English - Short Thoughts and Meditations

SOME CONTRADICTIONS AND TRUTHS ABOUT THE LIVES AND HEARTS OF MEN,

AND SOME THOUGHTS ON THE WORDS OF GOD

(NOTE: ALL THOUGHTS IN THIS PAGE ARE MINE, THOSE GOD BLESSED ME WITH. BUT, THERE ARE SOME IN HERE (VERY FEW) WHICH ARE CHANGED THOUGHTS AND TRUTHS FROM OTHER AUTHORS WHICH TOUCHED ME DEEPLY. I HAVE CHANGED THESE (VERY FEW) TO BEST TELL WHAT WAS GOING ON IN MY OWN HEART. IN THE END, WHAT WILL COUNT IS THE TRUTH AND NOT THE PERSON WHO WROTE IT. TRUTH WILL REMAIN WHILE ALL AUTHORS WILL SOON BE GONE FROM THE EARTH. BUT, TILL THEN, "WE SPEAK WISDOM AMONG THOSE WHO ARE PERFECT; YET, NOT THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD, NOR OF THE RULERS OF THIS WORLD, THAT COME TO NOTHING...", 1Cor.2:6.

Every troubled person is troublesome. Their life works like a snow ball - it gets bigger by each step. Disturbed people often disturb those who wish to help them.

All good works are normal things to normal beings created according to the image of God. There is nothing more to it beyond normality. Good works cannot save anyone. However, without them, anyone is condemned.

Conscience is a wonder. It is a mysterious wonderwork. According to the the Bible, it is able to defend and to accuse. However, most people, when referring to conscience, only have in mind its keen ability to accuse wrong as it is committed or thought of beforehand. According to the Bible, it is also able to defend, Rom.2:15. In order to have it function in all perfection, it has to be left alone in all freedom to perform. It mustn't be pressured, influenced or hindered, unless it is the wisdom and the word of God instructing it. It must be free to express itself according to all truth. It can only function in freedom having Christ lighting it, instructing it and reviving it. Under those circumstances, whenever conscience is not left alone to talk, decide, hinder or support, it becomes confused and disturbed. It is like wishing to see our face on the surface of the water and someone splashes on it. It doesn't mean the face is not there, but only the vision of it is disturbed. It is also true that conscience is not only hindered in its ability to accuse aright, but, also in its capability to defend and to stand firm supporting truth or supported by truth and the wisdom of God. How many people loose on their peace of mind because they feel like accusing themselves all the time when conscience is trying to defend them? We see that whoever does not grasp the accusations of conscience is also unable to listen to it when it is defending or assuring aright. It can defend or accuse amiss as well and that might be one of the reasons why people prefer to have it accusing all the time. They feel they are on the safe side by having it accusing. But, it is an illusion. It is a limp conscience the one which only accuses. It is, therefore, very important to leave conscience alone in the light of God and to listen to it carefully instead of being its instructor. If we create a pattern of hindering it, we shall easily become confused and abased. Soon, we shall take our own way, Is.53:6. The only guide and helper to our conscience should be God's word when it is fully lighted.

We have plenty of proof that, in fact, there is such a thing as a false faith in Jesus as there is the true faith in the Lord. A false faith has a strength of its own backing it up and from which deceit takes its advantage. We can never underestimate the strength or the capability of deceit. Deceit is very keen. It is even able to deceive those who know they are being deceived. It is not very hard to deceive anyone who has a deceitful heart. To deceive a deceitful heart is to grant the heart what that heart desires behind the scenes, to grant it the sort of comfort it desires and where it feels at home.

Life separates from sin and sin separates from life.

We know it very well that all great things are mixtures of many details. Some of those details are bigger than others and some are smaller. However, all of them have the same importance in the whole since each detail has its role in holding the whole together. Whether they are bigger or smaller, they have the same importance. Obedience is one of those great or greater things that can happen to us. Light about all details make it possible for us to be diligent both in minor or bigger details. And more light shall be given as we walk on in full obedience. Obedience brings in more light and more light bring more and better obedience. We must know that all details of our obedience are important. They are the jewels of that crown we shall receive and in which we are working on. We must know that our crown is obedience. No obedience, no crown. And each jewel must be placed in the whole or the crown shall be defective and, possibly, unaccepted.

"And it happened when the time was come that he should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem", Luc.9:51. We know there was still some time before Jesus would be crucified. However, He started showing that steadfast desire to show up in Jerusalem from very early. His main mission was in mind and His mind was exercising steadfastness before the time. We must, also, be exercised from early on so that we will be a prepared people when the time comes for us to faithful and obedient unto death. We must start exercising steadfastness from the first moment. However, let us do it having God's will in our mind and before our eyes. To be steadfast in something else is evil.

I wouldn't advise a compulsive or an impulsive obedience to anyone. However, we may never consider an immediate obedience as impulsive. When something is impulsive, we may say it is superficial. It doesn't come from deep and doesn't last for long. It is like a baby trying to run when he can scarcely walk. It won't run for long till falling down. True obedience requires from all of us that everything is fully understood before it can be obeyed in the next moment without any hesitation or doubt. Whoever knows how to run doesn't need to think much to start running. His response is immediate and ready. Let those who can run do it well and let those who can't do more than walk, do it well too. Let's do our best, whether we have received one talent or ten of them.

Many believe it is necessary to solve some personal problems before we may think of spiritual things or spiritual problems, such as sin in the heart or lack of communion with the Lord. When it happens, we may rest assured that the problems that hinder our wholeheartedness in the Lord will go without solution until the Lord is fully satisfied with our spiritual dedication and progress. We need to take a stand to choose life and to concentrate on celestial things. By doing so, we are choosing between heaven and earth. So, instead of solving those problems - which He can do - the Lord chooses the ground to make it the "valley of great decisions". We need to choose what we shall pay attention and dedication to. The war has just started and the Holy War has taken off.

The disagreement with your own hear is called confusion. One can disagree with self for two main reasons: the heart has goodness in it and evil makes an approach to lodge in there; or the heart is evil and goodness and the Lord make a move to live in there. One may never forget that the gospel creates confusion among people for that main reason. It can be seen as fruit.

When our heart does not easily approve what is good, it becomes a good candidate to evil things and evil misleadings. And the longer it takes to come to the point of approving goodness, the longer the torture shall be in the heart and in the soul. Also, the longer it takes, the more persistent and nasty shall evil be as a candidate.

Obedience is the key that opens that door which cannot be shut.

"Take heed how you hear", Lk.8:18. The first step towards a false faith is to neglect to take heed how you hear.

The Lord Jesus is the centre of the world.

The future belongs to the day it shall happen. Today was yesterday's future and tomorrow shall be today's future. Let's keep the future where it belongs and take care of today. The rest will arrive soon.

If what we ask amounts to the illusion and fiction of the religious ways of any religion, we shall receive only according to the way we ask. Our life shall be fiction and illusion which passes away soon. If we are able to ask for Jesus and to see Him the way He is, we shall receive Him the way He is. If we ask for the Jesus we have in mind, we shall receive accordingly. If we ask reality in an illusionary way, we shall have lots of illusion to keep us busy with. If you wish to know what you shall receive, look to the way you ask. The way gives you a close hint of what you shall receive. If you ask for a real Lord through a real heart, that is whom you shall get. If the Lord you are trying to meet is not the real one, you shall have the unreal one with the same name.

The heart that is not prepared to take the worst from the hands of the Lord is never prepared to take or to receive the best from Him either. For the righteous, whatever comes from the Lord is able to work out eternal goodness and peace of mind, even if it is achieved only in the long run. Both 'bad' and good which comes from the hands of the Lord has very good intentions behind it, however bad the intentions of evil are, driving it. Evil cannot harm beyond recovery whenever we remain in the Lord. Te aim must not be to remain unharmed or untouched, but rather to remain in the Lord. Let's not be protective about self.

The way to do something is more important to learn than to do any proposed thing. The way leads to the work, but, seldom does the work lead to the way it is carried out. I believe it is far more important to learn the way things are done in heaven than to do those things themselves. To learn with or from the Lord is far more important. "Your will be done here on earth as it is done in heaven". We know God's will is important, but we see clearly Jesus teaching to pray for the way above praying for the will itself. The way brings the will along. We need to learn to live with the same kind of power heaven lives from, depend on the same kind of power it depends, reject the same kind of power heaven rejects. Motives must be the same, the goal must match, the kind of power must be the same and we must learn how to handle it all the way these are handled and used in heaven. Any sinner has in his ways a last resource of survival. Unless our ways die, we will never be dead as sinners. The last remains of sinful hope is to try to carry God's things through the strength of the arm of the flesh, to trust having money around, to mistrust when we are poor or in trouble, to bless when we are blessed and to rejoice only when the world would have reasons to rejoice. The flesh cannot serve in the temple of God anymore. You are that temple. We cannot dare to rely on lies or lying attitudes any longer. Let us be exceedingly glad whenever we cannot do things our own way anymore, especially when God is around and we can feel Him in the air we breathe.

Every person who is not in full tune with the Lord will wish to have own things done by the Lord or the Lord's things done his way. We cannot avoid it being so. It simply works out that way. No tree can avoid bearing its own kind of fruit. And that sort of fruit shows that the tree is not tuned with the Lord. Only the fruit can show with certainty what kind of tree it is we are thinking or talking about.

I cannot justify the wicked before the Lord, not even when the wicked one is me or someone I love dearly. If I do, then it shows I am also able to judge him and be angered, jealous, bothered or even hindered by his ways. If the wicked makes me stumble, then my heart is not what it should be. It is the heart that must be fixed. Let us remove the stumbling blocks from there and not the wicked from his table so we could sit around it. If the Lord commanded Moses to turn gold into ashes because it belonged to sin before, let us not desire to preserve any of it for personal purposes. Let us rather go without gold than with the stench of any sin sticking to it. Gold is not always pure.

It is enough to be suspicious of any known lie. Suspicion is sin. However, certainties are not sin. To be suspicious of any lie is very little compared to the true virtue of faith. It must be impossible for any true believer to believe any kind of lie or to fall into any of its traps. Besides, Jesus said that sheep "will not follow a stranger, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers", John 10:5. We all know that liars are good with words and can become very convincing sometimes. In fact, they have greater abilities to lie than truthful people often have to tell the truth. If suspicion is sin, how can any lie be turned obvious and clear to make way for certainties approved by God? We know it is not good to talk about suspicions or suspects. Well, the fact is that the Bible says that the wicked shall not be able to stand in the congregation of the righteous, Ps.1:5. Has your congregation been criticized lately because the wicked left it? Be glad, for it is a good thing which is happening to your congregation. "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us", 1 John 2:19. It works like this: it must be made impossible for a lie to stand in the field of good corn. It must feel like leaving from there. And it shall happen only when the righteous become "even more righteous". We won't need to be against lies if lies are against us. In other words, if any sort of lie or illusion still has some hold on us, or some enhancement for our eyes, some beauty or goodness in our views, whatever its appearances are, then lies won't easily feel uncomfortable enough to leave and to speak out their views against us. Remember that the power of any lie is to please people and when people do not feel pleased, they will feel like going away from you in a resentful way. The consequences of not pleasing who seeks to be pleased and seen is a revenge of some kind. If the world still seems fascinating to you, which is the same as believing a lie, you must stop and put your heart honestly in the light to find out whether the world has really anything everlasting to offer you or not. Make sure about it. If you seem unable to do that, I am sure it is impossible to have true faith fully settled in your heart either, I mean, genuine certainties. Then, you must remember what James said about double heartedness and what its causes are. Faith is not unstable in its views because it has investigated all truthfully to be make sure about things. And we need to be truthful about all or we cannot expect truth to feel at home in us. Unless we are truthful, how can we feel at home sitting around truth's table? We need not only know to express truth, but we need to be truthful ourselves as well. To be able to explain truth does not make us truthful.

No one puts on effort to be himself in the Lord - only not be himself. In other words, no one puts on effort to be humble, but only to be proud.

Why do you cry and feel sad because you are unable to think positively about things? Do you really need positive thinking while Christ is there to think about and to be reminded about? Why should you still try to have any good thoughts about self? "Isn't there a God in Israel?" 2 Kings 1:3. Why would you still trust self? When will you dare to entrust yourself to the full cares of the Lord Jesus alone? For how long more will you keep delaying it?

Unbelief is an incapacity. It can be a crippled capacity. In makes it impossible to trust truth or reality. Don't we often see people ducking away from reality and facts? Don't people feel happy fantasizing? That is why there are those who can believe and those who can't. Christ mentioned the fact that there are those who "can believe", Mark.9:29. Consequently, faith is an unique ability or a capability to trust and believe truth and to express itself according to it; and unbelief is the ability to rather trust a lie.

The lack of faith has many causes and many origins. But, all of them can be called sin. It also has many grievous consequences. And where there is lack of faith, there shall always be a great deal of self-confidence and trust in the arm of the flesh. If there isn't self-confidence, there shall be an idolatrous search after it as 'the thing'. Self-confidence is idolatry just as covetousness is, or, shall I say, trust in money. Man needs to trust to feel confident and he will rely mostly on himself or something like him when he is unable to trust the Lord. Trust in the Lord is a capability and it is a disability for a lie or unbelief. You cannot separate lies from unbelief and neither the ability to trust them.

To start and end any issue in prayer demands from us that we become upset or resentful against repetitions of prayer. We need a kind of discipline which refuses to repeat things before the Lord as if He is deaf. "Let man examine himself" instead of falling into the temptation of vain repetitions which offend God greatly. Prayers without answers shouldn't be repeated until the key to its answer is found, gained or obtained. Any person who seeks answers and isn't satisfied with merely having his 'religious duties' fulfilled, will seldom fall into this net of vain praying. Repetitions are offenses to God and man repeats himself because he refuses or neglects to cleanse his life of all things which makes God turn His face away from him. Doesn't God see all things? If He sees all things, why wouldn't He be able to hear all things? In the same way that he sees the tiniest thing in any corner of this vast Universe, we can assume the He can hear the tiniest sound anywhere as well. Those who yell and are noisy like to have themselves heard by all and do not take prayer seriously. They seek to be seen like the Pharisees who used to pray in the corners of the streets to impress others - and themselves. They sound as real warriors, but, I take them as unbelieving, pitiful creatures who wish to impress themselves as well. Some think they will be heard by the repetitions they make and others by the amount of noise they make. Others think that prayers are the means to impress others and that they will be answered by having as many as possible impressed by them or by their ways and by showing off. Why would people still act as if they are the ones responsible for opening doors or to show forth answers? And if the doors open up for real, why do they act proudly as if they were the ones who opened them? Most Christians, today, are good actors or actresses. They know just what to do and to feel in their deceit. Man easily finds a way to boast of anything he thinks of.

Remember to have manners when you pray. Do not try to open a door which is not for you to open. Have manners. You knock - God opens. Do not presume the answer and to not wait on a presumed answer as if taking it seriously through a false smile in your face and by a hypocritical attitude. If you start distributing promises or possible tips about what you "have not seen" as if you have seen it, you are a false prophet. "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a appearance of humility (...) intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind", Col.2:18. Do mot promise anything God has not clearly answered you about - even if He has promised. We still need to inherit the promises. The promise is something and the inheritance of it is something else.

Any prayer that gets an immediate answer or any other kind of answer is a challenge only to the one who prays and not to the One who answers. A prayer shall never be a challenge to the Lord. Is it still for you? Are you still surprised when God answers? And do you take that sort of surprise as praise? Have you ceased to pray, giving up before the time and before the answer? If you have, didn't it tell that God is not faithful or didn't it take God for a liar?

Have you ever seen any presuming person, it is, someone who solemnly believes his own understanding of everything is ultra reliable and worthy of admiration? And how many times have you heard people assuming things about others? "You can stand on my word Such and such is a trustworthy person!" People easily become surety for others and pawn their own word. I believe only pride or the remains of it can speak for another person. To become sureties for others is a presumptuous attitude. No one can say for sure if anyone will fulfil what is thought of him and, besides, no one knows if that person shall live until the next day. I believe only false humility can give such honour in such a way before people. Pleasing people cannot be humility and it cannot be love. We must know, we do not need to praise others to love them. John loved those people he called "generation of vipers". "My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and plead with thy friend. Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler", Prov.6:1-5.

We all know that we can, must and may have a heart according to God's. It is not news to us even though there aren't many people with such a heart. We must get a heart which delights in what the Lord delights. However, there is a small detail we are not often aware of: we must not only delight in what He delights, but must also delight in it the way He does. Have you ever seen the Lord yelling and making a big fuss when He achieves something? Have you ever seen Him wavering before a small thing, wondering if He, being so great, should carry it out?

Many say, believe or assume God does not harm anyone and that all bad things that may happen to anyone has its origin in the devil. The truth is that even the bad that the devil performs is allowed by the Lord's providences. All those who can believe that God or His providence makes room for evil doings also believe that in the end all shall work out for the general good of the Kingdom of our blessed Lord. All those who can't believe that will not only suffer under the yoke of evil, but will, also, suffer from bitterness, misunderstandings about the Lord and His doings, doubts, despair, hatred, a murmuring heart and many other things. Because of some of those things they will not feel like stretching their arm and heart towards the Lord. Whoever is capable to trust the Lord under any yoke of trials, shall "be strong and of good courage". People who cannot trust the Lord under heavy yokes often justify themselves and go from bad to worse. They believe their venom can blackmail God into something they believe they have a right for.

Ignorance has a lot of stairs. Let's use them to get off it instead of going up more and more. There is nothing we will find in ignorance besides more ignorance and presumption. Ignorance invites people often to take the stairs up. It appeals to people and makes evil sound good. It sounds wise, but, it is hypocritical, foolish . ignorância tem muitas escadas. Aproveitemos os seus degraus para descermos dela evitando o convite para subir cada vez mais naquilo que parece sabedoria. Tudo o que é mau, quer parecer bom. A ignorância quer parecer sábia, a hipocrisia quer parecer simpática, a maldade deseja fazer "o bem". Vamos descer os degraus que subimos no engano e busquemos todas as ocasiões para negar a morte do engano e do mal.

"Sobre aquele que vires descer o Espírito e sobre ele repousar, esse é o que baptiza com o Espírito Santo", João 1:33. É interessante que Deus use esta imagem de uma pomba para simbolizar a descida do Seu Espírito sobre Jesus. Deixem-me explicar. A Bíblia fala da descida do Espírito. Mas, existe outra coisa que a Bíblia fala e à qual ninguém presta atenção. Ela fala do Espírito permanecer em alguém e esse alguém permanecer no Espírito. É por isso que as Escrituras falam daqueles que "não têm o Espírito", Judas 1:19. Se o Espírito não permanecer sobre alguém, esse não tem o Espírito, ainda que Ele tenha descido sobre tal pessoa. Sabemos o que é uma pomba. Ainda que seja serviu apenas de simbolismo e de sinal de confirmação para João (pois, Jesus já era cheio do Espírito, mas, João nunca O havia visto descer sobre Jesus), sabemos que uma pomba não desce facilmente para pousar sobre alguém. Por outro lado, qualquer coisinha faz com que essa pomba levante voo e não permaneça sobre quem pousou. Isto não é interessante? Qualquer coisinha pode fazer a pessoa ficar "sem o Espírito" e tornar-se sensual novamente.

Na eternidade só existe um grande hoje. A eternidade é um grande hoje. Será que só existe o dia de hoje em nossa mente? Só nos concentramos na tarefa imediata ou andamos confusos misturando as coisas de amanhã com as de hoje?

Ninguém consegue matar um vivo e um morto nunca se pode considerar um ser vivente. Um ser vivente não tem como morrer porque a morte não o alcança. A menos que os viventes pequem em algum aspecto, não têm como morrer.

As acusações são pensamentos fofoqueiros que ora falam meias verdades e ora mentem sobre o verdadeiro estado do coração. A acusação é uma fofoca da cabeça.

"Não te deixes vencer do mal, mas vence o mal com o bem", Rom.12:21. Vencer o mal não é ficar a rir dele, mas, exterminá-lo.

The Bible says that even a fool looks wise when he is quiet enough. If that is true, then we can say that even the wisest person will look like a fool when he speaks more than he ought or speaks in a way which he shouldn't speak.

By rule, the person who judges and condemns sins in others is not someone who takes care of his own life. His own sins and heart are close to abandonment. At least, the temptation to neglect exists. Such a person is not someone who "takes the seed to sow in his field", as Jesus said. He shall rather try do sow what he receives and sees in someone else's field.

Have ever seen someone who reacts violently or aggressively to an own error when it is pointed out? Don't such people usually throw back the accusations to the one by whom they think is accusing them? Anyone who accuses back or judges back is someone who, somehow, felt accused of something. That is why he reacts that way. Well, when someone judges it is because there is some kind of accusation in him. If the conscience accuses, people react by judging. The basic principle is the same: one feels accused and throws back the judgement. This is the whole truth behind bad judging. People easily judge when they see their own sins in others. They react by judging because they feel accused. They react badly when that happens. That is a poisonous spirit reacting to some kind of accusation. It is the bad spirit of self-defence rising to sting back because it feels accused by his own conscience. That is why he judges. He judges because the image self has about itself has been affected and must be protected and preserved by any means for the sinner's sake. It must either look holy or others must look bad. Therefore, judging is a poisonous reaction to the accusations of an own conscience.

Every person who is not fulfilling his or her marital duties towards husband or wife when they can easily be fulfilled has an adulterous heart and doesn't know about it or doesn't admit it. Even if adultery is not committed, the heart is adulterous.

Grace is an active power and not a passive waiting room. It is not a passive 'hope'. Grace really works! We must get hold of it and grow in it.

"...In the faith that is in Jesus Christ...", 1Tim.3:13,1;14. This means there is another faith outside Jesus Christ. Many, when separated from the Lord, are taken in, comforted and held in error by a false faith which is quite deceitful and they are not even aware of it.

When I was a child I learned to live on my own and I struggled through life without a father or mother. It was me and the world, me and darkness and the world's muddy streams. I have learned a way to 'stand' and to overcome which I must let go now because I have a Father now. I can't rely on the strength of my fleshly arm anymore. And my arm became strong indeed. I must lay down my weapons and surrender, but not to this world. I will surrender to the Victor. I must be able to do it fully and unconditionally, however strong the old habits of survival are.

A person, to change, must desire to change and not merely to be understood and accepted. Therefore, every time a person tries to explain himself, tries hard to be accepted and believed or tries something else which is not a willingness to change, nothing will happen. And to try to help people through a gospel of acceptance is evil. If you really wish to change and that for real, then, you must stop trying to get into the sheepfold by climbing over the wall. You must enter through the gates of grace with a willing heart to do as shown, having only a real change of heart in mind all the time. You must be able "to remember the Lord in His ways", Is.64:5.

There aren't many differences between rich men and poor men concerning entering the kingdom of God. Let me explain. Poor people are worried people, taken captive by the concerns and ways to make a living. Their day is a busy one and they seldom rest to look for peace of conscience - which is not the same as the peace of the world that satisfaction grants. They believe in the same god rich people do believe in. Their thoughts are often as consumed as the rich people's thoughts. They have as many thorns as rich people have and they hardly looks up to the Lord wholeheartedly. The only difference between rich people and poor people we can find is that poor people cannot trust poverty, they cannot hope upon what poverty grants. They extract no hope from their practical life. Poverty has no promises, nothing to offer besides bitterness. Rich people can still trust riches and be deceived by its promises. However, poor people put their hope upon the same god as rich ones, if there is still hope left in them at all and if Mamon has not disappointed them beyond any possibility of trust. Rich people serve Mamom and poor people only hope upon him.

When we lay hands upon people, one of two things can happen: the person shall partake of what we have and are, or we shall partake on the sins of those we lay hands upon. Paul warns us against laying hands upon people in haste.

"No one can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit", 1Cor.12:3. There are a few verses that say this same thing. However, from other pieces of Scripture and from a practical point of view, we know there is a great misunderstanding touching this truth. Let me explain. In Mat.7:21 we read, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord! Lord! shall enter the kingdom of Heaven". These say Jesus is Lord, but they do not enter the Kingdom. I often thought about this and came to the conclusion the secret of this truth lies in the word 'say'. This word does not mean literally to speak, but to say about us or to explain about our truthful state of heart and mind. Can I truthfully say I am mastered by the Lord and that He is indeed Lord over me and over all I am and think? Is that a truth, a fact beyond doubt? Am I fully submitted to Him to the point of being able to say He is Lord over me indeed? Is this statement a realization or a mere 'faith' thing? People are genuinely submitted to the Lord only through the working of the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to 'say' Jesus is Lord. If I am not flying, I can't 'say' I am flying. Saying I am flying does not lift me up into the air. But, I can 'say' I am on the ground.

Unfortunately, most of my work is to un-twist Scripture that has been twisted. I find it very hard to preach only the Good News (Gospel) because most of my preaching and time is completely absorbed by making straight what has been twisted and crooked from Scripture. "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints", Jud.3.

"And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved", Act.2:47. There are many misinterpreted verses in the Bible because of the many doctrines that emerged from past centuries of deceit and search. This is one of them. Many believe this verse is referring to predestination, to the past. But, it can't be. I am not saying anything against predestination. I am only saying this verse does not refer to predestination. This verse is referring to the near future of any new believer in Christ. Do you recall the words of Paul to the prison keeper? "Believe and you shall be saved". As such, you also find more verses in Acts alone which put the verb in a future sense to all believers (Acts 2:21, 11:14, 15:11). These verses refer all to the near future of any new believer and it is not pointing to eternity, as some wrongly suppose. Those who surrender and believe can and may confess their sins and be pardoned; those who are pardoned can, then, be made free of any sin because the way is open to them - and it doesn't matter how huge and ugly that sin is. This means people can be saved from their sins after believing and surrendering fully to the Lord. Now, referring to the verse: this means those who believed would or, rather, should be saved from their sins by believing - after believing. God added to the church daily all those who would be saved from their sins, all imaginable and unimaginable sins. This refers to the near future of new believers and not to the far past of predestination.

Everyone puts himself forth as an example. However, only a few are indeed examples. And, of those who are indeed examples, only a few have the courage, the confidence and the daring attitude to put themselves forth as real examples in humility. Because they are too aware of what Jesus saved them from , they are unaware of how exemplary their lives really are.

When do I need to persevere in prayer? Have I received what God has promised and is according to His will? If not, it is time to persevere and not to give up. That is what praying without ceasing means: pray without giving up.

"No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven", John 3:27. Why do people still live as if all depends on them and not on the Lord, obedience and His grace?

The Bible never expresses itself against "works", but only against "the works of the Law" - circumcision, sacrifices to obtain God's grace, etc. Whatever people consider as works today is not what the Bible considers as such. In those times, people instinctively thought of works in another light than we do today. It was mainly understood as the works of the Law and not as the works prompted by a normal Christian love.

"We have different gifts based on the grace that was given to us. So if your gift is prophecy, use your gift in proportion to your faith...", Rom.12:6. The things you say, are they shown to you by God or do you speak and give opinions according to you wishes or to look wise before others?

Have you ever seen people who exist to contradict? Perhaps you are one of those who say no to yes and yes to no. When someone says left, you say right; and would that persons say right, you would say left. It is a common habit all over the world. It has always been. The favourite habit is to be in the opposition side. Scripture says, however, that a contradicting heart is a rebellious one. When John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord, it is said that he came to "to make ready a people prepared for the Lord". This is the precise opposite of a people with a contradicting heart. Are you prepared for the Lord? "All day long I have stretched forth My hands to a disobeying and gainsaying people", Rom.10:21.

Usually, people have this idea that a stumbling block to others' lives is the way they talk or what makes people angry or upset. Are we not allowed to talk frankly? The fact is that a stumbling block is something in our lives which contradicts the gospel. If people are angry against the truth or against the sincerity of the heart that speaks the truth out of love for the Lord, it is fruit and not a stumbling block.

If you makes jokes about God or about God's things, you shall soon be a joke yourself and you shall be laughed at. "I also will laugh at your calamity", Prov.1:26.

"...And they kept Your word", John 17:6. Many times I asked myself, even during moments of struggling prayer, what is needed to have converts keep the word to the end. And I have been looking for a distant solution and all the while the answer is so close and so clear. "Keeping the word". The first condition is that it must be the words of God indeed and not a word extracted from the capabilities of reasoning and from our knowledge. Knowledge is a treasure we get old and new things from, but not all knowledge is applicable to certain moments. Specific words must come from the Lord at specific times. That is one of the conditions which must be fulfilled: the words must be the words of God. The second condition we can easily come across in this chapter of John is that people must recognize and realize it is the word of God and not of man. How much praise do you give to the preacher? If it is the word of God, why should the preacher be exalted for it? "Now they have known that all things, whatever You have given Me, are from You. For I have given to them the Words which You gave Me, and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from You", John 17:7. Jesus struggled to have people believe what He had or said came from God. These are two of the conditions that must be fulfilled so that disciples can be able to keep the word to the end.

It takes a living one to see another living one. Dead people see dead people and commune; and the living ones see each other and commune because they have much in common. "You see Me because I live, you shall live also", John 14:19. Living people see Jesus because He is alive.

