Acts 13:17, “The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers.” Malachi 4:6, “The Lord shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

Spiritual revival begins in the home. The first vital area that is affected by our concept of God is our relationship with each other in our own home. It is not by accident that our fathers are the way they are. Neither is it by accident that our children are the way they are. Both the positive and negative qualities of our fathers and children are prearranged by God to accomplish His special purposes in the lives of both the children and the parents.

When we get our concept of what God is like straightened out, one of the first things that will happen is, we will stop condemning and accept each member of our family just he way they are. All of life’s experiences of both the parents and the children are planned by God to have a predetermined effect upon each and the other. God deliberately chose our parental heritage to use its particular qualities to prepare us for His future plans for us.

We should not be apologetic for the circumstances of our lives that our children are forced to share for these circumstances are not accidental, but are part of the plan and purpose of God in the development of our children. The handiwork of God is perfectly manifested in every natural birth and inheritance.

Adam and Eve were not made in God’s image, as many teach. They were created with a lack in them which caused them to fall. It is the process of spiritual birth, that when it is completed, will make man in God’s image for the first time. Christ Himself was the first completed product of God making man in His own image. Unlike Adam and Eve, Christ came into the world with the ability not to sin. Adam and Eve had to sin because it was predetermined that they would, but Christ came into the world a full-term child of God, fulled with the Holy Spirit of God from His mother’s womb, and as a full-term child of God He had the ability not to sin. When the process of our spiritual birth is complete, we too will be made into the image of God, and we too will have the ability not to sin.

Every spirit is being fitted for its full position in God. The baby who lives for only a few hours will be fitted into God’s plan in a different way from a person who completes a long life time. 1 Corinthians 15:46, 48&49, “Not that which is spiritual is first, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. As is the earthy, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” Even those who will experience the second death process in the lake of fire, will fit into God’s plan fo them in a positive way, after their special processing has been completed.

The whole purpose of total resto4ration is to bring every creature to the full potential for which they were created. God will accomplish this without fail. Whether you are a thimbleful or a large tankful, you will be full. There will be no envy or discontentment or sense of inferiority, because we will not see the measurement, we will see the overflow.

When we recognize Jesus Christ alone as the source of our spiritual life, then, when all the Babylonian religious systems fall, and our reliance on past experiences fails us, we will still be sustained by our knowledge of the true source of our spiritual strength.

1 Corinthians 1:30&31, “Christ Jesus is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” Jesus Christ is the only true source of our spiritual life. Most people that are alive to spiritual things today are alive in spite of the church systems, not because of them. Paul wrote, “I have come to learn, in the circumstances in which I am placed, to be independent of these, and self-sufficient. I am strong for all things in the One Who constantly infuses strength into me,” Philippians 4:11&13. Jesus said, “Every plant which my Heavenly Father that not planted, shall be rooted up.” Matthew 15:13. Deuteronomy 29:18 says, “May there never be man, woman, family or clan among you whose heart turns from our God of the ages to go and worship the gods of these nations. May there never be any root within your soil that bears such bitter poison.”

May God help us that none of the roots of confidence in denominations, or preachers, or experiences, begin to grow in us and poison us. Let Jesus Christ be your only root. If you rely on anything else, God will eventually strip it from you so that nothing will be left for you to have confidence in except your knowledge of what Jesus Christ is really like.

At the beginning of my ministry, before I knew better, I used to preach that if you want to have a happy life you had better find Christ. Now I know that it’s not we who find Christ, it is He Who finds us. John 6:44 makes it very clear that no man comes to Jesus unless God draws him.

Ecclesiastes 12:14 says, “God shall bring every work into judgement, with every secret thing, whether it is good or evil.” A contributing factor to having a happy life is to remain aware that everything we do is under God’s scrutiny, and He knows perfectly the motives behind what we think and do. It will also help to realize that He will faithfully discipline us when we go wrong. We need to accept this discipline, realizing that it is motivated by God’s love for us and is part of our development process. Lamentations 3:27&28 says. “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke of discipline in his youth. Let him sit alone uncomplaining and silent in hope, because God has laid the yoke upon him for his benefit.”

God has written into the laws of His creation the principle that all good self-perpetuates, while all evil self-destructs All evil everywhere will be eradicated from existence. Christ destroyed all the harvest of death by dying and rising from the dead. He caused death to end death. Sin and evil are an important part of the plan and purpose of God, but sin and evil are limited to the ages of time, and when God has finished using them, they will cease to exist. It is God Himself Who turned man to humiliation and frustration and vanity, for a good purpose. The future could not be nearly so glorious for us had not this condition prevailed. To know this is to know happiness.

God has allotted a specific quota of evil for every person’s day. Our happiness will continue as long as we recognize this eveil as coming from the hand of God, and refuse to attribute it to a secondary cause. Paul said, “In my opinion, whatever we may have to go through now, is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us.” Paul knew all about living “happily ever after.” He knew that the negative experiences of this life are all ordained by God to produce a better future for us.

Although God will conform everyone to the image of His Son, everyone will still retain the distinct characteristics of their own personality. Every one of us is God’s original handiwork. There are no duplicates. Each of us will add our own radiant hue to God’s glory when He has finished processing us. Each of us will be a unique expression of the character of God. All of God’s processings are geared to one end - a planned future of victory. Believing these truths contributes to having a happy life.

11 Corinthians 4:6&7, and 3:18, “For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Although it is true that we cannot live on a borrowed revelation, yet God uses many and various ways of making the truth of what He is really like a living reality in the lives of those whom He choses to share in the glory of it. When God gets all the veils removed from our face we will be able to see what He is really like. Isaiah 25:7-9 says, “And He will destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

As we develop an experimental knowledge of what God is like, the desire will grow within us to share the benefits of its glory with others. His revelation to us of His true nature brings with it a corresponding influence to consecration as He consecrates us unto Himself to share the reality of Himself with others. God will work the knowledge of His intimate sovereign control into the fabric of your being until you reflexively respond to each situation with the recognition that it is all part of His will for you.

Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free,: John 8:32. He also said, “I am the truth,” John 14:6. If your knowledge of Jesus Christ is not setting you free you do not yet know what He is really like in an experimental way.

Carnal minded theologians always put the cart before the horse. They tell us, “If you believe, you’ll be saved.” We are not being saved because we believe; we believe because He is in the process of saving us. We will not be saved because of anything, except Jesus Christ Himself. Salvation is already guaranteed for everyone, but it doesn’t begin to be experiential in us until the faith of Jesus Christ begins to operate through us. The self-righteous nature of man always wants to take a little credit for accomplishing their salvation. Jesus said, “No man can come unto Me unless the father draws him.: The Greek word for “draw” is a very intense word that literally means “to drag”. When God begins to apprehend us He will do so in spite of the present state of our will. He will successfully influence our will and cause us to be willing to be made willing to come to Him.

Romans 2:4 says, “It is the goodness of God that induces us to repent.” God’s methods of drawing us to Himself may not always appear good at the time, but its end result never fails to manifest the glory of His goodness.

11 Corinthians 12:9&10 says, “I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses, because they mean a deeper experience in the power of Christ, for my weaknesses make me strong in Him.” Our weakness is the arena wherein God’s power can be manifested. When God reduces you to nothing, He can be everything. Paul said, “We do not want you to be uninformed brethren, about the affliction and oppressing distress which befell us in the province of Asia, how we were so utterly and unbearable weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life itself. Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the very sentence of death; but that was to keep us from trusting and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead.” God does not always deliver us from trouble, but He does give us the grace to bear it. “Four walls do not a prison make.” It’s the inner condition of our spirit that makes us a prisoner. A person totally abandoned to the will of god is as free as it is possible for anyone to be - no matter where they are, or whatever condition they are in. And it is only a knowledge of what God is really like that can give us the necessary confidence to abandon ourselves willingly to His will.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not 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.” Psalms 46:1-3, 11Corinthians 3:18 says, “We are hourly being transferred into the same likeness, from a mere reflected glory into an inherent glory.” It is through the processings of our daily travail that God is a very present help.

Isaiah 26:12 says, “Thou, O Lord, hast ordained peace for us, for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” If anything is accomplished within us it’s because God did it. Our salvation, both individually and collectively, depends on God. Not even one small part depends on us.

