The Trees of the Lord

“The trees of the Lord are full of sap.”Ps. 104:16

“Every plant that my Father has not planted will be uprooted.”Jesus, in Matthew 15:13

Throughout history, men have quarreled fiercely, even fought wars, over who is serving God and who is not. The entire history of man can be learned, in general, by following the records of wars and false religion. But Jesus let us know the simple fact of the matter; namely, if God doesn’t make a person His, that person just does not belong to God and will be damned in the Final Judgment. That is what the Lord meant when he said, “Every plant that my Father has not planted will be plucked up.” In the end, only those God has chosen will be saved.

As simple a truth as that is, it has been an extraordinarily difficult truth for men to believe. The nature of man rebels against the notion that God is in absolute control of His kingdom. There are no unguarded borders and no illegal aliens in the kingdom of God. Every person who now shares in God’s kingdom first received a personal invitation from God to leave their own country and kin and come to Him. In other words, to use Jesus’ imagery, there are no trees anywhere in God’s kingdom except the trees He has personally chosen and planted there.

Let’s humble ourselves before God and confess this unchanging truth. Only those whom God cleanses from sin are cleansed from sin. Only those “born of God” are “born again”. Only those called by God can come to Jesus. Only those baptized by God are baptized; only those circumcised by God are circumcised; and the only people on earth who know God are those who have been taught by God.

Until God makes a man worthy of eternal life, that man is unworthy of it, no matter what anyone thinks of him or what he thinks of himself. Earthly titles and reputations count for nothing with God. His precious Son Jesus had a reputation among certain religious leaders for being demon-possessed. That reputation didn’t count with God, either. Men not only can be wrong; men are wrong, all the time, unless God makes them right. And the sooner we confess that truth to ourselves, the sooner we will understand that God is always right and that only those He makes right are right with Him.

Being Hunted

"Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth;
evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him."
Ps. 140:11

Take God’s warning seriously. If you attempt to harm someone, even with your tongue, you will be hunted down by evil. Solomon said that an evil person "flees when no man is in pursuit." That is because, even though no man may be pursuing them, the wicked can sense the wrath of God. Something within them senses that "evil angels from God" are on their trail, and they cannot escape them. The wicked imagine themselves as hunting down the upright, to tear them down, but in fact, by giving themselves to evil, they have only become the hunted.

When Jesus said for us to do good to those who hate you and to pray for those who maltreat us, he was not simply saying, "Y’all disciples be nice, now." Not at all. By that, Jesus was revealing to us the only way of escape from the wrath of God against all unrighteousness. God meant it when He said, "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay." Therefore, if we avenge ourselves, we are not only guilty of disobeying Jesus; we are also guilty of thievery, for you have stolen something that belongs to God alone: vengeance.

Quotes

The following are quotes from a couple of meetings, recorded by Jamie Gregory:

These are quotes from the first night of the new NT study with Pastor John (6/14/08):

"God creates within us the right desires we have by writing His law on our heart."

"The spirit will let you know what is right and what is wrong in every situation. The law of Moses could not do that."

"God despises ceremonies behind which unclean spirits hide. And the most unclean spirits hide behind the most beautiful religious ceremonies."

''Believing in Jesus does not make you a child of God, it gives you the right to become one (Jn. 1). 'He who comes to God must first believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him’ " (Heb. 11).

"God is your God if you have His spirit."

"Holiness is not contrary to common sense; it gives you common sense."

"Live as if we are thankful."

"With this knowledge comes responsibility."

"Nobody can do more damage to God’s truth than those who have been given it and yet are unfaithful to the Giver of truth. Nobody can turn people away from the light more effectively than those who have been given it and do not walk in it."

These quotes are from the next morning’s gathering (6/15/08).

"You condemn the world by not living the way it does."

"We are not debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh " (Rom. 8), even to our fleshly, natural parents. God got you here. He chose your parents; they did not choose you. You owe everything to Jesus. We do owe a debt to gratitude and kindness to parents, of respect and fear to governors, and a debt of goodness to anyone who has given us a helping hand along the way, but we do not owe them so much that they have a right to influence the way we live, to pull us into sin. We are not debtors in the flesh to anyone, to live after the flesh."

The Veil That Covers

"And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people,
and the veil that is spread over all nations."
Isa. 26:12
". . . you covered me in my mother’s womb."
Ps. 139:13

According to Isaiah, God has covered all people with a "veil". Every person who has ever lived on earth was covered with it, just as David was, in their mother’s womb. This veil is something that all have in common, and it is referred to many, many times throughout the Bible, especially the New Testament. What is this veil, this covering that God has cast over all people?

David referred to this covering while praising God for creating him within the womb of his mother. He said (Ps. 139:13-15): ". . . you covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows right well. My substance was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth."

So, what was this covering, this veil cast over David, cast over every other human being? The answer is revealed in the book of Hebrews, when the writer refers to the glorification of Jesus; that is, when Jesus passed out of his natural body and was given a glorified body by the Father: "Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holiest place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, through his flesh" (Heb. 10:19-20). The flesh that covers your spirit is the covering that God casts over every soul that is conceived, and, just as David described it, God gives flesh to those souls while they are still fetuses in their mother’s womb.

