A Transfer of Confidence

A compilation

2011-08-01

Mistakes are going to happen. There’s no way not to make them, and so it’s a smart move to transfer your energy and worry away from thinking “Oh no, I might make a mistake,” to “when I make a mistake (which I will), I hope that I can really learn something useful from it.”—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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Failure is one of God’s primary tools in making you the kind of person He wants you to be. He’ll use failure to mold you, shape you, and develop your character. The truth is, we rarely learn anything from success. When we succeed we immediately think, “It’s just because of my sheer natural talent.” We don’t figure out why we succeeded.

But if we’re wise we’ll use our failures to our advantage. Wise people make the most of failure. It’s a stepping-stone to greater days.

So how can failure benefit me? There’s lots of ways, but here are three of the most important.

1. God uses failure to educate me.¹Mistakes are a learning process. You figure out what doesn’t work and eventually you’ll figure out what does work. We only learn certain things through failure. It’s just trial and error.
2. God uses failure to motivate me.²We don’t usually change when we see the light; we change when we feel the heat. Sometimes God has to use a little pain to get us to change and steer us in a new direction. Remember when God dried up the little brook that Elijah depended on for refreshment?³God wanted him to move on. Sometimes it takes failure to make us do what God wants us to do.
3. God uses failure to help me grow.⁴Failure can actually cultivate our character and help us grow. Romans 5:3–4 says we should rejoice when we run into problems and trials because they “are good for us.” Why can we rejoice in failure? God uses problems to cultivate our character. Failure has a way of softening our hearts. It makes us sensitive to others. It makes us less judgmental. It makes us more sympathetic.

Failure in our lives does not automatically educate us, motivate us, or help us grow. Failure only benefits you if you respond correctly. I know a lot of people who have been through problem after problem, and they’re still jerks. Why? They haven’t responded in the way God wanted them to, so God couldn’t use it.

You may want to forget your worst failures, but God wants to turn them into teachable moments.—Rick Warren

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There are a lot of useful things that come out of making mistakes. For one, it can be a form of natural troubleshooting. When mistakes happen, they identify problem areas, either in your mode of operation or within the work or situation itself. These things are useful if you take advantage of them as diagnostic tools to highlight and think and pray about areas that can use improvement.

What’s at the core is what you end up with after the mistake has come and gone. If you walk away from a mistake smarter and more thoughtful, and closer to Me, then that’s a win. The only bad mistakes are the ones that you don’t learn from, or the ones where you take a step backwards because you lose faith and succumb to condemnation.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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Making a mistake can help you know where to strengthen yourself and where you need more of Me in your life.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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There’s no machine or plant or animal or even the marvelous, miraculous human body that can fix or repair a problem before it happens. Every organism in the world, made by Me or made by man, is reactionary to mistakes and problems. When the body detects a problem, it fixes it. When programs encounter a virus, then they take action.

You can do your best to avoid problems by being careful and prayerful, but you can’t avoid them completely. While you can do as much as you can to keep things running smoothly, whatever slips by beyond that is something you can learn from to make things even better. That’s the way to look at it.

No one is perfect, and no one can anticipate and plan for every possible weak area or potential failure. So you can look at mistakes as a helpful early-warning system, alerting you to give more attention to an area that you may not have otherwise noticed.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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Don’t be discouraged by failure. … Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.—John Keats

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Mistakes highlight problems, just like frequent fender-benders on a certain street might highlight the need for an intersection or a traffic light. Even if you find yourself regularly falling short in one area, chances are that the problem isn’t that you’re such a horrible person, but perhaps the way you’re going about a certain thing is flawed in some way and needs to be rethought.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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Mistakes are the portals of discovery.—James Joyce

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People slip up because they’re weak and human. I didn’t create you to be perfect men and women. Mistakes can be your greatest teachers. The best attitude is to determine to learn, grow, and progress through your mistakes. The way to do that is to do your best, slip, fall, get up again, and try to do better next time.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself.—Wang Yang-Ming

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Learn from your mistakes, yes. Let them instruct and teach you, yes. But don’t give in to discouragement, don’t wallow in self-pity, don’t feel you have to make a big show to prove how sorry and remorseful you are, or to get sympathy for your error. Everyone makes mistakes, and most people feel bad when they do. But if you really want to prove to others that you’re sorry for what happened, what you’ll do is push aside the—in some ways inviting—feelings of guilt and condemnation and poor-me’s, and face the situation like a fighter and reach into that sticky mess to extract lessons, knowledge, wisdom.

To go through the whole cycle of beating yourself up and hand wringing and despair is really just self-indulgent. Or, if you want the “get tough” mindset on it, it’s bad enough that you made the mistake in the first place; don’t make it worse by being a crybaby. Face the fact that it happened, and realize that somewhere in it all I allowed it to happen, which means I can use it for good. And then roll up your sleeves, accept responsibility, and get ahold of Me to find out what went wrong and how you can learn from it and improve.

When you do that, you win every time. There’s no situation that can’t end up positive if you’re willing to do the hard work of finding the lesson or the good. Even when you’re going through the painful process of living with your mistake for a while, which sometimes happens, if you keep an “I will survive and be stronger for it” attitude, you’ll come through victorious.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don’t look back at it too long. Mistakes are life’s way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit.—Og Mandino

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When you make a mistake, it’s natural to feel your confidence is shaken, and it’s all too easy to become hesitant and ineffective. But instead, through the mistakes you make I want to bring about a transfer of confidence. I want your confidence to be in Me rather than limited to yourself and your own abilities.

You need confidence—but the safe kind of confidence is confidence placed in Me and in My ability to work through you. Without confidence, self-doubt can overwhelm you and make you genuinely ineffective and wavering. You’ll be weak when it’s time to make choices and decisions, and that lack of faith and confidence will distract and hinder you.

There’s no reason to let a mistake destroy your ability to be decisive and take action and continue to move forward in confidence. Let your pride take the knock, not your confidence in Me or in My ability to work through you.

I forgive your mistakes, I deliver you from condemnation, I’m waiting to move forward with you, and I want you to gain something valuable from any mistake or setback. If you’re walking away from a mistake with a renewed conviction of how very much I need to be part of your life, then that’s a good deal.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.—Theodore Roosevelt

Published August 2011. Read by Dulcinea Fox.
Music by Michael Fogarty.

¹ Psalm 119:71.

² Proverbs 20:30.

³ 1 Kings 17.

⁴ Romans 5:3–4.

Facts about the Antichrist (part b)

1. Power by the Devil: Revelation 13:2, 4; Daniel 8:24.
2. Deadly wound healed: Revelation 13:3, 12, 14.
3. Big mouth: Revelation 13:5–6; Daniel 7:8, 20.
4. War against saints: Revelation 13:7; Daniel 7:21.
5. Power over all nations: Revelation 13:2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 15.
6. One-man world government: Revelation 13:3, 8.
7. Blaspheme temple: Revelation 13:6; Daniel 8:11; 11:31; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
8. 42 Months: Revelation 13:5; 11:2–3; 12:6, 14; Daniel 7:25; 9:27; 12:7.

Copyright © May 1979 by The Family International

The Prince of the Covenant (part a)

David Brandt Berg

1979-05-01

Nearly all Bible prophecy teachers teach that the prince of the Covenant (referred to in Daniel 11:22) is the Antichrist, because that’s what the Bible as good as says. “The prince of the covenant”—it’s obvious. The term itself implies who he is: the prince of the Covenant. Who is this prince that has so much to do with the Covenant that he is called the prince of the Covenant? He can be none other than the Antichrist.

There’s only one other screwy interpretation I ever heard of, by the historicists, who say it was all fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Himself was the prince of the Covenant. How can He be, when this prince-of-the-covenant Antichrist is against the “Prince of princes,” or King of kings, Jesus, in Daniel 8:25?

The “historicists,” usually old-line denominations, are the ones who teach that all this Bible prophecy has already been fulfilled; it is all past history and we’re now living in the Millennium. If this is the Millennium, or Christ’s kingdom of heaven on earth, God help us! It’s closer to hell on earth. They teach that Jesus’ death, the beginning of the age of grace and the end of the Law, was also the beginning of the Millennium, and we’re now in it, and Jesus will come in the Rapture after it. That’s why they’re known as “postmillennialists,” because they believe Jesus’ Second Coming is after the Millennium.

The Covenant is spoken of many times: a seven-year covenant in Daniel 9:27 and many other passages. It’s like a promise of religious freedom or religious worship, enabling the Jews to reestablish the temple and sacrificial worship in Jerusalem.

The Covenant is made by the Antichrist himself. Therefore he is called “the prince of the Covenant.” He’s the one who makes this covenant to allow religious worship and freedom in Jerusalem. This has been the general interpretation. That’s my interpretation and that of most Bible prophecy students and teachers, even Scofield’s Bible.

The Antichrist, obviously from the 9th chapter of Daniel and many others, makes the Covenant and/or confirms it, and is therefore called “the prince of the covenant.” Then he breaks it in the middle of the seven years, at the end of three and a half years. It’s generally assumed or interpreted that since he is the one who has made the Covenant, he has the power to break it.

It’s conceded by nearly all interpreters of Bible prophecy that this mastermind, this superman, the Antichrist, is the guy who’s going to solve the problem of Jerusalem by making some kind of an agreement between the Muslims and the Jews, probably by making it an international city under the U.N.

That has long been the suggestion of the U.N. as an alternative to solve the problem, to internationalize Jerusalem. That’s the only thing that will ever halfway work. But then, as the Antichrist finds out, even that doesn’t work. That still doesn’t make the religions stop fighting and quarreling with each other. They will still be fighting and arguing over every square inch of Jerusalem—who gets this, and who gets that, and who gets to place their temple here, and who gets to place their altar there. So he finally just gets fed up and abolishes the whole works and sets up his own religion.

But first in Daniel 9:27, he confirms the Covenant or this religious peace pact to allow free religious worship in Jerusalem for all religions for seven years. When he does, that will begin the last seven years of history. We know this from Daniel 9:27.

Lots of modern politicians have suggested this: “Why don’t we declare Jerusalem an open city, an international city? The sacred city, the holy city, capital of the world’s three greatest religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.” Why not declare it an international city in no one country or people’s hands, but under the U.N. or the world government? When the Antichrist takes over as the world dictator of a one-world government, he will have the power to do that, to declare Jerusalem an international city that belongs to the world—not just to the Jews, not just to the Muslims, not just to the Christians, but to all—the whole world.

It would be a compromise, a covenant telling the whole world and the world’s three greatest religions it belongs to all of us. The world government takes it over and makes it an international city. In fact, according to the Bible, the world dictator of the world government—the Antichrist—then makes that city his capital too. His political capital of his world government will be Jerusalem, the capital of the whole world (Daniel 11:45). For a while, to get the sympathy of the people and the world and the cooperation of the world’s great religions, he allows them all religious freedom, not only all over the whole world, but within Jerusalem itself.

This then finally gives the Jews their golden opportunity to rebuild their temple and restore its sacrificial worship. They work out some kind of compromise with the other religions, and this is the only way it could ever be done, because the Muslims would never allow it otherwise. It has to be done by a fourth party, a world political government, to make a compromise which is generally accepted as the covenant spoken of in the Bible prophecies of Daniel.

The Bible says the Antichrist eventually stops the sacrifices. (See Daniel 8:11, 9:27, and 11:31). Well, he can’t stop them unless somebody has started them. It’s going to take some ticklish work to figure out some way for the Jews to rebuild the temple and reinstitute sacrificial worship on their altar with the Mosque of Omar standing right over it. The Dome of the Rock, the holiest of the Muslim holy places outside of Mecca, is now standing over what was once the Jewish temple sacrificial altar, where they sacrificed their sacrifices. So what they are going to do about that, we don’t know yet.

But we do know that finally the Antichrist is going to stop it. Maybe it’s just to settle their quarrels and fights over this very thing. Who knows? He is going to put an end to the Covenant right in the middle of it. He then later sets himself up as God and his image in this holy place, and says, “Now everybody worship me and my image. Forget all these other religions, and we’ll just have one big one-world religion of the one-world government of the one-world dictator, and I will be your god!”

The Antichrist, as a smart politician, realizes that in order to stop all this bickering and arguing and infighting among the world’s three great religions within his one-world government, he’s got to abolish all religions and insist that there must just be one religion—his religion—the worship of him and his image.

Obviously, the Covenant doesn’t work. He tries, but there’s probably still so much fighting between them that he cannot get the world really united as long as these religions are still fighting each other. So his idea, of course, with the seeming sensible reasoning of man and the Devil, is to abolish all other religions and unite the world in one religion, the worship of himself, the Antichrist, which means the worship of the Devil, for he is the Devil in the flesh.

Finally the Devil has what he always wanted: the worship of the whole world with him as its god—“the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Then comes the attempted abolition of the worship of the one true God and of Jesus Christ His Son and all other religions.

It says, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week” (seven years). First of all, it says in Daniel 9:26 that “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary (Jerusalem and the temple), and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

The literal fulfillment of this particular prophecy is usually considered the desolation of Jerusalem under the Romans in 70 A.D., because it was “after Messiah was cut off” (Daniel 9:26), after Jesus was crucified, that the city was destroyed and made desolate.

But maybe it also applies to the future destruction under the Antichrist, because obviously he is also going to invade and take over Jerusalem. It could apply to both—one a foreshadowing and the other a final fulfillment. Many Bible prophecies are like that. It says in verse 27—and this obviously can refer only to the Antichrist, because it has to do with the Covenant:

“And he (the Antichrist) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week”—or seven years. This prince that shall come shall confirm the Covenant. This is why he is called the prince of the Covenant, the Antichrist, as it is he who confirms the Covenant. He makes a seven-year covenant for the reinstitution of sacrificial worship and freedom of religion in Jerusalem, or an ingenious compromise between the Jews and Muslims.

But then he breaks it. “In the midst of the week” or the seven years, or therefore at the end of three and a half years, “he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” There is reference after reference about this event: Daniel 7:25; 8:9–14; 9:27; 11:31; 12:7–11; Matthew 24:15 and 21; Luke 21:20–24; Revelation 11:2–3, and many others.

“He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease (break the Covenant), and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate (the abomination of desolation), even unto the consummation (the end), and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

All through the book of Daniel it speaks about the prince of the Covenant, the Antichrist, who turns around and breaks it in the middle, at the end of only three and a half years. He is talked about in Matthew 24:15 by Jesus, and in Revelation 11 and 13 by John. He finally turns against the Jews and the daily temple sacrifices of the Jews, and stops them, and sets up the “transgression of desolation,” his own image (Revelation 13:14–15), the “abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet,” quoted by Jesus in Matthew 24:15–21:

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation (the image) spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place … then shall be (the) great tribulation.” What worse abomination could stand in the holy place of the world’s three greatest religions than the Image of the Beast, the image of the Antichrist? He finally sets up his own image in the holy place, a talking, seemingly living idol!

Scofield has Jesus coming before this and taking the church out at this time so they won’t have to go through the Tribulation. But you can’t find any foundation for that in fact or scripture anywhere in the Bible. The Bible plainly says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days … then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven” (Matthew 24:29–30).

So there is the order of events. Despite all these wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and pestilences and famines for 2,000 years, from that time until the Antichrist, He says, “But the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6).

“But when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand(ing) in the holy place, then” shall the end be near, for, “then shall be (the) great tribulation” which is ended by His Coming, as He says then in verses 29 and 30: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven” and He will come to rescue His own in the Rapture (verse 31; Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4; Revelation 14).

In many passages it tells us exactly how long the Tribulation’s going to be—three and a half years. All of these passages throughout the Bible teach the same thing, and give the length of the Tribulation in many ways: It will begin in the middle of the seven-year Covenant (Daniel 9:27), which leaves three and a half years.—Or a time (one year) and times (two years) and half a time (half a year) (Daniel 7:25 and 12:7)—or three and a half years. Or it says 42 months (Revelation 13:5), which is three and a half years. Or it says 1,260 days (Revelation 12:6), which is three and a half years. All say the same.

The Great Tribulation or persecution of the religions by the Antichrist shall last three and a half years exactly—the last half of the broken Covenant. God made it so specific and counted it in so many different ways that nobody could possibly misinterpret it, misunderstand it, or misfigure it like some Bible interpreters try to.

Then comes the 11th chapter of Daniel, that very mysterious chapter in which so many Bible students and teachers go astray. Trying to interpret it all and identify everybody here, you’re going to get in trouble. However, it comes to a point around the 21st verse when it begins to speak very clearly and obviously of a certain person who continues to dominate the world scene right on through the rest of the passage.

From Daniel 11:21 on, nearly all Bible students and teachers agree, is a description of the Antichrist, after many other descriptions in Daniel previous to this (Daniel 7:8, 20–25; 8:9–12, 23–25; 9:26–27, etc.). So this detailed description of the Antichrist begins here in the 21st verse: “A vile (evil) person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.”

The antichrist system conquers countries and their people by propaganda, “peaceably,” “by flatteries,” powerful “peace” propaganda.

It then says in verse 22: “And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.” “Yea, also the prince of the covenant.” Don’t stop here and don’t link it too closely with what has just been read, because originally the Bible was not divided into chapters and verses, neither was it punctuated.

The Old Testament in the Hebrew doesn’t have any punctuation, so you can make a mistake and divide things where they shouldn’t be divided, and run them together where they shouldn’t be run together. There is kind of a pause here, and it looks almost like the translator has linked it together: “Yea, also the prince of the covenant.” If you interpret it as some people have, and you punctuate it and run it together the way the translator did who put these verses together, it sounds like, “The prince of the Covenant got run over too! He too got broken, right?”

But what it is saying here is, “Yea, (he’s) also the prince of the covenant.” This is literally what this passage means. It does not mean, “Yea, also the prince of the covenant” is broken. I’ll grant you, that’s what it might look like and sound like, if you don’t really know your Bible and all the rest of the passages.

If you find a whole bunch of scriptures that say one thing, but then you find one little passage that seems to say the opposite, then what are you going to accept? The preponderance of the scriptures. Otherwise you’d have to say, “Because this one passage says so-and-so, all the rest of the scriptures are wrong!” But we’ve already seen how all through God’s Word, especially Daniel, 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, Matthew, and all the other prophetic passages, it speaks of this Antichrist, this prince as the prince of the Covenant, the one who makes it and breaks it. It speaks of him time and time again.

The Antichrist is really the prince of the Covenant, this vile person who becomes the Antichrist, according to the passage here. “To whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.” He talks them out of it. He’s a usurper! “And with the arms of a flood (of atom bombs?) shall they be overflown from before him and shall be broken.

“Yea, (he’s) also the prince of the covenant.” What the writer here is trying to bring out is that he is not only doing all these things, but this is also the guy we have been talking about in all these other scriptures.

As the prince of the Covenant, the Antichrist is the one who makes the Covenant, and therefore he has the authority to break it. He makes the promise, but he also breaks the promise. He’s the one who gives these nations and religions their freedom and authority to practice and worship in Jerusalem and set up their official temples there, and tries to bring about a compromise between them.

After trying with the seven-year Covenant to get the religions to compromise and work and worship together and leave Jerusalem an open, internationalized city with freedom of worship for all, which doesn’t work, this prince of the Covenant apparently gets fed up and stops the whole works, breaks the Covenant, stops the worship, and places the image of himself, the Beast, right in the holy place, at the temple.

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.

2 Thessalonians: Chapter 2 (Part 1)

1 and 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.

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.

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.

The Church—The Body of Believers

Treasures

2024-01-22

It is a wonderful blessing and privilege for Christians to be able to meet regularly to worship the Lord and fellowship together. Many Christians live in countries where they are not able to openly gather together and fellowship. We should desire and seek fellowship with other Christians, because we need that time together with others who believe as we do, who love the Lord and have committed their lives to Him.

In the world today, living a Christian life is not always an easy task, so it is a blessing to get together with other Christians for fellowship, to read and study God’s Word, to sing and praise the Lord, to pray for one another and to ask for prayer. It is also a good time to celebrate Communion together.

We are told in Hebrews 10:24–25, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day (of Jesus’ return) drawing near.”

The Lord knew that we needed united fellowship with other Christians for our own inspiration and for spiritual refreshing, and for being strengthened by His Word. Also, as the above verse says, meeting together is a time to encourage one another, and to stir one another up to grow in love and good works. There is also power in unity, and united prayer and fellowship bring down the Lord’s blessings. (See Acts 4:32–33.)

It’s important to bear in mind, however, that meeting together for fellowship and spiritual renewal—whether it is done in a church building, a private home, or a storefront or a tent—is not our service for the Lord. It is common in churches to call the fellowship meeting the service, and some Christians believe that going to church and giving an offering is all they are required to do to please God.

However, our actual work and service for the Lord is in our everyday living for him, in reflecting His love and truth to others, living according to His Word, and sharing the gospel with others. Meeting together for spiritual fellowship and worship is a time to be renewed, reinspired, and spiritually strengthened for the days ahead and the problems and challenges we may face.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus sent His disciples out to minister to the people. It was a great deal of work, and when they had finished their service, the Bible says, “Then the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus. And He said to them, ‘Come aside into a quiet place, and rest a while” (Mark 6:30–31). Likewise today, there is a difference between our service for the Lord and our “gathering ourselves together to Jesus” and “coming aside to rest” to be reinspired.

For its first 200 years of existence, Christianity had no buildings, and Christians just met wherever they could. Jesus said, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in their midst” (Matthew 18:20). Apart from holding secret meetings in forests, catacombs, etc., initially the only meeting places that Christians had were their homes. The Apostle Paul refers on several occasions in his epistles to “the church that is in your house” (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19).

The original meaning of the word “ekklesia,” translated as “church” from Greek, the language of the New Testament, literally means “the called-out assembly” or the body of believers. God’s living church is composed of Christian believers in God who follow Jesus, the body of Christ, not a building or any particular denomination. The church is the assembly of true believers, not a lifeless building made of concrete and steel.

Sad to say, Christianity at times has become centered in the buildings, and as a result, people began to lose the vision of reaching the world with the love of Jesus. As they began to concentrate on acquiring properties and buildings, they lost sight of the church’s calling to lead the millions of lost souls who have never heard the gospel to Christ. If the church had spent that money to evangelize the world by supporting missionaries, printing gospel literature, and bringing God’s love and truth to the lost, many more people would have heard the message and the poor, oppressed, and undernourished peoples of the world would have received assistance. Our worship of God should cause us to move outside the church to reach the lost and the suffering in our world.

When Jesus was asked where people should go to worship, He answered, “Believe Me, the time is coming, and now is, when you will worship the Father neither (at the temple) on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. For the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks such people to worship Him” (John 4:21, 23).

Stephen, the first martyr of the early church proclaimed at his death, “The Most High God does not dwell in temples made by human hands!” (Acts 7:48). The true temple that God dwells in is the human heart—your heart, and the hearts of all those who know and love Him (1 Corinthians 3:16–17). The Scripture is clear that God seeks to live in people’s hearts.

Church buildings are certainly helpful so that Christians can have a place to regularly fellowship, where they can meet together for spiritual feeding, inspiration, and united prayer, because often individual houses are simply not large enough to accommodate everyone. A church building can be used more fully for God’s glory if it is put into use as a place where its members can gather more frequently than just the weekly meetings to study and learn the Word of God, and learn how to live a Christian life and be witnesses to others.

When Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person” (Mark 16:15), He meant for each of His followers to do whatever they could to help spread His message. Even though they may have jobs or other responsibilities, they can still share the good news with their own families and friends, colleagues and coworkers, and people they meet throughout their day.

Most Christians understand the importance of attending church regularly, and supporting missions and the church, but it is important to also understand that every Christian is called to carry their faith outside the building to help others in need. We also should support the missionaries who are sacrificially devoting their lives to preaching the gospel to the lost and caring for the poor and the needy.

Are you letting Jesus shine through you no matter where you are so that you can be a witness of His love for others? We are each called to be a part of His living church that is reaching the world with His love and is like a city set on a hill shining forth His light to the world (Matthew 5:14). “You also, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, … offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God” (1 Peter 2:5).

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

He’s Alive!

Peter Amsterdam

2011-04-22

It had been about three years since they had answered the call to follow Him. Each one had their own story of how it happened. Nathanael was told he was an Israelite in whom there was no deceit.^[1] Peter and his brother Andrew heard the words, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”^[2] while casting their net into the sea. Matthew was sitting at the tax collector’s booth.^[3] The years that followed had been the most exciting and intense years of their lives.

The things they witnessed were incredible—miraculous healings of the sick, deliverance from demonic forces,^[4] the feeding of five thousand people with a mere handful of loaves and fishes,^[5] followed by another mass feeding.^[6] There was the day when a funeral procession was coming down the street and He was so moved by the mother’s grief at the loss of her son that He stopped the procession, touched the coffin, and the young man sat up alive.^[7] And that wasn’t the only time that someone dead came back to life! There was the girl who was dead when He entered the room and alive when He left it.^[8] Then there was Lazarus, who was dead for four days and was called out of his tomb alive.^[9]

There were the times when He told such insightful stories—stories that held deep truth and revealed meaning to those who were open enough to understand them.^[10] Sometimes He taught multitudes of people who gathered around Him to hear what He had to say, and at one point the people were on the verge of taking Him by force to make Him king.^[11] At other times He took His closest followers away to a quiet place where they could rest and where He could give them personal teaching.^[12]

These were heady^[13] days indeed.

Of course not every day was full of such positive excitement. On some days, there was opposition. There were those who disagreed with Him and what He taught, who would challenge Him, trying to show that His teaching was wrong; but His answers were filled with such wisdom and power, and most of all, love.^[14] Those who were challenging Him may not have seen it as love, but those who believed in Him saw such deep love for people in the answers He gave, and most of all, in His actions. Everything about Him was rooted in love and compassion for others. He was the most incredible person they had ever known. They deeply loved Him.

As time went on, His opposition grew stronger and more determined to put a stop to Him. But then right in the middle of all that, there was the day when the people met Him outside of the walls of the city waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”^[15] His religious opponents were afraid to touch Him because of His popularity, and were also concerned that His activities would cause the civil authorities to step in, which could have resulted in their losing their positions of prominence.^[16]

These three years were extraordinary—full of wonder and hope, excitement and learning. His followers expected it to continue for many more years. They even disputed who among them would be the most prominent when He came into a position of power.^[17]

Then it happened. He was arrested, and within 24 hours He was executed as a criminal. Their hopes and dreams for the future were crushed. The one they loved so deeply was gone. The life they had lived these past years was over. The future He spoke of hadn’t worked out as they expected. He was dead.

They were sad and confused. They were afraid and hid behind locked doors. They were shocked at the abrupt end of what they had become used to, the work they had participated in, the love they had come to know so well. Everything changed almost instantaneously. The future was bleak.

Three days later, early in the morning, some women who were His followers visited the tomb, but His body wasn’t there. When they told the other disciples, nobody believed them.^[18] Peter and John ran to the tomb and saw that it was true, He wasn’t there. They didn’t understand it, but they knew His body was gone.^[19]

Suddenly He appeared in the midst of them, in the locked room where they were hiding. The man they had loved and followed, who had been brutally tortured and killed, was standing before them.^[20]

He was alive!

He had risen from the dead and was back with them. His presence changed everything. Though He had been executed as a criminal, the fact that He was standing there alive was the validation that all He had said and done was of God. The things He had told them about Himself were true: He was the resurrection and the life;^[21] He would raise this temple in three days;^[22] He would be killed and would rise again.^[23] The truth of those words was now evident because He was there, alive. Their faith wasn’t misguided. He wasn’t another failed messiah. He was what they had believed Him to be.^[24] Faith and hope were renewed. His presence brought new understanding of all that had happened. It totally changed the context of the preceding days. It hadn’t been a defeat after all—it was victory.

Shortly after that, He ascended into heaven. He was no longer with them physically, but the Holy Spirit was sent to dwell within them—a constant presence guiding them in truth and love and in sharing the faith they had gained.^[25] He had taught them a great deal during the time they were physically together, and then He commissioned them to go everywhere teaching others about Him, telling them of His love, His life, death, and resurrection, and the salvation which was available to all.^[26]

The wonderful days of living and working together with Him had come to an end, and the days of branching out and reaching others had begun. While it took time and adjustment, they did what He had instructed; they went to different cities and countries, meeting new people, making new friends, leading others to Him. They built communities, they taught others what He had taught them, they engaged in the mission day by day, year after year, heart by heart. They faced difficulties, trials, and tribulations, but they carried on even unto death—and in doing so, profoundly affected the world of their day and every age since.

His resurrection changed everything! His being alive empowered them to move beyond what they were used to, to let go of how things had been, and to enter into a new way of life—spreading His love and salvation to others, which effectively resulted in the faith being passed on to all succeeding generations since then.

The key to it all is the fact that He rose from the dead. That made all the difference. Although things had changed, and He was no longer present with them in the flesh, He was more present than ever with them through the Holy Spirit. He was still able to do miracles; to bring those who were dead back to life; to give incredible answers to those in need; to show love, compassion, and mercy; to bring the good news of salvation. Only now, instead of Him doing it in person, He did it through them. How? Because He was alive. He continued to dwell in them and work through them. And He’s been just as alive in those who have loved and followed Him ever since.

Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. It’s the celebration of the fact that He’s alive. He defeated death and hell and Satan. He redeemed us from our sins. He lived and loved and died for us as individuals, and He’s with us today just as much as He was with those He walked the earth with two millennia ago.

He’s alive! There was a short time when His disciples didn’t realize it, as they only saw the circumstances they were in.—He had been crucified, He was gone and no longer with them. But that was short-lived. The confusion, fear, and uncertainty passed once they realized that He lived, and that His love, His truth, His compassion, His words and actions, were still there with them, even if their physical circumstances were different. He was alive and was working through them to change the world, to spread His truth and love, His redemption and salvation.

He’s just as alive today, working through you to do the same. No matter what circumstances you are in, no matter what changes have occurred, no matter how difficult things may be, He’s alive in you. His power, anointing, and Spirit are there with you. The power to fulfill the commission He gave to His first disciples, and to all who have answered His call since then, is still active.

Wherever we are, He is with us. In whatever circumstance, in whatever situation, whether we are in a far-flung country or in our hometown, He is with us, working through us as much as we allow Him. He’s alive. Others need to know this; they need to experience it. His being alive in you, and showing His life through your life, is one of the key ways for them to see it and understand it.

Share Him with others. Let them see His Spirit in you. Let them hear His words through the words you speak to them. Let them feel Him through your loving actions, through your compassion and empathy. Show them He’s alive even in today’s confused world by bringing Him to them—by arranging an introduction, by connecting them to Him, so that they too can know that He’s alive.

^[1] Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” John 1:47–49 ESV.

^[2] Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Mark 1:16–18 ESV.

^[3] As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he rose and followed Him. Matthew 9:9 ESV.

^[4] And He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So His fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought Him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and He healed them. Matthew 4:23–24 ESV.

^[5] When He went ashore He saw a great crowd, and He had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to Him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Then He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Matthew 14:14–21 ESV.

^[6] Then Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” And the disciples said to Him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?” And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, He took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks He broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. Matthew 15:32–38 ESV.

^[7] Soon afterward He went to a town called Nain, and His disciples and a great crowd went with Him. As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited His people!” Luke 7:11–16 ESV.

^[8] While He was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And He allowed no one to follow Him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when He had entered, He said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at Him. But He put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with Him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand He said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. Mark 5:35–42 ESV.

^[9] Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that You sent Me.” When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” John 11:38–44 ESV.

^[10] Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” And He answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Matthew 13:10–13 ESV.

^[11] Perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by Himself. John 6:15 ESV.

^[12] Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. John 6:3 ESV.

^[13] Having a strong or exhilarating effect (New Oxford American Dictionary).

^[14] So they watched Him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch Him in something He said, so as to deliver Him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. Luke 20:20 ESV.

^[15] The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and He sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:6–9 ESV.

^[16] So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” John 11:47–48 ESV.

^[17] And they came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. Mark 9:33–34 ESV.

^[18] The women who had come with Him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered His words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. Luke 23:55–56, 24:1–11 ESV.

^[19] So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead. John 20:3–9 ESV.

^[20] On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. John 20:19–20 ESV.

^[21] Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” John 11:25–27 ESV.

^[22] Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking about the temple of His body. John 2:19–21 ESV.

^[23] And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. Mark 8:31 ESV.

^[24] He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 16:15–17 ESV.

^[25] When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:1–4 ESV.

^[26] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19–20 ESV.

Copyright © 2011 The Family International.

12: The Last Trump

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 11

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

Revelation chapter 11, the last trump. We’ve had a glimpse in the first part of this chapter of the two witnesses who were witnessing and preaching the love of God and also the judgments of God all the way through the Tribulation period of three and a half years, all 42 months or 1260 days unto the very end, three and a half days before Jesus comes and they are killed. (See Revelation 11:1–12.) The Lord allows them to be killed, since their ministry is over, and they are thereby released to go up and be with the Lord when He comes. He gives us the whole picture of how they are resurrected to be with Jesus in the very end.

In the rest of the chapter, He goes back, backspacing just a bit to show you how it happened. At that moment when they suddenly came to life and jumped to their feet, that was the moment that the seventh trump was sounding. “The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly” (Revelation 11:14). And then comes the seventh trump of God. This trumpet is the last trump, and under this trumpet come a whole series of events.

It sounds like Jesus has come immediately and it’s all over, but no, this trumpet is another herald of God. He’s another trumpeter of the truth, the last Tribulation trumpet to usher in this very last period of the Tribulation period when Jesus comes.

There is no past, no present, no future to the Lord. So therefore, under this last trump He pictures all of the events which occur at the very end, from this very moment, and in the next chapter He goes in a flashback all the way back to the birth of Jesus and the church and right up to the end in her persecution. And then in the thirteenth chapter He goes back and He tells you about the Antichrist and what it’s going to going to be like under the Antichrist in the three and a half years of Tribulation. This last trump simply ushered in this final period of the Tribulation which ends with the coming of Jesus.

“And the seventh angel sounded”—the last trump—“and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). When that last trump sounds, the endtime events begin to transpire, ending with the glorious coming of Jesus and His reign here on earth for ever and ever!

So we have this endtime trumpet blowing and here follow these tremendous events of this final period of the seven Tribulation trumpets.

“And the four and twenty elders”—these are the great leaders of God’s children and His church of all time, from the beginning of time until the end. These are probably the twelve greatest patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament period, and then the twelve greatest apostles and prophets of the New Testament period.

“And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God.” They said, “We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned” (Revelation 11:16–17).

In other words, it’s time for God to take over. It’s time for Jesus to come. In the mind of God and in their minds, it was already done as far as they were concerned. For He says, “The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged.” The Resurrection was about to occur, which we already had a little preview of with those two witnesses.

“And that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:18). The time is coming when the dead will be judged, and God’s servants and prophets and saints, all the saved, all of God’s children everywhere, the great family of Jesus, are going to get their reward.

I hope you were faithful so He can say to you, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21). For some of the people who are going to be raised are going to be raised to everlasting shame and contempt because they failed God (Daniel 12:2).

So the end is come, the time of judgments and the time of rewards. “Them that fear Thy name, small and great,” are going to be receiving their crowns, their reward, their prizes, all those wonderful things.

“And shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth.” He says He’s going to destroy those who are destroying the earth, those who pollute it and who bomb it and who contaminate it and who destroy its people. He abhors those who pollute His earth and who destroy it. So before they have a chance to do that, or do a complete job of it, He’s going to come back before they can destroy the rest of it, thank God. He’s going to destroy them.

“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the Ark of His testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail” (Revelation 11:19). Here come some of those cataclysmic, climactic events of these very last days of the end of time, the end of the Tribulation, judgments of God on the sins of man and all his destruction. John the apostle, the prophet of God, is being shown all these events which were not to happen until over 2000 years later.

“The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the Ark of His testament.” That’s a very remarkable statement, because the Ark, even in John’s day, had long ago disappeared! But the people had not discovered this until Jesus died on the cross.

The moment the veil of His flesh was rent in twain by that spear and He was killed on the cross, the veil of the temple itself was rent in twain.—A huge veil, four inches thick, one of the thickest pieces of carpeting or woven ware the world has ever known. This thick, heavy veil that separated the holy place of the temple from the holy of holies, the sanctum from the sanctum sanctorum, was completely torn apart. (See Matthew 27:50–51; Mark 15:37–38; Luke 23:45–46.)

In the holy of holies had stood the Ark of the Covenant of God, that wooden box covered with gold over which two golden angels hovered, and between whose wings the Shekinah Glory of the presence of God shone like a brilliant light. This was a room into which only the high priest was allowed to go once a year to make atonement for the sins of the people. They had a rope tied to his foot so that if God struck him dead because He didn’t like the way the people were behaving, because the people were sinning too much and were not repentant, God could strike the high priest dead and they could drag him out with that rope, because no man was allowed to go therein but the high priest.

When the veil of the temple was rent in twain when Jesus died, what do you suppose the great congregation of Passover worshippers discovered at that moment, that awesome moment at the height of the Passover celebration, when the greatest Passover Lamb who ever lived, Jesus Christ, was being slain on the cross for their sins? What do you suppose the congregation discovered had happened to the Ark of the Covenant, which was supposed to be standing behind that four-inch thick curtain behind which only the high priest could go?

They discovered to their amazement, their astonishment, their horror, that the Ark was gone, symbolizing the presence of God! God was gone from their midst! He was gone from their temple. He had deserted them and their holy of holies and their Messiah-less religion. He had taken the Ark up to heaven with Him and placed it in His temple there.

Why do you suppose God rent the temple veil in twain? The high priest hadn’t told them the Ark was gone. He wasn’t going to tell them, of course, because that was the center of their religion, the Ark of the Covenant behind the veil in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Their whole religion would have collapsed had they discovered that the Ark was gone. God rent the veil in twain so they could see the Ark was gone. He had removed the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolized His presence in the Shekinah Glory of God which shone there between the angels when God was there.

Christians today are the modern Israel of this day of grace since Jesus came. Anyone can become a part of true Israel, the Israel of God, and a prince with God and with man, just by receiving God’s Son Jesus Christ, just by believing on the Messiah, the King of the Jews. He’s King of all of those children of God who believe on Him and receive Him as their Savior—the true spiritual Israel. As St. Paul says, today a Jew is one inwardly, in his heart, the crucifixion and the circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:28–29).

Copyright © 1981 The Family International.

Names of the Antichrist

David Brandt Berg

1985-06-18

In the first mention of the Antichrist in the book of Daniel he’s called a little horn (Daniel 7:8, 8:9). In fact, in a couple of verses in Daniel he’s called that. In Daniel 11, he’s called the king of the north. In 2 Thessalonians 2, he is called man of sin, son of perdition, the wicked one (2 Thessalonians 2:3,8). It also says “him whose coming is after the working of Satan,” but he’s not called Satan (2 Thessalonians 2:9). In 1 John 2:18 for the first time in the Bible he is called “that antichrist:” “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”

Several times in the Bible the days of the early church were called the “last days” or the “last times” (Hebrews 1:2; 1 Peter 1:20; 1 John 2:18; Jude 18). It’s been 2,000 years since then. How could they be the last days? The last days started during Jesus’ ministry. He said, “The kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). He started preaching that the kingdom of God is near. That is, in the hearts of men; it hadn’t taken over the world and government yet.

So the last days extend from Jesus’ ministry to the end of man’s world. You could even say from His birth, because Paul says that “in these last days” God has sent us His Son (Hebrews 1:2). Of course, that wasn’t apparent until He began to minister, so it really extends from His first coming to His second coming. There is also a short period after the Rapture that winds things up, the Wrath of God and Battle of Armageddon, which is included in the last days. But broadly speaking, “the last days” refer to the period from His first to His second coming and a few days thereafter.

Second Chance for Christians

“You’ve heard that antichrist shall come; even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time.” Why did he say that? There were a lot of people against Christ.

Why did the scribes and the Pharisees hate Jesus? They knew Him personally and they saw Him and they should have received Him and loved Him. But they were anti-Christs; they were against Christ.

There is the scripture that says, “He that is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30). He was talking there about people who had heard about Him, about the people right then in His day that they were discussing. But in another case He said, “He that is not against Me is for Me” (Mark 9:40).

There are many people who are neither for nor against Christ because they never heard of Him—they don’t know anything about Him—maybe millions in this world. They’ve never been shown Jesus by you or me or anybody. They’ve never been shown the love of God. They’ve never been told the gospel or how to get saved. They don’t know anything about receiving Jesus.

They may have heard of Jesus, that He’s some kind of a Christian god, a man that lived way back yonder, some kind of historical character, but they haven’t really heard about who Jesus is and what He can do and what He’s like, so that they would want to have Jesus. There are a billion people in China who have maybe only heard the name of Jesus. But thank God, He’s going to give Christians a second chance to get out there and do what they failed to do before in reaching people with the gospel, either in the Millennium or on the new earth.

Copyright © June 1985 by The Family International

And Then the End Will Come

David Brandt Berg

2021-04-12

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.”—Matthew 24:14

In Matthew 24, Jesus said that when this gospel of the kingdom shall have been preached in every nation, then shall the end come. At that point, He doesn’t say in that scripture that it will be preached in every tongue, to every tribe, which He does later in Revelation 14 when the angel preaches to everybody just before Jesus comes: “Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.”¹ At that point, everybody will hear it!

Once we have preached the gospel to this world, to all nations, as Jesus Himself said in Matthew 24:14, “then shall the end come.” He gave many other signs, but in verse six He said, “but the end is not yet.” There will be wars, rumours of wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, and all kinds of things, but He said, “Don’t worry, the end is not yet.”

The first sign He gave that the end was near was when “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.” If there was ever a day in which it looks to me like every nation has heard the gospel, it’s today! Maybe not every tongue and tribe yet—that will come at the very end.

Now remember, “the end” is not a particular point, a certain hour or second of a certain day of a month of a certain year. In fact, what is spoken of by the prophets as the endtime or the “last days” covers the span of years between the two comings of Christ. The endtime began with the first coming of Christ. In Hebrews 1:2, Paul said that they were already living “in these last days,” which will end with His Second Coming. So the end is already here and the world has been in it for 2,000 years. Some people get all excited when I say “the Crash is here,” but my Lord, the Crash has been here ever since the first Depression!

The end is here, and it has lasted 2,000 years already, and it’s going to last some more, but it gets closer all the time. The end will progress day by day as it has and continues to do, and as you read in the news. With every day that passes, we are a day closer to the end—one more hour, day, month, year closer to the end.

The end is coming, and we can see that it’s getting closer, as the gospel is being preached to every nation like never before. We’ve done our particular job to reach our generation. And now there’s not a nation on earth that hasn’t heard the gospel through us or somebody else. God is trying to give everybody a chance to know Him.

Even if people haven’t heard specifically about God, they can just look at His creation and know that there is a God. Scientists are daily discovering marvelous things about His creation, more all the time—the marvels of His design and plan, His amazing balance of nature, and everything about the creation that couldn’t possibly have happened by accident. As Paul said, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”²

Logically and reasonably just by the world and all that He has created, it is clear that there’s a God! “Only the fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”³

This gospel of the kingdom is being preached in all the world, and in those last terrible days of the Great Tribulation, God’s even going to send the angels of God to preach it! And in the very last days just before the Lord comes, at the end of the days of the Great Tribulation when the gospel has been preached in every possible way, then the Lord will come to rapture His saints. Praise the Lord!

When they see us rising to meet Jesus in the air, in this glorious, thunderous, earthshaking, heaven-quaking event that raises the dead from the graves and the living from the ground, the whole world will know that Jesus has come to rescue and save us, just as He foretold in the Bible.

Jesus will come back with all the saints who have already gone to be with the Lord through death. They come back with Him to pick up their dead bodies, which will then be new resurrected bodies like the one He rose in; they are going to be beautiful, arrayed in white garments like a bride.⁴

It’s going to be the apocalypse for sure—the revelation of Jesus Christ Himself coming in the clouds of heaven, in great power and glory, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. Christ Himself will shout and call us from every part of the earth, and we’ll be gathered together to be with Him! “And so,” He tells us, “shall we ever be with the Lord.”⁵

We will jump for joy for Jesus and go sailing right off into the air, clear on up into the clouds to be with the Lord! It’s going to be so wonderful you’re going to forget about all the hardships and suffering that happened before.

Oft times the day seems long, our trials hard to bear,
We’re tempted to complain, to murmur and despair;
But Christ will soon appear to catch His bride away,
All tears forever over in God’s eternal day.

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.⁶

Originally published May 1980. Adapted and republished April 2021.
Read by Jon Marc.

¹ Revelation 14:6.

² Romans 1:20.

³ Psalm 14:1.

⁴ Revelation 19:8.

⁵ 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

⁶ “When We See Christ” by Esther Kerr Rusthoi.

Where Poppies Grow

David Brandt Berg

1975-12-01

Those poor boys! So many buried in Flanders fields, near Picardy in France. (There is a vast soldiers’ graveyard there of little white crosses and flowers stretching as far as the eye can see, thousands upon thousands.)

In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
—John McCrae, 1915

My mother wrote a little song about them. She must have been moved by that, too. It used to make me cry when I was little boy. They say when you first see those fields it’s such an awesome sight!

Oh, where are the boys from over there,
I wonder where they are?
We saw them when they marched away,
Off to the great World War.

(Male chorus answers:)
We’re the boys who fought in Flanders—
To you we’re still as true!
So let our comrades hear you say,
“We still remember you.”

What terrible, terrible things wars are! How terrible! How awful! Cruel steel against soft flesh! How horrible! How can flesh ever win over steel? How can anybody win? It’s just awful. They’re all losers in a war: They lose their boys, they lose their lives, they lose their governments, countries and colonies and economies. They all lose everything. They all lose.

They say they won their freedom at least, but what freedom? Freedom to fight another war? That’s what happened. Freedom to fight another war, to lose more lives, kill more boys, lose more countries, and lose more colonies and bankrupt their economies.

Nobody ever wins a war. Everybody loses: all the dead and broken bodies, suffering and sadness and sorrow and pain and hunger and grief and mourning. Nobody ever wins. Everybody always loses.

War is hell! And the poor boys go through hell—a hell of a war that they didn’t even want and had nothing to do with making, yet their leaders make them fight it like slaves, and they have to be the sufferers and losers. God damn the politicians and bureaucrats and munitions makers and the warmongers and the people who want the wars but never have to fight them, people who want the wars to save themselves and their businesses and their jobs and their political parties, but never have to fight them themselves!

Just think—parents willing to send their own sons to be cannon fodder for them, to save their own necks! How horrible! Only the mothers seem to really grieve for them and know what flesh they are. Even the fathers urge them on to go out and fight for gory glory. What horrible bloody victory! It’s no victory at all when they all die like that.

God bless the peacemakers. “For they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). We’re peacemakers who try to bring peace to men’s hearts and minds and souls and bodies and countries, but we’ll never have total peace till the war makers are gone, the evil hearts that make war. War is in their hearts. They thirst for blood, they lust for destruction! “Them that destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:18).

Help us to bring peace. At least we can bring peace to their hearts. Like that other old song of World War II:

There’ll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover,
Tomorrow when the world is free;
There’ll be love and laughter and peace ever after—
Tomorrow when the world is free.
—”The White Cliffs of Dover” by Nat Burton, 1941

We’ll be free from war with real peace brought by the Lord and His kingdom forever, the kingdom of love where we all make love, not war.—In the land of flowers and sunshine and love and peace forever.

There’ll be no more crosses, no more wars. There’ll be love and laughter and peace ever after, tomorrow—in God’s tomorrow—when the world is free of wars. There’s no more death, pain nor suffering, crying nor sorrow, but all is light and life and love and peace forever. Thank You, Jesus.

War is the Devil’s own weapon to slaughter and destroy man and maim and kill and cause agony and suffering. But God’s love is just the opposite. Love and salvation are God’s weapons to create life and save life and help people to live to love and have peace and no more war. No more dead and dying and suffering, noise and confusion!

He says that “nothing shall hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain” (Isaiah 11:9). Nothing shall hurt nor destroy in all God’s holy kingdom. We’ll only create and live and love and laugh and have peace ever after. Tomorrow. When the world is free of war forever—through Jesus, God’s love.

Those flowers, the poppies among the crosses, symbolize the life that is to come—the resurrection. Like the old hymn:

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s glow its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow thru’ the rain
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to hide from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
—George Matheson, 1882

From the blood of the martyrs and the blood of the witnesses there springs new life and new lives to live for God.

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church—God’s martyrs slain by the Enemy, slaughtered by the wars, staining the soil red with blood, the soil that received them when others rejected them, which will grow again and spring up to life anew like the flowers that grow on the graves of the departed.

There’ll be no more crosses then, just flowers; no more graves, just the growing; no more dead, only the living; no more dying, only the loving. Tomorrow! When the world is free of war, and the poppies grow and live forever.

Copyright © December 1975 by The Family International

Psychological Seduction (part 7)

–The Failure of Modern Psychology

William Kirk Kilpatrick

2005-04-29

Four Differences

1. A good deal of psychological thinking about children comes under the heading of naturalism–the conviction that the spontaneous, unsolicited way is always the right way. In this view nature knows best, and innocent children who are supposed to live closer to the state of nature are gifted with that natural wisdom. The way to a healthier, more uninhibited life, then, is to become more childlike. Along with this view goes a lot of talk about how children are like seedlings or buds who will naturally bloom into flowers if adults don’t thwart their growth. The implication is that adults, too, have a child within that has probably not been allowed to unfold, and with which the wise adult will want to get back in touch.

The Christian position, by contrast, says that these little flowers of the field need cultivation. It isn’t enough just to let them grow. A good gardener will not stand by and watch weeds and insects take over the garden, and a good parent will not let a child tend his own nursery. The difference between the two viewpoints is considerable. The first places a faith in human nature that most people are unwilling to put in nature herself; the second assumes that children like everyone else are fallen: some of their instincts are healthy and need to be cultivated, others are not and need to be discouraged. If there is a lesson to learn from children, naturalism is not it.

2. Another supposition in psychological thinking is that the child is happier because he is freer. Freer, that is, to express himself–not to pretend to like squash, as an adult dinner guest might feel constrained to do; freer from convention–to be able to turn his interest to his toy truck once adult conversation grows boring; freer from worry and responsibility–no bills to pay, no dinners to prepare. And the message for adults? Quite obviously, free yourself.

Except–and here is where the Christian view comes in–when adults act on this message and free themselves, it is children who will always pay the price. A moment’s reflection tells us this is so. It makes a tremendous difference to a boy’s or girl’s happiness when his or her parents begin to flirt with freedom. It is at that precise point where the father or mother declares his or her freedom from the family that the freedoms of the child are reduced to nearly nothing. I mean freedom from insecurity, from doubt, from fear. The truth is that a child’s happiness is much less likely to be linked to his freedom, which after all is quite limited, than to his sense that he belongs to a secure and ordered system. He is free to play at knights or cowboys because the gates of his castle or fort are kept by sturdy guardians. He is free to let his fantasies roam because he has a pair of mighty genie to conjure up meals three times a day. No matter how much he may complain about the privileges of his older brother, or wonder aloud why he can’t stay up like his parents, nine-tenths of his felicity comes from having a snug place in a roofed and four-walled hierarchy. And this brings us along to another curious omission in the psychologist’s account of things.

