the joy of My Spirit, and you don’t have a peace and inner joy of knowing you are fulfilling My will, it is time to come to Me so that I may give you rest. You may be doing a great work, but it may crumble and collapse unless I am the mortar that is holding it together. The sand of your own works isn’t going to last.

Come to Me. Simply place yourself in My hands and ask Me to give you My peace, and My strength to do what I want you to do—not what you think you need to do and think you need more strength for, but what I want you to do. Determine that your life is now blended with Mine, and ask that My will be done in your life.

Originally published October 2006. Adapted and republished May 2019.
Read by Simon Peterson. Music by John Listen.

¹ Genesis 2:2–3; Exodus 20:8.

² Daniel 11:32.

To Be a Great Leader, You Absolutely Must Be a Reader

Rick Warren

2015-07-03

If you’ve ever been to Israel, you know there’s a real contrast between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee is full of water and full of life. There are trees and vegetation. They still do commercial fishing there. But the Dead Sea is just that—dead. There are no fish in it and no life around it. The Sea of Galilee is at the top of Israel and receives waters from the mountains of Lebanon. They all come into the top of it and then it gives out at the bottom. That water flows down through the Jordan River and enters into the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea takes in but it never gives out. That’s why it’s stagnant. The point is, there must be a balance in our lives to stay fresh with both input and output. There’s got to be an inflow and an outflow.

Somebody has said, “When your output exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.” There must be a balance. Most Christians get too much input and not enough output. They attend Bible study after Bible study. They’re always taking in but they’re never doing any ministry. The problem we pastors and church leaders face is the opposite. You’re always giving out, and if you don’t get input, you’ll dry up.

Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy in prison. At the end of the letter he tells Timothy, “When you come, bring my coat, bring the books, too, and especially the ones made of parchment” (2 Timothy 4:13). At the end of his life, while in prison, Paul wants two things… “I want my coat and I want my books.” C. H. Spurgeon commenting on this passage says:

He is inspired, yet he wants books. He has been preaching at least thirty years, yet he wants books. He’s seen the Lord, yet he wants books. He’s had a wider experience than most men, yet he wants books. He’s been caught up to heaven and has heard things that are unlawful to utter, yet he wants books. He’s written a major part of the New Testament, yet he wants books.

Oswald Sanders in his book Spiritual Leadership says: “The man [and woman] who desires to grow spiritually and intellectually will be constantly at his books.” I remember reading the biographies of both John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards. Both of them were intellectual giants. They stayed fresh by having a book continually while they were on horseback riding from event to event. Everywhere they traveled, they had a book. I’ve seen drawings of Wesley with a book in one hand, reading, not even looking where his horse is going.

Leaders are readers. Every leader is a reader. Not all readers are leaders but all leaders are readers. A lot of people read, but they’re not leaders. If you’re going to lead, you’ve got to be thinking further in advance than the people that you’re leading. There are at least four reasons reading is essential.

1. You must read for inspiration and motivation. 

Harold Ockenga said, “Read to refill the wells of inspiration.” William Long, who wrote Christian Perfection and a number of Christian classics, wrote “Reading on wise and virtuous subjects is, next to prayer, the best improvement of our hearts. It enlightens us, calms us, collects us, collects our thoughts, prompts us to better efforts. We say a man is known by the friends he keeps, but a man is known even better by his books.” Personally, I feel few things get me out of sluggishness more than reading a good book. It gets my creative juices flowing. So the first thing I do is read for inspiration.

2. You must read to sharpen your skills.

Aldous Huxley said, “Every man who knows how to read has in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the way in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.” Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Your mind is a muscle, and just like any muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. You cannot wear out your mind. No one ever died of an overused mind.

Just like every other professional, you as a minister have to continually be upgrading your skills. The way you do that is through reading. Make a list of the skills that are needed for your facet of ministry and then read in those areas.

3. You must read to learn from others.

It’s wise to learn from experience but it’s even wiser to learn from the experience of others. All of us learn from the school of hard knocks—trial and error. But we don’t have time to make all the mistakes ourselves. Socrates said, “Employ your time in improving yourselves by other men’s documents, so you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.” Employ your time reading what other men have already learned and then you can learn much easier what others have labored hard for.

The fact is, you can learn from anybody. You don’t have to agree with everything they do, but everybody has something to teach you. We have assimilated lots of good ideas from many different sources and put them together in a new format, and that’s what creativity is. All truth has been around forever. There are no truly new ideas. Creativity is taking existing ideas and making them work in a new way.

4. You must read to stay current in a changing world.

If books are any indication of personal growth of senior pastors, a lot of pastors in America stopped thinking when they got out of school. They’re not reading anything new, yet they’re trying to speak on a weekly basis. In today’s society, obsolescence comes very quickly. You can write a science textbook and by the time it gets to press, it’s out of date. You cannot live out your entire ministry on what you learned in seminary. You have to keep growing and keep learning.

With that as a background, I want to share with you some tips about how to get more out of your reading:

• Analyze your reading habits to see what you’ve read and what you really need to read next.
• Be intentional about scheduling time for reading, then read snippets of books wherever you are.
• Balance your reading. Read broadly. Include people you don’t agree with. This is how we are stretched.
• Mark up your books and take notes. If you use a reading app, make highlights and store them.
• Know what not to read. Know your favorite authors, read the covers and tables of contents and the bibliographies to see if the book is worth your time.
• Read book reviews and book summaries to process even more books in less time.
• Build your library. Whether you prefer print or e-books, collect a library to reference and to leave behind.

And above all, remember that the Bible is our number-one priority in reading. You can get so caught up in reading other books that you don’t read the Bible. Make time for God’s Word before reading anything else. It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We need to spend more time reading it than anything else.

If you want to be a growing leader of a healthy movement, keep reading. It’s the only way to stay out front.

http://pastors.com/great-leader-absolutely-must-reader

 33 Verses About Fear and Anxiety to Remind Us: God Is in Control

Debbie McDaniel

2017-04-06

 Fear. One of the enemy’s most popular weapons that he uses against us. Worry, anxiety, fear … can overwhelm us with a thick shadow of darkness, controlling our every move and decision.

So much crazy going on around us today—wars, conflicts, persecution, violence, crime, natural disasters, terrorism, economic uncertainty, unemployment, divisions, disease, death. We fear for our children’s future, we fear for our families, we fear for our financial future, we fear for our safety. The list goes on … long. There actually is a lot we could potentially worry about.

Yet reality tells us that so much of what we spend our time worrying about never even happens. Living under the weight of the “what if’s” is a hard place to dwell.

I struggled with fear and worry for years. But through time, I began to find that the things that once would have sent me down an anxious spiral no longer had the same effect. It didn’t happen quickly, but over days, months, years.

I read words—of life—of truth. Soaking them in, over and over, praying them out loud. Until they became so familiar, they replaced the other things in my mind that I’d battled against. There’s nothing magical about words and verses, but there is power through them, because they’re God’s words.

Change happened. Anxious thoughts began to diminish. Worry let go of its constant grip. And though fear is sometimes still there, it no longer wields control, holding me back, paralyzing me in its grasp.

His words are “life” words, soothing to our soul, calming to our spirits, giving power to our days.

It’s not always easy, and it often comes down to a choice:

• Choosing not to allow fear and anxiety to control your life.
• Choosing to guard your heart.
• Choosing to focus your mind on what is truth in the midst of uncertain times.

We might still feel afraid, but we can believe that God is with us. We may not be in control, but we can trust the One who is. We may not know the future, but we can know the God who does.