Isaiah prophesied of a glorious day in which God will destroy this covering of flesh and give His people new bodies to cover their spirits, bodies made of eternal substance, bodies that will never suffer pain or die, bodies that are "like his glorified body". We are blessed to come into existence, to be given this veil of flesh so that we may live and know the Lord, but it will be a far better blessing to pass through this veil of tears and receive our spiritual "mansions" that are stored up for us now, with Jesus in heaven.

The Rod of the Wicked

"The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous,
lest the righteous put forth their hand unto iniquity."
Psalm 125:3

"Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."
Ps. 23:4

It is undeniable that the wicked can afflict the righteous. It happens all the time, and it has happened throughout history. The Bible is full of stories of the righteous being maltreated by the wicked. The promise that God has made is not that the rod of the wicked will never touch the righteous but that it will never rest upon the righteous. In other words, the rod of the wicked will not afflict the righteous perpetually until it drives him beyond his power to endure, but it will be removed when our heavenly Father has accomplished His wise purpose for it being there. It makes me tremble to know what God can choose to do, using the rod of the wicked. When Job lamented, "The thing I greatly feared has come upon me," he was lamenting the fact that God had chosen to use the rod of the wicked against him.

God’s rod comforts us, but it takes some humility to confess, when we are being persecuted, or even chastened, that God is using the wicked as His rod. How could we ever be comforted by the rod of the wicked unless we commit ourselves completely to the Lord, trusting Him to be the one who determines when we suffer, how we suffer, and how long the suffering must last?

Solomon said, "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly." In other words, God uses humans to try other humans, Solomon’s point being that God will use evil men to try the faith of righteous men. But David’s point in Psalm 125:3 is that those wicked men are not in charge of what happens to the righteous. They may want to do us the damage they attempt to do, but nothing can be done unless our loving heavenly Father determines it shall be. And it will end when He determines it will end, and not before. Many times, wicked men wanted to kill Jesus, but they could not because "his time was not yet come." But when God determined it was time for His Son to die, a wicked man, such as Pontius Pilate, could not prevent Jesus’ crucifixion, even though he wanted to. It was God’s appointed time for Jesus’ crucifixion, and as Christ said to the Father through David, "All my times are in your hand."
God has tried no one beyond his power to overcome. No one among the saints has ever suffered more than he has been able to bear. God knows our limitations, and He designs our sufferings so that if we stand fast in faith, our sufferings will only make us stronger and wiser; they have no power to destroy us; God never sends that degree of affliction into our lives. Every soul who has fallen into sin and unbelief during times of trial has done so because he rebelled against the hand of God and chose the wrong path; he was not pressed by God beyond his ability to bear the pressure.

When the upright suffer, it is only for a season, and it is always for a good, healing purpose. And if we stay humble and do the will of God even when we are hurting, the time will come when we will be thankful for the pain that God used to perfect our hearts. God may choose to use the wicked to afflict the righteous, but after the trial is over, He will destroy the wicked and take the righteous up into His comforting bosom, closer to them than ever, and they will be satisfied.

Right Relationships

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Jesus, in Matthew 22: 37-40

Every commandment that God ever gave to His people was designed for one purpose; that is, to guide them into a right relationship, either with Him or with other people. You can search from Genesis to Revelation and you will never find a commandment from God that was not directed toward one of these two goals.

Life in the kingdom of God is not a solitary affair. The word righteousness describes life that is in a right relationship with God and with our neighbors; it does not describe the quality of a soul without regard to others. There is no righteousness where there are no right relationships.

The Law that God gave Moses contained a multitude of commandments concerning how to express one’s love for God and for others. When God said, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image", He was revealing to the Israelites how to have a right relationship with Him. When He said to them, "Thou shalt not kill", and "Thou shalt not steal", He was revealing to them how to have a right relationship with one another. It is all about relationships. There is no such thing as being holy alone, unless you are God. But even God has chosen not to be holy alone.

In both the Old and the New Testament, we are given instruction concerning relationships with people who occupy specific places in our lives, such as husband, wife, parent, child, and even spiritual places, such as prophet, pastor, and teacher. There is a way to have a right relationship with each person who occupies each place in our lives. The Bible is full of instructions intended to guide us into a right relationship with others, based on (1) their place in our lives and (2) their spiritual condition. But the places that can be occupied in our lives are so many, and the spiritual conditions of the people in those places can vary so widely, that the Bible cannot tell us how to have a right relationship in every circumstance with every person. That is why Jesus suffered and died for us to have the holy Ghost; it guides us into "all truth"; that is, it guides us into a right relationship with every person, in every circumstance, every day of our lives. The Bible can never do that.

