Page –2 

Previous Page

Prophetic messages of  Bro. Zac Poonen

1.            Power over Satan

2.            God and Mammon

3.            Two types of sins and two types of blessings

4.            Four types of backsliders

5.             Spiritual dangers when we are blessed

6.             The true gospel and the false

7.            Living by faith

8.            Sovereignty of God

9.            Consuming with fire

10.        Fellowship and unity

11.        Grace

12.        How a spiritual movement declines!

13.        Are we making disciples or converts?

14.        The marks of cultism

15.        God’s purpose in Peter’s failure

16.        The anointing of the Holy Spirit – Example of Jesus

17.        Glory of God

18.    Are you a co-worker with Satan or with the Lord Jesus?

19.    The new wine

(1) POWER OVER SATAN

One verse that we should never forget in our whole life is

Hebrews 2:14,15 “Since then the children have partaken of

flesh and blood, He (Jesus) Himself likewise shared in the

same that through death (His death on  Calvary’s cross)

He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is

the devil, and release those who through fear of death

were all their lifetime subject to  bondage”  When Jesus

died, He made the devil powerless so that we might be

forever free of Satan and the bondage of fear that he had

put on us throughout out lifetime.  There are many types

of fears that people in the world have – fear of sickness,

fear of poverty, fear of failure, fear of people, fear of future

etc.  The greatest of all fears however is the fear of death.

Every other fear is inferior to the fear of death.  The fear of

death leads on to the fear of what will happen after death.

The Bible teaches very clearly that those who live in sin

will finally go to hell – the place that God has reserved for

those who do not repent.  The devil also will spend

eternity in the lake of fire along with those whom he

deceived and led into sin on this earth.  Jesus came to

this earth to save us from that eternal hell by taking the

punishment for our sins.  He also destroyed Satan’s power

over us so that he can never harm us again.

God will always be on our side against Satan. This is a

glorious truth which brings much encouragement, comfort

and victory to us.  The Bible says “submit to God.  Resist

the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).  At the

name of Jesus, Satan will always flee.  The picture that

most Christians have in their minds is one of Satan

chasing them and of their running for their lives from him.

But that is exactly the opposite of what the Bible teaches.

Satan was scared to stand before our Saviour. Jesus is

the Light of the world and the prince of darkness had to

disappear from before Him.  Satan is also afraid of

everyone who uses the name of Jesus with divine authority

against him.  Jesus told his disciples about how he had

seen the fall of Satan in heaven.   And there, Jesus said

that Satan’s fall had been “like lightning” when God cast

him out. (Luke 10:18)  When Jesus told Satan in the

wilderness “Be gone Satan”, he disappeared from Jesus’

presence too at the speed of lightning.  And when we

resist Satan in the name of Jesus today, he will flee from

before us too at the speed of light.  The darkness flees

before the light.  Satan is afraid of the name of Jesus.  He

hates to be reminded of the fact that Jesus is Lord and

that he was defeated by the Lord Jesus.    Whenever you

are in a difficulty or face some insurmountable problem or

you face something for which there appears to be no

human answer, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.

Say to Him “Lord Jesus, you are on my side against the

devil.  Help me now”  And then turn to Satan and tell  him

“In the name of Jesus I resist you Satan” Satan will flee

from you immediately, because Jesus defeated him on

the cross.  Satan is powerless  when you walk in the

light of God and resist him in Jesus’ Name.

Satan was defeated once and for all by the Lord Jesus

Christ on the cross.  You need never again be afraid of

Satan.  He cannot trouble you.  He cannot harm you.  He

may tempt you. He may attack you.  But the grace of

God in Christ will always make you victorious over him, if

you humble yourself, submit to God and walk in His light

at all times.  There is tremendous power in the light.

Satan, the prince of darkness, can never enter the realm

of light.  Satan has power over many believers because

they  are walking in darkness, living in some secret sin,

not forgiving others, jealous of someone, or pursuing some

selfish ambition in their lives etc.

You will have no power over Satan if you don’t walk in

purity.  And you will never have power over Satan if you

have not learnt to overcome his accusations by the blood

of Christ.  You will  have no power over Satan if  you love

the world – for Satan is the prince and ruler of this world.

If you love anything or anyone on this earth more than you

love God, you will not be able to over power Satan (Rev

12:11).

Love the Lord Jesus Christ and His will for your life with all

your heart  with all your mind and with all your strength.

Never allow the devil to pollute your minds in any way.

Give your life to Christ completely and determine to live

totally for Him henceforth.

(2) GOD AND MAMMON 

It is interesting to see that even though Jesus referred to Satan as "the ruler of this world" (John 14:30), He never referred to Satan as the alternative master to God, whom people have the choice of serving. When Jesus spoke of two masters whom man could serve, He said that the two were God and Mammon (Luke 16:13). In Christendom, generally peaking, preachers have always urged people to choose between God and Satan. Jesus however urged people to choose between God and Mammon.

Satan is a master schemer. He knows that if people are told to choose between God and Satan, no-one will choose Satan. But when the choice is between God and Mammon, Satan knows that even believers will find it difficult to make a decisive choice.

Satan knows that most Christians choose their jobs and their place of residence, etc., based on their passion for Mammon (property and money) rather than on any desire for the promotion of God's kingdom. Satan knows that all such believers are useless for God's purposes, irrespective of the amount of religious activity they engage in.

Satan also knows that most of the Christian work in the world is more dependent on Mammon (money and property) than on the power of the Holy Spirit. Satan knows that all such Christian work will not have any eternal value - even if the reports of such work appear impressive when presented attractively by "public relations experts" in colourful Christian magazines!!

We must not be ignorant of Satan's wiles. It is against Satan's wiles that we are told to stand firm, and not against his wrath (Eph.6:11). Satan's wrath has never hindered the work of God at any time. Persecution has only made the church of Jesus Christ flourish in every country and at all times. But Satan has often succeeded with his wiles, where he has failed to accomplish anything with his wrath (see Rev.12:11,12).

Satan is happy to be hidden out of sight, because he knows that he can deceive people better that way. He knows very well that when a believer is influenced by the love of mammon in his decisions, he is actually serving the prince of Mammon, even if he imagines that he is serving God!!

When a believer's attitude to Mammon is wrong, he will be wrong in every other area too - because he then becomes a part of this world system that our Lord came to destroy. Such a man is a traitor to the Lord's cause on earth, even though he may not realize it. He is actually working on Satan's side, without knowing it. This is the fundamental problem with many believers today. They have not understood Satan's schemes.

Before Jesus went to the cross, He told His disciples, "The prince of this world comes and he has no power over Me" (John 14:30 - Living). Mammon had no power over Jesus. And so Satan could find no foothold in Him and could not touch Him in any way. But Satan finds plenty of foothold through Mammon in the lives of most believers. Thus he is able to divert them from God's perfect plan for their lives.

Throughout the last 20 centuries, the greatest opposition for the Lord's servants has always come from "Christians" and so-called "believers" who are Biblical in all their doctrines except the doctrine of "the love of money"! It is not at all surprising that "believers" who worship Mammon oppose God's true prophets. Jesus Himself faced such opposition from the leaders of the Pharisees who had all their other doctrines right (Matt.23:3), but who loved and served Mammon (Luke 16:14).

Christians who pursue after Mammon have plenty of money to travel whenever they like, and wherever they like. They also have enough to buy whatever they like, whenever they like. Only lovers of Mammon can afford such expensive habits. But those who have an extravagant life-style can never be witnesses for the Lord in the midst of a suffering world.

It is dangerous to have money far beyond what we need. It was because Jonah had plenty of extra money that he could afford to buy a ticket to go to Tarshish - in plain disobedience to the Lord's command. How safe Jonah would have been from such a temptation, if he did not have any excess money available with him at that time.

It was to save His apostles from such temptations, that Jesus left them poor in the world. The Lord Who made Job, Abraham and David rich could easily have made His apostles rich too. But He didn't. Why? Because new-covenant apostles, unlike Old Testament saints, had to wage war against Satan. And when Satan came against them, it was essential that Satan should find "no love for Mammon in them"? Otherwise the Lord's purposes could never have been fulfilled through them.

What about you? When Satan comes against you, does he have power over you, because he finds the love of Mammon in you?

The battle against Satan is not fought on earth, but in "the heavenlies" (Eph.6:12). It is there that Satan's power has to be bound by us (Matt.18:18). Only those who are heavenly-minded can fight this battle. Those who love Mammon are earthly-minded and are useless in this battle. Satan knows that very well, even if believers don't.

In heaven, the saints walk on golden streets. Heaven has been prepared for those who have learnt to put gold under their feet even on earth. Our fasting and praying cannot accomplish God's purposes, if we love Mammon and are earthly-minded. It is only the prayer of "a righteous man" - one who has been freed from attachment to earthly things, like Elijah - whose prayers are effective before God (James 5:16,17). This is why God allows us at times, to lose large amounts of money - to deliver us from the love of Mammon and to make us effective for Him.

It will be very difficult for a disciple of Jesus if he is totally honest and wholehearted, to become rich through his business in a world that is under the dominion of Satan. To become a wealthy man in such a world, one would have to follow Satan's principles in some area or the other, and disobey the principles of God's Word. The Bible clearly says,

"Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction." (1 Tim.6:9). One who seeks to be "rich towards God" can never become "rich in this world" (Luke 12:21; 1 Tim.6:17).

This applies also to preachers who become rich through preaching the gospel and selling Christian books and tapes. Another gimmick these days, is to conduct tours to Israel

("the holy land"??). If a preacher can gather 10 people for a trip to Israel, the travel agent will give him one free ticket. All such preachers are worshipping "the golden calf" and are servants of Mammon, and not of the Lord Jesus Christ. [Someone asked me once if I had ever been to the holy land. I told him I was walking there every day!]

The "prosperity gospel" was invented in the latter half of the 20th century by Mammon-loving preachers who had to find some "Scriptural" explanation to justify their extravagant life-styles and the immense amount of wealth that they had accumulated from the tithes and offerings of their "devotees". So they hunted up Old Testament promises that God had given to Israel and began to proclaim those promises as the unfailing mark of God's blessing today. And money-loving believers gladly lapped up this new gospel!

A secular journalist in the U.S.A., who heard of such a church where the "prosperity gospel" was being preached, wanted to find out if this teaching really worked. So he went to the church's parking lot and checked out the makes of the cars parked there. He found that the cars parked in the spots reserved for the "Pastor" and "Assistant Pastors" were expensive cars!! But most of the other cars were cheap ones! He concluded that the "prosperity gospel" did work - but only for those who lived off the tithes and offerings of the congregation!! The rest of the congregation remained in the same condition that they had always been in!

Even in poor countries like India, preachers are becoming rich, off the tithes and offerings of poor people, through this counterfeit gospel.

What must the Lord think of the Christian "church" and its leaders today, who have pursued after Mammon, become tolerant of sin, and thus made themselves powerless in the battle against Satan. The gates of Hell have prevailed against this "church". And that is the clearest proof that this "church" is not the church that our Lord is building - for the powers of darkness can never prevail against that church (Matt.16:18).

Whenever a genuine Holy-Spirit revival comes anywhere, it will be a revival that delivers believers from the love of Mammon. Only such a revival will drive the prince of Mammon out of the church.

Any other so-called "revival" is a counterfeit.

He who has ears to hear let him hear.

(3) Two Types of Sins & Two Types of Blessings

TWO TYPES OF SINS

The first two sins that man committed that are mentioned in the Bible, are the ones described in Genesis 3 and 4. Those who sinned there were immediately judged by God. But we notice a difference in the way God judged Adam and the way He judged Cain.

God never cursed Adam or Eve (in Genesis 3) after they committed sin. He only cursed the ground. But in Genesis 4, we read that when Cain sinned God cursed him immediately. This is the first time we read of God cursing a man. Why this difference? What was the difference between Adam's sin and Cain's sin?

Just this that when Adam sinned he hurt only himself. But when Cain sinned he hurt another human being as well. There are some sins that we commit that hurt only ourselves. There are other sins that we commit that hurt others as well. God takes more seriously the sins which hurt others.

If you smoke or drink or take harmful drugs or indulge in dirty habits or thoughts, or keep bitterness or anger in your heart, etc., you hurt only yourself. But if you gossip, speak evil of others, judge others, lose your temper at others, act in jealousy or bitterness or anger or hatred against others, or commit adultery or murder, etc., you harm those others too.

Ask yourself what you are more horrified to hear - that a brother in your church got drunk or that a brother in your church spoke evil of another brother? Your answer to that will show you clearly whether you look at sin the way God looks at sin or not.

Think of all the sins that you can commit that harm only yourself. There are many. They fall under the category of Adam's sin. Then think of all the sins that you can commit that harms others as well. These too are many. These fall under the category of Cain's sin.

Jesus condemned the Pharisees primarily because their sins hurt others. The sinful woman caught in adultery (on the other hand) may have hurt only herself (John 8:1-11). She may have been forced or blackmailed into adultery, we don't know. Jesus however, gave her the benefit of the doubt and was merciful to her and forgave her. But the self-righteous Pharisees who criticised her for adultery were guilty of far greater sins, such as evicting poor widows from their rented apartments for not paying their rents on time! And Jesus denounced those Pharisees severely for that (Matt.23:14)!! Why? Because their sin hurt others. They may have been legally right in turning those widows out on to the streets. But they were morally wrong and evil in doing so!

We too may be legally right in certain situations. But if we hurt others, we will always be doing serious wrong in God's eyes. The true Christian is merciful to others just as God has been merciful to him. Judgment will be merciless in the final day of judgment to those who have shown no mercy to others who sinned against them.

The Christian church has unfortunately not distinguished between these two types of sins. That is why almost all believers are more horrified to see a believer drunk than to hear a believer backbiting against another. Most believers consider smoking cigarettes to be a more serious sin than losing one's temper at others.

Both these groups of sins dishonor God. But when God cursed Cain He indicated clearly which type of sins He hates more. I have never yet heard of an assembly that prevented a brother or sister from taking part in the "breaking of bread" for gossiping (and thus ruining the reputation of others). But almost every such assembly will prevent a believer from taking part in the "breaking of bread" if he is found to be drunk even once!! What does that prove? Only this that such churches are totally out of tune with God's mind. Both such believers should be prevented from taking part in the breaking of bread. But why is it only the latter who is invariably disciplined?

Is there a difference between stealing a man's money and stealing his reputation? We call the first theft, and we call the second gossiping. But the latter is far worse than the former - because a man's reputation is far more valuable than money. But how many believers recognise that?

Make a list of the sins that you have committed that have harmed others. Recognise those sins as the worst sins of all. Thereafter, when you look at smokers and drunkards and drug-addicts, humbly acknowledge that all of them are far, far better people than you are.

He who has ears to hear let him hear.

TWO TYPES OF BLESSINGS

The Bible says that the gift of the Holy Spirit is meant to bring to us "the blessing of Abraham" (Gal.3:14). When God blessed Abraham, He told him, "I will bless you and you will be a blessing. In you all the families of the earth will be blessed...." (Gen.12:3,4).

There are two parts to that blessing: "I will bless you" and "You will be a blessing". This is what happens when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Most believers seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit to be blest themselves and not in order to be a blessing to others. This is why there are so many counterfeit experiences of the Holy Spirit rampant in Christendom today.

Jesus said that the power of the Holy Spirit would make us His witnesses ("a blessing to others", as He Himself was) to the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8). This is "the blessing of Abraham" who was told that "the entire world will be blessed because of you" (Gen.12:3-Living). Families living in the uttermost parts of the earth would be blessed through Abraham. And families living in the uttermost parts of the earth will be blessed through us, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus told the Jews in the synagogue at Nazareth about His being anointed with the Spirit and the blessings that would flow out as a result, He mentioned, "preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, delivering the oppressed and announcing freedom for the captives and sight for the blind and the blessings of God to one and all" (Lk.4:18,19-Living). Notice that every single result of the anointing was blessing to others. Peter's words in Cornelius' house agrees with this : "Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power and He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil." (Acts 10:38). Again we notice that the emphasis is on blessing to others.

When Jesus taught His disciples to ask their heavenly Father for the Holy Spirit, He illustrated it with a parable (see Luke 11:5-13). He spoke of a man who went to his neighbour's house and kept on knocking until he got the loaves of bread that he needed for feeding a visitor. The main point of the parable is persistence in asking for the Holy Spirit (as becomes clear in v.13). But we must also notice the fact that the man did not go to get bread for himself, but for another. It was someone else's need that drove him to his neighbour's house. Once he had got the bread from his neighbour and had fed his visitor, I presume he must have gone to bed and not gone around "reporting" this good deed to others. I can't imagine this man getting someone to take a photograph of him giving the bread to his visitor at midnight and then sending copies of the photograph to all his neighbours.

Yet many Christians do just that: They advertise the good they do, in order to impress people that they are serving God. Jesus told us that even our left hand should not know what our right hand does.

God wants to bless us - immensely. But He does not want us to become reservoirs or lakes. He wants us to be channels through which rivers of living water flow out to others (Jn.7:37-39). And He wants those rivers to flow secretly and quietly, for the glory of God alone.