 

Scriptures that remind us we do not have to fear

1. “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”—Isaiah 41:10
2. “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”—Psalm 56:3
3. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”—Philippians 4:6–7
4. “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.”—John 14:27
5. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”—2 Timothy 1:7
6. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”—1 John 4:18
7. “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.”—Psalm 94:19
8. “But now, this is what the Lord says … Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”—Isaiah 43:1
9. “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.”—Proverbs 12:25
10. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”—Psalm 23:4
11. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”—Joshua 1:9
12. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”—Matthew 6:34
13. “Humble yourselves, then, under God’s mighty hand, so that he will lift you up in his own good time. Leave all your worries with him, because he cares for you.”—1 Peter 5:6–7
14. “Tell everyone who is discouraged, Be strong and don’t be afraid! God is coming to your rescue…”—Isaiah 35:4
15. “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?”—Luke 12:22–26
16. “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?”—Psalm 27:1
17. “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.”—Psalm 55:22
18. “Immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’”—Mark 6:50
19. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”—Deuteronomy 31:6
20. “‘For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, for I myself will help you,’ declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”—Isaiah 41:13–14
21. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”—Psalm 46:1
22. “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper.”—Psalm 118:6–7
23. “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”—Proverbs 29:25
24. “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’—Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’”—Mark 4:39–40
25. “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”—Psalm 34:7
26. “But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats.”—1 Peter 3:14
27. “I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.”—Psalm 34:4
28. “Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.”—Deuteronomy 3:22
29. “Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.’”—Revelation 1:17
30. “Jesus told him, ‘Don’t be afraid; just believe.’”—Mark 5:36
31. “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.”—Romans 8:38
32. “The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”—Zephaniah 3:17
33. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ … He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you … For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways… ‘Because he loves me,’—says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him…’”—Psalm 91:1–15

Be assured, He is with you in whatever you face, in the turmoil and struggles, amidst the anxious thoughts and the worries of life. He is there, strengthening, helping, and He holds you in His hands.

God is greater. He gives us the power to live courageously, boldly, fearlessly in this life, when many things that surround us would tell us to be afraid. His truth whispers strong and sure to the deepest core of our spirits.

“Do not fear.”

All of that stuff on your mind? Give it to Him—again. Replace those fearful thoughts with His words of truth. And sleep in peace tonight. He knows what concerns you, He’s got you covered.

Peace.

http://debbiemcdaniel.com/2016/03/01/33-verses-about-fear-and-anxiety-to-remind-us-god-is-in-control
Read by Debra Lee. Music by Michael Dooley.

The Prince of Peace

A compilation

2014-12-09

“Glory to God in the highest! Peace on earth to men of good will. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”—Luke 2:14; Matthew 5:9

Although peace has been the goal of mankind for thousands of years—and the desire for peace is never so great as it is at Christmas—it seems that our ability to find or establish peace continues to elude us. True peace on every level—from international conflicts to our personal lives—has become more difficult than ever to achieve.

In the Bible, the word peace means much more than the absence of conflict. It carries with it the connotation of health and well-being. In the Old Testament, two Hebrew words, shalom (peace) and shalem (health or full), contained this concept of the word. Peace included inner (spiritual, emotional) peace, health, abundance, harmony with life on every level—even “in the midst of storm,” when life’s problems seem to snuff out any kind of peace.

In the New Testament, the Greek word eirene is used to describe peace over a hundred times. For example, the expression “go in peace” means “stay warm and eat well.”¹ On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus said to His disciples: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”²

As in the Old Testament, peace means much more than the mere “absence of conflict” in society. It means a very real inner sense of well-being that originates with God and is given as a precious commodity to each of us who receive Jesus, the “prince of peace” without whom there simply is no lasting peace! This means peace for each of us personally, both in our personal lives and in our relations with others. The peace of God which passes all understanding is very real and practical. There’s no need to wait for man’s fragile peace, which never lasts anyway.

Even though all around you is war and confusion, you can have peace in your own heart through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. Even though there’s war and turmoil and confusion and chaos on the outside, at last you’ve gotten rid of it on the inside. And the Lord is able to keep you right in the middle of it all. So you don’t ever have to worry.

Jesus never sleeps. He watches all the time, along with all of His angels. He knows every hair of your head. Everything is in His hands. As the old hymn goes, “He hideth my soul in the cleft of the Rock [Jesus], that shadows a dry, thirsty land; He hideth my life in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His hand.”

So the Lord’s able to keep you, no matter where you are. And if He decides He’d rather take you home to be with Him in heaven than take care of you on earth, then you’ve got it made, one way or the other. “For our lives are hid with Christ in God,”³ and “You shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”⁴

He is our peace. Our help comes from Him. In Him is our confidence. We must place our confidence in Him—the soundest base in the world.

Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast.
There shall your heart be happy,
There will you find sweet rest!⁵

This Christmastime, Jesus is earnestly reaching out to every soul on earth, offering true peace, comfort, and eternal life and love. He offers the priceless gift of salvation to all who will accept Him. Jesus is God’s Christmas present to the world. Why not share the peace, comfort, and eternal life He offers with someone else this Christmas?

May we truly be the peacemakers He wants us to be this Christmas, spreading His message of love and hope.

Words of Christmas praise to Jesus

You are God and man, king and servant. You left Your throne of immortality and encased Yourself in human flesh. You became one of us, so that You could save us. Inexpressible joy comes to me when I think of how You quietly and humbly came into our world and changed it forever.

When You were born among us, You gave us the greatest gift of salvation, peace, hope, and love. Who could have imagined the transformation that would come through a little baby, born to commoners, wrapped in rags, sleeping in a feeding trough?

Thank You for what Christmas means—that whether or not I have family and friends, good times or bad, I will always have You. I will always have Your love—love that has stood the test of time, love that saved me and so many others like me. Thank You for making the choice to experience both the joys and sorrows of earth. Thank You for enduring the tears, pain, frustration, loneliness, exhaustion, and death so that You could truly say that You understand us. Never has there been a more perfect love than Yours.

*

Christmas praises fill the air! Listen, wonderful Savior, as we lift our grateful hearts and voices in praise to You. We want to fill earth and heaven with the sound of our praises to You for the greatest Christmas gift ever given—Your life for ours, Your gift of eternal love and life with You forever. We want to fill the universe with the symphony of our praises. We want our praise to be music to Your ears, music that thrills Your heart.

Thank You for loving us so much that You were willing to become one of us and experience everything we experience, feel everything we feel, suffer everything we suffer, and live the life we live. Then You died for the world and took on our sins so we could have eternal life. What commitment! What humility! What love! What resurrection! What life!

Let the conductor’s baton rise! Let the angelic orchestra begin. Let the violins play, the trumpets sound, the drums thunder, the cymbals clash, the bells ring. Let the whole heavenly orchestra raise the roof of the universe with tremendous, majestic, musical praise to You, Jesus, our wonderful Savior and King.

Published by TFI in November 2001. Adapted and republished December 2014.
Read by Debra Lee.

¹ James 2:16.

² John 14:27.

³ Colossians 3:3.

⁴ Isaiah 26:3.

⁵ By Fanny Crosby, adapted.

Better Days Ahead—Part 6a: Fight the Good Fight of Faith

Better Days Ahead

Peter Amsterdam

2021-11-30

—Fight the Good Fight of Faith

Dear Family members,

God bless you! Maria and I love you and have you in our prayers. We thought you would be interested in reading the following testimony, which is related to the topic of last week’s post, “Fight the Good Fight of Faith.” While this testimony didn’t quite fit within that post, which is designated for the general public, we thought you would find it encouraging to read.

Testimonies help to encourage us in the Lord. We can feel alone at times when we struggle, but when we hear that a friend or colleague has also faced something similar and overcome or made it through the battle, that can help to bolster our faith and give us hope.

Here is an excerpt from the previous post, “Fight the Good Fight of Faith”:

We are fighting a spiritual warfare! We are soldiers of the cross.

1 Timothy 6:12 says: Fight the good fight of the faith [in the conflict with evil]; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and [for which] you made the good confession [of faith] in the presence of many witnesses (AMP).

There are spiritual forces of evil, Satan and his demons, who oppose God and His children. They are in rebellion against God. They oppose our work of bringing the truth of salvation to the world and seek to pull us away from the Lord and His service. But God reigns over the entire created order, including the forces of evil, and Satan is a defeated foe.