Paul said, "Comfort the feeble-minded." And he said, "Warn the unruly." And he also said, "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine." Now, if someone comforts the unruly instead of warning them, and warns the elders that do well instead of honoring them, and gives double honor to the feeble-minded, that man doesn’t have a right relationship with the people involved. The holy Ghost must reveal to us who is "unruly", and who is "feeble-minded", and who qualifies as "an elder that rules well", etc. Then, when by the holy Ghost we discern who is who in the body of Christ, we can at last develop a right relationship with them.

Once you see the magnitude of this truth, you will want to strive to have a right relationship with everyone in your world. You will even want to make sure that you have a right relationship with the Devil. God has a right relationship with the Devil, and we can, too. God cast him out of heaven, and Paul told us to be like God and "make no room for the Devil." Sometimes, a right relationship is no relationship at all. Several times Paul mentions that a certain body of believers should cast out a member of the body because of stubbornness and rebellion. Jesus even mentioned cutting off precious members of the body so that the whole body could be saved.

There is no such thing as a man having a right relationship with God but a poor relationship with God’s obedient people. Jesus said, "As much as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me." John said, "How can you love God whom you have not seen, if you love not these whom you have seen?" I recently spoke with a man who thought that his relationship with God was fine, even though his relationship with the body of Christ is almost non-existent. He is like many who have a higher opinion of himself than Jesus has of him. Jesus loves those who love his people and who express that love in a way that helps them develop right relationships.

All right relationships in the kingdom of God are a triangle. That triangle includes you, another person, and God – with God in the middle. No one has a right relationship with anybody without God being in the middle. My father taught us that God was so jealous over his people that He even wanted to sleep between a man and his wife, and that if He did not, then there was bound to be trouble between them. Pursue every relationship you have on this earth through God. Do not be closer to anyone than that person is to God. Do not trust anyone more than that person trusts God, and do not follow any person unless that person is following God. Even the great apostle Paul said, "Follow me, as I follow Christ."

Only those who are led by the Spirit of God have a right relationship with anybody. That is why Paul said that only those that are led by the Spirit of God are the real children of God (Rom. 8:14). Thank God for helping us to discern who is who in our lives, so that we can develop relationships that are right in His sight, for if there is a single relationship in our life that is not right, we ourselves are not yet completely right with God.

Two Commandments and Relationships

Hey Pastor John,

I sure have been thinking about relationships lately and how much they mean to God. I was going through some old emails yesterday and found this one. It is an excerpt from one of our meetings about relationships.

Amy
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Pastor John:

Here are some notes I took from what you said last night:
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Every one of God's commandments concerns relationships. Every one of them. Everything in the Bible is there to direct us to a right relationship with somebody, either with God or our fellow man.

The commandments of the Law, such as "Thou shalt not steal," teach us how to have a right relationship with others. Stealing from another is not how to have a right relationship.

All of God's commandments are love, written out. They teach us to love as God loves. That's why Paul wrote, "Therefore love is fulfillment of the Law." Everyone of God's commandments leads us to a godly relationship, either with him or with another. Everyone of his commandments teaches us how to have a relationship that is healthy and holy and eternal.

There is no commandment just for you, apart from anybody else. There are no loners that are going to be saved in the end. You're going to have a relationship with the people who are going to be saved, or you are going to be left out. And that relationship is going to be good, pure.

One man asked Jesus, "What is the greatest commandment?" And he said, "Love God with all your heart, mind, and strength." And then Jesus said, "Let me volunteer the second biggest one: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Then Jesus added, "On those two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets."

The whole of our lives, as they should be lived, is summarized in those two commandments which direct us to love God completely and to love others.

Dangerous

"Those who are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God."
Paul, in Romans 8

One of the most dangerous things a man can do in this life is to pray, when the Spirit is not leading him to pray. Another most dangerous thing for a man to do in this life is not to pray when the Spirit is calling him to it.

Anything can be dangerous if God is not in it, and nothing is to be feared when He is.

Reading The Bible Backwards

"Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right;
and I hate every false way."
Psalm 119:128

Not everyone possesses the knowledge of God and the love of the truth, so that he is able to recognize every false way, much less to hate every false way. Only the most dedicated and blessed saints hate every false way because only they know what those ways are. False ways can be made to appear right, but the wisest among the saints see through the appearance of good that often conceals the evil within. The author of this Psalm was an extraordinary man. He considered everything God said to be right, no matter what God was talking about, and he despised everything else. He was a man who knew God, and who loved what he had come to know about Him.

While I pondered over this verse, asking myself how this righteous man managed to attain to such knowledge and holy love of God, I noticed the verse before this one: "Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold."

But how did he come to love God’s commandments so passionately? I noticed the verse before that one: "It is time for thee, O Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law." So, it was jealousy for the Lord, when he saw God’s people ignore His word, that provoked such a strong passion for the commandments of God. But how did he come to possess such a knowledge of what God’s words were, and the importance of them? He humbled himself before God and pleaded with Him to know His words! This I discovered when I read the verses before this one: "I am thy servant! Give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies!"

But how did he come to feel that he was a servant of God, so that he might approach God with such a request? He found such faith and boldness when God touched him and gave him a great hunger for truth and a great desire to be free from the oppression of men, as shown in the verses which come before that one: "Be surety for thy servant for good. Let not the proud oppress me. Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness. Deal with thy servant according to thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes."