Every gift of the Spirit mentioned in the New Testament epistles is meant to bless others (1 Cor.12; Rom.12; Eph.4). Even the gift of tongues that edifies us personally is given primarily so that we might always be spiritually fresh and in touch with God, so that we can serve others better.

Those who seek after personal blessing primarily - whether physical health, material prosperity or emotional excitement - have not understood God's purpose at all. These are only the crumbs that fall from His table.

Our calling as believers is to follow in Jesus' footsteps - and He did not come to earth to BE blessed Himself but to bless others.

He who has ears to hear let him hear.

(4) Four Types of Backsliders
 

The Bible says that one of the signs of the end-times will be a great apostasy (falling away from the faith) (2 Thess.2:3). Backsliding has become a very common feature in all churches now.

Jesus spoke about four types of backsliders in the three parables in Luke 15 - represented by the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost younger son and the lost elder son

The Lost Sheep And Lack of Fellowship

The lost sheep is a picture of a born-again believer who backslid. He went astray because he lacked fellowship. Perhaps he was alone in a place where there was no good church. Not having a strong enough relationship with the Lord, he was dragged down by his surroundings. Or perhaps, he did not value fellowship with other believers sufficiently, and thus went astray. If he had stayed in the midst of the church, he would have been safe. But perhaps he was self-confident and thus went astray.

There may have been other reasons too why he backslid. The attractions of the world may have proved to be too much for him. Or perhaps he was discouraged by the pressure of trial. He may have been deceived by the craftiness of men and demons. Or he may have been careless in his walk with the Lord and gradually fell away.

The Lord describes His flock in this parable as consisting of "righteous persons WHO NEED NO REPENTANCE" (Lk.15:7). The reason they don't need any repentance is because they are judging themselves all the time and striving at all times to have a conscience without offence towards God and men. They are quick to confess the slightest sinful thought and attitude to God, and equally quick to confess the slightest sinful word and deed to men. Thus they live each day as those who need no repentance - because they repent constantly. The lost sheep did not have this attitude - and so it backslid.

The Lost Silver Coin And A Careless Church

The lost coin was lost due to very different reasons. It was lost because of the failure of the woman. The woman is a picture of a church. She was careless in taking care of her coins.

The coin was a silver coin - and silver was used to redeem the firstborn children of Israel in the Old Testament (Numbers 18:16). So the silver coin speaks of a redeemed child of God (once saved) who is now lost. But this believer backslid primarily due to the failure of his church. His church was perhaps a dead church where the standards of God's Word were not preached and so they did not care for his eternal soul.

Cain asked the Lord if he was his brother's keeper. He was. In the church, every one of us has a responsibility to "keep" our brothers and sisters from falling. So this parable is directed not at the backslider as much as at the other members of his church (the woman) who are careless enough to allow a coin to be lost.

The Lost Younger Son And A Spirit of Independence and Rebellion

The younger son represents yet another type of backslider. He was one who was impatient to launch out on his own - before God's time. He sought his own, loved money, rebelled against his father and finally left his home.

Here is a believer who wants to receive everything he can, from God and from his elder brothers. But after he has received everything, he leaves them. Many preachers make use of their connection with their spiritual fathers and thereby get a ministry and a name for themselves. Once they have got that, they seek to become independent.

This son is a picture of a believer who doesn't want the discipline of being subject to God-appointed authority (his father). God's purpose in all discipline is to break His children, so that He can commit spiritual authority to them one day. But many like this younger son, frustrate God's purposes for them, and end up with "the pigs"! Only then do some of them "come to their senses" and return to the Father's house in brokenness and repentance.

The Lost Elder Son And A Spirit of Comparison And Pride

The elder sn is a picture of a believer who does not look like a backslider. He is a proud, self-righteous believer who compares himself with others and who feels that he has lived a better life and produced better results in his ministry than others.

Instead of humbly acknowledging these blessings as the undeserved mercy of God, he becomes proud of what he thinks he has accomplished. Therefore God resists him and very soon Satan is able to knock him down.

The first three backsliders in these parables finally came home. But in the case of the elder son, we see him outside the house, at the end of the story. So the Lord must have wanted to point him out as the worst backslider of the lot.

The Right Attitude Towards Lost Sheep

The Good Shepherd went after the lost sheep until He found it. We who are under-shepherds must have the same attitude. We must go after those who have backslidden from the church through carelessness, Satanic deception and their lusts. It must be the longing of all of us to be "shepherds after God's own heart" (Jer.3:15), who can seek out the many such lost sheep around us today.

Many are quick to criticise these lost sheep, saying that they should not have wandered off on their own, or listened to the voices of false shepherds, etc., What God is looking for however are shepherds after His own heart who will go after these lost sheep and bring them back to the fold.

The Right Attitude Towards Lost Coins

The woman who lost her silver coin was eager to find it.

So she did two things: She lit a lamp and swept her house diligently, until she found it. These are the two things every church needs to do. First of all, she needs to light a lamp. The life of Jesus is the only true light (John 1:4) and this is what the church needs to hold up and emphasise at all times. Secondly, there is a lot of rubbish - sin and human traditions in the church - that needs to be swept out completely. Only then will many lost coins be found.

The Right Attitude Towards Lost Younger Sons

The father of the prodigal son did not go looking for his son when he was lost. He allowed his son to reap the consequences of his rebellion. And when his son came to an end of himself, he came home on his own. He was not carried home on anyone's shoulder, like the lost sheep. He came back when he was totally sick and tired of himself. God's love for such backsliders is shown in His not going after them, but allowing them to reap what they have sown.

Many believers however lack this wisdom and seek to carry these rebellious sons on their shoulders in to the church. Thus they ruin them. On the other hand, these believers don't do much for the lost sheep. Thus because they lack discernment, they console those who should be rebuked, and rebuke those who should be consoled.

Feeding rebellious sons of God will only ensure that they never return to God. Such acts are not acts of compassion but acts of folly. Such foolish actions make these lost sons stay out in the far country even longer - and in some cases forever.

When the prodigal son returned, the father made him sit at his right hand. He didn't place his son on probation or make him live in the servant's quarters - because his son had come back in brokenness and repentance - on his own, without anyone having to persuade him.

When rebellious sons return to the church in true brokenness and repentance, our hearts must be wide open to welcome them. Here is where we see the difference in attitude between those who are like God and those who are like the Pharisees. It will certainly take time for confidence to be restored in such a prodigal son who was once rebellious. But if he has repented, he must be accepted immediately, warmly, and wholeheartedly, even if he is not given any ministry in the church for many years.

The Right Attitude Towards Lost Elder Sons

In the case of the elder son, the father went outside the house and pleaded with him repeatedly. But the older boy would not yield. Jesus left the story open-ended at this point, leaving it to our imagination to decide what happened to him finally.

There are two possibilities: Either, he may have yielded to his father's pleadings and finally come back home, with his head held high. Or he may have rejected his father's pleadings and gone out into the darkness. Whichever way he may have chosen, he lost the place of honour in his home, for that had already been given to his younger brother. The father had already given his ring and the seat at his right hand to his younger son.

There is a vast difference between "prodigal sons" and "elder brothers". Prodigal sons are convinced of their sin on their own and repent deeply and seek no place of honour in the church. They only want to be slaves until the end of their lives. They are truly broken. "Elder sons" however have to be repeatedly spoken to, before they are convinced. And even when they are convinced, they seek to come back to their place of honour in the church - as kings and not as slaves.

King Saul knew that he had sinned. But he wanted to confess his sin privately to Samuel. He told Samuel, "I have sinned; but please honour me now before the elders of my people and before Israel" (1 Sam.15:30). King David also sinned - far more seriously than Saul. But he wrote a psalm and acknowledged his sin publicly (Psalm 51).

Jesus told the Pharisees that their greatest sin was that they sought to justify themselves before men (Luke 16:15). God hates this sin more than any other. There is very little hope for a backslider who wants to justify himself before men.

God's Word o sinners has always been: "Only acknowledge your sin" (Jer.3:13).

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

(5) Spiritual Dangers when we are Blessed

When the blessing of the Lord comes upon our life and labours, we face many dangers.

Spiritual Pride

The first of all dangers is spiritual pride. Whenever God blesses us, Satan will tempt us to compare our spiritual growth and ministry with that of others. God opposes every proud person - believer or unbeliever. So we are safe only if we keep our face in the dust before God always.

Pride will make us lose the grace of God, even if we do not lose our gifts. We may still have a ministry, but the grace and anointing of God will be absent from our lives. When Lucifer sinned, he lost his anointing, but he did not lose his supernatural gifts. He has those gifts even today. This should be a warning to anyone who glories in his gifts or ministry. Immature believers (who cannot distinguish between grace and gifts) may flatter us and tell us that the "anointing of God" is still upon us, even when "Ichabod" ("the glory has departed") is written all over our life and ministry (1 Sam.4:21). The danger is that gradually the voice of those flatterers can replace the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

There is actually only one infallible mark of God's blessing on our lives - that we become increasingly Christlike - for that is what He predestined us for (Rom.8:29). God did not predestine us to go to heaven or to have a great ministry. He predestined us to be like Jesus.

We must not confuse oratory with the anointing. An anointed ministry will always draw people to a deeper devotion to Jesus, to a greater brokenness, and to a greater hatred for sin. Oratory, on the other hand, will only draw people to admire us and to be more attached to us. Many politicians are great orators and they can hold audiences spellbound for hours and stir them emotionally. But they draw people to themselves. Orators are proud, whereas anointed preachers are humble.

Unwillingness to Receive Correction

A second danger is an unwillingness to be corrected. When God blesses our ministry, it is easy to begin to think that we can never be wrong. We cannot then be corrected even by older brothers. We will justify ourselves in the face of every correction.

When Judas Iscariot was corrected by the Lord, he was offended and went out and betrayed the Lord immediately (Compare John 12:4-8 with Matt.26:10 and14). Thus he destroyed himself. Peter however humbled himself, even when Jesus called him "Satan". Thus he saved himself.

The Holy Spirit always shows us the glory of Jesus. And when we see that glory, we will see our own need and our lack immediately. If we are godly, we will then judge ourselves. The promise of Scripture is that "if we judge ourselves rightly, we will not be judged by God" (1 Cor.11:31). The following verse goes on to say that if we do not judge ourselves rightly, then God Himself will be compelled to judge us - by disciplining us. But He disciplines us only in order to save us from being "condemned along with the world" (1 Cor.11:32).

Exalting Ourselves

When God blesses us, it is easy for us to exalt ourselves over others. We can gradually build up a "fan-club" of those who admire us - especially among the youth - just like the filmstars do.

Solomon's son, King Rehoboam sought popularity with the young people in his land and did not listen to the counsel of his elders. This was what led to the division of Israel.

This is how many divisions come in to Christendom too. Divisions and splits are produced by strong, uncrucified people who exalt themselves, at times when God is blessing His work.

Consider two examples from the book of Acts.
Ephesus saw one of the greatest revivals and some of the most amazing miracles mentioned in Acts (Acts 19:11-20). But three years later, Paul warned the elders there that a split was looming ahead of them (Acts 20:30). Paul warned those elders that after he left Ephesus, some of them would "draw away disciples after them". They would seek their own name and ministry, and split the church, without being concerned about how their actions would dishonour the Lord's Name and would "give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme"
(2 Samuel 12:14).

Look at another instance: Just after Paul and Barnabas had an immensely successful ministry, they broke up (Acts 15:39). They separated from each other over the issue of John Mark. But this time God produced something good out of the split. He used it to produce two teams of workers (one led by Paul and the other led by Barnabas) instead of just one - and thus the work of evangelism was furthered even more!! John Mark also became a useful servant of the Lord later, writing the gospel of Mark.

Why was God able to produce something good out of this latter split? There was a reason. It was because, unlike the Ephesian elders, Barnabas conducted himself in a spiritual way. Barnabas did not split any church. Neither did he drag away any believers after himself. He did not interfere in Paul's sphere of work but went away to a totally new area and worked with John Mark there (Acts 15:39b). Barnabas was a godly man who was more concerned about the Lord's Name than his own ministry, and so he conducted himself as a true disciple of Jesus. Thus God could bless this latter split. But men like Barnabas are rare to find in Christendom.

1 Corinthians 11:19 tells us that "there must be factions (divisions) among you, in order that those who are approved may become evident among you." God uses divisions to expose the ungodly and to remove the weeds (the proud and the haughty) from His garden, the church.

Many millenniums ago, a "split" took place in heaven itself. That was how God cleansed heaven. He allowed the chief angel Lucifer to drag away with him, all the other angels who were even slightly proud and rebellious (Rev.12:4 with Isa.14:12-15). Thus heaven was cleansed. That work of cleansing continues even today in the church, wherever God is at work.

The Lord says, "I will remove from your midst your proud exulting ones, and I will leave among you a humble, lowly people and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord." (Zeph.3:12). The remnant left in the church will have one characteristic: "They will do no wrong and tell no lies" (verse 13). Only then will the Lord will find delight in the church and "exult over it with joy" (verse 17)

Note one characteristic of those who leave the presence of the Lord: They begin to tell lies. They start by telling small lies but gradually become "liars who have seared their own conscience" (1 Tim.4:2). In contrast, one mark of those who follow the Lord will be this: They will cleanse themselves of all lying (Rev.14:4,5).

Good And Bad Examples

God has given us many good and bad examples in the Scriptures, in this connection. A wise man will learn from all of them.

Abraham never grabbed the good land, when there was a conflict between his servants and Lot's servants. He allowed Lot to choose first. Lot immediately grabbed the better land (Gen.13:10), but suffered greatly as a result. Abraham gave up his rights. So God gave Abraham all the land. "The meek will inherit the earth".

Jacob unfortunately, never followed his grandfather's example. He kept on grabbing things - the birthright from his brother Esau, the blessing from his father Isaac, the daughters and flock of his uncle Laban etc., It was only when he stopped grabbing those earthly things and grabbed on to God, that he finally became Israel (Gen.32:26)..

David followed Abraham's example and never grabbed the kingdom from Saul, even though God had anointed David as king. God tested David for many years, on this very point. But not once would David grab the kingdom. He waited for God to give it to Him. And God gave it to him, at the right time.

Absalom however was different. He was jealous of his father David's popularity and worked shrewdly and cleverly behind his back and "stole away the hearts of the men of Israel" from his father (2 Sam.15:16). Then he drove his father out and became king. But God brought his kingdom to a quick end.

Our ministry must be God-given - not something that we have grabbed for ourselves. "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven" (John 3:27). What we grab for ourselves can never be from God.

It is very easy to understand all this. It is also easy to preach it to others. But if we don't live by these principles, then we will be disqualified, even if we do understand it and preach it
(1 Cor.9:27). Jesus said, "If you know these things, you will still be blessed, only if you do them" (John 13:17).

Jesus never schemed or grabbed. He never flattered people to earn their support. He never compelled people to join His group. His attitude at all times was, "All that the Father gives me SHALL come to Me" (John 6:37). He did not have a lust to disciple large numbers, or to have many people in his "church". He was satisfied with the few whom the Father had given him. All of us too should be satisfied with "those whom the Father gives us".

Jesus drew people. He never dragged them or grabbed them. He said, "If I am lifted up, I will draw men to Myself" (Jn.12:32). We too are called to lift up the crucified Christ and thus to draw people to Him. But only a crucified man can lift up a crucified Christ properly. A man whose hands are nailed to the cross cannot grab or drag anyone!! He can only draw!! The problem in Christendom today is that uncrucified people are trying to lift up a crucified Christ.

May the Lord help us to keep our faces in the dust and to learn His ways.
He who has ears to hear let him hear

 

(6) THE TRUE GOSPEL AND THE FALSE
 

Christians are generally speaking, categorized into two groups as follows:
(1) "Roman Catholics" and "Protestants" - depending on birth.
(2) "Episcopal"(conformist) and "Free church" (non-conformist) - depending on church-pattern.
(3) "Born again Christians" and "Nominal Christians" - depending on an "experience";
(4) "Evangelicals" and "Liberals" - depending on doctrine.
(5) "Charismatics" and "Non-charismatics" - depending on "speaking in tongues".
(6) "Full-time Christian workers" and "Secular workers" - depending on profession. There could be other such categorizations too. But none of these categorizations deal with the root of the problem that our Lord came to solve.

Many know that "Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor.15:3). But many do not know that the Bible says that Christ also died "that we should no longer live for ourselves but for Him" (2 Cor.5:15). A more Scriptural way of categorizing Christians therefore would be as follows: "Those who live for themselves" and "Those who live for Christ"; or Those who seek their own" and "Those who seek the things of Christ"or "Those who seek earthly things first" and "Those who seek the kingdom of God first"; or "Those who love money" and "Those who love God". (Jesus said it was impossible to love both -Lk.16:13)

But I have never heard of such a categorization being used. This categorization deals with the Christian's inner life and private walk with God, whereas the methods mentioned earlier deal with the external details of his life. Yet it is in this latter way that heaven categorizes Christians. And if that be the case, then this is the only categorization that matters! In this method, others cannot categorize us. We have to categorize ourselves - for no-one but we ourselves know our inner motivations and desires. Even our wives may not be aware what we are living for.