Regarding the spiritual warfare, one of my co-workers wrote the following to a friend of ours, which I think describes in part how we all might feel at times. He said:

I can feel your prayers. They have kept me going, they really have. Sometimes I’m shocked at what a wimp I can be. I’m praying for you as well. There is distance between us, but where we live isn’t important because we’re one in spirit, and we each play a part in the victories and therefore the battles, too.

Each of us gets hit in different ways, but the Lord’s goal is the same: to prepare and strengthen us for what He needs us to be and to do.

You are such a fighter. I know, being a fighter doesn’t mean that you don’t get hit or knocked off your feet sometimes. I’m really experiencing that these days. It just means that we refuse to stay down! We keep coming back and landing another punch at the old boy, the Devil. We don’t always feel like getting back up, but it’s who we are and Who we have in us that overcomes the enemy’s lies and helps us push forward no matter what!

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.—1 Peter 5:8–10 NIV

* * *

It’s interesting to me that my co-worker wrote the above note to the woman I mentioned in Part 2 in this series who is a friend of ours and who had developed a new habit that she calls her “talk to Papa and Jesus” time during her daily walks with her dog. This is when she talks to the Lord and the Father in prayer, as if they were right there with her. She said that anyone who sees her talking out loud and laughing with only her dog around might call her “that crazy old lady,” but in reality, she is a warrior in the Spirit!

Well, that’s not all of her story. Later I understood the significance of her saying she is a warrior in the Spirit. She wrote again, saying:

I’m kind of at a low ebb now. I feel bored and sad. I guess it’s just one of those “seasons” in my life, but I’m so grateful that I have Jesus and Papa constantly by my side. What a wonderful treasure. And I’m thankful that the Lord has continued to open doors for me to witness and minister to others.

However, I have been under attack spiritually recently. I have felt nervous and a little anxious at times, and I’ve had some stressful sleepless nights worrying about the future and my loved ones. I have felt alone. I’m used to living alone, so either I’m more vulnerable right now as I’ve been sick for a couple of weeks, or maybe the Lord is testing me and the dark spiritual forces of the Enemy are fighting me.

But more than these feelings of despair, I’ve been attacked in my spiritual life in a way I’ve never experienced before.

I have been enjoying wonderful times of communion with the Lord and Papa in my many quiet hours at home and also on my long walks. But just a few days ago, I got attacked in my mind and thoughts. I was at home, praying, having my quiet time, reflecting on God’s Word and feeling at peace, when all of a sudden, out of the blue, it was as if I heard an audible voice taunting me, saying:

“You’re crazy! All this talking with an unseen entity. You’re just doing this to make yourself feel better. This means nothing! You’re just quoting words to thin air, there’s no one listening. This is a stupid waste of time. Just wait … you’ll see!”

I have never experienced anything even remotely like that! It was terrible! I’m not a “touchy-feely” kind of person. I don’t have dreams. I don’t see visions. I can’t imagine anything. When I close my eyes, I only see black. I don’t “hear” the voice of the Lord speaking audibly—ever!

So, to feel like I was actually hearing a voice mocking me and rebuking me and threatening that I’ll see that the foundation of my faith is a lie was shocking, scary, and overwhelming! The tone of the voice was sarcastic and condescending. It was trying to make me feel like I was stupid; in fact, that I was crazy! This voice was attacking the thing that is the most important to me—my relationship with Jesus and Papa.

I felt weak. I felt like I had lost my anchor. For a moment I doubted.

But then I snapped out of it and I thought, “Hey, wait a minute!” I realized the Devil, the one who goes about like a roaring lion, was trying to take me out, devour me!

Then I went on the attack in the spirit realm and started resisting the Devil. I got mad and said in a loud voice, “Get behind me, Satan! You have no place here! You don’t belong here! I follow Jesus! Jesus Christ is the one who has the power here!—Not you! I have put on the armor of God and I have the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God! I rebuke you, in Jesus’ name! Get behind me, Satan, in the name of Jesus! You are a liar!”

I realized this evil attack was trying to make me doubt the power of prayer and the very existence of Papa and Jesus. The Enemy or his evil forces were trying to make me feel stupid and ashamed, so I would stop praying. Of course, Satan and his minions hate my faith in prayer and my knowledge of God’s Word that gives me faith to know that Jesus and Papa will never fail me! They have never failed me! No matter what happens, I can look back on decades of knowing Jesus and I can recognize His love, mercy, supply, and protection. I know He and Papa love me, they want the best for me, they cause all things to work together for good for me. I know that! I absolutely know it!

The Devil hates my confidence in the Lord and God’s Word, and he wanted to intimidate me and make me feel like a stupid loser. I don’t know how this kind of battle in the spirit really works. I don’t believe the Devil himself was actually there, since he can’t be everywhere at once and I won’t flatter myself that I’m oh so important that he would focus on me personally.

I believe this attack was the voice of his lies delivered by his evil minions. And it felt so real. I suppose others have felt the intense spiritual battle in this way as well, or through other emotions such as fear, jealousy, rage, self-loathing, etc.

I kept praying out loud, I kept fighting with the power of the Holy Spirit, even though I was reeling and felt destabilized. I kept resisting the Devil with God’s Word, quoting Bible verses that affirm Jesus’ power over the darkness. And then, as quickly as the battle erupted, it ended!

It was a fight! But I won! Jesus won!

And the end of the story is … I have become a warrior! I had been enjoying a sweet, tender, beautiful relationship with Jesus and Papa as we would commune together with such intimacy. I was a sweet old lady. But now?!! No way!

Now I’m a warrior! And I have gone to battle with the Devil’s evil minions and the Devil himself! Now that “roaring lion who walks about seeking whom he can devour” (1 Peter 5:8) has become a scared little rat that has slinked away in fear. And it’s only the beginning! I won’t quit! I will continue believing God’s Word, trusting in His goodness, and being a voice for truth in this fallen world!

And with that testimony, she sent me this picture  which illustrates the fact that she has changed from that “sweet old lady” to a warrior for Jesus!

[media]

Praise the Lord! Here is a message from Jesus that encourages us all to continue to fight the good fight:

Nothing can destabilize you or move you when you’re placing your faith in Me. But you say, “Lord‚ I am destabilized! I’m shaken. I feel my feet of faith wobbling beneath me. How can my faith keep me stable when I feel like I am falling?” Even if you feel that your faith is shaken, if you have taken a stance‚ determined to stand strong in the power of My might, then you will not be moved and you can have full faith that your stand is sure.¹

Remind yourself of the promises I have made in My Word that when you put on My whole armor, you will be able to stand against the schemes of the enemy.² Resist your adversary, standing firm in the faith, and believe that he will flee from you!³ Even if you feel unstable and wobbly, because you have taken a stand of faith, you can trust that I will keep you from falling. Remember‚ the victory that overcomes is your faith, not your feelings.⁴

Come up to higher ground to the hills of praise and hide yourself in My presence and protection. I will nourish you and cherish you all the days of your life. And, in the life to come, I will reward you for your faithfulness.

One day you will revel in a place of unimaginable beauty. One day you will know a love and joy so complete, so all-encompassing, so perfect that it is unimaginable to you at this time. It is not possible for you to imagine even a fraction of the splendor, glory‚ perfection, and completion that awaits you in the realm beyond. You, who are now small, weak, and weary, will inherit the very kingdom of God.—Jesus

The victorious testimony above reminds me of a song called Warrior by Hannah Kerr that Maria included several months ago in a post of some of her favorite songs. Here are the lyrics of that song.