You ask me, “Where is your burden for souls?” and I answer, “Jesus took my burden I could no longer bear.” I’m not out to save souls. Jesus has already saved them; they just don’t know it yet. And according to His perfect timing, He will complete the process of that salvation in every individual. God has set in motion the operation of divine laws that will not cease to function till they have consummated His purpose of “heading up all things in Christ.” God knew from the beginning of the ages how they would end, and He knew that it would be an ending of total victory. EVERYTHING that happens is within the security of His control, for He knows the end from the beginning.

“But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child. Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.” 1 Samuel 2:18&19.

God often has to strip off our old spiritual clothing of preconceived ideas and early indoctrination, so He can clothe us with the knowledge of what He is really like. Zephaniah 1:8 says, “And it shall come to pass that I will punish all such as are clothed with strange apparel.” There will come a time when God will strip away the “strange apparel” of false concepts about what He is like.

If the garment of your concept of God is large enough it will cover you so completely that there will be no room to wear the uncomfortable garments of fear and anxiety. Neither can you sew pieces of your old ideas of what God is like into your new garment. They will just keep tearing away and leave you naked. The garment of what God is really like is made of many pieces of material. Some of it is rough, some smooth; some are dark in colour while others are bright. But this garment is totally adequate for every kind of weather that might occur in our spirit.

We should not try to make others feel guilty about the kinds of pieces that their garments are made of. God always uses the right kinds of material, the right colours and the right sizes when He clothes us with the concept of Himself that is best suited for His purpose for us. As we grow He will again remove the old garment from us and replace it with one that is better suited to our expanded spiritual growth.

Sometimes peiple will try to rip your garment away from you. They can’t stand to see you wearing a truth that is so much more beautiful than the strange apparel that they are wearing. But you will find that they cannot tear the garment away for it wasGod Himself Who clothed you with the knowledge of what He is really like.

Many people will become angry with you when they see you wearing the glorious garment of the reconciliation of all things, but deep down inside they are not so sure you are wrong about it after all. Remaining clothed in your garment may cost you your job. It may cost you your friends and even your family; but if God has placed the garment upon you, you will not be able to take it off, even though your natural desires want to escape the persecution it brings. The three Hebrew young men, Sadrach, Meshach and Abednego we’re bound in their garments and cast into the fiery furnace, Daniel 3:21. But when the king looked into the furnace he saw them walking around loose and unhurt, without their garments even singed - and the Son of God was walking with them, (verse 25). Many people will try to get you all bound up in our own garment and confused about what you really believe, but nothing will free you so fast and bring the awareness of Christ being with you, as being thrown into the fiery furnace of persecution because of your garment. If God has clothed you in your garment, the knots of man’s bondage will burn off into ashes and you will find yourself enjoying a degree of freedom that you never experienced before. And you will find that when needy people even tough the hem of your garment they will receive the life that emanates from it.

Changed from glory unto glory as the Spirit works within,

Clothing us in brand new garments as the former becomes thin.

For with each progressive moving into realms of deeper grace

There is fitted for our using, garments measured for the pace.

We shall not be bound or fettered by the form of yesteryear

But are free to travel onward into each advancing sphere.

Truth divine, so strong and glorious; strength sufficient for each day,

Not to fence thee in a valley, but to elevate thy way.

With a viewing of horizons that would beacon thee afar,

And His love to overshadow be thy bright and morning star,

Bringing thee into His fulness - stature of His blessed Son,

Thus fulfilling every promise that in Him we shall be one.

Cling thou not to former garments - little coat of yesteryear,

God will change these by His Spirit, and there’s nought in Him to fear.

Let Him now enlarge thy vision, stretch thy borders to embrace,

Every measure of His goodness, till in Him you’ve won the race.

The prodigal son was just as much in the will of his father as his older brother was. The attitude and character of the prodigal son was purified through the results of his waywardness. But the attitude and character of his older brother would have to be dealt with later.

God will put us in circumstances that will eliminate the possibility of receiving help from any human source. It is then that we become ready to come back to our heavenly Father.

1 Peter 1:15-17, "Be ye holy in all your behaviour in every department of your life. For the

Scripture says: Ye shall become holy, for I am holy. If you call on the Father Who, without the slightest favouritism, judges men by their actions, pass the time of your sojourn on this

earth in the spirit of reverent fear." And Hebrews 11:13 & 14 says, "Controlled by the faith

of Jesus Christ all these went to their death, not having received the tangible fulfillment of the promises, but having seen them from afar they were persuaded of their eventual fulfillment, and embracing them with delight, they freely admitted that they were strangers and sojourners who had no permanent home on this earth. Now people who speak in this way plainly show that they are looking forward to their real home in heaven." All of our sojourn here on this earth should should be looked upon as a visit to a foreign country. We should be desiring God to call us to our true Homeland any time He chooses.

Philippians 3:20 & 21 says, "For we are free citizens of heaven. Our outlook goes beyond this world to the hopeful expectation of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, when He comes back, will take these dying bodies of ours, and change them into glorious bodies like His own, using the same mighty power that He will use to subdue all things unto Himself." At some point in the future, God will show us why we experienced all the sufferings that we have experienced) end we will know that it was better that we had suffered than if we had not. Sometimes we will begin to know during this lifetime. But other sufferings will not be explained till after the resurrection.

Job 14:16 & 17 says, "For now Thou numberest my steps and watch over me sin. My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and Thou sewest up mine iniquity. And Deuteronomy 32:33 & 34 says, "Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps. Is this not laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?" All the iniquities, the poison and venom of the enemy is part of the treasure of God. Our involvement in sin and iniquity is an important part of God's processing and subduing. The lessons that He will teach us through that involvement will fit us into His master-plan in our own special way. Jeremiah 2:19 says, "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee." The times of all sowing and the times of all reaping are under God's intimate sovereign control.

True reverence is for us to acknowledge God as being the sovereign controller of our every-day life. To acknowledge that God is participating in every moment of our experiences - that is true reverence. When the circumstances of your life turn you upside down and shake you until you collapse - that is what God wanted to happen. Accepting it as the will of God is true reverence. Evangelical Babylon is always trying to decide whether or not they are in the will of God. The truth of the matter is that WE ARE ALWAYS IN THE WILL OF GOD.

All things, universally, are destined to be restored to their pristine glory until God becomes all in all. We know that the end is secure for everyone of us because the "end" is back home with the Father. And on the way home, even the devil himself can only do to us what God intends to eventually use for our good.

Keep bringing your mind into subjection to the truth that God is in perfect control of every situation. When we do this, our mental friction will cease and inwardly we will be at rest in the midst of outer turmoil.

God will process us until our will and His will are but one will. That's true

holiness. That's pure holiness.

Will what you will - your will is His.

You speak and act the God that is.

Even when we violate God's revealed will, that too is part of God's over-all will. Do what you feel you should do and it will always be the will of God, even if its results if its results appear to be the product of a wrong choice. If what you start to do is not God's will, He will stop it quicker than you got it started. If He doesn't stop it and all' hell' breaks loose and everything goes totally ascrew - THAT TOO IS THE WILL OF THE LORD, and it will process you in a way that nothing else could process you. Oh, this is so wonderful! "Blessed and happy and fortunate and to be envied are those who dwell in your presence. They will be singing your praises all day long," Psalm 84:4 & 5. When we stop trying to enter into the presence of the Lord, and start realizing that we are always dwelling there - THEN WE WILL ENTER INTO PERFECT REST.

Whispering Spirit that breathes upon men

Turning their footsteps to Homeland again

Pilgrims and strangers we wandered about

Vexed by the evils that rampaged without

Tempted by passions that rumbled within

Earthly travail for our soul's discipline

Turned to destruction by God's sovereign will

Till we are broken, contrite, and still

Gone the rebellion of ego's great pride

Death by the cross till in Him we have died

Buried together in mornings new womb

Waiting the hour released from this tomb

Into His image conformed by His grace

Love's undergirding the path to retrace

Onward and upward to bow at His throne

Joy that surpasses all joys we have known

Firstfruits returning betoken the score

All of creation the Christ shall restore

Erasing the shadows of vanity's night

Turning us 'round till we walk in the light.

Evangelical Babylon is always trying to decide if it is God or Satan that is in control of their present circumstance. The truth of the matter is that GOD IS ALWAYS IN INTIMATE SOVEREIGN CONTROL OF EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE. Believing these things is the real meaning of reverence.