What does it avail us if we consult God in everything and we don't receive answers in everything? The answer is what we should seek to find and not the religious habit of praying and praying at all times about everything. It is good to receive answers about everything we pray if we pray about everything. "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son", John 14:13.

"The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit", 1Cor.7:34. This statement is true only in a few cases. There are unmarried people whose mind does not serve the Lord because it is always pleading Him to get them married. Their minds is absorbed by marriage even if they are not married. They are distracted by the thoughts of marriage. Remember that the aim is "that you may serve the Lord without distraction" (v.35).

Faith reaches out to the will of God - not to our own will. Real faith turns it possible for us to achieve the means to carry out God's will for our lives and for the lives of others.

"Your boasting is not good", 1Cor.5:6. Paul mentions this referring to sin in the church and to the fact that people are not removed from the church having sinned. He calls it pride. Let me explain: he says that people who are not able to remove sin or sinful people from their midst are people who boast and are proud. This is a strange statement because most people would say precisely the opposite. They would say proud people - those who think a lot about themselves - will be unloving enough to expell sinners from their midst. People see 'acceptance' as love. But, Paul says it is pride. It means it is too humbling for them to get rid of sin. Now, Paul commands the whole church to be cleansed because they did not expel sin from their midst. They should clean themselves from pride as well.

Many preach so that they themselves might not land in hell. They preach out of fear and not out of love. Others preach to save other people from their sins. To which of the categories do you belong? "For I myself was wishing to be accursed from Christ for my brothers", Rom.9:3.

Doctrine is something to be followed by those who teach. Those who learn follow Life.

Self justification has deep roots and is never found apart from accusations against others. In fact, it often accuses God. If these accusations do not appear at first, be sure they will soon be visible. It is just a question of time until they are seen.

When things do not work out the way God said they would, or if they do not work according to expectations, why does man, at first, blame God instead of himself? Why does any sinner first think God is on the wrong and not he himself? Would man seek the missing link in his heart, he would receive beyond expectations!

We know there is a huge difference between doing things and doing them through Christ Jesus. Those who try to do the right things without grace and by themselves will sooner or later give up or despair at some point. They shall take the easy route of the enemy sooner or later. That is the same as giving up, or even worse. Whoever fails has as first thought giving up. The second thought shall be of doing the opposite of the true way and life. However, we cannot consider it as the opposite way, since doing things without grace can never be the opposite of sin, but of the gospel. The opposite of the Gospel is sin. Now, listen to me. There is an alternative which makes more sense: try it in another way. Try doing all through the Lord Jesus. If you feel like giving up, you must know you are only giving up on own ways or because of them. Maybe the Lord has never been your Shepherd, as you think He has been.

"...Power, according to the Spirit of sanctification", Rom.1:4. The real working power of God in a place or person is never separated from the genuine holiness of that place or that person.

The amount of praise you give or feel like giving to man is the amount of praise you would like for yourself. You won't solve this problem by stopping to praise man or you will resemble bitterness when man listens to you. Bitterness happens because pleasing man is still in the heart and you are going against it. However, man will understand it as having something against them. Now, you will solve it truly only by getting a good look into truth: was it God who did or who does something? Was it really God, or was it man? "At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt", Ex.16:6. Do you really know it was the Lord? Make sure and, then, be sincere about the praise you give. And if man deserves the praise, give it to Him. However, if God does, give to Him what belongs to Him.

To allow the Lord to have His way with us to the uttermost and to guide our lives fully is a decision as important as the one when we at first turned to Him. And to decide to turn to Him and believe in Him was, perhaps, the most important decision we have ever made.

There is a truth no one can run away from: if we know how to wait on the Lord and we wait unhindered, then time runs fast and His timing might even take us by surprise. But, for those who are impatient with God, especially when they have had a word from Him, time passes very slowly and waiting (which is a fundamental issue in any true child of the Lord) becomes so hard! However, those who can wait having a stained conscience are waiting in vain. And those who are clean will receive even what they have missed on and even what has been eaten by the locusts for some reason.

Is there still any doubt that God treats us according to our ways? He does not deal with us according to what we believe, but according to our ways and lives. "So they returned and said: 'Just as the Lord of hosts determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our deeds, So He has dealt with us", Zec1:6. The promise may take long, for either good or bad, but it shall surely come. We all know we shall reap what we sow. Has anyone ever reaped something different from what he has sown? Can we sow thistles and thorns and expect to reap good fruit? Or sow good fruit and reap thorns and thistles?

Have you ever tried to make Jesus king over your life by force? Have you ever wondered why such a thing is condemnable? Usually, people try to make Jesus king by force because they want Him to rule over flesh and blood. In fact, He needs to be forced to rule over such a thing, and because He doesn't, many are disappointed in Him. Jesus, however, doesn't need to be forced to rule over spiritual or heavenly things. People who want Jesus to rule by force are aware of the fact that they can't have or do certain things by themselves nor by any other means. Therefore, they try to make Him King by force because they know or suspect all power is in His hands - including the power they wish would be working together with the flesh in their favour. The idea of knowing (or guessing) that Jesus has plenty of power, mixed with the wish to have all working together for self, makes people force Jesus to be king and ruler over their selfish lives and wishes. These people are called Christians today. They think that is what Jesus came for: to achieve their goals for them. And Jesus came to make us achieve His goals for Him and to have it done His way because there is peace in doing so. Therefore, there are these two sides in the heart of man: if you are forcing Jesus to be king, it also means you are not working on your repentance and conversion from sin to holiness. In fact, it shows you are trying to strengthen the strongholds and hideouts of sin by nearing Jesus for the power to do so. These are the two sides of this truth and fact. If you find yourself trying to force Jesus to be king - Him who is already a King - it means you must stop and repent because the flesh is ruling in you.

I know there is a huge association or relationship between faith and faithfulness. One does not exist without the other.

It is good if we can translate thoughts into words, then words into teaching and teaching into life. Whoever does not do that, does not grow - such people grow old and cold!

One of the reasons why God does not work as He can, is that He can't find the environment, heart conditions and all other virtues in people such as faithfulness or truthfulness. "You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it upon your lusts", James 4:3. We must work hard on the conditions which will bring God down to work for His Kingdom and for it alone. Otherwise, He can't come. Would He come without the conditions being met, He would be strengthening His enemy, the flesh. "Prepare the way of Jehovah, make straight a highway in the desert for our God", Is.40:3.

Sinners who have never been truly converted have the habit of being impatient against other people's sins and patient towards their own. They even seek attention towards their own sinfulness or even try to ignore their own sins by highlighting others's. But, when Christ changes our lives it all changes and we start becoming impatient against our own sins and patient towards others's.

Isn't it strange that, just after the Red Sea had been opened in front of people, Moses had to tell people, "At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt"? Ex.16:6. Didn't they know it was the Lord? They still thought it was Moses! How many times we mention the person when a prayer has been heard and say, "such and such a person prayed and I was healed"? Shouldn't we rather know or say that it was God who healed?

When we expect things (wait on the Lord for things) which God has never promised, we shall have two kinds of problems: we will be unable to see or to be aware of what God is giving because our eyes are set on something else; and we shall not be receiving what we expect because God loves us to the point of not giving outside His will. But, either way create the ground where the devil can establish despair and faithlessness and, consequently, unfaithfulness. The cure is a change of heart or motives because wrong motives is as good as wanting our own thing.

"The LORD tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates", Ps.11:5. The first part of the verse means that we are being loved when we are put to test. This also means that the wicked is not tested. If this is true, why do righteous people so easily believe lies when they go through tests and when they see the wicked prospering?

"The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts", Ps.10:4. This does not necessarily mean that the wicked says there is no God - he just acts as if the Lord does not exist. In fact, the Lord does not exist in his thoughts and in his practical life. The wicked never takes God into account when he sins and neither when he does some good. We must know we need to be dependent on God for all we are and do and the wicked does not practise good through grace. We should be able to do good through grace and not merely do good. This is why the wicked sins even when he does some good.

"For the wicked boasts (...) He blesses the greedy", Sal.10:3. This is a truthful consideration. And how truthful it is indeed! The wicked is never indifferent to the riches of the greedy. But, there are other truths we can think of about this. If we turn these word around, it says that those who praise or bless the greedy are wicked. Do you do that? Another truth is that whoever criticises the greedy for having riches, however he got it, is also wicked. One must be able to resist the temptation and to trust Jesus, for He is our sufficiency and anyone else's. "You shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever", Ps.12:7.

The aim of the Judgement of God in the final day and before that is the extermination of all sin and even the remembrance of it. The final aim is not punishment, but extermination of evil from the face of creation.

Every person who is not spontaneous in the truth has created many complexes in the heart along his lifetime. And everyone who is spontaneous in darkness has lost all sense of dignity and shame.

It is the disobedient fathers who have disobedient children.

We are either children of heaven or children of the country where we have been born. We cannot possibly be both. We must be careful about this idea of nationalism. We belong to heaven and not to earth. Besides, any heavenly citizen is a faithful child of God. And that faithfulness will overflow to the normal life on this earth. Citizens of heaven are good citizens anywhere - even in a country where they were not born.

Be sure of this: if someone considers certain sins less grievous than others to the Spirit of God, then you must know there are some sins, also, which such a person does not consider sin. Make sure you deal with that before you pray for such people. Do not become part of deceit by praying, and keep yourself pure. "Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people's sins; keep yourself pure", 1Tim.5:22.

It is true that fear is not perfect love. However, there is no perfect love on this earth which has not been fear of the Lord at first.

"Also the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God things that were not right", 2Kings 17:9. When people do things in secret, it means it is wrong and it also means they know it is wrong. However, because people do many wrong things, they do a lot in secret. This creates a pattern in them and an attitude to do things permanently in secret. Many times, it creates another pattern of trying it the wrong way first, because secret doing and wrong doing are associated to being wrong. I knew a man who would try lying first, even when truth would clearly benefit him more; and he would tell the truth only when there was no other way out. The truth about this is: when those patterns are set, people will either do the rights things in secret because a pattern of secret doing has been established; or they will try to do the wrong things in the open. That happens because evil is what they approve and feel comfortable about. And we can never measure the amount of evil that can come from this style of sinful life. We may not afford to do the right things in secret, because what we do attracts people's attention and many learn it.

If Salomon's words in dream counted to God, how much more will our words count when we are awake. Let's be careful when we talk. God hears all.

A testimony can be considered as such only when it testifies about God and His reality. Many people testify, but not about God. They testify, mainly, about themselves. They talk about how they accepted Jesus and what they suffered, but seldom can we trace a reality of God in their testimony.

To this world, it is an offence if we don't do something for ourselves or through our means. "Mocking, (they) said, He saved others; himself he cannot save", Mk.15:31.

Perfection is not an easy subject for many people. However, I believe most people are confused about it. They easily define perfection as they would have it and not as God would. It would be good for all of us to define correctly and according to the Bible what real perfection is all about. However, the first firm step towards perfection is: actions must match with the heart and vice-versa.

There is something I always believed and which makes more sense to me as I live on. It must be easier for us, creatures of God, to live a holy life than to live in sin. With that I don't only mean that it is lighter for the soul, and more reviving for the heart, but it is far better and easier in all aspects. I mean that it is easier to have access to it as well. Think with me: if you are dumped into water, is it easier for you to try to remain dry or to be wet? I believe it is not that easy to be dry inside water and neither to remain wet outside of it. Now, God is everywhere and, according to the Bible, we live in Him, even though the soul is dry and He does not live in everyone, Act.17:28. Sin is not everywhere - at least not in the sense that God is. Sin is in the heart. This is why it seems stronger and it looks as if it is everywhere because where man goes, sin goes along. Sin is a parasite of nature which clings to man as he goes. People in the world fight hard to remain dry from God and to be ruled by a hard master: sin. God is everywhere. If we can change man's heart, we can change the world. Therefore, it should be easier to live a holy life than a life of sin.

Jesus did not die when He was crucified. He even said He would be in paradise with the man who died on the cross beside Him. How could He be dead and in heaven at the same time? From Paul, we hear He died to this world and to sin, Rom.6:10. That is the kind of death He died and the only one He works in those He reigns. Whatever He is dead for, will be clearly manifested in those He lives.

Usually, people do things taking their feelings into account, not to betray them, while we are called not to betray our enlightened consciences instead of our feelings. I know a woman who loves her own family dearly and does not like her husband's. When it comes to share expenses with her family, she makes a point of it that they get above what she thinks is right. She says it is because of conscience. But, whenever it comes to share expenses with her in-laws, she wants to give only the minimum possible and seeks a way to lawfully reduce her obligations towards them. In both cases, she does not wish to betray her own feelings. Conscience has not the upper hand in her conduct as she thinks it does, and she does not deny herself in both circumstances. She cannot abhor her feelings towards her own and cannot love those she believes are outsiders of her heart affairs. She believes she is being faithful to conscience. However, she is only being faithful to the way she feels.

In the Bible, we come across something that called my attention. It is often said that God curses blessings. "I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already", Mal.2:2. In other words, the blessing comes to show the faithfulness of God and, afterwards, the locusts and the maggots eat it up. God does this to all those who are called by His name and say they belong to Him when their ways do not show the godliness and faithfulness of the Lord. If this is true, if God can curse a blessing He has granted, there is another side to it: God can bless some curses. God blessed the curse that astonished Job; He blessed the persecution against David inflicted by Saul. And we could find many more such examples all over the Bible.

A sinful person is always searching for own righteousness to lean upon and to justify himself. A saint seeks own sins to cleanse his heart.

For God, there is no such thing as human rights, but only God's rights. Unless we deny all possible and imaginable rights in favour of the Lord, we shall stand in denial before Him. Deny yourself and leave all the rights to your life in the Lord's hands. Hand them over to Him. We have no rights. Holiness is not politics.

Once people give room for the reality of salvation and for the Word of God to live inside them (so that it won't be dead there), people enter into a phase of pre-conversion. The only thing people need to do is to make room for the possibility of a real Jesus and deny the dead one they keep on to and hold in their minds. Conversion starts as soon as a word made alive is put into practice in a most natural way.

We are all familiar with the words of Jesus which say, "Seek and you shall find". However, Jesus also said in the gospels that, "You shall seek Me and you shall not find", John 7:34. It is because we did not or do not come to where He is. "Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully", Ps.24:3,4. Those who are not clean will seek and not find.

Revival is to convert Christians. It starts through the genuine conversion of Christians.

Today someone talked to me about feeling suffocated by responsibilities. She talked about how her husband left her because he argued the responsibilities of marriage suffocated him and he wished to be single. Little does he know his irresponsible way is the great burden of his whole being. How sad that people have such strange ideas and excuses to be able to live a careless, burdensome, irresponsible and promiscuous life.

It is believed that the love of money applies only when it is to be used on or for self. However, we see many people loving money and stealing from the poor to sustain their gospel and their false doctrines. One can love money to have it and it doesn't matter where it is applied or spent. The love of money is settled in the heart and not where it is applied. "The greedy shall not be called generous...", Is.32:5. This means the greedy can seem generous and righteous - even to himself. If people use their money for other purposes than their houses, it does not mean they do not love money, and that they do not feel safe by having it or that they do not feel powerful having and using it. And when servants of the living God buy a car by the will of God and spend something on themselves, it can't mean they love money and feel comfortable by having it to spend on themselves. They belong to the will of God. God takes care of them as well.

Have you ever given a serious thought to the words of Jesus when He said people will rather jump over the wall to avoid going in through the door? There are many circumstances where it happens. Let's think a little about it. For example, pleasing people means the use of an alternative way to love. Because people refuse to love for real, they enter into being pleasant to camouflage their lack of real love. This is why I firmly believe that everyone capable of pleasing people has the capacity in the heart to be unpleasant and inconvenient. And we will find many other subways which people will rather take to avoid the true virtues or the reality of the true essence of love, faith, godliness, prayer among many others. People will rather try hard to believe than to make sure about the Lord and His truthfulness; they will rather pretend and be polite than finding love in the Lord to be able to love from the heart. And we all know it is harder work to jump over a wall than to get in through a door.

We often complain about the absence of fruit or, especially, of immediate fruit. Today, I was struck by the fact that Jesus says the things of the Kingdom of God must be leavened before it can be useful, Mat.13:33.

The Word of God says (and we can easily confirm its truthfulness on daily life) that the wrath or anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. Now, if this is indeed so, we can also state that the wrath of God does not work the justice of man. In other words, let us not hope God will avenge or take revenge on behalf of man.

When the sun shines on us, our skin tells about it; when we face cold weather, our skin tells about it too; and when the light of God shines on us, our whole being tells everyone around what has been happening to it as well.

To add or to take away from God's word is just another way of not fulfilling it. "You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you", Deut.4:2. Haven't you heard of how deceitful the heart of man is? It makes a new commandment by changing it or by 'interpreting' God's word its own way so that it won't have to obey it as it is. It soothes and quietens the conscience to obey some commandment - especially if it is a changed one. We must know it is the Word which must change the heart and not the other way round. If we read God's Word and do not reject it, we shall either be changed or change the Word to suit us. The heart entices a change in the Word and the Word appeals upon the heart to change. It is the eternal war between the Word and the heart of man. It has always been like that.

We can speak of an immediate glory which God receives and glory in the long term. For example, when our prayers are answered on the spot, God is glorified by it. However, when it happens that way, it means God has already been glorified through our total sanctification or commitment to the truth. And when we become holy (and to some people it takes a while before they are like Christ), then God is spoken good of because of the purity everyone sees in His children's lives. Now, I believe that not all instant or immediate glory to God is always a sign of salvation to the person through whom God is glorified. We know how Pharaoh glorified God through his condemnation. It was good for God, but not good for Pharaoh. Blessed are those who are glorified in the glory of God. "...Heirs with Christ (...) that we may also be glorified together", Rom.8:17.

One of the main conditions to be "slow to speak and slow to anger" is to be spontaneous and without those barriers which delete our good sense. If we please people or go out to please ourselves or anything else, we have a barrier which hinders good sense. And we know all inspired talk or holy conversation is filled up with good sense.

When the Bible talks about the arrogant, it means specially those who do not, will not or cannot depend on God. The arrogant stands in contrast with those who can wait on God and expect all from Him. "You ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that'. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil", James 4:15. This means dependence on God is the opposite of arrogance.

We so easily talk about the abundant life God grants. And it is good that we talk about it because there is such an abundant life that there will be no more need. However, we must have in mind we have come from a life of dryness and of great need - of great inner need. In other words, we have adopted and conceived habits of our own which fit in a way sinners conceive to manage to live in a decaying spiritual poverty. We have adapted our ways to a life of poverty. If we change the wine, then we must make sure we also change the wineskins. We cannot live an abundant life as if there is still a need. Abundance means there is no need anymore. And if we do not experience a life of abundance, it doesn't mean there isn't such a thing as an abundant life. The woman at the well knew from the words of Jesus she would never again need to fetch water as she became used to do. It means Jesus made it clear to her that there is more to His words than we are able to believe or live with. There is more which will never end in which we must remain as if we have never lived any other way before.

"If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth", Jer:15:19. Oh Blessed promise! However, this does not mean we shall automatically be as God's mouth when we utter only precious things and stop uttering worthless ones. No, there is more which needs to happen after those conditions are met. God has still to speak and be our mouth. He needs to take hold of the whole of us because the best precious things we can ever utter is not close to the words of God which are easily fulfilled. We must know that the words of God will become ours and not that our words will become His.

Just as there are people who talk out of "the deceit of their own minds" (Jer.14:14), so can people speak having "the mind of Christ". However, even when we have the mind of Christ, we must discern whether God has spoken to us or through us. We must be able to recognize facts and be able to say, "I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy", 1Cor.7:25.

There are people who become proud against truth simply because it was God who spoke. What I mean is, if God speaks, these people resist instinctively because it was the Lord speaking. Just the smell of the Lord causes them a sort of nausea. "Be not proud, for the LORD has spoken", Jer.13:15. Why else would God warn beforehand against pride when He speaks?

It is obvious the prosperity doctrines around the world, today, will create a lot of dishonest preachers and Christians. The main reason is the lack of blessing upon what they preach and believe. God will not bless lies. Consequently, they will need to fill up their main needs with money which they take from people through dishonesty. They create debts through their filthy words and need to make up for it in some other dishonest way. I mean, they need to show what they say works.

When Christians sin, they not only get the curse of wandering heart, but they are put into many sorts of problems which they are unable to solve. They also get the desert in which a wandering, dry heart has to dwell. They get a dry heart and a dry desert in which to dwell. It is a double curse they get as a reward for sinning.

There is no other way to be a useful instrument in the hands of God but by being cleansed of all types of sin. "Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honour, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work", 2Tim.2:21. And when I say no other way I really mean nothing else. There is no Bible instruction, no degree - in fact, nothing else - that will ever make someone an instrument in the hands of God. One can become any kind of instrument, even one that preaches the Bible correctly. However, it is altogether a different thing to be a clean instrument in the hands of God.

Many children are never corrected because many fathers have the wrong motivation when they correct them. Parents punish their children when angry or impatient, but little do they realize they should use a rod only to save them from the wrath of God and from sin. Can you see, now, why many Christian's children have become little devils? It is because we need grace which can be bestowed only on proper motives and on living truth. Others, on the other hand, stop using the rod on them because they see it is useless, even if the Bible says the rod works. By not doing it, they are conformed with the ways of this world and make believe that what the Bible says does not work out and does not bear fruit. They make God a liar because they have the wrong motives. Besides, they cannot genuinely believe their own children are going to hell. That is one of the reasons parents become slack in taking care of those gifts God has entrusted to them to take care and to prepare for eternity. Did you think God gave your child for your sake? No, it wasn't. It was for eternity's sake.

Here is an interesting thought. "...If God, perhaps, will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth", 2Tim.2:25. Let me explain. I have heard many Christians, pastors and theologians pray something like this many times: "Lord, let these people come to the knowledge of truth so that they may repent". Now, here, Paul puts it in other way: let people repent so they may know the truth. It just shows how much Christianity has drifted away from truth, because this goes against all modern theology. It says, too, that people who repent do not know the truth yet. "Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away", 2Cor.3:16. They shall know it if they continue in the way, and, by knowing it, they shall be made free of themselves. And people who repent also will "come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil" - only those who have repented already. In other words, after repentance there is a lot of work to do and before repentance there is nothing to do.

Those who trust people or self cannot trust Christ and all those who lean on people become independent from God.

Nothing good comes out of disobedience and nothing bad comes out of obedience.

Jesus never talked to people to give the impression that coming to Him is the end of the way. In fact, He emphasized that coming to Him is the beginning of the way into which He shall lead further. He often talked about finishing what He has started. It all starts by coming to Jesus. That is why He is the way.

"Deliver me from all my transgressions; make me not the reproach of the fool", Ps.39:8. The believer shall always be an offense to the fool. However, this verse says more than that. It says that a believer who is not free of sin shall be the reproach of the fool. He shall be stamped on because he is salt without taste. This means an unclean believer shall be a few degrees below a fool. Actually, such believers are worse than fools. Even Jesus talked about people who believe and shall be laughed at because they do not find grace to end what they started.

Any worried or worrying person does things or wants things because of troubled self and, consequently, for the sake of self. Worry demands self satisfaction. It demands to be pleased and appeased. It asks to be able to spend on own lusts, I mean, to spend on a worrying mood. Only those who do not worry can do things for the sake of others and for the glory of God. Worry is a totalitarian master.

Usually, when we read about being heirs of Christ, for some reason, we think about having a place in heaven or some inheritance outside or ahead of us. But, when the Bible talks about it, it is referring directly to the nature of Christ. Our inheritance is the very nature of Christ. That is the Promise, or, should I rather say, that is our Promised Land. And that is promised for us to look for with all our hearts.

Revival is to be able to fulfil the Law of God. Many people think revival are miracles and signs, but, genuine revival is to change people in such a way that they are turned into the very Law of God. It shall be written in their hearts and what is in the hearts is clearly seen outside. Never expect more than that as the only goal of any genuine revival.

There are many ways through which God's promises are fulfilled or not fulfilled. If they are not fulfilled, it shall cause further mistrust and greater self-trust or self-justification against a living God. It is not only lack of faith that can hinder what God has said to become true. If the motives are not aiming at God's glory things won't happen as God said. Another possibility is to have an expectation which is different from the true interpretation of any promise. Find out what the conditions are to the promise you created expectations about to see who is on the wrong and what is on the right. It is very easy for any sinner to blame God instead of self when things do not work out according to what God has said. And there are many reasons why any sinner can be blamed for besides lack of faith. "But does this mean that God cannot be trusted?", Rom.3:3.

Many people say there is nothing wrong with going to the cinema or to watch worldly filth and violence. They say and believe they do not practise those things themselves and are just taking pleasure and enjoying themselves. The Bible, however, talks against those who do wrong things as well as against those who "have pleasure in those practicing them", Rom.1:32.

The big question is: does the Lord work and speak because His Children are pure, clean and holy or do the Children speak for God when they are clean, pure and holy?

Many people have problems like speaking too much. They say or believe they speak a lot and try hard not to do so. However, we should be reminded of the words of the Lord which say that what the mouths speaks originates in the heart along with its desires or loves. In other words, the first step towards quieting the mouth is to deal with the heart and to exterminate what causes it to speak so much. Then - and only then - may we apply the adjustments needed to change habits and patterns, whatever they are.

Didn't Judas betray Jesus with a kiss? Why do people think one cannot betray Jesus with reading the Bible or even praying? There is a lot of praying and of reading the Bible which deceives self to carry on hidden as it is.

"Pray that you do not enter into temptation", Lk.22:40. What does it mean to enter into temptation? Does it mean we must avoid places or situations where there are temptations or hardships? No! It means we must not have our thoughts and mind running the way of temptation or thinking its way. We must be found thinking, believing and having reality and holiness under the circumstances we find ourselves in. The disciples were not taken from the place or circumstances of persecution when Jesus told them to pray not to enter into temptation.

God made things in such a way that the lives of Christians should always be spoken about. We cannot avoid it. It is a kind of law of nature. In other words, whether we live properly or whether we are truly open letters written by the Lord, we shall be spoken of and commented by people everywhere. We shall either be a good testimony, a sweet smell of the gospel or we shall be worse than the heathens, depending from what we live.

Many believe that to have an own view of things is to have an idea that we do not read about in the Bible. How gross a mistake! To have an own view means that we read the Bible and interpret it in a way that suits someone or even us.

Jesus handed His spirit to the One who was smiting Him for the sake of the sins of the whole world. Would you do that? Would you, still, entrust your spirit to the One who was destroying or dilacerating your body?

God is not yet spreading vengeance. He is spreading salvation and transformation for His enemies. Is there any sweeter thing than that sort of vengeance which turns a killer into a saviour? "Vengeance will be sweet".

Mercy is to show forth the way out of sin for always and never to breed a feeling of acceptance towards any sin. Because mercy has the way and walks on towards purity and holiness, it shall never accept sin. To accept sin is to pervert the reality of what mercy really is. There is no virtue which accepts sin less than mercy: mercy knows the way, it knows the way out of sin. How can mercy ever accept it as a factor which cannot be solved in the lives of those it tries to save from it?

Faith must be like the mustard seed and not like the mountain. People often have it the other way round so they can blame something for their failures. Having excuses for failures causes people to carry on as always, believing the same things and holding on to the same stuff that keeps them away from the Lord. If we do not take God's things as simple, plain and objective, we cannot fix errors when we fail. We shall blame the lack of faith, the timing of God or whatever excuse people may have conceived as an excusing doctrine instead of acknowledging it is not working. Were people able to acknowledge it is not working out with them, they would search for what hinders them to be backed up by the Lord.

Faith is often a mystery to many. Many try to convince themselves and to convict themselves of truth. And some try to do so by convincing others about what they say and wish to believe so as to cause themselves to believe better and more. But, it is not what faith is all about. Faith is to be already of and by truth. To have faith, truth must have already spoken to us and fully convinced us. To try the reverse way is like trying to get the child before the embryo is created or conceived.

Wrath in man dos not always originate in the devil or through temptation. Wrath can emerge in man because the Spirit might be convicting him by striving against him and man opposes it to be able to do something else. A greater power than man's which hinders his ways are always annoying to him. It annoys the spirit of man - even a dead one. Because the Spirit of God strives with man silently and does not give up, man becomes upset and, most of the time, he cannot figure out why he is upset. He is upset because he cannot be free to do whatever he wants do do.

Prosperity doctrines are very hard doctrines. They are hard on people. Actually, it hinders people to get into heaven and even into the right perspective about the lovely doings and dealings of God. If someone has sin or faulty ways in his life and God would bless such a person materially for some exclusive believing reason, then, the prosperity doctrines would rise the thought that there is no need to fix what is wrong anymore since God has already blessed. Since the aim is prosperity, people won't care about holiness, especially if all goes well with them. On the other hand, would God deprive such people from some material thing to correct the heart, they would not be able to believe God loves them by depriving them from what is taken. It is a very hard doctrine that works against truth and opposes the love of God.