And finally, the reason this humble man’s prayer was heard, when so many other similar prayers go unanswered, may be found in the verse before that one: "I have done judgment and justice; leave me not to my oppressors." The blind man healed by Jesus, in John 9, told the elders who were questioning him, "We know that God does not hear sinners, but if any man be a [true] worshiper of God, and does His will, him God hears." So, the prayer of the wise author of Psalm 119 was heard by God because he humbled himself to God and did His will before he prayed.

No matter which way we read the Bible, whether backwards or forwards, there is hidden wisdom to be found.

Who Are Jesus' Enemies?

"My zeal has consumed me because my enemies have forgotten thy words."
Ps. 119:139

Fallen man does not know anything rightly. He does not know how to think rightly, how to behave rightly, or even how to love or hate rightly. Paul confessed this when he said, "In me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing" (Rom. 7). Only God’s word, coming to fallen man, makes it possible for man to know anything rightly or do anything rightly.

Another thing that fallen man does not know how to do rightly is to choose his friends. I have seen numerous times over the years that some people have the worst habit of choosing friends that do not edify them. I have seen children of God drawn to each other because they both had the same fault, and the fault just grew worse as a result. Jesus knows how to choose his friends. And he knows whom to consider an enemy. Psalm 119:139 reveals to us how Jesus thinks in this regard.

Jesus knows how dangerous a person can be who forgets God’s word. He is not fooled by appearances. He judges others by their attitude toward the word of God. If they hold God’s word dear, he befriends them, and if the word of God is to them just another idea, and they forget it, then he sees them as enemies. Jesus waits to see the word of God become flesh in a person, as it did in him, before he takes them into his bosom as his friend. He likes feeling safe.

If God’s word comes to you, and you love it so much that you remember it, then Jesus chooses you as his friend. If you forget it and then go your own way, Jesus loves his Father so much that he considers you his enemy. He said so, when he moved David to sing, "my enemies have forgotten thy words."

Let’s pray the way David prayed, that God would create in us the kind of heart that always remembers God’s word.

God's Thoughts

"The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple."
Ps. 119:130

When God communicates one of His thoughts to man, the hearts of all who are upright in heart rejoice and find rest. To hear from their heavenly Father, and thus to know Him more perfectly, is the desire of the upright; His word is the only answer to their deepest prayers. When God communicates one of His thoughts, those who truly love God refuse to have any thought of their own, at least for the moment. Their entire attention is fixed on taking in and digesting God’s holy, wonderful words. The wise are mesmerized by the wisdom of God; they hunger for the hidden truth that His thoughts can reveal, and when His thoughts come to them, those thoughts command all their attention; they become their entire world. To Jesus, the word of God was his necessary food (Jn. 4:32); he lived to commune with His heavenly Father, and he lived by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God (Jn. 6:57).

The godly are they who feel that there is nothing else to say after God has expressed one of His thoughts. His thoughts, to them, are perfect; they satisfy their souls completely because they thirst for the knowledge of the truth. To them, the coming of the word of God brings an end to their longing. God’s word is, as David said it was for him, "the rejoicing of their heart."

Any thought which any person dares to express on a subject after God has communicated what He thinks about it is repugnant to the righteous. Human opinion about anything is, to them, an affront to God after He has condescended to reveal His thoughts on the matter. If God has spoken, the righteous conclude, what can any man have to say that is worth hearing?

The righteous feast on every thought that comes from the heart of God. Be wise, and do not interrupt their meal with one of your thoughts. While they are consuming God’s thoughts, they may not be able to refrain from expressing contempt for yours.

No Choice

"And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.
And the dragon fought, and his angels, but he did not prevail,
neither was there place found for them in heaven any longer.
The great dragon also was cast down, the ancient serpent,
who is called Slanderer and Satan, who deceives the entire world.
He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. . . .
For this, rejoice, O heavens and those who dwell in them!
Alas, earth and sea, because the Slanderer has come down among you,
having great anger, knowing that he has just a little time.
And then, the dragon raged against the woman,
and he went away to make war against her remaining seed,
those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus."
Revelation 12:7-9, 12

"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."
Luke 10:18

Let me ask you an odd-sounding question: If Satan hates God, as many teach, and if he despises what God says and does, as most believe, then why was he cast out of heaven? Doesn’t that sound like a strange question? Think about it, and it may not seem so strange.

My real question is, if Satan despises God and hates what is good and holy, then what was he doing in heaven at all? Why, if he despises holiness and hates God, didn’t he just leave heaven on his own instead of hanging around until God had to throw him out? God gave him no choice. "Choice" is a blessing that sin causes one to lose. Satan had to leave, and being given no choice in that matter made him very, very angry.