3. There can exist side by side in a certain kind of person a desire for childhood innocence along with a complete disdain for authority. Any number of self-help writers will encourage you to become more childlike and trusting, and yet at the same time insist that you brook no interference in your life from any source. You are to be wide-eyed and guileless, and at the same time as independent as any sea captain. Nearly every reader will have read this kind of advice or met the kind of person who believes it. And very patiently we must remind them that they have conveniently forgotten a large fact: little children do not get on very well in the world without mothers and fathers. To suppose that you can have the special freedom of the adult and the special happiness of the child is a confusion of two different worlds. The point is this: much of the sentimental talk about returning to childhood that we hear from popular psychologists and others is based on incompatible expectations. It may sound Christian, but it is nothing like Christianity–nothing like common sense for that matter. They want to be like little children, but they don’t want a father. They may as well go to a restaurant and order soup without the bowl.

All of which is to say that they have latched on to some fetching ideas but have not bothered to think them through. Christianity, on the other hand, holds you to certain realistic requirements. There is in the long run, it says, only one way to regain the trustfulness and bliss of children and that is to have a Father in Heaven. The most consistent image of God in the New Testament is the image of Him as a Father; the most consistent image of us is as His children. This can only mean that God wants of us the same obedience that we ask of our children, but it also means that just as our children are dependent on us for all their needs, we can depend on God our Father for all of ours. And just as we want our children to trust us, we should trust God. This is not easy. Like the child who does not understand why his father has to put a stinging antiseptic on his scraped knee, we may not understand everything our Heavenly Father does for our good. Like any good father He will go ahead and give us the first aid we need despite our whining and protests, but how much better for us to display that trust in Him that we are so pleased to see in our own children.

Some people will find it hard to understand how dependence and obedience go together with joy. They have probably been misled by too many stories of the “bad boy” type so common in American fiction–that is, the bad boy who seems to have so much fun. They should take a closer look at real life bad boys. More often than not they will find, an inch below that ruddy, grinning surface, a driven compulsion to escalate every matter out of all proportion until it finds arms and hearts strong enough to contain it. The child who has the true spirit of obedience has, by contrast, a lightheartedness that his reckless companion can seldom attain. The one has the fun of disobeying, the other has what literary critic Roger Sale calls “the deeper delight of obeying.”

4. There is nothing more telling in the difference between the Christian and psychological views about returning to childhood than the respective paths we are advised to follow. With psychology it is the path of bigness; with Christianity, the path of smallness. Much psychological advice centers around ways to increase your self-esteem, enhance your self-worth, and so on. “You are the most important person in the world”–that sort of thing. Christ, on the other hand, told us to become like little children.

The right angle of course is humility. It puts you in a position to see how wondrous things are.

We should indeed become like little children, but we should be clear what we mean by this. The happiness of children (and their particular virtue) comes not from their freedom, or from their self-awareness, or from their self-esteem (these are all adult and adolescent preoccupations) but from their sense of marvel and from the security that a properly ordered adult society provides.

THE LARGER VISION

The Misplaced Measure

Our present culture has been called “the psychological society.” To us psychology seems like a big thing, but that is because we have misplaced the measuring stick. A husky boy seems large to his companions until he puts on his father’s coat. Then he may appear merely ridiculous. If the psychological explanations of life and death, joy and pain seem impressive to us, it is because we have forgotten or never known how much larger the Christian explanation is. We speak glibly nowadays about the importance of the person, but only Christianity, it seems, is willing to draw him large as life, warts and all. Christianity is larger in the sense that a biography is larger than an application form, or as a novel catches the full character of a man where a case study cannot. It is as full of the richness and detail of life as psychology is not.

It is larger also because it has a larger vision. We think of people as large-spirited in two senses. First, because they are full of charity, and second, because they have a large vision of life. This doesn’t mean they have a rosy view, only one that takes more things into account.

In the case of Christianity most people will concede that the charity is there, but how about the vision? The average man who is not a Christian thinks of the faith as a gray, grim, affair. Popular psychology, by contrast, will often appear to him as a psychic liberator–an intoxicating, vine-clad Bacchus. This, I believe, is a mistake, the kind made by people who really know very little about psychology, and even less about Christianity. If you are looking for new worlds to explore, you had best look beyond psychology. It has the illusion of depth, but then so do facing mirrors, and I am afraid psychology is very much like one of those hall of mirrors you find in an amusement park. You get to see different facets and reflections of yourself, but that is all you see. A hall of mirrors is in reality only a room, and sooner or later you will want to find your way out. You will want to find a door.

At this point, of course, I am bound to remind you that Christ talked in exactly those terms: “I am the door; if anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” That is decidedly not a message you will find in psychology. You don’t have to believe it, but whether you do or not, you are hardly justified in calling Christianity the dull sister. If you are looking for new worlds to explore, you will need to find the door into them. Christianity has always claimed to have that door, and all the evidence suggests that it opens on a much wider vision than the rest of the world has imagined.

Like Him

There is a curious problem at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel and also Mark’s. I am sure you’ve come up against it. Our Lord says “Follow Me,” and the apostles simply leave their nets and follow Him. We are tempted to wonder what else He said to them or what reasons He gave. Something seems to have been left out of the narrative.

What is left out, of course, is the immense strength of our Lord’s personality. Ronald Knox gets to the heart of the matter in asking, “What was the magic of voice or look that drew them away, in those early days when no miracles had yet been done, when the campaign of preaching had not yet been opened?… The tremendous impact which His force of character made on people–do you remember how, according to Saint John, His captors in the garden went back and fell to the ground when He said, `I am Jesus of Nazareth’?” (John 18:6.)

The force of that personality is undiminished. Ages afterward, countless men and women still leave everything behind to follow Him. There is nothing in the annals of history to match that particular personality. Next to it, the psychological models of health and wholeness are dust and nonsense.

“True personality lies ahead,” as Lewis observed, but this is the direction in which it lies. “It does not yet appear what we shall be,” wrote Saint John, “but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him.” (1 John 3:2.)

Like Him. That is the kind of self that lies in store for us. Whatever self we have now is but the palest foreshadowing of true self. Our souls receive personality from God. They are designed to be filled by Him. The danger for us all comes when we crowd them full of our own petty ambitions and our shortsighted ideas of fulfillment and leave no room for the work that must be done in us.

We shall be most ourselves when we become the self God intends us to be. And that, truly, will be a self to marvel at!

“THE WISDOM OF MAN (PSYCHOLOGY)

–IS FOOLISHNESS TO GOD!”–1 Cor.3:19.

–“And He sheweth the diviners (psychologists) to be crazy!”–Isa.44:25.

Psychological Seduction (part 6)

–The Failure of Modern Psychology

William Kirk Kilpatrick

2005-04-29

THE SACRED AND THE SECULAR

When I was in college our history teachers told us that the most radical change in all history came with the advent of secularism. I only half understood. Twenty is not a good age for grasping the possibility that the world you grew up in might be deficient in crucial ways.

What they meant, of course, is that the world has lost its sense of the sacred. Every age but our own has recognised that the world is haunted by something uncanny and splendorous, something magical–something that requires sacred times, sacred places, and sacred ceremonies.

The Loss of the Sacred

All this bespeaks a spirit that has been lost or debased today. But to say the present age has lost the sense of the sacred is not to say it has forgotten all about God, because even a thoroughgoing secularist may retain a vague belief. It means, rather, to have forgotten Who God is, His overwhelming nature. The secular mind does not always find it necessary to deny God, but it must always reduce Him to a comfortable size. Above all else He must be a manageable God who does not watch or judge.

For example, a recent popular film depicts God as a cigar-smoking older man whose agenda for the human race contains nothing that would be offensive to a reader of The New York Times.

What is especially shocking about these entertainments is that they are so casually accepted by the public. One would think that God had become a tame animal to be taken out and put on display for our amusement. A dangerous attitude, that. One thinks of the tourists to Yellowstone Park each year who get mauled because they fail to heed the signs instructing them that the bears are not tame.

Psychology and the Sacred

No frame of mind could be better constructed to resist the sacred than the one we are encouraged in today. Think of a youngster surrounded by wealth, waited on by servants, catered to and indulged–a spoiled little master. Put him in a normal home where everyone is expected to pitch in, and he will not only be unable to accept it, he will hardly comprehend it. He has no psychological preparation for it. That child’s situation is like our own. We are psychologically ill-prepared to recognise or accept the demands of the sacred realm. The proper conditions are absent. Assertiveness, self-attention, and the like are not the kind of practice we need for taking our place in the Dance.

 

Habits of Mind

There are psychological habits of mind, in particular, that interfere with our ability to appreciate the sacred. They are subjectivism and reductionism. The two overlap, but let us see if we can tease them apart in order to look at their effects.

Subjectivism

The person who has allowed himself to lapse into a subjectivist frame of mind believes that no idea or object is of any more value than any other idea or object. If you get to arguing with him, you quickly find that he has no idea of higher or lower, better or worse. He is set on the equality of all ideas and will give equal weight to the Word of God and the opinions of rock stars.

Reductionism

Here we come back to the traditional belief that it is the sacred things that give meaning to the rest of life. The effect of suppressing the sacred vision has not been to make life more sunny and rational but to make it more absurd. Psychologists have a habit of reductionism, of saying “this is nothing but this.” Think of behaviorism, which tells us that all behavior, no matter how worthy it may appear, is nothing but a chain of conditioned responses. Or Freudian psychology, which claims that we are nothing but a system of psychic pumps, valves, and drains. Or physiological psychology, which says that behavior is nothing but electrical impulses leaping across synapses.

Notice that in all cases the this we end up with seems considerably less than the this we started off with. Psychological thinking is reductionist in the full sense of the word. It reduces or makes smaller. It is always in the business of ripping the curtain aside so that we may see that the Wizard [of Oz] is only a little man. This approach amounts to saying that there is nothing behind things, or very little.

Our modern approaches to schooling provide an example. It is no secret that public schools are rife with vandalism and violence, that they harbor youngsters who respect neither learning nor their teachers. Part of the reason, I think, is that the schools have lost their status as special places, places set apart. Now schools may not be holy places, but it is proper to place them above profane life. That has always, until recently, been the consensus. Expressions such as “hallowed halls,” “temple of learning” and “groves of academe” are reminders of that attitude. The school, as one educator recently put it, “is not an extension of the street, the movie theater, a rock concert, or a playground.”

I find the quote of special interest, because it comes from a man who fifteen years earlier had helped pioneer the effort to blend school and street, an effort that he now suggests had the result not of elevating students but of reducing the schools to the level of the things around them. Schools, he now says, should be special places with special requirements such as dress codes because “the way one dresses is an indication of an attitude toward a situation. And the way one is expected to dress indicates what that attitude ought to be.” Such symbols, he observes, not only reflect feelings but create them just as “kneeling in church, for example, reflects a sense of reverence but also engenders reverence.”

This author, Neil Postman, has most recently written about the disappearance of childhood. He says, and I think there can be little doubt he is correct, that the distinctions and dividing lines between children and adults have largely vanished. We are used to speaking glibly about social change, but this is a change of the first magnitude. Quite suddenly, children are talking and behaving in ways that would have been considered improper for adults only a short time ago. Adult sexual behavior? Yes, but along with that, adult cynicism and adult crime and adult depression, alcoholism, and suicide.

THE AMERICAN SPIRIT

Much of present-day psychology takes its character from the American spirit. Think of a rather staid and formal European who immigrates to these shores and gradually adopts our more relaxed habits and casual attitudes. Something like that happened with psychology. Once it moved from Europe to America it adopted a spirit of autonomy and equality.

The point is, many of the attitudes you find in psychology are simply American attitudes.

You will find similar sentiments all through American history, which is why it should be no surprise that the American spirit is not always in harmony with the sacred one. Notions of hierarchy and submission will not go down well with people who wrested their freedom from a monarchy. The first Americans were fond of saying “We have no king here!” or “Don’t tread on me!” or “One man’s as good as another.”

That attitude prevails to this day. Equality is still the main plank of our platform. You can see there’s not much room for an idea like subjection to God to slip in.

SECULAR TEMPTATIONS

The classic example of [Christians’] misguided desire for relevance occurred in 1967 in Los Angeles when a large Catholic school system staffed by nuns invited Carl Rogers and his colleagues from the Western Behavioral Science Institute to carry on an experiment in “educational innovation” within their system. What ensued was an intense program of encounter groups lasting more than two years. It started off as one of those well-intentioned efforts we discussed in an earlier chapter, but the effect was not unlike the effect of inviting the devil into the convent at Loudun. At the beginning of the project there were six hundred nuns and fifty-nine schools: a college, eight high schools, and fifty elementary schools. A year following the project’s completion, according to William Coulson, one of the project leaders, “there were two schools and no nuns.” The nuns had cut their ties with the Catholic church and had set themselves up as a secular order. From there, many drifted out of the religious life altogether.

Although the events leading up to the secession were complicated by several factors, including the conservative nature of the Los Angeles archdiocese and a rising tide of feminism within some Catholic orders, there can be little doubt that Rogers’s influence was a decisive, if not the decisive, element. Coulson, who seems to have mixed feelings about the outcome, gives the credit (or blame) to Rogers’s group. “We did some job,” he observed. Having read transcripts of parts of the encounter sessions, my own impression is that Rogers had effected something like a conversion. Many of the nuns confessed they had never felt so spiritually alive. Since I had been more or less converted to the faith of humanistic psychology merely by reading Rogers, I can well imagine the impact that two years of personal contact must have had.

ANSWERS TO SUFFERING

The topic of this chapter is pain. If you are like me, you want to avoid it. But what do you do when it comes anyway? How do you explain the deaths in life that visit us despite our best efforts to sail away from them?

I am certainly not going to argue that we should go looking for pain. I take it for granted that we all want to subtract from the total of pain, not add to it. Neither am I going to argue that psychological approaches do not relieve pain. They sometimes do. The real test of a theory or way of life, however, is not whether it can relieve pain but what it says about the pain it cannot relieve. And this is where, I believe, psychology lets us down and Christianity supports us, for in psychology suffering has no meaning while in Christianity it has great meaning.

Now when you deprive someone of the sense that there is meaning in his suffering, you only compound the pain. Dumb, meaningless suffering is harder to take than suffering that seems to have a purpose. Injuries suffered as a result of carelessness are more galling than injuries suffered in a successful rescue attempt. Just remember how you felt the last time you carelessly smashed your thumb with a hammer, and compare that to how you would feel about a similar injury sustained while breaking down a door to free a child from a burning building. In the first case you will be inclined to curse your luck, and if you’re like me, your mind will crowd with black and bitter thoughts about the absurd stupidity of life. In the second case you will be inclined to shrug off the pain. You will say, “It’s nothing, really,” and things of that sort because you can see your pain as a necessary part of a good deed.

By and large, psychology is forced into the first attitude about pain. No matter how gently it may proceed with your case, there will always be the implication that not only is your pain quite unfortunate but also quite useless; it doesn’t do you or anyone else any good. In addition, you will be encouraged to believe that suffering is a mistake that can be avoided by rational living. “It’s too bad you smashed your thumb,” psychologists say in effect. “That was careless of you, or careless of your parents not to teach you proper hammering. But once you become fully aware and self-actualising, you’ll find that type of thing won’t happen anymore. Let’s see if we can’t organise your life to avoid those mistakes.”

What all this means, of course, is that your past suffering was worthless. The only good it has done, perhaps, has been to get you to the psychologist’s office.

 

Is Suffering Wasted?

Christianity, on the other hand, says that suffering can be redemptive. Not all suffering, but any suffering that is joined to Christ’s. That doesn’t mean the church requires you to make a formal declaration of intent whenever you’re in pain. The least hope or willingness that some good might be brought out of your misery is all God needs. The upshot is an attitude toward pain that is quite different from the psychological one. If you think your pain is senseless–in the same category with the carelessly smashed thumb–Christianity replies, “Don’t be too sure. Don’t be too sure you haven’t been on some kind of rescue mission.”

LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN

We have developed a habit in our society of judging an idea not on its merits but on the sentiments it arouses in us. We will elect a president not because we have thoroughly grasped the issues at stake in an election but because this man strikes us as compassionate or that man strikes us as honest. One of the main reasons for the popularity of psychology lies here. It manages to arouse the proper sentiments in us: it seems to be on the side of the angels.

 

More Counterfeit Christianity

This is particularly true of psychology’s ideas about children. Those ideas appear to strike the right note–the right note for Christians anyway. In much psychological writing and thinking there is an echo of Christ’s admonition to become like little children–not in so many words, of course, but in the suggestion that there is something special and wondrous about children and in the further suggestion that adults have something of great value to learn from them. So there are two points of similarity: children possess certain virtues in an exceptional degree; and ideas about children are, when properly understood, ideas about what adults should be like. These apparent similarities only add to the confusion Christians have about psychology.

I want to argue, however, that there is actually very little similarity in ideas here, only a similarity of sentiment. The shopper next to you in the bookstore may be stocking up on The Magic Years, Peter Pan, and stuffed unicorns, but there is still no reason to suppose that his ideas about children coincide with yours. His heart may be in the right place, but you can’t conclude that his head is. And if the head isn’t in the right place, it is often a good bet that the heart won’t be there for long either. This is one reason why Christianity insists on doctrine: it’s a corrective to wandering sentiment.

When psychology errs, it is usually a matter of having its head in the wrong place, not its heart. Nevertheless, it won’t do to be ruled by sentiment in such an important matter as understanding children and rearing them. The fact that you have a special reverence for children doesn’t mean you will do them any good. If your ideas aren’t sound, you may even do them harm. It’s important to be clear, then, about what psychologists mean when they hold up children for our imitation. It is usually not at all what Christians mean.

The real question at work here is what accounts for the happiness of children. Of course, you first have to grant that children are happier than adults. That seems more doubtful now than it did just a short time ago, and there are always disturbing exceptions to the rule, but I think we can still call it the rule. Just ask yourself whether you would rather have the task of getting a child out of a depressed mood or an adult. The child can easily be distracted with a story or an ice cream. If these things fail, you can always tickle him. With an adult it is not so easy; the mood is generally deeper and darker. At any rate, if we concede the point about the child’s greater happiness, our next step is to examine the differences between the psychological explanation and the Christian one. There are four distinctions to be made. (To be continued)

Psychological Seduction (part 5)

–The Failure of Modern Psychology

William Kirk Kilpatrick

2005-04-29

Objections to the New Approach

1. Traditional morality is at a disadvantage from the outset. The ground rules set down by the value educators insist on a nonjudgmental attitude. If you happen to believe in the distinction between right and wrong, you must leave it at the door. This amounts to saying, “Concede our major premise, and then we will begin the argument.” Although it is all wrapped up in high-sounding talk about impartiality, it is really no different from the man who invites you to come into the boxing ring with one arm tied behind your back.
2. A nonjudgmental approach undermines any character training that may have taken place. The heart is trained, as well as the mind, so that the virtuous person learns not only to distinguish between good and evil but to love the one and hate the other. The idea that all things are open to discussion and all values are welcome in the classroom is a subtle form of conditioning that deprives us of our inbred repugnance to vice or debased values. Evenhanded, dispassionate discussions erode moral sentiments and habituate students to the notion that moral questions are merely intellectual problems rather than human problems that ought to call up strong emotions. The proper response to a house guest who attempts to seduce your wife is to send him packing, not to discuss with him the merits of seduction.
3. The concentration on moral dilemmas puts the cart before the horse. Before students begin to think about the qualifications, exceptions, and fine points that surround difficult cases they will seldom or never face, they need to build the kind of character that will allow them to act well in the very clear-cut situations they face daily. If you are thinking of taking a boat on a pond, a course in sailing will serve you much better than one on celestial navigation. The great danger of the open-ended method of moral education is that students will come away with the impression that morality is not a solid and obvious thing but a series of quandaries subject to innumerable interpretations and qualifications. From here, of course, it is only a short step to finding the appropriate provisos and saving clauses necessary to make one’s own conscience comfortable in all situations.
4. In other crucial matters we do not wait upon our child’s free choice before training him in good habits. Why should we do so, then, in matters of morality, which are, after all, far more important than learning to brush one’s teeth or button one’s coat? We would be shocked to find a parent who left it up to the child to find out for himself that playing in the street is a dangerous thing. May we not be at least as surprised at educators who allow children to devise their own moral content? You will not find this method in any other field of education. A good science teacher, for example, may sometimes use an inquiry method, but his students are not simply left to themselves to discover what Galileo, Newton, and Einstein discovered. There are laws of physics, chemistry, and mathematics that any conscientious teacher will want to teach and not simply leave up to chance.
5. To know the good is not necessarily to do the good. It is naive to suppose that once we have clarified a value or made a proper moral judgment we will then act accordingly. The hard part of morality lies in actually doing the thing we know to be right. It is reasonable to ask why contemporary moral educators have not seen this. The answer is twofold. On the one hand they have a great faith in education, and on the other they have a great trust in human nature. By and large they are bound to the theory that there is no such thing as a bad boy, only an ignorant one. That is why their whole effort is bent toward getting the boy to think for himself–something he presumably has never done before. This is the same attitude that supposes that driver education will prevent accidents, that alcohol education will prevent drunkenness, and that sex education will prevent venereal disease. They do not. And neither does modern moral education prevent immorality. The problem with human beings is not simply a lack of education.

THE DISMAL SCIENCE: 1984 AND BEYOND

The Pressure to Forget

Our transformation into a psychological society has brought with it a new set of values. They are shallow and selfish values for the most part, and they are the ruling values. But that is not the worst side of the situation. The disturbing thing is the very effective suppression of alternatives. It is difficult to remember what the old values are, let alone to pass them on.

Much of this suppression is accomplished by the manipulation and manufacture of words. Think of the phrases that have recently slipped into the language: “communications skills,” “stress management,” “conflict resolution,” “group process,” “interpersonal dynamics,” and so on. The first thing we notice about this talk is that, like [George Orwell’s] Newspeak, it is singularly drab. The second thing we notice is that it’s confusing. It seems to say in effect, “You don’t have the expertise to understand these things; you’d better let us take charge.” I find that this kind of talk always has a hypnotic effect on me. “The proposed program (thrum) is a synthesis (thrum) of values clarification and behavior modification (thrum) and the application of cybernetic models (thrum) for understanding the human as an information processing being (thrum-thrum).” The average person doesn’t know what this means, but the speaker always seems to be quite sure of himself. And so, still in a trance, we tend to nod in agreement: “Yes, yes. If you think that’s what we should be doing, then by all means apply, uhm, er, the cybernetic model.”

Manipulating Reality

The manipulation of words, as Orwell realised, is also the manipulation of reality. If you call a certain deed “murder,” it summons up one reality to the mind. Call it “pro-choice,” and the reality seems different. This is often the effect of the social sciences on language. Meanings get turned on their heads. The man who assaults you is called a “victim.” A woman who leaves her family is called “courageous.”

These are rather flagrant manipulations, but there are more subtle ones. Take the use of a term such as “parenting experience.” It seems harmless enough. But is it? The words mother and father have powerful moral and emotional connotations. They speak to a world of family ties, demands, common goals, and mutual love. Images come to mind of babies in bassinets and family suppers and stringing ornaments on Christmas trees and helping out with homework and steering clear of father at income tax time. What images does “parenting experience” call to mind? What images is it meant to convey?

I suspect none. The words mother and father remind us of what a family ought to be and that without one we are incomplete. But this isn’t a fashionable idea. Autonomous individuals have a higher priority than families in the social science world. And so “parenting experience” is the term of choice. It’s more abstract and conjures up no images of strong emotional ties. It’s an “experience” like any other experience you might want to try out on your road to actualisation. Nothing final about it.

To advance the cause of the autonomous person, the old concepts and loyalties need to be forgotten. The old ideas that blood is thicker than water or that children should be obedient or that families ought to stick together must lose currency. But to accomplish that goal, language must be reworked into forms that are understood only by experts, forms that make you and me feel ignorant and, therefore, all the more susceptible to intervention. Most of us have some idea how to rear children, but how does one “parent” them?

Terms like these may be considered as only interim steps. After “parenting experience” has done its work of softening up the body politic, what comes next? The “adult-offspring experience”? “The reproducer-reproducee relationship”? It is no good saying that the words you use don’t matter. They matter immensely. Try to imagine a world where people are addressed only by their numbers.

Weakening Loyalties

There are some ironies here, the chief one being that though the psychological society talks the language of freedom, it seems intent on doing the same kind of thing that police states do. The worst indecency of the totalitarian mind is that it wants to wipe out all special ties of emotion or allegiance such as might exist between husband and wife or parent and child. These kinds of loyalties threaten the only allegiance considered important, the one owed to Big Brother. It is in this atmosphere, of course, that children willingly denounce their parents to the secret police.

The business of the psychological society also seems to be the business of weakening loyalties. It’s done in the name of personal independence, to be sure, but the result will be the same. The fact is that the breakdown of natural groupings usually heralds less freedom, not more. One thing you notice about totalitarian states is that they have little use for the family or the parish or the local government. They like nothing better than to liberate the individual from his local bonds. So we must be as wary of an excessive individualism as we are of collectivism. The one leads to the other. Look over your shoulder as you back away from those intrusive family members and those parish busybodies and see what you are backing into.

If we are headed toward any more individualism than we already have, we are headed in a mistaken direction. But the mistake is difficult to correct because it is so hard to spot in the first place. What we will be able to see is, as I have suggested, tied to the words and concepts available to us. If your attention is directed over here where the shouting and the slogans are, you might not notice that over there something of importance has quietly disappeared. One man creates a disturbance in this corner, and at the other end of the room his partner walks off with the silver.

Wanderers?

Most people at one time or another have had the conviction (or perhaps only the uneasy sensation) of not feeling quite at home in this world. This happens to you even when you are at home and even when home has all the coziness imaginable. I think everyone knows what I mean. You can come at this experience from two angles: the negative experience we all have of missing out on some important thing that we can’t put our finger on, and the positive experience of feeling that, beyond all reason, something very important waits somewhere for us. The sense of the first is conveyed by Charles Dickens in a letter to a friend: “Why is it,” he wrote at the pinnacle of his career, “that… a sense comes always crushing on me now, when I fall into low spirits, as of one happiness I have missed in life, and one friend and companion I have never made?” And Huxley wrote, “Sooner or later one asks even of Beethoven, even of Shakespeare, `Is that all?'”

C.S. Lewis described the positive aspect of this desire as well as anyone has. He called it “the inconsolable longing.”

You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it–tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest–if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself–you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say, “Here at last is the thing I was made for.”

The joy of which Lewis speaks is not the joy of fulfillment or satisfaction, but rather the joy of unfulfillment: a glimpse of something farther off, “news from a country we have never visited.” Whatever is there is gone as soon as it is found. Yet it bears down upon us the sense that we are living as exiles. For a moment our amnesia is lifted. Wherever home is, we feel we have not yet found it–and strangely we are glad.

The Desire that Won’t Be Satisfied

Built into the very core of human nature is a desire that no natural happiness will satisfy and beside which other desires seem insignificant. We remain under the conviction that this–whatever we have–is not quite it. At the deepest level we find not the inner harmony which some psychologists profess to see, but a radical incompleteness: our whole nature seems anticipatory, preparatory.

There it is. You’ve experienced it. And you don’t have to be a Christian or even a theist to experience it. Augustine had the experience long before his conversion. So did Lewis. Indeed, Lewis fought, kicking and struggling, against the possibility that the source of his longing and the God of traditional religion might be one and the same. Of his “search for God,” Lewis said, “They might as well talk about the mouse’s search for the cat.”

The Unchanging Message

One of the main differences between the Christian message and the psychological one lies precisely here: the Christian message does not change, while the psychological one changes constantly. Psychologists are forever engaged in building new roads, formulating new concepts, and carrying on more research. The explanation for this is partly scientific curiosity and partly the humanitarian concern for improving our lot–good things, of course. But could it also be that this constant jockeying stems from a basic failure–the failure to find a message that really satisfies? Why does psychological insight never seem enough? Why do clients keep showing up for booster shots of analysis as though there were one insight they have missed? Could it be intended that all such efforts to make a personal or social utopia are doomed because this is not the right place for us to settle down?

Although Christians as individuals need improvement, they maintain without arrogance that the Christian message does not. It doesn’t need to change because it satisfies as it is. Christians hold that they already have the truth that answers the inconsolable longing and that will eventually fill every need. (To be continued)

Psychological Seduction (part 4)

–The Failure of Modern Psychology

William Kirk Kilpatrick

2005-04-29

Taking People Seriously

The reason Christianity takes sin seriously is that it takes people seriously. It won’t let us off with childish excuses for our behavior, because our behavior is held to count most highly. When Christianity talks about the dignity of the person, it gives that phrase an extraordinarily high meaning against which the world’s casual use of the phrase is child’s talk.

Christianity is a high calling. One of the obstacles to seeing this is our distorted view of Who God is. Some of us have succumbed to the idea that if He exists at all, He must be made in the image and likeness of our more understanding and good-natured therapists. This, of course, reduces us to the image and likeness of clients and hospital patients. It is only as we begin again to realise the utter purity and holiness of God that we begin to appreciate that He simply cannot wink at sin like some friar out of the Canterbury Tales.

If we are God’s children or even only His servants, then what we do is, to borrow a phrase from Thomas Howard’s Chance or the Dance, “wildly charged with significance.” If we are called to participate in God’s creation, then it can be no small matter whether we do our part well or badly. God does not, if Scripture is any indication, look upon our behavior as a species of interesting natural phenomenon. On the contrary, there is a distinct impression that He looks upon us the way a king regards a knight who is sent on an important mission or as a father looks upon a son for whom he has high hopes.

Why then are we so quick to accept every new psychological pronouncement? Once again I return to the thesis that psychology derives much of its acceptability from its resemblance to Christianity. Because it has transferred the language of Christianity to its own uses, it is able to play on Christian sentiments to an extraordinary degree. I think for many of us psychology seems to provide a way of getting Christianity “on the cheap.”

For instance, one of the themes that runs through both Christianity and psychology is the idea that we shouldn’t make judgments about one another. Our Lord said “judge not,” and if nothing else, the psychological society does seem faithful to that. This nonjudgmental attitude, which gives psychology a Christian aura, perhaps accounts for the present inclination to drop the whole matter of sin. Too much talk of sin doesn’t seem to square with our duty to judge not.

What “Judge Not” Really Means

But “judge not” means we are not to judge a man’s inner state. It does not mean we are not to judge his acts. Christ did not say to the woman caught in adultery, “That’s O.K. You really haven’t done anything wrong.” He told her to “sin no more.” This distinction tends to get lost, however, in our therapeutic society. Instead of maintaining the attitude “hate the sin and love the sinner,” we are no longer sure if we have any right to hate the sin or even to call it that. In fact, the Christian injunctions have been nearly reversed. We now refrain from judging a person’s acts but spend all sorts of energy trying to judge his moods and motivations, which is properly God’s function, not ours.

ON BEING BORN AGAIN

The goals of psychology may be roughly summarised under headings such as “adjustment,” “coping,” “harmony,” “fulfillment,” “self-confidence,” “improved relationships,” and so on. These are worthy goals for Christian and non-Christian alike. But they should never be confused with the Christian program for mankind–although regrettably they often are. The Christian idea is quite different. It has to do not with an adjustment but with a transformation; not with getting a tune-up but with getting a new engine. Christianity says you have to be born again. That is the long and the short of it. Get fulfillment and wholeness and harmony if you can, but whether you succeed or not you will still need to be born again.

The Spiritual Needs of Psychologists

If a slight mid-course correction is all you think you need, then you may well profit from what the psychological world has to offer. You shouldn’t be surprised, however, if you find that it is not enough for your psychologist. For many psychologists, adjustment to ordinary life seems to be the thing furthest from their minds. On the contrary, there has always been a mystical streak in psychology.

I doubt whether the average person realises how deep and wide that streak is or that it touches some of the most prominent names in psychology. Carl Jung, for example, centered his theory in an esoteric religious tradition; Wilhelm Reich suffered from messianic delusions; Erich Fromm was strongly inclined to Buddhist thought; Abraham Maslow concentrated his later writings on religion and peak experiences. This “religious” tradition in psychology carries down to some of the most respected and influential present-day psychologists. The attempt to get beyond the ordinary seems, for instance, now to be the main concern of both Carl Rogers and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, both of whom report having contacted spirits of the dead.

From some sectors of psychology, it is true, this type of thing is looked on with embarrassment. But it is simply too widespread for the psychological community to do much about. In the event of a heresy trial, half the congregation would have to be excommunicated. Thus, one may attend a convention of psychologists, as I did once, where participants talk credulously of astral projection, reincarnation, the nonreality of matter, and “the transcendent spirit of oneness.”

Much of the philosophy behind this is muddled and amateurish. But it does prove one point: in and of itself, psychology is not a satisfactory vision. Here are experts who have access to the most sophisticated and rational analysis psychology has to offer, and they prefer instead to practice yoga and meditation and consult with mediums and gurus. This growing “spiritual” trend within psychology can be taken as a further corroboration of the point with which I began this chapter. It pays Christianity the compliment of admitting what Christians have maintained all along: we need to get ourselves on a different level.

MORAL EDUCATION

The Traditional Approach to Morality: Four Rules

One point I have stressed is that psychology doesn’t understand human nature nearly so well as it thinks. There is a deeper psychology that was once understood not only by Christians but by all people everywhere. It didn’t require elaborate theorising because it was simply what people had found to be true, generation after generation. Just as you learned that you had better not nail too close to the edge or you would split the wood, and just as you learned to slope your roofs in a northern country, you also learned that human beings ought to act thus and so or else certain consequences would follow.

Take this matter of moral education. Our ancestors, whether they were Christian or not, believed four things about teaching morality:

1. There was a right way to behave and a wrong way.
2. You learned the right way by being trained in it.
3. You also needed models of virtue to imitate.
4. These models could be found in stories of wisdom and courage.

Let us look at the good sense of this. First, there is a right way to behave. Can we prove this? No, not strictly. You cannot prove that friendship, loyalty, courage, honesty, and justice are better than betrayal, treachery, cowardice, deceit, and injustice. But then neither can you prove that a roof that doesn’t leak is better than one that does. People with common sense don’t try to prove it. In fact, it is usually a mistake to try to prove the obvious. Think of the parent who foolishly tries to give a logical case against dishonesty every time her toddler tells a lie. The case against it is not logical but definitional. Good boys and girls do not lie.

Second: you learned to do the right thing by being trained in it. It isn’t enough to know how to play tennis from reading a manual. You have to practice it. Virtue, too, must be practiced until it becomes habitual. It has to be in the “muscles” as much as in the mind. It is all to the good to have a handy set of moral principles; but unless you are accustomed to putting them into practice, they won’t be of much use when a difficult moral test comes. When such tests come, they do not arrive under ideal circumstances. When we are tired, angry, or afraid, or when the temptation is overwhelmingly attractive, it is more prudent for us to rely on our training than on our good intentions. A moral situation, as our ancestors understood, is more like a physical struggle than a mental problem. If we have been educated properly, we respond like a trained boxer who, when attacked, automatically blocks and counterpunches. Without training, we will end up more often than not flat on our backs.

Third: you need training in the virtues, but you also need models to imitate. Training is demanding. We need something to keep us at it, something to motivate us. In the abstract we know that virtue is its own reward and that we should be good simply because it is good to be good. But we seem to require more. Here again, athletic training provides an analogy. It should be enough for the aspiring gymnast to know that gymnastic exercises are worth doing in and for themselves. Done well, they have a natural grace and power that few other activities can match. But what do we find if we look into the young gymnast’s room? On the wall is a poster of the Olympic champion, and over there are more pictures cut out of magazines, and on the desk are stories and clippings about heroes of the gymnastic world. When we have someone to identify with, someone we admire, and someone who does what we do, only better, we have found ourselves something to train toward. It is, of course, the same with character training. Virtue is its own reward, but we need moral models to make it seem worthwhile on our way toward it. We need someone to tell us, “Here is what good people do; here is what heroic people do”; and even, “Here is what exciting people do. If you want to be like them, do likewise.”

This brings us to the fourth point and explains why the chief means of moral education in classical and heroic societies was the telling of stories. Long before the Greeks learned their ethics from Aristotle, they learned them from The Iliad and The Odyssey. Here are Achilles and Odysseus and Hector and Penelope. Here they are acting well, and here they are not. This is the way the Greeks approached moral education; the Romans, the Irish, and the Icelanders did the same. Later on, when Christianity swept the world, it was the Gospel story, not the Christian ethic, that captured men’s hearts.

The Modern Approach to Teaching Values

The modern world thinks it has grown up and does not need stories. When you have your heart set on autonomy, as much of our society does, stories can only be seen as limiting and confining. We prefer to think of the self not as a character-in-a-story but as a character-at-large bound to nothing but its own development. And this is the view that the new psychological programs of moral education encourage.

We do not need to go into the background of this movement. Let it suffice to say that the new psychological solution began by rejecting the past out of hand. It was decided that although students were to be encouraged to think about values, they must be free to choose. No indoctrination should take place, no set of values should be given priority. Tolerance for other points of view should prevail. Like so many other things, morality was to be entrusted to the democratic decision-making process.

The main thing to notice here is the absence of those things our ancestors thought important for moral education. There is no suggestion that right and wrong can actually be known, no training in virtue, no models to imitate, and finally, no stories. (To be continued)

Psychological Seduction (part 3)

–The Failure of Modern Psychology

William Kirk Kilpatrick

2005-04-29

SELF-ESTEEM

“It’s important to like yourself.”

“If you don’t like yourself, nobody else will.”

“Jimmy’s problem is his poor self-esteem.”

How many times have we heard these or similar sentiments? The taxi driver is as likely to express them as the teacher, the plumber as readily as the psychologist. In fact, we’re all pretty much convinced that self-esteem is the key to any number of problems.

This business of liking oneself has become for us almost a first principle. It seems self-evident, in the same category with “the sky is blue.” No one is inclined to dispute it. Psychology, of course, didn’t invent the notion, but it has capitalised on it. You might say it is the “good news” of the psychological gospel.

So when I undertake to criticise the idea of self-esteem, it is with trepidation. It is like criticising the proposition “babies are lovable.” Nevertheless, the idea does require a closer look, because ideas, like dinnerware, usually come in sets, and some of the notions that accompany the faith in self-esteem are not so charming as little babies.

Self-help books, for example, will often start off by asking you to love yourself, but before long they are telling you you’re not responsible for other people and that you shouldn’t waste time living up to others’ expectations. Most of us know also that “feeling good about myself” is sometimes a handy excuse for doing self-centered or even selfish things. We say, “I won’t be much good to others if I’m not good to myself,” and the next thing we do is send our three-year-old off to daycare for fifty hours a week or dip into family funds so we can take a day at the races.

Our response to the question “Should you like yourself?” has to be tempered with common sense. Our answer should be “That depends” or “Under what circumstances?” All of us, I take it, would like to see the self-rejecting teenager who frets over her popularity learn to relax and accept herself. The main question, I suppose, is should she continue to like herself when she is spreading vicious rumors or when she callously manipulates others to improve her social standing. Are we, in other words, to like ourselves regardless of how we behave?

 

How the Christian View Differs

Now the psychological answer to this question is to say that if we truly like ourselves, these other things won’t happen–or they won’t happen as much. According to this view, people who realise their self-worth don’t have any need to do ugly or unkind things. And this is the point, please note, where Christianity and psychology part company. People will continue to behave badly, says the Christian, because human nature is twisted, and liking yourself doesn’t remove the twist. But psychological theory doesn’t take account of the Fall of man; it takes the position that there are no bad natural inclinations. As a consequence there is no reason we shouldn’t accept ourselves as we are.

Although, as I say, this is a point of conflict between Christianity and psychology, some Christians do not see it as such because, at first glance, the psychological view and the Christian one seem to correspond. Christianity also tells us we ought to love ourselves but for an entirely different reason: because God loves us. We are not centers of wholeness and goodness all by ourselves. We are of infinite worth because we are the apple of God’s eye. He loves us as a mother loves her child.

The reason Christians have to be careful about mixing these two views of self-esteem is because the psychological perspective reduces the good news of the Gospel to the status of “nice news“–“nice” because there was never any bad news in the first place. If psychology’s great optimism about raw human nature is correct, then Christianity is not necessary: Christ’s redemptive action on the cross becomes superfluous. After all, why should He have suffered and died to redeem us if there is nothing wrong with us? If all we need do to find wholeness is just be ourselves, then His death sums up to a meaningless gesture, a noble but unneeded self-sacrifice.

Clearly then, Christians cannot accept the doctrine of natural goodness implied in most theories of self-esteem. The question is why anyone would want to accept it. It is worth noting that Freud himself did not believe it. He believed something quite the opposite: “Man is a wolf to man,” he observed in Civilization and Its Discontents. Yet his opinion on this matter is largely ignored or evaded today. We prefer to keep our faith in human nature. But the claim for human goodness requires much faith. And that for the very good reason that it is denied at every turn by certain well-known facts: crime statistics, terrorism, war, slavery, concentration camps, brutal parents, ungrateful children, the meanness of everyday behavior. G.K. Chesterton once observed that the doctrine of fallen man is the only Christian belief for which there is overwhelming empirical evidence.

 

The Weakness of the Psychological Position

Should we love ourselves? Yes, we should. But once you remove the Christian rationale for self-love, it is difficult to see on what other grounds it might be based.

The next thing to see is that this attitude toward the self flatly contradicts the Christian one. The idea that “your worth is determined by you” is about as far from the Gospel message as one could travel. Our Lord’s greatest wrath wasn’t directed at obvious sinners like Mary Magdalene but at those who were convinced of their own worth. And He never asked His disciples to have self-confidence, only to have faith in Him. There is not the slightest hint in the New Testament that we should have faith in ourselves. As for the proof of our worth, it lies in the fact that God has made us His children and Christ has redeemed us.

WISHFUL THINKING

Do you know the story of The Little Engine That Could? I enjoy the part where he repeats over and over “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” until the refrain has the rhythm of a steam-driven piston. It’s a fine story to read to children and also a perfect illustration of positive thinking. It should be tempered, of course, with other kinds of stories so a child will be prepared for those times in life when the tracks ahead are blown up or the bridge is washed out.

While a positive mental attitude can summon strengths and energies we didn’t know we had, it can’t accomplish miracles. Yet, one of the curious things about a secularised society is this: the less it believes in God, the more it believes in miracles. A paradoxical fact about our supposedly hard-headed nation is that so many grown-ups nourish their minds on the adult equivalent of the Little Engine story. The literature of popular psychology is almost exclusively a literature of positive thinking taken to the extreme. Read the most popular psychology titles, and see what miracles are possible. Would you like to cure your cancer? Prevent jet planes from crashing? Fly (without a plane)? Live forever? All these things, you will be told, can be accomplished by mind power.

 

Positive Thinking or Pretense?

Popular psychology really has little choice but to adopt this wishful thinking. Its idea about self-esteem is unrealistically based to begin with: the logic of the premise forces the conclusion. Once you elect to believe that you are the pick of the crop simply because you believe it, you are already involved in a fiction. And the initial fraud has to be covered by another and another. Thus, one celebrated psychologist tells us: “You can stand naked in front of a mirror and tell yourself how attractive you are.” Yes, you can do that; you can also tell yourself you are rich and brilliant. It may or may not be true. But supposing it is not; what is the point of the pretense?

Please understand that I’m not suggesting we belittle ourselves. Nor do I deny the kernel of truth in positive thinking: when we practice self-confidence we often do appear more attractive to others. If my colleagues would confine themselves to pep talks on this level, I doubt I would object so much. But, of course, it doesn’t stop there. The further suggestion is that, since we determine all things for ourselves, we can get along without religion, community, tradition, and family. This isn’t merely a suggestion: it is the persistent claim of psychologist after psychologist, book after book.

This is far more harmful stuff than thinking yourself a bit more attractive than you really are. The man who takes the doctrine of autonomy to heart and empties his life of past ties and traditional supports will usually find–perhaps too late–that his inner self won’t fill up the hole that is left. The idea that we can love ourselves so much that we won’t need the love and help of others is a fiction. None of the statistics suggest it. In fact, they all point the other way: societies that concentrate on the self fall victim to higher rates of loneliness, depression, and suicide than do societies that rely on tradition and community. And do we need statistics to prove what we know deep in our heart?

What about the times when our whole destiny hung upon the health of a sick child? Or the times we’ve wept through the night, clawing at our pillow out of loneliness? True, some people pass beyond these kinds of vulnerability, but often that is because their personality has withered rather than grown. The man who is autonomous of his family and friends is in the same category as the plant that is autonomous of its soil.

 

Dogmatic Open-mindedness

People talk about the importance of keeping an open mind. There is such a thing, however, as being dogmatically open-minded. We’ve all met people who seem more interested in the search for truth than in its acquisition. Their central aim and doctrine is to keep their mind free.

The trouble with this attitude is that the mind soon becomes a slave to the self and to the self’s desires. A truly free mind has to maintain a certain independence from self, just as a good teacher has to maintain a certain independence from the wishes of his students. We would feel cheated, for instance, if we hired a tutor to help our son with his math deficiency and the tutor played catch with him instead, on the grounds that that is what the boy wanted to do.

It is sometimes difficult for the mind to face realities, especially if they are uncomfortable realities. But that, at least in part, is what a mind is for. G.K. Chesterton relates a friendly luncheon debate with a broadminded acquaintance: “My friend said that he opened his intellect as the sun opens the fans of a palm tree, opening for opening’s sake, opening infinitely forever. But I said that I opened my intellect as I opened my mouth, in order to shut it again on something solid.”

A lack of solidity is the overriding problem with self-oriented psychology. The set of beliefs that accompany it do not appear to rest on anything firm. Push a bit on the notion that we are wholly good in our nature, and it falls over. Take society away, and you have Lord of the Flies.

THE BURDEN OF SELF

The Self as God

Where does psychological seriousness come from? Let me propose an answer that may seem strange at first. It comes from the attempt to take the place of God.

I said earlier that concentration on the self often leads to a brash denial of the need for community and tradition. And that, of course, throws people back on their own resources. A similar sort of thing happens with the role God takes in our lives. The self-cultivator doesn’t necessarily stop believing in God, but his concept of God will likely change. If we want to get on with our self-actualisation, we will probably favor the kind of God Who doesn’t interfere in the affairs of men: a God Who will just let us be ourselves. We will begin to adjust our idea of God to correspond with our ideas about human potential. The more self-reliant we feel ourselves becoming, the less we will feel a need to rely on Him. We will believe we can do for ourselves many of the things that pious people ask God to do.

From here it is just a small step to the belief that the self is a kind of god. Carl Jung believed something of this sort. In his Answer to Job, he seems to suggest that God is in many ways inferior to man and that He would like nothing better than to become a man on a permanent basis. One of Erich Fromm’s books is entitled You Shall Be As Gods. Will Schutz, a popular psychologist, writes, “I am everywhere, I am omniscient, I am God.” A participant in an EST seminar will be told, “You are the supreme being.”

SIN AND SELF-ACCEPTANCE

Christianity doesn’t make sense without sin. If we are not sinners, turned away from God, then there was no reason for God to become a man, and no reason for Him to die. Our slavery to sin is the thing that Christ came to free us from. That is the most fundamental Christian belief. It follows that if you have no consciousness of sin, you simply won’t be able to see the point of Christianity. We can put the matter more strongly and say that once you grant the notion that people are sinless, you must admit that Christianity is all wrong.

Now it is possible to create a climate in which people have very little sense of sin and, therefore, little chance of comprehending what Christianity is all about. We know it is possible because that is the climate that exists today. The fact is, psychology has been enormously successful in its program to get people to accept themselves–or at least to accept the idea that they ought to accept themselves. Even when people do not, in fact, feel good about themselves, they have the belief they ought to feel good. Even when they feel guilty, they are convinced it is only neurotic guilt: not a matter for expiation but for explanation.

 

Changing Beliefs Instead of Behavior

Besides creating in us the idea that we should feel good about ourselves, psychology leads us to place a high premium on integration and harmony of personality. The problem here is that for those who still believe in sin, beliefs and actions are often out of harmony. “For I do not do the good I want,” wrote Saint Paul, “but the evil I do not want is what I do.”

One way to handle this discrepancy between our beliefs and our sinful inclinations is to repent, pray for grace and forgiveness, and struggle on in the belief that God will forge a greater harmony for us out of our battle with sin. That is the Christian approach. The new psychological idea seems to be that we should have harmony at any price. If our actions aren’t in line with our beliefs, then we ought to change the beliefs (beliefs being considerably easier to change than behavior).

This, upon examination, is what a lot of the talk about “improving your self-concept” amounts to. It means that if your self-concept won’t let you feel good about having casual sex, and yet you still want casual sex, then you ought to adjust your self-concept accordingly. The alternative is feeling bad about yourself, and that seems an almost unacceptable alternative these days.

 

When Sin Becomes Second Nature

The fact that we can and do get used to things to the point where they become second nature, says nothing for their rightness or wrongness. Some people grow accustomed to being slaves, others to being prostitutes. “Do not,” wrote Chesterton, “be proud of the fact that your grandmother was shocked at something which you are accustomed to seeing or hearing without being shocked …. It may mean that your grandmother was an extremely lively and vital person, and that you are a paralytic.” This is the problem with the habit of ready self-acceptance. Like other habits, it sometimes puts a stop to thought and paralyzes our ability to make appropriate responses.

This, of course, is what Christianity has always said about habits of sin. Part of the problem with seeing our own sinfulness is that the more we sin, the more our ability to see sin is clouded. When a man is drunk, drunkenness does not seem like such a bad thing unless he is drunk to the point of throwing up. (To be continued)

Psychological Seduction (part 2)

–The Failure of Modern Psychology

William Kirk Kilpatrick

2005-04-29

The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

True Christianity does not mix well with psychology. When you try to mix them, you often end up with a watered-down Christianity instead of a Christianised psychology. But the process is subtle and is rarely noticed.

What happened to me was not unusual. During the late sixties and through the seventies a new climate of psychological ideas settled over Catholic and liberal Protestant congregations. Many of the clergy, nuns, and lay leaders began, out of good intentions, to mix their faith with sociology, psychology, and secular causes. At the same time, many of them elevated personal development to a place all out of proportion to spiritual development. Their faith eventually became so thinned out with admixtures that it was no longer strong enough to sustain them when a personal or social crisis struck. Thousands left the church. When asked in a survey why they had left, one population of former nuns checked off “inability to be me” as the main reason. The faith of the average believer was also shaken. Some stuck it out. Some turned away altogether from their faith. Others joined Christian churches that seemed more certain and unconfused.

A friend of mine recently asked a Sunday school teacher about the course emphasis and was told, “We are teaching the children to grow, to become whole persons, to question, to choose values.” Another, a nun, simply said, “We are showing them how to become whole persons.” The first woman ordained as a priest by the Episcopal church was asked by an interviewer if she considered herself to be a woman of strong religious faith. She replied that, no, she did not, “but I do believe in caring, and that’s what religion is all about, isn’t it?”