Isaiah 14:24-27, "The Lord of hosts is saying, Sure as i have though, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed so shall it stand...the yolk shall depart from off them, and the burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?"

Because God is always stretching out His hand to help us, the ultimate victory is secure. Knowing that the end is secure for everyone, we can take courage to abide in the present processing until we are birthed into the new spiritual dimensions that God has reserved for us. God will faithfully deal with each one of us until He has replaced our old nature with His divine nature. We are so fragile and so limited. But God is in the intimate sovereign control of everyone's life and will successfully bring each one of us to the fulfillment of a glorious purpose. this purpose is immutable, and cannot fail to be accomplished. This truth will sustain us through all the processings of this life time, with a hope that will be our strength.

Even as Samson found a honeycomb in the carcass of a lion, so will God see to it that sweetness and strength will be produced in us when every fierce lion of circumstance has completed its course of life in our experience. And out of the carcass of that lion God will produce divine life in us. Not even death will take away the effectiveness of God's outstretched arms towards us. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth us, not because of our faithfulness to His, but rather, because of His faithfulness to us - a faithfulness that will not, indeed cannot fail.

Contrary to what evangelicals believe, God does not give up on a man when they have completed their physical life on this earth. When it comes to the handiwork of God the time elements is irrelevant. In some cases He will use the ages to come to finish His processings of us, BUT HE WILL FINISH IT, and it will be right on schedule for each individual. Whenever God's timing and God's purpose converge for any work that He is doing, that work will be successfully concluded. This includes the elimination of all death and the resurrection of everyone into His abundant life. God is going to become everything to everybody. No one will be left out. There will be no unfinished business left when God becomes All in all.

If we were to reap the negative results of the bad seed we sow a few days after we sowed it, we would learn a lot faster that we should not sow such seed. But God's timetable is protracted and He often allows our bad seed to flourish to accomplish His special purpose in us. But God never loses control of the growth of the seed. Nor does He ever lose control of the harvest it produces. When God determines an end to a negative operation IT WILL CEASE TO OPERATE! All negative operations are temporary and are only a means to a positive end. God Himself is responsible for the prosperity of sin and iniquity. he wants it to prosper to the extent that He allows it to. That is how absolutely sovereign His is. even Christian Babylon is a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, and although its systems will be utterly destroyed, yet God is using her to accomplish His purposes.

God's ultimate purpose is to reveal that he alone is God, and thee are no second causes that can do any permanent damage to themselves or anyone else - whether that second cause be our own will, or the very devil himself.

According to His own timing god will reverse the degenerative course of everyone and begin the process of regeneration; so shall he restore ALL THINGS to Himself. A vital part of this process is judgment; but all judgement (including the lake of fire) is remedial. God doesn't take us to a woodshed to whip us without teaching us. There is always a constructive purpose to every judgement. No judgement (not even the lake of fire) is an end in itself. Its purpose is to bring us into His life, and it will not fail to do so. Every sinful and evil attitude will be corrected by the lake of fire, and it will last not one moment longer than it takes to accomplish this task. God's hand will stay outstretched until he has become All in everyone. The death throes of the old order are only the birthpangs of the new.

I saw the kingdom rise and fall as man did play his game.

I saw the emptiness and void in following a name.

The prophets prophesied their words, deceiving kith and kin,

And in the blindness of their heart they added sin to sin.

For Bab'lon built its towers tall, corrupting the whole earth,

And there is nought can heal her now; we need a full new birth.

Praise God, we see His hand outstretched and none shall turn it back,

And though His patience waited long His purpose is not slack.

He shall demolish - bring to nought the kingdoms of this world,

And raise up HIS Kingdom sure, Truth's banner be unfurled.

The outflow of His love and grace shall reach to every man,

And NONE shall stay the hand that works the fulness of His plan.

The Psalmist declared, "Thou shalt stretch forth Thy hand and Thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." Psalm 138;7 & 8. We need to see that God takes full responsibility for all the ending of the old and all the establishment of the new. No man or group of men can accomplish this. It is totally the sovereign work of God. It is His hand that doeth ALL THINGS after the counsel of HIS OWN WILL!

"Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:13.

It is useless to try to "claim" or "appropriate" a work of God in your life. People who do this are only expelling hot air. You cannot work out what God has not yet worked into you. It is God who works in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Self effort may appear ever so spiritual but it is a man-made pseudo spirituality. Only the expression of what God has wrought in our hearts by His grace is of genuine spiritual value. God is not obligated to fulfil our confession if it was not inspired by His Spirit. When God manifests His grace he does it only because of His sovereign choosing.

We are only required to walk in the light that is shed on our path today. It is only to what God speaks into our heart for today that we should give diligence. The training processes of today are a part of God's method of helping us to mature.\

We should not expect to always be able to escape from our difficulties. But rather we should see them as opportunities to become overcomers by God's grace IN THE VERY MIDST OF THE DIFFICULTY. There is an alongside pressure that accompanies every day. The scripture says, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." There is a specific quota of evil that God puts into every day you live, for the purpose of processing you. The apostle Paul handled these difficulties with this attitude He said, "I reckon that the sufferings of this world are not to be compared with the glory that shall yet be revealed in us."

Don't let any man impose upon you what they think you should be learning through any negative situation. Look to God alone to reveal His purpose to your spirit. Everyone of us is an individual that must receive from God alone. God can use others to confirm a lesson that He is teaching you, but that is different from allowing others to impose their opinions upon you. He are all an original handiwork of God. Just as each snowflake differs, so does God's working differ in each individual. Even when the same principles are worked into different people, yet the application and outworking of that principle is unique to each of them. This is why we should have no confidence in an experience. Our experience of God will differ from person to person. He should not even try to impose our experience of God's saving grace on another, for God is in the process of saving each individual in a way just suited to them, and in accord with His own timetable for them.

God brings each person into their own particular perspective of truth In a way that sets them free. Their point of view of that truth is suited just for them. Babylon is always trying to force men to have a certain experience, but God wants us to keep our eyes on Him. Experience is secondary and often isn't even necessary, but keeping our eyes single to God is all important! He will instruct you in a "present truth" in a way that is suited just for you. No man can quicken a revelation to your spirit. God alone is the quickening Spirit. "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. But every man in his own order." I Corinthians 15:45; John 5:21 & 6:44 and I Corinthians 15:23. Everyone will be taught, but they will be taught according to God's timetable with a message that meets their individual need. We are not required to walk ahead of the light that He gives us personally. We are only required to respond to what He makes real to us. Even if we fail to respond God will faithfully discipline us until we are ready to respond. This is not a do-it-yourself program. Only as God quickens us to be willing will we respond. He is both the author and finisher of His faith that He operates within us.

Isaiah 50:11 says, "Thus saith the Lord...Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. But this shall ye have of My hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow." The sorrow of walking in the light of the sparks that men kindle is so great that it can hardly be measured. We need to leave other men's fires and only walk in the light of the Lord that He shines into our heart in a way that is suited just for us.

Each fragment of revelation will always have its corresponding price. But when we catch a glimpse of what the Pearl of Great Price is really like, we will be willing to sell all to obtain the fulness of His divine reality. He will sell all of our "pearls" to buy this One Pearl.

We will give up our pastorship, our Sunday school teaching position, our job and even our friends and our spiritual reputation, to keep possession of that revelation. And all of these comparatively paltry sacrifices will be much more than worth it!

Faith is not an action produced by man. Faith is a response produced by God. It never accrues to the one who posses it, but rather to God Who evokes it. You cannot make another person believe. You can't even believe yourself until God wants you to. You do not trust God because of what you yourself are, but because of what God has revealed Himself to be to you.

Many people cannot trust God because they have been taught that He is different than He really is. When God Chooses to reveal to them what He is really like then they will be able to trust Him without any reservations. You can't trust God until He has proven Himself to be worthy of your personal trust. You cannot have faith in God until He proves Himself to be worthy of your faith in Him. God Himself bears all the responsibility of producing faith in you. He leads us step by step, and unfolds to us a pathway in which He reveals Himself to be sufficient, to be inexhaustibly loving and kind, to be everything you need. And the more you find out about Him the stronger your faith in Him becomes because of what HE has revealed HIMSELF to be to you.