The fact is that Satan loves the glory of God, but he loves it in the wrong way. He envies it, and that is a destructive kind of love. He loves the glory and power of God for his own benefit, not because he loves others, including God. Satan even loves truth, but not all of it. He loves only that part of the truth which serves for self-aggrandizement. He loves the name of Jesus, and according to Paul, Satan inspires men to declare the name of Jesus to others (2Cor. 11:13-15), but he loves it only in a way that also brings him glory. He loved certain Scriptures from Psalm 91 when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, but he didn’t love the Scripture Jesus quoted back to him, because it exposed his self-serving love of the Bible.

Satan doesn’t hate holy things. He loves them and wants them for himself! He covets the blessings of God. He longs to enjoy the glory of the Lord in the midst of God’s saints. He longs to be back in the light of God’s presence. And it makes him absolutely furious to know that he can never have those things again. That is why he became so angry when he was cast out of heaven. That is also why, when he was cast out of the kingdom of God and thrown down to earth, Satan struck out at God’s chosen people, first against the Jews, and then against those "who keep God’s commandments and who have the testimony of Jesus." People whom God rejects often react in the same cruel way.

Satan envies your blessings from God. He wants them, but he wants them for the wrong reasons. Therefore, God judged Satan to be unworthy to live in His presence. As for Satan, he judged himself to be more than worthy to be in God’s presence, and he no doubt feels misunderstood and mistreated because he is no longer welcome among the assembly of the sons of God. He became proud of his blessings from God. He lightly esteemed his glorious place in God’s kingdom and devised wicked plans to steal more glory than he had already been given – and lost it all.

Like Satan

Over the past few months, I have commented to a number of people that in the past, if people began to doubt the truth I or other servants of Jesus preach, or if they grew discontent with the way matters were handled among the saints, they just went away. But over the past few years, I, and I suppose other ministers as well, have had to face another breed of backsliders, people who love the freedom and blessings of God that are among the saints too much to go away, even though they feel discontentment in general and feel superior to their pastor in judgment. Here among us, it has been difficult for me to get some people to leave who ought not to be here!

It has been awkward, but I have actually had to sit a few people down over the past few years and tell them what is in their hearts. I have had to tell them, "You do not like it here. You are not happy. You need to go find your pastor. You need to go find the place where you really belong." Oddly enough, they often become angry when told they do not belong here, just as Satan grew angry when he was told (rather unceremoniously) that he did not belong in heaven. One would think that if you did not like the way things were in a congregation, you would leave. But not Satan, and not those who are like him. They want to stay and share in the glory and enjoy blessings they have not earned, and benefit from precious gifts that have not been given to them.

The question could be asked of such people, just as I asked in the beginning about Satan: If they hate me and despise what I and others here teach and do, then why were they asked to leave? The real question being, Why were they hanging around here in the first place? The truth is, they had a love for me and for the benefits of the truth I teach, but they only loved the parts that suited their private purposes. And in imitation of my Father, I will not tolerate that kind of love. Like Him, those around me are going to love me sincerely with all their heart, as I love them (for their welfare, not mine), or they will not be welcome in my presence. They will be given no choice in that matter.

Why would any one of us welcome or even tolerate people in our homes and lives who love us for their own benefit, and not love us the way God loves? That’s just simple common sense. It is also the way of our wise God conducts His holy life.

Praying for the Day of Destruction of All Bibles

"As many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God."
Romans 8:12

A brother phoned me this morning, full of the Spirit and glorifying God. He and his wife had been hiking in our beautiful Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina, and they were overwhelmed at the beauty and majesty of God’s handiwork.

"That’s how I feel", I told him, "every time I meet a child of God. I feel as if I am looking at a magnificent work of God, and it can be overwhelming."

He agreed completely, and then he proceeded to tell me of two people he had met earlier that morning while hiking on the mountain. They were an older couple, and after some conversation, this brother felt led to offer them some gospel tracts, which they gladly accepted. One of the tracts concerned the baptism of the holy Ghost, and when the older man saw that, he said, "I have had that experience! There is nothing like it on earth."

What followed was a glorious time of two couples, all four of them belonging to God, standing amid glorious scenes created for them by their heavenly Father and speaking to one another of their Father’s glory, sharing many experiences of His wonderful love and grace.

"It was so good," my brother told me, "until one of them started talking about ‘what is in the Bible’." In other words, talking of the things God had done for them all was glorious, but when one of them brought up a doctrine she had been programmed to defend with Scripture, it marred that rare and beautiful experience of peace and fellowship in Christ.

As he told me that part of the story, I could sense his deep grief and disappointment, and I found myself praying silently for the day when there were no Bibles for people to resort to when God’s glory was being manifested.

My sorrowful friend continued, "Pastor John, I kept praying, ‘God make it stop! Make this go away!’ " He was asking God to help those dear people to focus on Him and His work in their lives rather than to begin quoting the Bible and debating Scripture. But while I listened, my spirit was hearing his real prayer, the one God had put in his heart to pray at that moment, though he did not realize it.

"When you prayed that prayer," I asked him, "do you know what you were really praying for?"
I could tell that my question momentarily stunned him. He hesitated but finally replied, "No. What?"