These attempts to make common cause with psychology are examples of “Christianity And.” It’s a strong temptation to those who fear that Christianity by itself isn’t enough. The trouble is that “Christianity And” edges real Christianity aside or prevents it from taking hold.

This brings us to a final point. The average man is no longer scared to hear that his behavior may lead to Hell, but he thinks twice if he hears that it will lead to the state hospital. I am not saying that we are all on the road to the madhouse–although a case can be made for that position–but I am suggesting that we are all being edged closer to the kind of bleak and colorless life that the state hospital represents. An overserious attitude toward the self is an unhealthy and ultimately defeating preoccupation. It leads not to a society of different and interesting individuals, but to a drab hive of look-alikes and talk-alikes droning the same stories, buzzing with self-concern.

The point I am getting at is this. Even in purely worldly terms there is no certainty that psychological ideas make us any better off. We have tons of expert advice, plus mountains of revelations about the self. Do we step more lightly or laugh more heartily because of it?

Being a Christian, then, is not a requirement for following the arguments of this book. The criticism I make is offered on intellectual grounds as well as spiritual ones. Psychology wants us to judge an idea not on whether it will save a man’s soul but on whether it will save his sanity. Its goal is to make life more human. It can be demonstrated, I believe, that psychology has rather less to contribute to that goal than is commonly thought, and that Christianity has rather more.

GOOD INTENTIONS

There is no reason to doubt the generous impulse behind the work of professional psychologists and social scientists. Most of the experts who guide the psychological society have good intentions.

But there may be reasons to doubt the competence of psychological helpers. A willingness to help does not guarantee a helpful result. Sometimes, as Thoreau wryly observed, the result is the opposite: “If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.”

Do Psychologists Know How to Help?

The fact that psychologists are trying to help people often keeps us from asking whether they know how to help. We think it’s bad manners to ask a man who is trying to help us if he really knows what he’s doing. Of course, it’s not just manners that prevent us from questioning psychology. It’s also faith–the kind of faith that makes us believe that school teachers are doing what is best for our children. Or the kind of faith that tells you that the man in the clerical collar won’t knock you down and steal your wallet. Just the same, we ought to be asking if psychologists really do know how to help. A good deal of research suggests that psychology is ineffective. And there is evidence pointing to the conclusion that psychology is actually harmful.

The first indication that psychology might be ineffective came in 1952 when Hans Eysenck of the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, discovered that neurotic people who do not receive therapy are as likely to recover as those who do. Psychotherapy, he found, was not any more effective than the simple passage of time. Additional studies by other researchers showed similar results. Then Dr. Eugene Levitt of the Indiana University School of Medicine found that disturbed children who were not treated recovered at the same rate as disturbed children who were. A further indication of the problem was revealed in the results of the extensive Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study. The researchers found that uncounseled juvenile delinquents had a lower rate of further trouble than counseled ones. Other studies have shown that untrained lay people do as well as psychiatrists or clinical psychologists in treating patients. And the Rosenham studies indicated that mental hospital staff could not even tell normal people from genuinely disturbed ones. It is possible to go on with the list. It is quite a long one. But I hope this is sufficient to make the point that when psychologists rush in to help, they are not particularly successful.

Psychological Values and Traditional Values

There is a further point, a more serious charge. Psychology and other social sciences might be doing actual harm to our society. You needn’t be a scholar to sense this. In fact, scholarship is often a hindrance to understanding what is really happening. An average parent or a factory laborer is more likely than the professor to catch on when something goes wrong with society. Many parents now feel themselves to be in the position of helpless spectators watching their children nurtured on alien values at school or through the media. The old stories about fairies and witches who stole children away at night and replaced them with changelings seem strangely contemporary.

A rather blatant example of this body snatching comes from Sweden, perhaps the most therapeutically oriented country in the world, where a law has been passed forbidding parents to spank their children. Further, it is a criminal offense to threaten, ostracise, ridicule, or otherwise “psychologically abuse” children. Presumably this means that parents can no longer raise their voices at their children or send them to their rooms. But there is no evidence that the Swedes are any less melancholy for this enlightenment. By all reports the young people are more bored and restless than ever.

The Failure of the Psychological Faith

However good-intentioned and however nice, it is not at all clear that the psychological establishment knows how to help. Everywhere there are dark hints that the faith doesn’t work. Despite the creation of a virtual army of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychometrists, counselors, and social workers, there has been no letup in the rate of mental illness, suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction, child abuse, divorce, murder, and general mayhem. Contrary to what one might expect in a society so carefully analyzed and attended to by mental health experts, there has been an increase in all these categories. It sometimes seems there is a direct ratio between the increasing number of helpers and the increasing number of those who need help. The more psychologists we have, the more mental illness we get; the more social workers and probation officers, the more crime; the more teachers, the more ignorance.

One has to wonder at it all. In plain language, it is suspicious. We are forced to entertain the possibility that psychology and related professions are proposing to solve problems that they themselves have helped to create. We find psychologists raising people’s expectations for happiness in this life to an inordinate level, and then we find them dispensing advice about the mid-life crisis and dying. We find psychologists making a virtue out of self-preoccupation, and then we find them surprised at the increased supply of narcissists. We find psychologists advising the courts that there is no such thing as a bad boy or even a bad adult, and then we find them formulating theories to explain the rise in crime. We find psychologists severing the bonds of family life, and then we find them conducting therapy for broken families.

Expectations and Results

There are too many “ifs,” “ands,” and “buts” to prove that the rise of psychology has caused the deterioration of the social structure, but there is certainly enough evidence to make doubtful the claim that psychology benefits us. In areas where professionals really do know what they are doing, we expect that it will show and be obvious in the results of their work. Stanislav Andreski, a British sociologist, makes that point clear in comparing psychology and sociology to other professions. He notes that when a profession is based on well-established knowledge, there ought to be a connection between the number of practitioners and the results achieved:

Thus, in a country which has an abundance of telecommunication engineers, the provision of telephonic facilities will normally be better than in a country which has only a few specialists of this kind. The levels of mortality will be lower in countries or regions where there are many doctors and nurses than in places where they are few and far between. Accounts will be more generally and efficiently kept in countries with many trained accountants than where they are scarce.

And what are the benefits produced by psychology and sociology? Professor Andreski continues:

So, we should find that in countries, regions, institutions or sectors where the services of psychologists are widely used, families are more enduring, bonds between the spouses, siblings, parents and children stronger and warmer, relations between colleagues more harmonious, the treatment of recipients of aid better, vandals, criminals and drug addicts fewer, than in places or groups which do not avail themselves of the psychologists’ skills. On this basis we could infer that the blessed country of harmony and peace is of course the United States; and that it ought to have been becoming more and more so during the last quarter of the century in step with the growth in numbers of sociologists, psychologists, and political scientists.

But this is not what has happened. On the contrary, things appear to be getting worse. Streets are unsafe. Families are in tatters. Suicide cuts off young lives. And when the psychological society attempts to deal with such problems, it often seems to make them worse. The introduction of suicide prevention centers in cities, for instance, is followed by a rise of suicide. Marriage counseling often leads to divorce. And common-sense observation tells us that the introduction of widespread public sex education has done nothing to check the increase of unwanted pregnancies, promiscuity, and venereal disease. There is evidence, rather, that such programs encourage premature sexuality with its attendant problems.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the prescription may be causing the disease. “If we saw,” wrote Andreski, “that whenever a fire brigade comes, the flames become even fiercer, we might well begin to wonder what it is that they are squirting, and whether they are not by any chance pouring oil on to the fire.” (To be continued)

Psychological Seduction (part 1)

–The Failure of Modern Psychology

William Kirk Kilpatrick

2005-04-29

Excerpts from the book (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983)

Editor: In many ways, Christianity and psychology are opposites, despite their seeming similarities. Following are excerpts from the book of a Christian psychologist, William Kirk Kilpatrick, exposing the de-Christianising effect psychology has had upon the world, contrasting true Christianity with psychology, and showing why many psychologists hate Christianity.

The author is associate professor of educational psychology at Boston College. A graduate of Holy Cross College, he holds degrees from Harvard University and Purdue University. He is a popular lecturer on psychology and religion at colleges and universities around the U.S. Other books he has written are Identity and Intimacy and The Emperor’s New Clothes.

WOLF IN THE FOLD

When people hear I’m involved with both psychology and Christianity, they generally assume I’m working on a synthesis to bring the two closer together, to patch up whatever few remaining differences there might be. “Aren’t psychology and religion just two different ways of getting at the same thing?”–It’s a question I often hear.

It is true that popular psychology shares much in common with Eastern religion; in fact, a merger is well under way. But if you’re talking about Christianity, it is much truer to say that psychology and religion are competing faiths. If you seriously hold to one set of values, you will logically have to reject the other.

For non-Christians, popular psychology has a seductive influence. Many seem to turn to it as a substitute for traditional faiths. They may even think of it as a more evolved form of religion–a more efficient and compassionate way of doing good than Christianity. Psychology levels the hills of anxiety and makes the crooked way straight. It is the rod and staff that comforts them.

 

Psychology’s Appeal: Counterfeit Christianity

The appeal psychology has for both Christians and non-Christians is a complex one. But it is difficult to make sense of it at all unless you understand that it is basically a religious appeal. For the truth is, psychology bears a surface resemblance to Christianity.

Not doctrinal Christianity, of course. Most psychologists are hostile to that. And naturally enough, so are non-Christians. Nevertheless, there is a certain Christian tone to what psychology says and does: echoes of loving your neighbor as yourself, the promise of being made whole, avoidance of judging others. Those ideas are appealing to most people, no matter what their faith.

But like most counterfeits, popular psychology does not deliver on its promises. Instead, it leads both Christians and non-Christians away from duty or proper conduct. It is a seduction in the true sense of the word.

Christianity is more than a psychology, it happens to be better psychology than psychology is.

 

A Personal Note

But before I continue, I should first admit that I, too, was a victim of the confusion between psychology and Christianity. My own experience may help to illustrate how it can come about.

I began to lose interest in the Christian faith in graduate school. That was when I discovered psychology. I didn’t realise I was losing interest in Christianity; I merely thought I was adding something on. But before long I had shifted my faith from the one to the other.

There was no reason not to. As far as I could see, there was no essential difference between the two. I had been reading the most liberal theologians–that is to say, the most psychologised ones–and from what I could gather, the important thing in religion was not Bible or creed but simply loving other people. I thought I could swing that easily enough without the help of church or prayers. Such practices, I assumed, were intended for those who hadn’t attained awareness.

Psychology, in addition, had interesting explanations for almost every type of human behavior, and I had no reason to doubt its version. Erich Fromm said that to love others you first have to love yourself. Didn’t that square with what Jesus taught? It certainly made wonderful sense to me; like most other twenty-two-year-olds, I thoroughly loved myself. My new-found Bible was psychologist Carl Rogers’s On Becoming a Person. In it, Rogers gently suggested that humans are at heart good and decent creatures with no more natural disposition toward hatred than a rosebud. I looked within and found no hate. There were no bad people, I concluded, only bad environments.

Rogers’s optimistic doctrine coincided with the religious trend of those days. Intellectuals in the church were downplaying sin as though it were an accidental holdover from the Middle Ages.

Soon I began to blur other lines: those that separated good and evil. It was possible, I found, to transmute good into evil and evil into good by minor adjustments in definition: the loosening of a spring here, the turning of a spindle there. But it was hardly necessary to do so. My consciousness of sin was at a low ebb–the result, no doubt, of a habit of almost total self-acceptance. I had learned to trust my instincts; if I desired something, it must be good. It was hard to see how I could go wrong as long as I was true to my desires and strove for self-fulfillment.

I became convinced, despite years of Christian training to the contrary, that evil was not a thing that inhered in people, but rather was the result of unjust social conditions and bad environments. My own basic instincts were, I felt, noble and decent. My intention was that all people should grow together in peace, brotherhood, and charity. If society had failed to reach this harmony, that was mainly because individuals had not learned to love themselves. As a teacher I saw an opportunity to remedy this lack of self-love. I would supply the empathy and unconditional acceptance I assumed my students were not getting from their psychologically unsophisticated parents. There would be no Hitlers or Stalins coming out of my classes.

In all this–this “maturation” process–I saw no need for sacrifice or hard choices. I felt no need to renounce cherished beliefs. They simply melted away like March snowmen. More often than not, the melting-away process was aided and abetted by theologians who were eager to remove difficult parts of the faith.

As the Christian sphere shrank, the humanist sphere enlarged. I was, in modern parlance, “learning a lot about myself.” I found that I could make more allowance for myself than I had previously thought possible. Any inner tendency that I might previously have restrained, I now welcomed with open arms as an old friend. I was learning to accept myself. And the liberality that I extended to myself, I extended to others in a positive debauch of tolerance. I believed that I and the rest of humanity were on the threshold of deeper and more wonderful discoveries about the self. One only had to learn to let go, to float free on the stream of instinct.

It was an exciting time. I was associating with people who not only felt the same as I did but also seemed far advanced in the art of living, people who by anybody’s criteria were exciting. Our conversations were exhilarating, daring, elevated out of the ordinary. Or so I thought. When I was with these companions, I felt as though we made up a secret society, a brilliant gnostic sect surrounded by gray orthodoxy.

We didn’t have a motto, but if we had, I think it would have been “Why not?”

I never went to the extreme of making a full-blown religion out of psychology. Something in my early Christian training prevented me. In addition, events in my life were beginning to undermine my easy confidence in the possibility of self-salvation.

There had been no reason to question psychological explanations of life because, until my late twenties, my life had been packed in cotton wool. Now, a series of events unfolded for which my psychological expertise had not prepared me. Although the problems I encountered were not much different from those facing most adults, the idea had somehow seeped into my mind that they wouldn’t happen to a self-actualising person (one who has developed himself by self-effort). Between the lines, the psychologists whom I most admired seemed to hint that suffering was not the common lot of humanity, but some kind of foolish mistake that could be avoided by a better understanding of human dynamics.

I was making a lot of foolish mistakes. My best intentions reaped the worst consequences. My best efforts brought failure–not always, but often enough to put large dents in my plans for self-actualisation.

My life was getting out of hand, and the only advice I could get from psychologist friends was to open up more. At this point, there was nothing left to open up. Openness surrounded me on all sides, like a pit.

A reverse process set in. My faith in psychology began, though slowly, to disintegrate. I had put some weight on the psychological scaffold, and it had given way. I still repeated the stock formulas (I was by now teaching psychology), but it was fast becoming apparent that most of it no longer applied to my own life. My life could only appear ridiculous by the commonly accepted standards of self-growth. In terms of self-development, as it was then popularly understood, I was on the road to regression. It was foolishness. And there is no place for being a fool in the psychological system.

But there was a place for me elsewhere–in the faith I had ignored for over a decade while remaining open to meaning everywhere else. A well-established Christian tradition held that what appeared as foolishness in the eyes of men did not necessarily appear so in the eyes of God. Perhaps that ancient promise warranted another look.

I did come back to Christianity–real Christianity, not the diluted version. It was a slow return: so slow and reluctant that I would be foolish to hold myself up as any sort of model for imitation. The point I wish to make here is that religion and psychology had become nearly indistinguishable for me. Freud and the church fathers, faith in God and faith in human potential, revelation and self-revelation–all slid together in an easy companionship. As for God, He began to take shape in my mind along the lines of a friendly counselor of the nondirective school. I never balked at doing His will. His will always coincided with my own. (To be continued)

05 – Process of Healing

Divine Healing

Peter Amsterdam

2012-03-27

Chapter 5

It Takes Persistence When One Begins Praying for the Sick

Another point that those in the healing ministry wrote about had to do with persistence. They expressed the need to keep praying for the sick even if you don’t see a lot of results at first. From their experience, there is a “learning curve,” or at least a “persistence curve,” when people incorporate healing as part of their ministry. If you feel called to a healing ministry, a key component is to keep taking advantage of opportunities that come up to pray for people, even if you don’t have much success in the beginning.

Curry Blake says:

When you start to push a car, when you first start, there’s a whole lot of effort with very little result. But once you get it rolling, it will gain speed and it actually gets easier, or it feels easier anyway, to actually keep the car moving or even to gain speed once you get it rolling. That’s what it is. See, the enemy does not want you to get those first few battles. He doesn’t want you to get those first few victories, because once you get those first few victories, even if you have defeats after that, you’ll keep going. But if he can keep you from getting the first few victories, then there will always be that little doubt in your mind of, “Is this for me? Is this right? Is this for today?”^[1]

So you may start with absolutely no results, but it is the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. If you do not grow weary in well-doing, you shall reap in due season. So that means, there can be a time when you don’t really see the result. So whenever you start to do this, you have to realize that as you start out in this, it may start small.^[2]

When telling the story of how he started in his healing ministry, John Decker said:

It was there [in a healing meeting in Seattle] I began praying with conviction for the sick. I did not see too much happen, but I continued to minister to the sick like the other men I had been watching the past months.^[3]

Start with something easy. In learning how to heal the sick, we sometimes have to start with something that does not seem to require much faith. Headaches, high fevers, pains in the neck, or sore backs may be easier to tackle than praying for someone dying of terminal cancer. All healing is easy for God. However, for the Christian who has never prayed for the sick, start with something similar to the next passage.

When Jesus entered Peter’s house, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve Him (Matthew 8:14–15 ESV). ^[4]

Not All Healings Are Instant

Another point of agreement among those who minister healing is that not all healings are instantaneous healings. Sometimes healings happen immediately; sometimes it’s a process, a progressive healing that takes time.

Curry Blake says:

All of Jesus’ healings weren’t instant. Over and over again, it says, “the child began to amend from that hour.” So healing can be a process.

There are some diseases that we see [healed] instantly more than others. There are some that we see progressive more than others. I don’t like progressive, nobody does. I will take it any way I can get it, but as we say in Texas, “If I have my druthers,” I’d rather not have it progressive. I would rather have it instant.

We saw a young boy who had Down Syndrome. He had all the characteristics of Down Syndrome, and over a period of 1½ to 2 years, even the structure of his head changed, to where now you look at him and you can’t tell he ever had Down Syndrome. He went from a 5-year-old mentality up to his rightful age.^[5]

John Decker writes:

I teamed up with Ken and began ministering with him. We would pray for anyone who needed healing. Pains were leaving people as we prayed. Some people never received anything, others did. Headaches would leave, casts from broken bones would come off early, sore backs would become normal, and sinuses would clear up. Some of the healings would take a while. Other healings were instant.^[6]

Dunkerley states:

Nor were all of Jesus’ healings instantaneous: The blind man at Bethsaida was first healed partially, later completely.^[7] The timeframe was short but not instantaneous. The lepers in Luke 17:11–19 were not healed until after they left the presence of Jesus.^[8] The man in John 9:6–7 was blind when he left Jesus’ presence.^[9] He was not healed until after he washed.

What, based on the experience and teaching of Jesus Himself, should we expect and teach with regard to healing evangelism? First, we should not assume that every prayer will lead to instant success, nor should we teach that everyone will be healed instantly who truly believes.^[10]

More Than One Method

One thing I was glad to see among the healing evangelists was that while they all use somewhat different methods and even believe some different things regarding healing, they make a point of not being dogmatic regarding how healing is done, what methods are used. They realize that Christians with fruitful healing ministries use different methods and have good results, which shows that the promises regarding healing in the Bible are the standard, and yet the methods used can be different.

This is important, as some of the healers vary quite a bit from one another in belief and practice. In his videos and audios, Curry Blake often makes a point of saying that you don’t need to do this or that, referring to some of the methods others use, but even he makes the point that the actual methods used aren’t the most important thing and that people shouldn’t get dogmatic about it. He says:

People ask me, “What’s the best method for healing or best method for this or that?” Now, it’s very simple. The method that you believe in is the method that will work for you. There’s no one method that Jesus gave. The closest He gave was in Mark 16 where He said, “Lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” That’s the standard.^[11]

The message [the Bible] is sacred; our methods are not. Our methods change with the generations. That’s why our music changes; that’s a method. The way you do certain things will change, but the message has to be sacred, it has to be kept pure.^[12]

What I’m trying to get you to do first is to understand the principles of it, so that when I teach you the specifics and the methods, you won’t get hung up on the method and you’ll realize that the method I show you is not the end-all method. It’s a method to get you started.^[13]

When we will start to minister I will take you through several different ways to pray for people and you will know what to do. So we will be specific. Now just don’t take that for a formula and think that you have to mimic word for word every time. But essentially it comes down to this: Tell the spirit, the sickness, or the body what you want it to do. That’s it.^[14]

John and Sonja Decker make the point about different methods in this way:

Jesus grants more grace toward us than we do to each other. Just because a minister displays an unusual style in healing the sick, we need not discount him because he is unorthodox. Jesus reminds us to examine the fruit of their presentation. Are people genuinely healed? Do they give God all the credit? Are people being saved? We shall know them by their fruit. Remain on the side of Jesus by following His examples from the written Word.^[15]

Don Dunkerley, who is from a Presbyterian background, wrote about his previous skepticism toward some with evangelical healing ministries, especially flamboyant ones who use certain gifts of the Spirit in their ministries, such as the word of knowledge. He gives three stories in his book about mass evangelism and healing that helped him overcome some of his skepticism. He wrote about a Ugandan preacher who ministered healing and who had more faith in divine intervention and miracles than Dunkerley did. Upon getting to know the man and seeing his sincerity in preaching the Gospel and his love for souls, he realized that there are those with large healing ministries who use rather flamboyant methods who truly are concerned with salvation of souls and not just healing of bodies, or in promoting themselves.

He tells another story about working with Richard Roberts, the son of Oral Roberts, a famous Pentecostal healing evangelist. It was at an interdenominational crusade with many different churches working together. He was one of the few non-Pentecostals on the team and his job was teaching training seminars for pastors. He wrote the following regarding the nightly evangelistic rallies:

[During the rallies] I had no function except to sit on the platform—which gave me an opportunity to observe carefully. I also had the opportunity to observe the team members behind the scenes, including at dinner after the crusade each night in the dining room of our hotel.

One evening a team member from ORU [Oral Roberts University] had a word of knowledge describing a woman who was being healed at that moment. The team member pointed to the section of the crusade grounds where she was seated. He mentioned her age and described the illness from which she was being healed. Almost immediately a woman from where he had pointed came to the platform and said she was the person. Her age, she said, had been given exactly. She indeed had the very illness he had described, but could feel that she had been immediately healed.

A few years before, if I had seen such a thing on TV or even from the audience, I would have been sure the woman was a “plant.” But at dinner that evening after the service there was amazement and rejoicing over the precise accuracy of the word of knowledge. Clearly if the woman was a plant, it was unknown to any of the team members, including Richard himself.

I am sure it was a miracle. Everything I saw and heard during that week seemed genuine.^[16]

Dunkerley watched people get saved and healed by those using methods which he didn’t employ and which he, in times past, considered fake. The method was different but the results were the same, because those preaching and praying for the sick applied God’s Word, were sincere, and were motivated by the love of God to lead others to salvation.

Different people use different methods in healing ministries. Some put emphasis on using different gifts of the Holy Spirit; others on fasting and praying beforehand; some insist on anointing with oil; others don’t do any of these things. Yet there are successful healing ministries using all of these methods and techniques.

The simple fact of the matter is that God heals. He uses Christians who have the faith to pray for others as a conduit of His healing power. The actual methods that are used, the technicalities and details, are secondary to the fact that He wants to show His power, love, and compassion to others through healing them and bringing them to Him. I believe He is looking for those who will take up the challenge to use healing as part of their witnessing ministry.

(Next in this series: Where Healing Evangelists Disagree)

^[1] DHT Audio 8.

^[2] DHT Video 1.

^[3] DWJD 3.

^[4] DWJD 3.

^[5] DHT Video 9.

^[6] DWJD 3.

^[7] And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to Him a blind man and begged Him to touch him. And He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when He had spit on his eyes and laid His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see men, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid His hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And He sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village” (Mark 8:22–26 ESV).

^[8] On the way to Jerusalem He was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered a village, He was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When He saw them He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” (Luke 17:11–18 ESV).

^[9] Having said these things, He spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then He anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing (John 9:6–7 ESV).

^[10] HE 52, 54.

^[11] DHT Audio 11.

^[12] DHT Audio 11.

^[13] DHT Audio 11.

^[14] DHT Audio 12.

^[15] DWJD 3.

^[16] HE 191.

Copyright © 2012 The Family International.

“How Much More…”

A compilation

2014-09-23

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!—Matthew 7:11¹

*

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory.—Ephesians 3:20–21²

*

Our weakness and foolishness are visible; God’s strength and wisdom are invisible. Our need is clear before our very eyes; God’s supply is hidden in the secret of His presence, and can only be realized by faith. …

I remember hearing of a Christian who was in great trouble, and who had tried every way for deliverance, but in vain, who said finally to another in a tone of the utmost despair, “Well, there is nothing left for me now but to trust the Lord.”

“Alas!” exclaimed the friend …, “is it possible it has come to that?”

We may shrink … from the thought of using such an expression, but, if we are honest with ourselves, I believe we shall be obliged to confess that sometimes, in the very bottom of our hearts, we have indulged in just this feeling. To come to the point of having nothing left to trust in but the Lord has seemed to us at times a desperate condition. And yet, if our Lord is to be believed, His “much mores” of grace are abundantly equal to the worst emergency that can befall us.

The apostle tells us that God is able to do “exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think”; and this describes what His “much mores” mean.³ We can think of very wonderful things in the way of salvation—spiritual blessings that would transform life for us, and make the whole universe resplendent with joy and triumph—and we can ask for them. But do we really believe that God is able and willing to do for us “exceeding abundantly” above all that we can ask or think? …

In another place we are told that “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.”⁴ If God has prepared more for us than it has ever entered into our hearts to conceive, surely we can have no question about obtaining that which has entered into our hearts, and “much more” beside.—Hannah Whitall Smith⁵

*

Among those in the court of Alexander the Great was a philosopher of outstanding ability but little money. He asked Alexander for financial help and was told to draw whatever he needed from the imperial treasury. But when the man requested an amount equal to $50,000, he was refused—the treasurer needed to verify that such a large sum was authorized. When he asked Alexander, the ruler replied, “Pay the money at once. The philosopher has done me a singular honor. By the largeness of his request he shows that he has understood both my wealth and generosity.”

In the same way we honor the Lord when we come to Him humbly and ask for great things.

Be encouraged and believe for great things! God has wonderful answers in store!—George Whitten⁶

*

“If God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more shall He clothe you?”⁷

Have you ever gazed at a blade of grass? I don’t mean have you merely glanced at it; but have you taken it up and feasted your eyes upon it until its exquisite beauty is forever imprinted upon your soul? Contemplate, therefore, … If God takes so much pains with a blade of grass, how much more will He take with one of His own children.—J. H. Jowett⁸

*

We usually think of things that are beyond our comprehension as supernatural or miraculous, but those things aren’t supernatural to God because He operates in the spiritual realm where everything is “natural” to Him. It’s like saying there is nothing impossible with God.⁹ A lot of things God does are beyond our power and grasp of things and what we consider natural, so when they happen we say they are supernatural. But with God, nothing is impossible, so nothing is supernatural to Him!

God can do things that are contrary to what we consider His natural laws. When someone gets healed of an incurable disease, for example, we call it a miracle because we’re seeing the evidence or manifestation of some of God’s laws that link the spiritual and the physical realms—laws that we know little about. To God, on the other hand, it’s simple! He knows how to undo whatever damage the disease may have done and thereby creates what to us is a miracle—a supernatural act that is beyond our capabilities.

God is able to work miracles on our behalf, according to His will—miracles of healing, supply, protection, or whatever else we may need, when we ask Him in faith and claim the promises from His Word. We can’t work miracles; we can only pray for Him to do it and marvel at His power when He does.—David Brandt Berg

Published on Anchor September 2014. Read by Debra Lee.
Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ ESV.

² ESV.

³ Ephesians 3:20 KJV.

⁴ 1 Corinthians 2:9 KJV.

⁵ http://www.ccel.org/ccel/smith_hw/comfort.IX.html

⁶ http://www.worthydevotions.com/christian-devotional/are-you-in-great-need

⁷ Matthew 6:30.

⁸ Adapted from Brooks by the Traveler’s Way (London: H. R. Allenson, 1902).

⁹ Luke 1:37.

Hearing from Heaven (part 7)

Get Activated Series

2010-07-01

God Still Speaks!

 

Question #6: What if I have the gift of prophecy, but then one day when asking the Lord to speak I don’t get anything?

Answer: The first thing to do is not be discouraged or think that you’ve somehow lost your gift of prophecy. There could be a number of reasons why you’re drawing a blank. Maybe you’re distracted by other thoughts or things going on around you. Or perhaps the Lord is just testing you to see if you’ll persevere and hold on for the answer. Sometimes He wants to see if you’ll have the faith to patiently wait for Him to speak, instead of just expecting it to always happen immediately. Or maybe He wants to see how desperate you are and how willing you are to receive, before He begins to give the answers you need.

If after some time you don’t get anything, then try rereading some of your favorite verses or passages from the Bible to renew your faith, and pray earnestly. Check your heart to make sure there aren’t any unconfessed sins hampering your link with the Lord. Check that you haven’t been missing any of the basic requirements for hearing clearly from heaven, like spending time with the Lord and His Word, or coming to Him humbly, or asking Him to help you set aside your own thoughts. Then try again. If you still don’t get anything, then maybe the Lord has a reason for not giving you the answer right then. But in any case, don’t let it discourage you from coming back to the Lord next time. He’s more willing to give than we are to receive, and even if He doesn’t reveal the answer to your specific question at that moment, He may give you words of comfort and reassurance.

 

Question #7: Are there other ways to find God’s will besides prophecy?

Answer: Yes, there are several other ways to find God’s will. These include the following: 1) Applying the written Word to your situation. 2) The “voice of the Word”— which is when you’re reading the Word and suddenly something stands out to you as being the specific will of God for you, or the answer to your question. 3) Receiving direct revelations in ways other than prophecy, such as dreams, visions, or impressions. 4) Seeking counsel from others who are strong in faith and knowledge of the Word. 5) Circumstances which you believe to be engineered by the Lord—also known as “open and closed doors.”¹¹ 6) Personal concern or conviction. 7) Receiving specific, predetermined signs in answer to your requests—also known as “fleeces,” after a story in the Bible when Gideon used a fleece of wool to test God’s instructions.¹²

When you face an especially important decision, or one that will affect other people, it’s wise to find and con- firm God’s will through more than one means. Asking others to hear from the Lord for you is a good way to get an objective party involved, but if that’s not possible, you can ask God to use His Word or one or more of the other ways listed above to confirm what He’s told you in prophecy.

 

Question #8: What if God guides me to do a certain thing, but it results in failure? Does that mean God misled me?

Answer: You need to remember that even if something is God’s will, and even if you obey His voice and do your part to perform His will, things may not always work out as you imagine or hope they will. Why? Because by giving us all the majesty of choice, God has, in a sense, confined Himself to operate according to our decisions. He knows what would be best, and you may believe what He tells you and do your best to follow, but other people who are involved might disrupt the process with their decisions if they’re not also yielded to His will. Through their decisions they can also partly influence the outcome of prophecy.

If things don’t turn out exactly as you expect according to what God told you in advance, go to the Lord again and ask Him to explain what happened. In fact, it’s best to keep checking in with Him as things develop, so He can keep instructing you if and when the situation changes or when people make unexpected choices (good or bad) that affect what is happening. The Lord doesn’t control or force people; they have free will. But He can tell you what to do if their decisions change what He originally told you was His best. When people’s choices change the “road conditions,” He will show you the next best route to travel. Either way, He’ll get you to your destination.

It’s never God’s fault if things don’t turn out as you thought, or as He first indicated would be best. People fail, but God never fails. But the wonderful thing is, even when you mess up or others mess up, God is able to work everything out in the end if you love the Lord and are doing your best to follow Him by taking time in His Word and being a sample of His love to others. “All things work together for good to those who love God.”¹³

 

Question #9: What if I think I’m hearing from heaven, but then the message doesn’t make sense or doesn’t work?

Answer: There may be times when you will get distracted, or your motives won’t be quite right. Or maybe you failed to ask the Lord to override your own opinions or desires in the matter, or you were unwilling to let go of your preconceived ideas and be open to whatever He had to tell you. Or maybe you just misinterpreted what the Lord was saying. This is why it’s so important to confirm the messages you receive by one or more of the other ways to find God’s will.

As long as you do your best to stay close to the Lord and fulfill His basic requirements of filling up with His Word and putting aside your own will when hearing from Him, He will keep you on the safe and fruitful path of obedience to His will. God isn’t trying to see if He can trip you up or cause you to fail. To the contrary, He wants nothing more than to see you succeed. He is more willing to give than you are to receive. If you call upon Him, He promises to answer. He loves you! As He told His disciples—and this is His message to us today also: “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”¹⁴ He wants to be a part of your life, to guide you along the path of His perfect will, because He knows that will make you happiest and have the best results in the long run.

1. Romans 14:23
   2. Psalm 103:8
   3. Ephesians 2:8
   4. 1 Corinthians 10:13
   5. Psalm 103:14
   6. John 13:17 KJV
   7. Proverbs 3:5
   8. 1 Corinthians 13:2,8
   9. Matthew 18:3
   10. 1 Corinthians 1:26-27
   11. Revelation 3:8
   12. Judges 6:36-40
   13. Romans 8:28
   14. John 15:15

A Message from Heaven—for You!

It seems only fitting that a booklet about receiving words from heaven would contain such a message for you. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting, so “taste and see that the Lord is good!”¹

People whom you love, admire, or respect are those you generally choose to listen to and take advice from. In like manner, you who love and respect Me can also listen to and get advice from Me, and I have so much to say to you. I want to speak to you in several ways—be it as a friend, as a father, or as a soul mate, to name a few. I don’t want our relationship together to be formal, but personal.

Hearing from Me is straightforward; ask Me to speak and then listen. I can advise you in every way that you allow Me to—through My written Word, through the counsel of those who are wise, as well as through prophecy.

If you are hesitant about this prophecy idea, just try it and see the results for yourself. I have the answers and solutions to every problem and challenge you will ever face. I may not always keep you from the storms of life, but I can always keep you through them.

Going through your life listening to Me and going through life without heeding My voice are as different as setting out on a trip with a map, or setting out without one. It can make the difference between getting to your destination directly and getting lost as you attempt to make your way.

You are special to Me—yes, you, just you! When I died, I died for you. I would have died for you even if you had been the only one on earth—that is how much I love you! Please let Me communicate with you and love and care for you in every way possible.

Eternally yours,
Jesus

1. Psalm 34:8

Power Promises to Help You Hear from Heaven

No good thing will [God] withhold from those who walk uprightly.—Psalm 84:11

In the day when I cried out, You answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul.—Psalm 138:3

Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.—Jeremiah 1:9

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.—Jeremiah 33:3

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. … He reveals deep and secret things.—Daniel 2:20,22

Do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.—Mark 13:11

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!—Luke 11:9–13

When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.—John 16:13

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.—Acts 2:17

 

One of the main principles involved in reaching a decision is: don’t start talking—pray! Prayer is not just speaking your piece to God, but letting God speak His, too, and waiting until He answers. If you do, He’ll tell you what you’re supposed to do. Take time to hear from God, and He’ll take the time to straighten out the problem.—D.B.B.

*

Noah [in the Bible] must have spent lots of time hearing from the Lord, or he couldn’t have gotten all those directions on how to build the ark. Remember, he’d never even seen a boat that size before! God probably gave him the exact specifications for every inch of the ark.—D.B.B.

*

When the Lord gives you the gift of prophecy, it’s for a purpose. He expects you to use it to get His direction when the answer to your specific question or problem is not in the Word. Then you must be willing to do things His way, because only He knows what to do.

*

It’s not a heavy burden to ask Him for answers and direction. To the contrary, it’s wonderful, liberating, life-changing, marvelous, and amazing that He speaks to us directly and personally, answering our questions and giving us His counsel and encouragement and comfort, opening up to us the secrets of hearts and situations. Hear from Him today, and you’ll be so happy—and so will He.—Maria Fontaine

*

Jesus can give you personalized instruction for any situation that comes up. He knows what you’re going through, and He can and wants to give you what you need—answers to your questions, direction when you don’t know what to do, comfort when you feel like you can’t go on, courage to be a witness when you’re afraid, solutions to personnel conflicts that seem beyond repair, the encouragement you need to do His will when you’re struggling with a difficult decision, and the supernatural strength that comes only when you lean on Him and find His strength. All of this and more is at your disposal if you’ll just take your problems, trials, needs, and questions to Jesus!—Maria Fontaine

 

Acknowledgements

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scriptures marked KJV are from the King James Version (Authorized Version).
Quotations credited to D.B.B. are taken from the writings of David Brandt Berg (1919-1994).
Where quotations are not attributed, authorship could not be ascertained.

By Rafael Holding, for the Get Activated series.
Cover design by Julia Kelly.
ISBN 13: 978-3-03730-550-8
© 2010, Aurora Production AG, Switzerland.
All Rights Reserved. Printed in Taiwan.
Back Cover

Contrary to a popular misconception, God does not expect you to sort out your own problems and fend for yourself without any help.
He has a very personal interest in you, and wants to speak to you personally and directly. He will answer your questions, help you solve your problems, give you wisdom when you’re bewildered, lead the way when you feel lost, lift your spirits when you’re low, make you a source of strength and encouragement to others, and love you from here to eternity.

Would you like to know how you can hear God speak to you personally? Follow the simple step-by-step guidelines on these pages and discover the wonders of Hearing from Heaven!

Hearing from Heaven (part 6)

Get Activated Series

2010-07-01

God Still Speaks!

 Frequently Asked Questions

Question #1: What if I receive a message that tells me to do something very out of the ordinary?

Answer: You can’t rule out the possibility that God may at some time tell you to do something that seems to go against logic or reason, and requires extra faith or courage. Sometimes God does ask us to do things that seem odd or even ridiculous, but not usually.

So before you do anything drastic, it’s best to ask God to confirm that it is indeed what He wants you to do. Search the Scriptures. Look for a similar situation in the Word, or verses that support that course of action. Make sure it doesn’t contradict the written Word. Don’t rule out the possibility that you might have misinterpreted the prophecy or that it is incomplete. It’s a good idea to go back to the Lord with any questions you have about the first message; He may either give a further explanation or clarification that resolves the problem, or confirm His original message.

If you know others who also have the gift of prophecy or knowledge of the Scriptures, it may be helpful to explain your situation to them. Show one or two others the message you received and the Scriptures you found that support either side, and if they have the gift of prophecy, ask them to get a confirmation or clarification from the Lord for you. A confirmation received through a third party is often a big help at a time like this.

When you get God’s confirmation, either through His Word or through subsequent messages, or through the Word-based counsel of others, you will know it. It will increase your faith and give you peace of mind. With His confirmation, you can proceed by faith to do whatever He has asked you to do, even if it is out of the ordinary. But if you don’t have a peace about it, if you’re still not sure, you shouldn’t do it. “Whatever is not from faith is sin.”¹

Question #2: What if the Lord tells me something, but I don’t want to do it? Will He take away my gift of prophecy?

Answer: When you ask the Lord to speak, you should be prepared to believe, accept, and do whatever He asks of you. Don’t worry, though. This does not mean you will constantly receive messages that are difficult for you to receive or act upon. Jesus loves you, and He wants you to be happy. He has given you the gift of prophecy because He wants to make your life easier and better in the long run.

God has given us the majesty of choice. Life is made up of countless choices, which we are free to make with- out much interference from God. He points us to His Word and often reveals His will on matters that we ask Him about, but He allows us to decide which way we’re going to go, His or our own. He doesn’t force us to do things, or impose His will on us. How closely we follow is up to us.

Don’t worry though, if some things God tells you are a little difficult to believe at first. God is “plenteous in mercy.”² He understands your human nature and weakness, and being the good Father that He is, has great patience with you. What matters most to Him is that you sincerely want to have faith and you want to heed Him. If you do, He will increase your faith and help you follow. Faith is the gift of God.³

If something the Lord asks of you still seems too difficult, even after you have fed your faith with the written Word, talk it over some more with Him. He may give you more details or explain it in a way that will give you faith to do what He’s asking of you, or He may suggest an alternative course of action that would be easier for you, though perhaps not always with the same results. “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”⁴

Often when God presents His will to us, He allows leeway for us to choose several options within His will. So if you don’t have the faith and confidence to enact some of what He’s told you to do, you can ask Him if there is any other way you can go about obeying Him, within His will. Of course, this isn’t to be used as an excuse to take God’s messages lightly, because most of the time His first message will contain His best and highest will, that which will bear the most fruit and bring about His plan in the most efficient way. At the same time “He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust,”⁵ and even if He doesn’t give you any other options when you go back to Him, He may give you just the message of strength and encouragement that you need to tackle what He wants you to do.

The ideal, of course, is that you obey Him no matter what He asks of you, and this is what will make you happiest in the end. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”⁶

Question #3: If someone wants me to ask God for the winning lottery number, or wants to know some specific detail about their future—or if I have a question of that nature—will God tell me?

Answer: If you have a specific question like that, why not ask Him? That’s the surest way to find out if it’s His will to tell you certain details. He’s certainly able, and if that’s really what’s best for everyone involved, He just might!

On the other hand, He tells us that we sometimes don’t get the answers we want because we ask amiss, out of greed or selfishness. Our motives are wrong. He also reserves the right not to tell us things that we don’t really need to know, or are not in our best interest to know now.

A common mistake that people make is expecting God to tell them every detail about their future. Although the Lord can and sometimes does reveal secrets of the future, He sets certain limits on what He will tell us—and He does this for our own good. As our heavenly Father, He knows that we can only handle so much at a time, and that if we knew everything about the future, it would take much of the “magic” out of the present. It would also reduce our dependence on His guidance, because we’d feel like we “know it all.” We’d then be much more likely to make mistakes because we’re depending on our own wisdom instead of God’s.

So the Lord tells us what we need to know at the time, and He sometimes prepares our hearts for the future in some way by giving us clues or hints. But the Christian life is one of faith, and God often tests our faith by only revealing His plan for our lives little by little, step by step.

Your path through life is like a winding road—you don’t always see what’s around the bend until you get there. Sometimes God sees fit to reveal things to us right before we get to the bend, if He knows that the information will benefit us, but He usually takes it one bend at a time.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”⁷ If you’re trusting the Lord to guide you through life, He’s going to direct your paths and bring you through experiences He knows will benefit you in the long run.—So trust Him!

If you have a question, or face a tough decision, or you need guidance in some aspect of your life, by all means ask Him. Then be willing to receive as much or as little as God wishes to show you. If you ask in faith, He’ll either tell you at least part of the answer, or He’ll explain why now is not the best time for you to know. Whatever He says, you can trust that He who sees the past, present, and the future, He who loves you more than anyone else ever could, has your best interests at heart.

Question #4: What if I try to follow the steps in this booklet, and I ask God for the gift of prophecy, but don’t receive it? Does He not give this gift to some people? If I don’t get it, am I at a disadvantage spiritually?

Answer: The Lord has promised that if we ask Him in faith, we will receive. There are times, though, when He answers differently than we expect, or His timetable is different than ours. For reasons we don’t always under- stand, the Lord doesn’t give some people evidence that they have received the gift of prophecy immediately when they ask. If you are one of those people, don’t give up! The Lord may simply be testing your faith, or teaching you patience and perseverance. Or He may be bringing you closer to Him by making you more desperate in prayer. Or He may make you wait in order to keep you humble, or to help you appreciate what a miraculous manifestation of His Spirit prophecy really is, when He does give you evidence of it further down the road.

In the meantime, keep trying. Often when people first receive the gift of prophecy, they only receive very short messages—perhaps only a few words or a paraphrased Bible verse. To them, that doesn’t seem like prophecy. Well, they have the gift, but theirs is a “baby” gift. The more they use it, the more it grows. So perhaps you do have the gift, and just don’t realize it. Thank God for every word He gives you, keep going back for more, and you’ll get more.

Even if you don’t have the gift of prophecy, that doesn’t mean you can’t follow the Lord or love Him and others, or even find His will in your life. There are other gifts of the Spirit, and the Lord may bless you with one or more of those instead. Perhaps He knows you need those more, or He will be able to accomplish more through them. And the most important gift of the Lord’s Spirit is love! The apostle Paul said: “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge … but have not love, I am nothing. Love never fails.”⁸

If you didn’t get any proof that you’ve received the gift of prophecy as soon as you prayed for it, or even if you never get a prophecy, you can still avail yourself of the Lord’s living words through others who have the gift.

And you can still draw very close to Him in your personal quiet time, by reading, studying, and meditating on His written Word; through praying and giving Him your cares, thoughts, desires, and worries; through asking Him to speak to you in other ways; through simply enjoying being in His presence. As you continue to be faithful to take time with Him, He will be faithful to speak to You in one of the many ways that He uses, even if not in direct prophecy.

Question #5: If prophecy really works, and if God is willing to talk to anyone who will listen, then why don’t more people hear from heaven?

Answer: The first requirement is to establish a personal connection with Jesus by accepting Him. But unfortunately, even many who have received Jesus into their hearts simply don’t believe they can hear from heaven in prophecy. If they would only dare to try it, to put God on the spot by sincerely asking Him to speak to them, He would. That tiny step of faith is all it would take.

In most cases, their minds get in the way. Hearing from heaven just isn’t logical. This is why Jesus said we have to become as children to enter the heavenly realm.⁹ Children don’t know any better, so they just do what God says.

“Not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise.”¹⁰ Intellectuality can work against you when it comes to hearing God’s voice. But Paul the apostle was a very educated man, and he heard God’s voice. At the same time, hearing from God requires humbling yourself before Him, and putting your own reasoning and intelligence in subjection to His will, if you’re going to have any success.

God is the one who gave us our ability to think, and of course He expects us to use our brains. But He also gives us the option of choosing His mind over our own. Those who choose to tap into His infinite knowledge and wisdom see and hear wonderful and marvelous things; those who choose not to are limited to the confines of their finite minds.

Hearing from Heaven (part 5)

Get Activated Series

2010-07-01

God Still Speaks!

 

Avoiding the Pitfalls

Yes, there are pitfalls, but they can be avoided with a little caution and prayer. Here are some of the most common ones, along with a few tried-and-proven tips.

Wanting the credit

The first thing to watch out for is pride. As you begin to benefit from the messages you receive from heaven, it’s a natural temptation to want to take part of the credit to yourself. After all, these wonderful words or pictures are coming through you, aren’t they? Certainly you must deserve at least a little special honor or recognition because of your ability to receive such messages from the Lord!

The words are coming through you and it is an honor to receive them, but this doesn’t make you any better than anyone else. It’s not of your own doing, it’s the Lord’s power coming through. As Jesus said, “The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. … Without Me you can do nothing.”¹ Remind yourself of that constantly. Give credit where credit is due. Pray and strive to be humble in spirit, and give God all the glory, regardless of how wonderfully God sees fit to speak through you.

“When you pray,” Jesus once told His followers, “don’t be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Well, they have their reward. Instead, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”² And the same goes for prophesying.

Entering into your “secret place,” whether it’s your room, office, or backyard, is a key to successfully hearing from the Lord. You’ve got to get away from it all, in attitude as well as body. You shouldn’t “advertise” that you’re about to hear from heaven. That doesn’t mean you have to keep it a big secret. There will be times when you should tell others about your gift, or share some of the messages you’ve received so that they can also be encouraged, but bragging about your gift of prophecy will often result in the blessing stopping there.

Also be careful that you don’t become so familiar with this supernatural gift that you get laid back or take it for granted. The Bible says, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”³ After you have heard from the Lord regularly for some time, you may grow overly confident in yourself. After all, it’s easy enough now that you have the hang of it, you think. That can also lead you to start thinking that maybe it’s you after all, or that you’re something special since you hear from the Lord so easily. Remember, it’s not in you; it’s just Jesus through you.

Failure to measure your messages against the written Word

If you don’t check your messages against the written Word, you’re much more likely to go astray. Imagine that you are weaving a large and intricate tapestry. You’ve been given detailed written instructions, and as long as you follow those, the pattern comes out perfect. But if you decide you no longer need the instructions, you miss a thread here and a thread there, and the pattern gets messed up. The mistake may be so small that at first it’s hardly noticeable, but if you don’t stop and fix it and go back to following the instructions, you’ll end up with a horribly distorted picture.

Failure to check your messages against the written Word is often the result of depending too much on prophecy for guidance, to the neglect of the written Word. Another reason for not checking what you receive against the Bible is that it takes time, especially if you don’t know the Bible well. It’s work to pray and look for similar situations in the Bible that confirm or support the messages you receive, but it’s well worth it. If you are faithful to read and study your Bible a little each day, it will get easier and easier—and it will be there when you need it.

Other men and women of faith can also be of great assistance to you in helping you to apply and balance the words you receive from heaven. The Bible says, “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established,”⁴ and, “In the multitude of counselors there is safety.”⁵

1. John 15:5
   2. Matthew 6:5-6
   3. 1 Corinthians 10:12
   4. Matthew 18:16
   5. Proverbs 11:14

The Hinderer

We can’t ignore the facts. The Devil and his evil spirits exist, and they oppose God’s children every chance they get. The last thing the Devil wants is for God’s children to establish a personal link with their Savior. He knows how much good the gift of prophecy can accomplish, and he’s not happy that you’ve discovered it.

We don’t need to fear the Devil or his forces, though, because Jesus is greater than they are.¹ Nevertheless, the Bible warns us to not be ignorant of the Devil’s tactics.²

If you feel barraged by distractions every time you try to hear from God, it’s probably the Devil or one of his spiritual agents trying to clog your channel to heaven, to jam the spiritual airwaves with static so you can’t tune in to God’s station and receive the message He is beaming your way. If you feel this is happening, you can put into practice the verse “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.”³ Some ways you can do this and clear your mind of distracting thoughts are to sing a devotional song, or read some Scripture promises aloud. If you’re worrying about something, it can help to commit it to the Lord in prayer. Then once you’ve done that, you can safely leave your worries in God’s hands, and focus on His message for you.

It’s always a good idea to put the messages that you and others receive from heaven to the test. Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them.”⁴ The messages that God gives are scriptural, edifying, instructive, encouraging, and uplifting. They result in the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.⁵ Even when God corrects or scolds, He gives us hope and makes us feel loved, like a father encouraging his children. If the words you receive from heaven bring about any or all of these benefits in your life or the lives of others, then you can be assured that they are indeed words from heaven.

If you love the Lord and are sincere in your desire to hear from Him, if you pray earnestly for Him to help you stay on track, and if you are fulfilling His basic requirements to the best of your ability, then you can rest assured that you’re hearing from Him. You can continue to ask Him to speak to you, and have full confidence that He will. When the heart is right, the rest will be right too.⁶

One of your best defenses against the Devil’s static when you’re trying to receive God’s signals is to try to minimize the Devil’s input at all times. He and his forces are quite active in the world today. It’s apparent everywhere you look, from advertisements to television to the Internet. Not everything you see and hear through mass media is of the Devil, of course, but he gets plenty of press and airtime. Just as God’s Word inspires our faith in God and His ways, the Devil’s propaganda pulls us his way. You may not realize it at the time, but that negative input has an effect on your spirit.