Our Lord did not come primarily to give people a doctrine, or a church-pattern or to make them speak in tongues
or even to give them an experience!

He came to "save us from sin". He came to lay the axe to the root of the tree. And the root of sin is : Being centered in ourselves, seeking our own and doing our own will. If we do not permit the Lord to axe and uproot this "root" from our lives, we will be Christians only superficially. Satan may however deceive us into imagining that we belong to a higher class than other Christians, because of our doctrine or our experience or our church-pattern!

Satan doesn't care even if we have the right doctrine, experience and church-pattern, so long as we continue to "live for ourselves" (This, by the way, is just another phrase for "living in sin"!!). Christendom today is filled with Christians who seek their own and live for themselves, who are yet convinced that God views them as superior to other Christians, merely because of doctrinal differences or church-pattern or "experiences". This shows what a great work Satan has succeeded in doing in Christendom.

In John 6:38, our Lord said that He came from heaven to earth :
(1) To deny His human will (that He had acquired, when He came to earth as a Man), and (2) To do the will of His Father, as a Man. Thereby He became our Example.

Throughout Jesus' earthly life -- during all His 33^1/2; years - He denied His own will and did His Father's will. And He told His disciples clearly that those who wanted to be His disciples would have to go the same way. He came to hit at the root of sin in our lives - "doing our own will" - and to deliver us from that.

In the realm of science, for thousands of years, man made the mistake of imagining that the earth was the center of the universe. It looked like that to human eyes - because the sun, moon and stars did indeed appear to be revolving around the earth once every 24 hours. It took the courage of a man like Copernicus to question this popular notion, just about 450 years ago, and to show that it was utterly false and that the earth was not even the center of the solar system, leave alone the universe. The earth he showed was created to be centered in the sun. As long as man had the wrong centre, his scientific calculations and deductions were wrong - because his centre was wrong. But once man discovered the right centre, then these calculations and deductions turned out right.

It is the same with us when we remain "self-centered" instead of being "God-centered". Our understanding of the Bible and of God's perfect will (our calculations and deductions) will then be wrong. But just as men were convinced for over 5000 years that they were right (as we saw above), we too may imagine that we are right! But actually, we will be 100% wrong.

This is what we see even among many "good Christians" today. They have so many different interpretations of the same Bible - and yet each one is convinced that his interpretation alone is right and everyone else's is wrong. The others, they will say are "deceived". Why is this so? Because they've got their centre wrong.

Man was created to be centered in God and not in himself. And when Christians have got their centre wrong, their "gospel" will be wrong too. Basically, there are only two gospels being preached today - one man-centered and the other God-centered.

The man-centered gospel promises man that God will give him everything he needs to make his life on earth comfortable and will also give him a seat in heaven at the end of his life. Man is told that Jesus will forgive all his sins, heal all his diseases, bless and prosper him materially, solve all his earthly problems, etc., etc.

Self still remains at the center of such a man's life, and God revolves around him - as his servant - to answer his every prayer and to give him whatever he wants!! All that he has to do is "believe" and "claim every material blessing in Jesus' Name"!!

This is a false gospel, because no mention is made of "repentance". Repentance is what John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul, Peter and all the apostles preached first of all. And repentance, unfortunately, is what is not preached today even last of all!!

The God-centered gospel, on the other hand, calls upon man to repent. It explains that "repentance" means:

Turning FROM Self as the center of one's life, from doing one's own will, from walking along one's self-chosen way, from loving money, and from loving the world and the things in the world (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life), etc., and

Turning TO God, loving Him with one's whole heart, making Him the Centre of one's life and doing His will henceforth etc.,

Faith in Christ's death on the cross can forgive a man his sins only when he has repented. Then he can receive the power of the Holy Spirit empower him to deny himself daily so that he can live a God-centered life. This is the gospel that Jesus and the apostles preached.

The false gospel makes the gate wide and the way broad (easy to walk along, because one does not have to deny one's Self or stop living for one's own interests or stop seeking one's own gain). Millions attend meetings where such a false "gospel" is preached. And many enter through this gate and walk along this way, imagining that it leads to life. But it actually leads to destruction. The evangelists of this gospel however gloat in, and report about the large numbers of people who "raised their hands and made decisions for Christ" in their meetings!! But it is all a deception. Although some are indeed genuinely converted in such meetings, because of their sincerity, many such "converts" end up becoming "twofold children of hell" (Matt.23:15) - deceived about their true state.

The true gospel however, makes the gate small and the way narrow - not smaller or narrower than Jesus Himself made it, as some "super-spiritual" cultists do, but just the same size as Jesus made it. Few there be that find this way to life. There is not much for the evangelists of this gospel to report about, and the statistics are not impressive. But this gospel leads people to the Lord Jesus and to heaven.

"Be careful how you listen. Whoever obeys what he has heard, to him more light and understanding will be given. But whoever does not obey what he has heard, even what light and understanding he thinks he has will be taken away from him." (Paraphrase of Luke 8:18). He who has ears to hear let him hear.

 

(7) Living by faith

Many Christians through the ages, have sincerely sought after holiness and victory over sin by taking up their cross and denying themselves. But they have often found the Christian life to be a "hard grind" instead of the glorious life that the Bible describes. Their failure has been this that they never understood the life of faith under the new covenant. They sought to be holy by the principles of the old covenant and thus missed what God had for them.

2 Corinthians 3:6 tells us that the new covenant is a ministry of the Spirit that brings life, whereas the old covenant was a ministry of the letter that brought death! And if we walk according to the letter of God's commandments - even in the new covenant - it will still bring death. Only if we live by faith and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, will we enter into the "life of Christ".

Since Jesus has now ascended on high and sent the Holy Spirit to this earth, our life can be far more glorious than that of any Old Testament saint. So if we find ourselves living under condemnation, depression and gloom today, it must be because we are still living by old covenant principles (2 Cor.3:9).

There were two things that Jesus emphasised frequently in His ministry - faith in God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Adam missed this life of faith in the power of the Holy Spirit when he chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life (Gen.2:9). He chose to have the knowledge of good and evil resident within himself, instead of being dependent on God for it.

The tree of life represents the life of faith under the new covenant while the tree of knowledge of good and evil represents a life of self-effort under the old covenant.

If Adam had chosen the tree of life he would have lived by faith - in constant dependence on God. Then the Holy Spirit would have given him Divine life. But instead, he chose to live in dependence on himself, independent of God. And so he died. All unbelievers live like this - without constant dependence on God. Unfortunately many believers live this way too.

All religions teach their followers to do good and to avoid evil. Christians who seek after holiness also do good and avoid evil. And in their pursuit of holiness, they usually end up making finer and finer distinctions between good and evil, through various rules and practices!! Yet most of them still never come to a genuinely holy life. Why? Because they seek it by works and not (See Rom.4:5 and Hab.2:4).

For 1500 years God taught the Israelites through the Law what was good and what was evil. But obedience to the good works commanded by the Law did not lead a single Israelite to partake of eternal life. Living by any set of rules and regulations - however high the standard - will never lead anyone to genuine godliness, even today.

True holiness is the life of God in the soul of man - and God has to give this to us as a gift We can never attain to it. We must receive it by faith.

Paul said that in the days when he was unaware of the Law's demands, he felt he was "alive". But when he understood the demands of the Law of God, he became so aware of the wrongs in his life that he felt "dead" (Rom.7:9)!! This is the experience of many who are born again too. They appear to be happy and "alive" as long as they hear only about the forgiveness of their sins. But as soon as they hear about victory over sin and obedience to God's commandments, they feel condemned and miserable and "dead".

But Paul did not stop with the old-covenant law - and neither should we. God showed Paul another law - the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This was the law that finally set him free from sin (Romans 8:2).

Many seek to be holy by doing good. Remember that Eve ate of the tree because it looked good!! She wasn't seeking to do something evil!! She ate the fruit, not because she wanted to become like the devil, but because she wanted to become like God - for that was what the devil had promised her (Gen.3:5). People who live according to the Law also make the same mistake today - thinking that they can be like God through external good works.

Much of the good that we see in the lives of many Christians comes, not from genuine holiness, but from a good upbringing. Many of these Christians are upright, but they don't have a passionate hunger after God. They spend their lives accumulating Bible knowledge, but without any revelation from God. As a result, their lives are not much different from the lives of some good unbelievers around them. All such believers have missed something vital that God wants them to have - the Divine nature.

God is not first of all trying to make us do good, but to make us trust in Him so that He can give us His nature. In His eyes, the righteous are not those who do good but those who live by faith (See Rom.4:5 and Hab.2:4).

In Habakkuk 2:4, God contrasts two groups of people - those who believe in the Lord and those who are proud. Those who are proud cannot live by faith. The reason many do not accept God's gifts freely, by simple faith, is because they are too proud to accept anything freely. They would rather earn their forgiveness and their holiness by doing something themselves.

Satan tells Christians even today (as he told Eve) that they don't need to depend on God to know the difference between good and evil. He tells them that they can know the difference through their conscience or by reading the Bible. But many unbelievers also live by their conscience - and live fairly decent lives. A Christian can live like that too - but he won't be righteous in God's eyes.

Many believers begin their Christian life right - by trusting God alone for their justification. But then like the Galatian Christians, they seek to become perfect through their own efforts (Gal.3:3). They evaluate their spiritual worth by how much they have done things for God or by the results they have seen in their ministry. And they feel satisfied. But when people asked Jesus how they could do the works of God, He did not tell them to do good works. He told them to believe in Him (Jn.6:28,29)! Without faith it is impossible to please God.

There are many paradoxes in the Christian life and here is the first one that we encounter when we are saved: We know that Jesus justifies us so thoroughly that we now stand before God just as if we had never sinned - for God promises never to remember our past sins against us (Heb.8:12). At the same time we are also told never to forget our past sins, lest we become blind and shortsighted (2Pet.1:9)!!

So, on one hand we see that God does not remember our past sins and on the other hand we are told never to forget them!! How are we to live with this apparent contradiction?

Only by being MORE conscious of the fact that the blood of Jesus has cleansed away our past sins, than we are conscious of those sins themselves.

Read that last sentence once again, for this is one of the most important principles of the Christian life. If you believe it, this truth can liberate you.

There is no humility in feeling guilty about our past sins. That is unbelief, not humility, and is an insult to the blood of Christ. Such unbelief does not glorify God in any way.

Paul called himself "the chief of sinners" even after being a Christian for 30 years (1 Tim.1:15). Yet at the same time he also said, "I am conscious of nothing against myself" (1 Cor.4:4). Both facts were true.

This assurance is what gives us great confidence before God and great boldness against Satan's accusations and against the fears with which Satan tries to frighten us.

The most popular books in Christian bookshops today are those that deal with faith and the Holy Spirit. But most of these books lead Christians into a counterfeit faith and into counterfeit experiences. The "faith" that these books teach is faith to become wealthy and healthy - not to become holy and spiritual. Christians are told that they can get whatever they want from God if only they can believe sufficiently. Such teaching is fundamentally opposed to the teaching and the practice of the first apostles and to that of godly missionaries (of the 19th and early 20th centuries) who sacrificed their lives for the promotion of the kingdom of God.

Genuine faith is that which enables us to overcome the world
(1 Jn.5:4) - the world being "the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life" (1 Jn.2:16). As Jesus overcame this world, we too can overcome it. (See John 16:33 and Rev.3:21). When we overcome the world, we will no longer be deceived by Satan telling us that the pleasures that come through health and wealth are superior to the pleasure that comes through fellowship with God.

God wants us to taste the pure pleasure of fellowship with Him. That alone can drive away the desire for other pleasures (Psa.16:11). Many are trying hard to overcome the attraction of sinful pleasures by human means. But only when we taste fellowship with God can we be truly set free.

Faith in God and the power of the Holy Spirit can set you free from every bondage that Satan ever put upon you.

Do you find yourself unwilling to give up some particular worldly pleasure that attracts you. Then cry out to the Lord, like Peter did when he was sinking in the sea, saying - "Lord save me". You will find that God gives you not only the desire to be free from sin, but also a hatred for it!! In the new covenant, it is God Who works in us both to desire and to do His will (Phil.2:13). What a wonderful gospel the new covenant is!!

The life of Jesus is not something that we can imitate. We must partake of it through the Holy Spirit. Most Christians do not experience this because they are not poor in spirit. That means that they do not live their lives with a constant awareness of their need of God. They are self-confident and independent.

Jesus invited only the thirsty to come to Him and drink. To walk by faith we must be constantly thirsty (poor in spirit), always aware of our need of the Holy Spirit's power. There must be a constant cry in our hearts (even if unspoken) to be filled with the Spirit and to experience His power. Those who come to Jesus and drink will find rivers of living water flowing out from their innermost beings (a life in the fullness of the Holy Spirit - Jn.7:37,38).

Thus the weakest believer can experience the glory of this life of faith in the new covenant and become as strong as the strongest.

He who has ears to hear let him hear.

 

(8) Sovereignty of God

 

The total sovereignty of God over all people and circumstances, is a matter concerning which many believers remain in doubt. They may give lip-acknowledgement to it, but they don't believe it "works" in the situations of daily life. Yet the Scriptures are full of examples of how God worked sovereignty on behalf of His people - and often in the most unlikely ways.

Many of us are familiar with the obviously miraculous ways in which God worked on behalf of His people - such as the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt etc. But we have often missed seeing the greater miracles by which God turned the tables on Satan when Satan attacked God's people.

The case of Joseph is a classic. God had a plan for that eleventh son of Jacob to make him the second ruler in Egypt by the time he was thirty.

Joseph was a God-fearing lad and therefore he was hated by Satan. And so Satan instigated his elder brothers to get rid of him. But God ensured that they didn't take Joseph's life. They managed, however, to sell him off to some Ishmaelite traders. But where do you think those traders took Joseph? To Egypt, of course! That was the fulfillment of Step One in God's plan!

In Egypt, Joseph was bought by Potiphar. This too was arranged by God. Potiphar's wife was an evil woman. Taking a fancy to Joseph, she tried to entice him again and again. Finally when she found that she could not succeed, she accused Joseph falsely and had him cast in jail. But who do you think Joseph met in the jail? Pharaoh's cupbearer! God had arranged for Pharaoh's cupbearer also to be jailed at the same time so that Joseph could meet him. That was Step Two in God's plan.

God's third step was to allow Pharaoh's cupbearer to forget about Joseph for two years.

"Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. It happened at the end of two full years that Pharoah had a dream.... Then the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh...(Gen.40:23; 41:1,9).

That was the time, according to God's time-table, for Joseph to be released from prison.

Psalm 105:19, 20 says, "Until the time that His word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. Then the king sent and released him and set him free."

Joseph was now 30 years old. God's time had come. And so God gave Pharaoh a dream. And God reminded the cupbearer also of Joseph as the interpreter of his dream. Thus Joseph came before Pharaoh and became the second ruler in Egypt. God's timing of events in Joseph's life couldn't have been more perfect!

We would never have thought of arranging things the way God did. If we had the power to plan Joseph's life, we would probably have prevented people from doing him any harm. But the way God did it was better.

It's a far greater miracle when the evil that people do to us is turned to fulfill God's purposes for us! God takes great delight in turning the tables on Satan, so that all things work together for the good of His elect.

Let's apply these events to our circumstances.

What should our attitude be to evil men, to brothers who are jealous of us, to women who accuse us falsely, to friends who promise to help us but forget, or to being thrown into jail unjustly?

Do we believe that God is sovereign enough to use all these people and everything they do - whether done deliberately or accidentally - to work together for the fulfillment of His purpose for our lives? If He did that for Joseph, won't He do it for us too? He certainly can and He will.

But I'll tell you who could have messed up God's plan for Joseph's life. Only one person - and that was Joseph himself. If he had yielded to Potiphar's wife's enticements, he would certainly have been set aside by God.

There is only one person in the universe who can spoil and frustrate God's plan for your life - and that is you yourself. No one else can do it. Not your friends and not your enemies. Not angels and not Satan. Only you. Once we see this, it will liberate us from a great many of our fears and from wrong attitudes towards those who harm us.

 

(9) Consuming with fire

 

In Isaiah's prophecy we read the following words: "Sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has seized the godless (hypocrites - KJV). Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning? He who walks righteously, and speaks with sincerity, he who rejects unjust gain, and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; he who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil" (Isa.33:14,15).

The first qualification to dwell with this consuming fire mentioned here is: "He who walks righteously and speaks with SINCERITY" (Isa.33:15)". That refers to those who walk according to the light they have, in sincerity in their private lives. They may not be perfect, but they are SINCERE. They are not hypocrites. If there is one thing that we must fear more than anything else in the church , it is giving people an impression about our spirituality that is not true. Do you give others the impression that you pray a lot, when you don't pray at all? Do you give them the impression that you fast much when you don't actually fast that much? Do you want others to consider you as wholehearted when you are not? Then you are in danger of falling away - not because you are imperfect, but because you are insincere. God desires truth in our inward part. The hypocrites in Zion tremble, because they are afraid of being exposed.