"You were praying for the day when God will destroy heaven and earth and everything in them, including all Bibles. You were praying for the day when there will be nothing left but the Word of God for men to deal with, for the day when there will be no Bibles to quote and nothing for men to debate because there will be nothing left but what God says and what God does."

He answered, "That’s right!"

When Jesus sets up his kingdom, he will not rule the world for a thousand years by looking up Scriptures. He will rule it "by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." And we are supposed to be learning how to rule and be ruled that way right now, before he comes, so that we will be judged worthy to reign with him. We are supposed to be learning how to be led by the Spirit instead of the Bible.

Beyond that, when "heaven and earth are destroyed", and the "new heaven and the new earth" appear, there will be no Bibles there, nor any need for them. Salvation doesn’t just mean that we will see no more wicked people; it also means that we will read no more holy Bibles. Salvation is liberty from everything of this world, both the good and the bad.

All wise virgins pray for the day when there will be no more Bibles because that means they pray for the day when God Himself will dwell among us on a new earth "wherein dwelleth righteousness." And for those who have learned "to walk in the Spirit", the Bible is not really needed now (except to help others), any more than Abraham, Joseph, or Noah needed Moses’ Law in order to know what God wanted them to do.

Healing: An Expression of God

In 1959, at the age of 53, Uncle Joe was given 60 days to live, but an angel was sent to him from God, and Uncle Joe lived in good health for another 37 years. He wrote the following message shortly after he was touched by God and delivered from the cancer that had been ravaging his body:

An Expression of God
"Healing"
by Joseph H. Murray

The healing that comes from God is not our own expression or confession, but it is a manifestation of His love and care for us. And for us to attest to its occurrence before it really happens is a false confession. Isaiah did prophesy, "by His stripes we are healed," but you do not really have that confession until God expresses it through you by a touch of His Spirit and power. When you feel that surge through your mortal being from head to toe, it brings with it those precious words of Isaiah: "by His stripes we are healed." When it is felt, then it is real, whether we say so or not. Healing is God in spirit acting out the words written aforetime by the prophets; it is not a mental thing to be claimed and put on display to satisfy the vanity of men.

If our healing is real, it will show itself in evidence more than we can ever tell with our tongues. There is nothing wrong in confessing we are healed if God has really done it. But it is radically wrong for us to say we are healed when God has not said we are healed. It’s the same as in the beginning when God said, "Let there be light, and there was light." When God says you are healed, then you are healed, and not before – no matter what you say – because for God to say a thing means that it is so – Amen! He is God, and no man nor condition can stay His hand.

Random Thoughts

"LORD", or "Lord"?

"The LORD said unto my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’ "
(Ps. 110:1)

"Lord"

If my memory serves me correctly, this Old Testament verse is quoted in New Testament books more than any other. Therefore, we know that it contains some wisdom that is important for us to grasp. We know that in this famous verse, the Father is speaking to His Son because Jesus himself said so (Mt. 22:41-45).

In the Old Testament, when "LORD" is spelled with all capital letters, it refers to Jehovah, but "Lord" (only the "L" is capital) refers to anyone in authority lower than Jehovah. Every time you see "Lord" spelled with all capital letters (not just a capital"L"), the original word there is the word for Jehovah.

In the verse above, the LORD (Jehovah) is speaking to someone whom He especially loves, one who has been made so great by Jehovah that king David calls him his "LORD". In that verse, Jehovah is honoring someone with the greatest honor possible for any creature; that is, the exalted honor of being seated at the right hand of Jehovah in heaven. But no one ever knew who Jehovah was speaking to until the spirit of God was given to man in Acts 2. With the spirit’s coming, the understanding came that Jehovah was speaking to the young man crucified by the Romans at Golgotha: Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Jehovah’s ancient promise to this mysterious person continued in the next verse to speak of Jesus reigning on earth for a thousand years from Zion (that is, from Jerusalem): "The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies!"

Then, Jehovah’s promises to this highly honored person continued in verse 3, as He promised him perpetual youth (eternal life), and then, in one of the most famous verses in the Bible, He promised this blessed man an eternal priesthood. He said, "The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, ‘You are a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.’ "

"Lord"

In the remaining verses of this amazing prophetic Psalm, David speaks no more of what "the Lord" will do and speaks instead of "the Lord". Moved by the Spirit, David said, "The Lord at your right hand will strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the heathen; he will fill the places with dead bodies; he will wound the heads over many countries. He will drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up the head." Here, the singing prophet is speaking of Jehovah’s Son, the Lord Jesus, who will make war on the nations and crush them with terrible power when he returns to "rule with an iron rod" over the earth for a thousand years.

Praise ye the LORD!

(And you can praise the Lord, too, while you’re at it.)

Those Who Hated Them

"He gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them."
Psalm 106:41

In Psalm 21, David sang, "The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ " But how do we know what is in anyone’s heart. Or a better question: How did David know what was in someone’s heart? The obvious answer is that he did not know anyone’s heart, but God did, and that it was the Spirit of God speaking through David, revealing what is in a fool’s heart. David himself said on his deathbed, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was in my tongue" (2Sam. 23:2).

