We need to have our hearts enlarged to comprehend how totally our salvation is of God. Many have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. They mistakenly believe that they merit God’s favour because they have exercised their will. They have established their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. Sinful man loves to feel responsible for his own spirituality. This is the spirit of Antichrist which literally means “instead of Christ.” God will deliver us from this spirit. He causes us to receive an “inworking delusion” to teach us the folly of depending on our own will. He is stripping away everything of self effort. You can only live out what God has worked into you.

The psalmist David recognized the fact that God considered him special. WE all need to learn that we are special in God’s sight., Romans 9:16 tells us that “God’s Gift is not a question of human will or effort, but of God’s mercy. It depends not on one’s own willingness nor on his strenuous exertion as in running a race, but on God’s having mercy on him. When you can realize that your salvation is dependant only and absolutely on the sovereign intervention of God from beginning to end, then you can enter into genuine spiritual rest.

We are fully aware that we are not perfect, but we are also aware that God is the Perfecter and will in no case fail to finish the job of restoring perfection to His creation.

God strikes at the root of all ego-centred personal or organizational kingdom building projects. God forced Moses to the back-side of a desert where he learned this lesson so well that when God appointed him to lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses was convinced that he wasn’t suitable for the job.

We should seek to be over comers, not escapists. God has purposed that we will pass through the waters of trouble, the fiery trials, and the valley of the shadow of death. Man-made theology teaches that God will help us escape them, but God purposes that we will pass Through them and learn to be over comers in the process. Those who have confidence in escapism theology will learn the hard way that escapism is not God’s way. For awhile they may think they have lost confidence in God, but in reality they have only lost confidence in their false beliefs about God.

God sovereignly controls our victories and failures. Romans 14:4 says, “Who are you to judge another... to his master he standeth or falleth, and the Lord is able to make him stand.” Anytime you accept self-condemnation you are worshipping yourself more than God. You are saying to yourself, ‘Come on God, you could have done better than that.”

We should believe in the security of the unbeliever as well as the believer. For God’s nature is love. He cannot do anything that is not motivated by love.

God brings us through particular problems to make us useful in helping others through the same kinds of problems.

Tis not through man’s promotion - exalting of his fame,

Nor of the vaunted ego a-seeking for acclaim

The ‘self-appropriation” theologies proclaim.

The will of man attaineth not the things of God.

Nor yet availeth any the changing of this clod.

To dust thou art returning, frail creature of the sod.

When God in divine purpose did cast into the vale

Of vanities corruption, creation felt the gale

Of fear and deep frustration, while covered with a veil.

No way for a returning was found, and so the quest

Through ages was continued - man searching for his rest.

The carnal mind was active - God’s purpose to contest.

Into this vale of sorrow our blessed Saviour came,

Partook of all our weaknesses and bore our load of shame,

Till faced with death’s own process, in victory o’ercame.

And by His resurrection He opened up the way.

Creation is returning into the light of day

In Him to find the answer, redemption from decay.

It was His own descending - His act of sovereign grace

That wrought our great salvation, prepared for us a place

And promised restoration for every tribe and race.

Abolish fleshly striving, tis God who works within,

The process of transition by His true discipline,

Till born of God completely we shall not - cannot sin.

God often takes a mole-hill of a problem and makes it grow into a mountain in order to teach us lessons to use what we learn in our spiritual development. He sometimes put us through the discipline of nothingness and vanity in order to subject us to the inworking of His Spirit. God intends to bring us beyond the “will-worship” that depends on our own effort to attain spirituality. All the vanities of the elements of this world are as a school master to bring us to find the life of the spirit behind all the natural.

Our spirit cannot be free in the Lord until we accept everything in our life as from the hand of God. When you can submit to every situation that is beyond your control without any resentment or bitterness, then you are truly free.

God is taking us beyond obedience merely because of the fear of consequence, to an inner union with His Spirit that delights in His will and recognizes His intimate sovereign control over every aspect of our lives. This is the truth that sets us free. He is freeing us from our bondages to outward restrictions and teaching us instead to let His peace rule in our hearts. So we will recognize that our desires are His desires too.

“For he endured, beholding Him Who is invisible.” Hebrews 11:27

When I am left alone to weep

Where is the One ‘my soul to keep?”

“O Lord, why is it thus?” I cry,

The whole of earth doth seem to sigh.

Then to my heart the Spirit spoke,

And like the dawn, the tension broke.

While inner thoughts went racing high,

Beholding Him Who standeth by.

And now, my lips rejoice to sing!

Why did I doubt? MY GOD IS KING!

The reason that most followers of Christ are so defeated is because they are beholding a concept of Christ that is not at all what He is really like. In your spiritual life you can grow no further than your comprehension of the character of God.

If the negative captivates your vision, you will panic to find a way of escape;

and in your panic you may latch on to any theology, no matter how revolting it may be, as long as it promises to get you “home free”.

A partial gospel stops at the judgements of God. A full gospel includes the reasons behind the judgements and proclaims a positive conclusion. “Turn Thou mine eyes away from beholding vanity, and quicken me in Thy way. “ Psalm 119:37

High up o’er the mountain across the eastern sky,

Lo, the rays of glory proclaim that dawn is night.

Soft, the morning breezes blow from lofty heights,

Laden with the fulness of God’s power and might.

Gradually, the shadows are fading out of sight,

Their eerie influence dispelled before the coming light.

The path spread out before thee covered o’er with dew

Beacons with a challenge to take the way that’s new.

Never yet recorded upon the history’s page,

Eager expectation enrapts the coming age.

Wonders of redemption long have been concealed,

Shrouded once in a mystery - suddenly revealed.

The scope of God’s great mercy transcends the mortal mind;

Dogmas, creeds and teaching from man have made thee blind.

But truth divine emerges from the lonely tomb,

Resplendent in its glory - resurrection bloom!

While sin and self are conquered ‘neath the Hand of Love,’

And all the earth bows low to worship Christ above.

Thus the hour hastens toward that glorious day,

When Christ the King of every King o’er all shall hold full sway.

Behold Him with thy spirit, through tears yet wash thine eyes,

For He is all-sufficient; He fully satisfies!

“But we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver, in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us, “ 2 Cor 1:9,10

Paul tells us that all creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Romans 8:21. Believing unto deliverance is a process, a process that is started and maintained and completed by the sovereign will of God. From God’s point of view everyone has already been delivered, but the working out of that deliverance in practical terms is a process.

Paul tells us in Philippians 3:21 that God is able even to subject all things unto Himself. He reinforces this thought in 1 Cor 15:28 where he states “And when all things shall be subjected unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be All in All.” As Watchman Nee once put it, “The work of God in time is to sum up all things in Christ, to leave no loose ends of any kind, to have nothing out of harmony in the universe.”

When God’s purpose of the ages is complete, there will be nothing in existence that will be out of harmony with God or with each other.

The words of the Bible without the Holy Spirit’s quickening will not produce life. True faith presupposes ad divine revelation. If the Holy Spirit has not quickened it you are not acting in faith, you are acting in presumption. A scripture that has no meaning for you today may be full of meaning tomorrow. The reverse is also true. A scripture that is full of meaning for you today may be meaningless to you tomorrow. Paul says, “The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life, “ 2 Cor 3:6. In Hebrews 11 it states, “By faith Abraham went out.” But when you go back to Genesis it tells us that God said to Abraham, “Get out”. True faith operates on the basis of personal divine revelation. Peter said to Jesus, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus replied, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you Peter, but the Father in heaven revealed it unto you.” Peter had a personal revelation.

We should not try to claim the letter of the Word as a blanket promise to cover every situation, for if we do, we shall find ourselves operating in presumption instead of faith, and we will be disappointed. God will cause us to lose faith in our faith to force us to have faith in Him alone.

Since it is God’s intention to produce overcomers, it must necessarily follow that He will keep putting us in situations where we need to learn to overcome. God will remove from us the false doctrines of escapism and work into us the truth of overcoming, which is a genuine deliverance. Overcoming is progressive. As we learn to be overcomers in the day by day nitty gritty of life we gain experience and strength to be overcomers in more intense times of testing.