The second qualification to live with the consuming fire is "rejecting unjust gain" (Isa.33:15) - in other words, being righteous and faithful in money matters. We may have thought that the alternative master to God is Satan. But Jesus Himself stated in Luke 16:13 that that alternative master to God was Mammon (money and material riches)! No believer imagines that he can love God and Satan at the same time. But there are multitudes of believers who imagine that they can love money and God simultaneously. No believer will ever fall down and worship Satan. But there are millions of believers today who worship Mammon and who imagine that they can worship God too. But they cannot worship God, if they are not faithful with money. They don't realise that Mammon draws a person away from the true and living God.

The third qualification to live with the consuming fire is shutting our ears from hearing about bloodshed (Isa.33:15). This is more than avoiding gossiping. This refers to not wanting to HEAR even someone else gossiping. A God-fearing man will shut his ears not only to the main Accuser of the brethren (Rev.12:10), but to the Accuser's agents as well!! If we could look at this earth from heaven's standpoint, we would see millions of people all over the world, tearing others to pieces with their tongue from early morning to late at night, every day. But if you want to live with God, the consuming fire, you must discipline yourself not to listen to such accusations. Even if you have to listen to them in situations where it is impossible for you to get up and walk out of the room, you should switch off your mind inwardly from listening. Let people around you be corrupt but why should you lose God's grace in your life? If you are serious about living with the consuming fire, then stop listening to all accusations. God has given us the ability to switch off our mind from inside. Do that. Stop your ears from bloodshed.

A fourth qualification that is mentioned here, to live with the consuming fire, is shutting our eyes from looking upon evil. These two bodily senses - hearing and seeing - are the main channels through which good and evil enter our minds. We must decide what we allow to enter in. One who lives with the consuming fire does not look upon what will defile his spirit. Only when you allow God to consume all that is worldly and that can be consumed in your life, will you be able to live with Him Who is a consuming fire. Whatever is left in you then will be incombustible!! God is going to populate heaven with such people - who have nothing combustible left in them. God is preparing us for heaven. When we sing the song, "Heaven came down and glory filled my soul", what are we talking about? We are talking about that consuming fire coming into our soul, that burns up everything that can be burnt up. Can we willingly say to the Lord, "Lord, I only want those things left in my life, that cannot be burned, so that You and I can live in fellowship with each other forever."

(10) Fellowship and unity

Love is the primary mark of Jesus' disciples. So fellowship between the disciples of Jesus is vital. In Matthew 18:18-20, we read of the power that results from such fellowship among the disciples of Jesus. A paraphrase of those verses would read something like this: The Lord Jesus said, "If two or thee disciples of Mine are found in one place and have no disunity between them, but instead a unity like the symphony ("sumphoneo" (Greek) = agree) produced by a number of musical instruments playing together in harmony with each other, then I will be present in their midst. And then, if they ask My Father for anything, it will be granted to them. They will have authority to bind the workings of Satan in any place on earth; and whatever activities of Satan they bind here on earth, will be bound at their source in "the heavenlies" (from where these spirit-powers operate). Such believers will also have the power to deliver (loose) people who are bound by Satan on earth". The devil knows the amazing power there is in unity and fellowship among Jesus' disciples, but many believers do not know it. And so Satan's main aim has always been to bring disunity among believers so as to make them powerless against him.

What power there would be in a home, if the husband and wife were one in spirit! Satan would never be able to overcome such a home! What power there would be in a church if even two of its elders were one in spirit! Satan would never be able to overcome such a church! Satan triumphs over most Christian churches and homes, because such unity and fellowship is not found in them. I am not talking now about casting out demons. Any believer who has faith for this, can cast out demons in the Name of Jesus, single-handedly, as Jesus said in Mark16:17. In fact, we read in Matthew 7:22,23 of even unbelievers who cast out demons in Jesus' Name. But to bind the activities of Satan, so as to release people from the problems Satan has created for them is far more difficult. A believer cannot do that alone. That requires an expression of the Body of Christ - and the minimum number of disciples that can express Christ's Body is two! Only the authority exercised by such a "body" can keep the powers of darkness at bay.

There must be at least two people at the centre of every church who are totally united with each other. Satan will always target such a core seeking to split it up and divide it. If he succeeds, then that church will become powerless against him. But if that core keeps itself united, Satan will be powerless against that church. This applies to a home as well. In every church there will be mature people as well as new converts - just as there are babes as well as grown-up children in a family. The babes may fight with each other, backbite, complain and gossip, because they have not understood the way of peace. Such babes will be found in every growing church. But they can never hinder God's work. A core of united elders at the centre of a church can make it an overcoming church. Babes may constitute the vast majority of every church. But God is always seeking to build up the core - both spiritually and numerically. It is this core that fights the battles against Satan and preserves a church in life and victory.

Fellowship in a church is more important than evangelism. In the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus said that the 99 sheep in the fold were "ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance" (Luke15:7). Who are the ones "who need no repentance"? Obviously those who are judging themselves constantly. Such people do not need any repentance, because they are constantly repenting of their sins. Such disciples have no problem becoming one with each other. If however the 99 sheep in this fold were constantly fighting with each other and tearing each other to pieces, then the shepherd would not have brought that lost sheep there - for that sheep would be far safer on the mountains than within such a fold where it could be killed! Our churches must consist of "righteous people who don't need any repentance". Then only will our churches be places of healing and peace into which lost sheep can be safely brought in. The Lord leads His sheep into green pastures and beside still waters. The church Jesus builds is a place of peace. Lost sheep must be brought in only into such a church. Most churches are not like this, because their members are converts and not disciples.

 

(11) Grace

 

 

One verse that we should never forget in our whole life is Hebrews 2:14,15 “Since then the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He (Jesus) Himself likewise shared in the same that through death (His death on Calvary’s cross) He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” When Jesus died, He made the devil powerless so that we might be forever free of Satan and the bondage of fear that he had put on us throughout out lifetime. There are many types of fears that people in the world have – fear of sickness, fear of poverty, fear of failure, fear of people, fear of future etc. The greatest of all fears however is the fear of death. Every other fear is inferior to the fear of death. The fear of death leads on to the fear of what will happen after death. The Bible teaches very clearly that those who live in sin will finally go to hell – the place that God has reserved for those who do not repent. The devil also will spend eternity in the lake of fire along with those whom he deceived and led into sin on this earth. Jesus came to this earth to save us from that eternal hell by taking the punishment for our sins. He also destroyed Satan’s power over us so that he can never harm us again.

God will always be on our side against Satan. This is a glorious truth which brings much encouragement, comfort and victory to us. The Bible says “submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). At the name of Jesus, Satan will always flee. The picture that most Christians have in their minds is one of Satan chasing them and of their running for their lives from him. But that is exactly the opposite of what the Bible teaches. Satan was scared to stand before our Saviour. Jesus is the Light of the world and the prince of darkness had to disappear from before Him. Satan is also afraid of everyone who uses the name of Jesus with divine authority against him. Jesus told his disciples about how he had seen the fall of Satan in heaven. And there, Jesus said that Satan’s fall had been “like lightning” when God cast him out. (Luke 10:18) When Jesus told Satan in the wilderness “Be gone Satan”, he disappeared from Jesus’ presence too at the speed of lightning. And when we resist Satan in the name of Jesus today, he will flee from before us too at the speed of light. The darkness flees before the light. Satan is afraid of the name of Jesus. He hates to be reminded of the fact that Jesus is Lord and that he was defeated by the Lord Jesus. Whenever you are in a difficulty or face some insurmountable problem or you face something for which there appears to be no human answer, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. Say to Him “Lord Jesus, you are on my side against the devil. Help me now” And then turn to Satan and tell him “In the name of Jesus I resist you Satan” Satan will flee from you immediately, because Jesus defeated him on the cross. Satan is powerless when you walk in the light of God and resist him in Jesus’ Name.

Satan was defeated once and for all by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. You need never again be afraid of Satan. He cannot trouble you. He cannot harm you. He may tempt you. He may attack you. But the grace of God in Christ will always make you victorious over him, if you humble yourself, submit to God and walk in His light at all times. There is tremendous power in the light. Satan, the prince of darkness, can never enter the realm of light. Satan has power over many believers because they are walking in darkness, living in some secret sin, not forgiving others, jealous of someone, or pursuing some selfish ambition in their lives etc.

You will have no power over Satan if you don’t walk in purity. And you will never have power over Satan if you have not learnt to overcome his accusations by the blood of Christ. You will no have power over Satan if you love the world – for Satan is the prince and ruler of this world. If you love anything or anyone on this earth more than you love God, you will not be able to over power Satan (Rev 12:11).

Love the Lord Jesus Christ and His will for your life with all your heart with all your mind and with all your strength. Never allow the devil to pollute your minds in any way. Give your life to Christ completely and determine to live totally for Him henceforth.

 

(12) How a spiritual movement declines!

"Lord! Help! Godly men are fast disappearing. Where in all the world can dependable men be found? Everyone deceives and flatters and lies. There is no sincerity left" (Psalm 12: 1 - Living).

The state of affairs described in the above verse is an apt description of Christendom today. We find nowadays that even believers who were once pursuing after godliness have started indulging in deception, flattery and lies - to serve their own ends.

Sincerity is what God seeks from all of us first of all. We may have a thousand and one faults and make an equal number of mistakes. But if we are sincere, God can do miracles with our lives.

In Matthew 16: 3, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees by asking them a question: "Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?"

If we do not read the signs of the times in which we are living now, Jesus will have to rebuke us exactly as He did the Pharisees.

When people know the Bible but don't know God Himself, they can easily be deceived - for every cult in the world uses the Bible as its textbook and have their proof texts to promote their peculiar doctrines. This is why so many cults have mushroomed around the world in this century and become fashionable and acceptable to many people. Even believers are being led astray and are losing their salvation.

Under the new covenant, God wants every child of His to know Him personally (Heb. 8: 11) , unlike as in old covenant times, when only the prophet (who rarely appeared) could know God personally. In fact, the new- covenant child of God can know God better and in a more personal way than the greatest prophet under the old covenant. Jesus said so, very specifically (Matt. 11: 11).

There are very few believers who have a passion to know God Himself. Most of them seem to be keen only on increasing in Bible- knowledge and on having spectacular emotional experiences. All this is an indication that we have come to the very last minutes of the last hour of the last days in which Paul said it would be "difficult to be a Christian" (2 Tim. 3: 1 - Living).

It will be difficult to be a Christian in the last days, not because of persecution or opposition, but because many people would "have a form of godliness without its inner power" (2 Tim. 3: 5). In other words they would major on correctness of New Testament pattern and doctrine but would not be interested in personal devotion to Christ or in practical godliness.

Most of us who left dead denominations in the past, left them because we were searching for spiritual reality. We may have begun our search in earnest. But Satan is very smart to sidetrack believers into something cultistic, like the cult of the Pharisees in Jesus' time. The history of Israel has been given us at such length in the Old Testament to teach us some important lessons. A wise man will learn from those Scriptures, the way men of old pleased God and the way many displeased Him.

In Jeremiah 3: 14,15 , the Lord promises saying, "I will take you one from a city and two from a family and I will bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding."

"Zion" represents the true church of the living God. God brings one from a city and two from a family into His "Zion" . And when we have come to this Zion - the church that the Lord is building - He promises to give us there "shepherds after His own heart" , who will feed us on a knowledge of Himself (and not just a knowledge of the Bible) and on understanding of His ways (and not just an understanding of doctrine).

One primary identifying mark of the true church of God is this: It has shepherds after God's own heart.

God is love - and the primary characteristic of love is that it does not seek its own. So, shepherds after God's own heart are those who do not seek their own. Such shepherds will not seek for anyone's money or honour. They will seek neither to please men nor to impress them. Instead they will seek to build up the believers in order "to present them perfect in Christ" (Col. 1: 28) . Wherever God can find a man with such a longing - in any town or village of the world - He will build His church. On the other hand, we have seen many cases of believers who leave the mainline denominations and who seek to follow "the New Testament pattern", who have their doctrines all correct, but who love money and seek their own, and who yet imagine that they are building the Body of Christ. Confusion and chaos are always the result of their labours and what is finally built through their labours is always Babylon.

Only where God can find a man who does not seek his own, can the Lord build His true church. One man like that, who shares the concern of God's heart for people, is far more valuable to God than a thousand believers who seek their own.

To be a shepherd after God's own heart will involve sacrifice, inconvenience, and suffering. It will mean being willing to suffer misunderstanding, opposition, ridicule and slander joyfully. And if such a shepherd is blessed enough to have a wife who also does not seek her own, so that their home is open for the Lord to do whatever He wants, then there will be no limit to what God can do through their lives.

I am not talking now about gathering many people. Numbers are not a mark of God's blessing. Many of the well- known cults gather more numbers of people than anyone else. That does not prove anything. I am talking now of quality - the building of the Body of Christ, where every individual member comes into a personal knowledge of God. Without such a development, any group will only be a place where one blind man has led a whole lot of other blind people into the ditch. All their prayer meetings will be in the ditch, their Bible- studies will be in the ditch and their conferences will be in the ditch too!!

In Jesus' time, He looked around and saw that people were like sheep without a shepherd. It is the same today.

The great need everywhere is for shepherds after God's own heart. I am not talking here about just being an elder in a church. No. A large church needs many shepherds - those who have a heart that cares for God's people. Such people may not be elders at all. But they will feed and encourage the sheep - serving them gladly.

As I said earlier, the history of Israel is given us at such length in the Bible (three- quarters of the Bible is the Old Testament) to show us good examples in their history that we can follow and the mistakes that men made there that we should avoid.

There were two significant starting points in the history of Israel as a nation:

Firstly, when they began as a nation in Canaan under the leadership of Joshua.

Secondly, when they had a fresh beginning under King David, after centuries of backsliding.

Let us consider these two cases.

Joshua was a godly man who gave excellent leadership to Israel. He was determined to follow the Lord with his whole family, even if the rest of Israel decided to forsake the Lord (Josh. 24: 15).

Only such a man, who is willing to stand alone if necessary, can provide godly leadership to any church today. During Joshua's lifetime, Israel went forward from one victory to another.

But then Joshua died.

And there we can see in what followed, what happens when a man whom God has raised up at a particular time for a particular purpose in a particular country finishes his earthly course and passes on. Joshua's fellow- elders took over the leadership of Israel (Josh. 24: 31). These elders belonged to the next generation after Joshua. Joshua died when he was 110 years old and the new leaders were in their 60's and their 70's - for Joshua's own generation (except for Caleb) had all perished in the forty years of wandering in the wilderness.

During this time - when the second generation was in leadership - things were not as good as in Joshua's time. We read in Judges 1 that during this period, there were a few victories (v. 1- 21) , but many defeats as well (v. 22- 36) . A slow decline had started.

The second generation had no steam in themselves, but were surviving on the momentum that they had received from Joshua's leadership in the previous generation.

Like a train- wagon that has been pushed by an engine, the second generation moved very fast initially, but gradually slowed down and finally came to a grinding halt!

By the time we come to Judges 2: 11 , things become really bad. Israel now does open evil in the sight of the Lord.

Thus we see how what started in a good way in one generation, gradually became evil by the time of the third generation.

The second watershed in Israel's history was when David became king of Israel.

Saul was the first king of Israel. He had started in great humility, but backslid so greatly that God removed the anointing from him. Saul's life is a picture of those movements that decline in the first generation itself - and there are many like that in Christendom too!

God told Saul through Samuel that He was now going to give the kingdom to "a man after God's own heart" (1 Sam. 13: 14) . That was David. This made Saul extremely jealous of David. Saul hated David so much that he even wanted to kill him.

Those in Israel however, who recognised where God's anointing lay, joined David. Thus a small group gathered around David. But they were chased and persecuted and hunted by Saul all across the land and had to run for their lives. But God was with that small group.

Saul however continued to sit on the throne of Israel for many years - just like many Christian "leaders" rule their flock today, even though they have lost the anointing of God from their lives long, long ago. But Saul still had a following of those who fawned on him - just like many Christian "leaders" have in their own groups. Such a following means nothing. Many dead denominations and even heathen religious leaders have a large following. But God is not with any of them. The important question we need to ask ourselves always is this: "Do the grace and anointing of God rest upon me now?"

Church history has proved again and again that God has always done His greatest work in every generation through a small minority of His people who stand wholeheartedly for Him. As in Gideon's time, the victory in the battle with Satan is always won by a small group of a few wholehearted disciples (Judges 7).

Such a group (as in the case of David's group) is hated, misunderstood and persecuted by the established systems in Christendom, who have no understanding of what God is doing in their time. But God took care of David and his little group. And the Bible records that "David served the purpose of God in his own generation and fell asleep" (Acts 13: 36). Despite his faults, David was a man after God's own heart and gave Israel godly leadership during his lifetime. He was not perfect. But he was quick to humble himself and repent when even an ordinary prophet came to him and rebuked him for his sin (2 Sam. 12).

But in spite of all of David's devotion to the Lord, and his humility and the anointing of God upon his life, he could yet serve God's purpose only in his own generation.