It is wise to pay close attention to what the Spirit says, whether through David or anyone else. Here, the Spirit revealed what is in a fool’s heart, not necessarily what comes out of a fool’s mouth. When God, through Isaiah, revealed what was in Satan’s heart when he began to stir up rebellion against the Creator, the words that Satan was thinking could not have been the words that he spoke out loud to the creatures in heaven. His words to them would have been "smoother than oil", even though "war was in his heart".

The Spirit still reveals what is truly in the heart, and it is the only thing that can. Many times, it reveals what is truly in the heart by its silence. Isaiah (66) reveals that God will bring vengeance on those whose hearts are far from him by leaving them out, when He poured out His Spirit from heaven on the day of Pentecost. While Jesus’ followers were reeling under the power of God, praising God and speaking in tongues, those God condemned (and who in their hearts condemned God) remained speechless. Many of those left out of the Blessing were deeply religious elders, highly revered by God’s own, gullible people. But God knows the heart.

God still leaves out of the Blessing those who hate Him in their hearts, no matter how religious they appear to be. God does not judge by the appearance. He judges righteous judgment, and He is always right. In the Old Testament, as our beginning verse suggests us, God cursed His own people to be ruled over by those who hated Him and them. But anyone who studies the ancient world knows that all those nations that ruled cruelly over God’s people were extremely religious. But God was judging their hearts, not their beautiful ceremonies and claims of devotion to Deity. He had judged those heathen nations unworthy of His Blessing of the Law, but He also gave them power over His own people to rule over them.

So it is now. In many places, those whom God has left out of the Blessing, those who know nothing of the holy Ghost baptism, rule over God’s own people. They are deeply religious leaders, and they know how to impress the gullible children of God with an appearance of righteousness, but what is it that God sees in their hearts that He would refuse to give them His Spirit? Only God knows, and He is always right. Whoever He takes in, and whoever He leaves out, we still trust Him to have judged us all rightly.

Why do the saints of God remain under the yoke of teachers with no power and no truth? Why do they sit quietly and hear things they know are not right? If God has punished His people again with imprisonment to such masters, they have no choice but to sit there until God chooses to open a way for their escape.

I believe He is doing that now. Many among the saints are hearing His call to "Come out of her, my people", and what a precious call that is! It is a call to freedom from the rule of men and women who in their hearts hate them and their God, though they claim to be serving Him.
Does this sound preposterous? Does it sound impossible that God’s precious sheep should be ruled over by men who hate them and their God? The Old Testament, which Paul said "was written for our admonition", tells us not to think so.

He Answered Them!

"Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name.
They called upon the Lord, and He answered them. . . .
You answered them, O Lord our God."
Ps. 99:6, 8a

When I read this, these words seemed to leap off the page at me. God answered them! And they were people just like us! This means that God is a God who can be called upon! Oh, the thought of it! What a great and wonderful thing!

James encouraged the saints to consider this wonderful truth about our God when he wrote this: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man subject to passions similar to ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for the space of about three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the earth brought forth her fruit."

Do you need a job? Do you need a friend? Do you need healing? Do you need wisdom from God? Call upon the Lord, "for He cares for you." Jesus said that we do not need to talk a lot when we talk to God, pointing out that some people think that they were gain a hearing with God because they throw a lot of words up at Him (Mt. 6:7). Then he said, "Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you have need of before you ask Him." And He will answer! He is listening. He cares. He knows. And He will be your friend. He will even answer the prayer you don’t know how to pray. He will even help you pray it!

"For we know not how to pray as we ought,

but the spirit itself makes intercession for us . . . according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26-27).

Moses, Aaron, Samuel, and many others believed God was listening and that he cared, and that He was more than able to take care of them. The result? They prayed. And because they believed God and trusted in Him, He answered them. Everything in the Bible consistently proclaims that those righteous people were people just like us, and that God is the same to all generations.

That understanding, that feeling of joy and faith, is really what leaped off the page at me today. I believe I was being invited to ask, to seek, and to knock, and that I was being given a promise that God would answer me, too!

What "Kingdom" Means

"The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice!"
Ps. 97:1

"Make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King."
Ps. 98:6

A kingdom is the domain of a king; it is not a democratic state. None of God’s subjects advise Him or have a hand in determining the laws of His kingdom. His word is the law, the only law, of His kingdom. Heaven and earth, and all things visible and invisible, exist and move at the King’s pleasure, and there is nothing that can resist His power. His title, "Lord of hosts", means "Lord of armies", but in reality, He needs no army. He governs by His word. The universe itself was created and is sustained by the breath that comes out of His mouth (Ps. 33:6). We exist only because the King wants us to exist.

God does whatever He pleases to do in His kingdom, and "there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord" (Prov. 21:30). There is no second ruler, or third, in God’s kingdom; there are only servants and sons. He does not need Jesus any more than He needs the heavenly armies of angels. It is only because He willed to have a Son that He has one, and the Son’s very life came from God and is in God’s hands. Jesus made this point when he said that God had given him life (Jn. 5:26) and that he lived only by the Father’s continued mercy (Jn. 6:57). God raises up, and God casts down, and there is no creature who can begin to comprehend His power and wisdom.