The scripture says, "How can they believe on Him of whom they have not heard?" But if all you hear of Him is a corrupted concept of what He is like, you still won't be able to believe on Him. But when you hear the Spirit of God speaking to your spirit within you, then you will understand the true character of our Lord, and that understanding will elicit trust from your heart.

God does not expect us to exercise blind faith in a questionable concept of Himself - all the time hoping that He won't let us down, even though we are not certain that He is entirely trustworthy. God doesn't operate that way. That's Babylon's way, that's not God's way. God first proves Himself to us, then we cannot help but believe.

There can be no genuine faith without a personal demonstration of the character of God to an individual. Until God manifests Himself personally, no one should be expected to be able to exercise faith. But when Be does so manifest Himself, they will respond in spite of themselves.

God will ever test your faith beyond the point of the revelation that He has given you. He will only test you when He knows that you will not fail the test - unless He has a predetermined reason for you to fail, and if this is so He will always turn the failure into a greater victory, for He always sows the seeds of gain in every loss. God takes total responsibility for your victory or failure. Isaiah 26:12 says, "Thou Lord hath ordained peace for us, for Thou hast wrought all our works in us."

So I'm knowing that I'm growing when the truth becomes a showing

Of the way that leadeth upward to the Throne.

How our spirits now are yearning and the inner fire is burning

As our Father calls us to Him as His own.

Drawn away from earthly pleasure and the things that self would treasure

Till we find that our life is hid in Christ alone. Amen.

"And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." Romans 11:26 & 27. "Yet now, once, at the conclusion of the eons, for the repudiation of sin through His sacrifice, is He manifest." Hebrews 9:26.

Evangelical theology teaches us that in due time God will cast all unrepentant sinners into a place where they will suffer forever more. But these scriptures say just the opposite. The sin of every sinner will be removed from them and they will be transformed until they will sin no more. God so loved the world - and the world he will receive after He has purged out from everyone the mystery of iniquity that works within us, and only the mystery of godliness will remain to be brought to a full realization. 11 Peter 3:9 says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The sinful soul of the sinner will perish but their spirit will be saved.

Most Christians fail to exalt and glorify God by what they believe. They fail to recognize His sovereignty; they fail to recognize His eonian purpose, and they fail to recognize what He is really like. Romans 1:21-25 says, "Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the truth of God into a lie." Man can't actually change the nature of God, but through preconceived ideas and faulty translating they have corrupted the truth of what He is really like. This is why that so many of them have become, in nature and attitude, just like their corrupted concept of God.

The apostle Paul recognized that since God had chosen to save the very worst of sinners of whom he himself was chief, then He is also able to save everyone. Just as God made Israel drink the water into which the powder of their golden calf had been ground, so too will every person sooner or later have to suffer the results of placing their trust in a false concept of God. Through the valley of bitter experiences God will see to it that we will learn to worship bod as the absolute sovereign that He really is.

The greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart and mind and strength. But it is not even possible to truly love the kind of god that most Christians claim to love. They have "a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof," They really believe what they claim to believe, They are ever willing to believe and defend the very worst about God, and are not willing to even consider that He might not really be like that. They deny His sovereignty and insist that His own creatures can eternally defeat His own will. They have the audacity to claim that God's hands are forever tied by our so-called 'free will." They claim that he doesn't have the power to successfully influence our wills - not even for our own good!

The doctrine of "free moral agency" is one of Babylon's most God dishonouring traditions. They have exalted the will of the creature to a position of godship and robbed God of His sovereignty in the minds of those whom they teach. They have "limited the Holy One of Israel." Psalms 78:41.

They are teaching a false concept of God INSTEAD of the truth. This is the very essence of the spirit of antichrist, for in the Greek the word antichrist literally means "instead of Christ." They insist that the devil has overpowered God and in control of many situations at least part of the time. They do not see that the devil can do no more to anybody than God wants Him to do.

When we begin to realize that God alone is the cause behind everything in our life, then we are truly worshipping Him as God, and everything else in our life will fall into place. The more that we reflexively apply this truth, the more our first response will be one of praise and thankfulness for every negative situation and the more we will experience the joy of victory in our spirit.

Israel was constantly a wayward and rebellious nation of people, but in Number 23:19-21 it says, "God is not a man that He should lie. hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good? Behold I have received commandment to bless and He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them." According to God's timing for each individual, He, by His grace will transform us and will cease to hold us accountable for our sinful past any longer. In this way He will show Himself to be the totally sovereign King of all kings. The Son of man has not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the WORLD through Him should be saved. He sees in each one of us a creature that He has purposed to conform into His own image, and because He is the sovereign King of kings, He cannot fail to accomplish this purpose successfully. He will hold fast to His vision of what He intends to change us into. He will only hold us accountable for our sinfulness to the extent that He intends to teach us lessons from that accountability. Isaiah 44:21-24 says, "Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art My servant I have formed thee; thou art My servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of Me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, they transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing ye mountains, O forest and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel. Thus saith the Lord, they redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things."

Some people argue against the total restoration of everyone by saying, "If everyone is going to heaven then Hitler is going to heaven too, and if Hitler is going to heaven then I don't want to be there with you either. That's carnal minded thinking for God has promised that all the Hitlers and all the Ray Prinzings will be given a new name and be identified with a new realm where nothing negative, either of the past, or of the present, can exist.

When we first came from God, our spirit was pure; and when we return back into God we shall all be pure again. All old things will have passed away and all things will have been made new. Just as the old Saul of Tarsus will never be held accountable to God, neither will our old selves be held accountable when God decides it is time to remove our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west. The operation of our redemption all belongs to God: the beginning of it, the sustaining of the process of it, and its guaranteed successful completion.

This is the true message of salvation that we should preach to the world - that God is going to, sooner or later, transform everyone into the image of Christ, so "be ye reconciled to God" for He is already reconciled to you. The Psalmist asked, "Who is this King of glory?" and answers, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, the Lord of hosts - He is the King of glory." Psalm 24:8 & 10. And He relies on no one to win His battles or accomplish His plan. Just as the barrenness of Sarah's womb was her greatest asset, so is the inability of the sinner to play any part in his salvation, the greatest asset that he possesses. If we think that we have any part at all in our salvation, we rob God of the glory that belongs to Him alone. The sooner we acknowledge that we cannot do anything but God has to do it all, the sooner we will know the meaning of uninterrupted victory. The true gospel glorifies God completely!

Revelation 14: 6 & 7 says, "And i saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the gospel of the ages to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice: Fear God, and give glory to Him." There is so much in Christian theology that does not glorify God. Let us turn away ungodliness from our thinking, and worship God in the absolute purity of who He is and what He is really like!

"We strongly and earnestly desire for each of you to show the same diligence and sincerity all the way through, in realizing and enjoying the full assurance and development of your hope until the end, in order that you might not become disinterested and become spiritual sluggards but imitators, behaving as do those who, by their leaning of their entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness, and by practice of patient endurance and waiting are inheriting the promises." Hebrews 6:11 & 12.

God will make it plain to each one of us how HE would have us respond to this scripture. God is the cause of our spiritual development and we are but the effect. As we are affected by God's influence - to that extent we will give diligence, and to that extent we will exercise our will in accord with God's will.

We are what we are by the grace of God, and we're not what we're not because He hasn't done it yet. Refuse to accept condemnation for not being more spiritually advanced than you are. The process is in God's hands and He will complete the processings of His spiritual development in us according to His timing.

Jeremiah 29:13 says, "Ye shall see Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart." By the drawing power of the grace of God we will seek after Him with all our heart.

There can be a fervency in our step and our action. There can be a free outburst of song from our lips, and we can walk with inspiration day by day if we are inspired by the true concept of what God is really like. This concept will enable us to respond to Colossians 3:23, "Whatever you do - do it heartily, as unto the Lord."

Do not assume the burden of the bondage to the letter of the law. Only respond to what God quickens to your spirit and applies to you personally. 11 Timothy 2:15 says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the work of truth." The grace of God will motivate us and enable us to respond to this verse in exactly the way He wants us to respond as He applies it personally to each heart.

In 11 Corinthians 3:2 & 3 the apostle Paul said, "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistles of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart."

I do not believe the words of the song, "There's a new name written down in glory." The names of God's elect were written down in the Lamb's book of life before the beginning of the ages. Those whose names will not be found in the Book of Life at the Judgment will be written in at a later date.