Many say people must have holiness and good fruit from the heart. I agree with that. One of the best ways to get that done that way is through examples. One cannot conceive how deep and how well any good example works. It works deep in people and a good example can often do more than a thousand words. Be holy and you shall have holy people around you desiring to be holy from the heart. On the other hand, there is no greater and no deeper hardness than the one which strives against fruitful examples. Be an example anyway, because you "make a tree either good or bad", just as Jesus said it must be done.

"...He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God", John 3:18. Most people stumble over the gospel and entangle themselves in the things they believe by reading from the Word of God and and still missing the point. This is one of the issues most Christians stumble all over the world: believing in Christ. Let me explain what it really means. We are saved by faith; we are saved by Jesus and there is no one who can be saved from sin unless it is through the power of Jesus. So, by not believing in Jesus the person is already condemned because he shall not get out of his sins. "Behold the Lamb of God who takes sin away from the world". By not believing, people everywhere shall be surely condemned by their sins and by their sinfulness. By believing Him, they shall be able to enter the narrow way and be purged and cleansed along the way. Do you believe that believing in Jesus will cause you to avoid entering and walking the narrow way of cleansing instead and that it will allow you to live on in any kind of sin?

"But that He be revealed to Israel, therefore I have come baptizing with water", John 1:31. This verse has a mighty meaning of which few people are aware. In the first place, we should know what it means that Christ is revealed to us. It means we really get to know Him, and to touch Him, to hear Him and to confide with Him. In order to do that, we must surely go through John the Baptist, so to speak. People came to him confessing their sins and receiving the baptism of repentance. This means that if we really wish to know Christ and experience Him the way He is, we must first bring all our sins to the light, one by one. There is no such thing as getting to know Christ without a thorough confession of all past and present sins. To start knowing Christ as He really is, one must go through John the Baptist.

There many attitudes which can induce people into error concerning what it proves or shows. For example, carelessness may resemble confidence because both are not worried or concerned about certain important things. But, we all know confidence is never careless about what is important. It just knows in whom it trusts. Wrath may resemble zeal; glorying may resemble praise, and so forth. Let us be on our guard against the resemblances of things in heaven and earth. "Thous shalt not make any resemblance of what is in heaven or on earth".

We read in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man how the rich man in hell would be content with a single drop of water. This shows many things, but, it reveals mainly that judgment, rewards or punishment will always be an eye for an eye for what we have done. Lazarus would be content with a single crumb of bread before. Now, it was the rich man's turn to be content with a single drop of water. The other thing about this is that we all know that a drop of water would never satisfy the rich man in hell. Most people there crave after the illusionary 'relief' of their burdens still. Illusion carries on with hem in hell still. They lie to themselves by not wishing and searching for the real thing and for genuine satisfaction of their real needs. Instead, they keep the lie alive by looking for a drop of living water when God's will and commandment are rivers of living water. Are you doing the same thing while here on earth?

"Therefore, be careful that the light in you isn't darkness", Lk.11:35. We know that when earthly light shines somewhere, one side is light and the other is taken by shade. There is shade only because there is light and because the sun shines. One side of the earth is lightened because it is turned to the sun and the other side is night because it is in the shade of earth. This is what Jesus must have been warning us about: there must never be any shady spots in us. We must seek such a position under light that no shady spots are found in us. We also read about heavenly light that shone upon Paul or even upon Jesus in the mount of transfiguration: it was light all around. It seems there was no shady spot under that light. "Now if your whole body is full of light...". This is the kind of light we should seek, to walk under it because there is a kind of exposition to light that brings darkness and shade on some spots of our hearts. Earthly light, man's doctrines and churchy ways give people a hiding place and cause them to hide many things beneath the "light" of religion. Be careful and on your guard against it. But, be also on your guard against sins which are hidden because you have confessed some other sins.

We must have heard a lot about Jonah and his doings a long time ago. But, according to Jesus, his disobedience has been used by God as a sign to help convert the city he went to. Jesus said that it was a sign to the Ninevites. It means his fame preceded him before he got into Nineve. People may have heard a lot about him before he got there.

"And in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon and cried out with a loud voice, saying (...) I know You, who You are, the Holy One of God", Lk.4:34. How many unclean demons walk around in our synagogues today? And how many of them manifest themselves 'praising' and 'exalting' God? Demons walk around in churches today and feel at home there. They even play their part in the services and many are not aware of it. Many of those demons also refer to Christ and tell the truth about Him, lust like it happened in that day when Jesus entered that synagogue! And any lying heart will easily listen to demons' lies. Let those who can take this hearken and take heed.

Be careful never to ask or demand from the Lord that a stone be transformed into bread simply because you don't believe Him. Many Christians do that even when they are not aware of it. One would be surprised to know just how many revival Christians do that. And that is why the bread of Life is turned into stones to them. I often hear people say, "How is it possible that so and so hears such a pure gospel and senses the power of God and he is not genuinely converted?" This might well be one of the reasons.

"Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many", Lk.2:34. Right from the start we see that where Jesus appears, things are never the same again. They just can't be. Some will fall and some will rise. The tree is made good or bad and no tree will be the same ever again. Even at the Cross we see one man being risen to heaven and the other one falling down into hell. No words need to be spoken for it to happen. It just happens. And if does not happen, it means a false gospel s presented. It means that if one holds no to sin, he shall fall and if someone forsakes sin, he shall rise.

"And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger", Lk.2:12. Have you ever thought that a normal baby wrapped in swaddling cloths could be a sign to anyone? Let me explain. Angels appeared to half-asleep people, they sang as they do in heaven. Yet, that was not considered to be the sign. We find the angels commanding those shepherds back to earth. Even though the angels did not need much more to say or do after that appearance, yet, that something so 'insignificant' and earthly could be the sign is amazing. They abandoned their flocks and what they held very dear to them to look for such a sign. This should teach us something, especially those of us who look for big things and become negligent towards the will of God thinking it is insignificant compared to what we hold dear. Modern preachers would not consider this as a sign.

We read how an angel appeared to Zacharias to tell him his prayer had been answered, Lk.1:13. I believe Zacharias had offered many prayers about the same issue or problem and the angel said it was a single prayer. The other thing I am sure about is that Zacharias had, at that stage, already given up praying for the child he wished to have. He was too old by then to pray for it and so was his wife. So, the angel was referring to a prayer offered a while before, which was still on fire before God. Have you ever thought your prayers could be forgotten if you have no sin hindering them? If you have, repent.

"And instantly he saw again. And he followed Him, glorifying God. And seeing, all the people gave praise to God", Lk.18:43. How many people are able to do the works of God in such a way that all those who follow them glorify God for real and not them or their church? And can their works also cause such an impression on all those present to glorify God by giving real glory to Him from the heart? Jesus could receive glory for all His deeds, but, it was the Father who received it when He worked. And He did not tell people to act that way at all. Can you work in such a way that you do not need to repeat yourself again and again saying "all glory belongs to God" or any other known 'slogan' people often use? Do you find yourself always in the need to 'divert' the attention from yourself through words? Isn't there a better way where the deeds speak for themselves and where you free yourself from that responsibility of repeating yourself about it all the time? The fact is, everyone who keeps repeating that the glory belongs to the Lord gives the impression he is struggling to show himself he doesn't wish the glory he owns or deserves. Only those to whom things 'belong' give it away to someone else. And, if people part glorifying the Lord it means it has never belonged to them or to you indeed.

"...Stood and prayed thus with himself..." Lk.18:11. We easily miss the main point of these words. This means that one is merely praying to oneself, inspired by self and, sometimes, giving the answers himself to be able to carry on believing a lie. This must be a terrible state of mind where one finds oneself 'praying' with himself thinking to be praying to the Lord! It could be so otherwise and simple! Are there more foolish people than deceived believers?

Many, when mocked by others because of holiness, feel strangely uneasy and accused of something they can't really express. The accused or mocked one feels the pressure is upon him and feels as if he is on the wrong side. But, the fact is that the ones that mock, accuse or despise the words that speak deep, or despise the example that talks or the lives that shine, those are the ones upon whom the load of responsibility is or should be transferred. This is mainly why they respond by accusing and mocking. Make sure that you know the accused often accuses as a means to find his own false stability along with the peace that the world gives. When Jesus talked against the love towards Mammon, we read that, "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him", Lk.16:14. They did not ridicule him because He was wrong, but, because they wished to carry on loving money. Ridiculing the only Way was the means to deceive themselves about it. It is not Jesus who should feel bad about being accused or ridiculed. He didn't. He did not feel any guilt by speaking this way; He did not feel bad about the young rich man feeling sad and going away unconverted; He did not feel any remorse by leaving His home or hometown; He did not feel bad because Peter and the other apostles had to leave their families either. Beware, because accusations have the power to make the innocent feel guilty about what they have not done and, on the other hand, have the power to cause them to receive good exhortations of truth as false accusations. This is the other side of this truth.

You can always try to fulfil whatever you promised by remembering it and try to do it. But, there are a few problems in such a way. One is that you might be thinking to use your own fleshly strength to do so since you are relying mainly on yourself. The other is that memory can fail people for many reasons. One of those reasons might be the occupations and cares which have the power to absorb our being completely. Now, if you have promised to be a faithful person or to produce any other good fruit, make sure you know that the only way to fulfil it without a doubt is to gain a heart and a being which shall be faithful even when you have forgotten about the promise you have made. Make sure you get a praying heart before you vow to pray every dawn; or that you live in the real presence of God before you promise to think of Him all the time; or that you get saved from the love of money before you promise to be faithful in your business; or that you are capable of fulfilling all conditions to pray effectively before you promise you shall work on having answers to all your prayers. We can mention many other examples, but God can show them to you if you ask Him.

It is true the Lord blesses according to the intentions of man as well. Good works with bad motives won't be blessed at all. But, the reward will be according to the works and not according to the intentions of man. "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works", Mat.16:27.

The believers of evolution are more fascinated about the idea of it than they are believing it. People love to explore the unthinkable and muse themselves with the imagination of any non-existing thing or of any other kind of occupations which 'feed' their empty mind. It keeps them busy since people far away from God have nothing to do and nothing important or lasting to think about.

There are many excuses or arguments that people use to be sinful. The unbeliever will say, "There is no God". And that is why he corrupts himself. It is just a way to assure he will carry on in sin. The believer with whom God is will say, "God is not with me" and corrupts himself as well for the same reason. When God is with them and people are able to say God is not with them, it just means they wish after sin and not after the real Emanuel. On the other hand, the 'believer' with whom God is not pleased will say (and take for granted) God accepts his sin and looks over it. He will say "God is love and God is with me" and will take for granted God understands his sin and will forgive it even if it is not repented from. For him, God is not a God who purifies, but who accepts. People will always seek a reason to be sinful when the intention of the heart is not holiness.

If you are capable of pleasing people, you also bear the capacity in you to displease them and, also, to commit all sins associated to pleasing and displeasing people, sins like jealousy, gossiping, bitterness, etc. Let me explain. Pleasing others is selfishness. It is not done because of others and whoever tries to please others, does it for the sake of self and not for the sake of others. It is not others' best interest that is chased after, but self's. It means that, when there is no return from others whom you pleased, no appreciation, self won't be satisfied with it and won't feel fulfilled. It will, then, seek revenge. In other words, only those who seek to please others have in them the ability to displease them.

Pessimism can be the opposite of hope. Pessimism comes from a bitter heart and it exists only because the heart is bitter or its ways or its carnal foundations are being contradicted in the deepest, unseen parts. Pessimism does not exist because it is true or because it speaks the truth in some way. It exists only because the heart is bitter. Man believes in himself and the amount of pessimism, often, reveals the amount of trust in the flesh there still exists, (whether unseen or merely not acknowledged) and which is also practised. Because it is practised in daily life, the Spirit of God opposes it at the level of its foundations. Once the Sign which will be contradicted (Lk.2:34) starts to operate, man is made to see from deep within he cannot trust self. For him, it means he cannot trust, especially if he is still carnal in some way. This is where pessimism steps in to dominate the tongue, the thoughts, the talk and the ways of those who are able to kindle trouble in the hearts of all around by contaminating them through many sins associated to bitterness, Heb.12:15. The most common contaminations we shall see in such cases is jealousy (because they do not attain what they see in faithful people); bad thoughts in a general way; unfaithfulness (because of the lack of motivation brought by pessimism); the spreading of the smell of hopelessness and the lack of truthfulness about the Lord and His sovereign power to change things at all times. And because these people do not trust their God in their ways by not acknowledging Him in them from the heart, it shall seem as if their thoughts and beliefs about things are confirmed. But, the truth is God is not establishing their ways because they do not trust Him and that is why it will seem that what they say and believe is true or becomes true. What they hear about God is never confirmed in practical living because they do not acknowledge Him in all their ways. Pessimism is a lie resembling truth.

Daydreaming, even if it is dreaming about the things of the Lord, has two main problems: if things do not happen according to what is dreamed and comes in another shape - even if it comes in a better shape - it can mean disappointment in a fleshly soul. The carnal soul does not reach out beyond what it sees, feels or believes. The other problem is that it makes people unfaithful, since they use up their time in a wrong way when they should be doing the right thing for the Lord at the right time. Hasn't the Lord given you something to be faithful to while you spend your time dreaming lately?

If we are holy through living for the Lord, by having a real fellowship with Him, we represent Him here on earth. This is what it means that we pray or do things in the name of the Lord. We are here in His stead, representing Him in His 'absence'. Now, we read a prophecy in David's time, about Jesus, that says, "Ask of Me, and I shall give the nations for Your inheritance; and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession", Ps.2:8. Are you doing this in Jesus name, in His place? Are you pleading and asking this as a representative of the Lord Jesus?

Many believe they are in a position where they can demand many things from God even out of season, especially if they believe to be fulfilling what God requires of them. The fact is that when we are planted near the waters of Life, we shall bear fruit in the proper season and not in the season we want. The promise is that a tree which is planted near the waters shall bear fruit in its proper season, Ps.1:3. If it were possible for a tree to bring forth fruit out of season, it would be a bad tree. We read in Malachi that it is a curse to receive blessings before its proper time. For example, if we pretend to bear the fruits of the Spirit before meeting up with Him in a real manner, the curse will be hypocrisy. And we may say the same thing about every good gift that can come from the Lord.

There shall always be a great difficulty to serve God and to be faithful to Him if the use of our memory is poor. How can we serve Him without remembering what the Lord has said here and there? Memory is also trained and educated. However, the biggest problem to memory are the thorns and the cares for this world. They cause people to become forgetful beings.

There has always been some confusion between being wise and having knowledge. Knowledge is what we know and being wise is how we apply what we know. They are not the same thing. And there are people who have knowledge and are not wise and vice-versa.

Have you ever apologized for things you shouldn't have been apologizing for? It means there are other things you should apologize for and you aren't. It just works like that. People are often tempted to cause an impression of humility on others which gives them the ideal hiding place for their sins. Besides pleasing others, those who apologize for things they shouldn't be apologizing for, must know they are keeping back something or trying to hide much. And we should all walk in the light instead of trying to use the ways of light to hide. "O house of Jacob, come and let us walk In the light of the Lord", Is.2:5.

The more I am blessed with the wisdom and the words of God, the more I realize that Godly things are in ruins in this present age. It is not a fully erected Temple anymore and it is not a beautiful palace which attracts dry people to it. I just wonder where are the engineers and the workers to raise it in its full splendour again.

We all must know that the long term changes or decisions we make are the ones that count before God. It doesn't mean that the short term decisions are not taken into account for us or even for judgment purposes. It just means that what counts is how we end, even if the way we start is bad and even if we know everybody must start somewhere to end up well. Didn't Judas Iscariot start up well to end badly? Let me speak more about this. Suppose you find yourself sinning in some way and you promptly decide to do away with that sin. Then, you cut the act quickly off and, because of it, you leave the heart untouched or unchanged. It means the heart has not been given the chance to change along. You have dealt with it in haste. Sooner or later there shall be temptations or sinning in that area because the heart has not been dealt with and because of the hasty dealing against something which has roots. Haste is, often, superficiality. Have you ever dealt with sin as something that has no roots and seem to lie superficially at the surface? If you do that, sin will come back or, if it doesn't come back, despair will, because the heart has not been changed along. When you deal with sin, deal with it in a long (eternal) term, instead of dealing with it as those who haste to have it quickly covered up and forgotten. Sin doesn't die by forgetting about it. We need to expose and not to cover up. It is exposure which is able to kill sin just as, supposedly, sunlight killed vampires.

When we bless others, we must be careful not to do so because we feel somewhat superior to the person we bless. Usually, a blessing is pronounced by someone who is close or closer to God. But, in order for the blessing to take place and full effect, and it to mean something more than empty words, there must be no feeling of superiority in the one who pronounces it and neither a feeling of inferiority in the one who receives it.

We need, quite often, the authority of God, especially when we preach the gospel or speak out the words of the Lord. One of the holes through which authority often leaks out is a life which has not matched itself up with the knowledge of God it experiences and with the Truth it has been taken by. If we live less than we know of God, authority will fade away for two reasons: one is that God will not reveal Himself as our friend because He cannot afford to back up whatever we say or do - he will no grant a false testimony through us; and the other is that people, by seeing clearly that we live less than we preach, will be inclined to despise us or our words. The other hole from where authority leaks out is when we try to match up with God's Life and principles through own means and strength or, we could say, without grace in the heart. When it is our heart which is forced to equal the principles, we should know it is not the same as having the principles match up with our hearts. Do you remember what God said about David, that he had a heart according to God? Then we must add principles to our life, because a good heart without principles shall become slack. Unfortunately, people want a God according to their heart and not a heart according to God.

People often don't take their own words seriously. That is why many say things before God and do not fulfil them or simply forget about them. The fact is that a request is recorded in the Bible made by Solomon in his sleep, in a dream. If words in our sleep or in our dreams can count before God, how much more what we say awake! Do we take the words we speak before God and people seriously? Do they count for us as they do for God? Do we know God means business with us and will never play games? "Guard your steps when you go to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. For they do not know that they are doing evil", Ecl.5:1.

In Israel, in David's time, it was believed that to lie down with a virgin was a foolish thing. "And as for you, you shall be as one of the fools in Israel", 2Sam.13:13. But, as time went on, this world started to work hard and patiently on causing the impression upon people that it wasn't so bad a deed at all. Now, it is not even considered a crime anymore. Eventually, it started to be assumed it is a good thing to commit sins and that sin is not an act of a fool. Now, in worldly ways, secular thinking, movies and minds, we find this perverse idea or ideal so established that people assume it without giving a second thought about it. It is common and natural to sin. The idea that people cannot go on without sin has taken hold of the whole world and, worst of all, of church people's minds. Time must come when Christians start assuming again that sin is foolishness because it is indeed foolishness. We should assume truth again.

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your seed may live", Deut.30:19. We see there is life and death before us. Yet, God says "choose life". Let me explain. Dead people cannot choose death because they are already dead. Sin makes them dead. The only thing they can choose is to be revived and to have life in them again. This is why God says "choose life" since they cannot choose death anymore. Life is the only thing people are able to choose since sin has made them literally dead.

"And every one that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bring forth more fruit", John 15:2. Here are two interesting thoughts to which we do not always pay attention. One is that God prunes only those who bring forth fruit. Those who don't bring forth fruit are not pruned. The other thought that struck me today again is that God prunes the heart so there can be fruit outside. He doesn't prune the outside so there can be fruit, but the inside. So, we cannot expect God to change circumstances for our delight, but rather to use them according to our inner needs.

We all have things we are right about and things we are wrong about. But, man is always a surprising creature. The thing is, man must believe he is right about everything or else he will fail to trust and to be confident. It is because he is the one in whom he trusts most. Man's own strength and his confidence in himself is very valuable to him. He will feel lost without it. Now, those things man is right about give him the confidence to carry on in a wrong track as if he is right about all. The fact that he is indeed right about certain things makes him unconsciously believe he is right about everything else or, at least, makes him put forth and hold on an attitude that he cannot be wrong. Man without confidence in himself feels desperate and he doesn't want it to be that way. The flesh demands that he must believe in himself all the time and to argue as if he is always be right. Believing in yourself is a world's weapon man is fond of.

We know the story of Saul and how he failed to be fully obedient to the Lord's command concerning Amalek and his people, 1Sam.15. It was difficult for him to carry out the right thing to the full. But, it was not so when he did the wrong thing. It was easy for him. We read how he killed all the priests of God in one town and killed all that breathed in there, 1Sam.22:18,19. Faithfulness is one of those things we have been created with when God made us according to His image. It is part of us since creation along with many other things. Now, if we are not able to be fully obedient to the Lord, we must know we shall be able to be fully obedient to something else, even to the wrong thing. No one can hinder that happening that way, because it is a law of creation. We have been created as faithful beings. We shall always be faithful to something, whether it is the wrong thing or the Lord. "If you fear the LORD and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the LORD your God", 1Sam.12:14. Didn't Paul mention the fact that people in sin have their members fully yielded to it and to the world? They are, so to say, completely faithful to sin. And James also speaks out stating there are half-hearted people in the courts of God because they love sin and have not fully repented of it all.

Sometimes, God needs to speak through a dream or during people's sleep because they are too busy to hear Him when they are not asleep. There might be other reasons why God speaks to us during our sleep, though. God can try someone to see whether he or she will yield to sleep or to His voice and to obedience as well.

Those who do not please people, have no conscience of it. If people have conscience of pleasing others, that is when they start pleasing them. That happens when they become conscious of it. Sometimes, they even become unpleasant because only those who please people are able to be unpleasant. Consciousness of that sin makes people react some way or another.

The peace of God is not like the world's. It doesn't work the same way, it doesn't come at any cost and it doesn't produce the same results. I mean that God will not change or adapt for the sake of our peace. If His presence is real and not imaginary, we must be changed beings and not adapted beings, I mean, if we wish to feel at home in Him. There is no such thing as peace in the presence of God unless we have indeed been changed and transformed by Him. God did not come to make us feel comfortable, but to change us. Once changed, we shall have peace in Him. If we have not been changed, His presence will be a torture to us. This is one of the reasons many abandon 'the faith'.

There are many people who are concerned about hearing the voice of God. To a certain extent, it is good that they are concerned about such things. But, I believe we should be concerned about becoming sheep, since Jesus said it is sheep who hear it. Instead of being concerned about the voice, let's become sheep and do all to that end. Besides, there is something better for people who are filled with the Spirit of God and live by Him: they can feel or sense how God feels about certain things because they live close enough to Him. "My soul follows close after You", Ps.53:8. That could be a greater intimacy than hearing His voice only. However, "can two and two walk together unless they are alike?" Amos 3:3.

Many put certain sins in a different category than others. Let me explain. Some have prostitution or pride as a big sin and gossiping as a minor one, even if they consider it sin. And there are, also, sins which those people do not consider sin at all or, at least, not as dangerous a sin. For example, people may consider that love for an own country, its culture or anything about it or its pride is a good thing. That is what the tribe of Benjamin thought when the rest of Israel asked them to deliver those evil men who raped and killed a Levite's woman. Instead of delivering them, the whole tribe of Benjamin gathered as one man to defend evil doers because they belonged to their tribe, Judges 20:13,14. We should be very careful and guard ourselves against what people call nationality. Our identity is, quite often, something which stands between us and God and many people are not aware of the fact that it keeps them from having answers to their prayers because they can't see that as lifting or downgrading ourselves before our fellow men - and both are pride. In heaven, all people are alike and our hearts should aim to live as it is lived there. "If, then, you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God", Col.3:1.

After Moses, God gave Joshua as a leader to Israel. However, God gave no leader after Joshua. It can mean a lot of things, but, the most significant one is that people would now depend on God completely after the way these leaders have depended on God. In the new land we must depend on God and in times of abundance dependence on God is crucial. They had their chance now "not to do according to all that we do here today, each doing whatever is right in his own eyes", Deut.12:8,9.

How many people have committed great mistakes, or even changed the course of their lives by not enquiring from God? And how many did the same by not waiting for a clear answer or until God spoke if they enquired? There will always be a next difficulty if the flesh is kept alive: if one is not too busy, too confident or too proud to enquire from God, one might not be ready to wait for an answer or to pray in such a way that the answer comes.

We are often encouraged by testimonies of other people. And it is so good that the workings of God are able to encourage us, since it enrages many around the world. Yet, we must know we need to have an own story to tell and we must be encouraged by the presence of God. His presence should be such a reality to us all that the Lord Himself would be able to take us, encourage us and bear us in His own holy hands. He should be able to be our encouragement at all times.

It is true lukewarm people are responsible for many a spiritual crime. Many people are not born again because of them, since they do not enter the door of salvation and block the way to others because they gather in front of the narrow door to block it for others. But, these lukewarm people have another power: they can determine some of the ways or attitudes on warm people. Let me explain. Remember Isaiah who called out and said he had unclean lips and lived among people of unclean lips? Isaiah was warm, yet, he learned the ways of lukewarm Israel, especially the way they spoke. He acted like them. Now, if warm people act as the lukewarm ones, they become the main stumbling blocks to these half hearted people because they do not look different from them. Even though they are warm, lukewarm people can exercise a power which brings a conduct out of them to make them act like hypocrites. That comforts and establishes hypocrisy - even if warm ones are not hypocrites or even if they do not have the intention to act like them. This makes warm people the main stumbling block to lukewarm ones, just as lukewarm ones are to cold hearts.

Here is an interesting sequence: "Behold! I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil", Deut.30:15. It is good that goodness does not come before life and we can see that evil doesn't come before death either. Goodness follows life and bad things follow the spiritual death on people. The Kingdom of God and His righteousness is to be found first, along with its Life.

We often talk about the glory of God and many people say, "all the glory to God", while keeping that glory secretly for themselves. There are many reasons why people seek what is not theirs. Some people seek or steal glory only to seek attention because they feel lonesome. They want to feel acceptable and work hard on it. Loneliness can make people steal. However, loneliness is solved by having God with us for real and not by seeking glory. His presence is able to deal against that sort of glory seeking, even though there are other sorts. Others seek glory to be self-assuring or assured. Maybe it is their 'faith' that has a need to be 'accepted'. They lack confidence in God. We should be able to make a sound diagnosis of the real reason why we seek glory for ourselves or why we talk too much, instead of pushing it aside by saying, "all glory is to God". That makes us sound like hypocrites. We need to come to the point where God can afford to exalt us for the sake of His Kingdom and name. By then, we should be able to live and feel comfortable with His glory because our hearts know all belongs to God indeed, and people see clearly that is true. Let's deal with whatever hinders it to happen or God will never be glorified through us. "You have today said that the Lord is your God (...) and that you will listen to His voice. And the Lord has taken you today to be His peculiar people, as He has promised you, and to make you high above all nations which He has made, in praise and in name and in honour, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God", Deut.26:17-19. Does your life speak by itself of the glory of God, even without words? Does your life exalt God and all His doings even when you are not thinking of it or are not aware of it? We cannot do two things at the same time: we cannot exalt self (which makes us self aware), and exalt God at the same time. Choose today whom you want to serve.

According to the Law of God, a negligence which leads to someone's accident or crime is sin. Anyone who is negligent and causes someone to suffer, besides being guilty of negligence, is also responsible for or guilty of whatever happens to his neighbour; and if negligence makes someone else's crime easier, the negligent person is a co-criminal.

The Lord told Israel that they should bring an offering according to a previous blessing of God, Deut.16:17. This means the offering would speak out loud and clear and everyone around would clearly see how bountiful God's blessing has been. This goes against the doctrines of the so called prosperity preachers who say people must give first to them in order to receive back from the Lord. The offering must be according to the blessing of God and it is not the blessing of God which must be according to the offering. They have it all wrong.

When the Lord talks about freedom or liberty, He means us to be free from ourselves and from sin. The worst slave holder is self because it holds self captive. It means the slave and the slave holder love what they do. Therefore, once we are taken into our heritage of freedom, we cannot do things according to an own vision or own opinion because it would mean self shall be in charge again. God has also intended to free us from that - especially from that. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God", Rom.8:14. The main sad complain God holds against people is that they have wandered into own ways. "You shall not do according to all that we do here today, each doing whatever is right in his own eyes. For you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God gives you", Deut.12:8,9.

"You may not eat the life with the flesh", Deut.12:22. We know how the Lord threw man out of Paradise and cut off his access to the Tree of Life so that sin or the flesh wouldn't eat of it and live forever. God had already separated light from darkness as His first act of creation and, after sin had entered the world, He also separated the flesh from Life as to confirm He doesn't want anything to do with sin or sinfulness that looks godly. And here we come with this symbolical commandment concerning blood (life) and the flesh: they cannot be eaten together. People should either be cold or hot. Everyone who eats from the flesh and from life at the same time shall be lukewarm and shall make God sick to the point of nausea or of vomiting. How is it with you? Are you trying to put Life and sin together by eating from both? You may never eat from the bread of life unless you decide to let the world down along with all sin and its fleshly moods or ways.