Warrior

Staring down the face of fear
Got to keep breathing
When the negative is all you hear
Got to keep believing

‘Cause in the darkness there is a light
Your truth it keeps on burning bright
Brave enough to fight the fight
Shout the battle cry

You’ll never stop me
I’m a warrior
When I fall down
I get stronger
Faith is my shield
Your love is the armor
I’m a warrior
I’m a warrior
I’m a warrior

Every scar on my skin
Is a beautiful reminder
Of a moment when I didn’t give in
And I walked through fire

‘Cause in the dark there is a light
Your truth it keeps on burning fight
Makes me brave to fight the fight
Shout the battle cry

You’ll never stop me
I’m a warrior
When I fall down
I get stronger
Faith is my shield
Your love is the armor

I will keep the hope alive
I will find the strength inside
I will keep the hope alive
I am a warrior, I will survive
I will keep the hope alive
I will find the strength inside
I will keep the hope alive
Warrior

You’ll never stop me
I’m a warrior
When I fall down
I get stronger
You’ll never stop me
I’m a warrior
When I fall down
I get stronger
Faith is my shield
Your love is the armor
I’m a warrior
I’m a warrior
Jesus make me a warrior

I will keep the hope alive
I will find the strength inside
I will keep the hope alive
Warrior

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

¹ Ephesians 6:10, 13.

² Ephesians 6:11.

³ James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9.

⁴ 1 John 5:5.

Copyright © 2021 The Family International.

Better Days Ahead—Part 6: Fight the Good Fight of Faith

Better Days Ahead

Peter Amsterdam

2021-11-23

—Fight the Good Fight of Faith

Following Jesus is not a passive, easy, feel-good hobby. It’s a challenge, a lifestyle, and a calling. We are blessed to know that our lives make a difference as we walk in obedience to God’s Word, doing what we can to witness, be an example of God’s love, and lead others to Jesus. Of course, not every day is an exciting thrill with momentous achievements and victories. Some days are rather humdrum as we go about our daily responsibilities, but what makes all the difference is that we know we’re living for the One who loves us, who died for us, and what we do for Him and others matters. We live in anticipation of one day hearing Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.” (See Matthew 25:23.)

The confidence we have in God’s promises and the glorious future we will share with Jesus and all His saved children in heaven is a great motivator! And that’s important, because we are fighting a spiritual warfare! We are soldiers of the cross.

1 Timothy 6:12 says: “Fight the good fight of the faith [in the conflict with evil]; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and [for which] you made the good confession [of faith] in the presence of many witnesses” (AMP).

There are spiritual forces of evil, Satan and his demons, who oppose God and His children. They are in rebellion against God. They oppose our work of bringing the truth of salvation to the world and seek to pull us away from the Lord and His service. But God reigns over the entire created order, including the forces of evil, and Satan is a defeated foe.

Chuck Lawless explains the spiritual warfare as follows:

We do genuinely wrestle against principalities and powers (Eph. 6:12), but the devil and his forces have never been outside of God’s control.

Since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, the devil has tried to bait us with false teaching, lure us into sin, and turn us against each other. He does this to keep us from glorifying God and doing the Great Commission. He seeks to devour us (1 Pet. 5:8) so we can no longer be a light to a lost world. The summary I commonly use is that the enemy wants us to mess up (fall into sin), give up (get discouraged), get puffed up (live in arrogance), split up (divide), or shut up (quit evangelizing).

But we are not on the defensive in this battle. … We put on the full armor of God not so we can defend ourselves, but so we can march into the enemy’s kingdom to do the work of the Great Commission.¹

We can take heart that we’re not alone in this battle. Jesus Himself had a face-down with Satan before He began His ministry. What we can learn from reading Jesus’ experience was that He overcame by quoting the truth of God’s Word.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.—Matthew 4:1–11 ESV

We know that a relentless warfare is being waged in this spiritual realm between good and evil, between God and His good forces and Satan and his evil forces, and that we have been called to fight the good fight of faith. The apostle Paul instructed us to be equipped and prepared to enter into the fray, as we go forth to shine the light of God’s truth to the world:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.—Ephesians 6:10–12 (ESV, emphasis added)

We all face spiritual and emotional battles of some kind at different times in life—fear of the future, discouragement, discontentment, despair and loss of hope, anger, bitterness, temptation, addictions, arrogance, unbelief, lethargy, disunity with other believers, etc. Perhaps you have had sleepless nights when you’ve felt overwhelmed with concern about finances, or maybe it’s the unexpected medical condition that is crippling and weakening you, and you are tempted to doubt God’s goodness and plan for your life. Maybe you worry about the future and who will help take care of you, and you imagine the worst-case scenarios. Perhaps you are suffering with regret and condemnation when you see that things have not gone well in some way and you feel you or others are to blame. It’s possible that bitterness is eating away at your heart because of division between you and someone else.

If you are not facing physical enemies, you are surely facing spiritual enemies. Again, it is helpful to remember, especially when you find yourself in the “wilderness,” [that] you have a very real Enemy who seeks to destroy. He is ever prowling around, searching for those he can devour. … He wants nothing more than to tempt you to turn away from God and turn to the world for your answers, or even more, to just give up and give in to sin.²

We will face an ongoing spiritual war throughout our lives—that is the nature of life in this fallen world until Jesus’ return. Jesus prayed: “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. … As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (John 17:15–18 NIV). Not only are we living in a fallen world, but we are sent into it to be His light and salt to bring others to Him!

So, what can we do when we face spiritual battles? We can learn to fight! We can keep going and determine not to quit!

We know that the Devil is not omnipresent as God and Jesus are. He cannot be everywhere, but his evil forces wage war against God’s children. The mind is the great battlefield where spiritual war is waged—the war to influence people’s thoughts and, through their thoughts, their actions.

The Bible instructs us to guard our thoughts and put on the mind of Christ:

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2).

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).

“To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).

“The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:7).

If we’re going to be the strong followers of Jesus that He wants us to be, we must be wholly His, and in order to be wholly His, we must discipline our thoughts and “gird up the loins of our minds” (1 Peter 1:13). That means to be prepared for action and sober-minded as we go about our mission of bringing God’s truth and message of salvation to the world.

Here is some insight from the Lord about our thoughts.

People often consider thoughts to be fleeting and worthless, but yours are so precious to Me that I read each one. My ability to read your every thought may be disconcerting to you. You’re able to interact with other people while keeping your secret thoughts to yourself, but not so with Me! … The fact that I care about every aspect of you—even all your thoughts—demonstrates how important you are to Me.

I know how difficult it is for you to control what courses through your brain. Your mind is a battleground. … Your own sinfulness also finds ample expression in your thought life. You need to stay alert and fight against evil! I fought and died for you, so remember who you are and Whose you are—putting on the helmet of salvation with confidence. This helmet not only protects your mind, it also reminds you of the victory I secured for you on the cross.

Because you are My treasure, I notice and rejoice as soon as your thinking turns My way. The more thoughts you bring to Me, the more you can share in My joy. I disarm evil thoughts and render them powerless. Then I help you think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy things. Ponder these things while resting in the Peace of My Presence.—Sarah Young, Jesus Lives

It’s wonderful to know that Jesus is helping us bring our thoughts into captivity and that by doing so we can enjoy a more intimate relationship with Him.

Earlier in this article we were reminded from Ephesians 6:10–12 that we can “stand strong in the Lord and his mighty power” and that we can “put on the full armor of God,” which will help us overcome the Devil’s attacks as we battle spiritual forces of evil in the world.

Ephesians 6:13–18 is a description of the spiritual armor God gives us. We are to stand firm with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and by praying in the Spirit. What do these pieces of spiritual armor represent in spiritual warfare?

We are to know the truth, believe the truth, and speak the truth. We are to rest in the fact that we are declared righteous because of Christ’s sacrifice for us. We are to proclaim the gospel no matter how much resistance we face. We are not to waver in our faith, trusting God’s promises no matter how strongly we are attacked. Our ultimate defense is the assurance we have of our salvation, an assurance that no spiritual force can take away. Our offensive weapon is the Word of God, not our own opinions and feelings. And we are to pray in the power and will of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is our ultimate example of resisting temptation in spiritual warfare. Observe how Jesus handled direct attacks from Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11). Each temptation was combatted with the words “it is written.” The Word of the living God is the most powerful weapon against the temptations of the devil. “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).³

…In Ephesians 6:18, we are told to pray in the Spirit (that is, with the mind of Christ, with His heart and His priorities) in addition to wearing the full armor of God. We cannot neglect prayer, as it is the means by which we draw spiritual strength from God. Without prayer, without reliance upon God, our efforts at spiritual warfare are empty and futile. The full armor of God—truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer—are the tools God has given us, through which we can be spiritually victorious, overcoming Satan’s attacks and temptations.⁴

In the following message, the Lord encourages us to not become discouraged and lose hope in the midst of this spiritual warfare. He is with us every moment of every day, and He has provided all that we need to be victorious!