In God’s kingdom, He alone determines everything, and because of that, only a fool would dare to devise a standard of his own rather than to submit to the standard that God has ordained. Beyond that, it is a privilege to be allowed to live by God’s holy and good standard, for God is no beggar. "The Lord is a great God and a great King" (Ps. 95:3), and no great king begs for followers; a great king makes men bow.

Our King has chosen to make men bow by overwhelming us with His goodness. "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord" (Ps. 33:5), and yet, for all that, most people on earth refuse to bow . . . for now. The King will not tolerate such insult forever. He has already announced that at some point, "every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess." But for the time being, wise men repent and submit themselves to the King of glory because of His goodness (Rom. 2:4).
God will be King forever (Ps. 10:16). He will always govern. For this reason, those who "despise government" will be cast into the Lake of Fire. God will always reign; He will always have standards that He expects His servants to meet; He will always give commandments (though "His commandments are not grievous"); and He will always be good.

Those who think that commandments are oppressive feel that way only because they are like Satan, who envied God’s power to make the rules. Those who seek a place where there is no government are fools; there is no such place anywhere. Even in Hell, God reigns according to His own good pleasure.

We praise God precisely because there is no place where He does not reign. We do not want to be anywhere without Him; we do not want to be anywhere but where He reigns because "He is good, and His mercy endures forever." We praise Him because we cannot live without Him. We don’t want to live without Him because He is good, and He loves us too much to leave us without His protective shadow. Like Jesus, we live by Him, and we love living by Him.

Our God is great! He is a great King and a good God. His kingdom (thankfully!) is forever, and if His holy spirit is in us, we are in the eternal kingdom "of His dear Son", for in Christ, "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy ghost" (Rom. 14:17). The King loved us so much that gave His only begotten Son so that we could partake of life in His kingdom. He will move heaven and earth for those who trust Him. He would make the sun stand still, or cast the stars down from heaven, or make a sea move back to make a way of escape for His children. It is no wonder that David sang, "The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice!" Who else would a sane man want to have sitting on the eternal throne?

Planted By God

"When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish,
it is that they shall be destroyed for ever;
The righteous man will flourish like a palm tree; he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those that be planted by the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God."
Ps. 92:7, 12-13

"Then his disciples came and said to him,
Don’t you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?
But he answered and said,
Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up."
Matthew 15:12-13

We become the planting of the Lord when He plants His seed in our hearts. Such planting can only be done by God; no man can penetrate the heart and create new life within, though a man may be used by God to deliver His seed (that is, His word) to others. Jesus warned us that every plant will be plucked up that is growing among the saints which is not the product of the incorruptible seed of God. But not only so; those intruders into the congregation of God will also be cast into the fire of God’s wrath (Mt. 13:30).

Those who truly delight in the law of God will be like a tree planted by rivers of water; their leaves will not fade, and they will always produce their fruit in the appropriate time (Ps. 1:3). They will be pruned by God, but they will not be discouraged by the pruning. If they stray from righteousness, they may even have dung spread around them (Lk. 13:8), but if they receive that correction from God, they will flourish again and be spared His wrath (Lk. 13:9). In other words, they will receive the chastisement of the Lord and will learn obedience by the things they are made to suffer, just as Jesus did (Heb. 5:8). They will not be called bastards, but sons (Heb. 12:8).

It means everything to be who you are and where you are because of something God has done instead of what you have done. If who you are and where you are is the result of your plans and your choices, it is not eternal; it will not last. You will be moved. But if you are who you are because God’s word came to you and made you who you are, and put you where you are, then there is hope. Abide in that place, and thank God for the opportunity to be a part of something that He has done. It is no small thing to have your life shaped by God’s hand.

Another Comforter

"But I have prayed for you ..."
Jesus, in Luke 22:32

"The Spirit prays for us according to the will of God ..."
Paul, in Romans 8:27

When Moses was about to die, he promised Israel that God would raise up a prophet like him from among them. This was Jesus. Likewise, when Jesus was about to die, he promised his disciples that God would send them "another Comforter". This was the holy Spirit.

The Greek word "another" that is used in this verse is a word that means "another of the same kind", not another of a different kind. Jesus was telling his disciples that they would be helped, or comforted, by the Spirit in the same way that he helped, or comforted, them. One example of this is found in th area of prayer.

Both Jesus and the holy Ghost pray for us. Jesus is our advocate with the Father (1Jn.2:1), interceding on our behalf (Heb. 7:25), and the holy Ghost is here within us, interceding for us to the Father (Rom. 8:26).

Even though our minds do not often understand what the holy Ghost is saying when it prays through us, we can rest assured that no one speaking by the Spirit is saying anything bad about Jesus (1Cor. 12:3). That is impossible because God’s Spirit is a Comforter of the same kind Jesus is – for us, not against us.