In Job 5:7 it says, “Man is born into trouble as the sparks fly upward.” And Ecclesiastes 3:10 says, “ I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.” It is through this exercise that we will be overcomers. Psalm 91:15 says, “I will be with him in trouble.” God doesn’t keep us from trouble. Instead, He teaches us to be overcomers in the midst of trouble.

“Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.” 1 Peter 4:12. The Greek word fiery is “purosis.” All of God’s fiery trials, including the lake of fire, are for the purpose of purifying attitudes. A beautiful illustration of the function of fire is found in the encyclopaedia. It says, “Fire restores all things to its original state.” When I read that I shouted Praise to God!

When you look into the inner chambers of your heart, what do you see? Is your inner picture of God a gross caricature? Is it so grotesque, ludicrous and perverse that you see God as one who cast people into an eternal hell and lets them writhe in torment? Christendom has invented a god who even gives people eternal life in hell so that they have a body that cannot be burned up and will live forever so they can continue to be tormented endlessly - an eternity of punishment for seventy years of rebellion, what a lopsided equation! There could be no greater unjust caricature of a God who said, “My thoughts toward you are not of evil but of peace, to give you an end and an expectation.”

If evangelicals began to dwell in the inner chambers of their beliefs they would have continual nightmares that would result in insanity. If they tried to face up to the beliefs that are inscribed on the walls of their subconscious and programmed into their minds by the traditions of men, is it any wonder that they are afraid to dwell in the terrifying darkness of the inner recesses of their heart?! It scares them to death, so they drive themselves to stay “busy for the Lord” lest they have to face head-on the full horror of their own beliefs.

It’s such a gross mixture of corrupt and perverse thinking, such a horrible thing that dwells within their chambers - the semi-omnipotent devils, the god who would help if he only could, or the god who is so angry with us that he doesn’t really want to help us even if he could. And many other strange and awful thoughts that spring from such kinds of thinking. This is the reason that we need the inworking of the Holy Spirit of God to clean out our inner chamber.

We need to have a repentance toward God. Repentance means “a change of mind.” By the power of God’s Spirit we need to have a change of mind about what God is like. The mental concept that evangelicals have of God desperately needs to be changed! The more that our whole understanding of God is changed, the more we will find peace dwelling within the inner chambers of our heart. God becomes a wonderful God, and we fall low at His feet to love and worship before Him from the greatest depths of our mind and spirit. Praise His Holy Name!

Enter now into thy chambers to dwell in the inner sphere

Untouched by the world about thee, free from its tension and fear.

Entering into they chambers, but is it a fair place to dwell,

Filled with the rare and the precious, or is it a darksome hell,

Full of vain imaginations, ugly distortions of God?

Men shun to turn inward unknowing what waits a pathway untrod.

Praise God for the process of cleansing, the smitings, the blows that go deep

To purge out the things that defile us, the whole in uprightness to keep!

Amazing this place of thy dwelling to hide, as it were, for a time

Till the indignation is over and earth is freed from it’s grime!

A wheel in a wheel is turning, they world in the world - yet apart,

For thou shalt abide all the shaking, kept safe with the Christ in thy heart.

Psalm 104:8 says, “They go up by the mountain, they go down by the valley into the place which Thou hast founded for them.” God is leading everyone all the time whether they are able to perceive it or not. It is God who prepares our valley experiences and leads us into them. 1 Kings 20:28 says, “Thus saith the Lord, because the Serians have said the Lord is the God of the hills but He is not the God of the valley, therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into thy hand and ye shall know that I am the Lord.“

In the valley we see the hand of God in a way that we never would be able to on the mountain. God is a God of our now. He is a very present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear, Psalm 46:1&2. The scripture says, “Thou knowest not what the day may bring forth,” Proverbs 27:1, so we need to learn to relax in God knowing that every circumstance and experience is in His hands. If the circumstance has you in a mountain experience, God is the God of the mountains. But if your circumstance has you in a valley of experience, God is just as much the God of the valley.

Isaiah 43:2 says, “...when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” The promise is when thou passest, “not if thou passest”. Is it appointed to everyone to go through the fires of trouble and trials in order to purge and discipline and process us. But verse 3 continues, “I am the Lord your God and your Saviour.” Don’t be preoccupied with the intensity of the heat, but look unto Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our faith., Hebrews 12:2. If you eye is single unto Jesus, you whole self will be full of light.

Don’t be preoccupied with whether you are dwelling on the mountain or dwelling in the valley, but dwell in the Lord, “For He is our dwelling place.” Psalm 90:1. Paul tells us in Romans 8:18 that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. The question is, do you have a vision of the glory? If your vision of the glory is strong enough, the suffering means nothing. If you don’t have a vision of the eglory you will muddle through the sufferings and wonder why all these things are happening to me.

In Hebrews 11:8 it says. “Urged on my faith, Abraham went forth though he did not know or trouble his mind about where he was to go.” Don’t be afraid of the valley, for it is God who will lead you through it. No matter how deep the valley is or how long the journey is through it, He will always be with us, and the processing of our valley experiences will enable us to become a new creature in Christ Jesus, to the glory of God.

Joel 3:14 says, “Multitudes are in the valley of decision.” The Hebrew literally means “the valley of threshing.: Our valley experiences are the threshing places where God removes the chaff from our life. God’s threshings never harm the wheat. They only remove the chaff - those things that God doesn’t want in our life. Hosea 2:15 says, “I will give thee the valley of Achor (literally meaning the valley of trouble) for a door of hope. And Paul says, “Hope maketh not ashamed, for the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Romans 5:5. The valley of trouble will strengthen and solidify your hope, and will strip away all the preconceived beliefs that are not relative to the “truth that sets you free.”

Psalm 23:4 says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.” The death of Christ did not absolve us from dying, but He tasted death for every man that He might bring us through the valley of the shadow of death victoriously.

We’ll go down by the way of the valley

For we know that His presence is there.

Though the path may be shaded and lonely

He has promised each burden to bear.

Through the valley of threshing He leads us

Till we’re stripped of all vanities pride.

All the chaff of the flesh separated

And we’re one with the Lord crucified.

Through the valley of weeping to wander

While the tears gently fall as the rain.

But He promised that joy, in the morning

Would erase all the memory of pain.

Through the valley of trouble to follow

With pressures that He doth allow.

Yet he giveth His rest to the weary a

And a hope that sustains in our now.

Through the valley of fire - what glory

Is revealed as all dross is removed!

What we thought was a curse was a blessing

As the saints of all ages have proved.

We’ll go on by the way that He chooseth

Makes no difference the hill or the plain.

There are rivers of water refreshing,

And His mercy our path will sustain.

Psalm 86:6&7 says, “Passing through the valley of weeping, they go from strength to strength.”

All of God’s dealings are for one purpose - to bring us to the place that He has predetermined for us. The process of arriving at this place is totally controlled by God from beginning to end. Deuteronomy 33:27 says, “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the eonian arms.”

Editor’s note: It is during this transitory period of the ages especially, that we need to know the never-failing support of God’s arms.

The word translated “eternal” in reference to God, is the Hebrew word qedem, which literally means, “perpetual”. It can mean eternal unless its meaning is qualified by a limiting statement. In this verse it is correctly applied to God as “eternal”. The Greek equivalent is “aidios” which is correctly applied to God in Romans 1:20 as “eternal”, but in Jude 6 its duration is qualified by a limiting statement.

Ray Prinzing continues: “Anyone to attempt to climb the mountain of salvation on the merit of strength of their own so-called free will, will never make it. But when God, by His sovereign grace, brings you up the mountain, you will come in spite of yourself, - not against your will, but He will make you willing.

God will destroy in us the “I-will-ascend” attitude and will replace it with “Thy will be done.” Jesus said that he who seeks to exalt himself shall be brought low, but he who humbles himself, I will exalt. God will strip us of our independent self-reliance to show us that without Him we are nothing. “He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that speaketh of he who sent him, seeketh the glory of him, “ John 7:18. Does the concept of God that you share with others really glorify God, or does it detract from His glory? Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me,” John 12:32. Does the concept of God that you share with others draw people to Him, or does it repel them?

God works in our spirit to cause us to be dissatisfied with our misconceptions of what He is like. Then He works in our soul till our mind and emotions cannot any longer accept or tolerate our misinterpretation of scripture, and He influences our will so we no longer have the ability to choose to believe the false concepts about His character - concepts that are based on mistranslations of the Bible.