We read in Deut.2 that God says He has thrown out giants from certain places so the children of Esau and the Moabites could live there. I am sure they never admitted that it had been God doing it for them, by destroying extremely sinful nations. They must either have become proud or praised others gods for these achievements. Either way can be taken as forms of idolatry. Whether you praise yourself, your own wisdom or strength or praise other gods so you can look humble, you shall always be guilty of ugly idolatry. You can also be guilty of that sin by blaming God of those bad things that happen to you or to anyone else. It is just another way of exalting yourself and diminishing the Lord. "You shall have no other gods before Me", the Lord said. Don't be the one you praise for anything that happened.

Many are always in a hurry to get to work in time or to get to any other early business. Perhaps they are in a hurry because they weren't in a hurray to get out of bed.

A complicated mind is nothing less than a mind pressured by distractions and affairs, whether good or bad ones. These distractions press present duties and responsibilities aside and start a war inside the soul of man. By exterminating desires which are not according to God or by dealing diligently with those desires which are Godly but not appropriate for the moment, one will enter into the simplicity of Christ and shall start to enjoy it and to live from it to the full.

Half-heartedness in the things of God or double heartedness are liars. The principle behind double heartedness is deceit. It tells people they belong to God since they are not cold. It causes them to put a foot in the grounds of God or of truth while they use the other foot to walk in the world. They limp. One foot in the temple comforts them and gives them an unacceptable equilibrium. Only God can see they are not warm since they may have become fools and too foolish to see. Halfhearted people know they are not cold and, therefore, it becomes hard for them to see they are not warm. They won't be able to realize they are not warm since they don't feel cold. Double heartedness keeps them near the courts of the Lord and grants them a feeling of comfort and of hope in the backslidings which they refuse to acknowledge as ways of death. Another truth concerning double heartedness is that it is a great offense to God since it lives for the devil right in the face of God. These people are not cold enough to go and live for the flesh or the devil somewhere else, far away from the courts of God. They bring unholy things into the Holy of Holies and rub it in the face of God to force Him to take it in, absorb it and accept it from their hand. They believe a God of love would do just that. In case they would go far away and become cold, they would be, at least, truthful about many things. That's why cold people are better off since they show forth a degree of inner truthfulness within them. Didn't the Lord praise the unjust steward for the wisdom of being, at least, truthful about his whole situation and because of having made the correct diagnosis of his true standings? (Luk.16:8).

Many excuses are put forth by people who are not ready or don't feel ready for something yet. Ignorance causes people to say they can't do something because they are unable to do it. Capability comes through devotion and preparation comes from the Lord before or during the work we must be prepared for. It takes years of faithfulness in smaller things until we become naturally faithful enough to be entrusted with the greater things of God. If people are not ready or prepared to do something, it should serve as an accusation to them rather than as an excuse. Jesus did not look over any lack of readiness or any lack of preparation, just as He will never ignore ignorance. Lack of wisdom accuses people of not having walked with the Lord of wisdom long enough and lack of readiness confirms people have not been faithful in former smaller things and have not been seeking the Lord during periods of trials, however insignificant they may have seemed to them then. They have not remained in/with the Lord to the end of their trying season. Can the Lord say of you, "You remained with Me since the beginning"? John 15:27, Luk.22:28.

By reading the story of Korah again and the two hundred and fifty men who died with him, I was amazed at what God said. He said that the censers were holy because they were brought before the Lord, Num.16:37. It just amazes me because people were rejected and the censers accepted. We read in the Bible, many times, that the right order of things is that man be accepted first; and we also read how often God said, "Him will I accept". It is people who should be accepted and not the censers. God said about Job: "Him will I hear (accept)", Job 42:8. Isn't it amazing? Sometimes, God can hear a man whose prayer is not uttered because it is man who is accepted. The right order of things is that God accepts the man before accepting his prayer or any other thing brought before Him. Are we acceptable sacrifices to the Lord? Can we be accepted? We know there are a few people who are rejected and whose prayers are accepted because of the glory of God or even because (for the sake) of the people they pray for; yet, they themselves are rejected. "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord! Lord! Did we not prophesy in Your name, and through Your name throw out demons, and through Your name do many wonderful works? And then I will say to them I never knew you! Depart from Me, those working lawlessness!", Mat 7:22-23. And this piece of Scripture is not talking only about those false prophets who say they do some wonders or pretend they do them to deceive people.

It is strange that sinners who rebel against God or His ways always try to serve the same God they rejected in a way of their own. It was so with Korah and will still be so in many churches: people will always try to serve on their own and or their own might to live from self-righteousness and to keep it alive for the sake of fleshly stability or fleshly trust. We should know that when we reject the way God established, or if we reject the people He put there to lead, we reject God. It is not possible to serve God the way we wish to serve Him. Let us remember that Jesus says "The way it is done in heaven" and puts it above the will of God itself. God does not want the devil or the flesh to serve in His Temple. Serving the Lord in an own way or through "the arm of the flesh" stabilizes a false faith and tranquilizes a dirty conscience. It takes the conscience out of conviction. You wouldn't want it that way, would you? Beware, since any person (including yourself) who lack righteousness in some way will surely hold on to some indulgence or foolishness which tries to turn to God or serve Him in a rebelling way or in a way God considers rebellion. (Rebellion is self-righteousness or self-righteousness is rebellion. Beware of any form of it!). Unless such people hold on to some sort of strange 'righteousness' they will feel at loss and, besides, conscience must be lied to so it may be stilled by force or by double heartedness. Double heartedness is the food of rebellion because it allows people to feel they still swerve around God, His words and His Temple. Religion takes the place of God in their lives to fill the void for them. Religion is stubbornness. It is not possible to serve God with the spirit of mammon, serve the devil inside the Temple of God, or even serve God in the temple of the devil. It just doesn't work at all. And one of these will happen as long you have or hold on to some kind of self-righteousness - however small it is. Self-righteousness and a false faith are rebellious attitudes and not nice pets. Be careful, therefore, with your own or your church's doctrine which tries to impose itself above the commandment of the Lord; of own inspiration which carries the heart captive into some wrong track; some heart feeling which plays the role of God; some self-justification which is not Christ defending your case against false accusations; self-congratulation which is not the praise of God. Rebellion is self-righteousness and self-righteousness is rebellion. We cannot use the weapons of darkness to turn to the Lord. Double-heartedness is the main food of rebellion and self-righteousness. Double-heartedness comes to feel safe in the Temple of God often. This is why so many people in the world of sin are religious - and some are fanatically religious!

True prayer has many secrets and the reason they are seldom discovered and practised is that these are very simple secrets. Complicated things seem to have a greater hold on people's minds, conducts, and, especially, on the wholeness of the mind. Discipline is one of these secrets. However, very few people can be disciplined and spontaneous at the same time, burning in holy desire as they pray in an orderly way. We all know how true prayer needs genuine fire. And when there is no genuine fire, people establish some sort of strange fire to make up for the loss of the participation of the Spirit in their prayer life. It is common to see discipline robbing people from their wholeheartedness in the Spirit when it should rather be able to increase it. Another problem is that few people can separate one problem or request from another. They are too eager to solve all at once and seem to be unable to deal through with one problem until God's answer opens way to the next one. And when they are able to deal with one single issue wholeheartedly at a time, they don't seem to be able to let it stand to walk afresh into a new talk with the Lord. For example, if they talk about themselves or about personal spiritual needs wholeheartedly, they seem to lose sight of others spiritual needs after they have done so because they have reached an answer to their prayer; and if they wholeheartedly pray to solve others' needs, they seem to neglect their own important ones. I could mention a few more of these secrets and problems in prayer, but, it seems there is always some dispute which robs people from the genuine spirit of simple prayer.

We see God commanding Aaron to sacrifice an animal before entering the presence of the Lord. But, it seems to me Moses did not need to do it. He entered the presence of God without the need of sacrifice. Maybe it is because he was always in the presence of God, inside and outside the Tabernacle.

"Do not drink wine nor strong drink (...) for a distinction between the holy and unholy, and between the unclean and clean", Lev.10:9,10. Even when people are not addicted to wine anymore or any other sinful practice, even if it is only for the sake of an example, even if it is only for the sake of others, one should not touch certain things, even when they might be holy things unto us already. "...So that you may teach...", Lev.10:11. No one can teach without being a practical example.

Sometimes we wonder why God has put in His Law, the one given to Moses, that people should not eat certain kind of animals, birds or reptiles. Then we read: "To make a difference between the unclean and the clean", Lev.11:47. We should all know that to distinguish between the clean and the unclean has always been a great issue to the Lord or He wouldn't make that an object of promise through the coming of Christ, Mal.3:18. We can easily conclude from these laws that the peoples living in the Promised Land prior to the Israelites had some religious link to all those prohibited things or God would never have intervened through prohibitions such as these. Israel should set an example and be excluded from falling into those religious traps and beliefs, just as we do nowadays with wine or any other thing people link to sin or to the 'enjoyment' of this present world. There are many reasons why Peter could eat from the birds and animals coming from heaven on the sheet he saw. There was nothing impure about them. People defiled those things through beliefs and idolatries. Besides, the work Christ came to do within man established another inner law, a personal one we desire after ourselves; also, most of those beliefs had already vanished from the earth by the time Peter was here. Nowadays' beliefs 'do not eat' many things out of religiosity and by concepts about God which miss the mark. Times have changed and so have beliefs and religions. Our external ways should reveal we belong to the Lord and not to laws. Once they cease to show just that and that we do it for the Lord's sake, then they become useless and empty commands.

Many talk about the crowns they will get in heaven forgetting that the crown is a "crown of holiness", as Lev.8:9 says. Have you ever realized that it is a crown holiness? Holiness is the crown. Does it fit in your head? Do you desire that sort of crown? Do you look out to bear such a crown? After the Lord, holiness may well be the most precious gift there is for us.

Talking a lot and repeating oneself over and over again concerning what one believes or about what has happened to us in the past might be a hidden sign of lack of surety or even of security. Beware, because we preach the truth only to save others and not to assure us before people whose breath is in their nostrils.

It is indeed true man shall not live by bread alone. But, in the same way, we may confirm that man shall not rest by sleep alone, nor quench thirst only by drinking. The needs of the body are not the only things man should think about. They are not even to be compared to the spiritual needs. There is more and better needs which man should care for to be satisfied and whole. The fact is that many people eat and drink to sin and it makes them more hungry for true food. In the same way, we may be assured that much sleep takes true rest away from any of us. Beware and never try to make up for your spiritual needs by overdoing concerning physical food, rest or drink.

We all know what adultery is all about. If all of us would stay away even from touching our promised partner before marriage, I am sure adultery would also be made impossible through a principle which drives our behaviour along with God's blessing. It is a good thing to be pure and one can only continue in purity if pure already, since we all reap what we are able to sow.

"No offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering to the LORD made by fire", Lev.2:11. Many people have some fermenting stuff in their heart which they stubbornly ignore in order to be able to pray to God about certain other things they consider important to them. If they do not ignore it, they should not be able to pray. And here we read it is unacceptable to offer anything to the Lord with leaven. It is better to deal with the leaven first and exterminate it from the heart before we pray. Ignoring it won't work. Others try to be nice while they pray and they are not the same people when they pray as they usually are. They put honey in their offerings. They put on a heart they do not have. And God says "you shall put no honey in a burnt offering". It is better to let a prayer stand until we can be ourselves and the heart we have may express itself and be revealed while we pray.

The Lord made Aaron high priest and so his sons after him. The Lord is able to work on people for a certain purpose even before they are born. This is why He can appoint priests in a successive way even before they are born. The blessing of the Lord is capable of creating responsible people through succession. We can see the same thing being promised to David and his sons succeeding him to lead God's people. Did you know your life is important for your descendants? (Ex.20:6)

Real wisdom and real words, to be heard, do not need noise or anything else pressing it through. Wisdom catches the attention of any heart inclined to it and is best listened to and understood in quietness. "The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools", Ec.9:17.

The best way to keep someone quiet who talks too much, is to give him something to think about. Much talking is often synonymous of an empty or a striving mind. And thinking about something is often the cure for both. It is very difficult to do two things at once and very few people can talk and think at the same time. "Because much talk comes from dreams and things of no purpose", Ec.5:7. Grant such a person a "purpose" or "thing" to think about and you shall have some quietness coming along.

The main secret towards obedience is not authority, good commandments or even wrath. The secret for obedience is the attainment of an obedient heart which can see itself portrayed in those good commandments it is able to receive directly from God.

"They have turned aside quickly out of the way", Ex.32:8. It is interesting to see what God means or understands by the word "quickly". God was talking about forty days in the desert where people were breathing sand, were thirsty and away from the comfort of any own home - and much more. (There is another context in which God applies the word "quickly" in Mat.5:25. It just shows when things must be quick, people have it slow and those same people can't wait when God is delaying certain things for a reason). For the people, forty days were to many days and for God it was not so long. It was too quick. God says that people "quickly" went astray. They couldn't wait. This stupidity cost them their lives and another forty days by which they had to be proved all over again because Moses had to go to the mountain again. We delay important things whenever we believe God is taking too long with some others or with purifying trials. " ...The sons of men (become) snared in an evil time", Eccl.9:12.

There is always that doubt concerning the next generation, especially when revivals or the greater works are experienced and lived close by. Will the next generations know that God is real and powerful? The truth about this is that people do not take God as real and powerful by seeing miracles and good or wondrous deeds, but, rather by experiencing God's presence - as long as it is for real. His presence talks by itself. It is His presence which will convince and impress them deeply that He is indeed Lord over all that exists. No preaching will achieve what His presence achieves. "And I will dwell among the children of Israel... And they shall know that I am the Lord and their God", Êx.29:45-46. Let people only work hard on those conditions which will assure the presence of God and Him to feel at home among them and they shall know that He is God indeed.

God said to Moses: "You shall take offerings from every man that gives it willingly with his heart", Ex.25:2. We cannot afford to believe that the modern ways of extorting money from people in churches are able to encourage free giving and much less voluntary offerings. In fact, people are moved by own interests when deceived by these robbers who use the gospel as their assaulting weapon. Any person who gives voluntarily to a robber has some selfish interest or some kind of sinful ignorance which drives him to give to such. People who give to extorting preachers are greedy themselves in some way. They try to deceive God through their giving and try to talk Him into blessing them as if God is not good enough to freely bless them. I do not believe that sort of giving can ever be considered free offerings at all. In fact, that kind of giving is the precise opposite of free giving. Preachers who extort do not only steal from people but extort them from their good senses as well because they start thinking they can fool God.

A good rule is not always the best option for a living standard or for an exhortation. Wisdom teaches us to apply things which can cause works and fruits to emerge. Only if there is no wiser or better thing to do, should the rule be applied even if it is only for the sake of protection of the truth's point of view.

The worst thing that can ever happen to the heart of man is it to believe God approves some evil it is seized by or used to. There is no more slippery ground than the one where people start believing God approves some kind of evil they prefer, love, nourish or keep alive. "Blessed is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves", Rom.14:22.

What can be worst to man than when God says, "I will not again pass by them any more"? Amos 7:8.

A person does not necessarily need to understand before becoming born again and, most probably, not even after. "The Spirit breathes where He desires, and you hear His voice, but you do not know from where He comes, and where He goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit", John 3:8. But, as soon as the new birth takes place anyone will understand something wonderful happened for which there are no words or explanations. There shall always be a proof of the truth and of the truthfulness (reality) of God inside man when God has touched him. "He who has received His testimony bears witness that God is true", John 3:33.

There are many diverging and some converging ideas about Jesus. I believe from the bottom of my heart that the more Jesus becomes real to us or reveals Himself as He is, the more diverging ideas will spring out of men's hearts. People will be converging around a false Jesus and diverging around a real, truthful and operating one. It just works that way since people are not used to reality concerning God. They will, however, subside doubts and fears before an illusionary God. Besides, a real God confronts people who are sinful and encourages or stands by (in a real way) all those who strive undivided towards holiness. This, alone, will cause inner conflicts on its own already. The more so when people around do not want to change and, yet, want to keep believing in an existing God Whom they do not wish to be real among them to disturb their ways. These will surely say believing in God is to believe in His existence and not to entrust our whole being to Him to be exchanged for a real new one. People who do not wish to change and still want to keep a belief in God will converge either immediately or on the long run concerning their ideal of a false Jesus. Even when in disagreement, they shall seek a way to converge and to get along. These will, also and surely, converge as one person against the true sons of the Lord.

It is often said that Jesus wants our all. But, it could be be said with all certainty that for Him it is either all or nothing. It is better to be cold if one is not warm.

"...For the ruler of this world comes, and he has nothing in Me", John 14:30. When the devil comes to us, the best weaponry against him is presented by not having anything in us or any attitude that belongs to him. Let him be ashamed and have reasons to flee from us when we resist him. How shall the world ever know that we indeed love the Father unless the devil himself comes to prove it by himself?

Synchrony between the right time and the right thing is, usually, the best way to remember important things or, should I say, not to forget about them.

When we pray, we should be inspired by God's faithfulness and mercy above being worried and presumptuous. By worrying or by being presumptuous, we act like those who wanted to make Jesus King by force thinking of what self could benefit from Him as King. We should never allow ourselves to be taken by ways which confuse us concerning God's will. By being presumptuous or by worrying, we can't easily know what God's will really is concerning the thing we pray about. In other words, we forsake the way of faith and, possibly, the way of life as well. We should know that worrying or presuming will surely take us to pray about things God does not will or things He wills and we would want it done in some way or time God does not approve.

"From this time many of His disciples went back into the things behind, and walked no more with Him", John 6:66. To which thing are you tempted to go back to? To a past sign to find assurance through it? Whether it is something of the world or something good which is behind, the moment you step back you have ceased to walk through/with Jesus.

Jesus cannot be made King by force, John 6:15. He will simply slip away to hide Himself discretely. Anyone who uses force to cause Jesus to be king over his life, has something which he does not wish to give up. Such a person is avoiding the ways of God in dealing with the heart. There are things which we need to give up for the sake of Jesus and there are things which we only believe we must give up to please self. By forcing Jesus to be king over one's life, one is neglecting those simple truths and things which will cause Him to come near or into the heart. Cleansing one's heart will surely cause Jesus to come near to fill the void. "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, double-minded ones", James 4:8. People who force Jesus to be their king by force are, generally, refusing to be saved on God's terms and are working out an own salvation. To make Him king by force means one is trying to jump over the wall into the sheepfold. Making noise and creating heavy emotional backgrounds which will cause people to have a strange faith or to kindle a strange fire can also be seen as trying to make Him king on men's terms.

Many say that if God spoke to them openly they would believe Him or would believe in His existence. But, the Bible says that if one cannot believe the written words of God, one shall neither be able to believe in God had He spoken or had a dead person been resurrected (John 5:47; Luke16:29-31). Did people not believe it was thunder or an angel when God spoke from heaven? (John 12:29).

No one is able to bar a holy revival, but, only by staining it from the inside. Only the used instruments of that revival are capable of stopping it. If they sin or take wrong ways to carry out God's will, then they will surely have that revival killed away.

The Bible talks about "walking in the Light" instead of talking about "entering the Light". It means Light is in the word already. We must only walk in it revealing all and being fully transparent. "He was the true Light; He enlightens every man coming into the world. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men", John 1:9,4.

All worrying is and shall always be very painful thorns whether the person still feels their pain or not.

Whoever does not know what God's will is for his life has only one problem: he wishes God to do what he himself wishes to accomplish. If it were not so, he would surely know what God's will would be.

The doctrines of greedy preachers who love money protect them and supports them. However, truth does not. They preach about prosperity in a way that causes people to give them what they own. For these preachers, preaching is an investment and not obedience. They act as if Jesus is an ignorant and blind person. And we must know that anyone who gives them money is as greedy as the person receives it. Sort seeks sort. Species seek the same species to live together. By showing off their riches, these preachers apparently live what they preach about. But, truth will eventually condemn them. May it happen soon.

In the older times, Paul would say about Satan, "For we are not ignorant of his devices", 2 Cor.2:11. However, in case people were honest and truthful, they would say something like this today: "We ignore his devices and became quite ignorant about him".

If you are one of those people who do not easily believe the devil has a definite plan or strategy to have your whole life destroyed, you are ignoring truth. The devil has that plan to destroy you. Do not close your eyes to any of His plans or devices to ignore them and make sure you remain close to the Lord all the time.

The sort of wisdom that comes from God is malleable and like clay in the hands of the potter when learning; and it is firm and sure when it is teaching and carrying wisdom around.

We should all know that it is very difficult to detain a holy revival where its leaders stand close to the Lord answering to Him for every moment of their lives. However, the devil will try many evils to discredit it before people. One of the ways is to create fake revivals or, as we call it, counter 'revivals'. People from outside will avoid becoming alive because of what they see in these counter 'revivals'. It is the devil working there, surely.

There are a lot of ways to add to God's words. If you find yourself in any emotional state, whatever it may be, you must make sure you believe you are capable of interpreting God's words and ways your own way. Anxiety, happiness or sadness, worrying or careless attitudes, along with any other way people may feel or think can cause them to interpret God's words according to their state of mind. Thay hear the state of mind and not God, applying His holy words to what they think or wish to think.

We have this wrong idea that we need to speak about God or use His name to be able to use it in vain. It is true we can use God's name in vain by speaking. However, it is a huge mistake to believe that is the only way to use His name in vain. "...Lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain", Prov.30:9. Here, we hear the writer say he can use the name of God in vain by stealing even without saying a word. How? If you are a child of God and are able to trust Him, it should be obvious any act of stealing is an outrageous act against the name of God upon you. How many other ways can you think of one can use God's name in vain?

We should never try to divert or avoid the confrontations between good and evil. It is not possible to avoid any of it. It is like a law in nature that evil will always confront goodness and that goodness will work against evil. "An unjust man is a hateful thing to the just; and he who is upright in the way is hateful to the wicked", Prov.29:27. Righteous people often try to avoid this sort of confrontations due to the wisdom they have been able to stand by. However, evil will never avoid such confrontations and will always try to establish itself through an aggressiveness which cannot be hindered. These are the two main reasons why evil gains so much ground. Righteous people should live their lives openly and fearlessly without taking evil into account. Goodness can only be established that way.

Fears can cause people to imagine things. It causes people to see mischief and danger where there is no danger or mischief. Fear makes people suspicious. We should be aware of the dangers of the mind and its consequent feelings. Don't greedy people dream a lot to bring some kind of relief to their greed? Fearing people, also, create their own lions. "The fear of man brings a snare", Prov.29:25.

"A child left to himself brings shame to his mother", Prov.29:15. It shouldn't be necessary to explain this truth. How many mothers and fathers leave their children decide things for themselves as if they have enough life experience to know what course of life they must take? How many mothers and fathers leave their children to their borrowed ideas or twisted ideals? How many children learn only what they feel like learning and do what they feel like doing? Should we leave a ship in a tempestuous high sea to find its own way to land?

One needs to be a liar to believe a lie; an illusion needs a deceived heart to find roots; and it takes a truthful heart to become aware of truth in the lips of anyone. Sort seeks sort. There is a natural attraction and common understanding between alike things or alike beings.

We should never give anything above indifference to foolishness. We cannot give any attention or heed to any of it. Even talking to it or answering it is foolish. "If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether he rages or laughs, there will be no rest for him", Prov.29:9.

If a bad man does something good, he is still worse than any righteous man who is trapped into some undesired sin. And we know how serious righteous people's sins are! Imagine how serious it is to have a bad man pass for a good one! "He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is a hateful thing", Prov.28:9.

"A man who flatters his neighbour spreads a net for his feet", Prov.29:5. How many people take this truth seriously? How many mistake flattering for friendliness? How many are aware that a flattering tongue is a murderer of souls?

"He who trusts in his own heart is a fool; but whoever walks wisely, he shall be delivered", Prov.28:26. This means that those people who walk according to their heart are not wise and they can never be wise as long as they are capable of trusting it.

Greed comes from the heart of man and not from need. Its origin is in the heart. This means that no one is greedy only by being rich and that no poor man is free of any of it. A rich king may, indeed, oppress people to become richer and to take hold of many things he does need. However, any poor man who desires such a man's riches is as greedy as he.

It is often said that promises make debts. I believe it is true to a certain point. However, we must acknowledge that the contents of any promise counts more than any other moral value we may associate to it. I can never make a point of fulfilling the wrong thing, not even when I have promised to do it. Doesn't the Bible say we must deliver ourselves from the snares of our mouth? (Prov.6:1-5). We can go back on any promise. We should choose what to promise and see if there is any virtue in fulfilling it. Fulfilling the wrong kind of promises amounts to sin. Is it good to fulfil a vow made to the devil? Or to fulfil threats spoken in rage? Shouldn't we rather repent of such sins instead of fulfilling them?

No one who is easily tempted to feel wise in his own eyes will receive wisdom from God. To such, real wisdom is not given. It can't be. God shall not grant wisdom to anyone who uses it to glory against truth and for the sake of self.

Have you ever heard about the saying that says the spell turns against the witchdoctor? One way or another, all evil will, eventually, eat up the head of the evildoer. How much more will evildoers suffer by that sort of evil which tries to lure or harm good people! "Whoever causes the righteous man to go astray in an evil way, he himself shall fall into his own pit; but the upright shall inherit good", Prov.28:10.

"Evil men do not understand judgment; but those who seek the Lord understand all things", Prov.28:5. Do you seek understanding and real wisdom? Seek the Lord in such a way that you find Him. Then, understanding will be added unto you. He is our wisdom.

There is no midway about this: "Those who forsake the law praise the wicked; but those who keep the law plead against them", Prov-28:4. Are you really aware of this truth? This assures us that whoever forsakes God and His laws from within the heart will end up approving, defending, agreeing, believing and even praising the wicked or his wickedness. There is no alternative way or consequence awaiting such a foolish behaviour. On the other hand, by keeping the law of God from the heart, we may also be assured there will always be some sort of life and death confrontations between us and the wicked. There is no alternative way. It shall be so indeed, whether it is the wicked who starts the confrontations or whether we speak the truth bound to duty and love.

To bless any lazy man in his sleep; to try to reason with a stubborn, angry man who believes he is always right; to wash with cold water someone who feels cold; or to sing songs of happiness to sad people who choose bitterness above life is always a waste of time. "He who blesses his friend early in the morning with a loud voice, it shall be counted a curse to him", Prov.27:14.

When any person finds real life in the Lord and is able to live it out in full measure, that sort of living is an answer to all evil which easily and promptly manages to say goodness and God do not exist on earth. We should never forget that. "My son, be wise, and make My heart glad, so that I may answer him who shames Me", Prov.27:11. Do you live with the real Jesus? Do you live His real Life out? Have you found it?

"Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; but who is able to stand before envy?" Prov.27:4. Envy does not have a face. It seldom reveals itself as envy. Therefore, it is very hard to pinpoint it. It is a very subtle and very hypocritical enemy. Envy is, often, a hidden enemy.

As a rule, when things are carried out only because conscience drives people to do them, then those things are seldom carried out in all perfection. We know works exist for the sake of people and not people for the sake of works. Works and providence procedures are meant to perfect people's hearts up along with most ways of people. Therefore, if people are set up only for conscience's sake, there is a lot in them which still needs to be perfected. It may also mean that those kinds of works might repeat themselves until the full perfection of the heart is attained.

"The curse without cause shall not come", Prov.26:2. How many people blame God for things sinners are to be blamed for? How many pregnant teenagers blame the curses and hardships they are mainly responsible for? Should God be blamed for Adam's eating of the fruit of disobedience? Is it God's fault if His own creatures have wandered so far away from Him that they start despising Him or simply ignore Him?

"He who has no rule over his own spirit is like a broken down city without a wall", Prov.25:28. Many associate this verse to a bad temper and alike sins. It is not bad to breed this association. The bad thing is to have this verse associated only to such sinning. In fact, there are many other sins to which this verse can be applied to - if not all sins. Let me explain. If you cannot control your eyes, mouth or ears; whenever you give in to temptation, whether it is to laziness or any other sort of sin; whenever you give in to sadness for less honourable reasons or for selfish reasons; those are also ways to lose control over your spirit and heart. We should never allow our hearts to slip into sin. Sin is deceit trying to look important and fearful.

We know many work hard in order to have things eased up and made available for many others. The farmer works hard so that everyone may have bread at home in an easy way; the pioneers of the gospel have suffered so we may have it all available in an easy way. However, many preach as if everyone else needs to go through the same difficulties they face in order to learn and make wisdom available to others. We cannot force other people to go the way we may have gone, unless it is God's will for them as well. Let's not be deceived by strange feelings of bitterness and of plain ignorance. "And in this is the saying true, One sows and another reaps", John 4:35.

Many take advantage of the gospel and its preaching to shine and rob something from God, whether it is glory or money. They even sing, "Shine, Jesus, shine" so they can be seen, take advantage of situations and be applauded. Evil is deceitful indeed! "For men to search their own glory is not glory", Prov.25:27.

"A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring", Prov.25:26. There are a lot of ways to give in to or before wickedness: we can be ashamed of truth and of being honest and truthful before a wicked confrontation; we may become impatient and angry as if wickedness means something; we may give in to wickedness by loosing our temper as if God is in favour of the wicked and easily neglects the righteous. In fact, there are a lot of ways to allow wickedness to achieve the purpose of its existence. "Do not allow yourselves to be deceived!"