It’s like the old saying, “You are what you eat.” Just as you are what you eat, physically, you are what you read and watch and listen to, spiritually. The more of the Devil’s propaganda you take in, the further you will drift from the Lord and His Word, and the harder it will be for you to receive God’s messages. If you’re not sure about some of the things you take in throughout the day, ask yourself, “What effect does it have on me?”

1. 1 John 4:4
   2. 2 Corinthians 2:11
   3. James 4:7
   4. Matthew 7:20
   5. Galatians 5:22-23 KJV
   6. 1 John 3:21-22

What to Do About Doubts

One of the Devil’s primary goals, of course, is to convince you that you can’t hear from God and that it was a mistake for you to even try in the first place. Refuse to listen to or accept such lies! The only way the Devil could possibly rob you of God’s gift is if you surrender it to him—so don’t!

The Devil will do everything he can to get you to doubt. First he’ll try to convince you that there’s no such thing as hearing from heaven. Then if that doesn’t work, he’ll try to convince you that you’re too sinful, too shallow, or carnal to receive anything from heaven. His ultimate goal is to get you to lose faith in God altogether.

Of course the Devil doesn’t always come out with obvious lies like, “There is no God.” He usually begins with little questions which raise little doubts, and his questions seem so reasonable. He takes advantage of our earthbound natural reasoning—our “carnal mind,” as it is referred to in the Bible—which is simply unable to understand God or the workings of His Spirit. How could we ever understand the infinite God with our finite little minds? “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”¹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”²

How can we rationalize receiving messages from a God that we can’t see, in a manner that defies our natural senses? We can’t! We just have to accept it and believe it by faith, because God says that’s the way it is. If God has chosen to speak to His children through prophecy, or by any other means for that matter, who are we to question Him? God doesn’t appear before our eyes, nor does He often give obvious physical manifestations of His presence or power. If He did, we wouldn’t need faith, and would miss out on the blessings He wants to give us for choosing to walk by faith. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”³

How do we walk by faith? By staying full of the Word. As we said earlier, “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.”⁴ There’s only one way to find the faith you need to partake of this special and supernatural gift: read, absorb, believe, and act on God’s Word.

Faith is also the opposite of doubt. So the heavier the attacks of doubt, the more time you should spend absorbing the Word. Feed your faith, and starve your doubts. Let the light in, and the darkness will flee!

The way to rid yourself of his doubts is to refuse to listen to them. Give no place to the Devil!⁵ Take a tip from Jesus: Answer the Devil’s doubts with Scripture, “It is written!”⁶

For example, if the Devil says, “God’s not going to speak through sinful you, of all people,” you can answer, “It is written, ‘Ask and it will be given.’”⁷

Even after you understand and accept this basic explanation of prophecy, you may very well have questions from time to time. Sincere questions about prophecy—or any other work of God’s Spirit—are different than doubts. Questions only become doubts when you refuse to accept the answers that God gives in His Word or through prophecy itself. It’s good to get your questions resolved by taking them to the Lord and asking Him to explain, or searching for the answers in God’s Word yourself, or talking with those who are well versed in God’s Word.

You can’t ignore or suppress either your questions or doubts, and pretend they’re not there. But neither can you resolve them by natural reasoning. You’ll only think yourself into a bigger muddle. You must ask Jesus. He has all the answers, and He will give them to you if you take your questions to Him in a sincere, humble, open spirit. He’ll either give the answers to you directly, through prophecy, or He’ll help you find them in His Word, or He’ll use others to help you find them.

Don’t be ashamed to confess your doubts and fears to other Christians who have strong faith in the areas where yours is weak. Of course it won’t do you any good to discuss your questions and doubts with others who share those same questions and doubts; you’ll only drag each other down even more. But those who have strong faith built on a foundation of God’s Word can be a big help to you through their prayers, counsel, and godly instruction.

Like all of God’s other gifts, you have to accept the gift of prophecy by faith. It’s also like electricity: You don’t have to understand it to use it. It works, and that’s all you really need to know. God may help you understand it better in time, but He wants you to start using it and enjoying its benefits now.

 

Prophecy can be mysterious at times, and it takes faith on our part to believe. But when we don’t understand something that the Lord reveals in prophecy, or something seems contradictory, He tells us to just ask Him again. I do this often when I’m not exactly sure what the Lord is saying or indicating should be done. The answers and clarifications that the Lord then gives often amaze me.—Maria Fontaine

1. 1 Corinthians 2:14
   2. Isaiah 55:9
   3. John 20:29
   4. Romans 10:17
   5. Ephesians 4:27
   6. Matthew 4:1-11
   7. Luke 11:9

Hearing from Heaven (part 4)

 Get Activated Series

2010-07-01

God Still Speaks!

Up Close and Personal

If you’re anything like the rest of us, you sometimes get discouraged or experience mood swings—maybe even depression. Perhaps a loved one or close friend has passed on. Perhaps your troubles are mounting and friends are suddenly few and far between. Perhaps you’ve just been laid off from your job, or perhaps it happened months ago. Whatever your problem, heart- ache, or trial, Jesus wants to comfort you. He’s a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Even though Jesus is the Son of God, He experienced the same difficulties and feelings of disappointment that we do. There’s nothing He doesn’t understand. Like an old hymn says:

When your heart is aching, turn to Jesus,
He’s the dearest friend that you can know;
You will find Him standing close beside you,
Waiting peace and comfort to bestow.
Heartaches, take them all to Jesus;
Go to Him today, do it now without delay.
Heartaches, take them all to Jesus;
He will take your heartaches all away.

The Bible says that God is near to the brokenhearted.¹ He’s more than a shoulder to cry on or a hand to hold. He can reach into the deepest places of your heart. He can soothe the pain and suffering, and replace it with His love, peace, comfort, and yes, even joy. He can do all this through His Words. When He shines the light of His Word on your tears, they turn to rainbow hues. It’s sunshine after the rain, light at the end of the tunnel.

Jesus loves you dearly. He wants to express that love to you personally, but He can’t unless you let Him. He wants to help you understand why He has allowed certain difficulties to befall you, but He needs you to listen. He wants to help you understand why you’re feeling the way you are, and to tell you what you can do about it, but you need to want His answers. In your most trying times, His Word—His written Word and His living Word in prophecy—will come alive in your heart if you reach out and receive it.

The Lord wants to be your personal shepherd or counselor.² When you feel alone, when you need a shoulder to cry on, someone to understand, a word of sympathy and encouragement, He is always available!—Maria Fontaine

*

Jesus will never run out of things to say. He will thrill you again and again with new revelations, fresh illustrations and word pictures, increasingly tender words of love, specific detailed instruction, and more. It just flows and flows and flows—as abundant as the ocean. Why settle for just a little “wee drop” when you can dive in and swim and revel in the refreshing, delicious water of His living Word for you personally?—Maria Fontaine

*

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
—C. Austin Miles (1868–1946)

1. Psalm 34:18
   2. See Psalm 23

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

As you experience the wonderful benefits of hearing from heaven, you’ll no doubt want to share this gift with your friends, loved ones, and acquaintances. Once you’re convinced of God’s ability to speak to you—to give you down-to-earth, practical, workable solutions to the problems and challenges of life, and to provide comfort and encouragement when you’re low—you will realize that your gift could help others as well.

There are so many broken hearts and wounded spirits in the world today. Chances are you know someone who is passing through a difficult time, or struggling to recover from a recent tragedy. At times like these, nothing could be a greater encouragement than a personal message from the Lord, in which He expresses His love and gives comfort as only He can. After all, He knows them and their heart better than anyone. So in addition to flowers or a card, why not ask Jesus to give you a message from heaven which you can pass on to that person who is going through a crisis?

God is available to anyone who sincerely seeks Him. He isn’t exclusive, He isn’t choosy, He doesn’t play favorites. He could just as easily speak directly to your friend and loved one if they would only believe and put forth the effort. But often when people are at their lowest, God seems farthest away. Even if they know the Lord, they often feel unworthy of His speaking to them, or even of His love. Or maybe they feel forsaken by Him because of the difficulties they face. They need someone to channel God’s love to them—maybe you. Once they are touched by God’s love through a message you receive for them, perhaps their faith to reach out to God themselves will be rekindled.

It’s not always easy to receive a message from the Lord for others. It takes a lot of courage. What if they think you just made it up, or that you’re a bit strange for thinking you could actually hear from God? Well, you don’t need to worry about what people will think. Jesus said, “If I am lifted up … [I] will draw all peoples to Myself.”¹ If they are at all open to the Holy Spirit, the Lord’s Word will work in their hearts and will have a positive effect on their lives. Then they will believe. Besides, it’s not your reputation that’s at stake, but God’s, and He is perfectly capable of defending His own reputation.

When you receive a message from heaven for someone else, it’s simply your job to receive it and pass it on. It’s a bit like being one of those old-fashioned telegraph operators: you’re just the link, and once you’ve passed the message on, it’s up to the recipient to receive it. If they accept His words, even if they wonder about them a little at first, then they will benefit from the comfort, peace, solutions, or whatever other help God is trying to give them.

When they do, they may very well come back to you with a heart full of gratitude. You were the conveyor of God’s message and love, so they may feel indebted to you. If they don’t understand how prophecy works, they may try to give you the credit for this wonderful manifestation of God’s power. You know you were just the receptacle to catch His words, you know it was nothing great that you did, but they may not. This is when you need to redirect all praise and glory to God. Make it clear to them that you’re just the messenger, and thank God with them that He was able to speak to them, even if it was through a weak, lowly, “earthen vessel”—you.

“Every good and perfect gift comes down from above.”² Patting yourself on the back for the good that results from your gift is the quickest way to lose that gift. However, if you continue to remind yourself of God’s greatness and your own weakness and fallibility, you’ll find great fulfillment and satisfaction in knowing you were a “vessel fit for the Master’s use.”³

If you use your gift to help others, the Lord will bless you and help it to grow even more. Prophecy is not meant as some sort of divination rod to use only for your personal gain, or to just find answers to questions you’re curious about. Rather it’s a tool to help you develop a closer relationship with the Lord, and to draw closer to Him, and to be a better Christian and a better witness of His love to others. Yes, it is to help you make wiser, sounder decisions in your personal life, as well as in your business and family situations. But it’s also to help others in some way—either through receiving messages for them, or by helping you, through the instruction God gives you personally, to be a better example of God’s love and Word to them. The more you pour out to others, the more the Lord will give you in return.

Let God love others through you. Your life will then be blessed with the satisfaction that you are not only cultivating a personal relationship with God, but that you are also helping others come to know Him better.

We need to always remember that our spiritual gifts make us servants of others. A gift from the Lord such as the gift of prophecy makes us obligated to others, to use it for their help and edification. It’s like the Lord’s parable about the talents.⁴ They’re a serious responsibility and He wants to make sure we put them to good use helping others, not just hide them away because we’re embarrassed or afraid of what people will think. It’s a serious, humbling responsibility to have such gifts.—Maria Fontaine

1. John 12:32
   2. James 1:17
   3. 2 Timothy 2:21
   4. See Matthew 25:14–30

General Maintenance

Follow these simple maintenance tips to keep your new “power tool” in tip-top condition:

Practice regularly

“Use it or lose it,” as the adage goes. In order to maintain your gift, you’ve got to use it frequently. Make it a habit. Faith is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. Every time you ask God to speak to you and you receive His message, it demonstrates that you have faith in the process. The more you exercise your gift, the more your faith will grow, and the easier it will become.

Read the Word

It takes faith to hear from God, and that faith comes from God’s Word.

As you practice using your gift, your confidence in it will grow. You’ll get over the uncertainty you felt at first, wondering if it would actually work. That’s wonderful, but it can also be dangerous. If you’re not careful, you can begin to think you don’t need to read your Bible anymore—after all, you’re getting it “straight from the horse’s mouth.” But that’s not so! Jesus once likened God’s Word to “treasures new and old.”¹ You need both, and you need to find the proper balance.

Here’s an analogy: Consider prophecy and the written Word as two basic food groups—say, carbohydrates and protein. Eating only one or the other wouldn’t benefit your body nearly as much as the two combined in a balanced diet.

You also need a knowledge of the written Word in order to confirm the veracity of the words you personally receive from heaven, and that knowledge comes from regular reading and study. The Bible is the handbook of the heavenly Department of Weights and Measures, which gives the specifications by which you can measure the messages you receive. God won’t tell you anything contrary to what He has said in the Bible, but don’t be surprised if He fills in lots of gaps. In fact, that’s one of the main purposes of prophecy: to fill in the gaps, and to apply the spiritual principles of the Bible to you personally in this day and age.

Some things either just aren’t covered in the Bible, or aren’t covered in enough detail, or the application might not be clear in the context of today’s world. For example, if you’re wondering whether you should travel somewhere by plane or by car, you won’t find a verse in the Bible that specifically tells you which of those two methods of transportation you should use, since they didn’t exist at that time. However, the Lord might bring to your mind a verse about going slow or fast. Or, He might just give you a more specific answer in prophecy, using today’s terminology.

In less obvious matters, it takes wisdom to know when you should apply what the Bible says literally, and when the Lord intends for you to adapt it to your situation. The good news is, He has promised you that wisdom: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”²

Fellowship with other believers

Whether you are a new Christian or simply new at hearing from the Lord, you will benefit greatly from fellowship with other Christians who have faith in God, as well as faith in this particular gift of the Spirit. As you start out exercising your own gift of prophecy, the counsel and support of other people with faith, as well as their knowledge of the written Word, will help you balance and benefit from the messages you receive. However, if you aren’t able to have fellowship and interaction with other believers, remember that God is not limited; He can still speak to you, if you’re willing to listen.

Stay utterly dependent on the Lord

Hearing from God takes work. It takes effort. It takes a certain amount of desperation of spirit. Jesus promises that if you ask, seek, and knock, you will receive and find, and the things of His Spirit will be opened to you.3 But He doesn’t say all those things will be delivered to you on a silver platter, with no effort on your part. Don’t get complacent about it, but acknowledge how much you need the Lord, what a privilege it is to hear from Him, and stay eager in spirit to receive His answers.

1. Matthew 13:52
   2. James 1:5
   3. Matthew 7:7

Hearing from Heaven (part 3)

Get Activated Series

2010-07-01

God Still Speaks!

 Practical Applications

Some people say, “There are no practical uses for prophecy in this day and age.” Fortunately for us, they’re wrong! Their lack of faith causes them to miss out on the spiritual treasures God would like to give them if they’d only believe. That’s sad, but that doesn’t mean you need to miss out too. All He requires is that you ask of Him in faith. “Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”¹

The practical uses for prophecy are endless. The Lord can fill any need, answer any question, provide any solution, untangle any mess, resolve any conflict. You just need to give Him a chance. If you sincerely try to do what He tells you to do, if you carry out His advice, you can be assured it will work. You’ll never regret having listened to Him. Granted, you may not see perfect results immediately, and sometimes you may never know exactly how a certain situation was helped by your listening to the Lord. However, if you let Him lead in your life, you can’t go wrong. You can trust that He will stick to His Word. He will give you just what you need and what He knows will help you most in the long run.

The Lord wants us to involve Him in every area of our lives, and to let Him help us make choices and decisions, big and small. Consider this example:

Jan and Bill are married. Jan is visiting her aunt and uncle in a town several hours from where she and Bill live. It’s Friday, and she’s already been there for a week.

She calls Bill to see how things are going at home, and Bill assures her that everything is just great. Jan mentions that her aunt has invited her to stay for two more days, and Bill says he and the kids can manage for a couple more days, no problem. Jan hangs up, but before making her final decision and telling her aunt that she will stay longer, she goes to her room and asks Jesus to confirm this plan.

In a gentle voice, the Lord tells Jan, “It would be better if you returned home now. Though Bill and the children seem to be doing fine and Bill said they could manage for a few more days, they’re going to need you there on the weekend.”

Jan has only recently developed the habit of asking for the Lord’s counsel regarding her personal decisions, so she’s a little shaky. She asks the Lord for more, and He brings a Scripture to mind. “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.”² Since that is exactly what she has just done in asking Him about her plans, this verse gives her faith that the first answer she got about returning now was indeed the Lord’s voice.

So she ends her visit as she had originally planned, and returns home that night. Saturday begins as usual. Bill mows the lawn and Jan does a little spring cleaning while the kids play. Jan wonders momentarily if she made a mistake in returning home when she did, as it seems that Bill and the kids and the house would have survived the weekend without her. She reminds herself that her decision to return was based on God’s leading, and continues her chores.

After lunch the telephone rings. It’s Bill’s employer. A crisis has arisen that requires Bill’s immediate attention. Five minutes after he receives the news, Bill kisses Jan and the kids goodbye as he hurries out the door.

Now it all becomes clear: If Jan had been at her aunt and uncle’s, several hours away, Bill would have been in quite a fix. Their neighbors are all away, so there would have been no one to look after the kids. Jan thanks God for His loving, wise guidance. He hadn’t told her what emergency would arise, but He had showed her which would be the better of two seemingly equal choices.

Divine guidance can make a difference in almost any situation, big or small, that you might face in life. Without the Lord, you might get it right part of the time or most of the time, but He can get it right every time. Prophecy will be an invaluable tool when you’re faced with major questions or complex problems, but you’ll also find that He can help you in seemingly small matters as well. He’s always around, and He’s always happy to help. Why not avail yourself of His words of wisdom—the best professional help available anywhere today?

Maybe your business is in trouble and you aren’t sure what move to make next. Maybe you’re having trouble getting along with your boss or your employees. Maybe you’re having marriage or relationship problems. Maybe your work and personal relationships are going fine, but you just don’t see where your life is taking you or what your priorities and goals should be.

If you have children, there will always be plenty of things you don’t understand and need heavenly insight about. One of your children might be slow in learning to read, one might have a bed-wetting problem, one might not make friends easily. Maybe your oldest has just entered adolescence and suddenly you two can’t seem to communicate anymore. There are plenty of books that could be of some help at these times, and you can always turn to more experienced parents, teachers, or counselors for advice, but why not also ask the one who created your children and knows their needs better than anyone?

Perhaps you’re going on a business trip, and there are several alternatives for arranging your itinerary. Maybe you’re planning a move to another city, or considering a career change. Maybe you’re not sure when would be the best time to take your vacation, or where to go. If any of these scenarios sound familiar, take them as opportunities to tap into the wisdom of your all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful God. He knows what’s ahead, and what will be the best for you and make you happiest. He can also protect you from accidents and harm by steering you clear of them, if you check your plans with Him ahead of time and follow His directions.

It may feel a little awkward at first, putting the Lord smack in the center of your daily life, with all its joys, sorrows, difficulties, and hard choices, but that’s exactly where He belongs and wants to be. Pretty soon you’ll wonder how you ever made a decision without Him.

1. John 16:24
   2. Proverbs 3:6

Basic Operating Instructions

When you buy a new power tool or household appliance, it usually comes with operating and safety instructions. At first glance your new gadget may look relatively easy to operate, but when you look at the written instructions you often discover some features you weren’t aware of. It gives a few tips for maintenance that will keep your new tool or appliance in top working condition, and it lists some safety points that may not have occurred to you.

Receiving the gift of prophecy is like receiving a new spiritual power tool. There are a few things you really should know about it before you try to use it.

Choosing the time and place

If you’re going to get things from the Lord, you need to choose a quiet place, as free from distractions as possible. It’s still possible to hear from heaven if there are outside noises like children’s rowdy play, other people talking loudly in a nearby room, or traffic or construction in the street, but it’s harder to concentrate.

In the hustle and bustle of a busy day, it’s hard to find even a moment of peace and quiet, and once your day begins, you may find it hard to stop for this type of quiet time—not to mention finding a place where it’s quiet. And of course the best time to find out what you’re supposed to do each day is before the day starts. Those are three good reasons for taking your time with the Lord first thing in the morning. You might not always be able to do that, and even when you do, other things may come up later in the day that require you to stop and get God’s new perspective, but that’s the ideal.

Get comfortable

Your body doesn’t have to be in any certain position to pray and hear from the Lord. Whatever position makes it easiest for you to concentrate and receive the Lord’s words is best. It also helps if you aren’t too hot or cold, tired, hungry, or thirsty. Any of these circumstances might distract you, so take care of them first if you can.

However, you can’t always wait until the circum- stances are just right in order to take time to hear from the Lord. If you wait until the setting is perfect, you might never get around to it. So if you need an answer right away, then stop wherever you are and ask Him. No matter what else is going on, you can still get a reply if you put forth the effort.

Clear your mind

Whether you’re just beginning your day or stopping in the middle of it to hear from the Lord, you’ll need to get in the mood. Sometimes it’s difficult to get your work or other thoughts out of your mind, but it’s important to ask the Lord to do that.

It often helps to spend time—it doesn’t have to be more than a few minutes—reading the Word before you start. Keep a Bible and other devotional material handy for times like this. Sometimes it also helps to sing a song or two of praise to the Lord. If you can’t or don’t feel comfortable singing out loud, sing in your heart. “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.”¹

Praise, prayer, the Word, singing—all these can help clear your mind, quiet your spirit, and focus your full attention on the Lord. Find whatever works best for you.

Keep a record

When the Lord speaks to you, try to record His message in some way. If you have an audio recording device, you can repeat the words phrase by phrase as you receive them from the Lord. Or if you see a vision, you can describe it, in as much detail as possible. Or you can write or type the message as it comes. If you choose to write down your messages, you may want to keep a notebook especially for this purpose. Be sure to record the questions you ask the Lord, as well as His answers.

Recording the questions and messages makes it possible for you to review and study them later. Often people who hear from God don’t remember the message clearly afterward, especially if it was a long or detailed one. Or even if they do remember the gist of what the Lord said, they can’t remember exactly how He expressed it. It’s often as though His Spirit bypasses your consciousness and puts the words right in your mouth if you’re speaking them into a recorder, or pushes your hand along if you’re writing them down or typing them as they come. So sometimes only if you recorded it will you know what the answer was.

Don’t analyze

It’s only natural to start thinking about what the Lord is saying once He starts—after all, that’s why you asked Him to speak, so you could find out what He has to say. But if you start pondering on or analyzing the message before He’s finished, that will make it harder for you to keep receiving more. Your thoughts can drown out the Lord’s voice. If you miss even a part of what the Lord has to say to you, you may miss something important.

Recording the message as it comes helps you relax and just let it flow out, because you know every word will be there when you finish. After you have received His entire message, that’s the time to reflect on what He said. Play it back or read it over, and think about what the Lord told you.

It’s also important to ask the Lord to help you correctly interpret or understand what He has said. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way we think the Lord said they would, simply because we have misunderstood what He said. We think He said one thing, when actually He said something else.

For example, is He saying that it’s His best that you to do a certain thing? Or is He saying that He will allow you to do it, if you want? Or is He saying that the course of action depends on your personal conviction, what you believe is right and best? Or is He saying very clearly that this is something that you need to do, or that you must do to avert problems or injury?

Every word counts: the way God expresses it, how He puts it, so study it carefully and ask the Lord for the correct interpretation.

Also, don’t be surprised if a message that seemed to be disjointed, unclear, or clumsily expressed while you were receiving it is in fact complete, well-rounded, and even eloquently put. This is often the case, and is further proof that the message you received was indeed the Lord speaking, not just your own thoughts.

Look it up

Often the Lord speaks to us by bringing to mind a verse or passage from the written Word. If you haven’t experienced this already, you will be surprised to discover how alive Scripture can be when the Lord applies it to you personally. Have a Bible handy, so you can look up the verse or story the Lord gave for your situation, if it’s one you’re not very familiar with. A Bible concordance—in print or on computer—can be a big help at times like this, and makes looking up specific verses or passages quick and easy.

The minute we begin to listen to the Lord’s written Word, we put ourselves in the position of being willing to listen, so then the Lord begins to speak and give us His current Word in prophecy.—D.B.B.

*

Lord, I have shut the door, speak now the word
Which in the din and throng could not be heard;
Hushed now my inner heart, whisper Thy will,
While I have come apart, while all is still.
Lord, I have shut the door, here do I bow;
Speak, for my soul attent turns to Thee now.
Rebuke Thou what is vain, counsel my soul,
Thy Holy will reveal, my will control.
In this blest quietness, clamorings cease;
Here in Thy presence dwells infinite peace;
Yonder the strife and cry, yonder, the sin:
Lord, I have shut the door, Thou art within!
Lord, I have shut the door, strengthen my heart;
Yonder awaits the task—I share a part.
Only through grace bestowed may I be true;
Here, while alone with Thee, my strength renew.
—William M. Runyan (1870–1957)

*

God has just filled life full of puzzles and problems and mysteries and excitement and suspense to challenge our intellect, challenge our spirituality, challenge our faith, challenge our trust in the Lord, and to get us to want to find out the answers.

*

In trying to show us His will, He sometimes lays a mystifying puzzle before us. He sometimes speaks in riddles and mysteries that are hard to understand, but He almost always gives us the starting clue. Then He leads us on step by step. He likes for us to have to seek it. Because this is exercising our faith in Him and His Word and His divine guidance and magnanimity, His parental love.—D.B.B.

1. Psalm 100:4

Hearing from Heaven (part 2)

Get Activated Series

2010-07-01

God Still Speaks!

4. Talk to Jesus

Prayer is not complicated or formal as a lot of people think. It’s not meant to be a religious ritual, but a living relationship. Jesus wants to speak to you as openly and freely as a best friend or spouse would, but it’s a two-way street. It may be awkward at first if you aren’t used to speaking to Him personally, but it gets easier once you begin to do it regularly.

You may have difficulty praying, because you feel the things you have to say to Jesus won’t be acceptable to Him, or that He won’t understand. But remember that the Bible says that when Jesus was on earth, He was tempted, or tested, in all the very same things we are.⁶ So you can rest assured that He’s heard and seen everything. He understands and loves you as no other can. He wants you to tell Him your deepest thoughts, your innermost feelings, and your secret dreams and longings.

5. Jesus or God?

One question that might come to your mind is when you pray or try to hear from heaven, should you pray to God, or to Jesus, or both? Does it make any difference? In the Bible, Jesus said, “I and My Father are One,”⁷ but at the same time they are Father and Son. This is one of the mysteries of the spirit that we can’t quite grasp or comprehend with our mortal minds. But since they are one in spirit, you can talk to either one, and your prayers are sure to be heard and answered.

Since Jesus came to earth and lived as one of us, He is closer to us in some ways. He understands us better, having experienced being a human on earth. In reference to Jesus, the Bible tells us that “we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are.”⁸ He has stood where you’re standing.

The Bible describes Jesus as our intercessor before God: “He is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”⁹ What this means is you can talk to God, in the name of Jesus, or you can talk directly to Jesus. You can also hear from either one in prophecy, although experience has shown that it is generally more common for those with the gift of prophecy to hear from Jesus than from God the Father.

6. Read God’s Word

In order to correctly apply the words that Jesus speaks to you in prophecy, you need a certain understanding of God’s already-recorded Word. The Bible is your foundation.¹⁰

7. Have faith

This one may seem a bit more abstract or difficult than the others, but it’s really not so hard. What is faith? The Bible tells us that faith is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it right now.¹¹ It is believing in God and His power, even though you can’t actually see them. How do you get faith? Simple: faith comes from read the Word of God. Reading about all the times God has spoken to His children in the past, as well as becoming familiar with His many promises to speak directly to you, will strengthen your faith that you can hear from heaven. In fact, it will strengthen your faith for anything God wants you to do.

8. Ask

This may seem pretty obvious, but in order to receive something in prophecy from the Lord, you first usually have to ask Him to speak to you. Knowing that He can speak to you should increase your faith that when you ask, you will receive His answer loud and clear. He has promised, “Call on Me, and I will show you great and mighty things which you do not know.”¹² So place your call and get His reply!

9. Be humble

Your bearing—your mindset, your attitude of heart, your motives—helps determine how clearly you will be able to hear from heaven. One of the Lord’s prerequisites for receiving His words is that you come humbly before Him. You need to realize that you are weak in yourself, that you don’t have the answers and therefore need Him. The Bible says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels”— lowly clay pots—“that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.”¹³ You have to be willing to consider yourself as not knowing much at all, like an empty pot waiting to be filled. And after He speaks, you must remember to give Him all the credit and all the praise. It’s His power, His gift, not yours.

10. Ask God to overcome or overrule your own will and thoughts while hearing from Him

To receive God’s messages, you need to be receptive. You need to have an open mind and heart. You need to be ready to accept what He gives, even if it’s not what you were expecting, not completely to your liking, or you don’t understand it.

If you’re asking Him for the answer to a problem, but already have a set opinion or know what you want, God can still get His message through clearly if you’re willing to put your own desires aside in order to hear what He has to say. It’s only natural to have personal opinions and desires, but you must ask the Lord to block them out for the time being and clear your mind of your preconceived ideas, in order to get His opinion and find out what He wants.

Once you have asked the Lord to do that, you can have faith that what you receive is from Him. If it supports your previous position, you’ll be encouraged that you were on the right track and can proceed with His blessing. If it’s different, you’ll soon find out that His wisdom in the matter is vastly superior to your own. Your idea may have been good, but His will prove better.

Pray for the gift of prophecy. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God spoke to lead, guide, comfort, encourage, and correct His children. You, too, can hear His voice every day! The apostle Paul said, “I would that you all prophesied.”¹⁴—D.B.B.

*

“Stir up the gift of God which is in you.”¹⁵ “Do not neglect the gift that is in you.”¹⁶ You have to exercise your gift, you have to use it. Like any exercise, it takes effort on your part. It takes something out of you, but it’s always worth it!—D.B.B.

*

We know what is true or false by the standards of God’s Word. The [written] Word is our foundation, our guide, our standard, and the rod of measurement whereby we measure all things, even the words that God gives us today [through prophecy]. It’s the Bureau of Standards by which we measure all truth and all error.—D.B.B.

1. John 16:7,13-14
   2. Mark 1:7-8
   3. Luke 11:13
   4. 1 Corinthians 12
   5. Mark 11:24
   6. Hebrews 4:15
   7. John 10:30
   8. Hebrews 4:15
   9. Hebrews 7:25
   10. For more on God’s Word and prayer, you’ll find Understanding God’s Wordand Prayer Power, in this series, to be a great help.
   11. Hebrews 11:1
   12. Jeremiah 33:3
   13. 2 Corinthians 4:7
   14. 1 Corinthians 14:5
   15. 2 Timothy 1:6
   16. 1 Timothy 4:14

Getting Started

As with anything else, getting started isn’t al- ways easy, and the hardest part for most people is learning to let go. You have to be willing to let go of any preconceived ideas you may have and to open your mind and heart to the Lord’s thoughts and the ways of His Spirit, which are different from your own.

Hearing from the Lord requires putting your natural senses and your own thoughts on hold. The first step is believing that there is a spiritual realm, and that someone there wants to communicate with you. The second is being willing to put aside what your natural senses tell you, and sometimes even what “common sense” tells you, in favor of what God wants to tell you.

Once you take those first two steps, you’re ready to begin in earnest. Start by finding a quiet place and taking a few minutes to talk to the Lord. Tell Him what’s on your heart. Tell Him how much He means to you. Thank Him for His love. Thank Him for all the good things He has done in your life. Count your blessings. God loves for you to praise Him. “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”¹

Perhaps you have a specific question you’d like to ask Jesus. Go ahead and ask Him. Specific prayers get specific answers. Or perhaps you don’t have anything in particular on your mind, but are curious to find out what He might have to say to you. Either way, once you’ve told Him why you want to hear from Him, be still and focus your mind on the Lord. Closing your eyes can help you shut out the sights around you, which can be distracting.

Now do your best to concentrate and listen with your spirit. Getting still and waiting is a manifestation of your faith. It shows that you believe your Creator loves you and will answer you. It’s during this time of quiet, as you wait before the Lord in reverence, quietness, humility, and patience, that He can speak to you.

Sometimes God may speak by bringing to mind a verse or passage from the Bible that you have read or memorized before. This verse, when applied to the particular situation or decision you are faced with, can be the clear and simple answer that you seek.

At other times, the Lord may speak a new message that you’ve never heard before—words that He’s never spoken exactly that way to anyone else. The wording of the message may sound rather formal, or it may be in casual, everyday language. The Lord can express Himself any way He likes on any subject, but He usually speaks to us each in the way that we will have the easiest time receiving and relating to.

So take in whatever comes to your heart, mind, or ears, and accept that as the Lord’s message for you. It’s sort of like interpreting: you “hear” one phrase or sentence at a time. As you speak or write down that first bit, the Lord will give you more until the message is complete. Each time you repeat what He has told you, it shows you believe that message was from the Lord. It’s a demonstration of your faith, which pleases Him.

It’s easy to dismiss this little inner voice as being your own thoughts, especially when you are first starting to hear from the Lord, but it’s important that you accept that this is Him speaking to you. When you’ve sincerely asked the Lord to speak, He will. And when He does, you must accept what He says as being from Him. “Ask and it will be given you.”² God fills the spiritually hungry with good things.³ This is where faith is so important, because faith helps you believe God’s promises that when you call out to Him, you will receive an answer.

Try not to think about, analyze, scrutinize, or judge the message as it is coming; just accept it and thank God for it.

You may feel any one of a number of emotions while receiving a message from the Lord. Some people feel a surge of excitement or euphoria, some feel nervous, some break down and cry, some burst out laughing—but many feel nothing unusual at all. Some may feel something one time, and nothing at other times. Whether you feel some- thing or not doesn’t make the message you receive more or less valid. “We walk by faith, and not by sight”⁴—and certainly not by feelings!

Don’t necessarily expect to receive a long, eloquent message from God the very first time you get quiet and ask Him to speak, although that can happen. Usually with time and experience, as you exercise your gift of prophecy, the messages you receive from the Lord will be more detailed and more complete. So keep practicing. Don’t give up!

Don’t be discouraged if you start out with a “baby” gift of prophecy and only get a phrase or two, or a Bible verse, when you were hoping for something longer. Don’t let that stop you! Be encouraged that you did hear some- thing. As you keep trying, you’ll most likely receive more. Practice makes perfect.

Remember also that a message from heaven doesn’t have to be lengthy to be good. There are times that the Lord can give you the answer you are seeking in just one sentence. Of course it’s good to wait and see if He has any more to say before going about your business, but if you feel that He has finished talking, then thank Him and trust that those words contain the answer you were seeking, or at least as much as God wants to tell you at the moment.

Or perhaps you were too distracted by other thoughts while praying to hear anything at all. Don’t worry. It’s tough to concentrate sometimes, and the Lord under- stands our human frailties and weaknesses. This is new to you, and the simple fact that you’re trying is a sign of progress. Keep it up!

Try to take a few minutes each day to pray and praise the Lord. Follow this with your “question of the day” and a few moments of listening for His voice. As you get in the habit of exercising your gift, it will become easier and easier to receive the Lord’s words.

If you continue to strengthen your faith by reading God’s written Word, and if you continue to earnestly desire this gift of His Spirit, the Lord won’t fail you. God has promised to speak to you, and He won’t let you down as long as you are doing your part.

It’s easy to get answers from the Lord: you just have to have faith. 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. That thing you see or hear with the eyes or ears of your spirit, that’s the Lord. Just open up your heart and let the sunshine in! “This is the problem, Lord! What are we going to do about it?” If you’re desperate and ask Him, He’ll answer!—D.B.B.

*

Shutting your eyes helps you to see in the spirit and to become unconscious of the things and people around you. It helps you get your mind on the Lord and in a relaxed position, where nothing distracts you.—D.B.B.

*

He’s a living God, a speaking God!—One who still loves His children, who still speaks to them. You can hear from God every day. Every day should be a new experience, a new listening to the voice of the Lord.—D.B.B.

*

It’s important to be specific with the Lord when you ask Him for guidance, and you should expect specific answers. Being specific is a sign of your faith. It shows you really expect a specific answer, or you wouldn’t be so specific.—D.B.B.

*

A baby is such an illustration of faith and hearing from God. When he’s crying for his mother, you wouldn’t think of refusing him. That little baby has more faith than you do sometimes, ‘cause when the baby cries, he expects someone to hear him. Because he knows—God put it in him to know— that if he calls, you’ll answer. He expects the answer and he gets it!

*

After the nipple is in the baby’s mouth, he automatically starts nursing. When you cry out to God for something, He pushes it in your mouth; but if you don’t start sucking, you’ll never get it. You have to have the faith to begin to pull. A lot of times he has to suck for a couple of minutes before he gets something. His sucking is like the action of faith.

What is it that brings the milk out of the breast? It’s a vacuum! The baby deliberately, when he sucks, creates a vacuum inside his mouth, which pulls the milk out. You have to create a vacuum inside your heart: “Lord, here is this empty space—You fill it!”

Do you know what really fills that vacuum? It’s not actually the child. All the child does is create the vacuum by reducing the pressure inside his mouth, and so the milk flows out from the mother’s breast into his mouth. In prayer, you create a vacuum. There’s a space that needs filling; you seek the Lord’s help. You create the vacuum, and it is the Lord’s pressure that fills it. The power really comes from outside, not from inside. All you did was create the vacuum, but that vacuum drew the power.—D.B.B.

1. Psalm 100:4
   2. Matthew 7:7
   3. Luke 1:53
   4. 2 Corinthians 5:7

Heaven (part1)

Get Activated Series

2010-07-01

God Still Speaks!

God isn’t dead! He’s alive and well, and still ready, willing, and able to speak to His children in this modern day and age—and He wants to speak to you!

How can that be? In order to comprehend the answer to that—how the great God and Creator of the universe could communicate directly with you, or why He would even want to—you must first understand how much God loves you. He loves you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for your sins so that you could be forgiven and receive God’s gift of eternal life in heaven, simply by believing in Jesus and receiving Him as your Savior. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, but He would have died for you alone. He and His Father love you that much!

In His love, God also gave you the Bible, through which He tells you how to live in love and harmony with Him and others. God’s Words in the Bible are an endless source of faith, comfort, encouragement, instruction, wisdom, and strength of spirit. They can unlock for you some of His greatest mysteries, and set His love and power to work in your busy and sometimes stressful life.

But God didn’t stop there. He loves you so much that He not only wants to communicate with you through His written Word, but also directly! He takes a loving personal interest in you, and wants to be involved in your life. He knows that you have questions and problems, and He wants to give you the answers and solutions. He also wants to speak words of love and encouragement to you, to boost your faith and reassure you during those rough times. He wants you to know how to be happy. And so He created a means of two-way communication, a channel between Him and you, so that you can talk to Him in prayer and in reply hear words He gives specially for you.

But what if you don’t consider yourself very “spiritual” or close to God? Well, you’ll be happy to know that God will speak to anyone—and He wants to speak to you, to give you a chance to experience His infinite wisdom and boundless love. He wants to lead you step by step into a closer relationship with Him and a greater understanding of His will and ways. “Call unto Me,” He says, “and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you know not.”¹

God may speak to you in a number of ways: As you read the Bible, He may cause a particular passage to stand out to you and show you how it applies to your situation or how it answers a question you may have. He may not even use words—He may just give you an impression or inner conviction, a sort of intuitive knowledge about a particular situation. He may speak to you through vivid dreams or visions. He may speak through others—counselors whose wisdom and experience you can benefit from. Another wonderful way that God is able to speak to you is through prophecy, by which God can give valuable and practical guidance for your personal life.

Did you know that the dictionary defines the word “prophecy” both as “a prediction” and as “a divinely inspired utterance”? In other words, prophecy is receiving a message directly from God. Whenever you hear words in your mind that you believe are from God and you say or record them somehow, you are prophesying. (Of course you may also hear God’s voice at other times, when you don’t speak or write down what you receive, but for the sake of keeping things clear and simple, when the word “prophecy” is used throughout this book, it refers to messages from heaven that are either spoken or recorded.)There are many benefits to having and using the gift of prophecy: You can get to know God better, and better understand His love and plan. He can give you answers to problems. He can comfort and encourage you when you’re sick or feeling low. He can help you show others His love, and show you how you can help them with their problems. There is really no end to the list of good things prophecy can bring your way.

You can hear from heaven. Put God to the test. See if He will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour out such blessings on you—the treasures of His words for you personally—that you will not be able to contain them all.

God is like a broadcasting station, broadcasting all the time. Just like the radio waves which are unseen in the air all around you this very minute, God’s Spirit is ever present, waiting for you to make contact. And much the same as a simple little transistor radio, you have been designed by your Creator to receive those signals. God’s power is always on. The message is always there. But in order to receive it, you must turn on and tune in to His frequency.

Compared to the tremendous power and complex operations of the broadcasting station, you, the operator of the receiver, need not have much power and only the simplest of skills. Prayer is the hand of faith that flips the switch and turns on what little power you have. And then the hand of hope tunes with expectancy, feeling for the frequency upon which God is broadcasting, and suddenly His great broadcasting station tunes in.—D.B.B.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”² Just as He spoke to men of old, His prophets of the past, so He speaks to us today. He is still alive, thank God!—D.B.B.

1. Jeremiah 33:3
   2. Hebrews 13:8

Ground Rules

Once you’re open to the idea that God can speak to you, what next? Well, the first thing you need to do is learn the basic ground rules.

1. Have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ

If you’ve received Jesus as your Savior, you’ve already met the first and most important requirement. When you opened your heart to Jesus, you began an intimate relationship with Him as not only your Savior, but as your friend, teacher, and counselor.

If you haven’t yet received Jesus, you can right now by praying a simple prayer like the following:

Dear Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God and that You died for me. I now open the door of my heart and I ask You, Jesus, to please come into my life and give me Your gift of eternal life. Amen.

2. Be filled with the Holy Spirit

Jesus told His disciples shortly before He was crucified that after He was gone, He would send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to teach them all things and guide them into all truth.¹

Everyone who receives Jesus as their Savior receives a measure of the Holy Spirit, but being filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit—what the Bible calls the “baptism” of the Holy Spirit²—is usually a separate experience that happens later.

If you haven’t already been filled with the Holy Spirit, you can be. You do it the same way you received salvation, by praying and asking God for it. “If you … know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”³

(For more on what it means to receive salvation [accept Jesus as your Savior] and to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to appreciate the wonderful change that these experiences can bring about in your life forever, don’t miss God’s Gifts from this series.)

3. ray for the gift

At the time someone receives the Holy Spirit, they often receive the gift of prophecy—the ability to hear God’s words directly—or one or more of the other gifts of the Spirit like speaking in tongues or healing, even though they may not realize it or understand it yet.⁴ The Holy Spirit gives us the gift of prophecy, and sometimes we receive it automatically when we pray for the Holy Spirit; other times we don’t, and we have to ask for it specifically. So if you didn’t receive the gift of prophecy when you prayed for the Holy Spirit, or you aren’t sure, then you should pray and specifically ask the Lord for the gift of prophecy. Jesus promises that “whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”⁵ He’s more than willing to give you whatever gifts of the Spirit you ask for, including the gift of hearing His voice.

The Windows of Heaven Are Open

Words from Jesus

2015-10-01

“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there will be food enough in my Temple; if you do, I will open up the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing so great you won’t have room enough to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you!”—Malachi 3:10¹

The windows of heaven are open to you. All that you need you will find there, on the other side of those windows. All you have to do is reach up and receive it. You might not understand it all—where it came from, or how it was put there for you, or even why I’ve given you so much. But all you have to know is that because I love you, I’ve opened the windows of heaven for you, and you can receive all that you need.

If you’re feeling unhappy or worried, ask Me for My overflowing joy and my peace that surpasses all understanding. If you’re struggling in some way, ask Me for strength and answers. Then reach up and receive whatever you’ve asked for. The way you reach up is by putting feet to your prayers. If you have been feeling unhappy or worried, then begin to praise Me and let Me restore your joy and peace. If you need answers, then stop to listen for My voice and believe that as you ask, you will receive.

The ­windows of heaven are open for you, because I love you! And there’s nothing that you could need that I cannot supply through My open windows.

Living in His abundant joy

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”—2 Chronicles 16:9²

What I search for in My children is an awakened soul that thrills to the joy of My Presence! However, you are often subject to a slumbering soul: taking for granted your life with all its blessings, being overly focused on negative things, buying into the world’s version of the good life. I want to help you break free from these worldly weights so your soul can soar in the heights with Me.

Yearning for an awakened soul is half the battle. Many of My children view devotion to Me as a duty, and they look elsewhere for their pleasures. They fail to understand that the joy of My presence outshines even the most delightful earthly joy.

Of course, it is not an either/or situation. You don’t have to choose between enjoying Me and the many good gifts I provide. It is simply a matter of priorities: I want you to treasure Me above all else.

The more fully you enjoy Me, the more capacity you have to appreciate the blessings I shower upon you. As you delight in Me, I am free to bless you bountifully. If you keep Me first in your life, My good gifts will not become your idols. Delight yourself in Me and I will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.^3,4

One thing is needful

“There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”—Luke 10:42⁵

There is changing power in My Word. By absorbing it into your inner­most being, it has the power to change you. It works as a catalyst, allowing My Spirit to do its transformative work in your heart and life.

But in order for it to work, you have to imbibe it. You have to take it in. You have to receive it, believe it, accept it. And then you have to do it, follow it, implement it. That’s how My Spirit can work in your heart, in your life, in your very spirit.

I know it’s easy to become distracted with the things around you—your ministry, your job, your pet projects, even seemingly necessary things like doing your laundry or cleaning your house—all of which are good. But sometimes they can distract you or detract from the best.

Only one thing is needful. Only one thing in all of life is needful, and when you have chosen that good part, it will not be taken away from you.

That good part, this one thing that is needful that empowers you to do all the rest is your time spent with Me, sitting at My feet to learn of Me—whether through your time of getting quiet in spirit to seek Me in My Word, or through seeking My voice in prophecy, or in praising Me in song, or in praying for the needs of others and even yourself; or in committing your day, your plans, your hopes into My safekeeping. This is how your spirit reaches out to touch and connect with My Spirit, to keep itself unspotted by the world and its evil.

Take on the full armor of God—the helmet of salvation that binds us and makes us one, bringing us close enough to speak to each other; the breast­plate of righteousness, of shunning the things of this world by turning to My Spirit every time such tempta­tions come knocking at your heart’s door; the shield of faith to quench every fiery dart of the Enemy, and which helps you trust Me, depend on Me, and look to Me; your loins girt with truth—the truth of My Word entering your most secret parts; your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace—as you share My Word with others; the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; and finally the cloak of your zeal and fervor for Me.

And the way you manifest this zeal is by seeking to fill your life with My Spirit, My Word, My will, My ways. It is your praises, your love for others, your giving to others, your seeking, your knocking in the Spirit, your acknowledgment in humility of your own nothing­ness and My greatness that form this cloak which will encompass everything you do in the warmth of My presence and Spirit.

This is your destiny, to run the race before you. Honors are laid up for you at the end of the road, at the end of the race which you must patiently run, keeping your eyes fixed on Me. By looking to Me, by doing that one thing that is needful, you will finish the course, obtain the crown, win the prize of My high calling, and be prepared to move on to the next round of the Greater Victories Olympics.

A crown of life

“I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us.”—Philippians 3:12–14⁶

Keep your focus on Me—and on the crown of life I have promised to those who love Me. There is a sense in which life on this earth is an endurance contest. It can be helpful to view your life this way, because then you’re not shocked or disappointed by the many trials you encounter. Nonetheless, I do provide splashes of pleasure even in the midst of your hardest times. Among the many blessings I have for you, the joy of My presence is always available to you.

The crown of life is similar to the wreath that was awarded for athletic victory in biblical times. However, those athletes competed to get a perishable crown—a wreath of greenery—and you are receiving a crown that will last forever! Whenever you are feeling battered by life’s trials, remember the crown of righteousness that is stored up for you. Because it is My righteousness that saves you, this eternal reward is absolutely guaranteed! I have promised to give it to all those who love Me—who long for My return. When I, the Chief Shepherd, come back for you, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away!⁷

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that never fades away.”—1 Corinthians 9:25; James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4⁸

Published on Anchor October 2015. Read by Simon Peterson. Music by Daniel Sozzi.

¹ TLB.

² NIV.

³ Psalm 37:4 AMP.

⁴ Sarah Young, Jesus Lives (Thomas Nelson, 2009).

⁵ NRSV.

⁶ TLB.

⁷ Sarah Young, Jesus Lives (Thomas Nelson, 2009).

⁸ NIV, ESV, NIV.

Conscience, Keeping a Good

2014-01-01

Definition: Conscience is the knowledge of right and wrong, and a feeling that one should do what is right.

1. Conscience is the guiding voice of God.

• Proverbs 20:27 — The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. (See also Job 32:8.)
• Isaiah 30:21 — And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
• John 1:9 — [Jesus’ Spirit touches every person:] That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (See also John 14:6.)
• Romans 2:14–15 — [Even those who don’t personally know Jesus have a godly conscience, which God has given to everyone.] For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: ¹⁵Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.

2. We choose whether or not to obey our conscience.

• Job 27:6 — My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
• Acts 24:16 — And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
• 2 Corinthians 1:12 — For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.
• 1 Timothy 3:9 — Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

3. A guilty conscience convicts us of sin.

• Job 15:20–21,24 — The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, ²¹A dreadful sound is in his ears: ²⁴Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him.
• Psalm 40:12 — [King David prayed:] Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
• Psalm 73:21 — Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
• Isaiah 59:12 — For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them.
• Romans 1:18–19 — [God convicts all men about wrongdoing.] For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; ¹⁹Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

4. Truth resisted loses its power over the mind. If we refuse to heed our conscience, we eventually become dull to it.

• Jeremiah 6:15 — Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.
• Matthew 6:22–23 — The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. ²³But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (See also Luke 11:34–35.)
• Romans 1:21 — 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.
• Ephesians 4:17–19 — This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, ¹⁸Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: ¹⁹Who being past feeling have given them-selves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12 — And with all deceivableness of un-righteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: ¹²That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
• 1 Timothy 4:2 — Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.
• Titus 1:15 — Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:7 — [In the last days, the convicting Holy Spirit will no longer restrain man’s lawlessness and rebellion, and all hell will break loose on earth:] For the mystery of iniquity [the spirit of the Antichrist] doth already work: only He [the Holy Spirit] who now letteth will let, until He be taken out of the way.