Nehemiah 8:10 says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Most Christians don’t have lasting joy. When they stop long enough to think about their horrible ideas about what God is like, their joy is drained away. When you come to know what God is really like, this knowledge will sustain you and give you strength to face all the problems that may come your way, and you will be able to endure every circumstances with a joyful heart. Only then can we respond to Paul’s exhortation in 1 Thessalonians 5:16&18, “Rejoice evermore. In everything give thanks.”

The Spirit of God will call us up the mountain away from the lower levels of carnal thinking, to a higher dimension where we can see that Jesus is absolutely Lord. In Psalm 90:3 the psalmist said. “Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, return ye children of men.” For a wise and glorious purpose God made us subject to the bondage of vanity, the tyranny of change and decay and condemned to frustration - not willingly, but by reason of Him who did the subjecting in hope. It is God Himself who places within us the desire to come into a knowledge of his intimate sovereign control.

Everyone is in the process of spiritual evolution. We are all ascending in the realms of the spirit. Exodus 15:17 says, “Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance.” It is God’s revealed will that all nations shall be successful brought up into the mountain of His inheritance. The method and the timing belong to God alone and they very from person to person, but the end result is secure for everyone, without exception. “Who shall not fear Thee O Lord, and glorify Thy Name? For Thou only art holy, and all nations shall come and worship before Thee,” Revelation 15:4.

Isaiah 30:15 reads, “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. We cannot be an overcomer until God first overcomes us by His grace. It is God who is in sovereign control even of our ability to become and overcomer. As it is written in Job 34:29, “When God giveth quietness, who then can make trouble; and when He hideth His face, who then can behold Him, whether it be done against a nation or against a man only?”

The flaming sword in the garden of Eden was not, as some teach, to prevent people from eating of the tree of life with the result that they would live in sin forever; but its purpose was to insure access to the tree for everyone as they pass through the fire of purification.”

Hebrews 4:10 tells us that “he that hath entered into rest, hath ceased from his own works. “The muddied waters of condemnation and self-effort have robbed many of the confidence that they should be enjoying. Philippians 2:13 tells us that it is God who causes us to even be willing to do what He wants us to do. We can only work out what He has already worked into us. This is the true meaning of Philippians 2:12, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.: We cannot manifest perfection until God has worked it into us. Never accept condemnation for God’s unfinished handiwork. Both what we are becoming, and how long it takes to become, are under God’s intimate sovereign control. The work is all His.

Proverbs 3:25&26 says, “Be not afraid of sudden fear, for the Lord shall be thy confidence.” (Editor’s note*- This is a good scripture for those wh are recovering from a nervous breakdown, because a necessary requirement for recovery is learning not to be afraid of panic attacks). Ray Prinzing continues: When you know what God is really like, your confidence will be your strength no matter what is happening in the world around you. Don’t put your trust in Christendom’s false concept of God, lest your confidence falter and you find yourself without spiritual strength when the circumstances of the world close in on you. The same God who is in control of our inner spiritual development is also in perfect control of what is happening all around us.

You cannot put your trust totally in God unless you know He is sovereign. If you have other gods who, in your thinking, can even temporarily mess up God’s plans, your confidence will fail you. We need to realize that even Satan himself is only a dog on a leash and can only be as successful as God wants him to be.

Confidence thrives in an atmosphere of perfect love. 1 John 4:17&18 says “Herein is love made perfect, that we may have confidence in the day of judgement: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” When you have a God who is greater than your heart, even when your heart condemns you, they you will have the confidence that keeps you strong.

Psalm 37:23&24, “The steps of a man (the word good is not in the original text) are ordered by the Lord. He delighteth in his way, and though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand. This great promise reveals that even our falls are under the control of the Lord. Micah knew this when He said in Micah 7:8, “When I fall, I shall arise.” Every fall contributes to the process of our purification. When we look back after God has finished processing us there will not be one thing that we will with that we had not experienced.

The whole Christian experience is wrapped up in the word BECOME. Everyone is in the process of BECOMING what God wants them to be. 11Corinthians 4:17 tells us that our afflictions work for us, not against us. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that God is the author of our faith, therefore, we should not condemn another person for not believing, since God has not yet given them the ability to believe; “For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Romans 9:16

True worship is the approval of all that God allows. This is a truth that is sweet in the mouth, but it is difficult to digest when you are forced to apply it to personal catastrophe. Sometimes the pressures of life become so intense that all our masquerades and facades are stripped away. It is then that we can worship God by accepting and approving of that which He is allowing to happen to us. The Spirit of God will help us to assimilate this truth into our spiritual system and will cause it to become a source of strength.

We need to learn to accept ourselves just the way God made us, and recognize that He alone is responsible for it. There is a sense in which we need to forgive God for those things about ourselves that we wish were different. Accept your physical appearance, and accept your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual weaknesses as gifts from God, for they are areas where God has opportunity to manifest His grace and glory. Accept your parents and your children in the same way. When you release them to God in this way, you will find that you will be united with each other with a sense of deepened love and mutual respect for each other.

It will help us to walk free from condemnation if we keep in mind that in our lives we cannot work out any more than God has already worked into us.

1 Corinthians 11:13 says, “The head of every man is Christ.” Believe that God is sovereign in your life. Our times are in His hands - our good times and our bad times, our happy times and our sad times - they are in God’s hands, not Satan’s, nor even the hands of our so-called free-will, BUT ONLY IN GOD’S HANDS!

Each one of us is different and very special. Because this is so, the direction for our life should personally be received from Christ. We should not allow other people to control our spiritual life.

Don’t look at other people and imagine that you are on a higher or lower plain of spiritual development. Let us keep our eyes on our Head, Jesus Christ, and He will develop us spiritually at just the right rate of speed for us.

Holding fast unto the Head - this is our desire,

By His Spirit to be led, ever onward - higher.

Knowing He is over all - that He holds first place,

All responsibility in His sovereign grace.

Earthly things - a parable of truth far more divine,

Showing forth in lesser forms Wisdom’s pure design.

As a an covers his home to keep with love and care,

So the Lord doth cover us and will our burdens share.

Antichrist is all around - a spirit to deceive,

But with a single eye to Christ, His sovereignty believe.

Let no other take His place or be your covering;

He alone shall be the Head, and full salvation bring!

Our comprehension of God’s character should be such that we eagerly look forward to judgement day, when we will all appear before the Lord to be judged. The Psalmist said, “As the deer pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God: when shall I come and appear before Him?” Psalm 42:1&2. Isaiah exclaimed, “In that day thou shalt say, Oh Lord I will praise Thee: though Thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon His name, declare His doings among the people, make mention that His name is exalted.

Everyone of us is an individual product of God’s handiwork, and everyone of us is under the process of His sovereign will. Acts 17:26-28 says, “God created the first man, and from him, all the races of men, and caused them to settle on all parts of the earth’s surface, appointing their pre-established time periods and the territorial boundaries of their settlements; that they should search for God, in the hope that if by any means they might be able to feel their way to Him, although in truth He is close to each one of us: For in Him we live and move and have our being.? Everyone is under God’s intimate sovereign control, but not everyone is aware of it. It is a great gift from God to be consciously aware that every individual, including ourselves, is under God’s intimate sovereign control. Psalm 90:3 says, “Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest: Return, ye children of men.” It was God Himself who turned man to destruction and bondage to vanity, but deep in the heart of every individual God has placed the irresistible command, “Return ye sons of men.” The returning is a certainty, but the timing of the completion of the returning process is known only to God. The hymnwriter shared this insight when he wrote the words

John 4:6&7 says, “Jesus ... sat thus on the well, and there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.” Jesus is sitting on a lot of wells these days, showing us that any lasting satisfaction must come through Him - not from some denominational well where we have gone to seek spiritual life. The five husbands of our five senses do not bring us lasting satisfaction. Neither does the sixth sense of the psychic realm bring lasting satisfaction. But the SEVENTH MAN, Christ Jesus, brings full and complete lasting satisfaction, and even lifts the other husbands of our six senses to a pure and godly level of everyday living! God’s promise is sure: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. Then shall ye call upon me, and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Notice that there are no “Ifs” connected to this promise. The word of the Lord is sure, “Ye shall ... WHEN!” praise God!!”