After his death, things began to decline very quickly. Solomon, his son, started well (1 Kings 3: 3,5,10- 14) . The book of Proverbs shows us how wise Solomon was when he began. Proverbs is perhaps the finest book in the entire Old Testament. It is like a new- covenant book right in the middle of the Old Testament! And Solomon wrote it!!

But Solomon backslid very quickly and very badly - and ended disastrously. Initially, he had moved forward on the momentum he had received from his godly father. But he did not have enough of a passion after God, to continue for long in the same direction. He was led astray by wealth and by women (1 Kings 10: 23; 11: 1- 9) - just like many Christian preachers in our time!

After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam (the third generation) took over. Then things became really bad. The younger generation joined hands with Rehoboam and took over the leadership of Israel, and Rehoboam despised the advice of the wiser, older men (1 Kings 12: 6- 15). This brought chaos into Israel and the kingdom soon split into two. All that Rehoboam could boast of now was that David was his grandfather. But he did not have any of David's spirit.

We find an exact duplication of this degenerative process in many movements that were started by godly people in Christendom during the last 20 centuries.

In the history of Christendom, we see that every godly reformer sent by God to bring Christendom back to Him could serve God's purpose only in his own generation . In almost every case, after the reformer died, his followers in the next generation laid greater emphasis on the doctrines their leader taught than on the life that he had. The form of godliness became all- important and the power of godliness was ignored. Thus decline and decay set in.

By the time such movements reached their third generation, the corruption and the decay within the group became total. The group thereafter bore no resemblance whatever to the godliness and the spirituality that had been found in their leader. They proclaimed the same doctrines he did and gloried in his name - but built Babylon. A group can start as a spiritual movement, but still end up as soulish and carnal - and even demonic.

A movement started by a man of God can easily end as a cult. The same story of decline that we saw in the history of David, Solomon and Rehoboam has been repeated again and again in Christendom. Just examine carefully any movement that started with God and that is currently in its second or third generation - and you will see before your eyes the truth of what I have just said.

Why does this happen? The answer is simple: Because believers are more taken up with the letter of the Word than with the Person of Jesus Christ. When any doctrine becomes more important than personal devotion to Christ, then decay and self- righteousness and Phariseeism are invariably the result. We have seen numerous examples of how even the doctrine of "taking up the cross" has been turned into mere words, without the life of Jesus being manifest in those who preach it. All of this should be a serious warning to us.

Consider the history of the church at Ephesus.

Paul stayed there for three years, preaching night and day (Acts 20: 31) . That means that the Ephesian Christians listened to many hundreds of sermons from Paul's lips. They had seen extraordinary miracles wrought by the Lord in their midst (Acts 19: 11) . From their midst, the word of God had spread to all the surrounding parts of Asia Minor during a short period of two years. They had experienced revival (Acts 19: 10, 19) . They were the most privileged of all the churches in apostolic times. They were also undoubtedly the most spiritual church in Asia Minor at that time. (We can see that from Paul's letter to the Ephesians , where he had to correct no error in their midst, unlike the way he had to, in the other churches to which he wrote.)

But when Paul was leaving Ephesus, he warned the elders there that things would take a turn for the worse in the next generation, under the new leadership of the church. He told them that savage wolves would come into their midst and that from among their own midst would arise men speaking perverse things, drawing people after themselves, instead of drawing people to the Lord (Acts 20: 29,30).

As long as Paul was there, no wolf had dared to enter the flock at Ephesus. Paul was a faithful doorkeeper (See Mark 13: 34) , who had spiritual authority from the Lord, because he was anointed, because he feared God and because he sought the Lord's interests and not his own. But he also had enough spiritual discernment to know that the spiritual condition of the elders in Ephesus was bad - and so he knew that things would deteriorate once they took over the leadership of the church. Paul did not give the elders a prophecy of what would definitely happen at Ephesus. No. It was only a warning. It did not have to happen like he predicted - if the elders would only judge themselves and repent. Jonah once prophesied destruction on Nineveh. But it did not happen as he predicted, because the people of Nineveh repented. The church at Ephesus also could have escaped the fate that Paul predicted. But alas, the new generation of leaders in Ephesus never took Paul's warning seriously and drifted away from the Lord.

By the end of the first century, the third generation had come into power. And then things became really bad. Their doctrines were still correct and they were zealous in Christian activity. They probably still had their all- night prayer meetings and their other special meetings. But their spiritual state was so bad that the Lord was about to remove His recognition of them as a church. What was their crime? They had lost their devotion to the Lord (Rev. 2: 4,5).

What does the history of the church at Ephesus teach us? Just this - that no doctrine is as important as a fervent devotion to the Lord Himself. There is one - and only one mark of true spirituality - that the life of Jesus is manifested increasingly in our behaviour. and this in turn can come only by an increasing personal devotion to the Lord Himself. Paul was a godly man - a fervent and faithful apostle who was devoted to the Lord Jesus until the very end of his life. And he warned believers everywhere that Satan would try every means possible to turn them away from "simple devotion to Christ" (2 Cor. 11: 3).

Errors in doctrinal matters such as "baptism in water" and "baptism in the Holy Spirit", are not at all as dangerous as losing one's personal devotion to Christ. Yet many believers never seem to realise this.

We see that even Paul could serve God's purpose only in his own generation . Those who lived with him like Timothy, imbibed his spirit and lived in selfless devotion to Christ (Phil. 2: 19- 21). But otherwise, Paul could not transmit his spirituality even to the second generation of believers in the churches he had founded.

We see a similar pattern being repeated in every movement that God has raised up - in every generation, since the first century. God has a passion to have a pure testimony for His Name in every part of the world, in every generation. For this purpose, he raises up a godly man in a country, in a particular generation, to restore to the church in that country, the truth that the apostles preached, and thus to lead people to a godly life. A movement gradually starts around that man and a few wholehearted believers who are fed up with the unreality and hypocrisy of the Christendom of their generation gather around him. Very soon a pure testimony is established for the Lord.

Such a group is always small in size at the beginning and intensely hated and persecuted by the older churches. The founder is hated most of all. And the hatred is usually most intense from the group that God had raised up in the previous generation - for the current leaders of that group, not realising that the Lord has left them, are jealous of the new group!! Satan too joins in the attack against this new group - and he does his work of accusation mostly through other "believers" - especially those from the older group.

All the persecution and the schemings of men and demons however, do not hinder God from establishing a pure testimony for His Name in the new generation through the man He raised up.

But what happens when this man dies?

Then the movement begins to decline. Personal devotion to Christ disappears and is replaced by emphasis on the doctrines that the founder preached. Those doctrines become more important to the second generation than the Person of the Lord Himself. And a cloud comes between them and God - as it did between the disciples and the Lord on the mount of transfiguration (Matt. 17: 5).

No doctrine, however important or good, can ever take the place of devotion to Jesus Himself. The founder knows the Lord. The second generation knows only the doctrine. Chaos results and by the time the movement reaches the third generation, there is open division and strife. One of the commonest things that happens to every movement is that by the time it reaches the second and third generation, it becomes rich and wealthy, with the members owning plenty of money, houses, lands and properties etc., And wealth has a way of being accompanied invariably by pride, self- sufficiency and complacency - for very few believers know how to handle wealth.

The first generation of a movement usually struggles in poverty and is close to God. The second and third generations are usually closer to the world, with all their wealth - and lose out spiritually. God then withdraws from that group, which has by then become a part of Babylon - and He raises up another man and starts a totally new work through him.

But alas, the same story is repeated all over again - for no- one ever seems to learn from the mistakes of those who went before them!!

Those who are wise will therefore look around them to see where the anointing of God is resting currently - in their own generation - and associate fully with such a church. They will not care to see where the anointing had rested in previous generations. They will look to see where God is moving NOW and not where God moved a generation or two ago. Scripture tells us very clearly that we must AVOID those who have the mere form of godliness (2 Tim. 3: 5) and seek to fellowship with "those who call on the Lord from a pure heart" (2 Tim. 2: 22). Those who have a pure heart are those who love the Lord with ALL their heart. Such believers have no place in their heart for money, or property, or for anything of this world, or for themselves, or their family members, or their jobs. They love the Lord supremely and thus love their family members in a deeper way than they would have done otherwise. They are devoted to the Lord and not to any doctrine. We are commanded to seek fellowship with such believers at all times.

Thus God's work proceeds from generation to generation, without ever failing - for all the machinations of men and Satan cannot hinder any of God's purposes. Hallelujah!!

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

(13) Are we making disciples or converts?

What obedience to the great commission actually involves

It is a common mistake among believers to be taken up with one Scripture on a subject, to the exclusion of other Scriptures on the same subject.

Satan tempted our Lord with the words "It is written ..." (Mt.4:6). But the Lord rejected the temptation by saying, "It is also written ..." (v:7). The whole purpose of God, can be understood only when Scripture is compared with Scripture - when "It is written ..." is read along with "It is also written ...".

Consider the matter of `the great commission'.

Jesus commanded His disciples saying, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation" (Mk.16:15). He also commanded them saying, "Go and make disciples of all nations" (Mt.28:19NASB). These two commands are but two parts of one great commission. Only through a careful consideration of, and obedience to, both parts of this commission, can we find and fulfil the whole will of God.

Evangelism

The first step obviously is to go out and preach the gospel to everyone (Mk.16:15). This command is not addressed to the individual believer, but to the whole body of Christ. It is humanly impossible for any single individual or any local church by itself, to preach the gospel to every human being in the whole world. Each of us can, at best, have but a small part in this task.

But that part, however small it be, we must fulfill. Here is where Ac.1:8 comes into the picture. Each believer must have the Holy Spirit coming upon him and enduing him with power, if he is to be an effective witness for Christ. Note carefully, that all are not called to be evangelists (for Christ has given only some evangelists to His church - as Ep.4:11 makes clear), but all are called to be His witnesses.

An evangelist has a wider field of work than a witness. A witness has to proclaim Christ in the circle in which he moves and works - to relatives, neighbours, fellow workers in his office and to the others he comes across daily, to whom he may happen to be led to while traveling, etc. Here is where we can all be witnesses, whatever our earthly occupations may be.

But Christ has also given evangelists to the church who have a wider ministry of reaching the lost. However the evangelist's task is not merely that of `winning souls' or `bringing people to Christ' (as we commonly hear), but `building up the body of Christ' (as Ep.4:11,12 makes plain). Here is where the biggest failure of much of today's evangelism lies. Most of today's evangelism is related not to building up the body of Christ, but to saving individual souls. These souls are then usually sent back to their dead `churches' where they soon get lost all over again, or at best, become lukewarm and fit for being spat out of the mouth of the Lord one day (Re.3:16). Either way, they are not built into the body of Christ. Thus only Satan's purposes are accomplished - for the person has then become twofold a child of hell (Mt.23:15) - first because he was lost to start with, and secondly because he has now been deluded by some evangelist into thinking that he is saved, when he is still lost!! The only thing that is built up through such evangelism is the evangelist's private empire. And the only reason for such evangelism is usually the evangelist's desire to make money or to get the honour of men, or both!!

Jesus called evangelists `fishers of men'. But evangelism that is done in cooperation with unconverted `Christian' leaders and groups or with the sponsorship of vote-seeking political leaders is like fishing with a net full of holes. One cannot imagine Jesus inviting Annas, or Caiaphas, or Herod, or Pilate to sit with Him on the platform and inaugurate his evangelistic meetings! Yet many of today's evangelists not only do that, but also praise these unconverted leaders from their platforms.

Further, the fish that are caught in such `nets' are allowed to go back into the sea (dead `churches'), to be caught all over again at the next evangelistic meeting, only to be let back into the sea once more!! This process is repeated again and again by the many evangelists conducting interdenominational meetings these days, with each evangelist counting hands, decision cards, etc. Such evangelism brings joy, not to the angels of heaven but to the hosts of Satan! For, after all, how can angels rejoice over those who are made twofold the children of hell? Statistics in today's evangelistic meetings are totally deceptive.

Even if signs and wonders accompany the proclamation of the message that Jesus forgives sins and heals diseases, the question that still remains is how many have been made disciples and built into the body of Christ through such evangelism.

The apostles of our Lord never engaged in this type of evangelism. They placed their converts into local churches to be made into disciples and built up spiritually.

The five ministries mentioned in Ep.4:11 (apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers) are listed in their order of priority in 1Co.12:28. There we are told, "God has appointed in the church: first, apostles, second, prophets, third, teachers, then gifts of healing (that refers to evangelists, since all evangelists in New Testament times had the gifts of healing), and then administrations (literally, `those who steer the ships', referring to shepherds/pastors)."

This makes it clear that in God's eyes, the ministries of the apostle, prophet and teacher are more important to the building up of the body of Christ than that of the evangelist. The evangelist can find his proper place in his ministry only as he takes his appointed place in subjection to the ministries of the apostle, the prophet and the teacher. Only then can his ministry serve to the building up of the body of Christ. Here is where twentieth century evangelism has gone astray from the word of God.

Making disciples

The purpose of evangelism can be understood fully only when seen in the light of the second part of the great commission - to make disciples in every nation of the world (Mt.28:19). This is how the plan of God for the unconverted is fully fulfilled.

The convert must be made into a disciple.

Unfortunately, even the so-called convert today is often not a true convert, for in many cases he has not repented properly. In the evangelistic meeting he may have been told only to believe in Jesus, without any mention of repentance or making restitution. Such converts come to Jesus to be blessed and healed - and not to give up their sins. Most of today's converts are therefore like premature babies, pulled out by impatient midwives (`evangelists') in their lust for statistics - when the babies were not yet ready to be born! These premature babies usually die very soon, or live as problem cases for the rest of their lives - causing innumerable problems for their shepherds (pastors). Such people cannot be called `backsliders', because they never slid `forward' at any time, in the first place!! Jesus said that the angels in heaven rejoiced over sinners who repented, and not over sinners who merely believed, without repenting (Lk.15:7,10).

Jesus said that salvation had come to Zaccheus's house, only when Zaccheus promised to make restitution for all the financial wrongs he had done in his past life - not before that (Lk.19:9). Unfortunately, today's evangelists proclaim that "salvation has come", even without any mention of restitution!

But even where there has been a thorough repentance, and a person has been truly converted, he must still be led on to discipleship, if he is to fulfill God's will for his life. Evangelism that does not lead on to discipleship is an incomplete job.

Often, it is the evangelist's desire to build his own kingdom that prevents him from working together with those who can make his `converts' into disciples. We do not have to judge such evangelists, for we are told not to judge. But such evangelists will certainly have to answer to the Lord in the final day, for hindering their converts from becoming disciples.

The first step of leading people to repentance and faith must be followed by water baptism - as Jesus made plain in Mk.16:16, and as Peter preached on the day of Pentecost (Ac.2:38). Mt.28:19 also mentions the necessity of water baptism. So this is obviously the next step for all those who are born again.

Thereafter, he must follow Jesus in daily life as His disciple.

The conditions of discipleship

Lk.14:25-35 reveals these conditions of discipleship very clearly.

There Jesus spoke about a man who had laid a foundation for a tower, but couldn't complete it, because he was unable to pay the cost of construction (v.28-30). That proves that it does cost something to be a disciple. Jesus told us to sit down first and count that cost before even starting to build.

God doesn't want us to wait for many years after our sins are forgiven, before understanding what discipleship really costs. Jesus told people about the cost of discipleship as soon as they came to Him. He also said that a believer who was unwilling to be a disciple was as useless to God as salt that had lost its savour (v.35).

For a convert to become a disciple, he must first of all cut off any attachment to his relatives that hinders him from following the Lord (v.26). Secondly, he must be willing to deny himself and put his self-life to death daily (v.27). Thirdly, he must give up his love for material possessions (v.33). These are the three minimum requirements for anyone wanting to be a disciple.

The first condition of discipleship is that we must cut off the natural, inordinate love that we have for our relatives.

Jesus said "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, he cannot be My disciple" (v.26).

Those are strong words. What does it mean to `hate'? To hate is the same as to kill (1Jn.3:15). What we are asked to put to death here is the natural affection that we have for our relatives.

Does that mean that we are not to love them? No. It certainly doesn't mean that. When we give up our human affection for them, God will replace it with divine love. Our love for our relatives will then be pure - in the sense that God will always be first in our affections, and not our relatives.

Many don't obey God because they are afraid to offend their father, mother, wife, etc. The Lord demands the first place in our life. And if we don't give Him that place, we can't be His disciples. Jesus must be Lord of all in our lives, or He will not be Lord at all.

Look at Jesus' own example when He was on earth. Although He loved His widowed mother, yet He never allowed her to influence Him away from the perfect will of His Father, even in small matters. We see an example of this at the marriage at Cana where He refused to act on His mother's promptings (Jn.2:4).

Jesus also taught us how to `hate' our brothers. When Peter tried to turn Him away from going to the cross, He turned around and rebuked him with the sharpest words that He ever uttered to any human being. He said, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to Me" (Mt.16:23). Peter had made his suggestion with a lot of human love. But Jesus rebuked him, because what Peter had suggested was contrary to the Father's will.