5. Biblical examples of guilty consciences:

• Genesis 3:6–11 — [After partaking of the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve had a guilty conscience:] She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. ⁷And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. ⁸And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. ⁹And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? ¹⁰And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. ¹¹And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
• Genesis 42:21 — [Joseph’s brothers:] And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
• Exodus 9:27 — [Pharaoh of Egypt:] And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
• 1 Samuel 24:5–6 — [King David was convicted for secretly cutting King Saul’s robe:] And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. ⁶And he said unto his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.
• 2 Samuel 24:10 — [King David:] And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech Thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
• Ezra 9:6 — [Ezra, the priest and scribe said:] O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the Heavens.
• Daniel 5:6 — [King Belshazzar of Babylon:] Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him [when he saw God’s judgement message, the “handwriting on the wall”], so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
• Matthew 26:75 — [Peter the apostle:] And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly. (See also Mark 14:72 and Luke 22:61–62.)
• Matthew 27:3–5 — [Judas Iscariot:] Then Judas, which had betrayed Him, when he saw that He was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, ⁴Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou to that. ⁵And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
• John 8:9 — [The scribes and Pharisees, who had accused the harlot and were about to stone her to death:] And they which heard it [Jesus’ defense of the woman], being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
• Acts 2:37 — [The crowd to whom Peter witnessed about Jesus:] Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
• Acts 9:5 — [Saul of Tarsus, who had persecuted the Christians, and who later became Paul the apostle:] And he said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks [of his convicted conscience]. (See also Acts 26:14.)
• 6. Salvation through grace clears the conscience of condemnation over past sins.
• Romans 8:1 — There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
• Hebrews 9:14 — How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
• Hebrews 10:22 — Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
• 1 John 3:19–21 — And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. ²⁰For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. ²¹Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
  (See also Condemnation and Remorse, #3–4, pages 51–52.)

7. To go against our conscience is sin.

• Romans 14:22–23 — Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God. ²³For whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
• Romans 7:22–23 — For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: ²³But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
• 1 Corinthians 8:7 — [Paul spoke of those coming from pagan religions who had eaten food sacrificed to idols, during their worship of those idols, who after becoming Christians were at times tempted to continue in such practices.] For some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
• 1 Timothy 1:19 — Holding [onto] faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.

8. A clear conscience toward God gives us conviction, enabling us to rise above circumstances and the opinions of man.

• Proverbs 28:1 — The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
• Acts 4:19–20 — [Peter and John were faithful to obey their conscience and convictions.] But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. ²⁰For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. (See also Acts 5:29.)
• Acts 23:1 — And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
• Romans 9:1 — I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.
• Romans 14:22 — Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
• 1 Timothy 1:5 — Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned [sincere].
• Hebrews 13:18 — Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

9. However, even if our conscience permits us something, we should be mindful of others’ faith.

• Romans 14:1–7 — Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. ²For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. ³Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. ⁴Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. ⁵One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. ⁶He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.⁷ For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
• Romans 14:14–20 — I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. ¹⁵But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. ¹⁶Let not then your good be evil spoken of: ¹⁷For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. ¹⁸For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. ¹⁹Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. ²⁰For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
• 1 Corinthians 8:9–13 — But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. ¹⁰For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; ¹¹And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? ¹²But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. ¹³Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. (See also 1 Corinthians 10:28–32.)

10. Keeping a good conscience is also an important part of our Christian example.

• Romans 13:5 — [We need to obey the laws of the land, not just to avoid punishment, but to obey what we know is right.] Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
• 2 Corinthians 4:2 — But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
• Hebrews 13:18 — Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.
• 1 Peter 3:16 — Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

Section from Bible Basics—Keys to Happier Living, © 2014 Aurora Production AG, Switzerland.

Why Sin Matters 

Peter Amsterdam 

2020-05-18 

Sin is an important topic, since it affects the life of every human being and is what has caused the separation of humans from God. Thankfully, God, in His love and mercy, has made salvation from sin available to humanity through Jesus’ suffering and death. 

Rufus Jones offers the following thoughts on sin: 

Sin is no abstract dogma. It is not a debt which somebody can pay and so wash off the slate. Sin is a fact within our lives. It is a condition of heart and will. There is no sin apart from a sinner. Wherever sin exists there is a conscious deviation from a standard, a sag of the nature, and it produces an effect upon the entire personality. The person who sins disobeys a sense of right. He falls below his vision of the good. He sees a path, but he does not walk in it. He hears a voice, but he says “no” instead of “yes.” He is aware of a higher self which makes its appeal, but he lets the lower have the reins. There is no description of sin anywhere to compare with the powerful narrative out of the actual life of the Apostle Paul, found in Romans 7:9–25. The thing which moves us as we read it is the picture here drawn of our own state. A lower nature dominates us and spoils our life. “What I would, I do not; what I would not, that I do.”1 

The most common Hebrew word used for sin in the Old Testament is chata, which is defined as “to miss the goal or path of right and duty, to miss the mark, to wander from the way.” The Old Testament also uses words translated as to break off (as in breaking God’s covenant), transgression of God’s will, rebellion, going astray. 

The New Testament uses a variety of words when speaking of sin. These are translated as violate, transgress, overstep, miss the mark, go past, fall beside, failure, wrongdoing, deviate from the right path, turn aside, a deviation from truth and uprightness, unrighteousness of heart and life, lawlessness, ungodliness, unbelief, rebellious disobedience, and falling away. 

Some definitions of sin from theologians are as follows: 

Sin may be defined as the personal act of turning away from God and His will. It is the transgression of God’s law … the violation of God’s command. It is the turning away from God’s expressed will.2 

Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.3 

While God has expressed His will and moral law through the Bible, there was a time when the Bible didn’t exist. There are also many who haven’t heard of it or read it, or don’t know that it contains truth about God and His will. However, all throughout history humans have inherently known God’s moral law to some extent, as God has embedded it in the heart of each person. 

“When Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”4 

While many people do not specifically know the moral laws of God as expressed in Scripture, everyone has a basic understanding that murder, stealing, lying, etc., are wrong, which is evidence of an overall moral consciousness that humans have. This understanding is often referred to as natural law or moral law and is contained within the Ten Commandments.5 

Because humans have intuitive knowledge of the moral law within them, they have a sense of what is right and what is wrong, of moral accountability. Their conscience “bears witness.” God’s expressed moral law and will in Scripture, and each person having an intuitive knowledge of the moral law and a conscience that bears witness when they break the moral law, means that all humans—whether they know Scripture or not—are aware that they fail to conform to or that they deviate from the moral law, and that they are doing wrong. 

The first sin 

When Adam was told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God didn’t give him a specific reason why he shouldn’t eat it, only that there would be serious consequences if he did. Adam was in a position to show his willingness to obey God’s commands, to submit his will to the will of his Creator. It can be seen as a test of whether he would allow God to determine what was right or he would undertake to determine this for himself. 

Adam and Eve’s first sin shows the essence of sin. They resisted God’s will and would not subordinate themselves to it, but rather chose to do what they felt was in their best interest. They wouldn’t let God decide what was best for them. 

Louis Berkhof explained it like this: 

The essence of that sin lay in the fact that Adam placed himself in opposition to God, that he refused to subject his will to the will of God, to have God determine the course of his life; and that he actively attempted to take the matter out of God’s hand, and to determine the future for himself.6 

Instead of accepting that God was their Creator and as such they were subordinate to Him, they yielded to the temptation to put themselves in the place of God. God had said that if they ate of the tree, they would surely die. The serpent told them they wouldn’t. God had told them what was true, yet they disbelieved God’s word; they questioned who was right. 

The decisions Adam and Eve made to not subordinate themselves to God, to not accept His determination as to what is right, and to not believe Him, are emblematic of the root cause of the specific sins of individuals throughout the history of humanity. Every human is tempted to sin just as the first humans were, and every human yields to that temptation. In doing so, each of us has acted toward God in the same manner that Adam and Eve did. 

Prior to this first sin, Adam and Eve lived in harmony with their Creator. They enjoyed His fellowship; they trusted and believed Him. Their freewill decision to disobey God changed that, not just for themselves but for all of humanity. This sin resulted in the fall of man, and humankind hasn’t been the same since. 

Humankind stands guilty of sin before God due to Adam and Eve’s sin being imputed to all, and due to our own individual sinning. As sinners, we are separated from God; we physically die and stand guilty before Him and deserve punishment for our sins. 

God, in His love for humankind, made a way for humans to be forgiven, to be reconciled with Him, and to be spared from His wrath. 

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned … For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”7 

Being reconciled to God through Jesus, being forgiven for our sins, being redeemed, is the greatest gift one can receive—a personal gift directly from the hand of God. It not only changes our lives today but for eternity. It is a gift that each of us has received, and that we have been asked to pass on to others. It’s the good news we are commissioned to tell others about, so they too can be freed from sin’s grasp and can become children of the eternal, loving, gracious, and merciful God. 

Originally published September 2012. Adapted and republished May 2020.
Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso. 

 

1 Rufus M. Jones, The Double Search—Studies in Atonement and Prayer (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., 1906), 60–61. 

2 J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology, Systematic Theology from a Charismatic Perspective, Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 222. 

3 Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000),  490. 

4 Romans 2:14–15. 

5 Exodus 20:13–17. 

6 Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1996), 222. 

7 Romans 5:12, 17–19. 

 098 – Jesus—His Life and Message: Light 

Jesus—His Life and Message 

Peter Amsterdam 

2018-09-25 

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

After Jesus rebuked those of His generation who were seeking a sign and told them they would receive no sign,1 He proceeded to speak about light in three short sayings. He started with a reference to physical light, and then moved on to speak of the light that is within us. 

No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.2 

This verse is very similar to one found earlier in Luke’s Gospel. 

No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.3 

The lamp spoken of could either be a lamp with a candlestick inside it, or an oil-burning lamp, the latter being more likely. It would make no sense to light a lamp and then put it in a place where its light would serve no purpose and no one would benefit from it. 

Jesus and His message are associated with light throughout the Gospels. 

You, child, [Jesus] will be called the prophet of the Most High … to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.4 

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.”5 

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.6 

Elsewhere in the New Testament we read of light in reference to those who believe in Jesus. 

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?7 

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).8 

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. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.9 

Jesus and His message—the Light—are not to be hidden. They are to be widely proclaimed through His ministry, through His disciples, and through believers across time. If the message is rejected by some, it’s not because it’s a hidden or secret teaching; it’s that after hearing the message, the hearer has chosen to reject it. 

Jesus followed with the second saying: 

Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.10 

According to medical understanding in ancient times, the eyes didn’t allow light to come in, but rather people had light within them and this light came out of their eyes, which caused them to see. Jesus’ saying reflects this ancient concept. The hearers would have understood that Jesus was referring to the eyes as the source of light emanating from the body, which could be either healthy or unhealthy. If the eye is healthy, it indicates that the person is inwardly full of light, which the eye is emitting. However, if the eye is unhealthy and thus not emitting light, it shows that the person is full of darkness. 

The King James Version speaks of the eye being either “single” or “evil.” The Greek word translated as single can also be translated as whole or healthy. The Greek word translated as evil, when used in a physical sense, means diseased or blind; and when it is used in an ethical sense, it means evil or wicked. Jesus used a play on words, as in the Old Testament the concept of an evil eye portrayed selfishness, covetousness, and rebellion. For example, in the King James Version we read, Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats.11 In the ESV it reads, Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies. Another example is, He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye,12 which is translated in the ESV as a stingy man hastens after wealth. The Old Testament also speaks of a “bountiful eye” as being generous: He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.13 In the NAS it’s translated as He who is generous will be blessed, For he gives some of his food to the poor. 

Jesus was speaking about a person’s inner self, their spiritual condition. If the eye wasn’t healthy, then the inner being of the person was dark, without any spiritual light—they were morally unhealthy. The healthy eye is understood as belonging to one who is focused on the good, whom the Lord has filled with light. 

It is you who light my lamp; the LORD my God lightens my darkness.14 

The people who rejected Jesus’ message were those whose eye—their inner self—was full of darkness. Jesus then warned: 

Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.15 

He stated that the things which guide one’s thoughts, life, decision-making, etc., need to come from the light; and therefore people need to do all they can to watch that the light within them is true light, that they are spiritually healthy. 

Jesus ended with: 

If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.16 

The light inside of believers will shine out, like a lamp that is lit. Those who believe in Him and His teachings, without any hardness of heart, are inwardly spiritually healthy, full of light. They will shine with Jesus’ light in the same way someone in a dark room stands out when a light is shining on them. 

There seems to be a progression in these three verses. Jesus is the light, placed where all can see. A person’s spiritual health is determined by their response to the light. Those who take in Jesus’ light will be spiritually healthy, and as such they will brightly shine and give off light. They will reflect the light of Jesus to others through the way they live and the love they show. This is contrasted with those who reject Jesus, whose eye is bad and therefore are full of darkness. The message is to embrace the light, to believe in Jesus. Those who have light within are able to be guided by God, make right choices, and be His light to others. 

(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 See Jesus—His Life and Message: Jonah and the Queen. 

2 Luke 11:33. 

3 Luke 8:16. 

4 Luke 1:76–79. 

5 John 8:12. 

6 John 1:4. 

7 2 Corinthians 6:14. 

8 Ephesians 5:8–9. 

9 1 John 1:5–7. 

10 Luke 11:34. 

11 Proverbs 23:6 KJV. 

12 Proverbs 28:22 KJV. 

13 Proverbs 22:9 KJV. 

14 Psalm 18:28. 

15 Luke 11:35. 

16 Luke 11:36. 

 Copyright © 2018 The Family International. 

 Heart of It All, No. 5: God’s Plan for Salvation 

My Wonder Studio Level 2 

Heart of It All 

Chelsie Saller, Peter Amsterdam 

2015-07-02 

The core teaching of the New Testament can be found in one of the most beautiful verses of Scripture: 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes n Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 NKJ 

  

God’s plan of salvation, which was decided upon before the creation of the world, is rooted in God’s love for humankind. God’s motivation is love. 

God knew, before creating the universe, that human beings created with free will would sin, so He made a way to save everyone from the penalty for sin through His plan of salvation. His plan for the salvation of humankind enabled Him to be true to all aspects of His divine nature: His holiness, righteousness, and justice, and His love, mercy, and grace. 

A question that is often asked is: Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? What did His death do that brought us forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God? 

A combination of four scripture-based concepts look at the same picture from different angles and gives us an understanding of how Jesus’ death saves us from the punishment of our sins and reconciles[1] us to God. 

  

1. Propitiation 

The first concept is propitiation, which means “an offering that turns away wrath.” This concept has to do with the wrath of God. Due to His holiness and righteousness, God must judge and punish sin. However, the sacrificial offering of Jesus’ death, like the sacrifices made in the Old Testament, appeases God’s wrath. In His love for us, God made a way to pardon our sin, while remaining true to His nature. (See 1 John 2:2 and Romans 3:25.) 

Authors Lewis and Demarest explain it this way: 

The Judge of the world, whose moral law is constantly violated, found us guilty and pronounced the just sentence of death. Then, leaving heaven, the Son became a man, lived without sin, and paid in full the [immeasurable] penalty for our sins. The Judge who found us guilty came in the person of His own Son to atone for our sins.[2] 

  

1. Redemption 

Another biblical concept that helps to explain how Jesus’ death has brought us salvation is redemption. The words translated to redeem and redemption come from the Greek family of words lutron and lutroo, which means to loose, to set free through a ransom payment. 

  

Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28 ESV 

Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:14 ESV 

There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 1 Timothy 2:5–6 ESV 

  

The use of the words ransom or redeem in these verses expresses paying a price. The ransom is paid to God the Father, since He is the one who has put the penalty in place. Jesus, God’s Son, pays the ransom by way of His death. 

  

1. Substitution/Vicarious Sacrifice 

A third concept which can provide further understanding of salvation is substitutionary sacrifice or vicarious sacrifice. In this case, “substitute” and “vicarious” means to stand in place of another or represent another—which is what Jesus did for us through His death on the cross. 

  

He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 ESV. 

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6 ESV. 

  

Jesus stated that He gave His life as a ransom for many. The word “for” in this verse is translated from the Greek word anti, meaning instead of or in place of. See the following verse: 

  

The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45 ESV. 

  

1. Reconciliation 

The fourth concept, reconciliation, generally refers to the ending of hostility between two persons who have quarreled. It signifies bringing back together those who were separated or enemies. Sin brings separation of humanity from God, but Jesus’ death has taken away the separation and has thus changed our relationship with God. 

  

For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility. Ephesians 2:14 ESV. 

  

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. Romans 5:10 ESV. 

  

The act of reconciliation between God and us is God’s doing, not our own. In His great love and mercy, He has reconciled us to Himself. 

Propitiation, substitution, reconciliation, and redemption are different ways to describe the act of the merciful God who loves us. Salvation is His free gift to us, a gift we have done nothing and can do nothing to deserve. 

Jesus, the sinless Savior, was the only one who could be sacrificed for our sins. He lived a human life of obedience to God, a life without sin. Had He sinned, then He would have had to die for His own sins, instead of ours. However, He didn’t sin. 

He upheld God’s holiness in His life, and therefore deserved no punishment for sin. He took our sins upon Himself. He substituted Himself for each one of us. He took both our guilt and punishment upon Himself, and in doing so made it possible for each of us to be reconciled with God. 

S&S link: Christian Life and Faith: Biblical and Christian Foundation: Salvation-2b 

Contributed by Chelsie Saller, adapted from the writings of Peter Amsterdam.
Illustrations and design by Yoko Matsuoka.
Copyright © 2015 by The Family International 

 The Return of the King 

A compilation 

2021-08-17 

In his epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien transports us to Middle Earth where the evil forces of Sauron, Lord of Mordor, have brought great darkness throughout the land. There has been much debate about whether The Lord of the Rings was written as an allegory. Tolkien himself stated that he “dislikes allegory in all its manifestations.” Later, however, Tolkien wrote, “Of course, Allegory and Story converge, meeting somewhere in Truth.” 

Prophets and seers throughout the ages have foretold a cataclysmic end of the world, not unlike that described by Tolkien. Nostradamus wrote in his quatrains of a final “antichrist” and a fiery, bloody great war: “By fire he will destroy their city. A cold and cruel heart. Blood will pour. Mercy to none.” The prophets Isaiah and Daniel predicted in the Bible that in the time of the end “there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time;” and “darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people.” Jesus also warned His disciples that in the last days “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.”1 

“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them, in the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.”—J.R.R. Tolkien 

In the book of Revelation, the prophet John envisioned an unearthly creature rising from the depths, a monster that derives his power from a dragon representative of the powers of darkness. “I saw a beast rise up out of the sea … and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority.” According to numerous biblical prophecies, this beast is personified in a powerful political figure who will unite the globe into a one-world government and demand the allegiance of all nations. “And the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’ … And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation.”2 

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” —J.R.R. Tolkien 

Although The Lord of the Rings describes an unthinkable evil, the underlying message is that there is always hope in the face of great darkness. When asked about Frodo’s efforts to struggle on and destroy the ring, Tolkien said, “That seems more like an allegory of the human race. I’ve always been impressed that we’re here surviving because of the indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds.” With so much darkness, we can be tempted to wonder what’s the use of a little light, a little good, a little love. 

This message of hope for the meek, the weak, the powerless, and the downtrodden that is central to The Lord of the Rings was proclaimed by Jesus when He said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”3 Jesus was not born in power, but in meekness. His life began in a humble stable, His father was a simple carpenter, and His disciples were unlearned fishermen. He was scorned and persecuted by the religious leaders of His day, who finally had Him crucified to stop the spread of His gospel that threatened to overthrow their religious establishment. 

Jesus’ radical message that brought such fear to the hearts of the ruling powers of His time was a message of truth and love—the love of God and the love of fellow man—the greatest force in the universe, which will ultimately vanquish all evil. Man’s rejection of God and His loving laws has caused man’s inhumanity to man, which is so apparent in today’s weary world with its oppression, mental illness, addictions, exploitation, and war. 

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater. Some there are among us who sing that the Shadow will draw back and peace shall come again.”—J.R.R. Tolkien 

When Jesus was cruelly crucified, it seemed that the lights had gone out in the world and that His message had been quenched. But three days after His death, He rose from the dead. Before ascending to heaven, He promised His disciples that His Spirit would live on in them as they spread the light of His truth and love to others. He also said that He would one day return to conquer evil, hatred, and all the wicked works of the Dark Lord and establish God’s kingdom of love on earth. “Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!”4 

When will Jesus return? 

Matthew chapter 24 speaks about Jesus’ Second Coming, when He is going to return to gather all those who have received Him as their Savior and take them with Him back to heaven—an event commonly referred to as “the Rapture.” For nearly 1,800 years practically every Christian believed Jesus would come back after the period He refers to as “Great Tribulation, three and a half years of intense persecution.” 

It is only in the last hundred or so years that interpretations such as that by C. I. Scofield (1843–1921) emerged with the false doctrine that Jesus would come before the Tribulation. This interpretation put forth this idea: “Don’t worry, Jesus is going to come and take you out of this world before the trouble comes, so you won’t have to suffer.” But what does the Bible say? 

In Matthew 24, when Jesus’ disciples ask Him what sign will signal His return, Jesus answers with not one but a number of signs—wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecution of Christians, a proliferation of false prophets, lawlessness, a pervading lack of love, and the gospel being preached in every nation. “Then,” He says, “the end will come.”5 

Beginning with the next verse, Jesus tells us what we can expect during the Great Tribulation—the last three and a half years leading up to His return, which is also the last half of the Antichrist’s reign. Jesus also tells us what specific sign to watch for, so we’ll know exactly when that period is beginning: 

“When you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place … 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.”6 

We find out in the book of Revelation that this “abomination of desolation” is an image of the Antichrist, or Beast.7 Both Daniel and Revelation tell us that this image will be set up in the holy place at exactly the middle of the Antichrist’s seven-year reign.8 

When does Jesus come back? “Immediately after the tribulation of those days” Jesus returns.9 Jesus doesn’t say that when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place He’s about to return to rapture His followers away from the Antichrist and the trouble to come. He warns His followers to “flee to the mountains” and to prepare for a time of great tribulation.10 In other words, His followers will still be here. 

Why did the Lord and the prophets go to so much trouble to document exactly how long the Great Tribulation would last—the exact time in terms of days, months, and years—if His followers didn’t need to know these things, if they won’t be here, counting the days and the weeks?11 Jesus told us these specifics because He wants those of us “who are alive and remain” during that time12 to be able to take heart in knowing that the Tribulation isn’t going to last forever, and that every passing day is bringing the glorious end closer. 

Jesus warns us not to expect Him sooner than has been foretold. He also warns us to not be deceived by false prophets who will try to tell us that Christ’s coming is imminent or that He’s already here somewhere.13 He tells us to not believe them, because when He comes, we will know it! 

Some people who teach a pre-Tribulation Rapture even state that it’s going to be a secret Rapture, and that nobody is going to see Him except the saved. However, His Word tells us that He’s going to “come in the clouds with great power and glory.” The sky will light up from one end to the other, and there will be such signs in the heavens that we couldn’t possibly mistake the fact that Jesus is coming. In fact, it says that “every eye shall see Him.”14 Everyone will know that Jesus has returned! 

Everyone will also see the dead in Christ—all the saved people who have already died—rising to meet Him in the air as He comes. They will hear Jesus, too, because He’ll “descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and a great sound of the trump of God.”15 It will be the greatest spectacle the world has ever seen! 

After the dead rise to meet the Lord, “then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”16 And so will we be forever with the Lord. 

Compiled from material from Activated. Adapted and republished August 2021.
Read by John Laurence. 

 

1 Matthew 24:7–8 ESV. 

2 Revelation 13:1–4, 7 ESV. 

3 Matthew 5:5, 9 KJV. 

4 Revelation 22:20. 

5 Matthew 24:4–14. 

6 Matthew 24:15, 21. 

7 Revelation 13:14–15. 

8 Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15–21; Revelation 13:5. 

9 Matthew 24:29. 

10 Matthew 24:16–22. 

11 Daniel 7:25; Revelation 12:6, 13:5. 

12 1 Thessalonians 4:17. 

13 Matthew 24:23–26. 

14 Revelation 1:7. 

15 Matthew 24:27, 30; Acts 1:9–11; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 1:7. 

16 1 Thessalonians 4:17. 

 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. 

Fight for Healing 

Maria Fontaine 

1985-09-10 

“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:13–15 ESV). 

Some of our biggest battles in life are our physical afflictions. I’ll bet every one of you has had some kind of affliction this week, no matter how small. Who hasn’t had any kind of affliction this week, whether it was a cough, sore throat, boil, rash, allergy, sore knee, sore back, sore tooth, earache, stiff neck or creaky joints? You can see why faith for healing is necessary in our Christian life. It’s almost more frequent and common to have physical afflictions than it is to have spiritual afflictions. 

We say the Lord delivers us out of all our afflictions, every affliction. While I believe that’s true, I don’t think the Lord is going to deliver us out of everything entirely in every case until we get our new bodies. It’s a promise, but I don’t think the promise is always for the present. In most cases it is. In most cases the Lord “delivers you out of them all” one at a time. He delivers you out of one and then you get another, and the Lord delivers you from that. He keeps delivering you. 

Some people, like Fanny Crosby and Helen Keller and other great men and women of the Lord, the Lord didn’t deliver them from their afflictions until they went to be with Him. So in some cases the Lord allows some afflictions. You could accuse them of not having enough faith, but I don’t believe that. Fanny Crosby was a woman of great faith, Helen Keller too, as well as many, many Christians down through the ages. If they hadn’t been blind, they might never have accomplished what they did. So there are a lot of different reasons sometimes why the Lord allows some afflictions to hang on or maybe even be permanent. 

Of course, we always have ongoing spiritual battles as well and we’re always gaining victories, and we’re always progressing in our spiritual lives. If I were to ask, “Who has had some spiritual battles this week?” maybe you’d say you had spiritual battles too. But a lot of times the physical things seem more bothersome and are more difficult to get the victory over than the spiritual ones—and they get you more down and discouraged. 

Physical afflictions can be really stubborn, and you get them over and over and over. If you even get a little cut on your finger, your whole body can hurt, or if you get a little blister on your toe, it’s hard to walk. It doesn’t have to be very big to be a bother and a hindrance. You can often become discouraged when you’re sick. Not only do you get discouraged, but it can make you irritable with other people, so it doesn’t help your relationship with others. 

So the Enemy really likes to use sickness. But we have been promised the victory to overcome every time. We have power to overcome sickness through Jesus, who bore our sins and sicknesses in His own body on the cross, that through His sufferings we might be healed. We have been promised as many victories as we face battles. 

The Lord allows our many afflictions to keep us humble and more dependent on Him, and closer to others and compassionate with others. Some of the people who have been the sickest and have had the most problems with illness have grown closer to the Lord through it, because they’ve learned from it and have allowed those things to draw them closer to the Lord. 

We know that the Lord has given many promises for healing. We were going over some of the stories of Jesus’ healing in the Gospels, the blind man and some of those other healings, and just think of what great faith they had! They didn’t have the experience of healings of all the many saints and Christians for years like we do. They really had to have faith in the unseen, the unknown, faith for things they had never or had rarely seen before. 

In some ways, it’s easier for us to believe and have faith because we see how the Lord has been healing people for thousands of years. And we have our own personal experience of the many times He’s healed us. We have experienced healing, and we hear time after time how people have gotten healed in answer to prayer. We know from our own experiences that the Lord has healed us, and we know the scriptures on healing. 

When Jesus told people they had great faith, He really meant great faith. They probably hadn’t heard of healing before Jesus came along. But they said, “Just speak the word and my servant will be healed,” though he was dead or dying! Jesus said, “You have such great faith; no greater faith have I found in all Israel” (Matthew 8:5–10). That man had probably never heard of that happening before. They didn’t have years and years of thousands upon thousands of people who had been healed to base their faith on. It was just that word that Jesus said, or they’d heard of Jesus doing some of these things. They had very great faith. No wonder Jesus told them that! 

  

Fight the good fight 

Most of us who have been Christians a long time know God has the power to heal. But there’s more to healing than that. A lot of times there’s more to healing than just saying, “Lord, Your Word is true. You said, ‘These signs shall follow them that believe,’ and that’s all we need.” The Lord said it and we believe it, but often we have to fight for our healing in the spirit and not be lethargic. 

It’s not always enough just to claim and quote the scriptures. We also have to do battle in the spirit and fight and resist the Enemy (James 4:7). Sometimes we just claim a verse and thank the Lord, and that’s enough. But in some of these difficult cases, we’ve got to really fight. Jesus made a difference in cases when He said, “This kind cometh not out but by fasting and prayer” (Matthew 17:21). In other words, some required more effort than others. 

That’s another part of fighting; you can’t just go to bed indefinitely and expect the Lord to heal you. I could just stop using my eyes and say I’ll rest them and I’ll go to bed for a while and see how they do. That may help some if I’ve been overusing my eyes, but in a spiritual fight that’s not going to entirely get rid of the problem. I could close my eyes for a whole week or two, but in this spiritual fight that’s not the answer. The problem is still there and it’s not going to go away just because I don’t use my eyes! It may help a bit temporarily, but it isn’t going to get rid of the problem. 

The Lord also expects us to do what we can in the physical as well. If we need rest, we should get it if we can. If good food will help, He expects us to eat it. As Jesus said to the people at Lazarus’ grave, “Roll ye away the stone” (John 11:39), the physical hindrance and obstacle that they could take care of themselves. In other words, do what you can and He will do the rest. 

We often get our problems taken care of pretty easily, but others take more effort. They aren’t all so easy and there are different degrees, so we can’t treat every problem the same, or spiritual or physical afflictions, whatever they are. 

There are times when we have to stir ourselves up to fight for the victory. It’s not just a matter of saying a prayer, but stirring up ourselves, asking the Lord to make us desperate to get the victory, to want to fight. You can say the words, but with spiritual problems and spiritual battles you have to continually have that attitude of desperation, of a stirred-up spirit on the attack. We have to have that attitude in our heart (Jeremiah 29:13; Isaiah 64:7). 

As Alexander the Great said when they asked him how he had conquered the world in such a short time, “By not delaying!” So that goes with fighting and with changing things—doing it now. Otherwise, if you put it off, you may never do it. You can’t just sit around and rest on your past accomplishments; you have to do something, even though it takes a lot of effort, change, and discomfort. You’re a lot more comfortable doing whatever you normally do. It takes sacrifice to launch out and tackle something new, but sometimes that’s what the Lord requires of us. 

Most of us don’t like to change, and we can get stuck in a rut. It’s difficult for us, and we don’t like it and we resist it. Nevertheless, I believe that the Lord will give you even more credit if you don’t like it but you do it anyway and you overcome that natural tendency to be lazy and to be stuck in a rut. 

If there’s something that’s difficult for you and you do it anyway, the Lord’s going to give you even more credit for it. Of course, in a way it’s difficult for all of us to fight spiritual battles, but some people naturally like to do one thing and other people don’t. So it’s harder for them, and when they do get the victory, they may deserve more credit in that particular area than the one who is sort of created to be that way and likes to do that. 

It says that “Jesus endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, so be not weary and faint in your minds” (Hebrews 12:3). Jesus endured contradiction against Himself, “but ye have not yet resisted unto blood” (Hebrews 12:4). Resisting unto blood! We haven’t fought the battle like Jesus did. But we’re at least supposed to be strong and not faint in our mind, not be weary in well doing. “I have fought a good fight,” “strong, waxed valiant in fight,” “so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.” I mean, that’s something that you really have to put a lot of effort into. “And they overcame them by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11). They overcame! That is a war too, a fight! “The spirit of a man sustaineth him.” In other words, a fighting spirit, one that’s alive, one that’s ready to go on the attack (Proverbs 18:14). “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10). 

The Bible is full of verses aimed toward going on the attack and putting forth an effort and being aggressive. The Christian life is a fight, and you’ve got to work at it every day. It’s hard work! We need to stir ourselves up, not just for healing or spiritual battles, but in our everyday life and in everything we do to have enthusiasm and inspiration and put effort into it, so that whatever we do, we do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Our prayer should be that we get to the point where we love to put forth the effort. 

“Whatever you do, just keep on going for God! You’re bound to make it sometimes if you try often enough.” That’s a fight too, when you keep trying. “It’s a struggle to live! It takes faith and courage and fight and a lot of real hard work to live the faith life.” 

   Copyright © 1985 The Family International. 

 Better Days Ahead—Part 5: Dealing with Disappointment

Better Days Ahead

Peter Amsterdam

2021-11-16

—Dealing with Disappointment

Often when I’m having prayer time and meditating on God’s Word, I take some time to count my blessings and recall how God’s goodness has been manifested in my life. I feel so grateful. I think of Samuel’s wise words when he reminded us to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully and wholeheartedly; considering what great things He has done! (1 Samuel 12:24). It’s uplifting to meditate on the Lord’s goodness and mercy. I believe we can all rejoice and say, “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy” (Psalm 126:3 NIV).

But, of course, our life stories are not all roses and sunshine. We live in a fallen world, and consequently, I believe that we have all felt the sting of disappointment. The word disappointment is defined as “a feeling of dissatisfaction when one’s hopes, desires, and expectations fail to come to pass.” Some synonyms for it are dismay, frustration, and letdown.

Disappointment can suck the proverbial life out of you. It can hurt so much that you can actually feel sick. And it’s not usually enough to just smile and “put on a happy face”—disappointment is often painful and sad!

You might be in a season of life right now where you feel that you’ve experienced one disappointment after another. This could be related to lost opportunities, painful relationships or family issues, work projects being stalled or failing, a tragic medical diagnosis instead of a triumphant recovery, and the list goes on.

Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33 NIV). And that means everyone! There’s no escaping it. I suppose that could sound a little fatalistic. So, what are we to do about it? Well, to begin with, let’s not forget the second part of that verse, where Jesus said, “But take heart! I have overcome the world.” There is always hope, because Jesus is the ultimate victor!

In the midst of disappointment, knowing that God is listening and hears our heartcries is a comfort. He will always hear us, whether we are happy, sad, heartbroken, or disappointed. And we can remind ourselves that nothing is too hard for the Lord or beyond His reach or outside of His care and provision for us. “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).

When we are feeling the weight of disappointment, it’s helpful to try to put things in perspective by looking at our situation from a different point of view.

The first thing to keep in mind is this: no amount of suffering or disappointment we experience in this life can ever undo what God has done for us in Christ. …

The truth is, our trials and disappointments, though we may not like them, do serve a purpose. It is through trials that we learn patience and humility, endurance and trust—virtues that strengthen us and develop godly character.

Also, it is during the difficult times that we learn to rely on God and experience firsthand the absolute trustworthiness of His Word. We also learn the truth of what Paul taught: God’s power is at its strongest when we are at our weakest (2 Corinthians 12:9). …

It is important that our perspective includes eternity. Our time on earth is an incalculably small fraction of our eternal journey.

Consider the apostle Paul and the persecution he was subjected to while spreading the gospel. Although his litany of suffering seems unbearable by any measure, he amazingly referred to his hardships as “light and momentary troubles.” This is because he focused on the “eternal glory” that far outweighed any earthly disappointments he experienced (2 Corinthians 4:17; see also Romans 8:18). We can do this, he said, when we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but rather on what is unseen, our heavenly home (2 Corinthians 4:18). …

Being a child of God means we are never alone in our trials (Hebrews 13:5). God gives us the strength and grace we need to endure any circumstance and to overcome any disappointment (Philippians 4:13).¹

I have found that in times of struggle, quoting Philippians 4:4,6–7 out loud can help me to refocus on God’s truth and not allow worry and stress related to problems, sickness, disappointments, or work issues to dominate my thoughts.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

After quoting these verses, the key is to make an intentional effort to put this into practice. It starts with rejoicing and thanking the Lord for His goodness and His blessings. It also helps to recall specific blessings and victories and enumerate these many good things. Then take note of the things that are causing you to feel anxious. Commit this list to the Lord in prayer, couching these petitions with thanksgiving, giving God glory and expressing gratitude for His mercy and goodness. The last step is to focus on receiving the peace that He promises to give, that amazing peace that “surpasses all understanding.” Even when the situation seems impossible, He has promised that we can receive His peace.

When we experience disappointment, we can learn, grow, and mature, as we see in James 1:2–4:

Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]. And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing (AMP).

Of course, in spite of our best efforts to learn and grow from disappointments, there will be times when we feel overwhelmed and discouraged when something happens out of the blue that we were not expecting. Or when we had been working toward a specific goal that was important to us and, contrary to our plans, the outcome was different than expected and seems to be a setback or loss.

In times like these we need to remember that God sees the big picture. Our situation is never hopeless. God has a plan for our lives. We know that we can trust God because He is good. We trust Him because He loves us and knows best. We trust Him because He has promised to work in and through even our setbacks, failures, and challenges and turn them into blessings in our lives. When our hopes and expectations don’t come to pass, it’s important to not become disillusioned with God Himself.

When God does not act when we think He should act, it is not because He is unable to do so. … God chooses to act or not to act according to His perfect and holy will in order to bring about His righteous purposes. Nothing happens that is out of God’s plan. … There are times when He chooses to let us know His plans (Isaiah 46:10), and times when He does not. Sometimes we understand what He is doing; sometimes we do not (Isaiah 55:9). One thing we do know for sure: if we belong to Him, whatever He does will be to our benefit, whether or not we understand it. …

When we align our wills with God’s will and when we can say, with Jesus, “Not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42), then we find the contentment Paul spoke of in 1 Timothy 6:6–10 and Philippians 4:11–12. Paul had learned to be content with whatever God sent his way. He trusted God and submitted to His will, knowing that a holy, righteous, perfect, loving, and merciful God would work all things together for good because that is what He promised. When we see God in that light, we cannot possibly be disappointed with Him. Rather, we [should] submit willingly to our heavenly Father, knowing that His will is perfect and that everything He brings to pass in our lives will be for our good and His glory.²

We can be confident that even when we don’t understand, there is a purpose in what the Lord allows to come into our lives. And if we are open and humble, we can learn from disappointment, even if it is a result of our mistakes, sins, or wrong decisions. It is beneficial to seek the Lord for anything He wants to teach us during our times of suffering.

When you are experiencing times of discouragement or disappointment, especially if you feel you have failed in some way, try to be kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up in your thoughts. Be gentle with yourself instead of critical. Make a conscious effort to stop your negative self-talk.

Remember that our identity as Christians, our sense of worth and self-esteem, is based on the fact that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by a God who created us specifically in love. He came to this world and gave His life for us. Not only that, but He has promised that we will live in an eternal world of beauty and joy in eternal bodies. When our view of ourselves is fully grounded in God’s unconditional love and our identity as a child of God with an eternal destiny, regardless of our faults and failings, that helps to build positive feelings about our future and full potential.

How the Lord sees you is expressed beautifully in the song by Lauren Daigle called “You Say.” Here are some of the words of this song:

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I’m not enough
Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up
Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low
Remind me once again just who I am, because I need to know

You say I am loved
When I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong
When I think I am weak
You say I am held
When I am falling short
When I don’t belong
You say I am Yours
And I believe
I believe
What You say of me
I believe

You can find the official video of the song on YouTube,³ where it’s been viewed by over 230 million people!

In closing, here is an encouraging message from Jesus.

No matter what your circumstances or how you have handled them, no matter what you have done or not done, I love you. I see your every tear. I hear your every cry for help. I feel your heartaches, your sorrows, your frustrations, your disappointments. I see straight through to your heart of hearts, and I love you more deeply than you can possibly comprehend.

Life often is a struggle, but it is made so much easier when you bring all your burdens and cares to Me. I can transform even turmoil, emptiness, and disappointment into peace, hope, and love.

Come to Me with all that is weighing you down and I will relieve your troubled mind, dry your tears, and renew your courage and hope.

Every new day can be a new start. Decisions of the past have had their effect, but no matter what has happened up till now, you can make the right decisions today.

Don’t waste time reliving the pain of past mistakes and wrong decisions. That only saps your strength to do what you can do today. You can’t change the past.

Learn from past mistakes and put them behind you today. Forgive those who have wronged you and ask forgiveness from those you have wronged. Look to Me and My Word for fresh courage and hope, starting today. Set new goals today. Spend your time on things that truly count today. Determine to do things better, commit all your ways to Me starting today.

With My help, your future can be filled with fresh perspective, fulfillment, and new achievements that will more than make up for past disappointments—and it all starts today.—Jesus

Praise the Lord! Let’s remember, “Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.”⁴ God bless you!

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

¹ Got Questions, “How can I overcome disappointment with life?”  July 26, 2024, https://www.gotquestions.org/disappointment-with-life.html/.

² Got Questions, “Is it wrong to feel disappointment with God?”  January 4, 2022, https://www.gotquestions.org/disappointment-with-God.html.

³ Lauren Daigle, “You Say,” YouTube (4:30 minutes), July 13, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIaT8Jl2zpI.

⁴ Bill Keane.

Copyright © 2021 The Family International.

 

Access to God 

Dan Ross 

2012-04-29 

  I remember one of the first times I experienced an answered prayer in my life. I was 19 and a new Christian, just learning about Jesus and spiritual principles. I was living at a mission center for six months in an accelerated program for discipleship. I was in a dorm with about nine other young men who were all there for the same reason. I didn’t have much in the way of personal possessions or money at the time, so I found myself in need of a new pair of shoes, because mine were worn out. I don’t know if I knelt beside my bed to pray, but I definitely remember asking God to give me a pair of shoes. The next afternoon when I walked into the room I was surprised to see a new pair of shoes sitting neatly on my bed. I asked the guys in the dorm if they’d put them there, but no one knew where the shoes had come from. I thanked the Lord for that answer to prayer. 

That was many years ago, and since then I’ve learned more about prayer; it’s still a very fresh and vital part of my life. I’ve mostly learned that prayer is, simply put, communication with God, a conversation with Him, if you will. There are many facets to prayer, but in my opinion one thing that stands out as important is that in prayer, one should stay open to how God will answer. 

Openness in prayer is seen in the personal example Jesus gives us in the Bible. You may recall that the night when He was betrayed, He had been praying in the garden of Gethsemane. He knew that His trial, suffering, and crucifixion were soon to begin. I found it interesting that Jesus didn’t want to go through all the pain and suffering as He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me.”1 He was saying, “If there’s any way that You can get Me out of this, please do it.” However, and this is why I say that being open to how God will answer your prayers is so important, Jesus continues His prayer with, “Yet, I want your will to be done, not mine.”2 Jesus didn’t want to go through the pain and suffering, but most of all He wanted His Father’s will to be accomplished. He was so desperate that the Bible says that He prayed this exact prayer three times.3 We all know that obviously it was His Father’s will for Jesus to experience suffering and death for our sins, because that’s exactly what happened. 

Some years ago I was in Moscow, Russia, with a group of 12 teenagers on a mission trip. I had paid $1,000 for train tickets to Siberia—a 96-hour train ride. Since the train didn’t leave until late that night, we left our small mountain of baggage at the apartment of a friend and went off to explore the city for a few hours. 

When we returned to the apartment, three of the teen boys shuttled the luggage down via the elevator. Excitement was in the air as our cross-country trip was about to begin. However, just as the boys were carrying down the last batch of luggage, the elevator got stuck between floors. “No big deal,” I thought, “we’ve still got time before the train leaves.” The boys tried pushing various buttons, but nothing made the elevator move. Finally, the rest of the team went on to the train station, while I waited for the apartment maintenance man to arrive. I couldn’t speak Russian, but as I waited, I could understand from the neighbors that the elevator got stuck periodically and that the maintenance man wasn’t very prompt. At this point I was praying desperately that the boys would be released from their temporary prison in time for us to catch our train. I envisioned us running and jumping on the train at the very last minute! 

Well, it didn’t happen like that. The departure time came and went. 

When the boys were released, the four of us grabbed the bags and got to the station as fast as we could. We saw our team next to our pile of luggage on the platform … but there was no train in sight. That was discouraging. We were told that the train waited for us for about ten minutes, but couldn’t wait any longer. 

I took a walk down the long platform that night talking to God about what happened. I asked Him all kinds of questions: Was I wrong to be planning this trip? Was it not His will for us to be in Siberia? Should we spend another $1,000 for this trip? Or get on another train and go somewhere else? 

Here I was with a group of teenagers thousands of miles from their families, and I was responsible for them. I had to know what to do. I needed answers. 

While walking down that deserted platform, the Lord comforted me by saying that the missed train wasn’t anyone’s fault. This didn’t happen because someone was doing something wrong and needed this as a punishment. Instead, Jesus wanted to use this as a learning experience for the team, to show us that seemingly bad things happen in life. There will be times when things go wrong—elevators get stuck, trains get missed, problems arise, unexpected events occur. However, it’s important to learn to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again. It was an encouraging message for all of us and one that lightened our spirits, as we were feeling rather disheartened at the time. So we went back into the station to get tickets for the last train that night, the one leaving at 1:00 in the morning. We then set off on our exciting adventure to Siberia, which is a whole other story! 

You see, prayer is our access to God. The Bible says that Jesus taught His disciples to pray; He taught them how to have access to the Father. The example of how He taught them to pray applies to us today. Each of us has that direct access to God. Each one of us is able to talk directly to God and ask Him anything we need to know in our lives. And what I find absolutely fantastic is that God gives answers. Of course, the answers I have received weren’t always the ones I wanted, and things didn’t always turn out the way I hoped for or thought they would happen. But the cool thing is that He answers me and He will answer you too when you ask. 

Just be sure to stay open to His answers, just like Jesus prayed “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.” When you have a problem or difficulty in life, take it to Jesus. Take time to pray, to tell God what’s on your heart. There may be others that you want to pray for, too. And I have found that He works the same way with those prayers. Explain their need and ask for His help in the situation, and then trust. Trust that He’ll give you or them the answer, or that He’ll work out the situation. But most importantly, trust that His will is what will be done in the situation. 

 Footnotes
1 Luke 22:42 NLT.
2 Luke 22:42 NLT.
3 Matthew 26:42–44. 

Read by Stephen Larriva. Music by Simon W. Copyright © 2012 by The Family International 

 A Worthwhile Wait

05 – Meditating on the Lord 

Resting in the Lord, Part 5 

Words from Jesus 

2006-10-01 

  

Meditation is about taking the time to focus your thoughts on Me, and to stop all the busy thoughts going through your mind and redirect your focus to keep your mind stayed on Me. Sometimes your meditation may be prayer, when you’re thinking about Me and communing with Me. At other times you’re praising Me and meditating on My greatness and power. Sometimes you’re just quiet, resting in Me, and at other times you’re asking Me to speak to you. 

There are many forms of meditation, and each brings a special blessing for your spirit and enables you to enter into that restful, meditative state where you lay down your burdens and troubles, allowing your spirit to be filled with Me. 

Sometimes it’s good to spend an extended period of time meditating or just resting in Me, thinking good thoughts and listening to My personal words to you, or listening to songs that uplift your spirit. The reason it can be helpful to occasionally do this for longer periods of time is that sometimes it can take time to corral your wandering thoughts and to slow everything down to reach the point of entering into My rest, where your doubts and worries melt away and you are reveling in My love and relaxation. 

Taking this time can be an act of faith, but by taking the time to meditate on My Word, or to listen to praise songs about Me, you will feel the results of this time spent with Me. And even if you don’t feel a huge, tangible difference, you can know that your spirit has been refreshed and nourished through your communion with Me. 

Often, no words are necessary, but sometimes a verse that you have hidden deep in your heart flows out, and I may even show you how to apply it in some new way. When you’re resting in Me, you don’t have to struggle, trying to find words that express your love. You are simply relaxing in My arms, simply “being” with Me, and if words pour out, they pour out; and if no words come, it isn’t important. 

A time of connection 

King David was a beautiful example of meditating on Me and My Word. Some of the psalms that he wrote were his heartcries of praise to Me as he meditated. Other psalms were written as he poured out the thoughts that troubled him, the fears he faced, and he laid them at My feet. He had great faith, and once he placed his cares and thoughts in My hands, he poured out the deepest passions of his heart to Me. 

When you take time to enter into My rest, you aren’t petitioning or presenting your needs or programs to Me, but you are communicating with Me, pouring out your love for Me, and receiving My love for you. It is an intimate connection. Deep meditation is when you stay longer with Me; you hold out and tarry with Me in spirit. It’s good for times when you need to relax and unwind down to the very core of your being, and when you want to drink Me in deeply and absorb My Spirit. 

Short times of meditation, while not as deep, can be a source of daily overcoming and strength, even in circumstances where there are many distractions around you. You can just pause at a point when you are not pressured by some deadline, or you can at least step back from it for a few moments and focus on Me and think about how much I love you. Doing this for a few moments whenever you have a chance will cause a calmness to come into your life. This can change how you see the world around you. 

Meditation is not an end in itself, but a means to strengthening our relationship. The depth of our bond built during those times will empower you to walk through your day with a spirit of peace and calm. The sincerity and wholehearted desire of your heart will build your connection with Me and your faith. Ultimately, it’s about relationship, placing your heart and time in My hands, setting aside your immediate cares and concerns to draw near to Me. 

Meditation is a means to draw closer to Me, to partake of My Spirit, and to connect with Me deeply. 

Benefits of meditation 

When preparing to take an extended time of communion with Me, you may find it difficult to immediately go from your daily work into quality communion with Me. It takes time to make the switch. This is not to say that you can’t immediately connect with My presence, but when you want to take a deeper time of quiet communion with Me and listen to My still, small voice, you have to prepare in spirit, heart, mind, and body. 

You prepare your spirit by committing to Me anything that’s on your heart or mind, the things that are pressing on you or weighing on you, your burdens and cares. After committing them to Me in prayer, you may need to take a few minutes to receive My promises concerning those situations. This will help you to find the peace to leave those things in My hands while you rest in Me, and not feel as though you need to pick up the burdens again. 

Take time to align your thoughts with Mine. What is going through your mind at the moment? Ask Me for My thoughts on those things, and then commit them to Me. 

You prepare your body by physically relaxing. To meditate on Me and My words, you must wind down from the cares and busyness of life. Something else that can help you to come away from the cares and worries you’re carrying is listening to praise music. Music can lift your spirit from the earthly plane to the heavenly one. 

When you are relaxed in spirit and have placed your cares and burdens in My hands, when you have aligned your thoughts with Mine and are physically rested and free from tension, you’re ready to begin a time of focused meditation and communion with Me. 

It’s not meant to be a works trip. The main key is to enter into My Spirit, and these are simply some of the things that can help you to achieve that goal. The most important thing is to take time to quiet your spirit before Me, because in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.1 

Quiet and rest 

Meditation and times of physical quiet and rest are good for you, as even though you live on Earth, you are spiritual beings. Meditation helps you to more closely connect to the spiritual elements that govern your lives as My disciples. It helps you to remember that this world is not your home, and that there’s more to life than this world, and that there’s more than just work and busyness. 

Meditation can help renew your focus on things above. It helps you to tune out the noise of the world and to get your spiritual bearings straight once again. It reminds you of the true priorities of life. It clarifies your vision and strengthens your resolve to love, serve, and obey Me. 

Quiet can be a beautiful thing. When you’re quiet and have shut down your earthly nonstop rush, you’re able to hear Me more clearly. Meditation helps to make that possible. It’s a chance for Me to give you My promised peace. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”2 

If you look through the Bible, you will see that I have emphasized to My children the importance of setting aside a time to come apart from the busyness, the importance of quietness and confidence, meditating with Me in the night watches, and seeking Me early in the morning. You need those times of quiet and rest to keep your perspective clear and your priorities straight. 