John 16:22, “you have sorrow now: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and no man will be able to take your joy from you. “ Job 14:15, “Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.”

There is not a creature in al of God’s universe that is not the work of God’s hands, and because God has a desire towards them, He will eventually turn their sorrow into joy. When God wants us to respond, WE WILL answer that call. God never calls in vain. Even if we temporarily ignore His call - that too is part of God’s plan for us. When He wants us to actually respond, he will call in such a way that we will want to answer positively.

Psalms 76:10, “Surely the wrather of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain.” Everything that God allows to happen, He will work into good. Anything that He doesn’t intend to work into good, He simply restrains from happening.

Psalm 119:67-71, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I have kept Thy word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes” Our afflictions are learning processes that will result in knowing what God wants us to know. God’s character is such that He would never let all creation groan to be delivered if He didn’t intend to actually deliver them.”

“God does not mark time. Everything is happening the way God wants it. There have been no interruptions or interferences. There have been no monkey wrenches thrown into God’s machinery. Everything is perfectly on divine schedule. He knows exactly how black to paint the back of His canvas to make the brilliancy of His glory show up against it. He holds perfect control over the interplay between good and evil in everyone’s life and never allows any more evil into anyone’s life than He intends to turn into something better for them than if He had not allowed it.

Luke 1:17, “He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” It is God Who prepares us and causes us to turn. Our cooperation is only the result of God’s irresistible influence as He fits each one of us into His master plan.

God makes no duplicates. We are exactly the way God wants us to be for right now. If or when God wants us to change He will bring about influences that will successfully effect that change. We will respond to each scripture in the Bible in exactly the way God wants us to respond at any given exposure to that scripture, and if or when He wants us to respond differently, He will cause us to do so. In the final analysis concerning His inworking in every life, we must tread the wine press alone, because the finished process will be unique.

The ultimate deliverance of every creature depends on Christ alone. That is why its success is guaranteed. When God has finished using whatever part of our personality or character that He doesn’t approve of, His method is to replace it with what He does want. Consequently, we should not accept condemnation because the responsibility for the way we are belongs to God alone.

11Corinthians 5:19, “God was in Christ, reconciling eh world unto Himself, NOT IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” God will fill our lives with Himself according to the timing of the process that He has in mind for us. Traditional Christendom restricts our processing to crisis experiences, but the workings of God cannot be so restricted. The salvation of the world does not depend in the least on the expenditure of human energy.

Even Satan himself can be no more successful than God wants him to be. Only those who have an eye single to God can walk in perfect peace. In the midst of the spiritual darkness all round us, God will cause us to rise and shine out the light of the knowledge of what He is really like.”

The words of the hymn say, “This is my Father’s world.” I was reared in evangelical theology. They don’t sing this song because they don’t believe the words. They believe the world belongs to the devil - but that’s not what the Bible teaches.

Our spiritual completeness depends on the degree of our union with God. By one Spirit we are all being baptized into Christ - it’s a process. The new glorified body that God will give us at the resurrection will be an outward declaration of our inner spiritual condition.

Evangelical Christendom is based on a belief in the sovereignty of the devil. They refuse to heed the words of the scripture, “Fear God and worship Him, for He alone is God.” God has rendered of non effect him who has the power of death. The devil is completely subservient to ?God’s will; he always was, and he always well be. You cannot be God conscious and devil conscious at the same time. We should discard the idea that the devil can do any permanent damage to anyone. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. “GOD ALONE IS GOD!

It is essential fo our spiritual development that we experience a sufficient quota of evil for every day. The amount is sovereignly controlled by God. Some day it’s less than a thimbleful. You scarcely know that a cloud passed through your sky. On other days we feel like the Psalmist who said, “All thy waves and Thy billows have gone over me.” The important thing to recognize is that all of the waves and billows are from God. They never come from any other source. Everything proceeds form God, and since God is good, everything, without exception, will be changed by God into something good. That goodness cannot be twisted or perverted unless God wants it to be. Ezekiel 26:11 promises that after we have experienced every evil, He will do better unto us than in our former estate. He won’t just neutralize the evil so we are jus as well off as we were before the evil came into our life. But He will work it into something better that w experienced it than if we had not. God’s work is always progressive. He won’t just restore creation to it’s original state. He will see to it that the result of every experience will be better for everyone than if it had not happened. This is the kind of God we have. This is what He is really like!”

Hebrews 12:15-17, “See to it that no one be wanting of the grace of God, and that no bitterness is allowed to take root and spring up causing a disturbance, defiling many with its poison. And that no one become involved in sexual sin or become irreverent towards God as Esau did, who, in exchange for one meal, sold his rights as the firstborn son. For you are aware that later on, wanting to enjoy the allotment blessing, he was rejected, and he did not find a place of repentance, though he sought it out with tears.”

God’s firstfruits of election are not chosen because they take heed to exhortations like these. Just the opposite is true. They will take heed because they are among the elect. James 1:18 says, “Of His own will he brought us forth with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His new creation.”

Hebrews 11:3, “Faith enables us toe see that the ages were prepared, and are beautifully co-ordinated by the word of God.” God’s purpose for and in all men is being wrought out through the successive ages. When God’s purpose for the ages has been completed, time will cease to exist and eternity will continue. The end is secure for everyone.

The phrase “eternal life” is a mistranslation. Christendom teaches that eonian life means “never ending”, but it really means “for the ages of time.” It lasts as long as time lasts. When God becomes All in all, there will no longer be any need for eonian life because His life will be in everyone. There may be as many as three ages to follow: the Kingdom Age, the Judgement Age, and the age of Jubilee.

1 Corinthians 15:22, “For even as in Adam all are dying, thus also, in Christ shall all be made alive.” Believers in endless hell contend that this verse means those who are in Christ shall be made alive. Of course they will, BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT THIS VERSE IS SAYING. The arrangement of the words in Greek is not “all who are in Christ,” but “IN CHRIST SHALL ALL.” Furthermore, the word translated “in” is the Greek word “en”, and it can be just as accurately translated, “with Christ shall all be made alive,” and “by” Christ shall al be made alive.” All who are dying in Adam, (and that’s everyone), this same “all” are going to be made alive, IN, WITH, and BY Christ. Praise God!

The election of the firstfruits company has nothing at all to do with what man can do to merit it. Ephesians 2:7, “That in the oncoming ages, He should be displaying the transcendent riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” It is through the firstfruits company that the grace of God will be revealed to the rest of creation so that they too will be brought in “each man in his own order.”

God Himself is responsible for all unbelief. All unbelief is temporary, and through our unbelief God will teach us lessons that will fit us into His master plan in our own unique way. When God gives you faith you will use it. There is no such thing as having the faith of God and not using it. The beauty of the inworkings of the grace of God is its perfect timing for each individual. Evangelical Christianity knows very little about God’s grace. They think the operation of God’s grace depends on us, but if this were true it would no longer be grace.

There are times in the life of even the most devout follower of Christ that they doubt even the very existence of God, let alone the revelations of the scriptures. It is during these times that the grace of God is most evident.

The pathway of suffering is ordained by God, and because God is good, allowing suffering has to be an act worthy of God. Paul said, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us,” Romans 8:18.

Jacob’s sons lied to him by telling him that his favourite son, Joseph, had been killed by wild animals. This caused Jacob years of emotional suffering. It didn’t look like the situation was ordained by God, but it was. It is only a matter of time until God changes all suffering into something better that it happened than if it had never happened.

John 10:29. You will become like your concept of what God is like. The Israelites changed their glory into the similitude of an ox. If you God is an ox, that is what you will become like. They changed their glory; you can’t change God’s glory. By worshipping an ox they debased themselves and changed their glory into the glory of the object of their worship. Whatever your revelation is of God, that is what you will become.

Most followers of Christ have a god who is a fiend, a god who seeks out every occasion that he can find to cause us suffering - and will even let us suffer forever! If you have a god like that then that is how you will treat others. How can we expect others to want and know such a god!?

When the inflow of the life of the Spirit of God begins to change your vision you begin to see God in a whole new way. Our redemption cannot be completed any further than the vision we have of what God is really like. When you become convinced that your Heavenly Father is greater than all - not just all people, but all problems and circumstances, then you begin to enter a dimension of serenity, peace, tranquillity and assurance.