Jesus: You are in a spiritual warfare that is the most important warfare that will ever be waged, for the most righteous cause, for results that are eternal—the salvation of mankind and the preparation of the earth for My kingdom come. And war is about opposition—it’s two opposing armies facing each other down, each determined to be the victor.

You have an advantage over traditional armies because your victory was prophesied from the beginning of time. Your success is guaranteed and set in heaven, if you continue to fight the good fight, using the spiritual weapons of warfare, determined to carry the day in every battle you face.

If you have the mindset that you are in a war, then regardless of the form that the battles may take, you will not see it as some strange thing that has come upon you (1 Peter 4:12). Instead, you will know that it is a part of the spiritual warfare—and as you face it with the power of My Spirit and using the spiritual weapons of warfare at your disposal, you will overcome, no matter what threat or challenge you face.

Every time you’re hit with a battle, remind yourself, “I am a child of God! I am an enemy of Satan and I’m a threat to his kingdom!” If you take on a battle-ready perspective every day, you won’t be shocked if you run into some resistance at times. As you wield the shield of faith, you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one that seek to undermine your faith (Ephesians 6:16).

The formula for overcoming any spiritual battles you face is faith. Trust that I am at the helm. No matter how powerful the waves are that beat against your ship, I’m going to bring you through the storm. Regardless of the circumstances—the size of the waves crashing against your vessel, or your inadequacy to meet the challenges—My will is that every battle you face will somehow work together for your good.

Determine to stand strong in Me and in the power of My might, and having done all, stand your ground (Ephesians 6:10, 13). Determine to run the race that I have set before you, and be not weary in well-doing, knowing that in due season you will see the reward of your faith, if you do not give up (Galatians 6:9).

May we each find joy and strength through yielding to Jesus, walking with Him day by day, and being His vessels of love and grace. The Lord is with us constantly, strengthening us, leading us, and helping us to be a testimony of His truth. God has given us every spiritual resource we need for this warfare so that we can stand strong and be His witnesses to the world. These include the truth, righteousness, gospel preparation, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer (Ephesians 6:14–18).

As we fight our spiritual battles, I am confident that God will give us boldness and endurance as we put on the whole armor of God. “Fight the good fight of faith, and take hold of the eternal life to which we were called when we made our good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12 NIV).

We have the hope of heaven and can count on a glorious future of eternal life. Let’s not lose sight of the goal, the prize! “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). God is for us, He is always with us, and He will perfect that which concerns us. So, no matter how difficult, no matter how hot the spiritual battle, no matter how weak or tired we feel, let’s persevere fighting the good fight of faith because, as we do, we are guaranteed to win, by God’s grace and power!

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

¹ Chuck Lawless, “What is spiritual warfare?” NAMB, April 24, 2017, https://www.namb.net/send-network/resource/spiritual-warfare-what-is-it/.

² Faith Gateway, “Enduring with the Lord’s Help,”  HarperCollins blog, https://www.faithgateway.com/enduring-with-the-lords-help/#.YQXbyehKiMo.

³ Got Questions, “What does the Bible say about spiritual warfare?” February 25, 2025, https://www.gotquestions.org/spiritual-warfare.html.

⁴ Got Questions, “What is the full armor of God?” February 10, 2022, https://www.gotquestions.org/full-armor-of-God.html.

Copyright © 2021 The Family International.

The Just One and Political Justice

Reflections 340

2006-04-02

By Rui Barbosa

In an essay first published in 1899 and excerpted here, Brazilian jurist, essayist, lawyer, author, politician, and diplomat Rui Barbosa (1849-1923) analyzes the prosecution of Jesus from a legal standpoint and holds it up as an example for the ages of the miscarriage of justice.

Christ was subjected to six trials—three at the hands of the Jews, three at the hands of Rome—yet He stood before no judge. In court after court His divine innocence was evident to all who judged Him, but not one dared grant Him judicial protection. In Hebraic traditions, the concept of the divine nature of a magistrate’s role was emphasized. It was taught that to rule contrary to the truth was to drive the presence of the Lord from the bosom of Israel, while to judge with integrity, even for an hour, was likened to the creation of the universe. It was taught that there, in the place of judgment, divine majesty abode. Laws and holy books are of little worth, however, when men lose sight of their meaning.

In the very trial of the One who was sinless, there was not a precept or rule in the laws of Israel that her judges did not transgress. From His arrest, approximately an hour before midnight, until dawn, all the events of Christ’s trial were tumultuous, extrajudicial, and an assault on Hebrew precepts. The third phase, the inquiry before the Sanhedrin, was the first to even remotely simulate a judicial hearing—the first act in this judgment to vaguely resemble due process. At least it took place in the light of day.

Christ Himself did not renounce such rights. Annas interrogated Him, making a procedural error, as he had no judicial authority in the matter. In resigning Himself to martyrdom, Jesus never resigned Himself to the abdication of His lawful rights. Jesus answered Annas, “I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always meet, and in secret I have said nothing. Why do you ask Me? Ask those who have heard Me what I said to them. Indeed they know what I said.” It was an appeal to the Hebrew institutions, which made no allowance for courts or witnesses representing only one side of a question. The accused had the right to a public trial and could not have been convicted without a body of incriminating testimony. Jesus’ ministry had been to the people. If His preaching had crossed into criminal activity, the place should have been teeming with witnesses. They stood on judicial soil, yet because the Son of God invoked the law, His judges slapped Him. To answer the priest in this manner was insolence. “Do You answer the high priest like that?” “Yes,” replied Christ, insisting on legal grounds. “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?”

Disoriented, Annas sent Him to Caiaphas, the high priest that year. This matter, however, was also outside Caiaphas’ jurisdiction. It was solely a prerogative of the great Sanhedrin, before whom Caiaphas had already revealed his political bias in persuading them it was necessary for Jesus to die in order to “save the nation.” It was now up to Caiaphas to carry out his own malicious design, which resulted in the damnation of the people he had intended to save and the salvation of the world, which he had never considered.

The illegality of the nighttime judgment, which Jewish law prohibited even in ordinary civil issues, was worsened by the scandal of the false witnesses. They were bribed by the judge himself, who should have, according to the jurisprudence of that nation, played the role of the defendant’s foremost protector. Yet, no matter how many false witnesses they arranged, they were not able to impute to Him guilt as they had hoped. Jesus remained silent. His judges lost the second round. The high priest, in his “wisdom,” suggested a way to open the divine lips of the accused. Caiaphas questioned Him in the name of the living God, an invocation which the Son could not resist. Obliged to reply, He did not recant and therefore found Himself accused of a capital crime. “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy!” Hearing this statement, all present cried, “He is deserving of death.”

The morning dawned, and in the first hours of daylight, the entire Sanhedrin met. It was an attempt to satisfy the judicial guarantees. Daybreak brought with it the required condition of openness. This was now a legitimate judicial proceeding. These were the proper judges, but judges who had already hired witnesses to testify against the defendant could represent little more than a disgraceful travesty of justice. Having agreed beforehand to condemn, these judges left an example to the world, imitated countless times over the years, of tribunals that decide together in the shadows, later merely simulating in public an actual judgment.

Naturally, therefore, Christ was condemned a third time. The Sanhedrin, however, did not have the authority to pronounce the death sentence. It was a jury of sorts, whose verdict was more opinion than ruling. The Roman courts were under no obligation to heed this verdict. Pontius Pilate, therefore, was under no constraint; he could either condemn or acquit. He asked them, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you” was the insolent reply of his prosecutors. Not wanting to play the role of executioner in a case about which he knew nothing, Pilate tried to weasel out of the predicament by returning the victim to His accusers. “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.” “But,” replied the Jews, “you know very well that it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” Their goal was death. Without it the depraved justice of the accusers would not be satisfied.