When you meditate on Me and My precepts, My Spirit cleanses your spirit from mental stress, which could negatively affect your body. Meditation and times of calm, quiet, peaceful rest, and communion with Me are healthy for your body and spirit. 

Originally published October 2006. Adapted and republished July 2019.
Read by Simon Peterson. Music by Michael Dooley. 

 1 Isaiah 30:15. 

2 John 14:27. 

 10 – More Like Jesus: Renewal Basics 

More Like Jesus 

Peter Amsterdam 

2016-08-23 

As touched on in the last two articles, In God’s Likeness parts one and two, becoming more like Jesus calls for a renewal of our inner being—our heart, will, emotions, mind (conscious and subconscious), soul, and spirit—which then causes our actions to reflect our renewed inner self. If we wish to be Christlike, we must start with a changed spirit. (I am continuing to use the word “spirit” to represent the heart, mind, soul, and spirit—our inner self or inner being.) Salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us brings transformation to our spirit; it breaks the power of sin over us, which enables the process of spiritual growth that changes our fundamental inner nature. 

The process toward having our thoughts, words, actions, and attitudes reflect Christ isn’t something that happens on its own; it calls for conscious inner transformation. The apostle Paul expressed it by saying put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and … be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and … put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.1 So what do we do to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, to put on our new self? 

One key factor in becoming more like Jesus is believing what Jesus believed, meaning that we believe what Scripture teaches. The type of belief that results in ongoing transformation isn’t one we give mere intellectual assent or acknowledgment to. Rather, it is a belief that becomes a foundation for how we live. It’s one thing to believe that God exists; it’s something quite different to live with the Creator as the center of our lives, so that our decisions and actions are based on our relationship with Him. Belief in this context means conviction and commitment to live by what we believe. Following are some key beliefs which play a major role in becoming Christlike. 

Belief in God as taught in Scripture 

Scripture teaches that God exists; He created the world (the universe) and everything in it out of nothing;2 He is personal;3 He is triune (one God in three persons);4 He is actively involved with the created world,5 although He is not part of the created world;6 He loves and cares about the world and those in it;7 He loves and cares for us, His children,8 and is involved in our daily lives;9 He is good,10 and we experience His goodness in our lives;11 and even though everything in our life isn’t good and we don’t always understand why some things happen, we put our trust in Him12 as His ways are higher than ours.13 

Our Creator wishes for us to enter a loving relationship with Him. However, sin and the cares of this life compete for our affections and desires. There are many distractions which pull our loyalty, focus, and desires away from God. We are often faced with a choice of whether to attach ourselves to and worship God, or turn to things which pull us away from Him and make them the object of our worship. Knowing that God wants us to resist evil, we look to Him for the grace and power to do so, and we do our part to resist and overcome sin in our lives. 

We trust God because we believe that He is loving, personal, all-powerful, and that His ways are higher than ours. We embrace Him, knowing that He has our best interests at heart. He knows about us, cares for us, understands our weaknesses, and forgives us; so we trust Him, follow Him, and seek His guidance in our lives. 

Redemption 

Because of His love for humanity, our loving God made a way to restore us to fellowship with Him. Though we were sinners, in rebellion to Him, He made a way for us to be forgiven and reconciled. By accepting Christ as our Savior, we become children of God. Through God’s goodness, love, and kindness we have eternal life.14 

In Christ 

Through salvation we are “in Christ.” 

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.15 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.16 Because of him [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God.17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.18 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.19 

Being in Christ means that you are a member of the body of Christ,20 a child of God and heir to His kingdom,21 a temple of God’s dwelling,22 a new creation,23 and a citizen of heaven.24 Knowing this brings confidence that we are part of God’s family; He is our Father, Jesus is our Savior, and the Holy Spirit dwells within us. We are forgiven human beings who are loved by God Almighty. Because we are in Christ, we can express who we are in Him without having to prove who we are. 

Author Randy Frazee explains it this way: 

One of my favorite movies is the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire, which tells the true story of Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams … The movie depicts how they both ran and won gold medals. The difference? Harold Abrahams ran to prove who he was, while Eric Liddell ran to express who he knew he was in Christ … There is a scene in which Liddell’s sister is deeply concerned because she senses that his running is pulling him away from their commitment to go to China as missionaries. He looks deep into his sister’s eyes and says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” … One of the most mystical, yet amazing ways we know we are truly expressing who we are in Christ is by using the gifts He gives us and tapping into the heart of God to “feel His pleasure.”25 

Knowing that we are “in Christ” sets us free to follow His leading in our lives so that we can use the gifts and talents God has given us for His glory. We understand that however and wherever He leads at each stage of our lives, we can be joyful, content, and grateful to be living within His will. It also tells us that even though we aren’t perfect, we are forgiven, loved, and accepted by the Lord. 

Eternal life 

Possessing eternal life means we will live forever. Scripture reveals that when we die, our bodies return to the earth but our spirits live on. It teaches that there will be judgment, but those who have received Christ have been forgiven for their sins and will be seen by God as guiltless on the judgment day.26 

Relationship to the Bible 

It’s from reading, believing, and living according to the Bible—God’s Word—that we learn the truths it reveals. Within its pages, God has given us knowledge of Himself, His plan of salvation, and instruction on how to live our lives in alignment with His will. The Bible establishes our beliefs and guides our actions. It possesses authority in that it gives God’s instruction on how to be in relationship with Him, what is right and wrong, what is pleasing in His sight and what isn’t. As God’s truth is revealed to us, it’s meant to be the lens through which we view our world: a means of guiding us to make godly choices, have right attitudes, and live in alliance with God. 

These basic beliefs (along with many others taught within the pages of Scripture) become the foundation stones upon which we base our decisions and actions; they shape our worldview, and thus direct how we live. They are a road map which guides us in the right direction. Over time, the way we think, feel, and act will be increasingly transformed into Christlikeness. The root cause of this transformation is based on what God Himself has revealed to us in Scripture. We are changed because we believe what God, through Scripture, has told us, and we act upon it. 

When we truly believe in a loving, personal, all-powerful God, we trust Him and have confidence that He can, and will, do what He has promised. He will guide us, and if we follow His directions and live in accordance with the principles found within His Word, we will have confidence that we are operating within His will and will receive the benefits of doing so, both in this life and for eternity. Such belief changes how we think and live. 

When we believe that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we recognize that God, within Himself, is a perfect loving community. Understanding that we are made in God’s image and likeness, we recognize that as human beings we are to operate in love and harmony in community. Our family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, other believers, and people in our town, country, and the world are all members of communities to which we belong. We are called to love others as we love ourselves and treat them as we want to be treated. 

When we believe God loves each human being as a person created in His image, we understand that everyone has value. This leads to both self-respect and respect of others, no matter their religion, race, economic status, politics, or any other difference. 

When we understand that God is holy and that nothing unholy can come into His presence, we live in gratitude toward Him for redeeming us. Had He not made the way of salvation available to us through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we would have no personal relationship with Him, no salvation, no indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We would receive the wages of sin, which is death, instead of the gift of God, which is eternal life.27 However, because of His gift to us, we can live lives of joy, knowing that we are in relationship with God and that our sins are forgiven. In gratefulness we want to please Him, live for Him, and reflect Him and His love to others, to share the good news of salvation with them. Having been forgiven for our sins, we forgive others for their sins against us. 

Being in Christ gives us self-worth, not based on what we accomplish but on our value to God. We don’t need to prove anything or put others down to bolster our ego or standing. Frazee wrote: 

We will be set free to use our words for building bridges, not burning them. To use our hands to hug, not hurt. To use our feet to bring, not take away. To use our hearts to inspire, not conspire. To raise the level of any room we are in.28 

Knowing that we have eternal life changes the way we live in the present. We are accountable for our decisions, for the kind of person we become. Understanding our accountability should cause us to put priority on using the gifts and talents God has given us for His glory. Our focus should not be on worldly success, but on living lives which glorify the Lord. That doesn’t mean that we won’t have worldly success—we might—but our focus is on glorifying God and being guided by Him, because we have made it our priority to seek Him for direction and follow what He has shown us. Knowing that we will live with God for eternity should cause us to live with hope, even in trying times. No matter how difficult our lives may be, we know that this present time is only a moment compared to eternity. 

The key component to becoming more like Jesus is belief in Scripture—not just head belief, but heart belief. If we truly believe what the Bible teaches and we make the effort to apply those truths to our lives, we experience ongoing transformation. If we truly believe the teachings of the Bible and align our inner self, heart, mind, soul, and spirit with those beliefs, then our thoughts, desires, feelings, decisions, and outward actions reflect those beliefs. 

At the same time, the Holy Spirit will also use these truths to speak to our hearts about our shortcomings and sins with the goal of helping us to change. If we are open to the Spirit’s guidance and we desire to become more like Jesus, we acknowledge our sins and work to overcome them through the help of the Holy Spirit. This is part of our transformation, of putting off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and [being] renewed in the spirit of your minds, and [putting] on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.29 

Our starting place for Christlikeness is belief in God’s Word. When we believe Scripture, we build our lives on a rock-solid foundation, and we have the conviction to live by those beliefs. It is in living those beliefs that we become 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 Ephesians 4:22–24. 

2 In the future I hope to write about the various Christian theories of Creation which are considered to be in alignment with what Genesis teaches. 

3 He has a name: I AM, Yahweh; is spoken of as Father (2 Corinthians 6:18), as a judge (Isaiah 33:22), and as a husband (Isaiah 54:5). For more on God as personal, click here. 

4 The Father addresses the Son as You (Mark 1:11); the Son refers to the Father as He (John 5:20); the Son differentiates Himself from the Father and from the Holy Spirit (John 15:26). For a fuller explanation of the Trinity, click here. 

5 Colossians 1:17; Acts 17:28. 

6 Acts 17:24; 1 Kings 8:27. 

7 John 3:16. 

8 1 John 3:1. 

9 Isaiah 41:10; Matthew 28:20; Joshua 1:9. 

10 Psalm 119:68, 145:9. 

11 Psalm 31:19, 68:10; Isaiah 63:7; Jeremiah 31:12. 

12 Romans 8:28; Psalm 84:11. 

13 Isaiah 55:9. 

14 For a fuller explanation of redemption, see The Heart of It All: Salvation parts 1–5, beginning here. 

15 1 Corinthians 15:22. 

16 Galatians 3:26. 

17 1 Corinthians 1:30. 

18 2 Corinthians 5:17. 

19 Ephesians 1:3. 

20 1 Corinthians 12:27. 

21 Romans 8:17. 

22 1 Corinthians 3:16. 

23 2 Corinthians 5:17. 

24 Philippians 3:20. 

25 Randy Frazee, Think, Act, Be Like Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), 62–63. 

26 1 Corinthians 1:4–8; Colossians 1:12–14. 

27 Romans 6:23. 

28 Frazee, Think, Act, Be Like Jesus, 63. 

29 Ephesians 4:22–24. 

 Copyright © 2016 The Family International. 

 Fear Thou Not, for I Am with Thee 

David Brandt Berg 

1990-03-01 

God’s Word tells us, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof” (Psalm 46:1–3). 

That’s His promise, amen? He is our refuge and strength, and through the trying days that now are and shall yet come, He is “a very present help in trouble.” If we love Him and if we’re obeying Him and keeping His commandments, the Lord is very concerned about helping and preserving and protecting us. 

Just read the Bible and you’ll see story after story of how marvelously the Lord protects and keeps His children. Once in a while they got in trouble and they suffered some, but He always delivered them! He doesn’t say that you’re never going to have any trials or afflictions, but He promises He’ll deliver you out of them all (Psalm 34:19). 

God may allow a test now and then just to see how much faith we’ve got, how determined we are, how much patience we have. He sometimes allows troubles as a testing and trial to see how much knowledge of the Word we have, and how much we’ll stand on the Word. 

Once, when I was concerned and worrying about the future, He answered me with a question: “Will I not care for My own?” What an encouragement from the Lord! “Will I not care for My own?” The Lord is able to keep us through anything and everything. He will care for us. In fact, He won’t let a hair of your head be touched without His permission. “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of Mine eye” (Matthew 10:30; Zechariah 2:8). 

Lord, You are our deliverer, our strong fortress in whom we hide, our strong tower in which the righteous hide. You are our strength. You promised, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1), and we know that’s the best protection there could possibly be. So we put our faith and trust in You, in Jesus’ name, amen. 

  

“Hedged about” 

Don’t ever forget, we are surrounded by the angels of God. We are hedged in, as the Devil himself said about Job. The Devil complained to God about Job, “How can I touch him? You’ve got him fenced in! You’ve got him so hedged in, I can’t even reach him, I can’t even touch him” (Job 1:10). God has placed a hedge of angels around us too. 

“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them” (Psalm 34:7). So thank God for the great company of angels! 

When it looked like the prophet Elisha was cornered and surrounded by an entire army of his enemies, his servant became very worried and upset, as it looked like a truly impossible situation. “And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, ‘Alas, my master! How shall we do?’” (2 Kings 6:15). 

But the prophet answered, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them! 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 6:16–17). 

So that’s something that we need to remember and constantly thank the Lord for—His marvelous, miraculous, supernatural protection! Thank God for His angels that encamp round about us. 

Precious hiding place,
Blessed hiding place,
In the shelter of His love.
Not a doubt nor fear,
When my Lord is near,
For I’m sheltered in His love.
—Avis M. Christiansen, 1918 

  

Pray without ceasing 

Keep close to the Lord and constantly claim His protection, always asking the Lord to keep you, and bless and protect you, because lots of things can happen that are totally beyond your control, but not the Lord’s! 

“Men ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1), God’s Word says. And He says, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Jesus said, “Watch and pray” (Matthew 26:41). He didn’t say that for no reason. He not only knew you would need it, but it’s one way the Lord has of trying to keep you close to Him, in His presence continually, and constantly dependent upon Him and His protection and provision. 

Your best protection is to stay strong in the Lord and the Word and in prayer and the Spirit. Jesus Himself said, “A strong man armed keepeth his goods in peace” (Luke 11:21). What did Jesus mean by that? To be strong is to be watchful and to be wise. Not just physically, but to be strong in spirit, strong in prayer. 

  

“Fear not” 

When people get upset and worried about things, we often say, “Don’t worry about it!” If anybody could say that to us, it’s the Lord. “Don’t worry about it! You’re My child, and I’m going to take care of you no matter what happens.” 

Just trust the Lord, and He’ll take care of you. He never fails, no matter what the conditions. He says, “Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust” (Psalm 40:4). 

Once, when I was very burdened about something I cried out, “Lord, what should we do?” Instead of telling me what to do, He told me what not to do. I wasn’t asking the Lord for a scripture; I wanted to know what to do. But He simply told me, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, 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). 

That’s a verse I’ve gotten before, but it was certainly an encouragement from the Lord at that time. So whatever you do, don’t be afraid. Be like King David, who exclaimed, “In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid” (Psalm 56:11). Keep your faith in the Lord and trust the Lord and know that the Lord is in control, and nothing’s going to happen but what the Lord allows. 

The Lord’s going to take care of us, whatever happens, and He’s going to do what He wants to do. God is in control, and nothing happens to His children without His permission, and all things that He allows will eventually work together for our good. Praise the Lord! 

Lord, help us not to worry or fear, but only to fear You and love You and follow and obey You. You said, “In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and His children shall have a place of refuge” (Proverbs 14:26). Help us to remain at peace in You, Lord. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee” (Isaiah 26:3). Help us not to worry about any of the waves and winds and billows that we face. Help us just to look to You, and keep our eyes on You and trust You. We know You work everything out for the best somehow. All things, Lord, shall work together for good to us who love You. In some way it’s all going to work together for our good, in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

The Lord is our refuge! 

Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
There by His Love o’er shaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest. 

Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe from all worry and care,
Safe from the world’s tribulations,
Nothing can harm me there. 

Jesus, my heart’s dear Refuge,
Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages,
Ever my trust shall be!
—Franny Crosby, 1868 

Copyright © March 1990 by The Family International 

 

The Art of Waiting on the Lord

A compilation

2022-09-13

“In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”—Psalm 5:3¹

When you ask God for help, you can wait with expectation.

You pray to a God who honors his promises. He is a good Father who always gives you what you need. When you wait expectantly, you demonstrate faith by believing God will do what he has promised.

Expectation isn’t entitlement. Entitlement says, “I will get what I need from God because I deserve it, I’ve earned it. I’ve read my Bible five times this week and have been to church twice, so God has to give me what I need.” Expectation says, “God will give me what I need because of who he is.”

Waiting expectantly isn’t easy, especially when you feel powerless. When you are trusting God to do the impossible—in your marriage, career, or relationships—and his timing feels too slow, it’s hard to keep trusting him.

Don’t be discouraged, and don’t give up! Even though you don’t know why God hasn’t answered your prayers, you can trust him to keep his promise. God is always in control; he is never surprised, and no one is more powerful than him. Your biggest problems are small to him.

While you are waiting, God is working. He is building your faith, teaching you his truth, drawing you closer to himself, and making you more like Christ. God knows what you need better than you do.

Follow David’s example: Keep making your requests to God and waiting expectantly for him to answer.—Rick Warren²

Trust and wait

“Wait on the LORD: Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: Wait, I say, on the LORD.”³ … Patient, confident trust in the Lord is the central idea of the exhortation to wait on the Lord. The entire Psalm 27 is a prayer to God for help. It beautifully illustrates the meaning of waiting on the Lord. Throughout the psalm’s eloquent lines, David expresses authentic faith and courageous trust in God, based on his confident expectation that the Lord will rescue and save him in his time of trouble.

First, we see that we can wait on the Lord by trusting in Him. David expressed great confidence in the Lord, who was his light, salvation, and stronghold.⁴…

We can wait on the Lord by seeking Him. David conveyed his trust in the Lord by longing to be with Him, to commune in God’s presence and worship in His temple: “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”⁵…

We can wait on the Lord through prayer, as David did in eager expectation of deliverance.⁶ David asked God for wisdom, direction, and protection, wholly believing he would “see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”⁷ Those who wait on the Lord can fully expect Him to fulfill their hope: “Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.”⁸

Waiting on the Lord involves the confident expectation of a positive result in which we place a great hope. This expectation is based on knowledge of and trust in God. … We must be confident of who God is and what He is capable of doing. Those who wait on the Lord do not lose heart in their prayers: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”⁹ Waiting on the Lord renews our strength.¹⁰

Waiting on the Lord by trusting, seeking, and praying establishes our faith and brings serenity and stability: “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in him.”¹¹ As this passage affirms, waiting on the Lord is also a testimony to others who will see our faith and, as a result, put their trust in God.

Waiting on the Lord brings God’s blessings: “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”¹²

Sometimes we might feel as though the Lord does not see or hear us—that He’s not answering our prayers. During these moments, we can put our complete faith and trust in the living God. We can wait on the Lord in eager anticipation, knowing that He is with us and in control of our lives. He will do what He has promised. He will rescue and save us. He is always working for our good, even when we don’t feel Him.¹³ Through patient, courageous, active trusting, seeking, and prayer, we can learn to wait on the Lord.—GotQuestions.org¹⁴

Worth waiting for

Over the years I have seen some dear friends of mine be marvelously blessed by the Lord. Some of these same loved ones and co-workers have gone through what seemed to be a series of incredibly trying times. They faced a lot of difficulty, disappointment, and unfulfilled desires and dreams.

I attended a wedding celebration for one of these friends. She had gotten married in another country, and so she and her husband were celebrating their marriage with those of us who weren’t able to attend the actual ceremony. I felt so much joy seeing them together, along with their beautiful baby daughter. She had desperately wanted a family for many years, but it just wasn’t happening, and of course that was a huge test for her—but she continued to hold on to the Lord and trust.

And now, after years of waiting, the Lord had brought the right man into her life—and brought her into his. As hard as I know it was for her to wait all those years, it was worth it. She now has a wonderful husband and a beautiful baby.

Seeing her so happy, as well as thinking about others who have come through long spells of waiting or ongoing tests, increases my faith to trust God when times are bad, or when I’m going through a difficult period. Each of these had passed through their own particular “valley of the shadow of death”¹⁵ which was full of difficulties, discouragement, and circumstances that couldn’t easily be changed. In some cases, there was no way out but to wait, and to trust that, in time, things would change for the better.

Each one persevered through their difficulties. They held on to the Lord in faith and prayer, they didn’t give up, and they crossed the valley and came out on the other side. Those difficulties eventually passed. Their particular valleys took a long time to travel through—years, in some cases. Some came out of their battles wounded, and they needed time to heal. But each one held on, didn’t give up, and is better and happier for it.

I was reminded of a low time in my life, when I was faced with personal difficulties, which were the most trying I had faced until that point. There was nothing I could do to remedy the situation except to pray and trust God for the outcome—that He would either change the situation or give me the grace to make it through. Thankfully, He did both.

Most trials and tribulations don’t pass immediately; sometimes they last a very long time. In the midst of it you may feel as if you’re being ripped apart, and sometimes all you can do is cry out to Jesus and hold on desperately to the promises in His Word. There is new life after passing through that valley of seeming death. And it’s worth holding on for, worth waiting for, worth fighting for.—Peter Amsterdam

Struggling to wait

When we understand God is good, we can trust He has good in store for us. When we know Him as the sovereign Lord over our prayers, plans and hopes, we can believe He wants our best. When we wait for God to act on our behalf, we receive the fullness of His blessings.

Maybe you are struggling to wait for God’s best. Everything in your heart, mind or flesh may be crying out for a shortcut—one that will relieve the pressures of life right now.

When you’re tempted to run ahead of God’s best, He’s never further away than an arrow prayer. Help me. Save me. Comfort me. God loves to hear your short, sweet prayers of trust. As you lean on God instead of your own desires, He’ll act on your behalf.

Though you can’t hear, perceive or see God’s master plan for your life, you can trust Him today in your struggles. Surrender all your hopes and desires to Him. Keep praying for as long as it takes. His presence will be an incomparable comfort if you choose to wait.

Lord, I believe You have Your best in mind for me. When my desires crave what is second-best, remind me to cry out to You. Help me trust that if I wait for You to act, I’ll see You reveal an amazing, custom-made plan. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.—Sarah Geringer¹⁶

Published on Anchor September 2022. Read by John Laurence. Music by John Listen.

¹ NIV.

² https://pastors.com/god-is-working-while-youre-waiting.

³ Psalm 27:14 KJV.

⁴ Psalm 27:1–2.

⁵ Psalm 27:4.

⁶ Psalm 27:7–14.

⁷ Psalm 27:11–13.

⁸ Psalm 25:3 ESV.

⁹ 1 John 5:14.

¹⁰ Isaiah 40:31.

¹¹ Psalm 40:1–3

¹² Isaiah 64:4; see also 1 Corinthians 2:9.

¹³ Romans 8:28.

¹⁴ https://www.gotquestions.org/wait-on-the-Lord.html.

¹⁵ Psalm 23:4.

¹⁶ https://proverbs31.org/read/devotions/full-post/2020/06/26/waiting-for-gods-best.

Expensive Bargains

David Brandt Berg

1980-12-01

The cheapest thing is not always the best thing. Bargains frequently aren’t worth it, and they may turn out to be a bigger gyp than the higher-priced real thing. You may get less than what you paid for in buying a bargain. The bargain may not be worth it, and you may have paid less for it but gotten very much less than if you had paid a little more and gotten quality.

It’s like my mother used to say about eating places: Why go to the greasy spoon and the stinky kitchen and get cheap junky food that you’re not even sure is clean to save a quarter or fifty cents? Why go there and eat cheap, tasteless, greasy, junky food to save a few pennies when your life is worth more than that.

You’re better off paying a little more for your meal in a respectable, reputable place with a name to protect and where they have a large enough clientele that there’s a sufficiently rapid turnover that their food is bound to be fresh because they use it up constantly, and where you know they’re going to have good food in delightful surroundings.

Even though you’re paying more for it, it’s worth what you’re paying. Whereas you could be going to the greasy spoon and paying half as much and not even be getting what you pay for. That’s true of almost any kind of buying: the cheapest stuff is not necessarily the best buy. You may not get your money’s worth. We bought some sets of cheap tools and nearly every screwdriver is now broken; we couldn’t even open the pliers. It was just junk made to look good. We found out it wasn’t steel at all. The minute you nicked it, this cheap tinfoil coating chipped off, and underneath it looked like it was made out of lead. Now that’s no bargain.

You got a bunch of tools for a low price, maybe half the price of the other tools, but it’s just junk and worth almost nothing. Whereas if you’d paid a little more, you’d have gotten good tools, well-made, hardened steel, functioning and useful and not about to break at the first turn of the handle. The cheapest stuff is not necessarily a bargain. The cheapest stuff may be half-price and one-fourth value, and it may be even worse.

The same goes for clothing. What value is cheap clothing that you got for half-price when maybe it only lasts a quarter as long and wears out in nothing flat, or fades when you put it in the washing machine? It just doesn’t pay to buy the cheapest thing; it may turn out to be more expensive than the other. When you find out that you paid half the price but it wasn’t worth anything, that isn’t very cheap. I’d call that expensive, when you find out that you paid a cheap price for something that’s a bunch of junk and worth nothing!

The same goes for just about anything—clothing, jewelry, food, trailers, cars, whatever. The lowest price is not necessarily the cheapest. You may go to a secondhand car lot and buy a cheap car, but it turns out to be a pile of junk! It needs all kinds of immediate repairs or it won’t even hold itself together or run any further, and pretty soon you’re paying more in repairs and maintenance for this junker you bought at half-price than if you’d bought a better car, a little newer, less worn and in better shape, a later model at a higher price. At least you’d get your money’s worth!

When you buy the cheap junk at half-price you may not even get your money’s worth. That’s something to remember that’s true of almost everything in life: The lowest-priced thing is not necessarily the cheapest. It can cost you more in the long run.

It reminds me of what my mother used to say about bargain-counter religion: It doesn’t cost you much. But David said, “I will not give unto the Lord of that which hath cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). His religion had to cost him something; it had to be worth something of value, a sacrifice.

It’s cheap religion if it doesn’t cost anything, so to speak, easy believism or something where you can just go to church a few minutes on Sunday and you think you’ve paid your debt to God and you don’t have to witness or live for God.

Many people figure they’re getting by cheap because they think they’re paying their way to heaven without having to live a Christian life and to witness like a Christian and really sacrifice for the Lord and love the Lord and put out and love others and pay the price of real love.

I would say a lot of churches that I know of are claiming to sell people valuable goods, that it’s worth something that’s going to get them to heaven, when actually it’s a gyp! But people are willing to buy it because it doesn’t cost them much; it doesn’t require much sacrifice. They can live for themselves and never witness, never help others, never help the missionaries, never give, never really do anything for the Lord, giving little of their time to the Lord.

They figure, “That’s pretty cheap religion; it doesn’t cost me very much. It doesn’t cost much of my time, I don’t have to pay much money for it, and yet it looks great.”

There are lots of rich people who put a lot of money into their religion and their church because they figure they’re getting a bargain and they’re not really having to sacrifice or serve God or give up anything, or it’s not really costing them very much compared to how much they’ve got. Like all those rich people who were tossing their great treasures into the coffer of the temple. God was not judging them by how much they gave but by how much they had left. Whereas the widow who just had a mite gave much more than all of them put together. They were trying to buy bargain religion, and Jesus didn’t buy it! (See Mark 12:41–44, Luke 21:1–4.)

Of course, the worst gyp is bargain salvation that doesn’t save you, and you wind up in hell when you thought you’d paid your way to heaven.—Whether you pay with money, penance, church-going, or whatever. I used to shock churches and say, “A lot of you good people are going to go to hell, whereas there are a lot of bad people who are going to go to heaven, and I can prove it by the Bible!”

Take the case of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:9–14). The Lord said, “Which one do you think is justified? Which one is forgiven?” The publican, the sinner, the bad guy was saved, and the Pharisee was condemned because he was trusting in his own self-righteousness. He had bargain-counter religion. He thought he was saved by his own goodness, but your own goodness isn’t enough!

It cost a priceless gift to get saved, Jesus and His blood, and receiving Him for salvation is the only thing that’s going to save you. That’s the highest-priced gift anybody could ever receive, or the highest cost anybody could pay for your salvation, and only Jesus could do it. Anything less is bargain-counter religion that’s not worth it and won’t save you, and isn’t even worth what you pay for it, because it doesn’t deliver the goods. It doesn’t give you real salvation.

No matter how much you sacrifice and pay for it by your own works, it’s cheap. It’s too cheap, because you didn’t get the real thing, and you’ll wind up in hell after all your hard work and all your sacrifice and the price you paid for it. It still wasn’t enough. Only Jesus could pay for it, because the price was too high for you; you could never afford it. That’s why He had to pay for it and then give it to you, because you couldn’t afford it. Your works couldn’t pay for it. You didn’t have what it takes; you didn’t pay enough.

Salvation is so costly that none of us could afford to pay for it. Jesus alone could buy it for us with the price of His own life. Any other kind of religion is no bargain. They may call it a bargain and it may seem cheap, but it’s not. Even if you got it at a bargain price, you paid more than it was worth, because it’s not worth anything. It won’t save you!

You see, it applies to everything, no matter what field of life. Don’t trust “bargains.” They may not even be worth what you pay for them, especially if they’re worth nothing, like bargain-counter salvation, which isn’t salvation at all. You get it home and it doesn’t last and it doesn’t wear and it certainly doesn’t last you all your life and it certainly doesn’t get you into heaven. That’s no bargain; that’s pretty costly, if it doesn’t do the trick!

That’s a pretty high price to pay for a religion that you discover didn’t get you to heaven. Even if you paid your all, it wasn’t enough, because only Jesus was enough. Only God’s love was big enough to pay for it. So even if you give everything you’ve got, including your life, it’s not enough. You can’t pay for it. The price is too high; you can’t afford it. You just have to accept if from the Lord as a gift, and it’s priceless!

When we give everything we’ve got to God, we will find out that that was really a pretty cheap price to pay for the reward we’re going to get. What we gave up cannot even be compared to what we’re going to receive in return. Actually we’re the ones that are getting the bargain. We’re the ones that are getting it cheap. By giving our all, we’re going to get everything.

It’s like the story told about Dwight L. Moody, who was a very busy man. Some people wanted him to come speak at a meeting. They said, “It’ll only be ten minutes; it won’t take much of your time. It won’t take anything out of you, Dr. Moody. It won’t cost you anything, just a few minutes.” He said, “If it doesn’t cost me anything, I don’t want to come. If it’s not going to take enough of my valuable time to make it worth it, I’m not coming.”

Time wasted is gone forever, and though it was easy to waste, it can be pretty expensive. Time well spent may have cost a lot in effort, strength, sacrifice, and love, but when we see what our reward is going to be even here and now as well as hereafter, it’s a bargain! That’s what I call a bargain; even if it costs you everything, it’s a bargain. You’re going to find that your reward is a bargain, because you didn’t pay half of what it was worth. If you pay $1,000 for something and it’s only worth $100, that’s no bargain. But if you pay $10,000 and it’s worth $100,000, that’s a bargain. It cost you more, but it’s worth a heaven of a lot more.

A lot of the stuff we did and the time we wasted, we may find out that it was no bargain. We paid several times what it was actually worth for that pleasure or that time wasted, because it was pretty expensive. We paid a lot more for it than it was worth. Isn’t that a fact? And the religion that some people have, they’re going to find that it’s pretty expensive! They figure it’s not costing them much, but when they find out how much they’re losing by this easy religion, this easy believism, they’re going to find that it was pretty expensive religion.

Whereas if you serve the Lord and sacrifice for Him, His Word says that you are going to wind up with crowns of eternal life better than gold, with diamonds and jewels shining like stars for the eternal everlasting souls won for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and eternal life in a heavenly city that’s beyond anything we can possibly imagine. The people who it’s cost everything, when they see what they get in return are going to figure, “Wow, what a bargain! We gave everything, but what we’re getting in return is worth so much more than everything we could possibly give.”

This is what I call a bargain, when you get back a whole lot more than you paid.—If you paid everything for it but you get back more than everything—not if you paid little or nothing for it and you get back even less.

God bless and keep you living for Jesus. Souls are priceless bargains. “And great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12). To be in heaven forever with Jesus is the biggest bargain of all. It’s free, but He paid a lot for it! Are you thankful enough to serve Him and others in return?

Copyright © December 1980 by 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.

A Bible Adventure: Peter’s Transformation

A Bible Adventure

Treasures, adapted

2022-07-22

A retelling of Matthew 26, Luke 22, and Acts 2

One of the most colorful personalities in the Bible is Simon Bar-Jona, known today as Peter the Apostle. A rugged fisherman, he was always bursting with energy and action.

During his years under Christ’s personal leadership and teaching, Peter often bulldozed his way around. By far the most outspoken of the twelve apostles, Peter always seemed to say what was on his mind. More often than not, relying on his own self-confidence hindered him and caused him to make mistakes.

However, after following Jesus for three full years, Peter underwent a dramatic change—and this story is about that transformation. We begin at the closing hours of Jesus’ ministry on earth, at the Last Supper, which He ate with His disciples only a few hours before His arrest and crucifixion.

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Knowing that He would soon suffer death for the sins of the world, Jesus looked around at His disciples and said, “You shall all be offended and shall leave Me this night: For it is written, ‘I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’”¹

Upon hearing this, and overestimating himself, Peter boldly proclaimed, “Though all men desert You, yet I will not!”

“I say to you that before the cock crows, you will have denied Me three times,”² Jesus quietly answered.

Peter insisted, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both into prison and to death!”³

Nevertheless, that very night, as Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples, a band of temple guards sent by the chief priests and elders came with a multitude carrying swords, clubs, and torches. They seized Jesus, but all His disciples, filled with fear, fled.

As the guards took Jesus away to the palace of the high priest, Peter, trying to gather his courage, followed Him afar off. Arriving at the palace, Peter stood by the door, hoping to observe the court proceedings from a distance. A woman at the palace door noticed the distraught figure, and looking suspiciously at Peter, asked, “Aren’t you one of this man’s disciples?”

“No! I’m not!” he said, and moved to where others were warming themselves by a fire which the night guards had made.

“This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth,” another woman declared to the men who stood by. “He is one of them!”

But Peter swore to them, “I do not know the man!”

Suddenly, a man who had been present at Jesus’ capture pointed Peter out and loudly questioned him, “Didn’t I see you in the Garden of Gethsemane with Him?” Others who stood in the crowd joined in the allegation, saying, “Surely you are one of them! We can tell by your accent that you’re a Galilean!”

In response, Peter began to curse and to swear, insisting that he did not know what they were talking about, and that he knew nothing about the man.⁴

No sooner had he finished his denial than the cock began to crow. Jesus, as His captors led Him to another part of the palace, turned and looked at Peter. Immediately, Peter recalled his Master’s words, “Before the cock crows, you will have denied Me three times.”

Realizing what he had done, Peter stumbled for the door, ran blindly into the night, and there in a deserted alley beneath the walls of Jerusalem, he sank to the ground and wept bitterly.⁵

Fortunately, our story does not end in defeat. Three days after His trial and crucifixion, Jesus victoriously arose from the dead! His disciples, meanwhile, were huddled in a small room, hidden away. Jesus knew of their hiding place, of course, and appeared to them, and for the next forty days, He often visited and walked with His disciples, encouraging them and explaining what He would have them do once He was gone. On the fortieth day, just before ascending into heaven, He told the disciples to return to Jerusalem, saying, “Wait for the promise of the Father, until you are strengthened with power from on high. For you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses.”⁶

The apostles returned to Jerusalem, and with well over 120 other disciples, along with their women and children, they waited and prayed together in an upper room in obedience to Jesus’ final command before His departure.

Ten days later, a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind filled the house and they saw the appearance of many tongues of fire resting above each of their heads. Then they all were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit moved them.⁷

This was what they’d been waiting for, God’s supernatural strength to enable them to continue Jesus’ work now that He had departed. Peter, his heart and life transformed by the Holy Spirit of God, was to lead the disciples in one of the most phenomenal witnessing adventures recorded in the New Testament.

At that time, visitors from many foreign nations had come to Jerusalem for the great annual celebration of the Jewish Feast of the Harvest. When Peter stepped into the streets with those 120 disciples—now filled with the Holy Spirit—they all began to speak in the languages of the multitudes visiting Jerusalem that day, yet the disciples had not learned how to speak those languages. The disciples testified to the crowds about the wonderful news of God’s love in Jesus and His message of salvation.

Then Peter leaped up onto the steps of a nearby building, raised his hands, and shouted, bringing a hush over the enormous crowd. He spoke to them with such authority that an astounding 3,000 people were not only saved but also committed themselves that day to follow God as disciples.

Peter had changed. Here was a man who had acted so cowardly after Jesus’ arrest that he had denied Him three times, now standing before thousands in the very city where Jesus had been crucified, fearlessly proclaiming God’s message. What caused this transformation? The power and might of the Holy Spirit. As the Lord had promised, they had received power after the Holy Spirit had come upon them.

Peter had gone through a severe testing when he denied Jesus, but there was no time for remorse. An explosion of witnessing and winning others into God’s kingdom was underway, and God was using him in ways that Peter had never dreamed would be possible. He had once been so impulsive, always seeming to say the wrong things at the wrong times, but now he was strengthening his brethren, just as Jesus had prayed he would.⁸

The disciples were overjoyed to see God working so many miracles through them. Even though they had all forsaken Jesus in His most desperate hour, they knew that Jesus still loved them, and now they experienced a strengthening of faith that even surpassed those days when Jesus had walked among them.

Yet it seemed that Jesus was no longer gone but was closer than ever. They remembered the words He’d spoken to them: “It is necessary that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, will not come unto you. Right now, the Spirit lives with you, but then He shall be in you! And he that believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also. And greater works than these shall you do, because I go to My Father!”⁹

Not long after that day of winning over 3,000 new converts, Peter and John, right in front of an astounded multitude, instantly healed a man who was lame from birth. When Peter addressed the crowd, 5,000 more joined ranks with the disciples, increasing their number to over 8,000 men, not counting women and children. Truly, these were the “greater works” Jesus had spoken of. How was this possible? Jesus was no longer merely with them—but His power, teachings, and wisdom was in them by way of the Holy Ghost.

In the following days, Peter and John faced a wave of persecution from the same religious leaders who had crucified their Savior, but this time there was no fear, cowardice, or denial. Peter stood before their councils testifying with such courage and authority of the Spirit that the Bible says, “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and ignorant men, they marveled and knew that they had been with Jesus.”¹⁰

Why did the people marvel? Because they saw the same power in them that Jesus had when He walked the earth.

Footnotes:
¹ Matthew 26:31; Zechariah 13:7
² Matthew 26:31–35
³ Luke 22:33
⁴ Mark 14:70–71
⁵ Luke 22:59–62
⁶ Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8
⁷ Acts 2:2–4
⁸ Luke 22:32
⁹ John 14:12,16,17; 16:7
¹⁰ Acts 4:13

S&S Link: #Christian Life and Faith: Witnessing and Missionary Training: Great Men and Women of God-2a

S&S Link: Christian Life and Faith: Witnessing and Missionary Training: Preaching the Gospel-2f

Adapted from Treasures © 1987. Read by Jeremy. Illustration by Yoko and Y.M. Designed by Roy Evans.

A My Wonder Studio Production. Copyright © 2022 by The Family International

A New and Right Spirit

Words from Jesus

2020-03-30

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.”—Psalm 51:10¹

Behold, I will do a new thing. Behold, I make all things new.² If you have the faith of a little mustard seed and you desire change and put your will on My side, you can trust that I will bring forth the newness of life that I have promised.

But in order to receive the new, you have to first let go of the past and forget the things which are behind. Forget past wrongs, hurts, and bitterness, and do not allow yourself to be distracted with things of the past that burden you. Even as I have wiped your slate clean, you can also determine to wipe the slate clean and begin anew.

Today is a new day, and I have created in you a new heart.—A new day, a new heart, a new and right spirit. I have given you a new approach and a new outlook. I make all things new, if you will just drop the garments of the past and take upon you My garments of newness of life. Give your heart to Me, and I will hold it above the waters that surround you and you will not sink. Your moments of sadness will be gone as the darkness disappears when the day has come, and as you walk in the newness of life that I give you through My words.

Today is a day to learn how to let the Holy Spirit lead and guide you. My Spirit seeks the humble and the lowly, and it dwells there with them. Lift Me up and I will draw people to Me.

Today is a new day, a day when My instruments allow themselves to be retooled and made into new vessels. I do a new thing in every age and new day; therefore, My pottery must be malleable and capable of changing. Not that it wasn’t fit for the purpose that it was made for, but it needs to be open to change to fit for a new purpose and a new day.

Receive My new anointing for a new day! I will work through you in every situation you face, and I will not fail you, for I am always with you. As you look to My Word, you will be strengthened and empowered, for as your days, so will your strength be. I know your frame and I remember that you are but dust, and I will always be with you. I will dry your tears and comfort your heart and assuage your grief, and I will give power when you feel faint and increase your strength when you have no might.³

You will see the manifestation of My love and anointing upon you. You will be blessed. You will prosper. You will feel loved. You will be empowered by My Spirit to love and reach those who are lost, weary, worn, and searching. You’ll be like the good Samaritan who takes the time to care for the lost, the needy, and the unloved. You will see them become transformed, like Lazarus raised from the dead, with new life, hope, and gladness.

Seeking and finding

“For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”—Matthew 7:8⁴

I have formed you and purposed you according to My will and plan for your life. From the foundation of the world you were predestined and called to fulfill My purpose. All you have to do is place yourself under the light that I beam down upon you and receive My anointing to fulfill My purpose for you.

Ask of Me and you will receive. Don’t cling to the shadows of your past, but reach forward in faith and trust that I will never stop giving if you will ask and open yourself to receive. Lift up your hands and receive My love. The supply is limitless, above and beyond all that you could ask or think.

You are My children and have been called for My purpose, and I will pour My Spirit and love on you, so that you in turn can pour it out on a wounded and needy world. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people.⁵ I have chosen each and every one of you and ordained you from the foundation of the world to be like a city set on a hill. Others will know that you are My disciples because of your love for one another.

As you pour out My Word and love to others, I will pour in, and you will never run out. You can’t imagine how much love I have for you, for the lost, and for the world. I am counting on you to share that love and truth with others. I will never fail to pour forth more as you give and share with others.

Time is short, and I ask you to give out in the same measure you have received, even when it costs. Give freely as you have freely received, for the time will come when the lost and the lonely will not have any more time to receive My love. So give now while you have the opportunity.

It is My pleasure to give you the kingdom, so don’t worry or fear; I will provide all that you need. All you need to do is say yes! “Yes, I want Your love, Jesus. I want to be more like You.” All you need to do is to put your will on My side, and I will anoint and empower you to fulfill My will and purpose for you.

Just say yes to Jesus

“So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”—Luke 11:13⁶

Receive the anointing that I would pour upon you. Reach out and grasp it! Desire it and seek for the anointing of My love. You can receive it just as you would receive any gift from Me. You ask, you believe, and you accept the gift.

How do you enact it? One step at a time in one deed of love followed by another, followed by another. The raindrops on their own are small, falling from the air, but they reach the ground and bring forth flowers and trees and life; and as these raindrops are absorbed into the earth, so will your love be absorbed into the earth of this world and received by those that are so lost.

Each deed of love seems like only a raindrop, but they will grow and multiply, and one day My love and truth will fill the earth even as the waters cover the seas. So receive My anointing, and enact it day by day, step by step, deed by deed, word by word, and action by action. And as you put forth an effort to share My love with others, I will pour My strengthening love into you.

All you have to do is just receive by faith. Just say yes. As you open yourself up to receive My anointing, it will bring forth fruit in your life and in the lives of those about you, and those who hear the message that you share with them. This love, though seemingly small, is of great power and will change and one day overcome the world.

Originally published February 1995. Adapted and republished March 2020.
Read by Jerry Paladino. Music by John Listen.

¹ NRSV.

² Revelation 21:5; Isaiah 43:19.

³ Isaiah 40:29.

⁴ NLT.

⁵ 1 Peter 2:9.

⁶ NLT.

03 – The Heart of It All: The Holy Spirit

The Heart of It All

Peter Amsterdam

2013-05-28

The Holy Spirit and the Primitive Church

(For an introduction and explanation regarding this series overall, please see The Heart of It All: Introduction.)

In the first two articles in this series, we looked at how the Holy Spirit came upon certain individuals for specific purposes within the Old Testament and during the life of Jesus.

In the Old Testament accounts, the Spirit of God generally didn’t dwell permanently with individuals. With Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, this dramatically changed. On the day of Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit entered into the lives of individual believers, empowered them, and remained within them.

Pentecost

The Gospel of Luke explains that Jesus had told His disciples He was going to send the promise of the Father to them. In the book of Acts, Luke states that this promise was the coming of the Holy Spirit, and that they would receive power when the Spirit came upon them.

Behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.^[1]

While staying with them He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, “you heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” …“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”^[2]

This astounding event happened ten days later on the Jewish Festival of Weeks, known to the Hebraic Jews as Shavu’ot and to the Hellenistic (or Greek) Jews as Pentecost. It’s called Pentecost because it falls on the 50th day after Passover. Shavu’ot celebrates the time of year when the first fruits were harvested and brought to the Temple, and also commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

Jesus’ crucifixion took place right before the Passover, and the Holy Spirit was poured out 50 days later on the day of Pentecost. Because this was one of the major Jewish festivals, Jews and converts to Judaism from all over the known world were gathered in Jerusalem.

The book of Acts relates what happened at this momentous event:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they [the disciples] were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.^[3]

As promised, God’s Spirit was poured out upon the disciples, which immediately resulted in their receiving power which ignited their mission of reaching the world with the Gospel.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”^[4]

People from much of the Roman Empire heard the message on that day. In today’s geography, the list of countries given tells us that people from Libya, Egypt, Arabia, a number of cities in Turkey, Italy, Iran, Iraq, and the island of Crete, came together—due to either the sound of the mighty rushing of the wind or hearing the disciples speaking the various languages—and heard Peter preach about what had happened and proclaim salvation through Jesus.

Accounts of Holy Spirit Infilling

There are five other accounts of the Holy Spirit filling believers in the book of Acts. Some of these accounts are of an initial infilling and others are of a subsequent filling of those who had already received the Holy Spirit.

When Peter and John were going to the temple and they healed the lame man, a large crowd gathered and Peter preached, resulting in 5,000 converts. Peter and John were arrested, questioned, and threatened by the high priest and his father-in-law and others. Afterwards they met with other believers and told them what happened, and these believers rejoiced in prayer with them. When praying together, they were filled with the Spirit.^[5]

When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.^[6]

Here you see believers who are saved, and who have previously received the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Spirit again, giving them additional power to continue witnessing with boldness.

Another account of the Spirit being given to believers took place after Stephen had been martyred. The believers in Jerusalem faced strong persecution at that time, including from Saul the Pharisee, who later became Paul the apostle. Philip, one of those who was chosen to be a deacon earlier,^[7] left Jerusalem at this time and went to Samaria. He preached the Gospel, cast out unclean spirits, and healed people who were paralyzed and lame. This resulted in much joy and men and women being baptized.^[8]

The Jews did not consider the Samaritans to be Jewish, as they were descendants of the ten tribes of Israel who had been defeated and forcibly relocated to other lands by the Assyrians 700 years earlier. The Assyrians brought other people to populate the land, who intermarried with the remnant of Jews left in Samaria. As such, Samaritans were not considered to be pure Jews. Up until this time, the disciples had only ministered to other Jews. So when the apostles heard that Samaritans were becoming believers, they sent Peter and John to check out the situation. During that visitation, the newly saved Samaritans received the Holy Spirit.

[Peter and John] prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for He had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.^[9]

In this instance, non-Jews who were saved had not yet received the Holy Spirit, but did so when the apostles laid hands on them.

The next example of the Holy Spirit being given was after Saul, the persecutor of the early church, was confronted by light from heaven. Jesus spoke to Saul, asking why he was persecuting Him. Saul lost his sight, and following Jesus’ instructions spent three days in Damascus.^[10]

The Lord spoke to a disciple named Ananias, telling him to go to the house of Judas on the street called Straight, where he would find Saul. Ananias expressed concern, as he knew that Saul was persecuting Christians, but was told that Saul was a chosen instrument who would carry the name of Jesus to the Gentiles (Gentiles refers to any non-Jewish people), kings, and the children of Israel. Ananias did as he was instructed.^[11]

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”^[12]

In this instance, an enemy of the Christians is converted and then filled with the Holy Spirit when a disciple lays hands upon him and prays for him.

Acts chapter 10, verses 1–16, tells of Peter having the same vision three times, in which he sees animals, reptiles, and birds, which according to the Laws of Moses are unclean and shouldn’t be eaten. He hears a voice instructing him to “kill and eat” the creatures. Peter objects, but the voice says, “What God has made clean, do not call common (unclean or unholy).”

Immediately following these visions, some men—sent by Cornelius, a God-fearing Roman centurion—arrived and asked Peter to come to Cornelius’ home. If a Jew entered the home of a non-Jew, he became ritually unclean, so it would be unlawful for Peter to go into Cornelius’ home. However, due to the vision, Peter understood that God had revealed to him that he should go, that the “unclean” were to be looked upon as clean. So he went, entered Cornelius’ home, and shared the good news that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were available to all within the household, who received the message.

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.^[13]

Cornelius and the others—all Gentiles—believed the message Peter shared with them and consequently they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. In this situation, Gentiles received the Spirit at the moment they believed in Jesus.

The fifth recorded instance of people receiving the Holy Spirit involves twelve disciples of John in Ephesus.

When the apostle Paul came to Ephesus, he found some disciples of John the Baptist. Paul asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit, to which they replied that they had never heard of the Holy Spirit. Paul told them about Jesus and they believed.

On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.^[14]

The Holy Spirit for All Believers

These accounts in the book of Acts portray the Spirit arriving in a variety of situations upon different people, both Jews and Gentiles, old and young, male and female, masters and servants. Certainly within the household of Cornelius, within the group of believers Peter and John prayed with, within the 120 in the upper room, there were men and women, servants, and people of all ages, just as was predicted by the prophet Joel.

It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out My Spirit.^[15]

The outpouring of God’s Spirit upon ordinary people wasn’t something that was limited to the early church. Since that time, God’s Spirit has dwelt in countless believers over the centuries. In contrast with the Spirit’s presence within only a few persons in the Old Testament, since the day of Pentecost the Spirit has been, and continues to be, poured out upon all believers, as we receive the beautiful “promise of the Father.”

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

Notes

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] Luke 24:49.

^[2] Acts 1:4–5, 8.

^[3] Acts 2:1–4.

^[4] Act 2:5–11.

^[5] Acts 4:1–31.

^[6] Acts 4:31.

^[7] Acts 6:5.

^[8] Acts 8:5, 6, 12.

^[9] Acts 8:15–17.

^[10] Acts 9:1–9.

^[11] Acts 9:10–16.

^[12] Acts 9:17–20.

^[13] Acts 10:44–48.

^[14] Acts 19:1–7.

^[15] Joel 2:28–29.

Copyright © 2013 The Family International.