Exodus 33:14, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Isaiah 63:9, “In all their affliction the Lord was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He carried them all the days of old.”

There is absolutely nothing that we have experienced or will yet experience that God is not intimately participating in.

When we are bored, He is participating in that boredom.

When we are frustrated, He is participating in that frustration,

When we are sick, He is participating in that sickness,

When we are suffering, He is participating in that suffering.

When we are fearful, He is participating in that fear.

When we are grieving, He is participating in that grief.

Matthew 10:29, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father.“. The Greek word translated “without” carries with it the meaning of intimate involvement and participating presence.

In every situation - the knowledge of God is with you

- the consent of God is with you.

-and the participation of God is with you.

God never has just mere knowledge of any situation. He Himself is always intimately involved.

Psalm 90:3 “Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.” God is intimately controlling us on the pathway away from Him and also on the pathway back to Him. Romans 8:20, “The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope.” Christ has promised us that He will never leave us nor forsake us, for He will bring His work in us to a successful conclusion. The Psalmist declared, “The Lord is my helper, therefore I will not fear.”

In 1 Timothy 2:6 it says that Christ gave Himself a ransom. This does not mean that He paid a ransom to the devil to get us back. This word “ransom” has nothing in common with the meaning that we give it today. In Acts 7:35 the same word is translated “deliver.” God does not pay the devil a ransom for us, He delivers us.

Isaiah 54:8, “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with eonian kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer.” Even though we might not be able to see God’s face for awhile, that very experience will bring us a further revelation of Jesus Christ. In fact, every experience will bring us a further revelation of Jesus Christ. In fact, every experience of life is for the purpose of bringing us a further revelation of Jesus Christ. From our smallest trial to God’s greatest act of judgement there is, pervading it all, God’s participating presence.

Psalm 102:23, “He weakened my strength in the way; He shortened my days.”

At no time is God’s creation without His brooding presence operating to restore it back into His positive blessings, even though we may not be consciously aware of it. Only from our point of view does God seem indifferent. From His point of view there is never even one single moment when He is not intimately and intensely involved with His creation. It is God Himself who is responsible for our spiritual darkness, and He is always with us in that darkness.

Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good,” Change is always ordained by God. It is resistance to change that brings tyranny. When God wants you to change you will change, in spite of the efforts of fellowships and denominations to hold you in bondage to their beliefs. Christ is the head of every man. Unquestioning submission to a fellowship or denomination will bring you into tyranny. But a spirit that is open to change knows real peace.

Jeremiah 48:11-13, “Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees or dregs, like wine; and he has not been drawn off from one vessel to another, neither has he gone into exile; therefore his taste remains in him and his scent has not changed. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I shall send to Moab tilters who shall tilt him up, and shall empty his vessels and break his earthenware bottles in pieces. And Moab shall be ashamed of his god Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was ashamed of the golden calf in which they put their confidence at Bethel” Psalm 55:19, “Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.” But our faithful Creator knows how and when to make our changes for us, lest we stagnate and harden into a false sense of security. Every change is for the purpose of development.

Some people pretend to be changed, but the change has not been wrought by God internally, and is only an external imitation. Jeremiah 2:36, “Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way?” Sooner or later the true nature of the so-called change will be exposed, but God Himself will effect all genuine changes when and how He wants it to happen.

All changes will be tested in the nitty-gritty of daily life. If any change doesn’t produce practical results in the circumstances of everyday life then we can be sure that it wasn’t brought about by God. Only changes that God brings about can stand the test of practical application. God will strip away from us layer after layer of pseudo changes until our real condition is exposed; then He effects in us a genuine change that will stand the pressures of testing.

Job 14:7-9, “There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout, that the tender branch thereof will not cease, though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground. Yet through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant.” Change never ends in decay. The changing process will go on until every creature is changed into the image of Christ. Verse 14 says, “All the days of my appointed time will I wait until my change comes. Thou wilt call and I will answer Thee. Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thy hands” God’s new-creation activity will continue until it has been fully completed in everyone.

Even changes will have an end, but not until we have been brought into the fulness of Him who will subjugate everything to Himself. Everything that is now out of order will be put back into His divine order, and everyone will see that “he doeth ALL THINGS WELL!”

Ephesians 1:11, “God worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” God’s will is always in the best interest of His creation, and His will cannot be thwarted. My evangelical training taught me that God’s will is only partially being done - and even then only some of the time. They taught me that most of the time the devil’s will is being done. If you didn’t know it before, I’ve got good news for you: GOD’S WILL IS BEING DONE ALL THE TIME IN EVERY PLACE. All other forces and powers are completely sub- servant to His will. Furthermore, because His nature is love, that love motivates everything that He allows. Love never faileth, and because God is Love He will not fail to achieve everything that His heart desires.

Many believe that God’s love will only be with us until we die, then, if we have not responded positively to His love, it will no longer be able to have a positive effect on us. But the truth is that God’s love NEVER fails, and He will keep loving, and keep loving until He has drawn from us a loving response. When you love long enough there is no defeat.

Love sows the seeds of gain in loss itself. All loss is temporary and ultimately results in gain. Buried in every loss are the seeds of gain, and Love reaps the harvest back to Himself in due time. When we follow God’s example and love long enough, THAT LOVE WILL NOT FAIL.

God’s nature is love. He is not the capricious, vengeful god that evangelical tradition teaches Him to be. It is true that God will do whatever He pleases, but He will do it with the best interest of each member of all creation at heart.

God takes no pleasure in those who have confidence in themselves to achieve any part of their salvation. Isaiah 48:38 & 42 reads, “I have broken Moab like a vessel in which there is no pleasure, saith the Lord - because He hath magnified himself against the Lord.” But after the chastisement of those who think they merit salvation by exercising their will - even they will be restored. Verse 47 says, “yet I will reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, Thus far is the judgement of Moab, saith the Lord.” When judgement has performed its work, God will sooner or later find pleasure in every being that He has created. We can always rejoice in God’s judgements, for when they have been completed they will always produce a positive change.

Death is never a final state. Death is only a means to an end, it is never an end in itself. Death always results in more abundant life. The writer of Hebrews tells us that, “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgement.” The judgement of the lake of fire is the second death, Revelation 21:8. It will undo all the work of the first death in the same way that the second Adam (Christ) will undo all the work of the first Adam. When God reveals to you that He takes away the firsts that He may establish the seconds, and that the seconds are infinitely greater than the firsts, your life will take on a whole new perspective. The second death will successfully and permanently destroy the sinful self-centeredness of every individual. The whole state of being of everyone, without exception, will become the will of God through conscious and willing submission. The declaration of every heart shall be, “I delight to do Thy will, O Lord!”

Just like we break a useless vessel, God will break us all. But it will be for the purpose of restoring us. “ A broken and a contrite heart, O Lord, Thou wilt not despise.” HE will do the breaking, and HE will do the restoring. The work is ALL HIS. “The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands.”

The timing of all god’s processes are under His sovereign control. Nothing will be accomplished ‘until He please.” Song of Solomon 2:4. Then it will be accomplished for certain, and no one can hinder it.

Titus 1:2, “Resting in the hope of eonian life.” Proverbs 22:19-21, “That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee. Have I not written to thee long ago excellent things in councils and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth to them that send unto thee.”

God often reveals a truth to our spirit long before our mind becomes settled about it. Much mental anguish and conflict accompanied by sleepless nights, may be experienced until God brings us into rest on a truth. But because God has already convinced our spirit, it is only a matter of time till our thinking processes are brought into line with what God has revealed to our spirit.

The word eonian is an adjective more properly referring to quality of life rather than duration of life. Rather than specifying a length of time it actually means “pertaining to the ages.” When the scripture speaks of that which is enonian it is referring to that which pertains to the ages.

Psalm 16:7-11, “I will bless the Lord Who has given me council; yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad and my inner self rejoices; my body too shall rest and confidently dwell in safety. For you will not abandon me to the place of the dead, neither will you suffer your holy one to see corruption. You will show me the path of life; in your presence is fulness of joy, at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (The Hebrew word translated “evermore” is netsach and means ‘perpetually.”)