At this point their libel changed. The accusation was no longer of blasphemy against holy law, but of an infraction of political law. Jesus was no longer the impostor who claimed to be the Son of God, but a conspirator who crowned Himself king of Judea. Again, however, Christ’s answer spoiled the morning for His accusers. His kingdom was not of this world. Therefore He posed neither a threat to the security of national institutions, nor to the stability of Rome’s rule. “For this cause I have come into the world,” Christ said, “that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” “What is truth?” asked Pilate, clearly revealing his cynicism. He did not believe in the truth, but the truth of Christ’s innocence penetrated irresistibly into the depths of his soul. “I find no fault in Him at all,” said the Roman procurator, once again forestalling the priests’ plot.

The innocent should have been spared. He was not. Public opinion demanded a victim. Jesus had stirred the people, not only there in Pilate’s territory, but all the way to Galilee. It so happened that Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee with whom the governor of Judea had severed relations, was in Jerusalem. It was an excellent occasion for Pilate to restore their friendship and at the same time pacify the crowds that had been inflamed by the high priests. Pilate sent the defendant to Herod, flattering him with this homage—vanity. Two enemies, from that day on, became friends. Thus tyrants are reconciled over the ruins of justice. Herod, also, could find no way to condemn Jesus. The martyr returned from Herod to Pilate without being sentenced.

Pilate reiterated to the people the purity of that just Man. It was the third time that Rome’s judges had proclaimed His innocence. However, the clamor of the multitudes grew.

Jesus’ fourth defense came again from Pilate’s mouth. “What evil has He done?” The conflict escalated as the uproar of the multitude grew stronger, and the governor asked, “Shall I crucify your King?” The crowd’s shouting answer was the lightning bolt that disarmed Pilate’s attempts to forestall. “We have no king but Caesar!” With this word the specter of Tiberius Caesar arose in the depths of the governor’s soul. The monster of Capri, betrayed, consumed with fever, covered with ulcers, contaminated with leprosy, entertained himself with atrocities during his final days. To betray him was to bring about one’s own destruction—to fall under even the suspicion of infidelity to him was to die. Frightened, the slave of Caesar acquiesced, washing his hands before the people. “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person,” he said, and handed Jesus over to His crucifiers. Behold the proceedings of a court that will not take responsibility for its actions.

From Annas to Herod, the judgment of Christ is a mirror of all the ways in which a judicial system, corrupted by factions, demagogues, and governments, deserts its own. Their weakness, their naiveté, their moral perversion crucified the Savior and continue to crucify Him today, in empires and republics, every time that a court covers the truth with a lie, abdicates responsibility, turns its back on or hides from the truth. Jesus was sacrificed because He was accused of being an agitator and a subversive. Every time that it is deemed necessary to sacrifice a friend of our rights, an advocate of the truth, a defender of the defenseless, an apostle of generosity, a proponent of law, or an educator of the people, this is the order that always rises again to justify the activities of the lukewarm judges whose only interest is power. All believe, like Pontius Pilate, that they will save themselves by washing their hands of the blood that they themselves will spill, of the crime that they will commit. Fear, venality, partisan politics, personal reputation, subservience, a conservative spirit, a closed interpretation, reasons of state, overriding interests—call it what you will—judicial prevarication will not escape being branded.

*

“For this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

R340—April 2006
Topics: Easter, Jesus, justice.
Excerpted and adapted from Selected Works of Rui Barbosa, Vol. VIII. Copyright ©1957 by Casa de Rui Barbosa, Rio de Janeiro. Translated by John Paul M. Connolly.
Reflections © 2006 The Family International.
Visit our website at www.thefamilyinternational.org.

Discerning the Signs of the Times

Peter Amsterdam

2023-10-23

We have certainly witnessed “times of trouble” for many people around the world in recent times—at an unprecedented level in some ways, due to modern technology that enables us to see events unfold in real time all around the globe. We have seen struggles related to racism, discrimination, and bias; questions about authority and violence; corruption in high places; and interrogations about the boundaries between personal freedom and civic responsibilities. We certainly are living in troublous times in many ways.

Of course, it is important to remember that every generation has experienced its own unique set of challenges, struggles, and growing pains. If we look through history, we see this constant pattern. This is not surprising to Christians, as we know that we live in a fallen world and that sin is a reality that must be confronted in every generation, as it manifests in the evils of poverty, oppression, war, and inhumanity. In that sense, as it was written in Ecclesiastes, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). We are not surprised by world conditions, as we know the cause: humanity’s broken relationship with God and the effects of that brokenness.

As Christians, however, our ultimate hope isn’t in this world or its political systems, as we know these are temporal and will pass away. We count ourselves amongst those described in Hebrews who have no lasting city on this earth but desire “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16). We eagerly look forward to Jesus’ Second Coming, when all the pain, suffering, evils, and injustice will be made right and “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). Nearly 2,000 years have passed since John wrote at the end of the book of Revelation, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” and believers have wholeheartedly echoed this sentiment since then and continue to do so today.

Many Christians have been seeking to understand the relevance of current events and contemporary culture as they relate to the timetable for Jesus’ Second Coming. Are current world conditions—including modern technology, globalization, the widespread preaching of the gospel, the move toward cashless economies and worldwide digital currencies—signs that we have entered, or are entering, the final seven years that will precede the Second Coming of Jesus Christ? How are we to interpret current events in light of their relevance to the endtime, and what conclusions can we draw?

The answers to such questions are to be drawn first and foremost from Scripture and what the Bible cumulatively teaches us about the period immediately leading up to Jesus’ Second Coming. Of course, the exact details of how these events will play out are not as detailed as we would like, but the Bible does provide a clear outline of what we can expect to see, collectively referred to as “the signs of the times.” Let’s review some of these.

Signs of the times

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24:6–8). The version in the Gospel of Luke also includes pestilences in the list of signs (Luke 21:11).

As we look through history, we can see that the “beginning of birth pains” have been occurring since the time of Jesus, referred to in the Bible as the “last days” to describe the period of time between Jesus’ first and second coming (1 John 2:18). There have been wars and rumors of wars, though in some periods of history much more so than today, such as during the world wars of the first half of the 20th century. There have been, and continue to be, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. Jesus referred to all these as being only the beginning of sorrows.

When discerning the signs of the times, we need to look at the cumulative signs of the times, all these things, and not just one sign in isolation. These signs are found throughout the New Testament and Bible prophecy, primarily in the books of Daniel and Revelation, as well as Matthew 24, 1 and 2 Thessalonians.

However, the Bible describes some clear signs that we will see and thus know that the end is “at the very gates” (Matthew 24:33). Among other things, the Bible tells us that we will see the following:

• Lawlessness will increase and the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12).
• The gospel will be preached in all the world (Matthew 24:14).
• There will come a great falling away from God (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
• A world dictator, known in the Bible as the Antichrist, will rise and will sign an agreement, referred to as the “covenant,” which will temporarily bring a measure of peace and security to the world and usher in the last seven years before Jesus’ Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4).
• People will be required to receive “the mark of the beast,” some form of electronic monetary system and identification with this world government, without which they will not be permitted to buy or sell (Revelation 13:16–18).
• There will be a time of great tribulation and persecution of Christians for the final three and a half years before Jesus’ Second Coming (Matthew 24:21–22).

When we hear of various interpretations of current events and conditions, or that certain political events or cashless monetary systems indicate that we are now in the last seven years, such things can raise concerns. When considering such interpretations, our first step should be to measure these against what Scripture tells us about the period leading up to Jesus’ Second Coming. We need to look at the specifics concerning a particular sign that are described in the Bible. For example, what does Scripture say about the mark of the beast? Is it possible that it has already been instituted secretly?