"An angry countenance drives away a feigning tongue", Prov.25:23. This is one of the main reasons why the wrath of God is something people should be aware of and see. It can cause people to become truthful.

Isn't quietness and peace a fruit of the Spirit? Why should I accept a noisy service and craziness as a service to God?

The best thing you can do for someone - anyone - is to share what you are above sharing what you have. Give most of yourself along with your possessions.

Whoever buys what he cannot afford or spends in what he does not need, is sure to sell what he needs most to pay up for his greed. Only by selling what he has will he be able to pay for what is not needed.

We cannot expect to receive more from God than what we are given or surrendered to Him. The abundance of the Spirit in us shall always be proportional to our surrender to Him and to the existing death to ourselves.

"My son, give Me your heart, and let your eyes watch My ways", Prov.23:26. When the Bible tells us to give our hearts to God, it does not uphold or encourage those liars who go before the altar and say a sinner's prayer, or, should I say, say a liar's prayer. In fact, giving our heart to Jesus means a lot more than that. It means that we accept His way to the end and exchange His ways for ours for always; it means we shall, from then on, seek the influences of the Spirit of God and will always move towards the light to be lighted, move to where we can see well and beyond mistake and where all become visible to all. It also means grace will become our ways instead of force and own-mindedness. There is a lot more we could add here, though.

"He who has a bountiful eye shall be blessed", Prov.22:9. Even Jesus said that the eye is the light of the body and that our eyes must be good. A good eye sees good things and a bad eye sees bad things. Sort seeks sort. It is indeed true that many things depend directly from the way we look upon them. I am not a in favour of the so called positive thinking mode. I believe positive thinking, the way psychologists have it, is a great mistake since it means people should lie to themselves while they could believe in saving truth instead and be above positive for real. I defend the standpoint that we should look out for good things because God has created thousands of them. They are out there. Let our eye be good and we shall be blessed indeed.

Adults burn their fingers one time after the other, even after being warned. (This thought I got from somewhere - I can't remember where). They work on destroying their own lives one time after the other. Yet, they are the ones who beat children up for not walking the right way or for committing childlike mistakes due to their lack of life experience or lack of practical wisdom.

The only truth is this: the only singer that matters to me is myself. I will leave all others receive their praise from their hearers, as they usually do. Should we lie by saying we sing to the Lord and receive the applauses and praises ourselves? Shouldn't we know how to give to God what belongs to Him?

When some bandit or evil person does me wrong or even squeezes me into a corner, I will expect salvation from the Lord. But, never must I expect God to avenge the wrong that has been done to me or to pay me back through some compensations for whatever I may have suffered or lost. "Do not say, I will repay evil; wait on the Lord, and He will save you", Prov.20:22.

Wisdom is a life or a living experience and not studying.

There are things in this world which will always be in opposed fields. As an example, we have sin and saving wisdom, or understanding and iniquity. These can simply never co-exist in the same heart at the same time.

Many become annoyed and wilful against others in a sort of wilful vindication or vengeance. They believe they hurt others by doing so. However, these hurt themselves only, believing, by it, they can kill others through the poison they drink themselves, as someone said. Sin hurts self only. "His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sin", Prov.5:22.

When we are still learning, if we are still in the learning stage, it is more important to do well than to do all. If we attempt to do all at this stage we will surely do all wrong. This is why Jesus taught us to pray to do the things of the earth the way everything is done in heaven instead of doing the things of heaven. The way is of greater importance.

"...So you shouldn't ponder on the paths of life..." Prov.5:5,6. One of the main weapons sin or the devil has against the soul of man is to cause him to avoid, neglect or dislike pondering and meditating on the paths of life. The main consequence of stumbling will be a mind which is too busy, to annoyed, too distracted or too entangled to set aside some quality time to ponder on how to be saved from a bad pit, bad heart or from a bad way. Make sure you always find time to experience and understand the ways of life and to be able to ponder on them with easiness, willingness and with the intention to cause your feet and heart to follow it without delay.

"...My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will", John 5:30. You must be assured that every time an own will influences or enhances a deed or word, all judgments will always be cruel, bad or evil, even when those judgements amount to pleasing people and praising them. However, if we indeed seek God's will and not our own, even a hard word will be love and loved by God and, eventually, accepted by people around us.

"Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you", Prov.4:25. Either false people turn around and around the issues; or those who linger to do the right thing the right way become false. Never avoid being direct and simple, having a simple and unconscious meekness pointing out truth and truthfulness. Sometimes, people tend to receive or give according to what they like or dislike in a person or are influenced in their thoughts and opinions through circumstances around them. Are you honest and do you keep a sober look beholding heaven? Or do you live according to the way you feel under trials or about people around you? And when you need to hear something, do you tune you ears according to the feelings you think you must breed towards the ones speaking to you? If a false one would speak, would you listen because he seems nice? Or would you reject a holy word from a man who, according to your views, seems rude?

"The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble", Prov.4:19. Just as the wicked may never know what they stumble at, many times, the ones who walk in holiness tend to forget or ignore what or who keeps them alive and holy because they get used to a holy life. Do you often recall what keeps you alive and pure? Or have you been tempted or even subdued by own righteousness lately? Have you become too used to walking with God, so much so that you ceased to take care of your own heart and life the way you ought?

It is a blessing when we have no way out and are solid in God's will and providence. An alternative way is just another way of giving up on God or on the way He intended for us in the beginning. And, many times, people wrongly take an alternative way as a gift of God. Did David kill Saul, or did he rather hold on to the purpose of waiting for God's timing and way to turn him king? What a curse it would be to kill Saul and despise God in the face of his own people! Would you kill Saul or would you rather prefer to remain in God waiting and sticking at His word?

There are street signs in all roads, just as there are the words of God in a Christian's life. However, sometimes people stop to talk about the colour of the traffic sign, how beautiful or ugly it is and such sort of things. People do the same with God's words: they admire it instead of obeying it. This what the Bible describes as perverting or twisting the Scriptures.

Once God makes a promise, He does so because the circumstances or the conditions which will guarantee or assure the sustenance of the promise once it is fulfilled, are not yet met. This is mainly why He promises instead of granting right away. Therefore, we must work hard on all those things which will assure the conditions for the promise to remain and to live on and on to the end. Let me give you one or two examples. Let's suppose God promises you a child as He promised to sterile Sarah. Then, you must work on those things which will assure that the child will live for God, such things as a holy home, a holy relationship between mother and father and all other things which a child born of God will live by. Another example: if God promises you a job or some financial nourishment or backup, make sure you start working right away at becoming free of all greed, concerns, worrying, day-dreaming or whatever else accompanies or sustains the love for money. All unfulfilled promises have things to be worked on. If you have any promise, start working hard right now.

Never underestimate the words of any man who has been through trials and has overcome them. His words make sense to heaven and the flesh does not review itself in them anymore. Sin is not expressed through them any longer and the approval of God is from great to unlimited, depending on how much of His good works there remains to be achieved in the heart.

Thorns may or must be removed. It is possible to have them all out. No worrying or concern should remain if we are closer to the Lord than we are to ourselves.

Legalism is always proof of a withdrawal from God and of a refusal to have our lives fixed on His terms or things done His way. There is always something one refuses to fix God’s way when any kind of alternative way is made up and that is where a legalistic life starts off.

God promised that the descendants of Abraham would inherit the Promised Land. How much are you contributing to make children of faith? Are you adding descendants to that Land? Are you helping God fulfil the promise He has made? Is your whole heart committed to that solemn work?

Long trials work out, perhaps, against superficial needs better than any other kind of danger or hardship. Abraham waited twenty five years for his beloved son; Moses waited forty years to have his people saved from Egypt; David and Joseph waited thirteen years to see what God has promised them. Are you going to keep up the strain and wait on God faithfully until promises are fully fulfilled?

"I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you", Gen.12:3. God would curse those who cursed Abraham mostly because he was a carrier of many a blessing to anyone who would cross his way. We cannot curse any kind of blessing without being cursed ourselves. And God had made him a blessing.

There is some difference between people who are occasionally faithful and those who are occasionally unfaithful. One has a wrong nature or heart which tries to live the right way. The other one has the right kind of heart or nature which tries to live in an unstable way, tempting God to see if it might work out or if he might escape with it because he is faithful. One is an unstable, double-hearted person trying to live in a stable way and the the other one is a stable person trying to live in an unstable way.

The strength of a gossiping tongue is curiosity. Curiosity is a faithful instigator of many sins of a bad tongue. And, many times, people talk about others to find out more about them, just as much as they find or search out things about others' lives to gossip more. "...But they even become gossips and keep busy through curiosity about other people's lives...", 1 Tim.5:13.

Once God operates through some signs, whether they are considered great signs or small ones, there is something wrong with the useful doctrine which states that God does things when we are faithful or holy, even though it might be occasionally true. Let me explain. If it were true, miracles wouldn't be signs but rather rewards and there are both signs as well as rewards for faithfulness and holiness. Any sign should encourage us to become holy above measure. It cannot work the other way round, I mean, that faithfulness should entice us to seek signs. And, along with that, we should avoid creating a mind which believes the sign is the end of the road, the goal, and that after the sign or miracle has taken place, one may relax in unfaithfulness because the goal has already been attained. Avoid believing that sort of lie which tells you God is happy about your spiritual state or He wouldn't have given you the sign. Do not put the cows following the plough. It won't work out. Rather, become an example to the faithful, 1 Tim.4:12.

Jesus promised to answer all our prayers. Therefore, if any prayer is not answered, surely there must be something wrong with either the prayer or the one who prays.

"...Having children in subjection with all modesty..." 1 Tim.3:4. If a modest person keeps children humble, it means children are humble towards a very humble person. How wonderful are such children! How precious they are!

To hand over to feelings the outcome or the making of decisions, to listen to what we may feel to decide about things, is the same as taking a lot of notes (money), throwing it up in the wind and hoping it is an investment.

People hear better someone they consider their equal. They feel the exhortation in a much deeper way when it comes from the mouth of a loving, trusted friend. So, if you are friends to someone, avoid pleasing that person and talk plainly. Make use of circumstances to show forth real love.

Things become responsibility only after they cease to be dreams.

The best way to love my neighbour as myself - the way I serve or care for myself - is to become my neighbour and to take his place. That makes it much easier.

The great majority of people who turn back to the world or into sin, do so because their heart has never changed. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they were of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out so that it might be revealed that they were not all of us”, 1 John 2:19. They may have changed some habits or even attitudes, but not the heart. To have the heart changed for real one needs to clean up instead of trying hard to change. To live a changed life is what demands perseverance and strength from us and a changed life comes after transformation. Transformation does not require force – it is worked out through cleaning the heart and thorough exposition of all things in the light.

Many implore God for His blessings just to despise them after they have received them. People who have an unsatisfied heart will be as unhappy as when they did not have whatever they desired to have. The point is: you should rather desire what you already have. There is a special reason why God disallows greed or covetousness all together. Did you stop desiring your husband or wife after marriage? Desire whatever you have already. "Be content with such things as you have", Heb.13:5.

Giving coins to someone who has holes in his pockets is the same as God giving something to people who do not have their lives straightened with Him, secured and cleaned up in all their aspects.

We live in the era of confusion of knowledge where people know nothing and, even so, believe they know all because they are still able to interpret things their own way. They tear Jesus' words apart to understand it the way it suits them. That is the main reason why people believe they know a lot. The wrong kind of knowledge is not meek. The other side of such hearts is that they can only trust themselves. If you boast in the knowledge you think you have, you cannot trust the Lord, but able to trust only yourself. "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding", Prov.3:5. Genuine wisdom and trusting God go hand in hand.

Everyone who glories in himself has the other side of him which assumes good things do not last for long or that goodness is something unusual or unseen in this present age and era. If man did not think that way, he wouldn't take the glory upon himself. "Why do you boast yourself? The mercy of God endures forever", Ps.52:1. The Psalmist has seen this point clearly.

Truth is never helpless. Speak to the point, in the shortest, wisest way possible and never fear the consequences. Then, trust God to cause truth and His words to bring forth fruit, even when hearers hate what they have heard from you.

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He who fears has not been perfected in love", 1John 4:18. Many, when they find themselves in fear, believe they must do away with it because of this verse. In fact, by doing so, they are trying to climb over the wall to enter into the sheepfold. Instead, they should do away with lovelessness, which, on its turn, will do away with fear. This verse does not entice people to stop fearing, but rather exhorts them to love since it is love which drives fear away. Those who do not love have many reasons to fear. Love does away with fear automatically and naturally, since conscience and the peace of heart grants people the desire to face God without fear. If you do not love, you should fear. And if you try not to fear without training your own heart to love from deep within in all sincerity, you become a dishonest person. Do not try to get a false peace and never try to get into the sheepfold unless you get in through the proper door.

Faith does not generate the occasion. It is the right moment, the proper timing which is able to generate faith. Outside the proper timing there is no faith at all - only stubbornness.

If we heartily walk in the light in a natural way, if we are transparent people, we shall never choose before whom we will walk in the light. Walking in the light is a way of life, it is not an occasional happening. Walking in the light or being in the light cannot be a choice for certain moments only.

"O Lord, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded", Jer.20:7. Jeremiah was easily persuaded by God. But, there are those whom God tries to persuade and they just aren't convinced or persuaded by Him at all. Usually, they insist upon their own feelings and thoughts and try to persuade God to their side instead. Trying to tell God what His will must be is as close to tempting God as can be.

"You are my praise", Jer.17:14. For many Jesus is problem and not a praise, especially if they cannot do whatever they wish to do.

The Word of God is not a science in the very sense of the word. The Word is more of a reality than of a science. It aims to experience or the the proper explanation of sound experience. That is why it easily confounds the wise of this world.

Robbers often seek caverns or dens to hide away. Many Christians take God as a safe den and not as a Saviour who saves from sin. They sin and steal and run fast to hide in a den they call God. This is why they start believing they can or should sin after coming to Christ. "Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know; and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?", Jer.7:9-10.

"They have denied the Lord by saying, It is not He", Jer.5:12. It is not needed to deny God openly through a denying statement towards Him, face to face. The only thing it takes to deny Him is to say that something He did is not from Him because it does not suit us to believe it did come from Him. It can also happen by accepting something as His which is not worked by Him.

By reading about sanctification there will be no doubts in us that it means we should become holy. By reading of Justification or righteousness we assume it means us become just and righteous. And when God speaks about purification, we all know He means us to become pure. It would be a very strange sanctification where people are not made holy; and a justification where people are not made just and righteous; or a purification where people are not made pure.

"These have chosen their own ways (...) Therefore, I also will choose their delusions", Is.66:3,4. This is the danger of following our own ways and even more so when we say our ways are God's! We will not have a say in the outcome of our ways and cannot chose the consequences.

To love as we ought is seldom to love as we can. Duty is less than capability. Grace demands more than law. Duty, morality, discipline answer to conscience, whether that conscience is alive or not. Capability is the use of our whole being and not of conscience only. Conscience is only one part of us. And if our being is full of eternal life from within, if it experiences eternal life in the promised measure, our capability increases remarkably. "The love of God which He poured into our hearts..." This relation between duty and capability can also be taken into other areas such as believing and solid trust; awaiting and expecting from God; expectation and genuine hope. Duty is the minimum requirements for a holy life if we are indeed made free in Christ Jesus and are able to move freely in Him. However, duty is not the full measure of the capability of a loving, trusting or hoping heart at all.

Whenever God does not show us anything, whenever He does not say no and neither does He say yes, the best thing we can do is to be still and quiet. Unless we do so, we might be disappointed some time later by realizing God did not say what we supposed He has said. It is especially in those occasions when God is quiet that the heart of man is liable to rely upon itself and its deceitfulness, to speak up for God and to assume it is doing God's will by doing its own. In fact, it tries hard to push God into own will and deceives man into believing God wills it. We shouldn't force God to answer whatever has not started in Him. Man, usually, does that driven by impatience and fear which is worked up by the flesh. Man also feels pressured by circumstances or by people's opinions, by poverty or lust, by greed or even unbelief. Unbelief is a driving force. The heart always feels pressured one way or another when it has not learned to wait and to rely fully on the Lord. God is not responsible for the direction or the way man's own heart drives him. If man dares to follow an own direction or to do something in an own way, man only can answer for not having waited upon God the way he ought to and the amount of time he ought to have waited. When man does not wait on God and adventures himself into own ways believing God will bless them, those ways will soon end up in disappointment and grief. Man must cease to point out to God what He must do and learn to wait fully on what God has promised to him personally.

Not even the wrath of God lasts forever. Why should man believe his wrath will?

"Little children, guard yourselves from idols", 1John 5:21. The worst obstacle of any man or woman are the idols living in the mind, those which are kept alive by suppositions because they are dead. All those idols serve the main idol living there: self. There is no idol or idolatry which does not either server or suit self.

The person who understands truth is not necessarily a converted one, even though many converted one may have a good knowledge of what has been happening. However, just as there are many converted ones who cannot explain or express what has been happening in their hearts, there are also many who have a thorough knowledge of truth gained through studying and reading who never experienced truth for real.

To be able to obey faithfully and thoroughly one needs to hear well too. No obedience consistent and neither can it be considered as obedience when obeyed at random or through guessing. That cannot be seen as obedience at all. If you don't hear, you cannot obey. Many teach obedience in a way that confuses new converts greatly, since obedience should be taught along with hearing and hearing with a sheep's heart. One must have ears to hear before one can be told to obey unconditionally.

It is very hard for a religious man to let religiosity stand because he thinks he has a lot to lose. People near God because of self-interest, believing in a Lord that can achieve all for them. The main reason why they pray or near God is self interest. And we all know God does not answer to selfishness. That is where religiosity is born since people are not moved by a supreme love towards Jesus. Prayers are offered and often repeated over and over again and there are no answers to them because of that. And, by ceasing to be dead and religious, people feel they will lose the expectations they have been working for so hard along the years and which have become the earnest subjects of their prayers. They often say they must keep believing and have faith concerning those things. In fact, they handle self interest as a non-negotiable right they seem to have built along the years of deadness. By becoming alive or, at least, by coming to the door of real salvation, people feel instantly religiosity and deadness is over for them. Along with it, all their self interest and rights are pointed out to die. They just see its death coming. Self interest is the main cause for dead religion, whatever that interest may be. We cannot near God for the things He is able to grant. Unless we come to Him to find Him, we shall not become living beings. "Jesus answered them and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, You seek Me not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not labour for the food that perishes, but for that food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you. For God the Father sealed Him", John 6:26-27. Jesus is food indeed and Him alone should we seek to find.

"You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sins", Ps.85:2. I couldn't grasp the full meaning of this verse till I prayed. What did it mean that all sins are covered? How are they covered? Then I understood. It simply means all sins are covered as soon as there is no possibility to fall back on them or as soon as there is no possibility to fall back into the already forgiven sin. God imposed a heavy punishment on Israel for their sins through the Assyrian army and there was no way they would go back to their former life after that. Their sins were, therefore, covered. This is what the Psalmist is trying to put across to us. Genuine conversion grants the gift of forgiveness. And every confession should be able to lead people to that sort of conversion or there will be no sins covered.

The important part is never to end above obstacles or above water, but rather to end the race in full peace with God and through God. This means our first love must at least stay the same if it has not grown.

The widow of Zarephath told Elijah after her son has been brought back from death: "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the Word of the Lord in your mouth is truth", 1 Kings 17:24. This means a lot. She means the word of God in some people's mouth is a lie. Another thing we may learn from this is: she did not take it for granted Elijah was a man of God, not even after she saw the olive oil and meal multiplying daily. That was not enough to convince her. However, she had been humble enough to be obedient to a man's word about whom she had been in some doubt. She baked the cake for Elijah first putting her son's life at risk. Her obedience had filled the void unbelief left in her. This kind of obedience opened the door for her to be assured about the mouth of Elijah later on and, consequently, about God's word. By obeying, she came across the knowledge and the confirmation of truth. She, now, became assured she was not being deceived by another bubbler or false miracle maker. There were many false prophets at the time. She had more than enough reasons to handle Elijah carefully and to keep him at a certain distance. But, her obedience caused her to make it to the end.

Many think they are special people because they know God and hear from Him. There is nothing special about that, even though the word of the Living God is scarcely dealt out these days. And, if someone's prayers obtain real answers and the evidence of the Life of Christ is clear in such, others will think of such as privileged ones. But, the more I live with the Lord, the more I believe there is nothing extraordinary about that either. In fact, such thoughts offend God greatly. Is it God's fault if people are not used to see Him around or to live in His presence? People should not have become so estranged to the Lord and the Lord to them. The unusual part of this whole matter is that people live far away from the One who should be nearest to them in a constant way. Living far from God as His creation is what is strange about all of this. "Be amazed, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be completely desolated, says the Lord. For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, to hew out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water", Jer.2:12-13. The fact is that any genuine servant of God who is able to hear Him all the time - any time of the day or of the night - lives the normal way. Living so estranged from God that one starts believing that hearing Him is a special occurrence is offensive.

"And you shall eat it in any place, you and your households (...) And you shall bear no sin because of it", Núm.18:31,32. All offerings were meant to be eaten at the place God chose, the Temple. And it should be a feast to God. However, God opened an exception by allowing holy people to eat it anywhere. The only condition was that people who eat it should be holy. They should have no sin. Their feast, speaking of God out loud, should be a practical demonstration of how God really is. Our lives should reveal the reality and the truth about God anywhere we are found.

In the Law of God, the best is required for Him and whatever is left, is meant for us. However, today the best is given to us and whatever is left goes to God - if there is no one else to give it to.

There is only one way for me to be abandoned: that God becomes too weak to help me out.

"A man can receive nothing unless it is given to him from Heaven", John 3:27. Tell me: just how many things did you refuse to accept because you knew they did not come from heaven?

Sin is a product of proud acting. It is a worm trying to look like an irresistible ruler.

"...Not purposing according to the flesh, so that there should be yes and no...", 2Cor.1:17. It is clear, from this word, that changes of mind are, mainly, consequences of not consulting the Lord. "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps", Prov.16:9. This means God can change man's decisions upside down. We need to consult God and His will along with the way we should carry it out before we decide. It is also true that an unstable heart is unable to remain with the Lord or with whatever God says. An unstable heart swifts its decisions from no to yes even when God has indeed spoken or has been consulted.

Exhibitionism means there is some sort of deceit ruling the heart. To show off, or to impose things which do not work out any other way, creates dead religious beliefs. It is a deadly poison. Exhibitionism is the worst kind of deceit there is, since many people believe in it easily. It can make likenesses of things in heaven. It can imitate and impersonate a life of heaven. Whenever truth is unable to speak by itself through the power of God and through a personal experience of it, people will find in exhibitionism a way out to impose and to lie. Imposing truth upon others can be translated by the wise as something like this: "I do not live what I preach! I am not what I try to look like! I need the arm of the flesh and its strength to resemble the living. I need to show off or impose so people may believe I am a living being".

The interpreters of truth seldom live it out. Whoever finds truth and experiences it in an abundant way does not interpret it - he lives it out. Such people experience what they, quite often, are unable to explain. And, whenever they read Scriptures, they find those explanations they have been looking for understanding what has been going on through them.

Whoever knows little is often self-assured person unable to measure or to see what he or she does not know. Only wise people are able to evaluate or measure what they lack on knowledge. The wise are people who, quite often, say they know very little.

Any bad thought that does not become practice has more of temptation than of sin. On the other hand, any thought that is transformed into behaviour has more of sin than of temptation.

Many tasks at once delay perfection; many alarms confuse guards; many signs kill faith; many advices deviate from the counsel of God.

For anyone to understand inspired truth, he needs to be as inspired as the person who received it from the Lord.

Normally, running means running away from something. If our lives are ordered before God, running away may mean we are avoiding His work over us or in us. Transformation is hard, it is like entering into labour or having birth pains. Don't run away from it, but try to rather face it.

Why would God put us before situations we find unable to solve, accept or perfect up? It is because we must come to the point where we acknowledge or realize there is enough grace to accomplish it!

It is easy to see why so many people are so easily tempted by the devil, even though this cannot be applied to all. The Word says: "Israel has thrown off good; the enemy shall pursue him", Hos.8:3.

Laziness or the absence of it is put to the test mostly when people have nothing to do. When people have nothing to be busy about, the kind of heart they have reveals itself, especially in the area of promptness or laziness, patience or impatience. If you have nothing to do, do you still get out of bed early? Can we see you holding your Bible, reading and understanding it during easy going times? Do you rejoice by having some more time to spend alone with Jesus?

Have you ever seen anyone swimming upstream? "What a weariness", you would say. This is precisely what happens every time an unrighteous person tries to be righteous; or a selfish one tries to be loving for a time; or when a liar tries hard to speak the truth all the time. No one can easily practice righteousness unless he is righteous. This is the main reason why so many people get tired on the Way. Our concentration must be on the way and not on being righteous anymore. Being righteous must not be a goal any longer, but rather a way of life by the time we are able to walk with God.

Let us talk about goals and targets. If you know how to use a bow and arrows and you wish to hit a certain target, do you adjust the arrow or the target? Do you put the arrow in the proper position to heat the target or do you adjust the goal? If you do not adjust targets and do not move them around to be lined up with the direction of your arrows, why, then, do you wish to change God's goals and will for you? Why do you try to adjust truth to your convenience and His objectives to your wishes? Why don't you rather adjust yourself to the best wishes of God?

God cannot motivate us unless our motives are His. And He cannot help us, unless His help is able to drive us towards Him.

To a um twisted person straight things are twisted, justice is unrighteous and to sin is to have pleasure. Such a person has it all twisted, indeed.

There are those who put out the flames so the fire of sin can remain invisible and untouched deep in the heart. By taking care of appearances they find a way to 'protect' the heart from salvation. Oh hypocrisy! The worst kind of it is the kind which we practice towards ourselves. "Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom", Ps.51:6.

If the devil had been the main source for any of my own sins, then my flesh wouldn't be the one in need to be crucified with Christ.

Praise is usually a sort of emptiness when given to flesh and blood. Real honour is silent while being given or received. Do you tell people how much you receive as a salary? Why, then, would you want to proclaim how much honour or praise you receive?

We read that Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, became dumb for a time because he did not believe an angel's words. Many wish to hear Jesus speak to them. And Jesus is far greater than any angel. I believe some people do not know what they are asking for when they ask Jesus to talk to them. Just imagine what would happen in case Jesus spoke to you and you did not believe Him! "The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren; unto Him ye shall hearken", Deut.18:15. "And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people", Act.3:23.

Every time we see someone living all his moments near the Living God, expressing His wisdom with easiness with perfected enthusiasm, we say: "Oh, I would love to be like that!" That is not what Jesus would expect to hear from someone who would love to be that way at all. To be as that person we shall need to be ourselves and listen to all his words carefully. Rather be willing to hearken to what such a faithful child of God has to say. Be willing to listen instead and to be yourself in the sight of God.

I can distinguish between people, but not differentiate between them. I can assume people are not the same, but never should I dare to value some above the others under any circumstances nor in any practical way.

Those people nearest and the more intimate to us are the ones who grant us more freedom to be ourselves towards them. However, many use this opportunity and this sort of freedom to be mean and disrespecting. This should be the opportunity to care and respect and not to be the opposite. "Only do not use the liberty for an opening to the flesh, but by love serve one another", Gal.5:13.

It is good to attain to the depth of these words: "He acting unjustly, let him still act unjustly. And the filthy, let him be filthy still. And the righteous, let him be righteous still. And the holy, let him be holier still", Rev.22:11. In Daniel, we read something in that line of truth as well. We see through many examples that stand out for us in the Bible that all those who overcome some sort of trial are made ready for the next one and not ready to skip future trials. However, it doesn't work out that way with those who do not overcome a trial. (Let's have in mind that to overcome is not to solve a certain problem which came to try us, but rather to end with Christ and to be spotless, after the trial and whatever happens to the problem). Job was pure in God's eyes (and not in people's eyes). However, he went through the unexpected because he was indeed pure. Joseph also went to prison after clinging to purity. We also read in Rev.2:8-11 about a church which was pure and to which Jesus had no wrong to point out. To that church He said: "Do not at all fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the Devil will cast some of you into prison, so that you may be tried. And you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful to death...". We do not see Jesus distributing trials to the churches which have fallen back in some way. Those were told to repent and to go back to the starting point. We do not see Jesus warning them that they would be tried. Trials are the privileges of very few. Pure people are tied to become purer. Heaven lies still ahead of them. We may at least take two lessons from this: It means many people have an inner friction resulting from sin and they ascribe it easily to trials to avoid repenting. We know people who need to repent are not tried. They are, at the most, punished by their own ways. And, on the other side, people who overcome because they have kept purity are easily tempted by the idea that they will finally relax because they have overcome. They feel they must have reached the end of their way and are become too hasty and too eager to collect their reward after trials. In fact, people who overcome are just ready for the next step of purification. We must have in mind that these classes of people can assume from own expectations, each in its own way, which are not according to truth. Let pure ones never look back once they have taken up the plough into their hands; and do not allow stained ones to look forward unless they look backwards to find the spot where they have fallen. They need to fix whatever needs to be fixed first and before they can look forward, whatever it takes.