The Father was always supreme in Jesus' affections. He expects us to have the same attitude towards Him too. After His resurrection, the Lord asked Peter whether he loved Him more than everything else on earth, before making him a shepherd in the church (Jn.21:15-17). Only those who love the Lord supremely are given responsibilities in His church.

The leader of the Ephesian church was in danger of being rejected because he had lost his initial devotion for the Lord (Re.2:1-5).

If we can say, like the psalmist, "Whom have I in heaven, Lord, but Thee? And besides Thee I desire nothing on earth," then we have truly fulfilled the first condition of discipleship (Ps.73:25).

The love that Jesus demands from us is not the emotional, sentimental, human affection that expresses itself in singing stirring songs of devotion to Him. No. If we love Him, we will obey Him (Jn.14:21).

The second condition of discipleship is that we must hate our own self-life. Jesus said, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own life, he cannot be My disciple" (Lk.14:26).

He amplified that further by saying, "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Lk.14:27). This is one of the least understood of all of Jesus' teachings.

Jesus said that a disciple would have to "deny himself and take up his cross daily" (Lk.9:23). More important than reading our Bible daily, or praying daily, we have to deny ourselves daily and take up our cross daily. To deny our self is the same as to hate our own life - the life that we have inherited from Adam. To take up the cross is to put that self-life to death. We have to hate that life first, before we can slay it.

Our self-life is the main enemy of the life of Christ. The Bible calls this `the flesh'. The flesh is a store-house of evil lusts within us that tempts us to do our own will at all times - to seek our own gain, our own honour, our own pleasure, our own way, etc.

If we are honest, we'll have to admit that even our best actions are corrupted by evil motives that arise from our corrupt lusts. Unless we hate this `flesh', we will never be able to follow the Lord.

This is why Jesus spoke so much about hating (or losing) our life.

In fact, this phrase is repeated six times in the gospels (Mt.10:39; 16:25;Mk.8:35;Lk.9:24;14:26;Jn.12:25). This is the one saying of our Lord that is repeated most often in the gospels. Yet it is the least preached about and the least understood!

To hate our own life is to give up seeking our own rights and privileges, to stop seeking our own reputation, to forsake our own ambitions and interests, and to stop seeking our own way etc. We can be disciples of Jesus, only if we are willing to go this way.

The third condition of discipleship is that we must give up all our own possessions.

Jesus said, "No one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions" (Lk.14:33).

Our possessions are what we possess as our own. To give them all up means that we no longer consider anything as our own.

We see an illustration of this in the life of Abraham. Isaac was his own son - his possession. One day God asked him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. And Abraham laid Isaac on the altar and was ready to slay him. But God intervened and told him that the sacrifice was not necessary, because he had proved his willingness to obey (Ge.22). After that, Abraham recognised that even though he had Isaac in his house, he no longer possessed him as his own. Isaac now belonged to God.

This is what it means to give up all our possessions. All that we have must be laid on the altar and given up to God.

God may allow us to use some of those things. But we cannot think of them as our own any more. Even if we are living in our own house, we must consider the house as God's; and that He has allowed us to stay in it rent-free! This is true discipleship.

Have we done that with all our possessions? Our possessions include our bank-account, property, job, qualifications, gifts and talents, wife, children and everything else that we value on this earth. We have to lay them all on the altar if we want to be true disciples.

Only then can we love God with all our heart. This is the `pure heart' that Jesus spoke of in Mt.5:8. It's not enough to have a clean conscience. A clean conscience only means that we have given up every known sin. A pure heart means that we have given up everything!

And so we see that true discipleship involves a radical change of attitude towards: (a) our relatives and loved ones; (b) our self-life; and (c) our possessions. Unless we face these issues squarely and honestly, it will be impossible to fulfill the whole purpose of God for our lives. Unless preachers proclaim this message of discipleship, without `watering it down', it will be impossible for them to build the Body of Christ.

The pathway of discipleship

Mt.28:20 goes on to say that the disciples must be taught to obey and practise every single command given by our Lord. This is the pathway of discipleship. One has only to read Mt.5,6,7 to see some of the commands that Jesus gave - that most believers do not even bother to obey.

A disciple is a learner and a follower.

The need in our land is for people who have been gripped by the calling to proclaim the whole counsel of God, who are themselves obedient themselves to all that Jesus commanded, and who eagerly desire to teach others too to obey all of Jesus' commands - and thus build the body of Christ.

Jesus said that all His disciples would be identified by one mark - their love for one another (Jn.13:35).

Mark that! The disciples of Jesus Christ are identified, not by the quality of their preaching or their music, nor by their `speaking in tongues' nor by their carrying Bibles to the meetings, nor by the amount of noise they make in their meetings!! They are identified by their fervent love for one another. The evangelistic meeting that brings people to Christ must lead on to the establishment of a church in that locality, where the disciples love one another. Yet the sad thing is that in many places where repeated evangelistic meetings are held year after year, it is difficult to find even one church about which it can be said that the members there do not fight with one another or backbite against one another, etc., but love one another.

One can understand it, if new converts are unable to live such a victorious life immediately. But what shall we say if strife and immaturity characterize even the elders and Christian leaders in the churches of our land?

This is the clearest proof that the second and most important part of the great commission (mentioned in Mt.28:19,20) - discipleship and total obedience to the commandments of Jesus - has been totally ignored.

The first part of the great commission (Mk.16:15) alone is usually emphasised everywhere. There, the emphasis is on evangelism, the message being confirmed by signs and wonders done by the Lord.

In Mt.28:19,20, however, the emphasis is on discipleship - the disciple's life being manifested by total obedience to Jesus' commandments. Multitudes of Christians are taken up with the former, but very, very few with the latter. Yet the former without the latter is as incomplete and worthless as half a human body. But how many have seen this?

In Jesus' ministry, we read that great multitudes followed Him, because of His evangelistic, healing ministry. He always turned around and taught them about discipleship (See Lk.14:25,26). Would that today's evangelists would do the same - either themselves, or in cooperation with apostles, prophets, teachers and shepherds who can complete the work that the evangelists have begun.

Why are preachers hesitant to proclaim the message of discipleship? Because it will reduce the numbers in their congregations. But what they don't realise is that the quality of their churches will become far better!!

When Jesus preached discipleship to the multitudes, it soon dwindled down to a handful of only eleven disciples (Compare Jn.6:2 with 6:70). The others found the message too hard, and left Him (See Jn.6:60,66). But it was with those eleven disciples who stayed on with Him, that God accomplished His purposes in the world finally.

As Christ's Body on earth today, we are to carry on the same ministry that those eleven apostles commenced in the first century. After people are brought to Christ, they must be led to discipleship and obedience. Thus alone will the body of Christ be built.

The way to life is narrow and few are those who find it.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

(14) The Marks of cultism

 

"Let no-one defraud you of salvation's victory prize, no-one who indulges in assumed (false) humility and the cult of messenger-worship .... instead of keeping hold on the Head from which the whole body grows with God's increase"(Col.2:18,19 - Berkeley version).

"A people who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, who say, `Keep to yourself, do not come near to me, for I am holier than you" (Isaiah 65:2,5).

"From among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert" (Acts 20:30,31).

To be cultistic is to be devoted to a person or to a doctrine in addition to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to make tabernacles for `Elijah' and `Moses' along with one for the Lord as well. This always brings a cloud that hides the presence of God. The will of God is that our lives be centered in JESUS ONLY.(Matt.17:1-8).

The last days will see an increase of cults in Christendom. Many will fall a prey to these, because they will worship the Lord's messengers instead of having a close personal relationship with Christ the Head. In order to be saved from this danger, it is good to know some of the marks of cultism, so that we can be on guard against it at all times. We don't have to judge others whether they are cultistic or not. But we can have a check-up ourselves.

There is a difference between being part of a cult and being cultistic. It is possible for you to be in a church where the doctrines are all basically scriptural, and the leaders are all godly men, and yet to be cultistic in your attitudes towards your leader, your group and towards other believers in other churches. Cultism is seen, not only in a wrong doctrine, but also in wrong attitudes. Those who are right in their doctrines and upright in their lives are often unaware of the cultism that there can be in their attitudes.

(1) Christ Plus Another Man

The primary mark of cultism is that it has a leader (usually the founder of the group) who is so highly respected that his life is considered to be perfect and his teachings to be equal to God's Word. The Holy Spirit called the Jews at Berea "noble minded", because "they examined the Scriptures daily" to check whether Paul's teaching was Scriptural. Paul was a great apostle. But even his teachings needed to be checked with the Scriptures, to see if they tallied (Acts 17:11). The Bible says that even when prophets speak in a meeting, "the others must judge" (1 Cor.14:29). What must the others judge? Just what the Bereans judged - whether what the prophets are saying is founded on God's Word or not. This is the greatest safeguard against cultism.

Cultistic believers however, respect their leader so much that they accept everything he teaches without checking to see whether it has a sound scriptural foundation. They are not noble minded like the Bereans. In a cultistic group, after the founder's death, a successor normally takes over the leadership and he is then recognized as the head of the group. All members of the group are expected to acknowledge their current leader as being the greatest of all living men of God. The result of such an attitude leads to unquestioning submission to the authority and teaching of such a leader. His authority over all members of the group is as absolute as the Pope's and his word is law.

In many cultistic groups, if the leader has a son, he is gradually trained to take over some of the leadership responsibilities within the group. All members of the group then gradually begin to respect the son just as they respected the father.

(2) The Bible Plus Another Book

The second mark of cultism is that it has one book in addition to the Bible (usually written by the leader of the group), which is considered for all practical purposes, to be as infallible as the Bible itself. Many cultistic groups may deny that they give such a place to the writings of their founder. But their attitude towards that one book indicates that they do place it on equality with the Bible. Their actions speak louder than their words.

In the early stages of the formation of a cultistic group, there may have been much sincerity and real devotedness to the Lord. In some cases, the founder himself may have been a godly man. But it is usually at some later point in time, that the followers of the founder codify his writings and teachings into an organized system of doctrine that is given the same authority as the Bible itself.

The founder's personal opinions thus become God's Word for his followers. Where the founder is a godly man, he will never permit such a thing to take place during his lifetime. If however the founder is not a man of God, then he will claim Divine authority for his sayings during his lifetime itself. Members of a cultistic group will read and re-read and re-read the one book written by the founder. Many of them will carry that book with them wherever they travel, and quote from it even in their meetings, with the same authority with which they quote from the Bible. If that book interprets any verse, or explains any doctrine in a particular way, then that is the only possible understanding that the members of the group are expected to have of that verse and of that doctrine.

Constant reading of such a book brainwashes the cultistic believer's mind, so that he gradually begins to interpret God's Word only in the way it is interpreted in THE book. Thus, due to the conditioning of his mind, he becomes incapable of receiving any fresh light from the Spirit on many portions of Scripture - because each time he reads such portions, he has already made up his mind as to what they mean. Thus his mind is programmed forever, beyond the reach of the Spirit.

This is similar to the way Roman Catholic priests also teach their followers that the Bible should be interpreted only in the way that Roman Catholic theologians have interpreted it. Any questioning of the doctrines of the group or of the teachings of the leaders is totally discouraged.

(3) Exclusiveness in Fellowship

A third mark of cultism is exclusiveness in fellowship. Cultistically-minded believers feel that fellowship with other born-again believers outside of their own group has little or no spiritual value. A cultistic group will therefore discourage you from having any contacts with other believers unless it is to make converts for their group. Such a group usually considers itself to be the only true church and believes that all those who belong to Christ's Bride will ultimately find their way to them. Their conceit is truly unimaginable!!!

Such exclusiveness in fellowship, invariably turns many cultistic believers into religious snobs and legalistic Pharisees. The "superior insights" into God's Word that they claim to have, develops in them a conceited "We" and "They" attitude towards all other believers. Such cultistic believers are usually totally unaware of their Phariseeism, and would consider themselves as truly devoted and humble followers of Jesus!!. Such is the power of the human mind to deceive itself!! Others outside their group however see their Phariseeism plainly.

True holiness is the product of the grace of God (as Romans 6:14 makes very plain). And God gives his grace only to the humble (1 Pet.5:5). Therefore the primary characteristic of genuine holiness has to be HUMILITY. Where humility is lacking, the `holiness' that cultists may appear to have will only be a righteousness of the Law (produced by human effort). This is the reason why most cultists tend to boast of their `holy lives' and their `holy homes'. If their `holiness' had been the product of God's grace, they could not possibly be proud of it.

Cultistic believers usually read only those books that are written by the leaders of their own group. Their magazines will have articles written only by their own group members. Most cultistic groups will warn you strongly against reading literature written by other believers - for in their reckoning, Christianity has not seen any other godly men since the days of the apostles, other than the leaders of their own group!! Such is the power of cultism to deceive people!

Cultistic believers will sing only those songs that are written by members of their own group. Their song-books will contain only such songs. Other hymns will be considered as having a wrong spirit and therefore dangerous!! Thus cultistic groups preserve their members within their man-made cocoons, keeping them all completely ignorant of what God has done through other godly men in other centuries, or even through other godly men in other Christian churches in their own day.

When one lives in isolation from other God-fearing believers, it is easy to lose contact with reality and to begin to live in a world of self-deception and conceit.

If we cut off even one child of God, whom our Heavenly Father has accepted, from the circle of our fellowship, for any reason, it is we who will stand to lose - for God has ordained that it is only "along with ALL the saints that we can understand the love of Christ" and attain to "the fullness of God" (Eph.3:18,19).

This is not to encourage ecumenism or compromise. We may not be able to work together with many believers who are in Babylonian systems. We must have nothing to do with such systems, and must always encourage believers to come out of such groups (Rev.18:4). But our hearts must always be open to fellowship with all God-fearing disciples of Jesus. If our Lord Himself has accepted someone, what right have we to reject him, even if he does not agree with us (Lk.9:49,50)?

Paul and Barnabas are a good example of how it is possible to fellowship together as individuals, without necessarily working together in the same team (Acts 15:36-41). They disagreed strongly on an issue and saw no way of working together any longer. But they did not break fellowship with each other or hate each other or call each other names. If they had done any of these, then they would have become cultists. But they loved one another and worked separately, and no doubt prayed for one another. Cultists find such an arrangement impossible. They can fellowship only with hose who are totally subservient to them.

(4) No Burden for Evangelism

A fourth mark of cultism is that it has no burden to take the gospel to the unconverted heathen in the world.

While there may be some cultistic groups that engage in evangelism on a limited scale among the heathen, generally speaking, most cultistic believers work only among other Christians. They do not have any desire to preach the gospel to every creature, as Jesus commanded (Mark 16:15). Instead, they major only on making disciples to their own  group from among other believers.

Because cultistic groups are usually very close-knit fellowships, many believers find a security within their fold. Those in cultistic groups care for one another, help one another and are very good to each other in many, many ways.  Insecure Christians, who are disappointed with the loveless Christianity that they have encountered, and who are now looking for security and acceptance, not in God, but in a community of believers, are often drawn to these groups to find love and fellowship therein. But they are usually unaware of the dangers they will face later on in their Christian life, by being so exclusive.

Cultistic believers will give a lot of attention and affection to a new `contact', so as to get him to be an integral part of their group. They know that once he has joined them, the new recruit will gradually accept all of their teachings, including the "Divine authority" of their leader. After some years in such a group, most believers will not even consider leaving the group, for fear of being left alone and isolated. This fear coupled with the thought that they may be "falling away from the true church" ensure that weak-minded cultistic believers are trapped for life. Cultistic believers will not normally make the sacrifices that God-fearing missionaries have made through the centuries, to live in primitive conditions amidst the heathen for many years, in order to bring them to Christ. Cultists usually speak lightly of such missionary work - quite naturally so, for such missionary work is difficult to engage in!!

Cultistic preachers, if at all they go to heathen lands, will usually do so only as visiting preachers. They prefer the easy way of appointing local representatives in the heathen lands that they visit, in order to further the work of their group in that region and to arrange meetings for them during their annual visits. In return, such local representatives will be rewarded with gifts, or bribed with an expense-paid trip to the headquarters of the group, once in a while.

The apostles of Christ could not offer such bribes to anyone, because they were poor. Therefore they did a genuine work for God in heathen lands.

(5) Devaluation of Justification by Faith.

A fifth mark of cultism is that it devalues justification by faith and overemphasises justification by works.

Scripture does speak of works as the proof of our faith (James 2:24). But Scripture also teaches that "to the one who does not work, but believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness" (Rom.4:5).

The danger here is not just one of imbalance, but of heresy - for when one Biblical truth is carried to an extreme, to the exclusion of other Biblical truths, it can become a heresy. And further, if we hold a Biblical doctrine, but never teach it in our churches, it will become equivalent to our not believing in it at all. For unspoken truth, like an unused muscle, loses its function gradually and is finally lost altogether to the church. "The truth does not lie in one extreme or the other. Much less does it lie in the middle. The truth lies in both extremes held together."

We must be careful that our teaching is not a reaction to the extremes that others have gone to. Many preachers have indeed turned the teaching of justification by faith into licence for sin. But that should not make us throw away this Scriptural truth, and go to the opposite extreme of preaching justification by works alone.