According to the information we have been given in Scripture, the mark of the beast is instituted after the covenant is broken and is tied to acceptance of the Antichrist and his reign, and worship of his person (Revelation 11:13–18). Have we seen the signs that would precede the mark of the beast, such as the revelation of the “man of sin” [the Antichrist] who “exalts himself above God” and “takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God”? (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4)

We read in Revelation 14:9–11: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God.” From what we can gather from the Scriptures about receiving the mark of the beast, it is clearly tied to worship of the beast and worship of his image.

Could the mark of the beast be administered when the Antichrist has not risen, his reign is not visible, and people are not being faced with a choice to worship the Antichrist by receiving his mark? These are the types of questions we must ask ourselves when considering different theories and interpretations. We must study and weigh the Scriptures to ensure that we are “accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

How to be prepared

There is no question that every day that passes brings the world closer to Jesus’ return, and as Christians, we await this triumphant event with eager anticipation, and we want to be prepared for it. Will we experience His Second Coming in our lifetimes? We can’t know that until we see the fulfillment of the definitive signs Jesus and others gave us in the Bible.

So what is the type of preparation that we should be concerned with as followers of Jesus? In Matthew 24, after describing what His followers will face during those final days, Jesus tells the disciples: “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” And Jesus, as if in answer to their unspoken question of how to live in that state of constant readiness, goes on to say,

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions” (Matthew 24:45–47).

Jesus refocuses the conversation on faithfulness with this reference to the faithful and wise servant, who has been given a responsibility for the master’s household and performs his job diligently. He doesn’t know when his master is going to return, but that doesn’t matter to him; he is focused on being faithful in his work. When the master returns, that servant will be blessed.

May we all be faithful to pattern our lives according to God’s Word, to follow Him closely, and be faithful to share the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ with as many people as we can. Whether or not we will personally live to see the final seven years of world history in our lifetime, how we live our lives during the time God gives us on earth is what ultimately counts.

We are called to love God, love others, share the gospel, do our best to live the teachings of Jesus, and teach them to others. If we are faithful to do these things, we can trust that we will be prepared for whatever comes.

Originally published May 2021. Adapted and republished October 2023. Read by Jon Marc.

“Study to Show Thyself Approved Unto God”

David Brandt Berg

2015-03-16

 

The more you study the Word of God and really dig into the Word, the more it will become a constant source of pleasure to you—a source of enjoyment, inspiration, encouragement, edification, information, and continuous guidance. Real study time is not only reading time, but also listening to God time. The minute you begin to stop, look, and listen to the Lord’s recorded written Word, you are immediately putting yourself in the position of being willing to listen, so then the Lord can begin to speak to you and give you His living Word.

To feed from the Word and hear from the Lord this way, to spiritually graze in the green pastures by the beautiful still waters of His Word that He has for you,¹ you need to bear in mind what my teacher used to tell me in typing class, that the most important thing is not speed, but accuracy. When you’re reading the Word of God, it’s accuracy that’s important. So it’s important that we read His Word carefully, prayerfully, and thoughtfully.

You can miss a lot of the meaning, the real depth of what the Lord’s talking about, unless you stop to really think about it sometimes and apply the Word to your personal situation, and ask, “How is that true and how is that so?” Not with a questioning or a doubtful attitude, but one of faith, knowing that you can learn even more lessons if you search further and dig deeper.

Remember also, the Lord loves a mystery. He likes for you to learn to dig things out. To find the real precious jewels, you sometimes have to do a little mining, a little digging, and put a little effort into it. He said, “I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”²

As with the most precious metals and jewels, gold and silver and diamonds, you have to hunt for them and dig them up and find them. He purposely doesn’t make it too easy for you. He says, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”³

If you will diligently and prayerfully labor in His Word, He will greatly reward you, and you will agree with David, who exclaimed, “Thy Word is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.”⁴

Effects of the Word of God

The Word of God always has an effect. No one can hear or read the Word of God without being somehow influenced. Everyone who hears the Word is affected one way or another. Here are some of the dramatic effects of reading and living in His Word:

Life and victory: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.”⁵

The wonderful water of God’s Word can revive you even if you seem to be spiritually dead. Even if you’ve neglected the Word for a long time, if you’ll only drink it in again, you can again become beautiful and fruitful. Just as we’ve seen seemingly “dead” trees, shrubs, plants and gardens which were utterly barren and lifeless and leafless spring to life and become productive again when properly watered, so the water of His Word can bring you, though spiritually withered, new life and virtual resurrection if you will soak in His Word.

It’s reading the Word that kindles the desire to change in your heart—because you will be inspired, revitalized, renewed, invigorated, challenged, enthused, and filled with faith from His words.

His Word seeds excite you, and they invite you, and they exorcise you, and they right you, and they plight you, and sometimes they bite you, or indict you, or fight you, or enlight you (make you glow), and enheight you, and enmight you (make you strong), and requite you, or right you, or sight you, or invite you and delight you.

The Word is the secret of victory or of defeat. It’s the secret of success or failure. It all depends on how you treat the Word, and how you live in it and live on it, or try to go on without it. That’s the secret. The secret of power and victory and overcoming and fruitfulness and fire and life and warmth and light and spiritual maturity is the Word!

Growth and strength: If you stay close to the Word and really let it change you, you will grow steadily, and mature into what the Lord wants you to be. A lot of your spiritual growth is up to you and how much nourishment you receive.

Jesus told us that His words should abide in us, and that “as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.”⁶ So in order to have the strength to do our work for the Lord, we have to spend time getting filled up with His Word. As the old saying goes, “You cannot do the Master’s work without the Master’s power.” And to get it, you must spend time with the Master feeding from His Word.

Even getting out the message to others is not as important as getting into the Word yourself first. We need to get the Word in as well as out. Otherwise, you’ll never have the spiritual strength and stamina or the spirit that will sustain your bodily strength and stamina to keep going, unless you are drinking in the Word and being spiritually nourished and strengthened by it yourself first.

Faith: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”⁷

You get faith from reading the Word. Faith is built by faithful study of God’s Word. You have it because you’re full of the Word of God.

The best way to encourage your faith is to bury yourself in the Word of God. Encourage your faith with His Word and hang on to the Lord! Just read His Word and you will believe.

Freedom: “If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”⁸

The only way on God’s earth to find true freedom is to continue in God’s Word. There’s no other way to be truly free. His Word is His truth, and His Word is what makes us free, nothing else. So if you want freedom, it comes from living in the Word, knowing the Word, and following the Lord and His truth.

Cleansing: “Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you.”⁹

The only way to be thoroughly cleansed from the spiritual stench of the old, stinking, soiled, filthy, dirty clothes of your old past life and your sinful self is a good bath in the pure water of the Word to thoroughly wash away all the old pollutions and any further desire or taste for them.

So if you need cleansing, go to the washing of the pure water of the Word, and let God’s truth cleanse you and rid you of all the filth and hogwash of this world and your own sinful heart.¹⁰ “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word … Cleansed with the washing of water by the Word.”¹¹

Spiritual ballast: “The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.”¹²

If your faith is founded on God’s Word, it doesn’t even matter how you feel, you know the Word is still the same. God’s Word is still just as effective and unchanging, regardless of your feelings. And it is your faith in His Word that counts and will pull you through in times of severe trials or tests. “For this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”¹³

The Word of God is your spiritual ballast, your hope of salvation, that will keep you steady and on the firm foundation of truth. If you retain His Word in your heart, and your faith is founded on the Bible, they will preserve you no matter what you may go through. Even though you may sometimes be weakened, you will still stand if you remain on God’s firm foundation of faith, balanced firmly with His Word.

Our weapon: “The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”¹⁴

The Word of God is our spiritual sword that drives away and defeats the Devil every time we use it. When Jesus Himself was tempted by the Devil, He fought back with the Word.¹⁵ So when the Enemy comes around, take out your sword and whack away. He can’t take it. He’ll run every time. Sock it to him with the sword of the Spirit! The Word! That’s the stuff that victories are made of!