David experienced the confidence of one who has an eye single only to God. Most people have dual vision. They are never sure who is in control of things. Blessed are they who are able to recognize that God is responsible for everything that happens to everyone. It is true that temptation to sin is Satan’s realm, but God totally controls that realm and never lets anyone fall into sin unless He intends to teach them lessons though that fall that will help fit them into His future plans for them. Our lives are ‘hid with Christ in God.”

Psalm 8:4, “Thou hast made man a little lower than the angels/ should be literally translated, “Thou hast caused man to lack from elohim.” Elohim is the plural for god and refers to the Godhead company who were created in the likeness of God. Adam and Eve were already in a fallen condition before they ate the fruit. Man did not fall from God’s image; God has yet to finish the process of making man into His own image. Adam and Eve did what came naturally to their fallen condition - they yielded to temptation. They were accountable for their choice but they were not responsible for it. They experienced the law of cause and effect, not because they wanted to but because they had to. They were subjected to the bondage of vanity not willingly, but by reason of God who subjected them to work out in them the process of being made into His own image.

It is God’s intention that man will acquire glory through his contact with sin so that his later state will be greater than the former. All that is wrought out through the processing will combine to produce a glory so bright that all the universe will throb with the wonder of the power and working of the grace of God.

Every creature everywhere will recognize the fact that He hath done all things well.

At the beginning of my ministry, if I had been taught that God is in intimate sovereign control over sin and evil, I would not have experienced the frustration s of believing in a semi-omnipotent devil and the so-called “free will” of man. I thank God that He is changing our concept of what He is like and is showing us that everything that happens is part of His plan. The purpose of the ages, to head up all things in Christ, is being worked out in the smallest detail of everyone’s life. The end result of the outworking of God’s purpose of the ages will be so glorious that all the universe will reverberate with the sounds of praise to God for such a tremendous plan.

It was God Himself who subjected us to the bondage of the “I-will” that is in opposition to His revealed will. It was God Himself who drew a veil across our minds and caused us to think that we control our own destiny. Then, according to His own timing for each individual, the Spirit of truth reveals to each heart what He wants them to experience and know.

11 Chronicles 32:31, “God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his own heart.” God knew what was in Hezekiah’s heart, but God wanted Hezekiah to find out for himself. God exposes us to ourselves by letting us do as we please. He often withdraws the sense of His presence to reveal to us what we are really like without Him. God says, “For awhile I hide my face from you, but with great loving-kindness I will reveal Myself to you again.” Adam was created naked but he didn’t know that he was naked until he had partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This began the process of Adam’s self-revelation.

Everything that happens is within the circumference of God’s will. He will only allow a person to fall into sin if eh intends to use that fall to accomplish a particular part of that person’s development. If He doesn’t purpose to change it into something better for that person, He will simply not allow it to happen. Each person is being uniquely developed, and each person must go through their own set of experiences.

We are not the free moral agents that traditional Christendom has taught us we are. God will work EVERYTHING into good, for His praise - EVERYTHING that He allows to happen to EVERYONE. A practical result of knowing this is that you can release your children to God, knowing that they are under His intimate control, no matter what they may be experiencing.

Man’s experience with degeneration has taught him that one rotten apple spoils a whole barrel of apples. But God’s regenerative process can make one good apple make a barrel of rotten apples good. “Whereas by one man (Adam) death passed on all, so too by one Man (Christ) shall the free gift of righteousness pass upon all. When God’s timing for any part of their development of an individual has arrived, God’s grace is always effective to accomplish His intentions. God will say, “This is the way, walk ye in it,” and they will of a certainty walk in that way. This is the grace that will not let us go! This is the love that will not fail!

(Editor’s note: on this cassette Ray Prinzing equates Lucifer and the King of Tyre with Satan. The reasons why I reject this equation are found in two expositions, namely; THE ANTICHRIST part 5, J. Preston Eby; and IS SATAN THE KING OF TYRE, by C Gary Reid.)

“The Lord God sent Adam and Eve forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove them out and placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cheribums, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Genesis 4:23-24. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,” Proverbs 16:25.

Depending on the imaginary merit of what you can do to attain salvation will only result in death. Many try to force their way into the kingdom fo God by claiming to deserve a place in the kingdom because they have exercised their will. They don’t realize that God will bring in each one by His sovereign grace according to His own timing for them.

Job 28:7-8, “There is a path which no ravenous fowl knoweth, which the vultures eye hath not seen, the lion’s whelps have not trodden it, the fierce lion passed it by.” EVERYONE will find that path, but only when God wants them to. Anyone, who like a ravenous fowl seeks self gratification does not yet know the sword guarded Way to the tree of life. (Editors note: Many will say, “I got myself saved and if you don’t get yourself saved like I am - too bad for you, Jack!” And they will also say, “I drove a mental stake to mark the time and the place where I “god saved,” Then they spend the rest of their lives putting their trust in the stake instead of Jesus Christ.)

The vulture hunts by sight, but we live by the faith of God and not by sight. Those who must have a constant visible expression to convince them that God is operating in their life, do not yet know the sword guarded way to the tree of life.

The vulture feeds on dead flesh, but the sword guarded Way is a new and living way. Year after year dead flesh parades across the platforms and TV screens, not recognizing the sovereign love of God, and the total inclusiveness of His irresistible grace. Those who are feeding on this dead flesh do not yet know the sword guarded Way.

The fierce Lion and his whelps have not trodden the way either. The scriptures say that the devil goes about as a roaring lion. Most of Christendom have far more confidence in the devil than they do in God. They are devil oriented and, in face, are devil worshippers. They do not yet know the sword guarded way where God Himself is the cause of everything and there are no second causes.

Many teach that the sword keeps us from the tree of life, but this is not true. The sword guards the way to the tree of life so everyone will be able to get life. The sword will deal with everything that would hinder us from obtaining life. It will destroy our sinful soul so we may be raised into newness of life in Christ Jesus. The flaming sword is the correctional operation of God. It will not cease its operation until th4e “utmost farthing” has been paid. Christ will present us faultless and spotless before the throne of God ONLY AFTER HE HAS FINISHED IN US THE PROCESS OF THE FIERY SWORD. The theology of the evangelicals tells them they are going to get off scot-free. This is an escapism doctrine. People who believe it may be in for quite a shock! Isaiah 26:9, “When God’s judgements are in the earth the inhabitants will learn righteousness.” The judgements of the fiery sword are for the purpose of teaching us righteousness.

Isaiah 42:16, “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not. I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them and not forsake them.” Isaiah 51:4. “I will make my judgements to rest for a light.” In the judgement itself will be the illumination to find the sword guarded Way. John 1:4, “In Him was life, and this life was the light of men.” When God’s judgements rest for a light they will bring life to everyone as he applies the correction to them.

Psalm 104:4, “The Lord maketh His ministers a flaming fire.” God is bringing forth a sword company that He will use to fit every creature to walk the way to the tree of life. Isaiah 49:2, “He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword.” When the sword has done its work in us, then we will become the sword to others to guard their way to the tree of life.

Acts 26:19, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” It is the inworking of God’s Spirit alone that is able to hold us to press toward the mark until we have laid hold of that for which He has apprehended us.

Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision the people perish.” A literal translation would read, “the people are naked”. Our vision is our covering until such a time that God fulfills our vision and then reality becomes our covering. We need to be covered and surrounded by a spiritual vision or we will be exposed to the destructive forces of negative thinking. The word “vision” means that inner spiritual sight that sustains our spirit. It is what we see with our inner eye that affects the condition of our spirit.

11 Peter 1:12, “Be established in present truth.” We need to be established in a progressive, growing, open and increasing vision as God imparts it to us. God is preparing us to be used in the fulfilment of our vision. We ultimately become the fulfilment of the vision He gives us.

Habakkuk 2:3, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, and it hastens to its fulfilment; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait earnestly for it, because it will surely come. It will not be behind time on its appointed day.” The sustaining of our vision is all God’s operation. Christ has prayed for us that our faith fail not. If God wants our vision to last it will last even through all the opposition that may be brought against it.

The Greek word “disobedient” also carries with it the meaning of not being unpersuaded. Paul knew the Christ he believed in and was persuaded that Christ was able to fulfill the vision that Paul had committed unto Him until the reality of all things being headed up in Christ had been fulfilled. So convinced was Paul of the reality of his inner vision that none of his many adverse circumstances could dim the inner persuasion that it would be fulfilled.