Cultistic believers, generally speaking, preach on justification by good works only. Hinduism and all heathen religions do that too. If at all a cultistic believer speaks on Romans 4, it will be in such a way as to prove that Romans 4 also teaches justification by works!! Cultistic believers usually play down the truth of "Christ becoming our righteousness" (1 Cor.1:30), and major only on "the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in us" (Rom.8:4).

Cultistic believers also devalue the blood of Christ and never speak much about it, except perhaps in a mystical, super-spiritual way. The songs that are sung in any church are usually a good indication of the main beliefs of that church. If you look at the song-books of cultistic groups, you will find that there are hardly any songs in them about the forgiveness of sins, or about justification by faith, or about the cleansing of sin by the blood of Jesus.

The blood shed on the cross of Calvary, which Jesus and His apostles spoke about (Lk.22:20; Eph.2:13), and which we shall sing about for eternal ages in heaven (Rev.5:9), finds little or no place in the song-books of cultistic groups.

While it is true that many cultistic believers live very good lives externally, it is also true that many in their midst are weighed down with the heavy burdens that are placed on them by the teachings of their leaders. Many in their midst are perpetually unsure of whether God is happy with them or not, and as a result live under a permanent sense of guilt, and the perpetual condemnation of Satan, the Accuser of the brethren. But most of these people would be very reluctant to admit these problems, lest they be dubbed as unbelieving and faithless.

It is through perpetuating such feelings of guilt that cultistic leaders retain their control over most believers in their group. Hence a lot of preaching in cultistic groups tends to be directed towards making people feel guilty. And in many cases this sense of guilt is a vague thing, without any specific sin being identified.

While there are many strong-minded believers in such groups, who are able to overcome these feelings, the weaker ones are taken captive by Satan. This is a direct result of the neglect of teaching on justification by faith.

(6) Secrecy About Beliefs

A sixth mark of cultism is secrecy about its beliefs.

Cultistic believers are usually evasive in their answers, when questioned by other believers outside their group, about those beliefs of theirs that have no clear Scriptural foundation.

When they cannot prove any of their doctrines from the Scriptures, their standard reply to any questioning believer invariably is, "You need the revelation of the Holy Spirit"!! Thus they claim to have some special revelation from God that is not taught in Scripture and that other believers do not have.

Cultistic believers delight in speaking about `mysteries' that they claim have been `revealed to them by the Spirit', and which they say are revealed only to the `wholehearted' - by which term of course they mean those who have accepted their leader and joined their group!!!! They do not believe that there are any wholehearted believers outside their own group. Thus they entice curious believers to join this "elite inner core" of those who have "light on the truth".

There is a great lust in the flesh to imagine that one is a special favourite of God - one of His inner circle - to whom God reveals secret `mysteries' that other believers know nothing about. Cultism caters to this lust that is found in everybody's flesh.

But what is the truth? The truth is that every mystery of God has been plainly revealed in the Scriptures.

Ephesians 3:4-6 makes it clear that the mystery of Christ was a mystery only in Old Testament times - not now. Colossians 1:26,27 states that God has now manifested the mystery to ALL the saints. There is nothing secretive about any mystery now - for the New Testament has made everything plain. Cultistic believers however will have you believe that there are still some hidden mysteries.

The two great mysteries mentioned in the New Testament are concerning godliness and the church (1 Tim.3:16; Eph.5:32). Both of these mysteries are plainly written and taught in the Scriptures. If people haven't seen them, it is either because they haven't read the Scriptures carefully, or because they are too proud and prejudiced to change their views. But there is certainly no mystery that God has revealed secretly to anyone that is not plainly revealed in the Scriptures. Beware then of the `mysteries' that cultists constantly speak of.

(7) Uniformity Stressed

A seventh mark of cultism is that it demands uniformity from its adherents.

Cultistic believers feel that unity can exist only where there is uniformity as well. They will misquote 1 Corinthians 1:10 - "that you all agree" ("that ye all speak the same thing" - KJV) - to prove their point. Even a minor variation from the accepted norm is therefore frowned upon. They fail to realise that that verse is speaking of an agreement in spirit, and not of an agreement in every little detail.

Cultistic believers do not know how to "give a warm welcome to any brother who has different ideas from yours about what is right and wrong" (Rom.14:1 - Living). Their warm welcome is reserved only for those who agree 100% with them. In fact, there is no place for the teaching of Romans 14 in cultistic groups at all, for there is no place for diversity in their midst.

Everything in a cultistic group - including the pattern of the meetings - has to be exactly according to the mould that is found in the headquarters of the group. Many cultistic believers imitate even the cultural mannerisms of their leaders!! There is a sub-conscious pressure exerted constantly on members of a cultistic group to conform in all matters to the pattern laid down by its headquarters.

All believers who are willing to be poured into such a mould like dumb zombies (mindless people) or robots, without asking any questions, are considered to be humble and wholehearted and a part of `the elect'. All others are considered as being proud and `without light'.

Allegiance to the group is obtained by veiled warnings of the consequences of rebellion against the leaders. Frightening tales are told to group-members of "how badly it has gone" with those who dared to disagree with the leaders of the group. Thus, weak-minded believers are put under pressure to conform. Thus they gradually lose their discerning faculties and become enslaved to the group. Jesus came to set people free. But cultism imprisons people. Many believers need to be freed from the prisons that cultistic preachers have locked them up in.

The Jews in Jesus' day were slaves not only to sin, but also to the traditions and opinions of their religious leaders. Jesus had to set them free from both these slaveries. Many who accepted Jesus' message of freedom from sin, were still afraid of their religious leaders, and so did not break away from "the traditions of the elders", even where they saw these to be unscriptural, lest they be excommunicated from their group (Jn.12:42,43).

We see how strong such a slavery to the opinions of religious leaders can be, from the fact that even after twenty years of living a Spirit-filled life, Peter was afraid of publicly breaking away from Jewish traditions, for fear of offending some Israeli Christian leaders. Paul, who was only a junior apostle at that time, was the only one who had the boldness to confront Peter publicly on that occasion, and to expose Peter's following of "the traditions of the elders". Even the senior apostle, Barnabas, did not have the boldness to do that (Gal.2:11-21).

God does not desire that anyone should conform to an external form or pattern, under pressure, without personal conviction. The only obedience that God ever asks for, is one that is given cheerfully and freely - for "God loves a cheerful giver" - of obedience as well as of money (2 Cor.9:7). He hates compulsion.

God never interferes with our free will. He always gives us freedom of choice - to obey Him or to disobey Him - the same freedom that He gave Adam and Eve in Eden. For God knows that it is only in such an atmosphere of perfect freedom that true holiness can develop and flourish.

The holiness that is genuine is one that is perfected in the fear of God and not in the fear of men (2 Cor.7:1).

The obedience that God desires is one that is prompted by love and gratitude to Him, and not by fear of judgment or hope of reward. All obedience that arises from the pressure to conform to a pattern, or that is done in order to gain acceptance in a group is a dead work. It has no value before God. It will only get you the honour of others in your group.

And this is where God will test all of us to see what we desire - His approval or the approval of our fellow-believers.

Staying Free

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of bondage." (Gal.5:1). The greatest battle in the Christian life is not the battle against anger or against dirty thoughts. It is the battle against the desire to obtain the approval of men. This is where we must determine to live before God's face alone, if we want to stay free.

You may live a good life, even if you have a cultistic attitude. But you will never be able to fulfil all of God's purpose for your life on earth with such an attitude. The kingdom of God can be possessed only by those who do violence to the prison-bars that have been erected around them by cultistic preachers.

We must break free from all slavery to the opinions of men, at any cost, if we are to enter into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Amen.

 

(15) GOD'S PURPOSE IN PETER'S FAILURE

In Luke chapter 22 verse 31.We read of Jesus warning Peter of 

a danger that lay ahead of him. He told him "Simon, Simon, behold, 

Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have 

prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once 

you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." We all know 

that Peter denied the Lord three times that very night. In verse 

34, we read that Jesus told Peter, "I say to you, Peter, the 

cock will not crow today until you have denied three times that 

you know Me." Does God allow failure? Does He permit it? Is there 

a purpose in failure? Or is failure something that has no purpose 

at all in God's perfect will and something that God cannot use 

to further his purposes! When we read this passage, we see that 

God did not prevent Peter from denying Him. Why didn't Jesus 

say "Simon I have prayed for you that you will not deny Me even 

once." Why did the Lord pray only that Peter's faith may not 

fail, even if Peter himself fell?? Isn't it interesting that 

the Lord did not pray that Peter might not fall? Some of us would 

like the Lord to pray for us that we might never fall. We would 

like the Lord to say to us  "My son, my daughter, I have prayed 

for you that you will never fall and never fail." But interestingly 

enough, our Lord doesn't pray such a prayer for us. What did 

Jesus pray for Simon? That when Satan tempted him, his faith 

would not fail. He didn't pray that Peter should not fall in 

temptation, but that when he did fall, his faith in God's perfect 

love would not fail him  - so that even when Peter reached the 

bottom of the pit of failure, he would confess, "God still loves 

me". That is faith - and that is the confession we must always 

have on our lips and in our hearts - no matter how low we may 

have sunk or fallen - that God still loves us, JUST AS WE ARE. 

That was the confession of the prodigal son. When he had reached 

so low that he could not go any lower, he still believed that 

his father loved him. I can't imagine anyone reaching any lower 

than the prodigal son had reached - eating what the pigs eat. 

That boy was at rock-bottom. But when he reached rock-bottom, 

he remembered one thing: That his father still loved him. Otherwise 

he would never have returned home.  Supposing he'd heard that 

his father had died and that his elder brother was now running 

the house, do you think he would have come back home? No. He 

knew what his elder brother was like. And knowing that, he would 

never have come back. He came back only because he knew that 

his father loved him. There's hope for all who've failed thoroughly, 

who've made a mess of their lives, and who've reached rock bottom. 

From there the Lord can pick you up and take you to the heights 

of glory. His prayer for us is that our faith in God's love should 

not fail at any time. When you hit rock bottom. Remember one 

thing that God still loves you, no matter where you are, or how low 

you have fallen. May your faith in God's love not fail in that 

hour.

It was with a purpose that God allowed Peter to fail. That purpose 

was to sift Peter. What Satan really wanted was to destroy Peter 

altogether, but God would not allow him to do that. God does 

not allow us to be tested or tried beyond our ability. So Satan 

was allowed to sift Peter. As a result of his failure, Peter 

was cleansed of a whole lot of chaff in his life.  That is the 

real purpose with which God allows us to fail too. Isn't it a 

good thing for the chaff to be removed from our lives? Certainly. 

When a farmer harvests the wheat, he has to sift it before he 

can use it. Only then will the chaff be removed from it. The Lord 

uses Satan to remove the chaff from our lives. Amazingly enough, 

God accomplishes this purpose by allowing us to fail repeatedly!! 

God used Satan to fulfill that purpose in Peter and He will use 

Satan to fulfill that purpose in our lives too. There's a lot 

of chaff in all of us - the chaff of pride, self confidence and 

self righteousness. And God uses Satan to make us fail repeatedly, 

in order to remove that chaff from us completely. Whether the 

Lord is succeeding in fulfilling this purpose in your life or 

not, you alone know. But if the chaff is being removed, you will 

be humbler and less self righteous. You won't look down on others 

who fail. You won't consider yourself better than anyone else. 

As I said, God permits Satan to remove the chaff from us, by 

allowing us to fail repeatedly. So don't get discouraged if you 

fail. You are still in God's hand. There is a glorious purpose 

that's being fulfilled through your repeated failures. But your 

faith in God's love for you must not fail at such times. That 

was what Jesus prayed for Peter and what He's praying for us 

today. He's not praying that we may never fail, but He's praying 

that when we do reach rock-bottom, our confidence in God's love 

will still be unshaken. Only through many experiences of failure 

do we finally reach a "zero point", where we're truly broken. 

It was when Peter reached that point, that he had a second "conversion" 

(Lk.22:32 - KJV). He turned around. The proof that Jesus' prayer 

for Peter was answered is seen in the fact that when Peter hit 

rock-bottom, he turned around. He didn't just lie down there 

discouraged. He didn't lose his faith. He got up. God had let 

him go on a long leash. But when Peter reached the end of that 

rope, God pulled him back.

It's a wonderful thing to be a child of God. When God lays hold 

of us, He puts a rope around us to protect us. There's a lot 

of slack in that rope, and you may slip up and fall many thousands 

of times and even drift away from the Lord. But one day, you'll 

reach the end of that rope. And then God will pull you right 

back to Him. Of course, you can decide at that point, to cut 

off the rope and run away. Or you can choose to be broken by 

God's kindness and mourn and return to Him. That's what Peter 

did. He wept and turned back to the Lord. But Judas Iscariot 

 didn't do that. He cut away the rope - in rebellion against 

God's authority over his life - and was eternally lost. But I 

trust you'll do what Peter did. Jesus then told Peter, "When you 

turn back and are strong once again, strengthen your brothers". 

It is only when we are broken that we can be strong enough 

to strengthen others. It was only when Peter was weak and broken, 

that he became really strong - so strong that he was able to 

strengthen his brothers and sisters. We could say that Peter's 

preparation for Spirit-filled service came through his experience 

of failure. If he had been filled with the Holy Spirit, without 

this experience of failure, he would have stood up on the day 

of Pentecost as a proud man, as a man who had never failed, who 

could look down, despisingly, at the poor lost sinners in front 

of him. And God would have become his enemy, for God resists 

the proud!!

(16) THE ANOINTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT – 

EXAMPLE OF JESUS                              

It is written about Jesus that "God anointed Him with the

Holy Spirit and with power". What was the result? "He

went about DOING GOOD and HEALING (DELIVERING)

ALL WHO WERE OPPRESSED BY THE DEVIL, for God

was with Him." (Acts 10:38).

The world around us is full of people who are suffering

because Satan has oppressed and harassed and bound

them in some way or the other. When God is with us, we

will do what Jesus did - go around doing good to them and

delivering them from Satan's bondage. It is impossible to

do that without being anointed with the Holy Spirit.

If Jesus Himself could not fulfill such a ministry without the

anointing of the Spirit, how can we?

When we see the baptism and the gifts of the Spirit in the

context of Jesus' ministry, we can never go wrong. Jesus

not only lived a holy life, He also had a ministry to others.

He preached, healed the sick, cast out demons, and

made disciples.

We can never serve God effectively as His servants in the

church if we are not anointed as Jesus was.

There are many who study the Word carefully and preach

it accurately, but they don't have the anointing of the Holy

Spirit upon them. Therefore their ministry is dry and dead.

As servants of the new covenant, our preaching must

always be in the power of the Spirit. Jesus was never dull

or boring or stale at any time when He preached -

because He was anointed. When we are anointed as He

was, we too will never be dull or boring or stale. Instead,

our ministry will be a refreshing blessing to everyone.

When Jesus preached the Word to the disciples who were

walking to Emmaus, they testified that their hearts

"burned within them" (Lk.24:32). That is how a truly

anointed ministry is - it makes people's hearts burn. And

that is how our ministry should be always.

There must never be a time when we're not under the

anointing of the Spirit. Then we will always have a word to

give to those in need whom we come across, even as

Jesus had (See Isa.50:4)

In Acts 1:1, it says that the gospel of Luke describes "all

that Jesus BEGAN to do and to teach." So the Acts of

the Apostles is a record of what Jesus CONTINUED to do

and teach. In the gospels, we have the record of what

Jesus did with His physical body. In the Acts we have the

record of what He did with His spiritual Body. So the Acts

of the Apostles is actually the acts of Jesus through the

apostles.

Jesus is not engaged in some other ministry on earth

today, than what He did when he came to earth 2000

years ago. He is still "going around doing good and

delivering all who are oppressed by the devil" - through the

members of His spiritual Body, the church.

And so it is an awesome responsibility that we have to be

a servant of the Lord in His Body. Let us never take it

lightly. If Jesus Who lived such a perfect life for 30 years

needed to be anointed with the Holy Spirit before He

began to serve the Father, how dare we engage in such a

ministry without a similar anointing.

If we have not been anointed by the Spirit as yet, it must

be because we have not sought for it sufficiently. And if

we have not sought for it, it is probably because we have

not valued it sufficiently. And if we have not valued it, it

must be because we have been self-sufficient. Let us

repent then of our self-sufficiency - and allow God to

circumcise our hearts of all self-confidence.

(17) GLORY OF GOD

 

                    

 

God is love. It is not that He just acts lovingly. He IS in

His very essence LOVE. The glory of God as seen in

Jesus, manifests this clearly. Jesus did not just perform

acts of love. He went about "doing good" (Acts 10:38). But

that was because the love of God flooded His whole being.

Love has its origin, like holiness and humility, in our inner

man. It is from the innermost being of the Spirit-filled man

that the rivers of life flow (Jn. 7:38,39). Our thoughts and

attitudes (even if never expressed) give an odour to our

words and actions and to our personality. And others can

easily detect this odour. Words and acts of love count for

nothing, if our thoughts and attitudes to others remain

selfish and critical. God desires "truth in the innermost

being" (Psa. 51:6). The glory of God was seen in Jesus'

love for all men. Jesus never despised anyone for his

poverty, ignorance, ugliness or lack of culture. He

specifically stated that the whole world and all that it

contained was not as valuable as one human soul (Mk.