Nothing scares the Devil like the Word of God. He just can’t take it; he can’t stand the Word. The best way to put the Enemy out of action is with the Word. Just bury him in a flood of truth, and he and all his doubts and fears will flee.

The Word is also a light that drives away and defeats the Enemy’s darkness. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”¹⁶ When the Devil attacks you with his doubts and his fears and his discouragement and his temptations and all the rest, turn on the light of God’s Word and the shadows will flee.

Surgical scalpel: “The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”¹⁷

When witnessing to others, never underestimate the power of the Word. There is absolute power in the Word of God. This sword of His Spirit is sharp enough to pierce the hardest armor, so that the warmth of His Spirit of love can flow into their empty hearts. As a witness for the Lord, you can wield His Word to cut and remove the cancers of evil that afflict so many today.

His Word is the most powerful weapon in the world, sharper than any two-edged sword, sharper than any other weapon on earth. It can do more than split atoms; it has greater power than the hydrogen bomb! For it can even divide asunder the soul and the spirit of man. And can change hearts and change minds and win people to Christ and His cause.

Help us, Lord Jesus, to fill our hearts and minds with Your Word so that we really get close to You and get to know You and to depend on You. Help us to saturate ourselves with Your Word. Inspire our hearts by Your wonderful Word.

Help us to read and put into practice all the things Your King David said about Your Word in that marvelous Psalm 119. He talks so much about Your Word, and that’s where he got his strength and his life and his wisdom and his power and his victory. David lived in Your Word night and day, as we do also, in trying to teach it to others. In Jesus’ name.

Let’s keep the connection strong with His Word and His Spirit, His truth and His love, in humility and obedience, amen?

Compiled from the writings of David Brandt Berg, originally published November 1988. Adapted and republished March 2015.
Read by Jon Marc.

¹ See Psalm 23.

² Isaiah 45:3. The Bible scriptures in this post are from the King James Version (KJV).

³ 2 Timothy 2:15.

⁴ Psalm 119:72.

⁵ Psalm 1:2–3.

⁶ John 15:4,7.

⁷ Romans 10:17.

⁸ John 8:31–32.

⁹ John 15:3.

¹⁰ Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 12:2.

¹¹ Psalm 119:9; Ephesians 5:26.

¹² Psalm 37:31.

¹³ 1 John 5:4.

¹⁴ Ephesians 6:17.

¹⁵ See Matthew 4:1–10.

¹⁶ Psalm 119:105.

¹⁷ Hebrews 4:12.

Witnessing—A “Winning” Adventure

Peter Amsterdam

2016-08-01

I believe we each want to be able to say, at the end of our lives, when we stand before the Lord, that we have personally done our best to serve Him and be a witness of His truth. How about a little self-evaluation to check in with the Lord on how we’re doing? Let’s ask ourselves: Am I a witness and soul winner at heart? Do I believe that I am called and chosen to be a witness? Am I doing as much as I can, given my circumstances? And if the answer to any of these questions is “no,” then we should consider what might need to change.

You have something that every person needs, and needs badly! You have a lot to offer others spiritually. Whatever your gifts, whatever your experience, whatever your personality, you can offer someone everything that God can offer them, and that’s a lot! Your awesome “product”—Jesus and His truth—cuts across all ages, all classes, all elements of society. You have just as much to offer the successful businessman as you do the young woman at the checkout counter.

You are one of God’s ambassadors. You may not be “the big wow” personally, but who you represent and God’s truth that you have access to is the big wow. Understand that, believe that, and walk in that confidence and anointing.

You might think that people in this day and age don’t appear to be so desperate, and that might make you think that they don’t really need Jesus. You might look back at the early days of the Family and think, “Yes, people were desperate then, but they’re not that desperate now.” But the truth is that there are a lot of desperate people in the world who need what you have to offer them. They may not always express it, they might even do well at hiding it and have a tougher exterior maybe because they feel they have to in order to survive in today’s world, but there is a void and desperation in people’s hearts just the same.

Building on that, among the multitudes of people who need to find Jesus, many will also need additional spiritual input and training. They will need the Word and the opportunity to grow spiritually.

There are billions of people in the world, millions of people in the country where you live, at least thousands of people in your city, who need Jesus, God’s Word, and spiritual growth. Expect that, among the people in your city or area, there are those who have “follower of Jesus” stamped on their spirits, and who you can reach and win. Even if you are in a city or area where people don’t seem to be receptive to the message, there are still potential people to meet and lives to change and world changers to cultivate. There is fruit in the world, in every sector of society, waiting.

Everybody needs Jesus. Everybody needs spiritual input and growth. Everybody needs God’s Word. So be specific and targeted in prayer for the fruit you want to see. Then stay determined to find those hungry people—because they may not show up every day, but they are there. It will take time and persistence, but fruit is there! Expect it.

Loving the lost and having a heart for witnessing is not about feelings. How many of us have feelings constantly when it comes to our relationship with the Lord? I would venture to say that many people have to take their relationship with the Lord mostly by faith. In some cases there may be few emotional feelings or spiritual highs. But we can know we are close to the Lord if we are doing the things that He has instructed us to do.

Well, that’s similar to the way we each can look at our thermometer of love for the lost. It’s not about whether we have this tangible “burning desire” in our hearts to save souls and bring them along in their relationship with the Lord. It’s not about always even feeling like witnessing is the thing we love to do, our favorite activity, or our highlight. It’s unrealistic to think that our feelings are always going to be at that level.

Maybe what I just described sounds familiar to you, and if so, don’t worry, because even if you don’t have any feelings to speak of, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a love for the lost. A love for the lost is more than a feeling. It’s a motivation that drives you to love others, to pour into them, to give Jesus to them. That motivation could be in the form of conviction or even a simple knowledge of what God has called you to do to fulfill your commission, and what He expects of you.

All you need in order to love the lost are feet to walk to where they are, hands to reach out to them and embrace them, eyes to look into theirs, ears to hear their heartcries and questions, lips to speak the Lord’s truth, and a heart of love for the Lord that compels you to do so.

We can ask the Lord to help us take advantage of the opportunities to witness that present themselves in our day-to-day activities. No matter what we’re doing, whether we’re taking our children to a park, or are out doing some business, or traveling on public transport, or going to a movie, we can always keep our eyes peeled for the potential people the Lord wants us to meet.

No matter where we are, we can be praying for the Lord to put the right people in our path. We can be asking the Lord to open doors for us, to set us up with those “golden opportunities”—and then we need to not chicken out when He drops them in our lap. Sometimes the Lord’s open doors will be in the most unlikely situations and times and places, so let’s be ready to jump right in when the Lord shows us one of His setups.

Sometimes opportunities will even find us at home and will come knocking on our door. We can be a genuine witness no matter where we are, who we’re with, or what we’re doing, and live as a continuous display of faith, and a testimony to what we believe.

Meeting people, getting to know them, building a relationship with them, and bringing them along to the point where they can discover the Lord’s love and how He wants to use them to give that love to others takes time. Witnessing and winning souls is often about 90% time and 10% results, not the other way around.

Sometimes the Lord blesses us by putting us into special situations where we just “happen upon” some super-needy person who is ready for the truth, and we don’t have to do much to lead them to the Lord. But these are the exceptions rather than the rule. Generally speaking, it takes time to meet people, to build rapport, to earn their trust, to convince them of their need for a personal relationship with Jesus, etc.

It is simple mathematics that the more time we invest, the more likely we are to reap results. If we’re meeting more people, giving the Lord more of a chance and more opportunities to use us and work through us, the odds are higher that we will meet receptive people, and that the time we invest will bear more fruit.

Winning a person to the Lord is the first step, but we also want to help them get hooked on God’s Word, teach them how to have a personal relationship with Jesus, and then challenge them to go further. We do want to win as many souls as possible, but we also want to encourage each person to progress and serve the Lord and help to get the job done here on earth.

Witnessing is a “winning” adventure. Saving a soul is cause for great celebration; all the angels in heaven rejoice when there’s a soul saved! Praise the Lord!

Originally published November 2007. Adapted and republished August 2016.
Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.