God is writing into our spirits a message that we are becoming. He will engrave that message into our actions and reactions so that others will be able to read what the grace of God has written. To the extent that God has finished processing us, our calm, cool, collected Royal dignity, with its expression of perfect love will reveal to others the right way to live.

"The Lamb's Book of Life" can be literally translated, "The Book of the Lamb's Life." It is God's intention to write into us, His life, His Name, and His character, so that those who read us will say, "This is a wonderful record of the love and grace of God."

Even Jesus said, "I can of My own self do nothing." Whether we know it or not, whether we believe it or not, we are dependant of the sovereign working of God in our life. In Isaiah 29:11 & 12 this prophet wrote, "The vision of all has become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed. And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this I pray thee. And he saith, I am not learned." Often in our experience we will discover that God will keep others blinded to the vision that He has given to us. And though they may be learned or unlearned in the things of God, and even though you carefully explain to them your vision, they will not be able to accept it for themselves. In their eyes you have lost your spiritual reputation, but in God's eyes - He knows exactly what He's doing with you.

On the other hand, when God has prepared another person to receive the same vision, they will immediately recognize that God wants them to share in it too, and you will rejoice in its life-producing vitality together. Eventually God will open the spiritual eyes of everyone to see the vision and they will say, "This is what my heart has been waiting to hear!"

We are the paper. Our sufferings and activities are the ink. The workings of the Holy Spirit is the pen, and with it God writes the living gospel. God is using all of the circumstances of our life to engrain His message into us. EVERYTHING in our life, no matter who seemingly insignificant, is a part of what God is writing. We often do not understand what He is writing at the time that He is writing it, but we will understand it in due time.

Each sentence and each paragraph ends when God wants it to. We sometimes think He should put in more commas, but He is the author and he control the pace. Sometimes He puts a period when we think that particular sentence should be extended. That which seems so incomprehensible, so incoherent and foolish to us now, will truly delight us when the full story is told! Sometimes we can't even understand our own reactions. During these times it is good to know that God is in control of our reactions both positive and negative.

We are inclined to read God's writing in our lives on a natural level of comprehension. This is why we misunderstand so many things, for it is a spiritual message that He is writing. The experiences of grace through sorrow and strength through heartache are an important part of the plot.

God will not finish writing until He has engraved the message of His all-conquering love into the heart of EVERY MEMBER of His creation.

"For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; & the God of Israel will be your rereward," Isaiah 52:12. God will bring us out of Babylon only after He has revealed to us that He is totally Sovereign.

Almost all in Christendom are devil worshippers. If you attack their doctrine of how powerful they believe the devil to be, they will immediately come to the devil's defence and give him far more glory than he deserves.

Some stay in Babylon to try and reform her; but it is a useless task, for the system of Babylon is destined to be destroyed, not reformed. On the other hand, some people try to leave Babylon before it's God's timing for them. We need to look to God to bring us out according to His timing for us and in a way suited just for us. Don't leave Babylon in a rash action of panic, but wait for God to replace the bondage of Babylon's doctrines with the progressive establishment of a personal revelation of what He is really like.

Isaiah 28:16 says, "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste." Some people leave Babylon prematurely and are continually complaining abut missing the positive benefits that Babylon has to offer. These people should go back into Babylon, for when the Spirit of God brings them out there will be no withdrawal pains. Leaving Babylon is not a retreat; it is an orderly advancement into the revealed will of God that results in peace and contentment. God will take all that is behind us and gather it up so that there is nothing lost or wasted in the rear.

There are no volunteers for leaving Babylon; we are all conscripted. Every experience that we had in Babylon will be transformed into something beneficial, both for themselves and for those who remain in the system. Nothing will be wasted. Everything will be transformed into something that will magnify and glorify the character of God. When God is finished with the purpose of the ages he will have retroactively converted the investment of every year of everyone's life into a substantial dividend. Every seeming loss will be turned into gain. If the adversary could say to God, "You finally won them over alright, but I got fifteen years of their life that I completely wasted and destroyed." - If he could say that, then it would not be a total restoration. But when God is finished with His plan of the ages, the adversary himself will bow in worship and say, "You are more than a conqueror, for You have changed all the negative into a more glorious positive than if the negative had not temporarily prevailed. God is always behind us guarding what we cannot see, and gathering it up to produce an ultimate positive result. Genesis 17:1 says, "I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect." Perfection consists in recognizing the intimate sovereign control of God in your life. This will bring us into a peace and a rest that we can find no other way.

Jeremiah 23:18-20, "For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard His word? Who hath marked His word and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind. It shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have executed, and till He have performed the thoughts of His heart. In the later days ye shall consider it perfectly."

Many ministers do not proclaim the eonian purpose of God because they have received their instructions from their Bible school or denominational board, instead of searching out the counsel of the Lord. How wonderful it is when the Lord brings to an end the teachings of men and replaces them with the teaching of God! Ephesians 1:10 says, "God has allowed us to know the secret of His plan, and it is this: He purposes in His sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ. This is in harmony with God's merciful purpose for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it."

Because our lives are so intertwined with others, God will time the process of the salvation of each of us to work out for the greatest benefit of all. Sometimes we don't like God's timing, but He knows best. Someone once said, "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." But they should have said, "God said it, that settles it, whether I believe it or not." Our unbelief cannot make the word of God of none effect.

The anger of the Lord is an integral part of His thoughts, His will and His purpose. Man's anger satisfies his feelings in a negative way, usually at the expense of others. But God's anger always results in an ultimate positive benefit for the person who experiences it. God never becomes bitterly provoked, nor does His anger stem from frustration. One evangelical bumper sticker reads, "Christ is coming again, and boy is He mad!" That kind of message does not honour God. God's answer is not vindictive. It is always corrective. He doesn't get back at us just to even the score, but He allows us to experience some of the results of what we have done in order to correct us. God's nature if LOVE. He cannot be angry without loving the subject of His anger at the same time. God's anger is never a manifestation of a lack of self-control.

In Genesis 6:3 the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." This doesn't mean, as some teach that God gives up on a person after giving him a so-called "fair chance," it means that He will bring an end to their rebellion by teaching them lessons from it. In Genesis 15:16 it says that "The cup of iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full." Everyone's cup of iniquity must be filled. Only God knows when it is full, and until it is full, none of our praying or witnessing will have any effect on them.

The anger of the Lord is an energy force that is set in motion to accomplish the purpose of restoration. It includes the judgements, but only because it is time to restore to rightness again. In the accomplishment of this purpose, God's anger will be completely successful for it will "execute all the thoughts in my heart", saith the Lord. God will not use one bit more force than is necessary to accomplish His purpose of restoration. When the negative manifestation of His love has taught its intended lesson it will be terminated. Then, as the psalmist exclaimed, "Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come." Psalm 102:13. The outworking of each detail of God's eonian purpose is always right on time!

All of our pathway has been totally and gloriously arranged beforehand. God is going to take away the sin of the entire cosmos so there will be no negative influence anywhere in existence. Restoration is a process in which the entire cosmic arrangement will be purified, rectified and set to right, so that all of its influences are for good, and none are for evil.

Death is no longer an enemy. It has become our servant, for Christ has the key of death, and He will use that key to open the lock and free everyone from the power of death. Romans 14:9 says, "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Because God hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him up from the dead." Acts 17:31. And according to Ephesians 1:20 & 21, "He set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is impending."

Man's intellectual soulish reasoning declares that a few of us are predestined to be saved, while the rest of us are predestined to suffer forever in the lake of fire. The truth of the scripture is that EVERYONE THAT GOD HAS CREATED is predestined to be conformed to the image of God's Son. Regardless of what happens along the way; regardless of how much of the bondage to vanity we are subjected to, regardless of where the ins and outs are worked into us, EVERYONE is to be conformed to the image of His Son.

God has everything so beautifully arranged that He's always ahead of the game for us. Our victory was assured before the battles had begun. We become so overwhelmed by the fighting of each day's battles that we often lose sight of the horizon. But it is always there, and it is secure in God - because everyone has a God-appointed horizon.