8:36). That was how He valued men. And so He delighted

in all men. He saw men deceived and bound by Satan;

and He longed to set them free. So great was this longing

born of love, that He was willing to pay the ultimate price

to free men from sin's grip over their lives. And because

He was willing to die for men to save them from their sins,

He earned the right to preach against sin forcefully. We

have no right to preach against sin, if either we have not

judged that sin in our own flesh and overcome, or if we are

unwilling to die (if need be) to save others from the sin that

we preach against. This is what it means to "speak the

truth in love" (Eph. 4:15). Because He bore the cross

daily, Jesus was never irritated with anyone, however

crude or stupid he might be. The slowness of others never

got on His nerves, nor did untidiness, disorderliness and

carelessness in others, ever make Him impatient. The

perfect man can easily bear with imperfect people. Only

imperfect people find the imperfection of others to be

intolerable! Patience is one of the greatest manifestations

of our love for others.

 

Consider the glory of Jesus' love, in His speech. Jesus

never belittled others or passed remarks or jokes about

them that hurt them. He never made any subtle wounding

statements. He never discussed the shortcomings of His

disciples behind their backs. It is truly amazing that in

three years, He never exposed Judas before the other

eleven disciples - for even at the last supper, the eleven

could not guess who was going to betray their Master.

Jesus used His tongue to encourage and admonish

others, thereby making His tongue an instrument of life in

God's Hand. He used His tongue to speak soothing words

to the weary (Isa. 50:4), and also as a sword to cut down

the proud and the haughty (Isa. 49:2). How greatly

encouraged the Roman centurion and the Syrophenician

woman must have felt when they heard Jesus praise them

for their faith, publicly (Mt. 8:10; 15:28). The sinful woman

who was praised for her love (Lk. 7:47) and Mary of

Bethany who was praised for her sacrificial offering (Mk.

14:6) would never have forgotten the words of Jesus. How

strengthened Peter must have been through Jesus'

assurance that He would pray for him (Lk. 22:32). Just a

few words, but what strength and encouragement they

conveyed. Many others must have heard words from

Jesus' lips that lifted their weary spirits, for it says in

Isaiah 50:4 that Jesus listened daily to His Father's voice

so that He might have an appropriate word for the weary

souls that came across His path each day.

 

Peter described the ministry of Jesus as "going about

doing good" (Acts 10:38). Truly, this summed up His life.

He was not just a good preacher, nor was He just

interested in winning souls. He loved the total man, and

did good wherever He went, both to the bodies and the

souls of men. His enemies, taunting Him, called Him, "a

friend of tax-collectors and sinners" (Lk. 7:34), and that

was exactly what He was, a friend of the most despised

people in society. Jesus had taught His disciples that "it

is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35), and

demonstrated by His life that the happiest and most

blessed life that a man can live on this earth is one lived

totally for God and for others, where he gives himself and

his possessions to bless others. Jesus lived so utterly for

God and for others that, even when dying, He found time

to lead a thief to salvation. Hanging there on the cross, He

was unmindful of His own sufferings and of the jeerings

and hatred of others, and was more concerned that those

who crucified Him should have their sin forgiven (Lk.

23:34). Jesus always overcame evil with good. The floods

of the hatred of others could not quench the flaming fire of

His love (Song 8:7). This is the love that He gives us by

His Spirit whereby we can love one another even as He

loved us (Jn. 13:34,35; Rom. 5:5). Thus we too shall

manifest the divine nature.

 

(18) ARE YOU A CO-WORKER WITH SATAN

OR WITH THE LORD JESUS?

     

                    

We read in Revelation 12:10 that Satan is the `Accuser of

the brothers', and that he accuses them before God day

and night. This is a full time ministry that Satan is

engaged in. And in this ministry he has many co-workers

- both among his evil spirits as well as among men. The

sad fact is that there are many believers too who are co-

workers with Satan in this ministry of accusation. Satan

transmitted his nature to Adam as soon as Adam sinned

in the garden of Eden. We see proof of this in the fact that

when God came to Adam and asked him whether he had

eaten the forbidden fruit, the very first thing that Adam did

was point his finger at Eve and say, "She was the one

who gave me the fruit to eat" (Gen. 3:12). That pose of

Adam's - with his forefinger pointed at a fellow human-

being - is a familiar one, found among all his children as

well. From early childhood, we have all developed the

habit of blaming and accusing others. As we have grown

older, this blaming, accusing spirit has become cleverer,

more subtle and more evil in its manifestations. The sad

thing is that it has not been eliminated from most

believers, even many years after they are born again! We

see the attitude of the Pharisees clearly in the incident

where they accused a poor woman who was caught in

adultery. They had no interest in saving her from a life of

sin. All they desired was to show off their own

"righteousness". There they stood, pointing their

forefingers (like their forefather Adam) at that hapless

woman. By that action, they revealed whose children they

really were. Jesus however, had come to save such

women from their sins. And He told those Pharisees that

their father was not just Adam, but the Accuser, Satan

himself (See John 8:1-11 and 44).

 

The ministry of accusation and condemnation is the

ministry of Satan and we should have no part in this. Our

Lord, on the other hand has a full-time ministry of

intercession and salvation. This is the ministry that we

should have. God has given us to Jesus as His Bride and

His `helpmeet' for this ministry. So we are to be co-

workers with our Lord in this ministry of intercession. As

the Father sent Jesus into the world - not to condemn

(judge, accuse) the world, but to save it - even so, He has

sent us too, into the world, not to condemn, judge, or

accuse others, but to save them. (Jn.20:21). Therefore, we

can be effective instruments in God's hands in His work in

the world today, only if we get rid of "the spirit of

accusation" (the spirit of Satan) totally from our lives and

replace it with "the spirit of intercession" (the Spirit of

Christ). In Zechariah 3:1-5, we have a beautiful illustration

of these two ministries. There we see Joshua

(symbolising a believer) standing before the Lord's throne.

He was clothed with filthy garments - which indicates that

there will always be sin (conscious or unconscious or

both) even in the best of us until the end of our earthly

lives - for remember that Joshua was the high-priest, the

leader of the Jews (1 Jn.1:8). We then see Satan standing

next to Joshua to accuse him. On the other side, we see

the Lord taking the side of Joshua and rebuking the

Accuser. The Lord took away Joshua's filthy clothes and

replaced them with glorious clothes. Zechariah, who was

watching all this, was so thrilled to see the Lord

"justifying" Joshua, that he too joined the Lord in "making

his brother glorious" and said, "Let them also put a clean

turban on his head." The Lord answered Zechariah's

prayer and gave Joshua a clean turban too. This is what it

means to be a co-worker with God. We must be radical in

getting rid of the spirit of accusation entirely from our lives

- just like the "radical surgery" a surgeon does on a

person having incurable cancer. The question however is

whether we have seen that "the spirit of accusation" is far

worse than any cancer.

 

All of us have had this evil habit of blaming others from

birth. We have spent our lives pointing our fingers at

others and accusing them of one thing or the other and

backbiting against them. Like the Pharisees, we have

forgotten about our own sins and not realised that our own

sins disqualify us from being fit to throw stones at others!!

We need to mourn that this evil spirit of accusation has

found so much place in our lives in past years.

Unknowingly, we have been co-workers with Satan in his

ministry of accusation, instead of being co-workers with

our Lord in His redemptive ministry of intercession. We

need to repent of this at least now. Casting out the evil

spirit of accusation from our lives is only the first step to

a

full salvation. If we don't fill that empty space in our hearts

with the spirit of intercession, the spirit of accusation will

come back into our hearts with seven worse spirits and

torment and corrupt us all over again - as Jesus warned

(Lk. 11:24-26). It is essential therefore that we are filled

with the Holy Spirit - who is called "the Spirit of

intercession" (See Zech.12:10 and Rom.8:26,27). The

only way to drive out the spirit of accusation permanently

from our lives is by being filled with the spirit of

intercession. It is impossible to speak evil of, or to accuse

a person whom you are regularly praying for. Check it out

and see if it is not true: You never pray for those whom

you accuse. Right?? That is why this "cancerous spirit of

accusation" never seems to leave you, but on the other

hand gets worse and worse every year - just like any other

cancer! God grant that, as much as the spirit of

accusation and complaining and backbiting against others

has found its place in our thoughts and in our hearts in the

past, we will now be equally filled - and even more - with

the spirit of thanksgiving and intercession for one another.

Thus the enemy will no longer find a place in our lives. The

Accuser and his spirits will be overcome and driven out by

the the spirit of intercession. Will you be radical now and

forsake this habit of accusing others - once and for all -

and replace it with the spirit of intercession? May the Lord

help us all to do so.

 

 

(19)THE NEW WINE

                    

 

At the marriage in Cana, where Jesus was present, the

old wine ran out. The old wine was made with human

effort, over a period of many years - but it could not meet

the need. This is a parable of life under the law - the old

covenant. The old wine runs out; and the Lord has to wait

until it runs out before He can give us the new wine. "For

the Lord God says: Only in waiting for Me will you be

saved. ... but you say, We will get our help from Egypt

(human strength)! So you will be chased by your enemies.

.. And the Lord is waiting for you (to come to an end of

yourself) and to come to Him, so that He can show you

His love; He will conquer you to bless you. ... Blessed are

all those who wait for Him to help them'' (Isa. 30:15-18

Living Bible). When we have tried and tried and tried to live

in victory and failed repeatedly, this is the lesson that God

is trying to teach us: "You cannot have victory in your own

strength." As long as you are under the law, you will be

ruled by sin. The chief work that God seeks to do in each

of His children is to break down the strength of self totally.

Jesus waited for the old wine to run out, at Cana, before

He did His miracle. He is waiting now for our strength to

come to an end. All our failures and defeats are meant by

God to bring us to the end, for He can manifest His power

perfectly only in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). We can see

the strength of self in the moments of temptation and

provocation, when we react with bitter words, angry

expressions, self-justification, criticism and judgment of

others, unforgiving attitudes, a grabbing-love for material

things, fighting for our rights and our reputation, seeking

vengeance etc. These and other similar attitudes show

how strong self still is in us - the old wine has not yet run

out; and Jesus waits on the sidelines doing nothing for us.

 

If only we allow God to break us, if only we would humble

ourselves and gladly accept death to our rights and

reputation, how quickly He could lead us into life under

the new covenant! All the trying circumstances,

frustrations and disappointments, heartaches etc, that we

go through are meant by God to bring the strength of our

self down to zero. This was how God dealt with Job.

Finally Job reached that zero-point where lying on his face

in the dust, he said, "Lord, I am nothing. (I am zero.) ... I

lay my hand upon my mouth in silence. ... I had only

heard about you (second-hand) before, but now I have

seen you and I loathe myself and repent in dust and

ashes'' (Job 40:4;42:5,6). This is what happens when God

has finally broken us and given us a revelation of Himself.

The same Moses, who once thought himself to be so

capable (at the age of 40), when broken by the vision of

God (40 years later) says, "Lord, I can't speak. Send

someone else" (Ex. 4:10,13). The same thing happened

to the great prophet Isaiah when he saw God's glory. He

said, "My doom is sealed, for I am a foul-mouthed sinner"

(Isa. 6:5). Daniel says that when he saw the vision the

Lord gave Him, that his strength left him. He came to a

zero-point (Dan. 10:8). When the Spirit-filled apostle John,

after having walked with God for 65 years, saw Jesus on

the isle of Patmos, he fell at His feet as a dead man (Rev.

1:17). Such has always been the experience of all who

have seen the glory of the Lord! Their face is in the dust

and their mouth is shut. When God can bring us to that

place, it is but a quick task for Him to give us the new

wine, the life of Jesus, the divine nature, the pre-eminent

blessing of the new covenant sealed through the blood of

Jesus. Oh that we might all come there quickly and live in

that place - with our face in the dust before God - all our

days! For there is a development in this life from light to

light (Prov. 4:18), from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). John

speaks of "Walking in the light" (1 Jn. 1:7). There is no

standing in the light, but rather a walking - a progression

closer and closer to Him in whom there is no darkness at

all. Thus the light shines brighter and brighter upon us and

we become more and more conscious of the hidden sins

that lurk in our flesh, which we were not aware of in earlier

days; and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all those

sins.

 

Thus it is, that the closer we come to the Lord, the more

aware we become of sin in our own flesh, and less and

less of the sin in others around us. We no longer desire to

throw stones at the woman caught in adultery, for we are

aware in Jesus' presence, of the sin in our own flesh, and

we cry out, "O wretched man that I am", rather than "O

wretched woman that she is" (Rom. 7:24). Adam pointed

a finger at his wife, even while standing before God (Gen.

3:12). But the Lord made him aware of his own sin (3:17).

This is what the Lord will do for us too. And this is really

the test of whether we have just a religion and some

doctrines or whether we are living before the face of God

Himself. Has the wine run out in our personal life, our

married life or our assembly life? Then it is about time that

we sought the Lord's face and acknowledged our need

honestly. He alone can give us the new wine! The new

wine in Cana was not produced by human effort. It was

the supernatural work of God. So too can it be in our life.

He will write His laws in our heart and mind, making us to

will and to do His perfect will (Heb. 8:10; Phil. 2:13). He

will circumcise our hearts to love Him and cause us to

walk in His commandments (Deut. 30:6; Ezek. 36:27).

This will be as much His work as the new wine produced

in Cana was His work. This is the meaning of grace. We

cannot produce the life of Jesus - even if we try for a

lifetime. But if we bear in our body "the dying of Jesus"

(the taking up of the cross each day, the dying to our ego,

our self-will and our rights and reputation), God promises

to produce the new wine of the life of Jesus in us (2 Cor.

4:10). We are to run this race looking unto Jesus,

comparing ourselves with Him alone, all the time. Thus

alone will there be a constant cry from our hearts, "O

wretched man that I am" - for we shall be constantly

aware of how unlike Jesus we are, even when we have

come to a life of victory over conscious sin. "Those who

compare themselves with other believers are spiritual

idiots" (2 Cor. 10:12) for that is the surest way to spiritual

pride and a hundred-and-one other evils. We can never be

in danger of spiritual pride as long as our eyes are fixed

on Jesus and we compare ourselves with Him constantly.

The Holy Spirit shows us the glory of Jesus in the mirror

of God's word and then only can He conform us to that

likeness (2 Cor. 3:18). Paul said that he had only one goal

that he pressed on towards - not the conversion of the

lost, but "the upward call of God (to become like) Christ

Jesus" (Phil. 3:13,14). And then he said, "Let us who are

perfect (in our conscience, living in victory over conscious

sin) have this same attitude (of pressing on towards total

perfection, total likeness to Jesus)" (Phil. 3:15). This is

the mark of the spiritually mature Christian. Service for

God, evangelism etc, - all take a secondary place to this

goal, in the life of the mature man of God.

 

John also tells us that it is through such a walking in the

light of God that we can have fellowship with one another

(1 Jn. 1:7) - not only fellowship with God, but also

fellowship with other believers in perfect unity. The reason

for this is very simple. The one who is walking in the light

of God, living before God's face, will always be aware of

his own shortcomings and will be living in a constant self-

judgment, and will not have anything to accuse other

brothers of. Thus there can never be any strife between

any two brothers who are walking in this pathway. This is

the narrow way to life that, Jesus said, few find (Matt.

7:14). Judgment begins at the house of God even for the

righteous, because in God's house, God dwells in

unapproachable light (1 Pet. 4:17,18; 1 Tim. 6:6). "Who

can live with the consuming fire? ... He who walks

righteously (facing up to the truth concerning himself)"

(Isa. 33:14,15). This was the sin of the leader in the

church at Laodicea that he did not live in this constant

self- judgment (and it is easy to slip into that error when

you become a leader) and thus did not know that he was

'wretched' (Rev. 3:17). May we so live before God's face all

our days, so that we live in constant brokenness and

constant self-judgment crying out "O wretched man that I

am". Thus even when we reach the heights of holiness

that a saved sinner can reach on earth, we shall still say

(sincerely and honestly, without any false humility) "I am

the very least of all the believers. ... I am the chief of

sinners" (Eph. 3:8; 1Tim. 1:15). Thus we shall have a

fellowship with other believers who walk the same way

and gradually our mutual fellowship will become more and

more like the fellowship that the Father and the Son have

with each other (Jn. 17:21). This is the new wine Jesus

desires to give us.

 

 

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------ 

For more information, write to: Christian Fellowship Centre at

the following email address: cfcbang@vsnl.com

© Copyright - Zac Poonen
The above  articles have been copyrighted to prevent misuse. It should not be reprinted or translated without written permission from the author. Permission is however given for any part of this book to be copied, provided it is for FREE distribution, provided NO ALTERATIONS are made, provided the AUTHOR'S NAME AND ADDRESS are mentioned and provided this COPYRIGHT notice ["Copyright by Zac Poonen"] is included. For further details, please contact:
Zac Poonen, 16 DaCosta Square, Bangalore - 560084. India.