Believing our vision is a process that will culminate in a settled conclusion about its reality, so that we can say with Paul, “none of these things move me.” 1 Peter 5:10, “And after you have suffered awhile, the God of all grace, Who imparts all blessing and favour, Who has called you to His eonian glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen and settle you.”

Hebrews 2:10, “For it was an act worthy of God and fitting to the divine nature that Christ, for whose sake and by whom all things have their existence - - - should make the Pioneer (Jesus Christ) of their salvation perfect and bring to maturity the human experience necessary for a perfect equipment for His office as High Priest, through suffering.

Allowing suffering is for the purpose of achieving perfection, and it is an act worthy of God. All suffering will some day renown to God’s praise. God is a partner to every circumstance to use it and work it into good. There is no isolated situation in which God is not involved. Everything will result in greater glory than if God had not allowed it.

Paul’s vision was to become conformed to the image of Christ. He knew that everything that happened to him was being used to help fulfill that vision. God’s way is the way of overcoming. Overcoming is the opposite of escapism. Man oriented deliverances are motivated by the desire to escape from circumstances, but the “heavenly vision” persuades us that every circumstance in our life is ordained by God to accomplish His purposes in us.

Revelation 12:10, “For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” Every accuser is being cast down in our minds right now, and through the process of God’s sovereign operation we are finding a new liberty, a new freedom, and a new peace within.

There can be no accusation without there being a standard against which we are measured. Rom 5:13, “Sin is not imputed where there is no law,” and 4:15 “For where there is no law there is no transgression.: and 7:7-11, “What shall we say then, is the law sin? God forbid, Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law..... for without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” But ignorance of the law is no excuse. The result is the same regardless as to whether or not we know the law. It is God’s will that everyone experience the consequence of sin, which is death. But it is also God’s intention to change the very worst that sin can do (which is to cause also God’s intention to change the very worst that sin can do (which is to cause death), into a more abundant life than if there had been no sin in the first place.

Self-condemnation is a form of creature worship. When you accuse yourself of not measuring up to a certain standard you are really saying to yourself, “Com on now you know that you’re a better god than that. You know that you can do much better than that.” In a negative way you are exalting yourself by claiming to be so much more than you are. You are setting yourself up on a pedestal, expecting more from yourself than you are producing. This is creature worship. As long as you are disappointed in yourself then self has not yet been crucified with Christ in a practical reality. The apostle Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loves me and gives Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

1John 3:20, “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart” Anytime you find some condemnation from self taking over, remember that God is still greater than your heart. When you thoughts begin to accuse you just answer back “I know I’m weak. I know that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing.” In this way we acknowledge that God is greater, and we turn our creature worship into the worship of God.

When we acknowledge that God is greater than our heart, we are putting our failures in their proper perspective. When we cease to worship self, then we don’t have to condemn self either. Jesus didn’t have to forgive the woman caught in adultery because He didn’t condemn her in the first place. The ministry of this age is not to impute their trespasses unto them, but instead to tell them “God is already reconciled to you. Be ye reconciled to God.’ Christ is in the process of purging our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Hebrews 9:14, God says, “I’m not holding anything against you so be reconciled to me.”

Evangelical Babylon brainwashes the mind into subjection to its system. God works just the opposite. He brings release to the mind by freeing our spirit. Even though our mind may be confused and in bondage, God convinces our spirit about what is truth, and the truth SETS US FREE. Don’t condemn yourself for the way you are. If God wants you to change He will change you. Don’t try to adjust yourself to other people’s standards of spirituality. When you begin to realize that only Christ can live the Christ life you quit accusing yourself for not living His life. Trust Him to live His life through you and let Him take the responsibility for not doing it. Brother Lawrence, author of the book PRACTISING THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST, said that at the end of each day he would pray, ‘Well Lord, I’ve failed here and I’ve failed there; and if you help me tomorrow we’ll do better, but if you don’t we won’t. If Christ doesn’t flow through us we can’t live His life - it’s as simple as that.

Never accuse yourself for not having enough faith. You can’t have the faith of God unless God gives it to you. Our own faith will not do. Only God’s faith working through us will produce the results that He is after. Paul said, “I live by the faith of the son of God.”

Don’t accept condemnation for not being able to love perfectly when God has not yet worked into you the ability to love perfectly. God will use accusation from others to work you over for good. The effect of all accusation are sovereignly controlled by God. Every accuser, and all accusations are tools that are used by God to accomplish His purposes.

Matthew 6:28,29, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Righteousness if the ability to stand before God without any sense of guilt, condemnation, or inferiority. This is the goal to which God is bringing everyone. In quantity, God is infinitely greater than us in every way, but in quality, God is going to bring us up to His standard of perfection and holiness. This will not be accomplished by our own efforts. God Himself will work in us the process of clothing us with Himself.

Paul said, “My desire is to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own which is based on works, but that which is through the FAITH OF CHRIST,” Philippians 3:9, Christendom teaches the attainment of righteousness by the work of exercising their so-called “free will.” But Paul said, “If it be by grace it is no more works, or grace is not grace. He that hath ceased from his own works has entered into rest.”

When we become convinced that the end is totally secure for everyone, we will cease our fretting and striving, and toiling and spinning in our frantic futile efforts to get the job done “before it’s too late”. God is in intimate sovereign control over every detail of the ages. This is why He knows the end from the beginning. “When everything is subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to the Father Who put all things under Him, so that God may be everything to everyone.”

Isaiah wrote, “Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” When we realize that God is in control of all our works, then we will stop our internal toiling and spinning and enter into His peace of mind. “Peace I leave with you,” Jesus said; “My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Philippians 2:13, “It is God who worketh in us both to make us willing, and to enable us to do His good pleasure.: our only responsibility is to live out what He has already worked into us. That is what the lily does. It simply gives expression to the inner nature that God has instilled within it, and it does so without any toiling or spinning.

Paul said, ‘Change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being,” Romans 12:2. In other words, Paul says, “Take off your mask and be yourself.” Follow the example of the lily; relax and be yourself. Trust God to change whatever He wants to change in you, whenever He wants to change it. He will show us where we need to change, and He says to us, “Now I will show you what you are going to become, as I change you from within.”

God never condemns us. He convicts us of our inner condition instead: and along with God’s convicting influence, His grace always effects a change within us. All that man can do is condemn you and say, “You shouldn’t be like that.” But God never condemns. He exposes us to ourselves and then changes what He wants changed, when He wants it changed.

God will strip away all our outside props until we have nothing to lean on except Christ Himself. Don’t let others control your spiritual life. Don’t let someone else tell you what is God’s will for you. God may or may not use others to confirm what He is already showing us, but we should never let them impose on us what they insist is God’s will for us. Some people today insist on being your “covering” or your “shepherd,” but don’t listen to them.

God will take us out of the “toiled all night and caught nothing” routine that the fishermen experienced, and bring us into the realm where His sufficiency will be our resting place and His peace will rule in our heart. Jesus said, “Take my yolk upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. For my yolk is easy and my burden is light, and ye shall find rest unto your soul.”

The greatest battle field is the mind. When our mind begins to reflexively respond to the truth that has already convinced our spirit, then we will enter into rest. This is the process that God is working into each one of us. Hebrews 11:8 says that Abraham didn’t trouble his mind about where God was going to lead him. This is a practical result of total abandonment to the intimate sovereign control of God, and this is the attitude that God is teaching us.

Romans 11:36, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things live through Him, and all things centre in and tend to consummate and to end in Him.”

Christian theology needs to be rearranged according to the vast sweep of God’s law of circularity. When this is done then every scriptural truth will fit into its proper place without insulting our intelligence, and without violating our God-given sense of moral decency. Jesus Christ is always both the centre and the circumference of God’s purpose and plan for the ages. Even as all the natural realm is governed by the law of circularity, so is the spiritual realm. God Himself is the source of all things, both good and evil. He uses all evil to accomplish a greater good. God is the first cause of all causes. Even death bows low to serve at the Master’s feet. Death is God’s servant, and God always uses death to produce more abundant life.

There is only force in the universe. God Himself is the only all-powerful One. Colossians 1:16, “For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities; all things were recreated and exist through Him and in Him and for Him.” Zechariah 12:1, “Thus says the Lord, Who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.” Our spirit originated with God and will go back to God. And in-between times it will be developed and nurtured through suffering. God said, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction,” Isaiah 48:11.