Ephesians 1:4 & 5 says, "God hath chosen us in Christ before the beginning of the eons, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." Everyone is to be made alive in Christ, but the order in which each person experiences the process of entering into His life, has been predetermined by God. Our processings are in our horizons just as much as they were in the horizon of our Lord. It pleases the Lord to bruise us just as much as it pleased Him to bruise His Son Jesus Christ. Acts 4:26-28 says, "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ. For of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever THY HAND AND THY COUNSEL DETERMINED BEFORE TO BE DONE."

We are not given the option of choosing our own obstacles. God knows exactly what to put in front of us to make us overcomers. Sometimes here are large boulders in the road, while other times we have a smooth pathway with "clear sailing" for as far as the eye can see. God is in such complete control that both the size of the rocks and their quantity is exactly what God has planned for accomplishing His purposes for us through the circumstances of each day. Every rock is placed on our horizon according to the predetermined plan of God.

There is a cross to be endured, yea; but there is also a joy set before us. If you are enduring a cross without joy, I pray that God will expand your vision so you can see further along towards your horizon. When God turns your pain into joy, it is something that no man can take away. Natural joy is nice, but it evaporates when circumstances become oppressive. But when God turns our sorrow and suffering into you, it will stand the test of adversity.

We can enter into God's rest right now by accepting the condition of our daily pathway as being the product of God's wise and loving control and His personal involvement in our life. The word "horizon" means "the apparent juncture of sky and earth." It is only an apparent condition, it is never actual. As we keep progressing onward, the horizon keeps expanding before us. God will often circumvent our vision and limit it in order to do a certain work in us; but after that work has been accomplished He will give us a new vision and cause us to see something further along. We can't see the joy of tomorrow if God only wants us to see the cross of today; but when the cross has done its work the joy will follow. "Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning."

Ephesians 2:10 says, "We are God's own handiwork, recreated in Christ Jesus that we say do those good works which God planned beforehand for us to do, taking paths that He prepared ahead of time that we should walk in them, living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live. There is a good life that god has prearranged for us, but he made the good life ready for us before He made us ready for the good life. It is true that Christ has gone to prepare a place for us, but the greater work right now is that He is preparing us for that place.

"But that which ye have already received, hold fast till I come." Many get tired of waiting for God's timing and try to do God's work by themselves. They claim experiences and supposed spiritual attainments but are unable to back them up with reality. They assume a masquerade, saying, "We've got his," or "We've got that; but what they manifest doesn't match up with what they claim. In the midst of such carnal presumption, the Holy Spirit girds us up to hold fast the vision that God has imparted to us.

Paul say that he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. When God has put a revelation deep within your heart, hold it diligently and carefully. Don't trade it off for any substitute vision that others might try to impose upon you. There are times when the vision will shine brightly, but there will be other times when you will just hang in there with the faith that God has allowed you to have.

Just because it seems that we are marking time, it doesn't mean that God is marking time. Every moment of silence is alive with the movement of God. This is a truth that we can rest on. God does not allow us to continually ride on the crest of revelation. He will periodically dim the vision in order to drive our roots deeper into the certainty of what He is really like. Through the nitty gritty of everyday living He works into us the reality of the vision that He gave us. And He gradually removes all of man's props so that we can learn to lean heavy on the Lord Himself, ever so grateful that He abideth faithful, for He cannot act contrary to His own character.

The reason we are able to hold on to what He has given us is because He is holding on to us. "I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by Thy right hand. Thou shalt guide me by Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for the ages. If I ascend up into heaven, "Thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. Fear thou not; for I am with the, saith the Lord; be not dismayed for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee by my right hand of My righteousness. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the eonian arms." (The word translated "eternal" in this verse is the Hebrew word "qedem." Unless qualified it can, in fact , mean "eternal." In reference to the arms of God the word "olam" is used, and should be translated "eonian," not "everlasting." The above scriptures are found in Psalms 73:23,24,26; 139:8-10; Isaiah 41:10 and Deuteronomy 33:27).

Sometimes we feel that if we let go we would fall. When you feel like this it is better that you do fall, because if you think you are going to make it through by your hanging on you are bound to fall anyway. The arms of God are under everyone and they bear us up over and over again.

There have been times when I felt like laying my vision aside and saying, "It's causing me too many problems so I just want to forget it." But God says, "You can't do that, because I won't let you." and He bears us up from within. Go ahead and drop your vision if you can, for if you can, God doesn't want you to have it anymore anyway. My uncle, who is the pastor of a large denominational church said to me, "It seems like you have taken hold of this teaching of the ultimate reconciliation doctrine you spend all your time defending it and trying to keep yourself and others convinced that it is true. But when it takes hold of you, you can't let it go, even if in the natural you would sometimes want to. When the initiative is God's then even during those times when your mind can't wrap around it, you will find that because God put the truth of it into your spirit, it holds you even when you can't hold it. And after each of these skirmishes have past, you will find that you believe it stronger than you ever believed it before - because God gave it to you; you didn't take it from Him.

The word "appropriate" denotes a self-motivated effort. We do not appropriate from God; we receive from God what he does by His own sovereign will. Nothing can come against us unless God intends to eventually work it into good. Every time we go through a dark night of the soul, we can tell God that we are resting in the knowledge that He knows that He is doing with us.

Isaiah 52:7 says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tiding, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" Christian Babylon preaches and publishes eternal doom and damnation. But those who know that God reigneth supreme are able to preach and publish good tidings of a salvation which embraces all creation. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 says, "Prove all things and hold fast to that which is good."

There may be tensions and distress ahead of us, but God will never lose His absolute control even for one moment; therefore we can hold fast to that which God has given to us.

Though pressures rise daily to sweep o'er all the earth,

And tidings e're abound, devoid of joy and mirth,

When troubles press thee sore to multiply their score - and sin aboundeth more;

Yet still we hear the solemn word, the Spirit says, "Hold fast."

The wars and rumours come and kingdoms rise and fall,

And men of heart grow faint, their courage becomes small.

Iniquity o'erflows, wind of deception blows - all this thy God still knows;

And in the midst of sin and shame the Spirit says, "Hold fast."

Hold fast to all that's good: His name, His life, His love,

They steps are known of Him and ordered from above.

A song shall fill thy night, rejoicing births new light - a victor o'er the fight;

And we shall share His glory too, BECAUSE HE HELD US FAST!

God will show us many things that we need to let go of. But "whatsoever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are just, whatever things are of a GOOD report - HOLD FAST TO THESE THINGS!

We are finding a rest in the Lord that supercedes anything that we have know heretofore.

Isaiah 8:11-13 says, "For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that i should not walk in the way of this people, saying: Be not afraid of their fear, but sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and He shall be for a sanctuary." Christendom today is energized by the fear that is a result of their man-made doctrines. This fear causes them to make grandiose claims that they have had experiences, and therefore have arrived at all the fulness that God has for them. And they expect God to back up their claims, but God doesn't operate that way. The truth of the matter is that we are being born again; we are becoming children of God; we are becoming new - IT'S A PROCESS. God's Word only becomes reality at the rate that He sovereignly quickens it and fulfills it, for He is both the author and finisher of our faith - and all of the distance inbetween.

So marvelous are the ways of God that when the Holy Spirit witnesses within that a certain truth is for you, you can walk on with assurance, even though you are misunderstood by everyone around you. Jesus said, "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." God knows that we have saddled ourselves enough with many other yolks. We have been yolked to so many programs, and purposes, and plans; and we've bowed our backs and our necks and we've pulled away and spent ourselves and wasted our substance on our soulish endeavours. Isaiah 43:18 & 19 says, "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Attempting to duplicate the past always results in a futile soulish expression. Every work of God, both individually and in groups, is uniquely adapted to each one. God originates the action; and our reaction will always be a manifestation of what God wanted accomplished by His action. The methods that God uses to express His action are as varied as the people through whom he expresses.

Evangelicals like to ask, "Have you been saved," or "Have you been born again?" And in asking that question they are already prejudging against their own interpretation of scripture. These kinds of questions impute their trespasses unto them, which is exactly what the apostle Paul said we should not do. (2 Cor.5:19). Instead we should simply say, "Let us be reconciled to God, for He is already reconciled to us, and He loves us so much that he will not rest until we have been reconciled to Him." We have the privilege of actively resting in the knowledge that the timing of the process of everyone's salvation is under His sovereign control. A passive rest is not good. It leaves us wide open to be affected by outward forces. But an active rest is diligently searching out the will of God at the same time that you are resting in your spirit.