Idealists strain themselves for ideal situations and circumstances. They end up frustrated because there are no ideal situations. And even if there were, it wouldn't last for long because everything works much through cycles. Creation and nature has its own laws to abide by. "That which has been is now; and that which is to be has already been", Ecc.3:15. Harvests repeat themselves, rains come and go and come again. Everything starts all over again at its own season. Even a real Life with Christ starts afresh each day to be as it has never been before. Contrasting idealists, we see the real conquerors in Christ on the opposed side. They are able to achieve what idealists would easily call heroic acts, and, through that, idealists only reveal what they would rather not have come their way. Conquerors are people who find themselves content wherever they go and whatever they do. They look for things to transform through the acting of God and not for ideal circumstances. They know just too well how to gather with Christ and how to do so under any hardship. They also know their rest comes at the end. They never waste a circumstance - they use it fully up for the glorification of God. Conquerors expect to meet unchanged situations, unregenerate people and confrontations because of the truthfulness they carry with joy. Regeneration is their work and they work hard at it. They do not look for ideal things, but to obey the Lord and the truth. Idealists are not like that. They cannot be conquerors at all. They only trust under ideal circumstances and we all know this present world is not the ideal place - it shall never be. Idealists wish to inherit and not to work hard at their present inheritance. They squander whatever God has left to them to be faithful unto. They want changed things and not to change things as they walk on, starting that change at themselves. They cannot stand the idea that today can be a harder day than yesterday. They rejoice according to what happens to them and not in the Lord. They often look back because they cannot endure - they do not wish to endure. There is only one way to find ideal situations and people: we are the ones ready to become ideal and fruitful. Often, unmarried people look for the ideal partner, forgetting they are the ones who need to become ideal. Bosses wish to have the ideal employees disregarding the fact that they are the ones in need to become or to be made ideal. The same must be said about employees who look for ideal bosses - they need to have or to attain to the ideal heart. For all conquerors, all situations are challenges upon their spirit and upon their spiritual enthusiasm. For idealists, such situations work out much like a torture. There are no people so different and so apart from each other than idealists and conquerors.

If depression is a mountain of sins which have not been cleansed, (and it is), then stress is the fight of conscience against them or the load of sin as you try to carry out something else which is not cleansing all your sins one by one.

A deep desire towards the things God has for us is a condition to receive all answers in prayer concerning those things. However, we must have in mind that any deep desire is often what leads to feign a living. Deep desires are often responsible for the creation of appearances which resemble what we deeply desire. For example: people who desire to be holy can easily slip into an apparent holiness because they cannot believe it is possible to be holier than what they are; someone who desires to be rich often acts as a rich person does and does not wish to be seen by others as poor; those who wish to be fluent and expressive will rather change their voice and try to be eloquent instead of gaining the genuine kind of wisdom God has to offer to all those who ask it from Him. We must always bear in mind that appearance is the greatest hindrance to real living, no matter how good that appearance looks like. Appearance is a way to hide those things we believe we are unable to change or those things we do not wish to change at all. As I often say that appearance is not transparency and only transparency is walking in the light. And walking in the light and being transparent is what changes us from deep within. Try to remember that next time you deeply desire something God wishes to grant you. Do not rely on the works of the flesh or on its strength to accomplish what only light and transparency (in the Lord) can accomplish for you.

Every behaviour which is not spontaneous, natural, determined and exclusive is hypocritical. Be yourself.

Usually, no one sees as hypocrites those people who please them. However, God sees all as it is. We should also see things under the light of God and as He sees them.

If you would love to walk on towards truth and you find you can't, especially if the truth you are aiming at is God's and not your own, then your feet must be entangled in something the world has to offer. Entangled feet or legs turn walking very difficult and hard. Do you find it hard to trust at certain difficult moments of your life? And do you become jealous of people who can easily trust the Lord as they walk on? Do you complain easily as God leads you on? (It could work out well if you would complain when He is not leading, but not as He leads). When you make a point of loving your neighbour as yourself, do you find it hard to serve and love them? Do you experience some degree of difficulty hoping, waiting and expecting in the Lord? Are you expectant and happy waiting or do you see yourself as a victim? Whenever you wish to be truthful, do you often lie? Do you need to promise and decide to tell the truth? Or is your truthfulness spontaneous and obvious? Do you feel at home in the presence of God? I will explain why holiness is not so easy for you: you are entangled in worldly stuff and your feet cannot walk according to truth and according to your holy wishes. Your legs and feet do not follow your wishes because you are bound to the world or to some sin. This is the main reason why you stumble as you try to walk and why you are unable to fulfil all your vows. You deny the Lord when the world blinks at you and, consequently, the Lord denies you as you try to be truthful and to walk accordingly. Any smell of worldliness in you turns walking in the Lord hard and, sometimes, impossible.

Jesus stated that whoever does the things of God understands them. Understanding comes through practice and by experiencing the things of God. Practicing leads to understanding. "If anyone desires to do His will, he shall know...", John 7:17. Whoever does things the way they are done in heaven shall never be confused or lost. No living practicing Child of God shall ever be without spiritual understanding. Fulfilling is the only way to gain understanding directly from God. "O that my ways were fixed to keep Your precepts! Then I shall not be confused, when I have respect to all Your Commandments", Ps.l.119:5,6. The best way to misunderstand the things of God is to study them to preach to others or simply to be religious and dead about them.

We don't practice sin so that we can see God all the time, Mat.5:8. "Blessed are they who keep His testimonies, and who seek Him with all the heart. They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways", Ps.119:2,3. Sin and blindness, sin and not finding are always related. One thing leads to the other. Seeking God to find Him for real implies that we leave sin forever or we won't find Him at all. And we may as well take into consideration that sin is what God says sin is and not what man says it is. Usually, man sees as sin what is done against him and God says sin is what we do. Are you living enough to be able to see the difference?

The great majority of people to whom God gave promises personally end up forgetting what God said simply because they do not commit themselves completely to become wholly dependable on them and do not heartily seek and wait upon their fulfilment and that only. They do not give their hearts over to what God said He would do for them or in them. They do not turn their vision and expectations wholly to the promise and end up forgetting because the painful businesses of daily and corrupted earthly living deviate their mind and attention. We may state the same thing concerning God's commandments: people simply forget about them in their daily life because they do not take heed to fulfil them. By not being committed, people create the occasion to be forgetful. This is what James means by "forgetful hearers". Practical negligence is always responsible for most kinds of forgetfulness.

Believing and having faith only when all is well with us is not faith. "Do not the heathen do the same?" Allow me to ask you: Does God change when things seem hard and when circumstances become dark and unbearable? Why do you bear them then? Don't! Do circumstances change God at all? Loving only those who love you cannot be considered love; believing only when all is well cannot be real faith; being patient only when we carry out those things we love most cannot be considered patience; talking about Jesus only to those we appreciate more cannot be considered spreading the gospel; being happy and joyful only in our own environment cannot be considered happiness at all; being extravagant and liberal when we are full enough to give leftovers away cannot be considered loving. Any sort of heathen could do the same or even do somewhat better!

Many do not reach the rising of the sun because they cannot stand going through the night. Every soul that wishes to see the sun rise, must face the dark passing by; to reach the promised land, especially when we are coming from Egypt, we must go through the driest desert there is because we are not only going through dry sand, but, we are getting out of the only life we know as such; be assured that there is no rest before all work is fully accomplished. I am sure many people do not reach the Morning Star because they kill themselves before it rises in their soul and they use bad thoughts against God to do so as they walk on.

God's desire is that we become living gardens which harbour the Tree of Life in the centre of it and harvest from it. Even if you are found in the desert, and most especially there, you should and can be a living garden. God demands of all of us that we be whatever seems impossible to earthly creatures. And heavenly minded people are no more earthly creatures. Then, it should be easy enough for all of us who are made holy. It is in the most impossible ground where we need to be fertile and abounding. That is what God requires of all of us. "Lord, I knew that you were a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter", Mat.25:24. Didn't God command that man shall have all dominion over the stronger elephants? Did God not say man will exercise dominion over the birds which fly so high up where man can't reach? Man must even have dominion over the fish and he doesn't have enough breath to enter the environment where fish feel at home. Seemingly, God demands impossible things from all of us. God demands that we be gardens where there is no water, no good soil and no shade from the heat or the cold. We should fear this Lord who demands that we have unfeigned joy where only the saddest things happen and who tells us to shine where everything is dark and evil. Can you be so close to God that you can live only out of Him, by Him and inside His reality? If so, it must be easy to be a garden in any kind of desert and under any sort of tempest.

Jesus said that what chokes His words and hinder its fulfilments are the cares of this world and not the power of the devil nor circumstances. The devil, or even circumstances, do not have that kind of power to choke God's word. I believe this illustration of thorns used by Jesus is a most appropriate one. Can you imagine having thorns bothering your skin and your side continually? What shall be left of your mind and heart to think on anything else besides the pain, the thorns and whatever concerns it? Can you think in a continuous way about anything else if you are tormented by thorns? Wouldn't your mind entertain itself only around accusations, pain, bitterness, worries and concerns? Everything you think or do takes nothing else into consideration but those thorns. It is fully consumed and deviated by pain and by painful thoughts. Isn't it? Unless your heart changes, your mind won't think of anything else. The only way to avoid this is to have your heart fully changed and heading towards heaven only. Then, you won't be able to think about anything else besides the joy and the fulfilments of heaven here on earth. It is the inner man which needs to change and not circumstances. Then, you won't forget important things because your mind is not distracted by painful thoughts and by bitterness; you won't easily neglect duties because you are not called to attend unimportant things; you won't lose time with things which lead nowhere. All of these (and much more) happen only because thorns call your attention continually back to it. You really wish to be useful to God? If so, have a full change in the inner man and allow your motives, ways to carry out things and mind be fully changed from deep within. There is nothing that God wishes to do more than to have a man changed that way. And I firmly believe that if you can change men's hearts, you can change the whole world. The concerns of earthly hearts are the main sources for the problems this world is facing today.

Thorns can be a big problem in any life. The only way to avoid being bothered by thorns is to have your heart fully changed instead of trying to change circumstances around you, even though God can change circumstances as well. However, we should not dare to neglect the heart work to try to change what God's providence promised to do itself. Unless circumstances are part of the Kingdom we are to seek, we should allow God to fulfil whatever He promised to fulfil through them.

Have you seen a star lately which came to lead you on the way? If, by any reason, you have lost it, then it is because you headed towards Jerusalem as soon as the star started leading towards Israel. "Oh, Israel! Let's go to Jerusalem!" That is where you started to think on your own and ceased to mind the star the way you should have minded it. No wonder you found the enemy of God in Jerusalem! You shouldn't seek in Jerusalem what can only be found in Bethlehem. Now, Ramah will weep its children again because you thought you knew where God would lead you.

Today I have confirmed something: an impatient person or a person with an ill tempered heart can never be right about something - not even when what that person says makes sense. Even if what he or she says is right, it ceased to be right and blessed the moment impatience stepped in.

If it is so easy to misinterpret or misunderstand those people we know and talk to, how easy, you think, is it to misunderstand God whom people do not know and scarcely hear?

When people have nothing to do (or think they have nothing to do) they usually stay in bed. It would be the same us saying: "Since I have no food, I will eat some poison to have my stomach filled!"

The main secret of how to be heard by people is not to speak according to what the public opinion or the public desires demand from us to speak about. When we hear God and speak accordingly, even those who refuse to hear will hear and be bothered by what we say.

When a woman has birth pains she is ready to give birth. Spiritual mothers and fathers also have strong and unbearable birth pains. When we bring many spiritual children to the light, we may have these birth pains for a long, long time. And if there are no abortions, surely these pains will cease only after children are really born to God and made holy. People will surely be brought to the feet of the Cross one way or another through these pains. Can a baby hinder its own birth?

God said of man: "And let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth". We all know man could not have the strength to exercise dominion over an elephant or over the huge animals that lived at the time. How would man exercise dominion over a fowl which flies up very high and very fast? We can only assume dominion is not exercised through force, but through God and wisdom. Man does not have the strength to dominate an elephant, can't fly to dominate a bird, does not have enough breath to dominate the fish under water. However, God determined that man indeed dominates over all of these. We know all is possible through God.

Whoever speaks much listens very little; whoever sends people around obeys very little; and whoever yells a lot at people says very little.

"And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace", James 3:18. This does not mean that the fruit of righteousness is not sown in adversity at all. It means it is sown in peace to those who seek peace. To those who do not seek peace, it shall be sown anyway. However, it shall not be sown in peace because they are not peaceful beings. Let's work hard to maintain our conscience clean and at peace in the presence of God who reveals all.

No joy is truthful, no hope secure, no future promising whenever we wander far from the Lord. There is nothing with worth away from God and Life. It would be a happier thing for us to feel our sorrows, unhappiness and hopelessness away from God. To visit a mourning house would be a happier achievement. "Cleanse your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, double-minded ones. Be afflicted, and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness", James 4:8-9. And, if this is true, it is also true that no sorrow, no hopelessness, no discouragement is ever truthful if we walk with the Lord in all holiness. They are all lies just as joys away from God are lies. All these sorrows will pass away, all discouragement and all lack of hope are sure lies if we are found in Him. All these will pass away, just as the sun and the earth. But, not so with those who have, experience and perform God's will! They will remain forever, 1 John 2:17.

Teach your own heart and you shall be enabled to teach others. That is morality. Teach others first and you shall not be able to teach your own heart. That is immorality!

Anyone who postpones things; or starts things and does not end them; or does something to avoid doing another; or does not teach his own heart to take to the end whatever is good, but also gives up on anything; or a person who does not exercise faithfulness to his immediate duty for any reason whatsoever; any such person creates a heart in himself which is a curse and will be always a curse in him. Habits which disable people to persevere with and through goodness are curses. A persevering man also makes sure he gives up any wrong thing in whatever stage it is found, whether it is close to its end or still in its beginnings. Persevering people are courageous enough to give up even on own dreams which seem easily attainable and affordable. Are you one of those?

Many people say, sometimes, they are lost as to what or where they should read in the Bible. There are many reasons why people feel lost in that area. However, I will mention only some of them. One reason is that they do not ask or enquire from God for their daily bread, or fail to ask for it in such a way that they will get answers. They do not take the matter seriously enough. The other is that they know more than they are living out. This second problem is a more serious one than we can imagine. It means people are outdated or out ruled. It is very dangerous to know more that we are able to put into practice since it should work the other way round. I mean, because of the communion with the Spirit, we should live more than we are able to explain, know or be aware of. If that is not happening, God cannot reveal where to read since people have not become faithful to what they already know. However, we could also mention that God may not reveal because it might be time to rest and become fit for what is ahead. We are at loss because we may have our seasons the other way round, I mean, we want to read when we should rest and rest when we should be up and reading. There are more reasons why God does not reveal where to read, though. Care to find out by asking knowledge from God.

It is not good to preach about faith to people who do not believe. Preach Jesus. The fact is that only those people who have already become spontaneous and sincere believers may ever benefit from definitions of what faith, love and hope is. In fact, such definitions may be mere confirmations of what has already been happening inside them. Everyone else must see and realize just how faithful God is, how He fulfils all He has spoken, etc. To define virtues to people who are not virtuous is to create hypocrites and never shall it create faithful believers.

"Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, I have given that to you, as I said to Moses", Jos.1:3. When you are really led by God in total, spontaneous and intelligent dependence on Him, whatever happens to you is given to you by God. The providence of God is very active with such people. All holy ones should be able to recognize such things as signs of God's will for them. They should be able to realize they are simply where they should be, especially if they are holy and completely dedicated to God. If they are able to be easily and spontaneously instructed by God, it simply cannot work out any other way because they are simply taken and led by the Lord. If you are holy and faithful I am sure you are where you should be right now. Let all doubts down and fill your mind with ways which can assume the place and the circumstances you may find yourself in today. Refuse to doubt the way John the Baptist doubted when he was imprisoned. Take the land of your mind because it is yours. Has your foot tread upon it? It is yours to take. Make the best of the moment and bring glory to God under such circumstances you may find yourself in today.

The opposite of life is not death only. According to truth, the opposite of life is sin and the opposite of death is holiness lived in the Spirit, as well.

We should know the degree of faithfulness we have during times of abundance shall always be proportional to the spontaneous faithfulness we show forth during the hardest times we may ever face during our lifetime and vice-versa. You cannot expect to be more faithful during the season of fat cows than you have been during the hardest moments of the hungry cows. If you, during those hard times, are spontaneously dedicated to God and to God's work, if you do not fail God during such times and there are no thorns found in your heart during the hardest time you have ever been through, if your heart is found fully in the Lord and there is no bitter thought during it, no resentment, no worrying, surely you are a man fit to have it all. You shall surely be faithful in happiness, in riches and during times of great joy and miracles. Do you remember how Job had been blessed after he went through an unconceivable time of hardships? Are you such a man? Joseph remained close to God and was so apt to interpret God's dreams with great precision on the spot during the harshest period of his life. To interpret those dreams in such a way amounts to having a very close relationship with God. What a relationship he had! That was the man who remained faithful to God and to his work after he became the ruler of the greatest country of the time. All that mattered to Him was his relationship to God. The rest would be mere bricks which would help build that wall of relationship.

For God, there aren't things more difficult than others or easier things than others. There is nothing to Him more difficult or easier than anything else. All amounts to the same thing to Him.

The important thing is not to see many miracles during our lifetime. The important thing is to see all the miracles we were supposed to see. In other words, seeing many miracles does not mean we have seen all we should have seen; and seeing few miracles doesn't mean we haven't seen all those we were meant to see.

Asking the right things without the knowledge that God can answer our requests at any time amounts to complaining about what we believe we should have. And without that confidence it shall never cease to be more than complaints before a holy God. Asking is not complaining. Complaining is asking without that sort of confidence that God can do and that what we have been asking is found within the range of His will.

We submit ourselves to God to remain submitted and not so we will never need to submit again.

No human will become holy and full of virtues through compulsion. Holiness is hard work and it is prepared, worked on, received and shared to make it experience. All virtues work out that way.

People, even when they see sinning is bad, still try to look away from guilt by smiling and by being polite and smooth to it. Try being polite and smooth towards bees! That is the same as trying to hide something which will sting you to death anyway, whatever you do to it. And we know from the Bible that whoever hides sin will not prosper, Prov.28:13.

Whoever still feels hopeful in sin has a false hope. False expectations are responsible for most of those lies sinners tell themselves to avoid repenting. And all those who feel hopeless when they sin are one small step away from taking refuge in Christ Jesus forever. Hopelessness is not always a bad thing.

Turning things real and assuming them as such is the ultimate end of the struggle to believe. God allows man to fight with Him for that purpose: to have man convinced by granting him an assuring answer. Once that answer is out, man should be able to take it in such a way that he spontaneously believes it shall be as God has said. That fight is useful to convince man and not to have God convinced to grant our requests.

Living the kind of life God demands of all of us here on earth should be easiest for weak people who consider themselves only human. Let me explain. An own life is a direct competition to Eternal Life within. The weaker man is, the easier it should be for him to live for and through Christ since holiness is experienced and lived through the Lord. Therefore, the Lord in us is always in direct conflict with whatever makes man strong or self-sustained. People often excuse themselves by saying they are only human. In fact, being weak is a main reason to be holy through Christ and not an impediment. "Let the weak say, I am strong". Why should the weak say such a thing at all? Will you look for strength if you feel strong? Will you look for wisdom if you believe you are already wise? No man feeling capable will seek to be made capable of doing things through the Lord. It is obvious the best candidates to live a holy life are all such who feel weak and unable. They are halfway gone into the reign of Christ already. However, they should not be put down by this vain assumption that weak people should rather give up on the Lord or on His Life, since that is usually what they do. I hope God's grace is enough for you as it had been for Paul, and that you aren't reaching out to strengthen condemned flesh through God.

Jesus told us about the sower that went out sowing his seed and how often the seeds fall around in bad ground. It is amazing how things have changed nowadays! Today, bad people sow a gospel in bad ground and, sometimes, a seed falls in good ground. It works much the other way round nowadays.

Aren't there lost bullets that hit people all over the world? Every time you preach the gospel out of a sound and pure heart have in mind that the gospel works much like lost bullets and hit people whom you never thought about. God works that way quite often.

If it is true that God takes care of our subconscious world to feed it daily and faithfully, it is also true that we become responsible for our conscious world. God will care for our deepest being.

I know one day men will praise me so they can duck away from the responsibility of fixing their lives. They will praise what I say to escape the aim of my words.

The only, just and righteous punishment for sin is eternal death, it is, a state of continual dying without being able to die. The Law of God demands an eye for an eye and the horrors of hell are just the precise opposite in time, in dimension and in greatness of what heaven would be for each condemned one. People have a righteous reward for having rejected eternal life. However, many teachers and theologians assume too easily Jesus paid the price sin deserves. It is not true because, if it were true, Jesus would need to suffer an eternal penalty. Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the Law of Moses and the Law of Moses required as far as what humans assume would be the penalty for transgression. For man only earthly things count and to take man from earth sounds righteous enough to him because man does not see eternity and nor does he see the reach of transgression. The Law demanded an offering for transgression because it helped man assume forgiveness after ceasing from sin. What Jesus did is enough to save man and the aim is to save man and not to pay for transgression. Jesus saves from sin. Man's sins die in him through Jesus and it makes man acceptable to God. His blood mean purification and spotlessness to us all who come to Him. That sort of cleanness is what assures forgiveness for us, Prov.28:13, Is.59:20. He is able to make us free of sin and of ourselves indeed.

When someone steels from his neighbour everyone talks about it because it is bad and abnormal enough. However, if no neighbour steels, no one talks about it because everyone assumes that is the normal thing to do. People talk about others being mean to each other and, when neighbours get along, we have it as a normal behaviour and no one talks about it. Even sinners attest to the fact that a holy being or a holy living is the normal way to live. Holiness is what man accepts as normal behaviour because that is what man has been created for.

"...Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord", Mal.3:11. Are you one of those who ask to have tomorrow's things right away? Did you know that receiving fruit before its proper time is a curse? Are you an impatient being? Do you neglect today's work by stressing your mind and heart with tomorrow's things? However, we must distinguish between not receiving today because there is some sin in us which annoys God and not being the right time for the right thing. There is fruit which must be there all year round and there is certain fruit for certain seasons. Just try to find out if you are out of season or not. Then, it shall be much easier for you to know why God is not giving now what you are pleading for right now.

Many people's faith is a curse. Let me explain. To many, faith amounts to believing in a simple way whatever comes their way. It is true real faith is or should be as easy as breathing. However spontaneous, faith is a certainty of the right thing carried out through the right means. Faith is being sure and assured of some reality God has whispered into us beforehand or any other time. Faith is not believing - it is the ability to believe the right thing the right way and, sometimes, at the right time. Being assured never made people right about what they believe. However, being right about what they believe makes them assured and confident. That is what faith is all about. The proper assurance is faith. The wrong kind of assurance cannot be faith at all. "Now faith is the assurance of things...", Heb.11:1. Faith is to be able to believe truth - it cannot be mere believing. "If you can believe..." Marc.9:23.

Be extremely careful when you expect from the heart that God should come your way. Make sure you expect Him to deliver you from the right things or you shall be disappointed in Him as many have been already. The Jews were oppressed people and hungered for the coming of the Christ. However, there was a problem: Christ comes unto us to deliver us from ourselves and not from our problems. Whenever He comes, he solves the kind of heart we have and not our problems. Seldom does He solve our problems. The Israelis expected the Christ to deliver them the way Moses did a long time before. They did not expect the Christ to deliver them from themselves, from the force of hatred, from all fleshly means they had been so used to. To deliver them from that was to kill away the only source of hope they knew till then. They did not expect the Christ to do the right thing, but rather to perform their thing. "Behold, He comes, says the Lord of Hosts. But who can endure the day of His coming? (...) He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And He shall purify the sons and purge them as gold and silver(...) And I will come near you to judgment. And I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those who do not fear Me" Mal.3:1-5. Do you really hunger after Christ? What do you expect Him to do when He comes? From what do you expect Him to rescue you? Make sure you won't be disappointed by His coming into your life in a real way. He came to save you from all your sins - not from your problems. "Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer?", Is.50:2. Many want God only because they see Him as powerful enough to do what they cannot do themselves concerning earthly things. Most even demand that it be done through a miracle. Do not be disappointed when He starts to do what He came for. There is another thing you should be careful about as well. Maybe the Lord takes you out of some of your problems for a reason He only knows about. Maybe He can't use those problems as instruments for holiness and He solves them for you. If it happens, now is time to avoid believing He came for your problems' sake since you see them solved. It is so easy to believe the wrong thing when He solves some problems for us! It might be one of the reasons why He does not solve most of our problems! The same principle must be held before our our minds in a continual way when it comes to holiness and to holy living. You cannot afford to believe you must become holy so God can perform certain things you wish to be carried out. You cannot afford to believe you must be kind so the Lord can be kind to you in return. Virtues are not the means to achieve certain ends - they are the ends themselves! The means are the miracles and the other things you usually seek to have from God. You cannot become patient to be blessed since patience is the blessing itself. Virtues are the ends and not what you buy things through. Have you been committing the same mistakes the Jews committed a long time ago? What are the means in your life and what are the ends? Have you been changing the order of things lately? Whenever the right order of things is kept from the heart, we shall face any kind of problems with joy because we shall know those problems God allows in our lives mean to achieve some important ends for us. You should try looking at it the other way round. It really works!

The difference between idolatry and truth is that idolatry is a god created by man after his own desires and conveniences. Man has certain ideas or ideals for which he creates a god who he thinks will satisfy them. Through the truth we know man is the one who has been created. We have been created according to God's holy interests and image. We have been made to fulfil all His wishes and purposes. Man's god is man's creation and it is dumb, deaf, and, in case that god is human, it shall be unkind, full of himself and rude. However, man is quite stubborn about his gods and seldom gives up his way to worship the Living One instead. That is why I believe idolatry requires a lot of stubbornness to exist. On the other hand, God's creatures are never deaf or dumb as men's creations are. But, most are dumb towards God.

Dirty water is seldom dirty because of one component only. Usually, we say water is dirty without really knowing what it is dirty from. There is a mixture of things which darkens or poisons water. With people and the hearts of men the same can be said. It is usually a mixture of sins which is globally responsible for the overall and spontaneous behaviour of man on the long run. Behaviour is always a consequence of many things. This means that a sound behaviour from the heart is a mixture of virtues which are imparted into man. Globally, such a man behaves in a holy manner. There is seldom a virtue in a saint which stands out above others because man is holy in the whole or he won't be holy at all. The same can be said about unchanged sinners: we cannot afford to see a certain sin as the root of man's overall behaviour. Sinfulness is a mixture of many things man does away from God. Dirty lives have learned to live their own way because they learned to live with no Shepherd. This is the main reason why sin must be abandoned globally and totally along with its environment. The main curse of sin is the birth of a bad heart which is responsible for a bad behaviour.

Being reigned is not the same as being dominated. Demons dominate and possess a person. Having a King in us means we are softly led and the hard part of it is to be led in a way we would easily deny and not recognize as a way at all. The King we pledged to serve is soft and easy to hear. It is the heart of man which is hard to convince and which is used to be driven the hard way. "Do not be like a mule...", Ps.32:9. God does not use hard driving means to be King over us because He assumes we must be soft and tender towards Him ourselves. Having a King and a Master in me means I have someone who knows me better than I know myself, and who rules me according to my original image of Him. If that image is lost, I should work and doo all I can to have it back. I will answer for my life before Him because I have all in me since creation to be led through His tenderness and love, and have all available in Him right now to accomplish anything a great King usually desires.

There is a kind of life which works for the salvation of others and which strives to be divine. And there is a kind of life which saves others and which is divine. One is earthly and the other is celestial. The life of God in saved ones manifests itself as the Life of heaven and not as a kind of life which looks like heaven's. A divine life does not struggle to be divine because it is divine. The life which struggles to be divine is not divine. It can't be. What really counts is the essence of holiness and not the mere appearance of it. Jesus came to us as One who had no appearance and had nothing in Him which we should desire. Yet, He was and still is holy. It means He acts the same way still. "The kingdom of God is not coming with a visible display. For the kingdom of God is in you", Lk.17:21. That person who struggles to be divine still has certain earthly aspirations and dreams which drive fleshly motivation and earthly means to reach out to them. They will rather have those than work hard on a heart change in prayer. God is not in debt to the flesh and none of His promises are meant to satisfy carnal people or carnal desires. Read the Bible the right way and you will immediately come to that conclusion yourself. If you, perhaps, find yourself still struggling to be holy and to be at peace in the presence of God you must know you must change the kind of life you work through and you must, also, exchange the motives, the means and the goals in you for celestial ones. This is often a double problem and needs a double solution.