The poet William Wordsworth wrote:
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.

The soul that rises with us are like the stars

Hath had elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar.

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, Who is our home.

The hour is coming when the eyes of our understanding will be enlightened and we will know the reasons for the interplay between good and evil in our lives. And when that hour comes we will know that God has done all things well in respect to every creature that He has created. Romans 8:20-22, “For the creature was subjected to frailty, to futility, condemned to frustration, not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it in expectation that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption, into the glorious freedom on the children of God; for it is plain to anyone with eyes to see, that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail, groaning together, and suffering the pangs of labour, which have not yet brought forth the birth.” 1 Corinthians 8:6, “For there is only one God, the Father Who is the source of all things, and for Whom we have life, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, Through and by Whom are all things and through Whom and by Whom we ourselves exist.” “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28.

God’s plan of the ages will not have been fulfilled until every creature has been duly processed and has returned back into Him. And through all the processing a greater glory will be attained by everyone than was ever lost in the first place.

James 5:11, “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of pity and tender mercy.” The conclusion of any of God’s operation in any life is one of great mercy, great compassion, and total victory. Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not ov evil, to give you an expected end.” God always concludes every dealing in our life by bringing an end to all the negative and opening up to us a whole new positive expectation, a brand new vista of glory and victory beyond. If any situation in your life is not yet producing positive results, you can be sure that God has not yet finished with you in that area. But you can be equally sure that He will complete the job. Not until God has brought you into a whole new unfolding of His glory and His power and His victory, is any specific work completed and has served its purpose in your life. If, up to this point in time, any of God’s dealings with you are only producing death, you can be sure that He is not finished. Not until resurrection has come has that entire unity of God’s working been completed. The resurrection from each part of the death process will burst you forth into new life. When the sovereign grace of God operates in any heart, they will not fail to endure. If the sovereign grace of God is not yet working, they cannot but fail to endure. Both the desire and ability to endure are given to us and ar sustained by God alone.

John 5:28&29, “The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they shall come forth; they who have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they who have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” The word “damnation literally means “judgement.” All of God’s judgements result in the correction of wrong attitudes. If a person practices evil we can be sure that God has not finished processing them. BUT HE WILL, according to His own perfect timing. The end of all god’s workings, including His workings through the lake of fire, are totally, irrevolkably, unalterably and immutably triumphant. The end is secure for everyone, and nothing can change that truth.

According to 11Thessalonians 1:5, the tribulation that we endure are a manifest token of the righteous judgements of God. According to His own righteous judgements God will use all the negative elements in our life to mould us into the vessel of His choosing. The sooner we become convinced of this truth the sooner we can begin to relax. The Palmist knew this relaxation. He said, “I know, O Lord, that Thy judgements are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.”

He that endures until the end is now the one who shall be saved. Saved,

Not just “so as by fire,” all else consumed within the fire,

But saved into fulness of life, ending the travail and strife.

A soundness that will permeate through, they bing now mad fully new.

Endures to the end, this is the word that challenges all those who heard,

Yet not a somehow-getti9ng-by, sheer grit and stubborn do-or-die.

But more than conquerors in these things; a spirit strong at midnight sings.

To know that God is over all, and only by His grace we fall.

Unto the end, with no escape, no troubled mind bent out of shape,

But steady tho the siege assail, abiding through the fiercest gale

Enduring conflict and the grief, endless pressures, no relief,

And yet to find that inner peace has birthed our victory’s sure increase.

The end, ah yes, unto the full; no part unfinished short of the goal.

Reproach, temptation, chastening, no matter what the day shall bring.

God’s chosen one shall all endure, their confidence in Him secure,

Till out of night that dawn shall come; His kingdom truth in total sum.

Moses concluded that the sufferings that he might have to endure in the service of Christ, to be of greater value, richer and truer wealth, and more precious than all the treasures in Egypt; for he was looking at the ultimate, not the immediate recompense. The faith of God motivated him, and caused him to leave Egypt behind him. And he was not afraid of the king’s anger, but he was strengthened in his endurance, persevering as though he was actually seeing god Who, of course, cannot be seen, Hebrews 11:26&27.

Isaiah 59:19, “As the result of the Messiah’s intervention, they shall reverently fear the Name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and put him to flight.”

Christendom has been programmed to be negative and narrow minded about God. They have limited the Holy One of Israel, Psalm 78:41. Unbelief is the dark room where we develop our negatives. Those who love God have the privilege of being able to believe that all things work together for good. (It doesn’t say, “All things work together for good for those who love God;” it says, “All things work together for good TO those who love God.) If you are able to believe this you cannot be pessimistic.

The standard, or ensign, or banner that we must lift up is the sovereignty of God. Christianity has, by and large, rejected belief in the sovereignty of God. They devise program after program, trying to get done what they think God cannot get done without their help. But they will not succeed because they are rallying around a standard of the flesh. It is not the standard that the Lord has lifted up, so the force that it represents is impotent and ineffective.

Isaiah 11:10, “In that day, the Root of Jesse (Jesus Christ) shall stand for an ensign to the people; of Him shall the nations inquire and seek knowledge. His dwelling shall be glory, and the rest that He will give us shall be glorious.” When others see the standard of the sovereignty of God and see how it brings rest into your life, they too will desire to rally around this standard, for they will be convinced of the power that it represents.

They who don’t have the standard of the sovereignty of God, wind up fighting and destroying each other in an attempt to protect God from some supposed possible defeat. Isaiah 49:22&23, “Thus says the Lord God: Behold I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up My standard and raise high My signal banner to the peoples. And you shall know - with an acquaintance and understanding based on and grounded in personal experience - that I am the Lord: for they shall not be put to shame who wait for, look for, hope for and expect Me.”

Behold, only I am God, says the Lord. I will do all my pleasure, and there is none who can hinder Me. I pray that you will find the peace that these words can bring to those who are able to believe them!

Romans 5:10, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

The process of salvation is never effected by our action. The action is always God’s; it is only the reaction that is ours. And we will always react in accord with the nature of the action that God has brought to bear upon us. We should not condemn people for not reacting to God when God has not yet acted upon them. The intimate sovereign control of God’s grace is absolute. If it is part of His plan that He wants ut to temporarily resist the grace of God successfully, He will allow it to be so, but successful resistance to the grace of God is always only temporary. God will use that very resistance as part of that person’s unique processing.

Do not attempt to react in your own personal life to an action that God is doing in someone else’s life. Find out what works for you and stick with that. We should not try to live on a borrowed revelation.

Salvation means “to be made whole.” In the measure that Christ is living in us, to that extent we have been made whole. And in the measure that He is not living in us, we are still quite unsound

Christ did not die instead of us; He died for us. Each of us must go through the process of dying out to those attitudes that caused estrangement from God. From God’s side there is no estrangement. He has already been reconciled to us, but we need to have our attitudes reconciled to God. This is the process of becoming that God will take every one of us through.

We are being born again by the Word of God. When we have fully become children of God our state of being will declare it to be son. When the sun rises we don’t go around saying, “The sun has risen, the sun has risen,” because it is obvious that the sun has risen. So it will be when we have fully become children of God. We won’t need to go around saying, “I’m a born-again child of God,” because it will be perfectly obvious that we are since we will bear the mark of our Father’s perfection in every area of our living. We are all in the process of becoming and God is going to change us all from glory to glory as His grace operates in us.

Christ has the keys of death and hell, and He is Lord of both the dead and the living. Christ will destroy all death by ringing everyone into His life. Evil is not a separate entity from God. Evil is only perverted good. And God never allows good to be perverted any further than He intends to turn it into something better that it was perverted than it if had not been.

God is going to bring everyone, without exception, to their full potential, and expand them to the total capacity for which they were created. This will not happen because of our cooperation, but rather, we will cooperate because of the influence of God’s sovereign grace. This is why it will be accomplished for everyone without exception. Salvation is to the uttermost, and when its process has been completed, everyone will be satisfied. All the glory inherent in God in the beginning, plus all the glory acquired through what we learn during our involvement with sin, combine their effulgence to shine out with greater glory than ever before. Nothing will be lost. Everything will be lifted to a higher realm and expand in all of its victory.