Grace is divine influence and enablement. Psalm 89:19 says, "I have laid help on One that is might." It is a great working of the power of the cross when we learn to yield to the influences of God towards change and maturity. Our weakness becomes the arena where His strength is manifested.

Actively resting in the will of God

Yet following on in the path He trod

Knowing with joy His bountiful grace

Ending the struggles of self to keep pace.

Actively resting, the works of the flesh

To gender their pride and the soul enmesh

Such effort can only becloud the mind

In chains of self-righteousness tightly bind.

Actively resting, because of His care

Untouched by the shadows of earth's despair

Trusting in Him for the courage and strength

Equal to conquer the breadth and the length.

Actively resting when cycles now cease

Forgetting the past and holding our peace

Until He has quickened to us the new

Bright as the dawn - fresh as the dew.

Actively resting and waiting to see

Further unfoldings of His will for thee

Untroubled by waiting, all in His time

Actively resting. Contentment sublime!

Philippians 4:4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say rejoice."

It is through the daily routine of our life that God works into us the revelation of truth that He has quickened to us. It is thrilling to know that it is the most mundane, every-day living that God uses. And He takes these lofty revelations and works them into our life until they are a part of our being. Then we know it works because He has made the truth of it real to us in a most practical way.

The Greek word for 'rejoice" is from the root word "joy." "Fun" is a merriment of the body - a gaiety in the natural realm. It satisfies the appetites of the flesh and senses. "Happiness" is a reflection of the soul. It is influenced by our good fortune and our sense of well-being. It is of the soulish realm because it deals with the emotions and impulses. But "joy" is a quality fruit of the spirit that is unaffected by outside conditions. 11 Corinthians 6:10 tells us that we can be full of sorrow and full of you at the same time because we have an inner assurance that God has all of our circumstance under His perfect control. The stability of the joy and peace of the Lord will enable us to praise Him even in the midst of negative circumstances.

The joy that is from the Lord cannot be extinguished by suffering. When God subjected creation to the bondage of vanity, He did so in hope. If we keep our eyes on the vanity we will be depressed; but if we keep our eyes on the hope, we will be able to rejoice. If you don't have knowledge of what God is really like you cannot rejoice. People need to know that God will work EVERYTHING into good. They need to know the He is intimately involved in EVERYTHING that happens, both to us as individuals and to the world at large.

The end of the Lord is always full of tender mercy and pity. God is totally sovereign. He chooses, and bruises, and uses as He wills. God has no problems - only plans; and He is in the process of successfully carrying out those plans. Doomsday theology cries out, "Come and help me build my kingdom, and if you give me enough support we may be able to rescue a few souls before it is too late." But God says, "I have everything under perfect control, and I am going to work everything out for everybody's good. "Doomsday" is a heresay of damnation. We should turn from such heresay and recognize God's sovereign control. We will never be so happy and have so much joy as during those times that we are able to recognize God's intimate sovereign control of everything. There wells up within us an inner jubilation because of the knowledge of what God is really like.

Habakkuk 3:17-19 says, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet will I rejoice in the Lord; I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hind's feet, and He will make me to walk upon my high places." Even when nothing is going our way, if we know God's ultimate purpose towards us, we can still rejoice in God.

Babylon is playing games with their semi-omnipotent devil, and their frantic attempts to help God out of the nasty predicament He has gotten Himself into. But we can rejoice even in this, because God is in control of it and He will use Babylon to accomplish His purposes, is spite of themselves.

We should not feel that our spirituality is threatened by what God does, or does not do for others. Our spirit should be able to rejoice in whatever goes on in God's universe and nothing that happens should shake our inner confidence in Him. Just because God blesses a group, that doesn't mean that you ought to be part of a group. God blesses some of us in a solitary way and such folk are meant to find their fulfillment in an individual walk with God apart from the group.

When you know that all is in God's hands you can rejoice in your hope; you can rejoice in the tribulations that are fulfilling your hope, and you can rejoice in the God who controls the whole thing to bring you into His fulness.

O the depth of truth that's working deep within the heart of man!

Witness this - His love and caring, blest fulfillment of His plan.

When the kingdom's round thee tremble, earthly hopes in ashes lay,

Yet deep within thy bosom is rejoicing for this day.

When the fig tree will not blossom and we find the field is bare,

How we marvel at the feeling of rejoicing that we share!

While we find our path is onward and we cannot tarry here,

Yet there is this true rejoicing for His work in every sphere.

"That God reigneth" tell the nations, He hath all in full control;

this assurance undergirding brings rejoicing to the soul.

Since heaven is God's throne and earth is His footstool, He will bring all earth into subjection to the joy within. Even in the midst of the most perplexing situations it is amazing how God can cause us to feel a sense of joy, when for all practical purposes we should be overcome with distress. When it seems so strange that we feel so good when, naturally speaking, we should be hopelessly crushed - then we know that the Spirit of God has taken over with the control of His joy, a joy that passeth all understanding; a joy unspeakable, and full of glory!

1 Chronicles 4:10, "And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that Thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it might not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested."

Jabez would not have had this desire if God had not given it to him. He had no more in him to boast about than any of the rest of us do. God placed the desire within him to demonstrate the working of His grace. Don't worry about your friends and loved ones. When God wants them to have a desire for holiness and righteousness, He will give it to them. We can, and we will try to make them hungry for the things of God, but we will only be as successful as God want us to be. We cannot successfully impart a spiritual appetite to another until God is ready to give it to them.

many people are only nibbling at spiritual food while others are devouring hearty meals. Our spiritual appetites are controlled by the sovereign will of God. Jabez prayed to have his coast enlarged. In Psalm 4:1 the Psalmist said that God enlarged him when he was in distress. It will be pressures that enlarge our coast into new realms. It is during the times of adversity that we blaze new trails into the unknown and find that God has enlarged us in a new way. When it seems like the bottom has fallen out of our life, and when we are hemmed in and pressed from all sides, he enlarges us. It is at the very time that God is planning to expand us that we feel more hemmed in and more under pressure than ever before.

We should not set about to manufacture our own enlargement; we should wait until God does it. If you feel yourself being hemmed in by circumstances beyond your control, then thank the Lord for it in the knowledge that He is soon going to enlarge your coast. The Psalmist sad, "I will run the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt enlarge my heart." And the apostle Paul said, "O ye Corinthians, we have kept nothing back from you, our heart is enlarged. There is no narrowness in our love, but you are restricted in you love," 11 Cor.6:11. Our hearts need to be enlarged with the love and compassion of God that embraces God's entire creation. Isaiah 54:2, 3 & 5 says, "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtain of thy habitations, for thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, for thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; and the God of the whole earth shall He be called."

Jabez also prayed that the hand of the Lord would be with him. the Psalmist said, "The works of His hands are truth and judgement." Psalm 111:7. Every truth of God must be balanced by His judgements that will work the reality of that truth into us. The one hand of God's truth will lead us on, while the other hand of His judgements will come behind us and keep us girded up to the truth that he is showing us.

Christian Babylon has so corrupted the purpose of God's judgements that many are afraid of God with a fear that God did not intend them to have. When the Spirit of God opens up our heart that all of God's judgements are for the purpose of correction and discipline, then we will fear God with the proper respectful fear that He meant us to have.

Until God delivers us from bondage to vanity, He will use it to train and develop us; and because the whole process is in God's hands, the victory is guaranteed. Isaiah 14:27 says, "The Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back."

The Psalmist knew the assurance of God's intimate sovereign control. He said, "My times are in thy hand." Psalm 31:15. This includes those times when we are willfully rebellious against His revealed will. He will stick with us and teach us lessons from it that could be learned no other way, and then He will once again bring us back into obedience to His revealed will. Such is the nature of God's love. He doesn't hide us in the brilliant glory of His hand; He hides us in the shadow of His hand. That is why we often cannot understand His use of evil in His dealings with us.

Jabez also prayed that God would keep him from evil, that it might not grieve him. God will only allow sin to prevail in our life to the extent that He intends to eventually work it into good for us, though the consequential judgements may be painful and severe.