"No one calls for justice, nor does anyone plead out of truth", Is.59:4. In another translation this verse says that no one calls for justice out of a truthful heart. It does not mean people do not call for righteousness and justice. There are many who fight for causes of selfishness and sin with the whole heart using any means to win them, even the means of apparent truth. Are you one of them? Some use truthful means to defend a lying heart's causes. Some others are engaged in the causes of truth half heartedly using the weapons of darkness. Is your heart fully set in the causes of God the way it should? Is godliness fully settled in you? Does God feel at home inside your heart? Does your heart feel at home in God? Do you feel at home with truth and do you feel at ease being fully transparent? Or does light annoy you often and makes you uncomfortable? Is your whole heart engaged in the manifestation of truth and righteousness to reveal itself fully through the light? What do you have in mind about righteousness? Do you still believe others are the ones who must be made righteous? The main ground and battle for truth is inside each fighter and not on the outside. "The kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his own field", Mat.13:31. God expects you to be righteous when He talks to you about righteousness. Do not easily assume those words He speaks are meant for a sermon or for someone else to hear them. They are meant for you. Do not try to carry out on the outside what must be fully accomplished inside. Do not let God say you trust yourself. Let it never be said of you! "They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring out iniquity (...) Their webs shall not become clothing, nor shall they cover themselves with their works...", Is.59:4,6. These people who do that experience some sort of typical problems, according to this piece of Scripture: 1. "They do not know the way of peace". This means they are constantly in a fighting mood and that there is a continual fight going on inside their hearts. 2."They have made crooked paths for themselves". This is something we should expect, because people do not wish to deny God openly, but only His ways. Their ways become self conceived and self-satisfying and demand the blessing of God. This really happens! This is a triple-sided coin. And it happens in such a way that people are seldom aware that they are doing the wrong thing. What a curse this must be! The way of a dishonest heart is a terrible curse! It is the curse itself. Can there be a greater curse than to make our own ways out and to plan and outline them by ourselves? This will give the impression we are righteous and are defending the right causes. But, God will deny them along with us. "I never knew you". I have always believed that appearance hinders transparency anywhere, anyhow and all the time. Make sure you work on truth; that you work it in yourself and avoid preaching to others to skip putting yourself in the light; and, whenever you do so, make sure you do so with a truthful heart.

God does not have time or respect for a bad temper or for a bad mood. And, usually, respect and attention is what anger or a bad spirit demands most. Just take some time to find the truthfulness of what I am saying here. On the other side, whenever my temper or mood changes, I must know God does not change along with it, because this is what a bad mood usually loves to believe so it can carry on being bad. The other side of any kind of bad mood is the assumption it is not wrong in itself. Self-justification is the other side of a bad temper. And God works assuming my bad mood shouldn't exist at all! He assumes it must be kicked out of me by me right away. And that is why He carries on with His work as always and He expects that sort of action from us as well! Make sure you work on it along with God because any bad mood usually works against whatever it should be doing. And the best way to deal against a bad mood is to stay side by side with God and work on what we should do as we would were we in our best mood or in heaven.

Many assume almost unconsciously that a difficult thing must be accomplished through grace and an easy thing should or can be carried out through self. That is a simple way to feed self and to keep it still alive. The main secret of the gospel is to do all we do through grace, not because of what we do, but rather because of how we do whatever we do. The flesh is fed and kept alive by using other means strange to grace. Things must be done here on earth exactly the same way anything would be done in heaven. The important part is how we do and not what we do. Therefore, you must be aware that, whenever people say they must pray a lot because they are facing something they consider very hard, the other side of them is assuming easy things need not be done through God. Doing an easy thing through the arm of the flesh is like smoking only one cigarette more whenever you are trying to quit the whole of sin. Doing easy things through the flesh amounts to feeding this strange monster, abnormal to creation, which rises up against God within us and against all His knowledge as well as against the knowledge and acknowledgment of Him in us.

So many question what they hear, having certain doubts about whether what they hear comes from God, the devil or the flesh. There is no easy way to solve this problem, though. The only way there is, is to enter into the Sanctuary and to get so near God that we shall, so to speak, see His lips moving and easily recognize His voice and realize who is speaking. You won't solve such doubting problems or moods unless you can make sure. And, to make sure, you must get near. Are you moving around that close to God? Make sure you know that people who try to hear God do so at the cost of getting near Him. It is not your ear which must be tuned only, but the whole of your heart and being. Jesus said that unless you become sheep you won't be able to hear Him the way you should. The main secret is seldom trying hard to hear, but rather becoming sheep from the heart. Those will hear.

We can only be saved from something or some place we are found in. We cannot be saved from hell because we are not in hell yet. The only people who could be saved from hell are those who find themselves already there. I cannot be saved from drowning unless I am found drowning in the water. I cannot be saved from drowning in dry land. Therefore, there is no such thing as being saved from hell. Even the Bible does not speak of us being saved from hell. But, it nevertheless talks about salvation. So, what are we to be saved from? We must be saved from sin and from ourselves. That is the kind of salvation the Bible talks extensively about. "You shall call Him JESUS; because He shall save His people from their sins", Mat.1.21. "You saved my soul from corruption".

When we have extensive knowledge of truth and we are not right with God (whether we realize it or not), God's promises can, even so, seem real to us. It seems the devil doesn't do anything to cause us to doubt such promises at all, especially if we are not clean and spotless before God. And if there is no opposition, there won't be doubts in a self-assured person. The way of error has little or no hindrances. It will serve the devil best if have mirages of water in dry land and become disappointed in God later on. People can look at the promises of God as they would entertain some hallucinations. Such deceiving hallucinations are worked out by mixing the deep desire of reaching out to some kind of promises man would feel pleased with and the mirage of water in the desert they are burned by. "It shall even be as when a hungry one dreams, and behold, he eats, but he wakes and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint and his soul is longing. So shall it be with the multitude of all the nations who fight against mount Zion (or fight against their conscience to convince it otherwise!)", Is.29:8. Any man dying of thirst in any sort of desert is always so sure he is seeing water afar off. But, that kind of assuredness won't quench his thirst at all. That is how the promises of God will become deceiving mirages to all those who are found in the desert of sin. God's promises can become deceiving mirages instead of real lakes of water. Those promises can kill or bring to life. They won't ever become indifferent, inactive words at all - they will either kill or bring to life. These promises can become mirages to thirsty souls who refuse to clean up or they can be turned into the real essence of the testimony of God in the heart, or even into a fragrance of truth. However, the inclination of all those who find out they have been seeing mirages from God lately is to start despising or even doubting the Words of God. They will rather do that than comply to the conditions those promises silently demand to be fulfilled in or even through us. God sealed those promises for the clean in the heart and there is nothing that can ever hinder such promises to be fulfilled in their own ground and under their conditions. Are you fulfilling all the conditions God's promises require to be fulfilled in due time? Do you walk and talk with God? Does He answer you for real, or do you talk alone during prayers? Are you pure from the heart? Is God able to gather with you without being ashamed? Do you do all things, even at work, through God or do you still lean on the arm of the flesh so now and then? Do not use the unfulfilment of God's promises as the main excuse to start living out a fleshly life! Rather clean up and do not be so eager to cast away from you the cords of God's promises. "Cleanse your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, double-minded ones", James 4:8. Maybe you never realized that an uneasy conscience is the main cause for the shipwrecking of real faith and the main strength for a false and feigning one. If you are pure or on the verge of becoming pure and clean through faith, do not fear to believe the same promises dirty people have often been disappointed by. God's word is a stumbling block to such. Nevertheless, it is still God's word and it shall remain so. Make sure you believe that. However, God's word is surely a fountain of real life as well. "And the glowing sand (the mirage) shall become a pool", Is.35:7. And if we talk about God's promises, we may apply the same binding principle on many other crucial truths important to all of us, such as election and being chosen. We have been chosen to be holy. That is the main thing we have been chosen for. Are you holy? Or will you sell your birthright for the sake of some sin? Do you rather choose "to suffer with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of (some) sin"? Heb 11:25. "Therefore, brothers, rather be diligent to make your calling and election sure", 2Ped.1:10.

Be extremely careful when it is the devil or fleshly intuition who is promising things in the name of God and which God would promise under certain conditions or circumstances. It is very dangerous in many ways. One of those dangers is that we can live towards something God has never promised to us personally and we will squander precious time expecting, doing or working on something which will eventually not work out for us. And, when those promises we believed came from God are not fulfilled, we shall easily doubt when it is God who is speaking for real directing us into something else. It shall happen because of the former experiences of unfulfilled promises, especially if we become honest people. If you wish to avoid that, do not allow the flesh to serve in the temple of God. You are that temple. Work it out in you and not outside of you. God can promise only when the flesh is not promising in His name anymore and He can fulfil only when the flesh is not trying to fulfil in His behalf by playing God for fear that it might not receive by waiting on the Lord. Do you remember how believing Abraham refused to conquer by himself the land God promised him? Or how David refused to kill Saul to reach out the the promised throne of Israel, using his own arm and sword? Do not trust the arm of the flesh, not even when it does all things correctly, in a friendly way or even to fulfil a promised end.

Man was the only creature (as far as we know) that has been created according to God's image. However, man is the creature which is further from resembling God today than most creatures on earth. Man does not glorify God at all. Try something. Take your dog and your wife and close them in the boot of your car. Who will yell at you and who will plead to come out? After an hour open it and see for yourself which one is angry at you and which is thankful. Later on, who is going to sleep in another room? I hope you do not do this, but it just shows how far man has wandered from his original heart and image.

One of the reasons we shouldn't judge our neighbour is because there are things we do not understand as God does. Besides, there are many wrong things for us which might not be so wrong for our fellow pilgrims to follow. That is why the greatest struggle we might be in for is the struggle out of our own doctrinal views and aptitudes. We must come out of them without stepping into error. We cannot step into error after coming out of ourselves. However, there are many right things we easily consider wrong and many wrong things we may consider right. May God grant us the vision of that door which leads us out of ourselves to escape for our lives!

"Not walking in craftiness..." 2Cor.4:2. This means not walking according to plan, but rather according to nature. We shouldn't be able to feign our own behaviour or attitudes at all. If we do, it means we are hiding something and hiding is walking in darkness. Rather jump out of feigning and reveal your whole heart.

Sins like jealousy, greed, gossiping, feigning and, to a certain measure, bitterness are character habits and not character roots. These are often habits the body of death left behind in new beings. You need, therefore, to make a point of implanting a strong and careful discipline upon yourself to be on the guard against feeding these character habits. These die only whenever we stop feeding them all together if you are indeed dead with Christ. Do not forget this part of discipline whenever you hand your whole being to the Lord. Bad humour or any such kind of selfishness must be kicked out of you and not merely resisted or withstood. If you do not do that, you shall surely return to death.

As soon as we obey, we shall understand all!

I found I cannot look into the same things for long periods so as to remember and understand them better. So, I felt the option is to see them in a clearer way because important things must be easily recalled. The clearer I see truth, the longer it shall remain fresh within me. Get closer to the Lord to have a better look and so things will be clearer and more visible to you. That is one way to solve many of our forgetfulness in the long run. I have never forgotten any of those things which have been clearly revealed to my soul and expectations. After the vision has become clear, hold on to it to the end, whatever happens. Its fulfilment and implementation depends on what you do to it. Be obedient to the vision of the Lord.

It is better for me when my life is right with God an I think there is something wrong with it than to think my life is right and feel confident when my life is not in order before Him at all.

There are those who watch because of Jesus, I mean, because He is coming to them anytime and from anywhere. However, there are some in a higher stage who watch with Jesus. Are you watching with Jesus?

When someone wants to enjoy the benefits of a Godly life but does not wish to know God Himself, it amounts to plucking off the fruit from a garden without wishing to know its owner. Even humans call it theft. Our ultimate goal must be to know God and not to enjoy the fruit.

It is easy to understand a child when it fears darkness. But, how can we understand an adult who hides from light and lives in darkness all the time?

God trusts only a heart which has the inborn habit of depending on Him all the time to be faithful. God trusts a work in which He has shared or which He has carried out.

The main war of God is not against people who are mean, but rather against the meanness of people itself. However, anyone who holds on to sinfulness will end up destroyed along with sin; and whoever abandons sin shall surely enjoy the Redeemer. "And the Redeemer shall come to those who turn from transgression", Is.59:20.

Helping people is assisting them in what they want to do or something they find hard to carry out. Helping people is not assisting them in what they do not wish to do.

A deceitful heart is the most obvious, the most direct consequence of a separation from God. Our independence from the Lord results in suchlike disasters which we shall never be able to avoid in any way.

Every saved one comes out of Egypt. Have you already come out of the love for novels and any kind of worldliness? Only those who really came out of Egypt can consider themselves free people and saved ones.

"Above it stood the seraphs; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew", Is.6:2. It is interesting to see just how these seraphs flew around with their faces covered. They did not miss their way at all! We can assume they had covered their eyes as well. It could only mean they flew around as the Spirit of God led them. Wouldn't you love it to be led that way, even when your eyes were not covered?

Blaming whoever is guilty is not the same thing as saving the guilty. However, let's be aware that saving a guilty one without pointing out sin and guilt with harmonious precision is not possible at all. It is like a doctor analysing a disease thoroughly to grant it a final death blow.

Only fairytales have endings. My story is real and so is my walking with Jesus. I will live forever.

Did you know that searching and finding the wisdom of God applies a death sentence to all sorts of pride? "But the wisdom that is from above is first truly pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy", James 3:17. Many refer to poor people as "humble people". Through that assumption we are tempted to believe that rich people are proud people. And that is not what the Bible says because pride and humility lives in the heart of man and does not consist of external circumstances. It depends mainly on what man is like inside. There are many poor people whose cup runs over with pride. And we also know how humble and how rich Job and David had been. Have you ever felt a deep desire to be really humble and simple? Do not associate it to poverty at all, but rather to the wisdom of God and to a fully surrendered heart, whatever the circumstances are. Try to live out, experience and enjoy the wisdom of God in all its fullness and you will have a deep kind of humility resulting from you!

A friend called my attention upon something that made me think a lot. He talked about the revolution brought by the washing of hands in hospitals after each patient is treated. We know that most infections have been reduced to very low numbers. Then he said: "If the washing of hands made such a difference in hospitals and on contagious diseases how much more would the washing of hearts decrease the infecting of souls of men by sin!"

When man desires something, he undoubtedly considers it a good thing because he desires it. Consequently, if there is any blessing coming from God which man cannot recognize as such, it will seem to be a bad thing to his eyes. If it is not what man wants, then it will seem like a bad thing to him.

Things become important to us only in the day they belong. Outside their proper day they can't be important at all and neither can they be seen as a duty. We need to maintain the overall vision God blesses us with but, we should never confuse one day with another and the work that belongs to each day with some other day's work.

Give your words to the dumb, your legs to the lame, your eyes to the blind, your money to whom is in need, your love to everyone. Never think of receiving back anything at all, not even applause. Do not merely lend your legs, eyes or your sleep. Simply give it away. Have you given your whole self to Jesus that way for real?

My life is a continual management of promises and of my cooperation with God in them in all obedience.

Anyone becomes richer by giving to the meek than by receiving from the proud.

Every time a family member gives himself over to greed or to the love of money, fighting starts at home. "He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house", Prov.15:27. It happens because such people will always choose money above buying food and other essentials; will always prefer to steal from what should be given to God because we all know every rope breaks first where it has its weaker point; such a person will, also, try to dominate other's lives at home to satisfy his own greed for money. However, the worst part of it is that such sins always resemble good management of resources and the children at home learn those attitudes from fathers and mothers more than from anyone else. Children will the first to reflect the most obvious consequences of those attitudes at home. If this the case with you, don't you think it is time to stop with it? Will the outcome of such sinning pay off in the long run?

I am so sure that I will have more hope and greater expectations at the door of death than anyone who doesn't know Jesus will ever have during any special moment of his whole living. I know all things God promised and talked about will be fulfilled then. Don't people get into a plain to go somewhere? The coffin will take me to heaven. What a marvellous thought! Are you that prepared?

The person who hides, ignores, neglects or buries away whatever God granted him to be faithful to, creates a graveyard in his own heart. God will always call upon such a person to answer for the smell of death coming out of him.

The idea that "prayer changes things" is not as true as the one that says that God changes us and we change things. However, none of them is completely right. It is true that God transforms us every time we near Him in prayer with a truthful heart and cry. Transformation is a direct consequence of nearing God. But, we know we near God for the sake of many of those things we seek solutions for. The truth is that those things are transformed by us in God and by God in us. And we are also transformed along, this being the main reason and aim of need created by God. Such wisdom is simply too wonderful to explain. But, if we manage to near God for the sake of God alone, the transformation which occurs in us is purer, more lasting and more adequate to holy beings - even though it might not take place in a quicker way than most half transformations which we see all over the world today.

The person who less accepts advices from others is the one who can easily refer to past experiences which are not experiences anymore. Every time someone's life is not up to date, all references such a person has entice the heart to believe it knows all, knows better and has close to nothing to learn from anyone else. This is the kind of danger Jesus warned us about when He said, "If, therefore, the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Mat.6:23.

When anything is robbing the peace of God from your heart in any way, one of two things is happening: you either have some hidden sin in your conscience which you refuse to put in the light and which you excuse off continually; or your relationship to Jesus is falsified, forced, forged and untrue.

The worst enemy of love are those natural preferences we show towards people and which man easily assumes as being love. The worst enemy of sincerity and honesty is the appearance of honesty man often shows off with. The worst enemy of speaking the way we ought is eloquence. We could carry on and find many other worst enemies of all kinds of virtues there are.

Jesus never demanded that we accept Him the way people do it in church nowadays. That doctrine is not biblical. What Jesus demands from us is that we be fully surrendered to Him in all aspects of our living and in all aspects of His will, both His will for us and His universal will for all. I mean that you cannot wish less for others than you are able to wish for yourself. That is the law and the prophets. In fact, the nowadays doctrines of accepting Jesus as they are put before people hinder that kind of surrender which God demands from all of us. I don't have any respect for such deluding doctrines which deceive people into believing they have peace "where there is no peace". It hinders dead people to become living beings.

I cannot set as a goal for myself to do many things or many things at once. My only goal must be to do the best work out of what I need to do right now or today. This kind of discipline and dedication to what belongs to today are the foundations for the days which are still to come. Eternity is an infinite today. Be faithful to what is in your hand to do right now through the blessing of the Lord. That is how you become an eternal being.

God will surely dress me up with a garment of righteousness, just as Jacob gave a colourful garment to his son, Joseph. Jacob made it himself and so will God make mine. I will be righteous and pure and I will wear a colourful garment which will speak of God's love and mercy. My garment will be even more wonderful than the one Joseph had on him. Mine shall not be worn out.

Kindness is not acceptance of evil. Never think that accepting evil is what goodness is all about. That can't be kindness because that is what evil is. Goodness works against evil much like a cancer works against a healthy body. It destroys evil from the inside. And no one will ever cooperate with his own death and no one will ever approve an own death. However, if you ever feel you are a bad, unkind person in any aspect of your whole being, you must walk towards Calvary. And we all know what happens there. Make a point of walking that way freely and willingly. There Christ shall kill you forever, so you shall rise a new being. The kind Life of God is what the Bible often mentions as being the seed which is able to save man from the inside. That kind of seed is corrosive in the heart of evil - it is not kind towards evil at all. That is why John says that the seed is able to preserve us and evil cannot stand against it in the long run. "Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God", 1 John 3:9. That seed works as a cancer against any kind of evil - not as a healer.

If, by any reason, all my work burns down or is destroyed, I will feel like having lost a precious son. I would feel like Job felt when he lost all his family to death. May God preserve me from that!

"...Those who delight in the perversities of the wicked...", Prov.2:14. Have you ever wondered if watching worldly movies and novels is wrong for you? Well, here the Bible talks against all those people who stay and watch with pleasure what evil does. Watching worldliness is a kind of lust (of the eyes). "My eyes will behold no evil thing".

If the Bible talks about the "prosperity of the fools", it means that fools are often rich and prosperous. And if that is true, it can't mean that God has left me when I am poor. When Job lost all, it never meant God was against him.

When I owe money to a bank and I ask for another loan from them, it simply means I wont get my loan. Banks do not lend to anyone who hasn't paid them back before. If you owe anything to God or to people, how can you expect God will answer your requests? Will you have the confidence you need in prayer if you haven't been faithful to what God has given you in previous occasions? What do you still owe God? Your life or some of your money, perhaps? Have you given your whole life to God already? Can you trust God in all aspects of your whole living? It belongs to Him in the whole. If you still owe Him anything of it, I am sure you won't near Him with the confidence you need to have.

Greed takes away the life of anyone who touches it. You must choose between greed and being alive. Greed is soul sickness, just as diarrhea is an intestinal disarrangement. Unfortunately, people do not deal with sin the way they deal with some illness. If I have diarrhea I instinctively start figuring out what could be the cause of it or what bad thing could I possibly have eaten. But, when people are spiritually disarranged they don't do that. If you feel impatient and without peace, if you lost control over your heart and soul, if your heart is disarranged, why don't you try to figure out what the cause of that disarrangement is?

"My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent", Prov.1:10. There are many forms of enticement and seduction into sin. The devil can entice directly or lure people into sin indirectly. For example, someone may hit or rob your child and you can react in a wrong way. And afterwards you realize all the devil wanted was to use a reason for you to fall into some sort of sin. We should be careful about all sorts of strategies the devil is able to devise against any of us. "Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil... For we are not ignorant of his devices", Ef.6:11, 2Cor.2:11.

The deeper the well, the purer and the cleaner the water shall be at the surface. The deeper you immerge into God, the cleaner your life shall be. "Walk with Me and be perfect!" This means the main issue is to walk with the Lord. Perfection will naturally follow.

Never fear to refuse hastening or speeding up the proper time of the Lord for certain things to happen. People usually fear to be delaying things which they are impatient about. Do not fear to deal thoroughly with impatience because the man who refuses to hasten the time of God will also easily refuse to have the proper timing of the Lord postponed or delayed. One thing leads to the other. That is the way a normal heart works. To refuse to hasten the time of the Lord is not the same as postponing things at all. It only means we want the right things to happen in their proper time and place. Today belongs to today. In fact, by trying to quicken or hasten the right time for something often delays it. It means we are busy with trying to hasten things and, by doing so, we cannot be busy with the preparation those things require to be fulfilled and accomplished in us. You must rather choose to be "a prepared people for the Lord" instead of trying to skip or avoid your cooperation with God in whatever means He uses to have you dead and fully crucified and, consequently, resurrected with Christ and prepared forever - prepared for eternity. So, here is this double truth: if you try to hasten things, you will surely delay them; if you refuse to hasten them to rather use your precious and short time for the sake of your own preparation, you will undoubtedly "redeem the time". And the other truth is: if you find yourself busy with hastening times (which means you are filled with impatience and mistrust towards God and His timing), you cannot be busy preparing yourself for when things shall happen and neither can you be filled with God. We cannot do two things at once or serve two masters at the same time. And woe to the servant who is unprepared when the Lord comes with what He has promised!

"Music are organized sounds; philosophy are organized thoughts; science is organized knowledge"; melody is organized beauty. Get organized!

As a rule and by the laws of spirituality, every person who understands something is someone who already practices in some way whatever he or she understands. That is a law of creation. Even Jesus said, "Whoever practices shall know". If you understand sin, it means you practice sin. If you cease to practice sin, you will gradually cease to understand it. The same principle can be applied to all aspects of our lives, whether it is our prayer life, cultural life, language or any other. If you understand English it is because you already practice it in some way, or you would not be able to understand it at all. Therefore, if you understand the ways of holiness, take courage and carry on living as God told you to. Do not be misled by accusations if you already understand and easily accept holiness. Find more of it in a practical way and you shall surely be given more and even better to understand. This is a rule which often causes people to waver to launch themselves into a life of faith and of undisputed trust in the Lord. People often do not understand it before they start practicing it. It is hard and too daring to hand our lives over to the unknown Lord of all. It will often seem too risky because we do not understand a thing about the practical consequences of what we are doing. But, let there be faith! Let there be more people who practice so they will gain good understanding. It will mean more people will have understanding or, at least, people will have more and better understanding. This is the main reason why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. It means people who fear the Lord start practicing out of fear and will gain the consequent understanding through what they do, or by what they are and, most important, of who God really is in or through them. Understanding is the main consequence of practicing.

We may be very busy with the things of God without being busy with God Himself. We may, also, be busy with the things of God while our hearts are consumed by worldly affairs. But, we may just as well be busy with material affairs while our hearts deeply hunger after God and to be with Him only. However, every time you are busy with God Himself, make sure you heart is wholly there and is not divided by anything else but is wholly filled with the Lord. That is what it means to seek Him with the whole of our heart. It means the heart is not divided between Him and something else.

Joseph learned many things during the years he had been a slave. He also unlearned many things. I believe it is more important to unlearn than to learn, even though we do both during heavy trials such as these. However, I believe the most valuable lesson Joseph learned was to do all and nothing but his best without doing it for a reward. He aimed at the reward of God alone. That is why he could rule the whole of Egypt later on. He was "a prepared people for the Lord" and he used his time very well during slavery.

All people who are led by a faith set ablaze by the Spirit of God always break some rules which are always valuable to society, to the religious circles they belong, to their cultural background and even to their communities. Tamar left her widow clothes and put on prostitute garments; Abraham sacrificed his own son and sent the other away without anything but bread and water; David ate the bread which only priests were allowed to eat; David also used the ephod, something which some people were penalized for. We could mention thousands of examples more. This only proves God is not bound to rules, whether good or bad, and much less by absurd rules.

If we put all we are and have into taking hold of Life, we are surely helping Life to get a full hold of us. This is why Paul says, "Lay hold of Eternal Life". However, we must never forget that Life allows us to do so because it seeks to get hold of us in every aspect of our whole living. By doing so we often hasten times because the aim of God is to have "a prepared people" for Him. Then, our spiritual clock will be set according to God's and our heart will beat according to His. However, if this is the case, I mean, if we put all we have into getting hold of that Life which, by having us doing so, also gets hold of us, we must have in mind that we are putting all effort into finding the life we imagine as eternal and constant. I mean that we have our own idea of what that Life is. Therefore, when we seek to get hold of Life with all our might we must add to our efforts an openness of mind which does not mystify or hinder the proper vision of that Life God has for all of us. Our hearts must be open to change its vision about Life without losing on perseverance because of we have a short or wrong idea of what Life really is. When it does not happen that way, we shall surely enter the way of error and the proper ground for fanaticism will be created. Consequently, God will need to pull those weeds of fanaticism out of us later on and through much pain on our part and, also, through much effort of His part.

When I lack comprehension and understanding of God and of my ways in Him, it can be only ascribed to some sort of disobedience somewhere. Spiritual darkness or blindness is always the fruit of some kind of disobedience somewhere, whether it is a direct fruit or fruit in a second or third degree. Do you want light? Just obey the Lord and light will surely be there assuring you. And if you think for a while you might, also, become aware that all religious fanaticism comes from disobedience because people are their own light because they lack the real one. Let's look into it the other way round. If you have much light and enlightenment and your life seems to go nowhere, be assured that you are obedient to God or you wouldn't share in that light at all. Do not be worried and rather wait patiently. You will see that soon your life will be a complete whole and it will then make sense to you and to many others. "If anyone desires to do His will, he shall know...", John 7:17.

The average person has this intuition that we have problems to learn something out of them. Even if it may be occasionally true, the truth is that God wants you to unlearn something through your problems. Problems hinder us to be what we have become as well.

The reason why Jesus seems to be so strong-minded about all our relationships is that He knows that all relationships which do not have Him in the first place will inevitably end up against the rocks of sin and death. Are all your relationships based on that principle of having, honouring and holding on God first and above all? If not, you must assure yourself about how you will end, if it doesn't blow up in your face right now.

The generalized tendency of nowadays Christianity is to have people fully satisfied in a rut of wrong doings and wrong doctrines. All doctrines are conceived to breed that sort of satisfaction in people who live in sin and to praise, talk about and commune with a christ of their own minds. It works directly against the efforts of the Lord to get people out of that rut and have them believe and honour Him instead.

We who wish to be totally committed and faithful to the Lord don't talk much about personal experiences, but rather from personal experiences.

"Do not cease to pray". It means, do not give up before God grants all the requests which mean a lot to Him and to His glory. Unanswered prayers just don't seem to bring unbelief into us. We find we believe more and better as our deepest heart and faith is being reshaped. Hope needs to be sound and above suspicion, just as faith and love. Hope is to expect from God. And by expecting that way, we reject all means by which we are tempted to accept an easy way out or an alternative way of attaining to what we expect to receive from the Lord Himself. Didn't David refuse to kill Saul with his own hands because it was God who would make him king over Israel?

Every time a wife or husband insists or demands from the partner that all things they do should be discussed among them, it means the one who demands does not wish to discuss what he or she does, but only what the other one does. If you complain against your partner on this issue be assured that you are the one who is unwilling to talk about what you do. If you discuss your stuff with your partner, however, so will you partner discuss with you what he or she needs to do. Remember that the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled whenever you do to others whatever you wish to be done to you. And an example is usually a teaching mode and soon the two will be doing the same thing because it seems the right thing to do.