Metanoia = A Change of Life

A compilation

2017-05-02

The term “metanoia” is derived from the Greek prefix meta, meaning “over,” “after,” or “with”—and nous, meaning “intellect” or “mind.” Translating literally, metanoia means a change of one’s mind or purpose. The term is generally used in two different contexts, both of which retain this literal meaning. In the Bible, the term is most often translated as “repent.”

The Christian scholar Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 225 AD) argued that, in the context of Christian theology, metanoia is best translated as “change of mind.” In this specific context, the change of mind may be taken to refer to the change from nonbeliever to believer. Furthermore, this particular kind of change of mind is expected to entail a wholesale change in the person’s behavior and disposition; the person who experiences metanoia is expected not only to embrace a pious attitude but to act accordingly. Hence the word “repent” refers to renunciation of sin in both thought and act.—Robert Arp

*

According to Mark’s gospel, John the Baptist went about “preaching a baptism of repentance [metanoia] for the forgiveness of sins.”¹ From Matthew’s perspective, the essence of the Baptist’s message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”² Metanoia here and elsewhere in the Bible means “not just a change of inward disposition but a complete turn-around of one’s life, with all that such a re-direction implies of the need for God’s help on the one side and of ethical conduct on man’s side.”—Lewis and Demarest

A change of mind and purpose

Simply put, metanoia is a word filled with remarkable meaning by the preaching of Christ and the apostles. … The word means “after-mind” and signifies a change of mind: thinking one way, but then afterwards thinking another. …

The gospel is what the change of mind is about. The preaching of Jesus and the apostles speaks to the nous [mind], and men change or don’t change their mind as they hear it. When a man changes his mind at the preaching of the gospel, he has experienced metanoia. Thus, the proclamation of metanoia at the beginning of the New Testament is the doorway into the entire rest of the doctrine of the New Testament: Change your mind! About what? Listen! A radical mind-shift in the religious world is about to happen … no, it is happening now… What we thought about God and the law and righteousness and forgiveness is all about to change. Hear! Metanoia and believe the gospel!

New Testament metanoia is a divine call to a radical mind-shift in the way men think about religion. Therefore “repentance” is an entirely unsatisfactory translation of the amazing word “metanoia,” which gives a completely different feeling to the preaching of Jesus and His apostles. Was the major proclamation of Jesus and the apostles “Repent! Feel sorry for your sins”? Or was it “Metanoia! Think a new way”! Do you see what a difference these two words make? Which one is in keeping with the gospel of grace as we know it from the New Testament? Not the first, but the second.

The gospel calls us to a new way of thinking about religion. Whereas men think that they are good, and that obedience to the law is the way of salvation, and that the law only requires partial obedience, and that most people won’t perish, Jesus calls us to believe that there is none good, and that no one will be saved by obedience to the law, because the law requires perfect obedience, and that is the broad road that leads to destruction. The apostles call us to believe that the cross of Christ is the power and the wisdom of God, the only way whereby we are saved, and live, through faith, while the world thinks that the cross is foolishness.—Eli Brayley³

Genuine repentance

True repentance is metanoia, Greek for a complete change of direction. Many people are sorry but never really change, like King Saul. Poor Saul never learned. He apologized and was sorry many times, but he never really repented, he never turned and went the other way. Saul would break down and weep before the prophet Samuel, but he didn’t weep because he was repentant; he wept because he was sorry he was about to lose the kingdom.⁴ He didn’t really confess and forsake his sin, the evil root beneath the outer show.⁵

Though King David also committed great sins, he had great repentance and a genuine change. Therefore God had great forgiveness for him. David sought God’s heart.⁶ David deeply loved God, and he really wanted to glorify God and please Him. God loved David in spite of all his sins and mistakes because David was willing to confess and change—and he went on to become one of God’s greats, in spite of himself.

So true repentance is not just being sorry: it is “metanoia,” a complete change of mind and heart and direction—a whole new man, a new personality, a new creature in Christ Jesus—born again! Only God can do it, but we must put forth the effort of a believing will.

You’ve had a genuine repentance when your heart is changed, your life is changed, you’ve had a complete change of mind. It means a complete turning around and going the other way!—Like when you’re driving your car down the street and you decide you want to go the opposite direction, you have to make a U-turn.

When you do, you’re doing exactly what the word “metanoia” translated in our New Testament means: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!”⁷ Do you know what Jesus was saying when He said that? He was saying, revolute your life—for the kingdom of God is at hand! He said, turn around and start going the other direction. You cannot keep on living the same way. You cannot travel the same way anymore. You cannot go back and be a slave of mammon and serve God. You cannot serve God and mammon. It’s impossible; Jesus Himself said it. You’ll either “love the one and hate the other, or hold to the one and despise the other.”⁸ Which are you serving?—David Brandt Berg

Repentance for salvation

When Paul calls for the elders of Ephesus to come to the island of Miletus, he tells them that he publicly and from house to house was “thoroughly testifying both to Jews and Gentiles repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”⁹ Then, when standing before King Agrippa, Paul says, “I did not become disobedient to the heavenly vision, but I declared first to the ones in Damascus and Jerusalem, and unto all the region of Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and that they should turn to God, while producing works worthy of repentance (metanoia).”¹⁰ Paul is proclaiming the same message as that of John, Jesus, and Peter, continuing to present that repentance is necessary for salvation and that the fruit or works worthy of repentance (literally, a continuous process under the control of the Holy Spirit) indicate true repentance.

The Bible also teaches that repentance is a gift from God. In Acts 5:31, Peter and the other apostles tell the Sanhedrin, “God exalted this One to His right as Ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” Then, after Peter explains his calling from the Lord to go to the Gentiles with the message of salvation, his Jerusalem brethren respond by “glorifying God, saying, ‘Then God also gave to the Gentiles repentance unto life.’”¹¹

In our day and age, the condition of repentance is largely absent from the message of Christian salvation. Too often salvation is offered as a free ticket to Heaven, a ticket costing us nothing. However, the Bible teaches that both the call to repentance and the condition of repentance are absolutely necessary for the salvation process to take place: The verb form [of metanoia] expresses the call for the action of making the decision to change the direction of one’s life; the noun form metanoia states the condition necessary for salvation. Only when these two are present will the fruit of repentance follow. Simply put, a person must perceive that he needs a change in the direction of his life. He must make the decision for change, and then surrender his life to Christ, receiving Christ’s Spirit into his own spirit. Herein lies the cost, the surrender of his life. This is necessary because, as Biblical language makes clear, no person has the ability to change himself; spiritual change comes only from God. The good news is that repentance is God’s gift to all who surrender to Christ.—Bill Klein¹²

Published on Anchor May 2017. Read by Debra Lee. Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3.

² Matthew 3:2.

³ http://www.timothyministry.com/2012/07/the-great-meaning-of-metanoia.html.

⁴ 1 Samuel 15:24–30.

⁵ Proverbs 28:13.

⁶ 1 Samuel 13:14; Psalm 51.

⁷ Matthew 4:17.

⁸ Matthew 6:24.

⁹ Acts 20:21.

¹⁰ Acts 26:19–20.

¹¹ Acts 11:18.

¹² http://www.studylight.org/language-studies/greek-thoughts/print.cgi?a=59.

The Early Church: A Study of Acts

David Brandt Berg

2017-09-11

The early church subsisted by sharing all things, having all things in common, and many of the early followers forsook all in order to preach the gospel. How do we go about following the example of the early church?

First of all, we must build on the right foundation—the Man Christ Jesus, the cornerstone. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”¹

Second, we must build the building He wants: a building of living stones, made alive by His Spirit, founded on His truth, and joined together in His love. For “ye are God’s building,” “ye are the temple of God.”² The early church, the spiritual building He created, is our pattern; the early church in the book of Acts is our blueprint. Here was the ideal!

How did they do it? In studying this, we must remember that we are not the early church. We’re the latter church, the latest church, and the pattern God wants us to live by today is not exactly the pattern they lived by 2,000 years ago.

However, history repeats itself, and in every generation there is a parallel to the early church. As Solomon said, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be: and there is no new thing under the sun.”³

There were two things that brought down the blessing and power of God on the early Christians. Number one, there was obedience, and number two, there was unity. “Then Peter … said, We ought to obey God rather than men … (for) we are His witnesses … and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.”⁴

“And all that believed were together, and had all things common … continuing daily with one accord … with gladness and singleness of heart. … The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul.”⁵ “And with great power gave the apostles witness, and great grace (or blessing) was upon them all.”⁶

Jesus’ last prayer was “that they all may be one … as we are one.”⁷ And when they worked together and cooperated together, He blessed them, strengthened them, and made them a testimony to the world.

Popularity and persecution

During those early days of the early church they needed numbers to get them started, a big push to get them rolling, sensational publicity to make them popular, and a wave of fame to noise them abroad. On the day of Pentecost “there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” Then on another day soon after, “about five thousand”; then “believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women,” and “the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly: and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” From the very beginning “the Lord added to the church daily.”⁸

The original Christians might have been wiped out immediately after Jesus’ death if they hadn’t been so numerous. It says they were “having favor with all the people” and “the people magnified them.”⁹ This impressed the authorities to leave them alone, “for they feared the people,”¹⁰ until they could get better organized, taught, strengthened, grown up and ready for the bigger battles ahead.

Shortly thereafter, God scattered them throughout the world to salt the whole earth and enlighten all mankind with the gospel. “And ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”¹¹

What happened when the early church got too big for Jerusalem? Three thousand one day, five thousand another day, and God only knows how many thousands later! Tens of thousands of Christians living in both the temple compound and all over the city, scattered out in people’s homes, and getting so numerous that the Jerusalem church was splitting at the seams.

Did they voluntarily decide to send missionaries to Antioch? And to India with Thomas, and down to Ethiopia with Philip, and up to Asia with Paul? I’m sorry to say they did not! They were supposed to go out and reach the rest of the world. But they were enjoying a time of rapid growth and prosperity. It was as if they were saying, “We’ve got so many people now and God is with us; how wonderful it is!”

We know from the book of Acts that when they were their biggest and most powerful and most numerous, they were scattered throughout the whole of Asia Minor by persecution. “There was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria.”¹²

“Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things (about the power and popularity of the church), they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.”¹³ “And when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus.” But “daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ,” and “the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.”¹⁴

“Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him (Stephen, a leader of the church) speak blasphemous words. … And they stirred up the people … and set up false witnesses … and they stoned Stephen.”¹⁵ Whenever you get big and powerful, you begin to threaten the security of the status quo! You endanger the establishment, and they will retaliate.

The Scripture says there’s a time for everything.¹⁶ There was a time for the early church to have its thousands all in one place at Jerusalem, to attract the attention of the whole world, and to start off the church with a bang—one big splash. But every wave of popularity and power comes to an end.

“Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as … Antioch.”¹⁷ It wasn’t long before they got together and cooperated up at Antioch and started the greatest missionary venture of their generation.

Teaching others to teach others

In Antioch “it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people,” and at Iconium “long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord.” In Corinth, “he [Paul] continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God,” and also at Ephesus “disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus … by the space of two years.”¹⁸

Jesus, Paul, and the early apostles put their emphasis on bigger cities and had their greatest successes in the major centers of population like the ones named above, from which their converts reached the surrounding territory themselves. As you can see by Acts 19:10, Paul spent only two years teaching in Ephesus, apparently without even leaving the school of Tyrannus, but the verse continues to say that “all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.”¹⁹

The procedure the apostle Paul practiced, which resulted in the evangelizing of all Asia and most of Europe before his death, by means of his own single-handed efforts and that of a few of his friends, was by training his converts to witness and carry on after he was gone.

During his first pioneering missionary venture,²⁰ it says after winning many converts in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra that, instead of deciding to gain more territory, Paul and Barnabas “returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, [and] ordained elders in every church.”²¹

Then, “some days after,” at the start of his second pioneering endeavor, “Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they do.”²² Then again it says, “After he had spent some time there” (in Antioch) resting up for a third journey, “he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.”²³

Paul set an example by establishing the churches, appointing elders in each, confirming them, instructing them, and training them until they could stand on their own. Then Paul left them, knowing they’d survive—by the power of God’s Spirit, in obedience to His commands, able to carry on—indigenous, self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating. Or better still, Christ-supported, Christ-governed, and Christ-propagating!

Paul’s method is best summed up in his counsel to Timothy: “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”²⁴

Personal evangelism

The method of Jesus and the apostles was most often personal evangelism on a small scale, depending on the effectiveness of a thorough personal witness and intensive individual training to multiply the number of converts by making everyone a soul winner, and not all in the same place.

Most of Christ’s sermons were really teaching lessons to a handful of individuals or small groups of His disciples or truth seekers, seldom to crowds. When He taught the Sermon on the Mount, it says, “he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him.”²⁵

“From thence [we went] to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and … on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side … and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.” And in Athens, Paul disputed “in the synagogue with the Jews and with devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.”²⁶

The large crowds they had were often not planned meetings, such as what happened to Paul in Athens after he had attracted quite a bit of notice with his message. “Then certain philosophers … took him, and brought him unto Areopagus (not unlike being brought to a big television talk show today), saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?”²⁷ He gave them the message, but as soon as he was through, it says, “Paul departed from among them,”²⁸ and it’s not recorded that he ever went back.

The big crowds often come for the miracles, loaves and fishes, but they leave as soon as the going gets rough and the doctrine heavy. Just as they did when Jesus gave His famous “eat My flesh and drink My blood” sermon; they said, “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” And “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.”²⁹

Wisdom and tact in delivering the message

In Ephesus, Paul “went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months. … But when [some] were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way … he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of Tyrannus. And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus … After these things were ended … there arose no small stir about that way.”³⁰ Then “Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed.”³¹

When Paul walked into their synagogues to give them the good news, he called his fellow Jews “men and brethren,” not “wolves and vipers,” or he wouldn’t have gotten too far with his message! He tried to woo and win them, not blow and blast them; and by such wise behavior he usually managed to walk off with half their congregation by the time the other half rejected him and threw him out.

He would then move to the house of one of the followers and carry on there, teaching and establishing the new brethren and appointing elders over them, until the opposition raised such a stir that he was run out of town, leaving behind him a new community of believers.

United by His Spirit

The early church was not bound together by a dictatorial, hierarchical, centralized government, frozen together with formalities, but they were united by God’s Spirit, governed by His Word, and joined together in love, with a minimum of supervision by the apostles. Their unity was in the spirit and in love and in doctrine, not in highly technical organization.

Neither Peter nor Paul was a pope, dictating every move. They were too busy running around doing their own jobs, fighting their own battles, starting their own colonies, and winning their own disciples. They could only advise and counsel others from what they had already learned, but the people had to make their own decisions, with the help of the Lord by His Spirit.

May we learn from the example set for us by the early church! As we are faithful to give God all the credit all the time at every turn for every little thing, He will never fail to continue to prosper, empower, and keep you and fulfill His promises to you, just as He did for the early church!

Originally published August 1974. Adapted and republished September 2017.
Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.

¹ 1 Corinthians 3:11.

² 1 Corinthians 3:9, 16.

³ Ecclesiastes 1:9.

⁴ Acts 5:29, 32.

⁵ Acts 2:44, 46; 4:32.

⁶ Acts 4:33.

⁷ John 17:21–22.

⁸ Acts 2:41; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 2:47.

⁹ Acts 2:47, 5:13.

¹⁰ Acts 5:26.

¹¹ Acts 1:8.

¹² Acts 8:1.

¹³ Acts 5:24.

¹⁴ Acts 5:40, 42; 6:7.

¹⁵ Acts 6:11–13; 7:59; 8:1.

¹⁶ Ecclesiastes 3:1.

¹⁷ Acts 11:19.

¹⁸ Acts 11:26; 14:3; 18:11; 19:9–10.

¹⁹ Acts 19:10.

²⁰ Acts 13–14.

²¹ Acts 14:21–23.

²² Acts 15:36.

²³ Acts 18:23.

²⁴ 2 Timothy 2:2.

²⁵ Matthew 5:1.

²⁶ Acts 16:12–13; 17:17.

²⁷ Acts 17:18–19.

²⁸ Acts 17:33.

²⁹ John 6:60, 66.

³⁰ See Acts 19:1, 8–10; 21, 23.

³¹ Acts 20:1.

164 – Jesus—His Life and Message: John 16:23–33

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2021-08-03

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

Having told His disciples that they would weep and lament at His departure from this world while the world would rejoice,¹ Jesus added that while they would experience sorrow for the present, He would see them again, and this would cause their hearts to rejoice with a joy no one could take away from them.² Jesus then continued to speak about soon-coming events.

In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.³

Jesus told His disciples that in that day, probably referring to after His resurrection and ascension to heaven, they wouldn’t need to ask Him questions, as they would understand what they did not yet understand. Their questions would have been answered.

There is, however, another kind of asking which would be needed and which Jesus commanded. While they wouldn’t need to ask questions about His departure, they would need to “ask” in prayer. This pointed forward to the time after Jesus’ resurrection when the Holy Spirit would be with them and would teach them.

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.⁴

Jesus pointed to a coming change. Until then, the disciples had asked Jesus for things directly and they had prayed to the Father directly. However, they had not asked the Father for anything in the name of the Son. Jesus instructed them that from then on, they were to make requests of the Father in the name of the Son.

I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.⁵

Jesus had been using figures of speech when speaking with His disciples. This could mean He was speaking in parables or using clever sayings of one kind or another. Either way, the understanding is that the meaning of what He was saying was not immediately understood, but rather needed to be searched for or thought about.

He referred to the hour that was coming when He would speak plainly about the Father. The disciples probably thought that Jesus was speaking of the present time, as shortly they would comment on how He was speaking plainly and without figurative speech. It is more likely that Jesus was referring to the time after His resurrection and ascension, as that was the time when things which were hidden or obscure would become clear to the disciples.

In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.⁶

Referring to that day confirmed that He was speaking of a future time after His return to the Father in heaven. Jesus implied that when that time came, the disciples’ relation to the Father would be closer and more direct than it was then. One author explains:

[Jesus] goes on to define what [you will ask in my name] means, or more precisely what it does not mean. It does not mean that He will intercede for them with the Father, or that He will somehow take their prayers and present them to the Father. On the contrary He says, “I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.” … In that day, after He goes to the Father, He will no longer need to do so, for their own access to the Father will be immediate and direct.⁷

Jesus made the point that the Father loved them because they had loved the Son and believed that He came from God.

The concept that the Father loves believers because we love Jesus echoes what was said earlier in this Gospel. “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.”⁸ In that verse, Jesus referred to believers obeying His word. Here (v. 27) Jesus refers to believing “that I came from God.” He acknowledged that the disciples believed that He came from God, which was made clear earlier in this Gospel when Peter confessed, “You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”⁹

I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.¹⁰ 

Jesus had just stated that the disciples believed that He came from God. He then expounded on the point, in a way making a summary of this whole Gospel. He came from the Father into the world and He would soon return to the Father. This echoes what He had said much earlier in this Gospel to those who rejected Him. “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.”¹¹

In this case, His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”¹² The disciples had been silent since the middle of chapter 14, when Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?,”¹³ but here they once again speak directly to Jesus. They felt that they now understood clearly what Jesus had been telling them since He was “speaking plainly,” and to some extent this was true. However, until Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, they wouldn’t fully understand all that Jesus had told them.

Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.”¹⁴

This is the third time in this chapter that Jesus says the hour is coming. The first was the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.¹⁵ The second: The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech;¹⁶ and the third time He speaks of the hour when the disciples would desert Him.

In response to the disciples’ statement that they believed He came from God, Jesus questioned, Do you now believe? The disciples’ belief was real; however, it was “now,” meaning temporary. It would not stand the initial test of persecution. Jesus stated that the time had come that the disciples would be scattered, meaning that they would each return to their own homes, leaving Jesus alone to suffer and die on the cross.

Though the disciples would leave Him, Jesus said that He was not alone, as the Father was with Him. He made this point twice before, when speaking with the Pharisees at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.¹⁷

He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.¹⁸

The Father had been with the Son throughout His ministry, and there was no reason to expect Him to desert Jesus as the disciples did.

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.¹⁹

Jesus ends His discourse by giving both assurance and warning. He sees the disciples having peace “in Me,” while at the same time having difficult times, spoken of here as tribulation, and as trouble, trials, suffering, and sorrows in other Bible translations. While the disciples lived in this world with all its challenges, tests, and tribulations, they also lived in Christ—which afforded them peace, because He has overcome the world.

(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 16:20.

² John 16:22.

³ John 16:23–24.

⁴ John 14:26.

⁵ John 16:25.

⁶ John 16:26–27.

⁷ Michaels, The Gospel of John, 849.

⁸ John 14:23.

⁹ John 6:68–69.

¹⁰ John 16:28.

¹¹ John 8:42.

¹² John 16:29–30.

¹³ John 14:22.

¹⁴ John 16:31–32.

¹⁵ John 16:2.

¹⁶ John 16:25.

¹⁷ John 8:16.

¹⁸ John 8:29.

¹⁹ John 16:33.

Copyright © 2021 The Family International.

185 – Jesus—His Life and Message: The Ascension (Luke 24:50–53)

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2022-09-27

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

In this article we’ll look at the last few verses of the last chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus appeared to His disciples. They were frightened, and thought they were seeing a spirit. Jesus showed them the wounds in His hands and feet so that they would know it was Him, and then He ate some food to show that He was not a spirit. We’re told that He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.¹ He went on to say, “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”²

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.³

The Gospel of Luke ends with Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Jesus left Jerusalem and led His disciples to Bethany, which is on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives, less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from Jerusalem. It was from there that He was taken up into heaven.

The book of Acts tells us the same thing.

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. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me.”⁴

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.⁵

The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts both attest to Jesus’ ascension into heaven.

Some Bible commentators state that within the Gospels, only the Gospel of Luke describes Jesus’ ascension. While the Gospel of Mark includes the ascension (Mark 16:19), some commentators feel that the account in Mark is not an authentic part of Mark’s Gospel, but rather is a later addition. But even if Jesus’ ascension were only addressed in the Gospel of Luke, it doesn’t mean that it was unknown to the other New Testament writers. For example, in the Gospel of John, Jesus said to Mary, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”⁶ In the book of Acts, the apostle Peter speaks of Jesus being exalted at the right hand of God.⁷ In 1 Peter we read about Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.⁸ The apostle Paul wrote:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.⁹

Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.¹⁰

Jesus’ ascension into heaven explains why there were no further post-resurrection appearances after 40 days. This 40-day period began with the resurrection of Jesus and ended with His ascension into heaven. One author explains:

In the transition from His earthly to His heavenly state, Jesus could perfectly well have vanished, as on other occasions, and “gone to the Father” secretly and invisibly. The reason for a public and visible ascension is surely that He wanted them to know that He had gone for good. During the forty days He had kept appearing, disappearing and reappearing. But now this interim period was over. This time His departure was final. So they were not to wait around for His next resurrection appearance. Instead, they were to wait for somebody else, the Holy Spirit [Acts 1:4]. For He would come only after Jesus had gone, and they could get on with their mission in the power He would give them.¹¹

Jesus’ ascension was also His vindication. It was the fulfillment of the prediction He made at His trial: From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.¹² He was condemned to death for making this claim; however, the ascension shows that His claim was true and His crucifixion was unjust. The Father didn’t reject Jesus’ claim; rather, the Son was received at the Father’s side. Jesus’ ascension was not just a departure from this world, it was also an arrival in heaven.

And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.¹³ 

After receiving Jesus’ blessing as He was carried up into heaven, the disciples worshipped Him. It’s no wonder that they did so, as they had seen Him be crucified and laid in a tomb, and a few days later saw Him alive again. He was with them for 40 days, teaching and instructing them, and then they watched as He ascended into heaven. Their response was to return to Jerusalem and to worship God in the temple, and in time, on the day of Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to preach the message of Jesus in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.¹⁴

This brings us to the end of this series, Jesus—His Life and Message. I pray that this series has been a blessing to you.

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 Luke 24:45.

² Luke 24:49.

³ Luke 24:50–53.

⁴ Acts 1:3–4.

⁵ Acts 1:9.

⁶ John 20:17.

⁷ Acts 2:33.

⁸ 1 Peter 3:21–22.

⁹ Colossians 3:1.

¹⁰ Hebrews 9:24.

¹¹ John R. W. Stott, The Message of Acts (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 49.

¹² Luke 22:69.

¹³ Luke 24:52–53.

¹⁴ Acts 1:8.

Copyright © 2022 The Family International.

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

Easter Celebration

A compilation

2014-04-17

“He is not here, for He has risen” (Matthew 28:6).

When Jesus died on the cross, His work was done, and the Scripture says so; our salvation was won. He said, “It is finished.”¹ Finished!

When Mary Magdalene started to touch Him when He appeared to her by the tomb, He said, “Don’t touch Me yet, for I have not yet been to My Father.”²

He didn’t have to roll the stone away to get out, because He had a body which could have walked right through the stone! Why then did the angel have to roll away the stone?³ So that His disciples and the whole world could see that He was no longer there. The stone wasn’t rolled away so Jesus could get out; He could have walked right through the mountain or the stone. It was rolled away so that others could see that He was gone and He was really resurrected.

Knowing how much Mary Magdalene loved Him, He waited so that He could see her. She stayed there and wept, and when she saw this man whom she thought was the gardener, she said, “Please tell me where they’ve taken Him! They’ve taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid Him.” And He said, “Woman, why weepest thou?” After she gave Him a good look, she realized it was Jesus. So she started to embrace Him, but He said, “Wait, I haven’t yet gone to the Father.”⁴

We don’t know exactly why, but He was to go to the Father first. Perhaps because the Father wanted to be the first to embrace Him, the first to receive Him, the first to honor Him! It certainly was a matter of honoring the Father, the Son returning to the Father in heaven from whence He had come. But when He came back, which He did very shortly, He embraced them all, and He ate with them, drank with them, read the Scriptures with them, talked with them, and cooked for them.⁵ For 40 days He was seen by over 500 different people!⁶

Imagine the love of Christ, the compassion of Christ! He could have gone up with the Father and stayed there, but He wanted to come back and encourage them to prove that He was still alive and that He had really risen from the dead. He appeared to His disciples numerous times, and a total of over 500 people saw Jesus after His resurrection, so that it would be firmly confirmed that He was no longer dead and had been resurrected, so that the people would really know it and believe it.

He was willing to try to help convince some of the reasoners who were walking down the road to Emmaus, still wondering about the Scriptures, to show them that He was really the Messiah. He reasoned the Scriptures with them as they walked along. He was able to conceal His identity and convince them that Jesus was the Messiah, although they didn’t realize it was Jesus walking with them. Then they invited Him in to have supper with them, and as it was the custom to invite the visitor to break the bread and pray, He did so, and at that time revealed Himself to them and they were astonished.⁷

He spent 40 days and 40 nights on earth—encouraging His disciples and teaching them and encouraging their faith, proving that He had risen from the dead, so there would be no doubt about it. He walked through doors. He appeared and disappeared. He time-traveled or space-traveled. He did a lot of miracles while He was back here from the dead in His resurrection body. He did some very amazing things, but He also showed Himself to still be quite human. He ate with them, He drank with them, and He even cooked for them.

He walked through solid locked doors to prove that He was really a resurrected Lord and had a supernatural, miraculous, resurrection body. And also, I believe, to demonstrate to us what we are going to be like when we are resurrected from the dead, to encourage us.⁸—David Brandt Berg

*

What happens when a Christian dies is not a matter of speculation, but of certainty based on truth. Something tremendous happened in history that has taken the issue of life after death out of the realm of conjecture and moved it into verified fact. Paul openly and clearly states the reason for his confidence. “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.”⁹ The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a precedent for the resurrection of all those who are in Christ. In other words, our future resurrection is based on the historicity of Christ’s resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a peripheral issue, but is central and crucial to the Christian faith. … The fact that Jesus is alive and makes His home in us doesn’t only change our perspective on the next life, but in this life as well, because until we are ready to face death, we will never really know how to live freely. The Christian faith is not about escapism, but about life here and now, lived in the love, strength and wisdom of the presence of Christ within us. In this, we have the assurance of the One who was raised from the dead raising us up to our eternal home with Him.—Charles Price

*

Sacrifice ceases to be a gauge for love when it becomes an instrument of exchange, part of a system of reciprocity in which persons are duly compensated for costs incurred. This is why Jesus states, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”¹⁰ In laying down his life at the Cross, Jesus offered himself in sacrifice of suffering that cannot be compensated (certainly not by us). Only the sacrifice of a suffering that cannot be compensated and does not ask to be compensated is a true gauge of love in a fallen world. … In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus beseeched the Father to let this cup pass from him if it were possible. But there was no other way. Our sin demanded the ultimate cost. It is a cost our Lord willingly paid. He paid it at the Cross. He bears the marks of the Cross to this day.—William A. Dembski

*

Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.—Pope John Paul II

*

A man who was completely innocent offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.—Mahatma Gandhi

*

The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom. … It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven. … The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.—N. T. Wright

*

Christian hope is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God, as when the Anglican burial service inters the corpse ‘in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God’s own commitment, that the best is yet to come.—J. I. Packer¹¹

*

He, the Life of all, our Lord and Savior, did not arrange the manner of his own death lest He should seem to be afraid of some other kind. No. He accepted and bore upon the cross a death inflicted by others, and those others His special enemies, a death which to them was supremely terrible and by no means to be faced; and He did this in order that, by destroying even this death, He might Himself be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be recognized as finally annulled. A marvelous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat.—Athanasius of Alexandria

*

I don’t care to inquire why they cannot believe an earthly body can be in heaven, while the whole earth is suspended on nothing.—Augustine of Hippo

*

No tabloid will ever print the startling news that the mummified body of Jesus of Nazareth has been discovered in old Jerusalem. Christians have no carefully embalmed body enclosed in a glass case to worship. Thank God, we have an empty tomb. The glorious fact that the empty tomb proclaims to us is that life for us does not stop when death comes. Death is not a wall, but a door.—Peter Marshall

*

How wonderful, how marvelous is Your love for us, dear Savior, to think You were willing to do all that and go through that for us! You didn’t really want to. You didn’t desire it, but “nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done.”¹² Not my will, but Thine be done. May these be the words and the thought and intent of the hearts of all of us.

Thank You for Your love, for being willing to go through all that. What a day of rejoicing that must have been when You rose and You realized it was all over. You had won the victory, the world was saved! You had accomplished Your mission. You had gone through the horrors of hell for us and death, agony, all of it, and it was over.

You rose in victory, joy, liberty, freedom from Your enemies and from the hands of men and the cruelty of men, never to die again. So that You could redeem us as well from the same, and prevent our having to go through it. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. But who hath delivered us from the body of this death? I thank the Lord through the blood of Jesus Christ.”¹³ Thank You, Lord, for that glorious victory! In Jesus’ name, amen.—David Brandt Berg

Published on Anchor April 2014. Read by Jon Marc.

¹ John 19:30.

² John 20:17.

³ Matthew 28:2.

⁴ John 20:11–17.

⁵ Acts 1:3.

⁶ 1 Corinthians 15:6.

⁷ Luke 24:13–31.

⁸ Luke 24:30–43; John 20:19, 26, 30; Philippians 3:21.

⁹ 2 Corinthians 4:14 NIV.

¹⁰ John 15:13.

¹¹ Adapted.

¹² Luke 22:42.

¹³ 1 Corinthians 15:55–56; Romans 7:24–25.

The Message of the Crucifixion

David Brandt Berg

1984-04-09

Tonight around the world, hundreds of millions of Christians are celebrating the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s Passion. On this night known worldwide as Good Friday, and all day long, there are many celebrations and observances of the Lord’s last day here on earth before His crucifixion. Literally hundreds of millions of Christians, at least professing Christians, have been celebrating this day, and especially this night. Some have been celebrating all week, beginning last Sunday with Palm Sunday, the commemoration of our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Thanks to that event, you and I were brought into the kingdom, and the kingdom moved its headquarters to the New Jerusalem on high. He was no longer a mere king of the city of Jerusalem and the little kingdom of Israel, but the king of the whole universe, the kingdom of God!

He was the King of kings and Lord of lords and the King of the entire universe, as well as the whole world and heavenly Jerusalem—rather than a mere earthly, physical, ancient little Mideastern city called Jerusalem. He became the king that He was and showed His power by dying on a cross, crucified like a common criminal! But even in that moment of His death, God showed His power that this was His Son in whom He was well pleased, as the earth shook and heaven thundered and people trembled at the manifestation of the wrath of God over their iniquity (Matthew 27:51).

The world is supposed to be more civilized now, but it’s not. Just read the news and look around you. Man is just as cruel and wicked as he’s ever been, to the point that he now stands on the brink of total destruction, prepared to destroy both himself and the world and all of God’s creation if God did not intervene and put a stop to it all. Which He will, thank the Lord, in order to salvage His creation, including man. He’s not going to allow man to destroy himself or God’s creation or His world. So don’t worry about atom bombs destroying the earth and blowing up the world!

Nearly the whole world is compelled to honor Jesus’ birthday and His death day, the two most outstanding events in His life, and yet one more, His resurrection day, to live aloft forever in an immortal, eternal body, which shall live forever—like us—in the heavens. “We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Hundreds of millions of professing Christians around the globe—be they Catholic, Protestant, or nondenominational—are celebrating the last day of Christ’s life here on earth before His mortal death, as well as the Last Supper, which, incidentally, was not a sad occasion, but a happy occasion. The Feast of the Passover was a celebration; it was a fiesta in which the Jews were celebrating their salvation from death by the blood of a lamb killed in a certain ceremonial way that night, cooked in a certain ceremonial way, and eaten with joy and thanksgiving that the Lord had saved them from annihilation in Egypt.

The original Passover event of the Jews was a happy occasion, a feast, a holiday. Jews came from all over the world, and Gentile believers as well, to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. It was a happy occasion, not at all sad. It was only going to be sad for one small group eventually, but at first it wasn’t necessarily sad. The Lord found them a place to have it by a miracle, and I’m sure provided the food for them, and they sat down and enjoyed a good meal. Then they had the so-called communion or Eucharist.

They even had lamb stew that night. We know it was a kind of soup, otherwise they wouldn’t have been sopping the bread in it (John 13:26). They drank wine that night too. And it wasn’t until they were through eating and drinking that the Lord suddenly took a little bit more of a sober bent and train of thought and began to predict what was going to happen and to somewhat solemnly lead them into a ceremony, one of the few that the Lord commended. It seemed to be something which He considered you would want to observe to commemorate His death. “As oft as ye do this, ye do it in remembrance of Me.” And Paul said, “Ye do show the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:25–26).

He was beginning to illustrate for them what He was about to do. That night His body was to be broken, scarred, torn, pierced, lacerated, horribly abused, His blood shed, and finally His life given. His body was broken for you.

He suffered pain and agony of the physical body, as some suffer today in sickness and in pain, that He might bear our sufferings in His own body, “For by His stripes ye are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Not by His death on the cross, not by His final shedding of His blood in His life; that was for our salvation. But he had to suffer not only all his life for 33 years all of the things that we go through to sympathize with us and empathize and to feel what we feel, but final excruciating agony of the physical body to heal our human ills as well as save us from our sins.

He said, “Take, eat, this is My body which is broken for you.” “He bore our infirmities in His own body,” God’s Word says, “and by His stripes ye are healed.” And He said, “Take, drink, after the same manner the cup. This is My blood of the new testament shed for the remission of your sins. Drink ye all of it” (1 Corinthians 11:24–25; 1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5).

In other words, “I’m also going to suffer agony and pain and illness in My body to empathize with you and your physical troubles and distresses and afflictions to let you know that I know how you feel. I’ve been through it. I know the pain. I know the agony. I know the suffering! I’ve been through it all even worse than you. I know what you’re going through, so don’t worry.”

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19). He was as good as saying, “You need all these afflictions; you’re going to have to have them to keep you righteous. But I will deliver you from them all, one after the other, time after time.” You and I are no exceptions; we have our ups and downs, even discouragement sometimes.

The common people had heard Him gladly (Mark 12:37). Thousands upon thousands had heard and believed His message, received it, been healed, fed and loved Him. But where were they that night when the religious leaders and their paid mercenaries were shouting, “Crucify Him”? They must have been home watching television—they certainly weren’t there to stick up for Him. No doubt quite a few of them were even deceived by the lies and figured they had been deluded and deceived and it had turned out He was a false prophet. They thought He was true, thought He was right, but they were so easily deluded and deceived and misled.

The seed had fallen on shallow or stony ground, been choked out by thorns and bore no fruit, and they were led astray and led away (Matthew 13:7). Perhaps afterward some of them were sorry when they saw how far the enemies of Christ went and how horrible it was. Let’s hope they were convicted and repented and came back, and a lot of people did. There were lots of Christians led by the apostles and disciples who were left, so that on the Day of Pentecost 3,000 got saved with one sermon and a few days later 5,000 with one healing (Acts 2:41 and 4:4)!

The ground had been sown and watered and softened and prepared, so that even after Jesus was crucified, many were prepared to understand, comprehend, believe, and receive the whole truth, to then know that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and receive Him as their Savior. Not just to follow a personality, a human being, His words, His miracles, His free meals, but to finally understand the deep spiritual meaning of it all, that He was the Messiah who had been expected to come for thousands of years!

Hundreds of millions of Christians are celebrating this night with soberness, solemnities, even tears, and in some places in the world with such extreme fanaticism that people are actually nailed to crosses, nails driven through their hands, lying on crosses, allowing themselves to be nailed to the cross like Jesus was and then hung there. Imagine, they do it trying to atone for their own sins, trying to suffer for their own sins. And all that suffering is in vain, because even if they died on that cross, it wouldn’t save them!

Jesus died for our sins; He’s the only one who could have done it. Only the Son of God could pay for your sins on the cross! Only God Himself in His Son could have taken your sins in His own body on that tree and borne the suffering of a dying sinner and taken your punishment for you and suffered for you. Only God could have done that in the person of His Son Jesus.

God’s message was: “Only I can save you; you cannot save yourself!” The message of God was very clear throughout the Old and New Testaments, especially the New Testament, but even in the Old Testament. Abraham was the father of the faithful because he was a man of faith, demonstrating faith that he couldn’t do it himself; he just had to have faith in God.

Tonight hundreds of millions of Christians around the world are commemorating the death of Jesus, and millions of others are hearing about it, knowing that this is a very special holy week for Christians. Virtually the whole world is hearing the message, and even if they’re not Christians, even if they’re of other religions, they know that this is the Christians’ holy week and this is its holiest night of all.

Considering the extent of communications and the dissemination of information today, probably the whole world, all countries, faiths, nationalities, and religions are hearing about this week and know that Christians are celebrating their holiest days of the year, and are at least getting a little tiny glimpse of the message of Christ or hearing about Jesus, even if they don’t understand it. Millions of Christians who understand the message of Christ and His death are choosing this week and this night to commemorate this event, and of all the nights in the year, it seemed that we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper tonight, on the night in which He and His disciples celebrated that First Supper.

Having already been saved, you know that drinking this wine is not going to save you, because you have already drunk of His salvation, His saving blood by faith. But this should encourage and affirm your faith and your testimony, and it is your witness that you have drunk of His blood in the Spirit, by the Spirit. You have received the blood of Christ as your atonement, His blood sacrifice for your sins. For even as Moses said, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins” (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22).

So we thank You tonight for this, Your sacrifice, Lord, Your blood shed for the remission of our sins, the New Testament in Your blood which was shed for us on that tree, that we are commemorating this night—Your suffering, Your love, that You died for us in our place, took our punishment for us. Instead of us dying for our sins, You died for them, Lord. 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. We symbolize it as we partake of this cup. “This is My blood of the New Testament, this is My blood shed for you,” for our salvation.

Praise the Lord for the night that Jesus died for us! He not only died for us, but He went down into the bowels of the earth, three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and He preached to the souls in prison down there to give them a chance to be saved too! Isn’t that wonderful? (Matthew 12:40; 1 Peter 3:19; 4:6; Ephesians 4:9).

Now we’ll be able to sing all those wonderful hymns about “up from the grave He arose.” Let’s not just remember the death of the cross; let’s not always be seeing just a Christ on the cross and a crucifix, the suffering and the death. We don’t have a Jesus on the cross; He left the cross. We have a bare cross. Jesus is no longer there! We don’t have a Christ in the grave. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).

We don’t have a dead Christ hanging there 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

He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today.
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives! He lives, salvation to impart.
You ask me how I know He lives. He lives within my heart.
—A. Ackley

Since Jesus came into my heart,
Since Jesus came into my heart,
Floods of joy o’er my soul
Like the sea billows roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart!

Blest be the tie that binds—all of us, millions
Our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred mind,
Is like to that Above.
—John Fawcett, 1782

Copyright © 1984 The Family International.

Two by Two

Word Topics

1998-01-01

Definition: Two by two, in this context, refers to the need for teaming up with at least one more person to do the Lord’s work.

1. God did not intend for man to be alone.

• Genesis 2:18 — And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
• Ecclesiastes 4:7,8 — Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun. ⁸ There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.

2. Two by two is one of the basic principles by which Jesus and His disciples operated from the very beginning.

• Mark 6:7 — And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits.
• Luke 10:1 — After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come.
• Acts 13:2,3 — As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. ³ And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
• Acts 15:35-40 — [Paul and Barnabas, who were traveling two by two, split up because of differences, yet each of them chose another partner rather than go alone:] Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the Word of the Lord, with many others also. ³⁶ And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they do. ³⁷ And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. ³⁸ But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. [See also 13:13.] ³⁹ And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; ⁴⁰ And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.
• 2 Corinthians 13:1 — [Both in the Old and New Testaments, it was a legal obligation to have two or more witnesses:] In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. [See Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 18:16; Titus 5:19.]

3. Some of the goodfruit of working two by two:

• Psalm 119:63 — [Helps keep us in the fear of the Lord and obedient to His Word:] I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts.
• Proverbs 13:20 — [Enables us to learn from one another:] He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.
• Ecclesiastes 4:9 — [Helps us accomplish more:] Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
• Ecclesiastes 4:10 — [Provides safety and aid:] For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
• Ecclesiastes 4:12 — [Provides greater strength:] And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
• Matthew 18:19,20 — [Increases our prayer power:] Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.
• John 13:35 — [It’s part of our witness:] By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.

4. A few examples of what happened when the Lord’s servants didn’tgo two by two:

• Genesis 3:1-6 — [Satan tempted Eve while she was alone, away from Adam:] 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 [then went and] gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. [See also verses 13 and 14.]
• Exodus 2:11,12 — [In an unguarded moment while alone, Moses slew an Egyptian:] And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. ¹² And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
• 1 Kings 19:1-5 — [Discouragement struck Elijah when he was without the strength and companionship of his servant, but an angel came to his rescue:] And [King] Ahab told [Queen] Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets [of Baal] with the sword. ² Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. ³ And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. ⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. ⁵ And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
• 2 Samuel 11:1-5 — [David yielded to temptation while alone:] And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. ² And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. ³ And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite [one of David’s mighty men who had gone away to battle]? ⁴ And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. ⁵ And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.
• Luke 22:54-57 — [Peter denied the Lord when he was following afar off, alone:] Then took they Him, and led Him, and brought Him into the high priest’s house. And Peter followed afar off. ⁵⁵ And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them. ⁵⁶ But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with Him. ⁵⁷ And he denied Him, saying, Woman, I know Him not. [See also verses 58-62.]

5. There are occasions when circumstances prevent us from having a companion with us. At those times, the Lord and His angels or ministering spirits are still with us:

• Daniel 6:22 — [Daniel testifies to King Darius of how the Lord was with him while alone in the lions den:] My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before Him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.
• 2 Timothy 4:16-17 — [The Lord is with us even if others forsake us:] At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. ¹⁷ Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
• Matthew 4:1-11 — Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. ² And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. ^3a … The Tempter came to Him. … ¹¹ [After contending with the Devil by quoting Scriptures:] Then the Devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him. [See also Mark 4:12-13.]
• John 16:32 — [Jesus said of his arrest:] Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
• Acts 12:1-10 — [Peter had no companion in jail until the Lord’s angel came and delivered him:] And because he [Herod] saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) ⁴ And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison. … ⁵ Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him. ⁶ And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. ⁷ And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. ⁸ And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. ⁹ And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision. ¹⁰ When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.

6. Sometimes we must commune with God alone:

• Exodus 24:12-18 — And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to Me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. … ¹⁵ And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. ¹⁶ And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷ And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. ¹⁸ And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
• Mark 1:35 — And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
• Matthew 6:6 — But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

7. Several examples of teams of two which were mightily used of the Lord:

• Exodus 4:10,14b,16 — [Moses and Aaron:] And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. … ¹⁴ And He said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. … ¹⁶ And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. [See verses 10-16.]
• Genesis 19:1-25 — [God sent a team of two angels to judge Sodom.] And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. …
• 1 Samuel 14:6,7,13,14 — [Jonathan, son of King Saul, and his armorbearer win a great victory over their enemies, who greatly outnumbered them:] And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. ⁷ And his armourbearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. … ¹³ And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armourbearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan; and his armourbearer slew after him. ¹⁴ And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armourbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow.
• 2 Kings 2:6 — [Elijah and Elisha, the two prophets:] And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he [Elisha] said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on. [See 1 Kings 19:19-21, which shows that Elisha first became Elijah’s servant, ministering to him, and later became a prophet himself, continuing Elijah’s ministry, and performing twice as many miracles as Elijah did!]
• Matthew 17:1-3 — [God sent Moses and Elijah as a team to counsel with Jesus:] And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John His brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, ² And was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. ³ And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him.
• Revelation 11:3-12 — [The two witnesses and martyrs of Revelation are mightily used of God during the Great Tribulation:] And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. ⁴ These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. …

Copyright (c) 1998 by Aurora Productions

Adaptability

Word Topics

1998-01-01

Definition: The ability to change so as to fit a new specific use or situation.

1. Adaptability is an important and necessary quality for ministers of the Gospel.

• 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 — For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. ²⁰ And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; ²¹ To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. ²² To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. ²³ And this I do for the Gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
• 1 Corinthians 10:33 — Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

2. As situations and conditions change, we must adapt accordingly.

• Ecclesiastes 3:1 — To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the Heaven.
• Matthew 9:14,15 — Then came to Him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not? ¹⁵ And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
• Luke 9:3 and 22:35,36 — And He said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. ^22:35 And He said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. ³⁶ Then said He unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

3. Jesus was the greatest sample of adaptability: The Son of God also became the Son of Man.

• John 1:14a — And the Word [Jesus] was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
• Philippians 2:5-8 — Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: ⁷ But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: ⁸ And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
• 1 Timothy 3:16 — And without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
• [See also Hebrews 2:14.]

4. Being adaptable often requires living above circumstances and conditions.

• Philippians 4:11-13 — Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. ¹² I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. ¹³ I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
• [See also 1 Corinthians 4:9-13.]

5. Adaptability means being open and willing to do things God’s way.

• Hebrews 6:3 — And this will we do, if God permit.
• James 4:13-15 — Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: ¹⁴ Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. ¹⁵ For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
• [See also Acts 18:21; Romans 1:9,10.]

6. Adaptability means being willing to be fashioned — or refashioned — according to the Lord’s will and plan.

• Isaiah 64:8 — But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand.
• Jeremiah 18:4 — And the vessel that he [the potter] made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
• Romans 9:20,21 — Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? ²¹ Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
• Philippians 2:13 — For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

7. Adaptability often requires humility.

• Matthew 3:13-15 — Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. ¹⁴ But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? ¹⁵ And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered Him.
• John 3:30 — He must increase, but I must decrease.
• John 13:8-9 — Peter saith unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me. ⁹ Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

8. Adaptability requires yielding your will and mind to God and His plans.

• Romans 12:1,2 — I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. ² 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 6:13 — Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
• 2 Corinthians 8:12 — For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.
• 1 Samuel 3:18b — It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good.
• Matthew 6:10b — Thy [God’s] will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven.
• Matthew 26:39 — And He went a little further, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.
• Luke 1:38b — Be it unto me according to Thy Word.

Copyright (c) 1998 by Aurora Productions

How to Go on the Attack

Quote Scripture, Pray, Praise, and Sing

David Brandt Berg

1985-11-10

There’s something about saying things out loud. It is a testimony to yourself and to the multitude of witnesses that surround us. My mother used to say, “Words are real things,” and you need to say them. Words can curse or words can save. “By your words you will be justified or by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36–37). You have to give an account of your words.

Words are very important. The Lord hears them, the heavenly hosts hear them, you hear them, and the Devil hears them. It is very important that you use the words, even if you can only whisper them. I’ve told stories of how my mother fought the Devil. She even used her fists! She’d shove one fist out and quote Scripture, and then shove the other out like she was fighting, quote Scripture out loud and praise the Lord out loud.

Give no place to the evil one (Ephesians 4:27). If you get so busy quoting Scripture and praising the Lord, you won’t have so much time to think about your illness and problems. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee” (Isaiah 26:3). And while you’re quoting Scripture and praising the Lord, if your mind is centered on the Lord and stayed on Him, then He is the one you are thinking about, and you can’t think about both things at once.

So keep thinking about the Lord and praising the Lord and quoting Scripture. That takes concentration. You have to think about it. You have to keep your mind on the Lord and your mind on the Scripture and on your praises, even sing. It’s a testimony even to the Lord that you are really trusting Him, that you have faith in His Word.

That’s how my mother got healed in the first place, quoting Scripture out loud. She could only whisper it, but she whispered it. Gradually she noticed her voice was stronger and her hands were up praising the Lord. As long as you keep thinking about your pain and concentrating on your pain, then it’s your pain you’ll have! But if you get your mind on something else, it won’t be as bad.

There is just something about saying the words that really crystallizes your resistance and causes the devils to flee. They hate to hear the Word. Just saying it in your mind is good, but sometimes it is just not quite enough. You just need to say it out loud. Besides, if others are listening, it is a declaration to them that you are trusting the Lord, that you have faith in His Word. It’s a testimony and a witness to them. It even encourages them to know that you’re trusting the Lord and have faith in His Word and you really believe those scriptures. Just keep quoting them even if you can only whisper them. It takes more concentration and it occupies more of your mind and your consciousness if you have to say it out loud, quote it out loud, and praise the Lord out loud.

You need to go on the attack. Be positive and show that you have faith in the Word, faith in the Lord, faith in praise—a sign that you really trust and you really believe. It’s like a declaration of faith. And when your mind is occupied with that, you can’t be occupied with your suffering and your pain. There’s just something about it that seems more powerful than just thinking it.

It’s the Word. It’s the declaration. You’re claiming it and it really occupies your mind and your heart. The Lord can hear you, the Devil can hear you, and a great cloud of witnesses can hear you. It’s your declaration of faith! It shows your confidence in the Word and your belief in praise. It’s like they say, “You believe in prayer as much as you pray. You believe in praise as much as you praise. You believe in the Word as much as you quote it,” and you need to do it at least loud enough that you can hear it yourself, and the Lord can hear you too.

There is power in the Word! You need to say it with your mouth. “Thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Christ is Lord” (Romans 10:9). “With my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness unto all generations” (Psalm 89:1). Not just thinking it in your head; that’s not enough. You’ve got to put it into words and say it.