Jabez also asked the lord to bless him. Proverbs 10:22 tells us that "the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and addeth no sorrow. Neither does toiling increase it." The blessing of the Lord is not earned by us. It simply accompanies His irresistible sovereign control of our life. The purpose of being blessed by God is so we can become a channel through whom others can be blessed. Through us, God will give others a "garment of praise for their spirit of heaviness." Isaiah 61:3. The great malady of rich and poor alike, is depression. They are bored to death with living and sick with monotony. But God will use us to impart to them the excitement of His purpose for the ages so they can understand that life is indeed worth living. God is liberating people so they in turn can bring liberation to others. We will be able to comfort those who mourn for we will have been comforted by God.

The day of the vengeance of our God will deal with the negative influences of all sin, and complete the process of teaching us what God wanted us to learn from our involvement it. In this way, each one of His created ones will be "blessed indeed!"

11 Corinthians 13:9, "This also we desire, even your perfect adjustment." The Greek word for "perfection" is a Greek word that means adjusted. All the sufferings of each one of us will be used by God to adjust us to the plan that God has prepared for us.

It is God's intention to bring everyone to find their centre in His Son, Jesus Christ. John 1:29 tells us that Christ came to take away the sin of the cosmos, and He is always successful in what He sets out to do. When God has completed His purpose for the ages, then everything will be functioning in perfect adjustment to His revealed will, and EVERYTHING will redound to His praise. God will centre the motivation of each heart on His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might be able to say with the Psalmist, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed." Psalm 57:7.

The elder brother was just as much a sinner as the prodigal son. It was the sins of his disposition that kept him off centre: his jealousy, his pride, his lack of love, his self-righteousness, his sulkiness and his touchiness, prevented him from enjoying the benefits of his father's house. God will continually nudge us to get out of our eccentric orbit around self and become centred in Christ, not as a cliche, not as a spiritual platitude, but as a living reality, as we lay our life down for others on a daily basis.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear." 11 Timothy 1:7. When we know that God has a plan that will result in everyone being saved from the negative consequences of sin, we don't need to be afraid that some will not be saved. Our witnessing for Christ will not be effective if it is not God's timing to awaken in another the need for Christ. God has His own specific timing for the process of each persons salvation.

Almost all Christianity operates and is energized by the negative emotion of fear. When we know that hell is not forever and its purpose is corrective, then we can start loving Jesus with a love that is not motivated by the fear of escaping hell. We can love Him because we know that He will save us from out of the very midst of the lake of fire if necessary.

When I was a child, the last twenty minutes of every evening service was used to tell horror stories about what happens to those who refuse to come to Christ. It frightened us so badly that many of us would go back to the alter every Sunday night to make sure that we would be saved. This is the way almost all Christendom operates - on the emotion of negative fear. The fear of never ending suffering as a punishment is not one of God's tools. Evangelists use it as a tool, but it is not one of God's tools. God draws with the power of a love that never quits until it has accomplished the purpose for its loving. Never failing, all victorious love is God's tool, not fear of never ending suffering.

Some say that the fact that we can be afraid that the sufferings of hell might be endless is proof that it is, but that's nonsense. Many people spend their whole life in bondage to fear of things that never happen. Just because you are afraid that something might happen doesn't mean that it will. It's hard to live in a "what-if" world. We need to live on the solid rock, Christ Jesus, for He never fails. 1 John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love, and perfect love casts out fear." When we learn that the faithfulness of God's love is not dependant on our response, then we will stop being afraid. Fear has its roots in the unknown. When you aren't sure what God is really like, you have good reason to be afraid of Him. Imagining that hell might be endless can cause a lot of fear, but it's only an imagination, it's not based on God's word.

There is a positive fear of God, but it has nothing to do with the negative side. It literally means "an awesome reverence." It is not a fear that God might make you suffer forever. Proverbs 14:27 says, "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life." If your fear of God is not producing a positive flow of life from you then you are afraid with the wrong kind of fear. When men fear endless hell, they seek an escape - that's negative; But when mean fear God, they seek a relationship with Him - that's positive. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." When you know what God is really like it makes you desire to have a positive relationship with Him. the Psalmist said, "I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." And in Hebrews 13:5 & 6 God said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." So that we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." When we understand what God is like and what His intentions are for each one of us, then the fear of what man might do to us loses its power.

We all have our own personal fears, and God will deal with each one of us according to our own fears. This is part of His processing of us. In the natural we have many fears, especially about a situation that we don't know what to do to correct. It is during these situations that god works into us the practical effects of knowing what He is really like.

You can't even fall into a false cult of your own choosing. God chooses your delusion for the purpose of processing you through judgement. 11 Thessalonians 2:11 & 12. The word translated "damned" literally means "judged." With a God like this who is in complete control of even the negative side of our life, we need not be afraid. We cannot hope to understand the negative situations in our life - those situations that we become frustrated about changing; but we can recognize that God take the responsibility for being the cause behind them, and He will eventually work it into good.

We don't need to know why He does what He does, but we do need to know that He is the doer of everything that happens. If God does not purpose to create something positive out of a situation, He simply does not allow that situation to exist; that is how complete His

sovereign control is. The writer of the Hebrews said, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Lord." But the psalmist knew what God is really like when he said, "Let me fall into the hands of the Lord for very great are His mercies." God had not given David a spirit of dreadful fear that drove him away from the presence of God; but rather, God had given David a spirit of awesome respect for the judgement of God That he know he deserved. 1 Chronicles 12:13.

God has not given us a spirit of fear. Therefore, "Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself, and let Him be your fear, and He shall be for you a sanctuary." Isaiah 8:13 & 14.

Psalms 103:2, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits." God imprints into our mind and spirit those truths that become a well of living water, rising up from within to refresh and bless us. Through circumstance after circumstance the Holy Spirit will engrave His truth into the very fibre of our being, until it produces a positive reflexive action from us, and it stabilizes our daily walk.

Often, when the Spirit of God quickens to us a certain truth, we feel like we've always known it. We say to ourselves, "That's the way I've always felt about it. That's the way it should be!" This is because God has been preparing our spirit to receive that truth and have it become a part of us.

We should thank the Lord for every injustice that is done against us, for it teaches us a new depth of God's forgiveness of us. And as we forgive others, so do we receive the assurance of God's forgiveness of us.

Many people carry a load of guilt and they are subconsciously tormented, so that when trouble comes along they say, "God is getting even with me for my past sins." But God is not like that. He doesn't run around "getting even." God has already forgiven everyone. All that's left is for him to bring our attitudes into line with His will so we can benefit from the forgiveness. Christ is the propitiation, not just for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. If you don't believe that God will save all, how can you be sure that he will save you? It's because we don't believe that God will save all that many of us go around telling people that we "know for sure that we are going to be saved," even though we don't believe that very many others will be; and it always sounds like we are trying to convince ourselves as much as we are trying to convince others.

God ahead and forget all the carnal traditions that defame the character of God, but forget not His benefits. All messages of damnation are heresies. All of God's judgements are remedial with a view towards peace. Christendom condemns countless millions to an eternal burning hell, but God says that He is the Saviour of the entire cosmos. Eternal hell is a heresy of the natural mind, it is not a message of truth. God has already forgiven everyone's iniquity, and in due time he will change everyone's attitudes so they can benefit from His forgiveness.

God is going to deal with the very causes in us that make us do wrong. When God is through with this we will become the personification of harmony and total peace within. When everything that is within us can bless the Lord for everything that he allows, then we will have begun to experience the benefit of His peace in the way that He meant us to know it.

When God is through, he will have taken all of the ravages of sin and transformed it into something better than before the sin had done its work. When God has finished the healing process within us beloved, there will not be one scar left in our mind or emotions. We won't be able to look back at even one period of time that we will consider wasted, no matter how unproductive or negative it seemed at the time. No matter how deep was the wound that sin made, and no matter how large the scar is that was left, when God's process of restoring has been completed, the negative consequences of sin will have been changed into a glorious positive for everyone, for He said, "Behold, I make all things new."

Forget not all His benefits but pause to give Him praise.

He is the source of all thy life, the victory of thy days.

To bless the Lord for sins forgiven - what mercy and what grace!

That he would take them all away, their mem'ry too, erase.

To bless the Lord for each desire He gives, to then fulfill,

Until thy heart is satisfied, complete, within His will.

Forget not all His benefits, the list is without end,

Out of His fulness He doth give

Far more than men has ever penned.!

Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. Psalms 68:19 & 20. What God loads us with day by day may not appear to be beneficial at the time, but we can be sure that God will work it out for our profit, and for our good.