I never saw my mother get the victory just by thinking the words or thinking prayer. You can do that too under some circumstances, but when you’re having a real battle with sickness or something, you’ve got to go on the attack and really fill your mind and heart and your mouth with declarations of faith and praise and prayer and scriptures—the Word. You have to use your mouth to say the Word. You’ve got to use your mouth, and then that becomes a testimony not only to yourself but to others as well.

There are a great cloud of witnesses who are always watching us, trying to help us, but you need to declare your faith openly and loud enough at least that you can hear it yourself (Hebrews 12:1). It’ll keep your mind and your mouth occupied with the Word and with prayer and praise. It really helps to occupy your mind and your heart and especially your mouth, as well as your spirit. Even though nobody can hear you but yourself, it will do you a lot of good.

“By thy words shalt thou be justified and by thy words shalt thou be condemned” (Matthew 12:37). We have to give an account of every word. You’ll be accountable for every idle word, but you’ll be given credit for every good word. Forget this suffering-in-silence business. It does me good just to hear my own voice quoting Scripture and praying and praising the Lord, even if it is only in a whisper.

When it comes to the Devil, words are sort of like bullets or death rays, and they just blast the Devil! They’re part of our offensive weaponry, the Word. It describes the armor of a Christian—it says the sword of the Spirit is the Word (Ephesians 6:10–17). It’s sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).

You need to wield it out loud so that at least you can hear it, and then that helps to occupy your mind and it helps to confirm your own faith. There is just something about saying it out loud. You need to declare your faith and fling it in the face of the Devil. Just throw fiery darts of scriptures at him out loud in prayer and praise. He hates that, because it is a testimony to you even if you’re all alone. And if there are others present, it is a testimony to them.

It is a declaration that you are trusting the Lord and that you have faith in the Word, and you need to use your own words as well as God’s Words. Praise the Lord out loud, pray out loud, quote scriptures out loud, sing, pray in tongues, say something, do something. And if it doesn’t do anybody but you any good, at least you can hear it.

Quote scriptures and sing and pray and praise the Lord and talk in tongues. Keep your mouth busy and your mind busy and it keeps your ears busy, too. It’s like a vicious cycle against the Devil and it’s a saving cycle for you. Just keep it in circulation. Keep it going! Say it and hear it and think it, and say it and hear it and think it, and keep it going!

Keep your mind and your mouth and your ears so busy, they don’t even have time to listen to the Devil. He just talks up that pain and aggravates it, and the more you concentrate your mind and your heart on your pain and your headache and your eye ache and your backache or whatever it is, the more it magnifies it, aggravates it, and the more you think about it. But keep your mind and your mouth and your heart and your ears busy with the Word. Do it out loud, and quote scriptures and sing, pray, praise, talk in tongues, anything to keep your mind and heart and your mouth and your ears and your eyes busy.

Whatever you do, keep your mouth busy and your ears busy and your mind and heart busy praying and praising and quoting and singing and talking in tongues. You can’t be concentrating and thinking and worrying about your pain or your problems while your mind, heart, spirit, mouth, tongue, ears and eyes and everything are busy with the Word. If you don’t know much Scripture to quote, then read it, but read it out loud. It will keep your mind and heart and mouth and tongue and ears busy with nothing but the Word, and you won’t have time to think about your headache and your pain and your problems.

A lot of times that’s why I get up early in the morning instead of lying here silently in bed thinking about all the things I ought to be doing and about all my problems and worries and whatnot. I get up and I do something. That’s another thing: keep active, keep busy, what they call “work therapy,” and keep your hands busy if you can’t do anything else. But all the time be talking to the Lord and praising—talking in tongues, praying, quoting scriptures and singing.

If you can keep your actual physical body busy with the Word, including your tongue and your mouth and your eyes and your ears and your thoughts, then you won’t have time to think about your problems. You won’t have time to think about your worries or your pains if you’re concentrating on the Lord. He promised, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee” (Isaiah 26:3).

One of the best ways in the world to keep your mind stayed on the Lord is to talk to Him. Praise Him. Pray. Sing. Talk in tongues. Quote His Word. Keep busy. Keep yourself occupied in every way, including working with your hands, your feet, or whatever you have to do so that you’re thinking about other things and not about your pain or your problems. Keep your mind, your heart, your spirit, your tongue, your mouth, your ears, your eyes, even your hands, so occupied with prayer and praise and Scripture and song and the Lord, that you haven’t even got time to think about your pains and your problems. Keep your mind on the Lord.

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus” … thou shalt be healed (Romans 10:9). That’s a good scripture to remember. We usually use it for salvation, but it works for everything, including healing. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead”—see, that’s faith in His resurrection power, which is healing—“thou shalt be saved,” or healed.

Quote Scripture and talk to the Lord and praise the Lord. There’s something about it; just hearing your own voice seems to help you! There’s just something about words.

We wouldn’t have salvation today, we wouldn’t know anything about Jesus if somebody hadn’t used words. It’s the words that did it, and they’ll do it for you—even your own words. Your own prayers and praises and scriptures, quoting out loud and singing and talking in tongues, will save you. The Lord uses it. It’s a manifestation of your faith, a declaration of faith.

As long as you’re saying those words and you’re hearing those words and your mind is occupied with making those words, and your heart and your spirit are involved, then you can’t think so much about your pain and about your problems. Say it! Do it! Hear it! See it! Speak it!

Copyright © 1985 The Family International.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 11: The Books of the Bible, Part 10

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

New Testament Division: Prophetic Books

The Book of Revelation

Revelation is the main prophetic book in the New Testament. There are some other Bible prophecies throughout the other books of the New Testament, and some of those books deal with Bible prophecy, but Revelation is the only book of the New Testament devoted entirely to Bible prophecy, like the prophetic books of the Old Testament.

Revelation: Glimpse into future, Jesus’ ultimate triumph

The Apocryphal Books

When the Old Testament books were compiled during the second and third centuries A.D., there was some argument amongst the religious scholars as to whether certain of the books available to include were inspired or not. The scholars were split on the issue; some of them thought these books in question were inspired, and some of them thought they were not. Some thought they were fairy tales, and some thought they were just history. These particular books are included in the Catholic Bible, but not in the Protestant Bible. They are called the Apocryphal Books, and you’ll find them in the Catholic Bible right in the middle between the Old and New Testaments. “Susanna” is one of them, “Judith,” and the “I and II Maccabees,” etc.

Don’t confuse “apocryphal” with “apocalypse”—the Catholic name for revelation. “Apocryphal” is the name of the several books in the middle of the Catholic Bible, which are interesting reading and historical.

 

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Copyright © 2023 by The Family International.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 12: Bible Chronology

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

Basic Bible Timeline

The first event is creation. Then the Flood happened in possibly 2500. The next important date was the birth of Abraham, estimated at 2000 BC.

We’re jumping every 500 years, so the time of Moses was about 1500 BC, which was about the time of the Exodus. The days of David were about 1000 BC.

Another important date, almost 500 years later, was the fall of Jerusalem. It was 586 BC, and that is an exact date to remember. It’s a very important date, because it had to do with the coming of Christ. It was prophesied that after Jerusalem fell and they went into captivity, they would be in captivity for 70 years, which takes you from 586 to 516.

Later on, in 454 BC, Artaxerxes of Persia also issued his commandment to Nehemiah to go back and help to rebuild Jerusalem. (See Daniel 9:25.)

Daniel prophesied that Christ, the Messiah, would be born an exact number of years later. There were to be 70 “weeks” total, but 69 from the going forth of the edict to build Jerusalem to the cutting off of the Messiah. (See Daniel 9:25.) 69 weeks is the same as saying 69 x 7 years, which equals 483 years. Subtract 454 BC from 483 years and you get 29 years left. Jesus was born in 4 BC according to the Roman calendar, and He died at the age of 33. So according to the Roman calendar, Jesus died in 29 AD—exactly the number of years after the proclamation by Artaxerxes allowing the captive Jews to return and rebuild Jerusalem, that Daniel prophesied was when the Messiah would come.

Another date that is important to know about is 722 BC, the date of the fall of Samaria, when the ten tribes were taken into captivity by Assyria. (See 2 Kings 2:9–11.)

The death of Paul the Apostle is the next important date to know because it ended the Apostolic Era. The death of Paul was in 66 AD, which was during the time of Roman persecution. God must have wanted to spare him from the next major event in 70 AD—the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

The next major date in Christian history is the death of John the Beloved, or John the Revelator as he’s also called. John died in 90 AD. He lived a long time, and died as an old man, a natural, peaceful death, on the island of Patmos.

Now we go away from Bible history and into Christian history to bring us up to modern time. About 500 AD the Western Roman Empire fell.

1000 AD to 1100 AD is considered the middle of the Dark Ages, a time when it is believed that science and knowledge didn’t advance a lot. About 500 years later, what brought man out of the Dark Ages? The Renaissance occurred in the 1400s, and the Reformation followed the Renaissance in the 1500s.

The date when the King James Version of the Bible was finished was 1611.

Summary of Bible time periods and important dates:

About 2500 BC            The Flood

About 2000 BC             Abraham

About 1500 BC             Moses

About 1000 BC             David and the Kings

722 BC                         Fall of Samaria

586 BC                         Fall of Jerusalem

4 BC                             Birth of Jesus

29 AD                           Death of Jesus

66 AD                           Death of Paul the Apostle

70 AD                           Romans destroy Jerusalem

90 AD                           Death of John the Revelator

About 500 AD               Fall of the Western Roman Empire

About 1000 AD             Dark Ages

About 1500 AD             Reformation

1611 AD                       Translation of the King James Bible

Timeline of the 70 Weeks* of Daniel 9:24–27

Labels:

454 BC

Jesus dies at 33

69 weeks (483 years) ends with cutting off of Messiah

29 AD

Artaxerxes of Persia issued his commandment to Nehemiah to go back and help to rebuild the city in 454 BC. (See Daniel 9:25.)

Jesus born in 4 AD

Last “week,” seven years of antichrist’s rule

* This word that’s translated as “weeks” in the King James Bible is the Hebrew word shabua, which literally means “seven.” Therefore, a better translation of this would be “seventy sevens,” instead of “seventy weeks.”

As we proceed to read and understand the prophecy and its fulfillment, it becomes evident that these seventy sevens are seventy sevens of years, with each “week” representing a period of seven years, for a total of 490 years.

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Copyright © 2023 by The Family International.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 08: The Books of the Bible, Part 7

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

New Testament Division: Historical Books

The Four Gospels and the Book of Acts

The second major division of the Bible as a whole is the New Testament. It is divided into minor divisions. First come the four Gospels, followed by the book of Acts. These first five books are similar to the Old Testament because they’re historical. The first four are the history of the life of Jesus, and then Acts is the history of the Early Church.

The Book of Acts

The first thirteen chapters of Acts were a blueprint for the Church—God’s plan and the way He intended the Church to operate and act and do. He calls it “The Acts of the Apostles.” It’s a fascinating book, and you’ll find a lot in there that maybe you never noticed before, such as how the early church was started and organized; how they formulated certain policies and certain plans of action, what they resulted in, and how the ultimate end result was always witnessing and winning people to Jesus.

Matthew: Jesus, the Messiah (written to the Jews)

Mark: Supernatural power of Jesus

Luke: Jesus, the Son of Man

John: Jesus, the Son of God, salvation

Acts: Formation of the Early Church

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Copyright © 2023 by The Family International.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 10: The Books of the Bible, Part 9

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

The Apostle Paul

Before Paul got saved, he was a rabbi, a teacher, and a leader of the Jewish religion. He went around arresting and persecuting Christians, trying to make them deny their faith in Jesus.

After Paul got saved, he became an advocate of love, grace, and the mercy of God. He taught that nobody could earn salvation by keeping the Old Testament laws and regulations.

Paul was the greatest leader of the Early Church. He proclaimed salvation by grace through Jesus Christ alone. He didn’t just preach to the Jews, but he also went to the gentiles—those who were not Jews—and thousands and thousands were converted to the Church.

Whenever Paul went to a new city he went straight into the synagogue—that was his method—and he laid it out clear to them: “You’re either for Jesus as the Messiah, or you’re against Him, and that’s it!” He got kicked out because the unbelievers were in charge of the synagogue.

Paul got tired of preaching to the Jews because they wouldn’t believe in Jesus that he finally gave up on them and said, “From henceforth I go to the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6).

The epistles Paul wrote are very deep, legal theology, written with big words which can be difficult to understand. But Paul was a scholar, and he was trying to interpret the Gospel for the sake of lawyers and brilliant minds and Jewish scholars like himself, like the Pharisees and the scribes. Paul was trying to explain Jesus and salvation to them in language and arguments that would appeal to the scholars.

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Copyright © 2023 by The Family International.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 06: The Books of the Bible, Part 5

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

Old Testament Division

Prophetic books

We can divide the prophets into major and minor prophets. Those called the major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Lamentations was written by Jeremiah. Then come the minor prophets, and they run through Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament.

For 300 years there were no prophets, no prophetical books, all the way until the time of Jesus’ birth and ministry on earth.

Major Prophets

Isaiah: Messianic and other prophecies of the future

            Jeremiah: Last effort to save Jerusalem through surrender

            Lamentations: Weeping over the desolation of Jerusalem

            Ezekiel: God’s presence and The David to come: the Messiah

            Daniel: Kingdoms of this world: past, present, and future

Minor Prophets

Hosea: Hosea urges a return to God

            Joel: Prophecies of judgment; prophecies of the Endtime gift of prophecy

Amos: Warnings of God’s judgements on Israel

Obadiah: Destruction of Edom; universal judgement

Jonah: A message of destruction and mercy to Nineveh

Micah: Bethlehem to be the birthplace of the Messiah

Nahum: Destruction of Nineveh; rebuke against war

Habakkuk: “The just shall live by his faith”

Zephaniah: Day of the Lord at hand; all nations to be judged

Haggai: Rebuilding of the Temple

Zechariah: Rebuilding of the Temple; Messianic prophecies

Malachi: Final message to a disobedient people

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Copyright © 2023 by The Family International.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 07: The Books of the Bible, Part 6

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

The Major Prophets

The book of Daniel is a short book with only 12 chapters. The other major prophet books are longer. So how come the prophet Daniel was considered a major prophet? Do they judge by the size of the books? No.

The importance of the prophet is judged by what he predicted. Apart from the story of Daniel that is covered in the book of Daniel, there are more specific prophecies about the future in the book of Daniel than there are in the other major prophet books. Daniel prophesied very little about Israel of his time or even shortly after his time; in fact, the book of Daniel is mostly about the prophecies of the distant future.

What kind of a prophet was Isaiah? Isaiah was the Messianic prophet, because he prophesied mostly about Jesus, both about His first coming and about His second coming. There are more prophecies about the millennium in the book of Isaiah than anywhere else in the Bible.

Jeremiah was concerned mostly about the Jews as a people and nation—their history, their fall, their future, and even about the Jews returning to Israel.

Ezekiel also prophesied about the Jews, specifically the fall of the Jews. But he had many prophecies regarding the distant future, particularly about the antichrist, the battle of Armageddon, and the Holy City.

 

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Copyright © 2023 by The Family International.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 04: The Books of the Bible, Part 3

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

Old Testament Division

Historical books

The Bible is very well organized and was put in a certain order to make it easier to understand.

The first five books have long been in the same order you find them in the Bible, since the days of Moses. These five books are called “The Pentateuch” or “The Books of Moses.” They were also spoken of by Jesus and others as the Law.

There are a whole lot of other books in the Bible, and when they decided to put them all in one book, they wanted to try to get them well organized, so how do you suppose they did it? Partly chronologically and partly according to content.

The first 17 books (including “The Books of Moses”) are about the history of the world, the history of God’s people, the history of God’s dealings with man, and the history of the Bible. All the first books from Genesis through Esther are historical books.

Genesis: History of mankind and the Hebrew nation

Exodus: Wilderness wandering; Laws of Moses

Leviticus: Laws of the Hebrew nation

Numbers: Journey to the Promised Land

Deuteronomy: Laws of the Hebrew nation

Joshua: The conquest of Canaan led by Joshua

Judges: First 300 years in the land

Ruth: Beginning of the Messianic family of David

1 Samuel: Organization of the kingdom; Samuel; rise and fall of Saul and King David

2 Samuel: Reign of David

1 Kings: Division of the kingdom; Solomon; Elijah

2 Kings: Elisha; divided kingdom; Jerusalem captured

1 Chronicles: Reign of David

2 Chronicles: History of southern kingdom; into captivity

Ezra: Return from captivity in Babylon

Nehemiah: Rebuilding Jerusalem

Esther: Escape of Israelites from being destroyed

 

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Copyright © 2023 by The Family International.

 

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 05: The Books of the Bible, Part 4

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

Old Testament Division

The Pentateuch and the Talmud

What does the big Greek word Pentateuch mean? It means five books. These books are also called “The Torah,” or they are commonly called in the Old and New Testaments “The Books of the Law.” They were written down by Moses and are also therefore called “The Books of Moses.”

Do you know what the Talmud is? The Talmud is made up of commentaries on the Bible. Right in the middle of a huge page there’s a tiny scripture about one or two verses out of the Bible, and all the rest is footnotes—writings of the various great rabbis about one little scripture. That’s what the Jews spend most of their time studying, the Talmud. They call them Talmudic schools and Talmudic studies.

 

Poetical Books

What comes after the historical books? Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Those five books are called the poetical books, the poetry of the Bible, five books of poems. They were put together because they were used largely in devotional services and read for devotions and sung. When the people got together for inspiration and songs, they would use these beautiful poetical books.

 

Job: Sufferings and tests bring humility

Psalms: Praises of David and promises to David

Proverbs: Wisdom and sound advice from Solomon

Ecclesiastes: Vanity of earthly life

Song of Solomon: Love relationship of Jesus and His Bride

 

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Copyright © 2023 by The Family International.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 01: Why Is the Bible Important?

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

The Bible is very well known and the most famous book that has ever been published. Most people at least have heard about it, and a lot of people respect it, and there are over two billion people who believe in it! So if you can quote the Bible, or if you can find verses in the Bible to show to people you are speaking to, a lot of people will believe it.

And even for the people who pretend not to believe it, the Word is powerful just the same and very convicting!—”Sharper than any two-edged sword,” full of the power of the Spirit and very convicting.

 

“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires” (Hebrews 4:12 NLT).

 

The Bible is an inexhaustible source of wisdom and knowledge, out of which you constantly find “treasures new and old.”

It’s thrilling when we discover something old that was there all the time that we had never noticed or fully understood before.

The Bible is the Holy Scriptures—the original Word of God that man has had for thousands of years. Parts of that Bible we’ve had for at least 3,500 years since the days of Moses.

“Every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old” (Matthew 13:52).

Paul said, “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? Faith comes by hearing the Word of God”.¹ So when your faith depends on your knowing the Word of God, it is very important for you to study it.

Matthew 4:4: Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Psalm 119:11: I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:130: The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.

Psalm 119:105: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

2 Timothy 2:15: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

 

¹ Romans 10:17

 

Based on the writings of TFI. Scripture taken from the New International Version unless otherwise stated.

Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Copyright © 2023 by The Family International.

Pilgrim’s Guidebook, 02: The Books of the Bible, Part 1

Pilgrim’s Guidebook

Based on the writings of TFI.

2023-09-04

If you are going to use the Bible as a tool, and you are going to use passages and verses out of the Bible to make a point or to give the truth to people, you will need to know the names of the books of the Bible. You will also need to know where to find them if you are going to teach someone about God’s Word.

There are 66 books in the Bible, written by many authors, but inspired by God. He used men to record them.

There were about 40 men whom God used to write the Bible, because quite a few books were written by the same man. For example, the first five books were written by Moses, five books were written by John and many books were written by Paul. The Bible has 66 books and about 40 authors.

But more important than the men He used to write the Bible is the Author of the Bible who inspired them. God Himself!

OLD TESTAMENT

17 historical books

5 poetical books

17 prophetic books

NEW TESTAMENT

5 historical books

21 epistles

1 prophetic book

Based on the writings of TFI. Illustrated by Didier Martin.

Copyright © 2023 by The Family International.

Activated, March 2005: Special Easter Edition (Part 3)

Endtime Insights: Pre-Tribulation or Post-Tribulation Rapture?

By Scott MacGregor

The term “Rapture” is not found in English-language Bibles, but made its way into Christian terminology as a transliteration of rapiemur (from rapio, or raptio), the Latin word used by Saint Jerome in his Latin Vulgate translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, which describes how the saved from all ages, both dead and living, will be “caught up” to meet Jesus in the air at His Second Coming.

One of the major controversies regarding Endtime Bible prophecy concerns when Jesus will return to “rapture” all those who have received Him as their Savior. Will it be before or after the coming three-and-a-half-year period of worldwide trouble known as the “Great Tribulation”?

Those who believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture contend that Jesus will return in secret to whisk all born-again (saved) Christians out of this world and into Heaven. Depending on when they believe the Tribulation starts, this would be either at the beginning of the Antichrist’s seven-year rule or at its midpoint.

Central to this pre-Tribulation doctrine are several Bible passages that liken Jesus’ Second Coming to a thief in the night, and also the supposition that the Second Coming and the Rapture are two different events.

Regarding His return, Jesus told His disciples: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of Heaven, but My Father only. … Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:36, 40-44).

Here we have Jesus coming like a thief and people going up to Heaven in the Rapture at the same time. There is no indication that these are separate events.

In another “thief” passage, the apostle Paul states: “Concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3).

“Sudden destruction” and the labor pain analogy make it clear that Jesus’ return will be a shocking, woeful experience for those not taken—certainly not the secret, stealthy Rapture of pre-Tribulation doctrine.

The point that both of these “thief” passages are making is that Jesus’ return will be sudden and unexpected, so we need to watch the signs of the times and keep our hearts right with Him so we’ll be ready.

A third “thief” passage that is often applied to the Rapture is, in context, a specific warning to Christians in the city of Sardis, in Western Asia Minor (modern Turkey) who lived in the apostle John’s day. Jesus says, “Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you” (Revelation 3:3).

There is a lesson in this passage for us too, of course, and it is the same one that the previously quoted “thief” passages make: We need to keep our hearts right with Jesus so we’ll be ready to face Him when we die or are caught up with Him in the Rapture.

A fourth “thief” passage that is sometimes added to the mix isn’t referring to the Rapture at all, but rather the destruction and re-creation of Earth’s surface and its atmospheric heavens about 1,000 years later, at the end of the Millennium: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

Now let’s look at some of the passages that support the post-Tribulation Rapture theory.

Just prior to His “thief” analogy, Jesus told His disciples: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then 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. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31).

Jesus placed His return after the Tribulation period—then His angels will gather His elect, all those who have received Him as their Savior, in the Rapture. He couldn’t have made that point clearer!

In addition, the apostle Paul explains that the Antichrist will already be in power and “sitting in the temple of God” when the Rapture happens, and we know from other passages that this happens after the Antichrist breaks the “holy covenant,” which triggers the Great Tribulation: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [Jesus’ return] will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin [the Antichrist] is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

Paul also states that it will happen when the last trumpet sounds—the same trumpet Jesus referred to in Matthew 24:31: “The Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we [saved] who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). “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 incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

And finally, it is clear from the prophecies in the books of Daniel (c. 538 bc) and Revelation (c. 90 ad) that the saints—all those who have been born again—will be around in the Tribulation, because the Antichrist will war against them. In fact, several passages are even very specific about the length of this period.

“I was watching; and the [Antichrist] was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days [God] came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. … He [the Antichrist] shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time [three and a half years]” (Daniel 7:21-22, 25).

Yes, the Great Tribulation is going to be a trying time, but God will turn it to our good and help us come through it victoriously. Concerning that time, Daniel writes: “The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. And those of the people who understand shall instruct many” (Daniel 11:32-33).

The Great Tribulation will also be a time when many people will turn to the Lord, as those who know their God and understand what’s happening will manifest great powers and win to God’s eternal kingdom many of those who are disaffected with the Antichrist and his regime. The Tribulation trumpets will signal judgments on the wicked—not the just, who will be under God’s seal of protection during this time.

“These [the great multitude standing before the throne of God and Jesus] are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation” (Revelation 7:14). In other words, they were there during it. God will deliver His own out of trouble, not from it!

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Feeding Reading: The Easter Prophecies

Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Jesus’ last days on earth, and His death and resurrection

Triumphal entry in Jerusalem on a donkey
Zechariah 9:9
Mark 11:7-8
John 12:13-15

Betrayed by a friend
Psalm 41:9
Mark 14:10, 43-45

Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver
Zechariah 11:12
Matthew 26:15

Betrayal money returned for a potter’s field
Zechariah 11:13
Matthew 27:3-10

Judas’s position to be taken by another
Psalm 109:7-8
Acts 1:16-26

Accused by false witnesses
Psalm 27:12
Matthew 26:60-61
Mark 14:57

Offers no defense
Isaiah 53:7
Matthew 26:62-63
Matthew 27:12-14

Struck and spat upon
Isaiah 50:6
Matthew 26:67
Mark 14:65
John 19:1-3

Hated without reason
Psalm 109:3-5
John 15:24-25

Soldiers divide His garments and gamble for His clothing
Psalm 22:18
Matthew 27:35

Pierced through hands and feet
Zechariah 12:10
Luke 23:33
John 20:27

Executed with malefactors
Isaiah 53:12
Mark 15:27-28

Agonized in thirst
Psalm 22:15
John 19:28

Given gall and vinegar
Psalm 69:21
Matthew 27:34, 48
John 19:29

No bones broken
Psalm 34:20
John 19:32-36

His side pierced
Zechariah 12:10b
John 19:34

Deserted momentarily by God
Psalm 22:1
Matthew 27:46

Vicarious sacrifice
Isaiah 53:4-6, 12
Matthew 8:16-17
Romans 5:6-8
1 Corinthians 15:3

Buried with the rich
Isaiah 53:9
Matthew 27:57-60

Deserted by His followers
Zechariah 13:7
Mark 14:27
Matthew 26:56

Resurrection
Hosea 6:2
Psalm 16:10
Psalm 49:15
Luke 24:6-7

Other dead raised with Him
Isaiah 26:19
Matthew 27:52-53

Ascension to Heaven
Psalm 68:18
Luke 24:50-51
Acts 1:11
Ephesians 4:7-10

Christ at the right hand of the Father
Psalm 110:1
Mark 16:19
Hebrews 1:2-3

Live the Golden Rule

From Jesus with love

I once told My followers, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). So many problems would be solved if people would live by that simple rule. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it is the smart thing to do. When you do it—even when it’s to your own hurt at first—it eventually comes back to you in the form of more love and other good things in your own life. When you build your life and character on treating people the way you want to be treated, it’s inevitable that they will return the favor by treating you with respect and kindness. But it starts with you.

You have opportunities every day to spread goodwill. You face choices every day in which you can either do what is best for yourself or best for someone else. Sometimes it can be difficult to do the right thing, especially when the person you’re dealing with hasn’t done right to you. You may not feel others deserve to be treated with love and kindness or that they are worth the sacrifice, but I didn’t say, “Do to others as they do to you.” My code for living is far above that normal perception of fairness. I want you to live on a higher plane. Anyone can be nice to those who are nice, but the person who can be nice to those who aren’t is the bigger person and more blessed by Me.

Editor: Keith Phillips
Design: Giselle LeFavre
Illustrations: Doug Calder
Production: Francisco Lopez
www.activated.org
© 2005 Activated. All Rights Reserved.

Activated, March 2005: Special Easter Edition (Part 2)

We Owe Jesus Everything!

Jesus was willing to die for us to save us, and He wants us to be willing to sacrifice to help Him save others (1 John 3:16). He bought and paid for us with His own blood. We’re His property; we belong to Him now. Jesus saved our souls for eternity, so of course we should do what He asks of us, which is to try to win as many others as we can.

Jesus didn’t go halfway to the cross for us, or almost all the way; He went all the way and gave His whole life for us. The main job He came to do was to die on that cross, and so the main job we’ve got to do is to bear our cross. He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).

We can only find the fullness of faith that we seek in the path of complete obedience, when we’re really willing to take up our cross and deny ourselves, yielding our pride and our will to follow Jesus. Then He will give us the power to follow as we surrender to Him.—D.B.B.

Prayer for the Day

Jesus, I thank You so much for loving me. Your mercy is so great, incomprehensible, indescribable, and it is renewed for me every morning. You don’t remember my mistakes and sins from day to day. As soon as I tell You I’m sorry, You cover them over with Your love and mercy. You give me a brand-new start and encourage me to try again. Such love!

God’s Forgiveness: Never Say Never

One day Sharon and I met Debbie, and after talking for a while, Sharon asked Debbie if she would like to receive Jesus. She said she would, but halfway through the prayer Debbie raced off, on the verge of tears and apologizing profusely. “Jesus could never forgive me for my sins!” she shouted back at us.

I ran after her, took her by the arm, and said emphatically, “Yes, He can!”

She argued that He couldn’t and wouldn’t, and burst into tears. I also burst into tears over her obvious anguish, and we went back and forth for a few moments—her insisting that Jesus couldn’t forgive her and me insisting that He would—until finally she explained that she had had an abortion.

I quoted a few promises from the Bible that said plainly that she would be forgiven if she would only ask for and accept it. We talked for a long time, and in the end she prayed with me to receive His forgiveness. She had been carrying this burden for many years, but Jesus lifted it the moment she asked Him to!—Debby Blettner, Australia

A friend of ours introduced us to his brother, Marco, and our conversation eventually turned to God’s love and forgiveness in Jesus.

“I belong to the other guy!” Marco replied, meaning the Devil.

And he looked like he did—at least at that moment. He was having a hard time talking or concentrating, and was probably either on drugs or drunk. Whatever the case, it was obvious that he was very unhappy and needed the Lord. We knew that if he would just pray with us to receive Jesus as his Savior, that would be the first step toward the Lord solving his problems.

“It’s impossible for me to change,” Marco would say every time we told him that Jesus loved him. “I’m too bad a sinner!”

Several of his friends were standing around, and they were quick to agree. “He’s too messed up,” they said. “He really needs help, but he’ll never change.”

Marco said he needed to get some fresh air, and we followed him outside. Away from his friends, we assured him once more that the Lord loved him personally, regardless of anything he had ever done. Marco’s eyes filled with tears, and he said he wanted to receive Jesus.

He repeated a short prayer after us, asking Jesus to come into his heart and forgive him for all the wrongs he’d done.

When we saw him a week later, he was like a different man!—Estevão and Ruth, Brazil

What Jesus Said on the Cross

By Curtis Peter Van Gorder

Everything that Jesus said on the cross was a different expression of His love. His Words spoken then still move people today.

Love for enemies

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

“Them” were the Roman soldiers who had been following Pontius Pilate’s orders when they nailed Jesus on the cross to die. They had been following orders, but they had also been cruel and vicious in their mocking and whipping, proving what was in their own hearts. “Them” were also those in the misguided, manipulated mob that had called for Jesus’ death and forced Pilate’s hand—the same common people who had hailed Jesus as their King only a few days earlier (Mark 15:6-14; Mark 11:8-10). How cruel, how awful, how unjust! How could Jesus say that any of these people didn’t know what they were doing? To a certain degree they had to, but they didn’t realize the enormity of what they were doing—that they were killing the Son of God.

In asking His Father to forgive those who had turned on Him and those who had carried out His execution, Jesus actually spoke in their defense, and in so doing proved in the most powerful way possible that He believed what He had taught: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Despite the shame and pain the Romans heaped on Jesus, He forgave them. He also forgave those who had turned on Him. Now He wants us to have that much love, that much forgiveness.

Love for sinners

“Today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Jesus spoke these words to the repentant thief who was crucified beside Him.

The following true story shows the present-day effect of these words.

A couple in Mexico was robbed of their credit cards, papers, and cash. Some friends prayed with them that they would be able to overcome the trauma of the theft and that the stolen items would be recovered.

A week later the couple received a thick envelope in the mail. All of their valuables were inside. So was a note, which was signed, “From a repentant robber.” There also was a drawing of three crosses. The cross on the right was circled. Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness still change people today.

Love for family and friends

“Behold your son! … Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27).

Jesus spoke these words to His mother and to John, the closest of His disciples, as He looked down on them from the cross. Jesus understood the void that the end of His earthly life would leave in each of theirs, and that they could each help fill that void for the other. Jesus loved them so much that even in the midst of His most trying hour, He saw the needs of His loved ones and did something about it.

Thereafter, John cared for Mary as his own mother, and Mary loved John as her own son.

Jesus needs our love

“I thirst!” (John 19:28).

Last Christmas some friends and I did a program at a center for the handicapped that is run by the Missionaries of Charity, the Catholic order that Mother Teresa founded. I noticed a large banner on the wall that read “I thirst,” and I asked why they had chosen these two last words of Jesus.

“That cry of Christ has become our rallying cry,” one of the sisters explained. “Shortly before she passed on to her heavenly reward, Mother Teresa said, ‘His thirst is without end. He, the Creator of all, pleads for the love of His creation. He thirsts for our love. These words, “I thirst,” do they not echo in our souls?'”

Love for God

“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Did Jesus doubt God’s love as He died? Had God forsaken Him? These words always troubled me until I read the following explanation from David Berg:

“What caused Jesus the greatest agony on the cross was not our sins, because He knew that we were going to be forgiven and saved. What broke His heart was thinking that His Father had turned His back on Him. Jesus went through an experience that, thank God, we will never have to go through—not just crucifixion, not just the agony of the body, but the agony of mind and spirit, feeling that God had actually deserted Him. ‘My God, My God,’ He cried out, ‘why have You forsaken Me?’ (Matthew 27:46). Had God forsaken Him? Yes, momentarily, that He might die the death of a sinner, without God.

“Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the whole world on the cross (1 Peter 2:24), and these sins separated Him from His Father. He voluntarily gave Himself to die in our place—He loves us that much!”

Love for you and me

“It is finished!” (John 19:30).

What was it that He finished? On the same evening that Jesus hung on the cross, the Passover lamb was being sacrificed. Like the blood of the lamb saved the Hebrew people from destruction in Egypt, Jesus’ blood—the ultimate Passover sacrifice—redeems us from the power of sin and death.

When He died on the cross His work was done, and our salvation was won!

Love’s reward

“Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit” (Luke 23:46).

Jesus, help us to trust our lives to You and live to please You, like You trusted Your life to the Father and lived to please Him. Then what a day of rejoicing that will be when we see You face to face and enter into our heavenly reward—eternal life and love with You and the Father!

Curtis Peter Van Gorder is a full-time volunteer with the Family International in the Mideast.

www.activated.org
© 2005 Activated. All Rights Reserved.

 Celebrating Easter—Why the Resurrection Makes All the Difference

Peter Amsterdam

2022-04-11

As we celebrate Easter, we are celebrating God’s way of bringing salvation to us. In His love for humanity, God made a way for us to enter into an eternal relationship with Him, and the means was through His Son coming into the world, living as a human being, and laying down His life for us. Jesus did just that. He came into this world out of love, lived as we live, and gave Himself over to be crucified. His death made it possible for us to truly know God and to live with Him forever.

Jesus was God’s Son. We know this because of the account of Him given in the Gospels, and through the rest of the Bible. He did and said numerous things which spoke to the fact that He was God’s Son. His resurrection from the dead, which we celebrate every Easter, was proof that He was all that He said He was—that He was the long-awaited Messiah, and that He was God the Son.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man over seventy times throughout the Gospels. While on occasion He stated that He was the Messiah, He generally didn’t refer to Himself as such. The title of Messiah carried with it preconceived ideas in the minds of the people of His day and expectations of a political nature. Continually claiming to be the Messiah would most likely have prematurely brought Him problems with the Jewish leaders as well as the Roman government. It would also have brought up the stereotypical ideas about the Messiah which were prominent in those days—someone who would throw off the shackles of the Roman oppressors and physically free the Jewish people.

By referring to Himself as the Son of Man, a non-messianic title from the book of Daniel that the Jews of Jesus’ day were familiar with,¹ Jesus was using a title which allowed Him to speak modestly about Himself and to include aspects of His mission such as His suffering and death, which weren’t considered part of the Messiah’s role. At the same time, in line with what is said in Daniel, it enabled Him to express His exalted role, while avoiding the messianic misconceptions of the time. In using the title Son of Man, Jesus could speak of His mission on earth—which included His suffering and death, His second coming, His role in judgment, and His glorious future—without using the politically charged title of Messiah.

Within the Gospels, Jesus was the only one who used the title Son of Man in reference to Himself. He used the title to claim the authority to do what only God could do, such as forgive sins. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”²

He also referred to Himself this way when telling His disciples about His coming crucifixion and resurrection on the third day. He spoke about the Son of Man giving His life as a ransom, teaching that His death was a vicarious sacrifice, that He was laying down His life for the salvation of others. “As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.’ And they were greatly distressed.”³

Jesus foretold that as the Son of Man, He would lay down His life for us: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”⁴ And so He was crucified, died, and was buried—and then rose from the dead. Because He rose, we have affirmation that His heavenly Father set His seal upon Him, and that His sacrificial atoning death has given us eternal life.⁵

Another way in which Jesus used the phrase the Son of Man was when speaking of His second coming, when He will return to the earth to establish His rule and to pronounce judgment. The book of Daniel speaks of “one like a son of man” coming on the clouds of heaven. This reference to a human-looking figure with authority, glory, worship, and an eternal kingdom evokes an image of power normally reserved for God.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.⁶

When Jesus speaks of His return, He refers to what Daniel saw in his vision. He explains that He will come “in the glory of His Father, coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, seated on a glorious throne, at the right hand of Power.”⁷

He also speaks of the time of judgment which He will preside over, as His Father has given Him the authority to execute judgment. “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”⁸ These claims Jesus made about executing judgment are extraordinary—far beyond what any human could or should claim. However, Jesus, as the Son of God, has this authority, and His claims were validated by the fact that God raised Him from the dead.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God, both by Himself and by others. His Sonship is woven throughout the Gospels, especially in the things He said about Himself. From the Gospels we understand that He existed eternally with the Father before the creation of the world as the Logos, the Word of God, and that He made all things. The Logos then became flesh, in the person of Jesus, who through the life He led taught us about God and His love.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.⁹

We are told of His Sonship in the birth narratives, where His paternity comes directly from God through the conception of the Holy Spirit, and therefore He is called the Son of God.¹⁰ He was named Jesus, which means “Yahweh is salvation”—Yahweh being one of the names by which the Jewish people know God.

When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan at the beginning of His mission, the voice of God stated that Jesus was His Son. “When Jesus was baptized, … He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”¹¹ Close to the end of His mission, when He was transfigured, God once again declared that He was His Son.¹²

Jesus had a unique relationship with the Father through knowing Him as only His only begotten Son could. The Father has also “given all things into His hands.”¹³ When asked by the Jewish leadership if He was the Son of God, He answered in the affirmative: “The high priest asked Him, ‘Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.’”¹⁴

The statements Jesus made about Himself and His relationship to God, claiming to be equal to God, at times accepting worship,¹⁵ and claiming to do the work of the Father were seen as outlandish and blasphemous. The Jewish religious leaders who considered Him a false messiah came to the conclusion that He needed to die so that the Romans wouldn’t destroy the nation because of Him.¹⁶ While the Jewish leaders didn’t have the authority to kill Jesus themselves, they were able to have Him crucified by the Roman authorities. The supposed false messiah who claimed to be God’s Son was crucified, and the problem was seemingly taken care of.

But then … He rose from the dead. And His resurrection proved that all He said He was, all the authority He claimed to have—the messiahship, the power and dominion, the judgment, and His Sonship—was genuine. He is who He said He was.

Had Jesus not risen, had there been no resurrection, then everything that God’s Word says about Him would be false. Our faith, as Paul said, would be worthless.¹⁷ But the resurrection proves that our faith is of inestimable worth. It proves that Jesus is God the Son.

Because of the resurrection, we are assured that through belief in Jesus we have eternal life. That’s what Easter is all about. That’s why it’s a day to praise and thank Him for His sacrifice, for laying down His life for us. That’s why it’s a day to worship God for the wonderful plan of salvation which He enacted. That’s why Easter is a wonderful day to make a personal commitment to share the good news that Jesus is risen and His free offer of salvation is available to all who will receive it. Happy Easter!

Originally published April 2014. Excerpted and republished April 2022.
Read by Jerry Paladino.

¹ Daniel 7:13–14.

² Matthew 9:6 ESV.

³ Matthew 17:22–23 ESV.

⁴ Matthew 20:28 ESV.

⁵ John 6:27.

⁶ Daniel 7:13–14 ESV.

⁷ Matthew 16:27, 24:30, 26:64.

⁸ Matthew 25:31–32.

⁹ John 1:1–3, 14 ESV.

¹⁰ Luke 1:31–32, 35.

¹¹ Matthew 3:16–17.

¹² Matthew 17:5.

¹³ John 3:35.

¹⁴ Mark 14:61–62 ESV.

¹⁵ Matthew 14:33.

¹⁶ John 11:47–50.

¹⁷ 1 Corinthians 15:14.

Happy Resurrection

By Ariana Keating

When I was eight or nine, my family bought Franco Zeffirelli’s six-hour miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977) on video and we spent quite a few Sunday mornings slowly going through the series, learning about the life of Christ. During the last hour, Jesus’ trial and crucifixion are portrayed. I knew the basic story, having heard it retold each Easter for as long as I could remember, but seeing it portrayed so vividly was a different matter. I watched with horror as Jesus was tried, mocked, beaten, and crucified. Watching Jesus die was too much to bear. My heart broke and tears flowed.

My mother saw my anguish and pulled me near. “But honey,” she said, a smile lighting up her face, “the best is yet to come. He is alive!”

Sure enough, after that terrible death came His glorious resurrection, and with it all my anguish was washed away. After we had finished the video and our discussion, I drew a picture of Jesus smiling down from Heaven. I was so thankful that the greatest story ever told had a happy ending!

I believe day-to-day life is a bit like Easter. We experience disappointments, sorrow, and pain, but through our Savior we can find sweet relief and “resurrection.” Our troubles won’t last forever. In those moments when we feel like we are dying, when we feel burdened and full of sorrow, we need to remember that the “best is yet to come.” Just as Jesus’ death was not the end, only the beginning, so the problems of life that threaten to undo us can signal a new beginning, the turning of a new page. That’s Easter—the joy of starting again.

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Happy Easter! Happy resurrection!

Ariana Keating is a member of the Family International in Thailand.

“We Shall Be Changed!”

What Your Resurrection Will Be Like

By David Brandt Berg

“Behold, I tell you a mystery,” the apostle Paul wrote to a group of Christians in the Greek city of Corinth. “We shall not all sleep [be dead], but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet [Jesus’ Second Coming]. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we [who are alive] shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. … Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?'” (1 Corinthians 15:51-55).

Paul also said that our spirits are immediately present with the Lord when we die (2 Corinthians 5:8), so in this passage he is explaining the bodily resurrection of the dead. It’s pretty hard to explain how a spirit can rejoin a body that’s been in the grave for years—possibly even hundreds or thousands of years—and come to life and be perfectly whole, even better than it was before. Paul says it’s going to be like the difference between a seed and what the seed becomes once it has germinated and grown to maturity (1 Corinthians 15:36-44). How are you going to explain that transformation?

Our resurrection bodies are going to be new and different, and yet they’ll be close enough to the ones we have now that we’ll recognize each other: “Then I shall know just as I also am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). The disciples recognized Jesus after He was resurrected, but not always. He was different enough that sometimes they didn’t recognize Him (Luke 24:13-16,31; John 20:14-16). That was either because He didn’t want to be recognized at the time, or because He was more beautiful and more perfect, because He had a new spiritual body that would never die—and that’s the kind of body you’re going to have! You’re going to be like Jesus was and is now, since His resurrection. He “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious [resurrection] body” (Philippians 3:21).

Were Jesus’ followers able to see Him after He was resurrected? Yes! Were they able to usually recognize Him? Yes! Did He walk and talk with them? Yes! He even cooked for them and ate and drank with them (Luke 24:43; John 21:9-14). Jesus was able to do all these normal, natural things, and in your new resurrection body, so will you. Think of that!

But that’s not all. You’ll also be able to do some things you can’t do in your natural body. When His followers were in a locked room for fear of those who had crucified Him, Jesus walked right through the locked door (John 20:26). Another time, when He had finished talking with two of His followers on the road to Emmaus, He “vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:31). You’ll be able to walk through walls and doors and appear and disappear, just like Jesus did. You’ll also be able to travel from one place to another, not merely at the speed of sound or light, but at the speed of thought.

“We shall all be changed!” The main thing that’s going to be changed is your body, but if He’s going to change your body, He’s certainly going to change your clothes. You’ll be clothed in a robe of light, a robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). Just think, no matter where you are or what you’re doing, you’re suddenly going to notice a wonderful change and look to see that you’re wearing a beautiful new robe of righteousness!

Actually, you may be so preoccupied with what’s happening in the sky—lightning and thunder and Jesus appearing in the clouds—that you may not even notice what you’re wearing. But you’ll sure feel different because you’ll “be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:52). At the sound of that trumpet you’re going to be raised from the dead, if you are dead, or raised from the earth if you’re still living.

In another epistle, Paul writes: “I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). That includes you, if you’ve received Him! It also includes all of your departed family members and friends who are saved. So don’t worry that you’ll never see them again; you’ll meet in the air. What a family reunion—the biggest ever!

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

www.activated.org
© 2007 Activated. All Rights Reserved.

Celebrate Easter!

A compilation

2017-04-13

Easter commemorates the event that is at the heart and soul of your faith, the foundation of your faith. It’s the knowledge that, because I died for you and rose again, we’ll never be separated—not by sin or shortcomings or any human weaknesses.

It’s also the heart and soul of your happiness—the happy-to-the-core kind that lives on in your heart and spirit no matter what is happening in your life. It’s the wonderful peace that comes from knowing you’re saved, you’re free, and you’ll live with Me forever. It’s an unchangeable factor in a constantly changing world.

Easter is always a good time to get back to the basics of your faith. A time to not only thank Me for the gift of salvation, but also for the beautiful and intimate gift of our personal relationship, which came about because of My sacrifice and My Father’s great love for humanity.

What comes to mind when you think of Easter? Depending on where you’ve grown up—your background and culture—it can be many different things. For some, Easter brings thoughts of white lilies and a sense of starting over—regrowth, rebirth—because My resurrection wiped the slate clean of sin. For others it’s visualizing Me on the cross and experiencing an overwhelming sense of gratitude at the price I paid for humanity’s freedom. For others it’s about forgiveness. For others it’s a time to celebrate family, friends, and all the blessings that life has brought. It’s about all these things and more.

Celebrate Easter! Think about My love for you, which is so great that I was willing to die for you, to sacrifice all for you.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

*

The miracle of Easter is that because Jesus didn’t remain in the grave, we don’t have to either! We don’t have to suffer death, the payment for our sins in hell, or eternal separation from God. Jesus took that punishment for us, and then rose in new life! And His new life can be inside us, giving us hope and peace, as we are filled with His love. He arose! And we who believe were also born anew. Hallelujah!—David Brandt Berg

*

Because He rose, I too shall rise,
Shall rise and walk and dance and sing;
And there shall be no grief, no pain,
Nor any tears, remembering!
—Martha Snell Nicholson

*

The Easter season is a wonderful opportunity for Christians everywhere to unite as we praise our living, risen Savior! I think that Pope John Paul II expressed the Christian perspective on the resurrection so well when he said, “We are the Easter people and ‘hallelujah’ is our song!”

When we celebrate Easter, we commemorate one of the most wonderful—and important—days in all history. I say “one,” because without both the day of Jesus’ birth and the day of His death, there never could have been that day that He arose in victory! Jesus’ sojourn on earth and those milestones were a complete package. His birth, death, and resurrection were like a domino effect. One event caused the other to happen, and without the preceding event, the next one could not have taken place. All had to be fulfilled in order to produce the final victory. There had to be the agony of the cross in order for there to be the joy of the empty tomb.

Jesus’ birth and resurrection are happy, joyful events—and we love to hear about them and celebrate them! At the same time, we know there was the pain, the heartache, the sacrifice, the fierce fight against evil, the afflictions, the temptations. There was the great agony and bitter sorrow that our Savior endured for us during His life and final days. But these were all necessary for the ultimate victory to be won.

Even though Jesus was a “man of sorrows” who was “acquainted with grief,” He also laughed and danced and sang! He brought joy to those around Him! The deep pain in His life did not overshadow the great joy.¹—Maria Fontaine

*

Sing, my heart, for He is risen,
Christ is risen, Christ is risen!
Let the mountains shout for gladness,
Let the hills break forth and sing.
Let the seas make known His message,
Let the stars tell out the story.
Let the world proclaim His glory.
He is Lord and He is King!
—Louis Mertins

*

When I was dying on the cross, I felt forsaken. But when I rose from the dead, everything was new, everything was different, all the pain was forgotten. There was no remorse or sorrow, because the anguish of dying was consumed by the joy of My resurrection. The pain of death was swallowed up by victory.

Easter is a holiday celebrating victory, triumph, and overcoming. So think about the good things I have brought your way. Think on the good, the positive. It’s a day to forget any sorrow or pain or discouragement, and to focus on the joyful and the victorious.

Remember the great love I have for you—the love that led Me to give My life for you, and the love that gave Me the power to rise up in new life, also for you.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

*

Crown Him the Lord of life!
Who triumphed o’er the grave;
Who rose victorious in the strife,
For those He came to save.
His glories now we sing,
Who died, and rose on high;
Who died, eternal life to bring,
And lives, that death may die.
—Matthew Bridges

*

I once heard someone say that he thought Easter ought to be made the premier Christian holiday, ahead of Christmas. That’s not likely to happen, of course, but he presented an interesting line of reasoning.

If Christmas gives us reason to hope, he argued, Easter gives us cause to celebrate. Christmas marks the arrival of the long-awaited promise, but Easter marks the ultimate fulfillment of that promise. Christmas marks the beginning of the earthly life of the King of kings; Easter marks His coronation as the Savior of mankind.

The Easter advocate went on to make an even stronger case for Easter being a joyous occasion, not a sad and solemn one. His argument here was simple: Jesus wants it that way. He wants us to marvel at His love and sacrifice and celebrate His resurrection, not mourn His death. (I couldn’t have agreed with him more on that.) He quoted Jesus three times to back up this claim:

Before His crucifixion Jesus told His disciples, “If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father.’”² And a little later, “Your sorrow will be turned into joy. I will see you again and your heart will rejoice.”³ And finally, when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were the first to see Jesus after His resurrection, the first thing He said to them was ‘Rejoice!’”⁴

Easter is almost here. Let’s be Easter advocates and make it the happy occasion He wants it to be. Let’s celebrate! Let’s praise God and Jesus for the victory! Jesus lives! And because He lives, we will too—forever!—Keith Phillips

Published on Anchor April 2017. Read by Jason Lawrence.
Music by John Listen.

¹ Isaiah 53:3; John 15:11, 17:13.

² John 14:28.

³ John 16:20, 22.

⁴ Matthew 28:9.