We shouldn't only be motivated by the Lord but also have the same motives He has. God can't motivate us unless our motives are His.

No one is able to trust a man who is suspicious of everyone else or of everything else. Not even a dog can trust a man who is afraid of it. It is a law in nature. The suspicious man judges the lack of faithfulness he sees in others and we know what that means. It means that whoever sees such errors in others in such an unproven way has those sins himself. This is why a suspicious man can't be a reliable person since he himself has an odour of unfaithfulness which he distributes around. This is the explanation and the reason why we can't trust a suspicious man.

Jesus received many blows and many agonizing stings a long time ago. No one stood Him by at the time. Today he receives the same blows in the person of His holy children. However, if each of His children would walk two or three miles every time they were told to walk one, they would be distributing the wonderful fragrance of their Lord and would be glorifying Him. It is always the glory of God which is at stake. His glory is what evil aim at. And God allows it to happen because it may bring Him greater glory just as it can do the opposite. God risks His glory by allowing these confrontations with evil. Sometimes He achieves outstanding results from us. If we walk more than the mile people demand from us, we receive the blow aimed at the Lord. Now we can receive all blows aimed at Him. It is time to do so, just as at Gethsemane was the time for evil to have its way against Jesus.

The main reason why many don't know much about God's time for something to happen is that people easily become proud about what they know. Many are pleased with what they have - many are more with what they know.

Our insistence in proving that we are right about something just shows we may not be right in some aspect of our lives, even when that aspect is not the one we claim to be right about.

Our insisting on providing for ourselves proves that we are refusing to wait on God's provision and on His perfect timing. It may also show that God is about to provide. The closer God's provision is, the more people are inclined to provide for themselves and to become impatient.

We should be able to smell truth out because the truth leaves its fragrance all around. Besides, we have all the means and capacities since creation to find and lodge truth as truth. This is why we won't have any excuse to miss out on the truth.

God is not a hypocrite. He is good to bad ones just as He is good to good ones. He is what He is all the time. He does not depend on what we do to Him or to anyone else to be good to us, unless He chooses to exhort us through our circumstances because we are His Children. Children of the Lord experience the rod more than the average sinner does. However, humans are used by their sinfulness, which is to be good and kind to all those who do them good and to be naturally inclined to be mean towards all the rest, even towards those who are passive and indifferent towards them. Now, because they are like that, they assume that is how God is. And when they think of God as good, they believe it means He will be good towards them. They shall also naturally assume God does them good because they are right with Him. Were they not right with Him, He would be mean towards them in this present life. They conclude that God would never be good to them unless they had been acceptable to Him. They have an unconscious and distorted vision of God and think He is as an average sinner and expect God to act like the average human being would. Do not say you are right with God too quickly, especially not on account of what you receive in daily life. If God is good to you in some way, try to believe it is because He is good towards anyone and not because of you. Do not use the fact that God is good as an excuse not to fix your life right away. Do not easily assume everything is right between you and Him only because He has been good to you in some way. Remember that the Lord won't pull the weeds out of the corn field till Judgment Day. And if God is good, so should we be. "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same?", Mat.5:46-48.

Every time water boils too quickly we assume there is little water in the pot. And we may not be wrong about it. Whenever there is plenty water, it takes much longer to reach boiling point, unless the water is already somewhat hot. We may state the same thing about faith and spiritual enthusiasm. Many boil in faith and enthusiasm too quickly and too easily. They haven't really thought deeply about many things and about the real character of the Lord. "Some (seeds) fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth. And they sprang up immediately, because they had no deepness of earth", Mat.13:5.

Be careful with those things to which God hasn't said no and about which He keeps quiet. If God hasn't said "no" or "yes", He can still say either of them. Don't make up your mind as to what God's answer shall be, at least not before He can answer you for real. Maybe you are the one hindering that real answer. And if God keeps quiet, it means He can grant you your request as soon as you are "a ready people for the Lord" and as soon as God sees the disposition in you to remain faithful to Him after you receive. God may also delay a "no" for that same reason. Perhaps He doesn't find in you the disposition to receive a "no" as an answer and to believe God has something better for you. You keep battling on and on with the same request only because your heart disposition isn't the best. Will you remain faithful to God if He says "no"? And if He grants you your request, will you?

If it would be possible, it would be much better for any of us to do the wrong thing the right way (through the Lord), than to do the right thing the wrong way. It is worse to use strange fire on the altar of God than to put there the wrong offering. That was the main reason why David refused to kill Saul when he could have done so, even though Saul was destined to die. We should always refuse to save ourselves, to provide for ourselves and to do anything else for ourselves which God is about to do Himself.

When God speaks to the heart of man, it does not mean it is the heart speaking at all. God speaks to the heart and not through the heart. And whenever God speaks, the heart does not speak - it listens in stillness.

Avoid any form of life that does not take into account that there is evil and sin somewhere. Avoid an unprepared life. The prepared life watches knowing it must live God's life without resisting evil. By taking into account evil is out there, it helps us not to pay attention to it when bad things happen because we expected them to withstand us in some way. It doesn't come as a surprise and we carry on living God's life as if nothing happened. A prepared life is not surprised by evil and, therefore, is prepared to carry on doing whatever God has left in its hands to be faithful to right to the end.

Every cause of God is important, but God is more. The same principle is applied to us by the Lord: we are more important to Him than the work we do.

There is no time more confusing than when our goals or motives are being changed.

Whatever is limited is also limiting. Let me explain. Usually people come to God and are satisfied with very little from Him. They have never experienced peace and the little peace or a fragrance of real love they experience is already more than overwhelming to them. Consequently, they start limiting God to their experience because they can't figure out how great God is yet. Little is more than they expected and little is just too big for them. They hold on to a limited view of Him and of His power from then on. They are happy with a fountain when God wishes it to turn into a powerful river. The vision is limited and, consequently, it shall also be limiting the person in daily life because such people do not take into account that there is abundance in God for which they are not able to make provision for. Whatever we receive from the Lord needs to be multiplied and must become according to Him. "Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power...", 2Pet.1:2.

Every pure man who is in fellowship with Jesus is someone who will always allow God to convince him instead of convincing himself. That is mainly how he avoids being in error about many things. That way he also avoids pressuring God with his own will or with the will of any other man. Faith is to be fully persuaded and fully convinced by God and by His word.

The work of God is mainly what we are and not what we do for Him.

The best vision you may have is the vision of your heart under the Light of God because no one knows himself but through Jesus, even though light and Jesus are the ones who change the heart; the best gift is the ability to fix our lives under that light; and the best revelation we will have as soon as our lives and hearts are spotless and clean.

Any unbeliever or faithless Christian has many sorts of difficult problems to solve. Here is an example. Whenever God says something it is supposed to happen as God said it would. However, the faithless man shall not see it happen even when God has said it. That will make the unbeliever or faithless Christian even more unbelieving since he does not see God's word being fulfilled at all. The right voice disappointed him. Next time he hears God again he might not take it as God speaking. Whatever God says may never be associated with unbelief and lack of faith or God will become a stumbling block.

The more I understand of the Bible, the more I am aware that theologians, Christians and preachers have abandoned the right way. The Biblical truth is thrown into a corner and piled up in the selves of hatred and threats of nowadays Christians, even if they do not admit it. These times are worse than those we read about when the priests found the Book of the Law thrown in dusty places somewhere in the temple of God, 2 Kings 22:8.

There is a wrong way to do the right thing and many try to do the wrong thing the right way. Let me give an example. You can try to do God's will through the arm of the flesh or you can plead to God for His power to carry out your own will. Beware because there are many ways to enter the way of error.

An ignorant person who does not make use of wisdom in his daily life is usually an unbelieving person who also trusts no one. He is always suspicious of everyone else's opinion. The reason for that is very simple: all ignorant people believe they know all because their lack of knowledge does not make them people who can evaluate what they do not know. And because they believe they know all, it so happens that anything they consider new to their knowledge or experience is enough motive to be suspicious about because they do not believe there is still something to know outside their range of experiences, expectations and knowledge.

Let's talk now to people who usually walk with God. Have you ever taken notice that every time you step out of the way of the Lord or out of the relationship with Him (even if you are not aware you are doing sot) temptations become stronger than ever? Have you given some thought to it? Why does it happen that way? I believe that is so because God leaves us at the mercy of the devil and sin since we have abandoned Him.

Timid people are proud people and the daring are humble and often receive from the Lord who "gives grace to the humble". There is a huge association between humility, daring and receiving. If the daring receive, they must be humble people or grace would not be distributed to them at all.

Ruth was a Moabite, a stranger to the people of God and to the ways of God. Yet, she was an example to the very people of God. Isn't it strange? We would think that she could be, at the most, a consolation or a joy to them by equalling them. However, she outstood them. Her virtues and dedication outstood those of the people of God. How shameful!

Samuel was dedicated to the Lord by his mother. However, that dedication wouldn't avail him anything unless the dedication became a personal issue and intervention as well. His mother's dedication of him meant only he could count on God's blessing from birth. He had still to dedicate his heart to God personally so that God could find a dedicated work from him. If someone else dedicates us to God it won't affect our own will at all. Slaves were forced to be slaves and they were seldom dedicated to their owners. No one owns our will and it needs to love he Lord freely and out of itself.

John the Baptist was not only full of the Spirit, but he was famous and spoken about since birth. God prepared everything inside his heart as well as on the outside.

Both Elizabeth and Zachariah, the parents of John the Baptist, have been filled with the Spirit (Luk.1:41,67). Their son needed parents filled with the Spirit so they could raise him and instruct him in the true ways of the Lord through a personal example. It wouldn't be enough to be believers. We all need to be living beings to walk on living ways.

The public opinion seldom matches with the opinion of God. Do you remember how people wanted to name the baby as Zachariah whom God wanted to be John? (Luk.1:59-63).

Have you ever taken some time to think what things are the real hindrances to God's work in us and through us? Think of all the conditionals you put forward when God or your conscience say something. Whenever you are able to put forth a condition so you may do something for the Lord or by the Lord, you must make sure you are not withstanding the Spirit or your own conscience, but are rather cooperating with Him.

Paul and Barnabas had a huge argument in Antioch against the circumcision people who arrived there, Act.15:2. There was nothing strange about it, though. However, the strange part is the church sending Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to enquire what the apostles had to say about it so that the matter could be settled. Paul and Barnabas were one of the interested parts. Even so, they had been trusted enough to be the ones commissioned for the job. When Paul came to Jerusalem it seems he did not mention anything about the matter and it came out to discussion by itself. Paul was indeed trustworthy and trusted the Lord would cause the matter to be on the discussion table. I don't know about you, but this story calls my heart and attention towards many things. The church trusted Paul and Barnabas to the point of believing their opinion would not be used to influence the apostles in Jerusalem; they trusted in God so much that they knew the trust bestowed upon them by the church would not be in vain; and God worked according to their expectations. It seems Paul did not mention a word about what had taken them there, and yet, the answer they looked for had been granted the way they expected it.

The instinct to hide has started with Adam and Eve. Sin caused people to think of hiding first, even before they have sinned or done anything wrong. That sort of instinct has a life and a power of its own by now. I have seen people hiding or excusing themselves even before they do some sort of good things. Now we have to deal with these new realities of lies which, at the time of Adam, were mere unknown consequences of sin. They are not mere consequences anymore. People need to learn to expose as well as to live with God. In fact, exposing must be the first thing they learn to do. People need to know it is not possible to hide any sin from God and, eventually, from people, no matter how hard they try. They must also know that hiding is useless and is a waste of energy. It is, also, a squandering of precious time. We cannot consider hiding or abstracting oneself from people as a part of personality at all. It isn't. It is a parasite clinging to personality. We cannot become new people and have old habits of hiding and nor may we remain old and change some expressing new habits to avoid a real conversion. All must become new in us, in and out. There is nothing which shouldn't be new in us.

It is very important to know that when we are found under great trials for the sake of God's will, we are always put before a double choice: we may seek God for the sake of our problems or we may decide to seek God for His sake. You must know every trial is an opportunity for you to decide whom you shall serve. What are your motives behind your seeking of God? If you indeed seek to find God for His sake alone, you need to know that your problem will also be surely solved one way or another, one day or another.

"Then, indeed, the churches (...) they were increased with the help of the Holy Spirit", Act.9:31. Let me tell you what this help of the Holy Spirit was. We easily say we have done something with the help of God and much of it is nothing but false humility. Remember when Peter preached and thousands were converted? That was the help of the Holy Spirit! Remember when Philip was taken from one placed to another? That was the help of the Holy Spirit. I am trying to make two points here. One is that people often say they did something or achieved something through the help of the Holy Spirit and any honest person can realize it has been done through the flesh and for fleshly purposes. The other point is that the apostles lived with these great things and described it simply as "the help of the Holy Spirit". They did not describe it any other way and nor did they entice people into emotional sign-seeking or sign-praising. Today these things would be considered great miracles and would create great havoc among people because few people, or even no one, would consider it merely as "the help of the Holy Spirit". Many would even consider it as the goal and not as the means or the help of God. Beware when people are easily flirted and proud, or emotionally active as if "the help of the Holy Spirit" is something strange, unknown and unusual to them. Don't trust such people at all who say emotion is the help of the Holy Spirit.

Make sure your enemies persecute you because of the gospel and not because of you. If people persecute you, let it be because of the truth and not specifically have wronged them in some way. "For what glory is it if you patiently endure while sinning and being buffeted? But if you suffer while doing good, and patiently endure, this is a grace from God", 1 Pet.2:20.

When God frees us from the persecution of our enemies and from the enemies of the gospel, it should feel sweet only because by that we know God is with us. It is not the same as feeling happy and revengeful against our enemies. It is sweet to know God is with us since persecution creates in us many opportunities and situations to doubt.

Any small or weak man always thinks highly of himself. He feels always strong and powerful. The great man, on the other hand, feels small and insignificant or he wouldn't be great. And what makes any man great is not the way he feels, but his active nearness to Jesus and His powerful life. The more I grow towards Jesus at the cost of self, the stronger I will be. However, when man experiences his own death he feels weak and is tempted to feel worthless and tempts God. We should know that the more we lose of ourselves, the greater we shall become in God's own eyes and it won't matter what people say about it. Let's look to find our way towards being small for real instead of looking for greatness. Let's find a type of smallness which can never be faked or only be apparent. Finding smallness for real is the kind of greatness that counts. Let's seek to be small and not great.

Pride or vanity is a feeling of inferiority. Whoever feels unconsciously or ignorantly inferior to others is tempted to make up for the diminishing loss he feels or "experiences" towards others. Feeling proud or presumptuous is a way to make up for the lies people believe easily. We should know we are alike. It doesn't matter how much you strive to be better than others - you will always be like others. It is your mind which tricks you into thinking you can be better than others.

God doesn't give because I am faithful. No. It is I who am in a state of faithfulness which makes it possible for me to receive from the Lord. God isn't good only when He gives - He is always good. It is receiving which is good to me. God is good, whether He gives or takes away.

It is surely true that God does not answer our prayers if our lives or consciences are stained with something, whether it is something we consider great or small. However, we cannot say God grants because we are clean. No. He hears us and we hear Him because we are clean and are found in His presence. Granting our request is something which comes after that. We are heard and spoken to because we are clean. But, being heard is not similar to being granted the request at all. We are heard because we are clean and granted because we have asked under such conditions. We cannot take for granted God will grant anything we want because we are clean. We have, however, the assurance He will hear us when we are clean. Being clean in the heart makes it possible for us to see God and ask Him in a way He shall ponder all our requests.

Any man ashamed of God is always someone who might never be ashamed of sin. This coin has two faces. But, if you happen to be ashamed of God and of sin, choose your way and stop being greedy.

"In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes", Dan.9:1-3. The whole expression of honesty in prayer is so visible in Daniel on this occasion. He didn’t care whether things promised had to be fulfilled by themselves, or expected to happen soon, as some hypocrites do. He went straight to God holding on to a promise and poured his whole heart and faith before God and was heard.

"And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh" Jud.1:23. God has called us to hatred towards the very garment of fleshly things - not to look away from it! How else will we pull people out of it if we do look back or away from it? Whoever looks away loves himself alone! He fears sin and not God, loves self and not people, preserves self from hell and not holiness within and without. Holiness looks into sin and overcomes anything. Self looks away from filth because it still loves it. Holiness looks into it because it fears it not, at least not anymore! His seed keeps him spotless. Dare to cut your hand off, only when it is able to cause you to stumble. If not, however, use it to exterminate all kinds of sin within you. You cannot hate whatever you are not able to look at. What is the reaction in your heart when you look upon sin? Hatred or fear?

The contents of the heart must be made good first, just as creation was made good and acceptable to God. Once it has happened, the whole of it all must be poured out back unto God anyhow and anyway, using one effort or a thousand.

People who pray are courageous, for they are never thrown down when their eyes are open enough to see things as they are. Negligent people run away from the sight of those horrors which are able to drive heroes to prayer. Did Ezekiel run away from the sight of the valley filled with bones? (Ez.37). When God shows you disgrace, that is meant for you to pray for grace. He shows you the need as it is so you should provide for the solution.

You cannot expect God to hear the voice of your prayers if you do not hear His voice when you pray. If you are able to hear Him, it means He is listening to you as well. Then, how can you expect God to answer you praying if you do not obey what you know He has said as well?

Any real revival starts off only after all sins all fully dealt with and successfully and unconditionally forsaken.

It cannot be regarded as sin to believe God is not with you when He is not and as long as you don't doubt the fact that He is not with you. Sin is, not believing truth.

It is commonly argued that one should feel at home here or there. But I found I need to be at home to feel at home, I need to be loving to feel loving, I need to have joy to feel the joy of it, I need to indeed have the Lord to talk to Him and experience His presence for real to state He is there and with me.

Doubt turns the need of faith visible just as much as unbelief tells us there must be something worth believing in.

What the Lord likes, I like; whatever He does not like, I put it in my heart to despise it utterly anywhere, anyhow, any time - even if I like it!

It takes a proud hearer to hear and listen to a proud prophet. There are false teachers because there are false listeners who wish to hear according to their own deceit. "...They will heap up teachers to themselves according to their own lusts, having itching ears", 2Tim.4:3.

The Lord Jesus was not born on Christmas day, yet He can be born in any heart. If we can celebrate Christmas and God Himself still blesses it, He not being born in that day, how greater a blessing will Jesus carry out in the heart where He has been born.

All teachers who have a deep and sound relationship with God are never alike. One must show and teach different things to people according to their need and, above all, as one is able to put truth forth. Nevertheless, everyone deserves all credit for being a servant of God - as long as they are. Because needs are different, there must be different teachers as well.

Think for yourself: just how pleased and delighted are you when people speak and think well about? Perhaps you are your own idol and, if so, be sure there will always be people who please your idol along with you as well as such who despise it. If you have no idol anymore, who cares who despises it or applauds it? Put a Living God there in your heart.

If even Barnabas was deceived into error by a dissembling attitude, Gal 2:13, how much more will a genuine, perfect life achieve from people!

To walk a most holy life will cause us to spare on time greatly, and people will easily see what it is all about when we talk about God. But, to walk according to the course of this world being a Christian will not redeem on the time of perception, salvation and sanctification on whomever is searching for God - it might delay or even close the way forever.

My little doggie is afraid of thunder and it hides away and seeks comfort because of of its fear when clouds roar far away – it believes it is in danger. When I hold it, it feels safe only till the next thunder noise disturbs its peace again. If I only could get into his little mind to explain clouds roar like that and especially that it has nothing to do with us down here and that they will not reach us since those are noises between clouds and clouds... if I could do the same to sound Christians in search of a deeper Life with God and tell them about a certain roaring, bluffing, lying and blaspheming lion as well who wishes to attract their attention away from God!

Any teacher who does not teach as far as how to be taught and to be fully led by God, is not worthy of his title nor of his reward!

It is an experienced man who most needs exercising. People who do not have holiness installed in them, need to learn it as much as they need to have it and experience it. It is like a computer program: you hear and learn about it, how and what to download; you download, install it and later used it and learn how to make the best of it to create and live on with it that way. Updates will be installed if one needs to do so. "And this will we do, if God permit", Heb 6:3.

Whatever hinders man to reach out unto God, will inevitably hinder God to reach out to man. Whatever makes man reach God, will turn God's face towards man.

"Listen to no man who often fails to listen to God", someone said.

You should never have peace if God is not around you or in you. If God is far from you, if His absence is felt and it strikes you deeply, you should neither try to be at ease nor at rest. It is better to be reprimanded by God because of unbelief, then to be assured by the devil that you are a believer. The only peace which will seal our heavenly passport will be the one we may experience or have in the presence of God. Seek to be there and believe because you have life and it causes you to believe the right way: "Whoever believes, has Eternal Life" already within him.

When you exchange trusting Jesus for Jesus Himself, maybe the world will speedily change around you. People easily relate themselves with trust and not with Jesus.

To delight in God, self must not be there to be delighted upon anymore or there to be still seen as a delight.

When one is not taught of God or not teaching to be taught of God alone, one is breaking a New Covenant, Jer.31:30-34

Anyone able to discern falsity in a false apostle who is keen in preaching, is surely one who will spot Paul in a crowd as Barnabas did.

When people wish after something strongly, it makes them want to believe God will or is speaking to them about that thing. But, God speaks when He does and not when we are wishing to hear Him speak about something. Beware, as well, of your own heart when you are looking for a real answer from God which He will grant: it is not God who is confusing you, but the answer your own heart wishes to have.

If the greatest blessing is to have God in His fullness, even when we have nothing (riches, health of worldly business), the greatest curse must be when we have it all on earth and are not aware of God or the need of Him because we lack nothing, want nothing and don't realize we are too poor, Ps.73.

I didn’t know what to make out of things when God tells us something to do or to pray for and it does not work out. It is like when Jesus told His disciples to go and prepare Him a place to stay somewhere in Samaria and it did not work out, Luk.9:51-53; or when, after having expelled some demons out of an oppressed person, He could not enter the cities He was intending to go to preach to, Luk.8:39.

Disobedience is sin, sometimes it is the very curse for mingling with sin – so it is to obey the wrong thing, which amounts to the same thing. People just cannot get an obedient heart and ear because they do not enter the narrow door because of sin. Sometimes disobedience is sin and, sometimes, sin it is the very curse of sin.

Being bored is being impatient. Being bored can be caused by doing the wrong thing as well. "For if these things are in you and abound, they make you to be neither idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ", 2 Pet.1:8. It can be doing the right thing the wrong way, it can be doing the wrong thing the right way. Being bored is sin or caused by sin - even when you are doing nothing.

To love as we should is seldom to love as we can.

It is change of heart which God seeks from us. Hannah wanted a child for herself because she was scorned by others for being unable to have children. She kept the desire for a child burning within her and changed the heart of the request and promised to give the child to God. God says, “an eye for an eye” and by that we understand why Paul said, “for as you have yielded your members as slaves to uncleanness, and to lawless act unto lawless act, even so now yield your members as slaves to righteousness unto holiness”, Rom.6:19. Do not change the request and rather change the heart or you will not fulfil the Law of God. The gospel is a change of heart, an eye for an eye: whatever you would use or do for worldliness, now you use or do for God.

It is so strange that the word of a living God, who said “let there be light” and there is still light to this very day, can be made fruitless – not by the devil, not by opposition of any kind, but by breeding cares for this world, through impatience and concerns about what we shall eat and dress tomorrow or even further ahead!

If you live well without what God takes away from you and stay unhindered close to Him all the way and almost unconsciously, you will live well with whatever He grants you as well. As you can see, it is very important to be satisfied in God and with God all the time. If you are satisfied with Him under heavy trials, you will surely satisfy your soul with living bread even when you are rich. We should be content to live in His abundant Life anyhow, anywhere.

After God has heard any prayer, the amount of prayers concerning the same request just shows how selfish someone is about it all and why God needs to delay it to give you time to separate the chaff of selfishness from the wheat of holiness.

People under a heavy yoke, if they live with God close by and still complain about the yoke because they are more conscious of the yoke than of God and love, will surely either complain against God or deny Him once that yoke is removed. Once they find themselves free of trials they will not be faithful to God because they have not chosen to seek Him and have Him alone under the heaviness of trials and under temptations. The Israelis who complained against Pharaoh are the ones who complained against God in the desert. They died in that desert by the curse of God because they complained against Him and His will. We read that "God knew them" under that yoke in Egypt where they complained, Ex.2:25. Unsatisfied people are always hungry to feed self - if they complain because they do not feed themselves on Pharaoh anymore, they will deny God.

If words are fire already, they need not be put on fire anymore. Many pastors put a lot of trust on the way they preach and scream. However, it is the words which need to have the fire of God, however simple they are. It is one thing to express our whole hearts and God's - it is another to try to gain some credit and consideration by the way we speak.

Jesus came to make us free to do and not to make bound to do. Beware of overdoing when God wants you to do. Freedom may, also, cause ex-slaves to be slothful because they don't know how to deal with something they never experienced before: freedom. Any bondage causes people not know how to do things out of free will and willingly.

God is not merciful towards sin - He is merciful against all sinning and sin. The more God is against sin, the more merciful He is.

Presumption is there because we either do not see God or we have not God to see Him at all.

Everyone thinks to get into a door before it closes, go to a store while its doors are still open. Yet, many just do not go find grace so as to use it in a time of need. Only fools wait till they have to knock at a closed door which will not open again. There is a certain time to go to the store of Grace and there will be a time when even virgins will stay out.

It is not wrong to think mathematics when we do it with the Lord. It is not right to read or think about the Bible when one is doing without God.

People, nowadays, are not rejecting God – they are rejecting Christians, merely.

“Behold the Lamb…” should always become the only words coming from people who wish to cause praise to erupt from everyone else. They should not say “Let’s praise the Lord”, but rather, “Behold the Lamb of God”. They should direct people to the vision. Then praise will be natural and spontaneous.

Unbelief is the fruit of a sin somewhere, just as much as faith - genuine faith - is the fruit of a HOLY Spirit. This is the main mystery of faith: "Having the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience", 1Tim.3:9. Are you unbelieving perhaps? Repent and go back to where you have fallen.

Unbelief is fed by stubbornness and to be stubborn is to be unbelieving and to be unbelieving is to be stubborn. Hence, a believer is obedient from nature by being free from the world and bound to God as He is. To be bound to God as He is not, is to be be bound to oneself and it is as good as being unbelieving.

Every temptation has the power to put you into sin just as it has the power to make you take a stand against it. All temptations have the means, as well, to put you into a useless battle which is already won inside you – beware.

You can measure success in the Christian life by the amount of obedience to God and to His words such a life exercises willingly and faithfully - that kind of obedience that you are mostly unaware of.

If riches are not the things which lead us to Christ, surely, poverty is not what will be able to separate us from Him either. We may assume that any man who is selfishly worried during times of lack, is someone who will easily be tempted to neglect His Lord once his needs are fulfilled. Those are the reactions coming from the same heart put before different situations. If you pray to God because you are poor and find Him, make sure your heart changes before you become rich or blessed materially! We must look beyond being sustained by God and beyond receiving answers to prayers. We must, also, look beyond not being answered and fulfilled. Whoever seeks God because he is poor, will cease to follow Him once He has fulfilled. Whoever is not faithful in the little he has because he uses his mind and time to worry, will never be faithful in greater things that God may grant. This same principle applies itself in all areas of our lives, including marriages or sickness. Make sure you change (or make sure you see the need to change) before or after God has blessed you in some unexpected way. Maybe, He is blessing to work out a need to change in you and you did not understand it that way at all.

We all know we need grace and graceful means to be able to live with God for God. Many people become worked up to discuss things doctrinally about our need to meet God. How will you meet me without knowing me? How will you know Him without meeting Him for real? How would you ever meet God without Him being fully present? And we know to be saved is nothing more than to come to know God as He is.

When we do things for ourselves God’s way, it can’t be selfish at all. Whenever we do things for others or supposedly for God our way, it is selfishness working its way through all the time.

What tires man out is self and not work. Let self die and the yoke of Christ will be lighter than a feather, as natural and as light as nothing else can ever be.

God says we should ask “Where is the Lord” and not say “The Lord is here” unless it is true and real. People in charge of services or of the things of God quite often tell others to believe God is there among them as make them feel safe far from God. “And they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me. The priests said not, Where is the LORD?” Jer.2:8. True revival starts when we ask “where is the Lord”, looking back to the way He has been with the twelve apostles - Paul including - just as Israel should be inquiring about the Lord that brought them out of Egypt and out of the slavery of sin.

Eve hid things behind leaves simply because she became aware of the things she tried to hide. She was hiding it from herself merely, not from God. But she believed she was hiding from God. Scripture says she was hiding and not hiding from God. It is like a child closing his eyes and believing he is hidden from everyone else. Hiding from God is like trying to hide things from ourselves: it just won't work!

People fight for the opinion of others because they do not want to loose the opinion they may have about themselves. In truth, it is not the opinion of others that really matters to them, but rather the opinion they breed and have concerning whatever they are or believe they are. The opinion of others sustains them in thinking and believing highly of themselves.

Many people hide things for many reasons. Adam and Eve did hide, yes, simply because they were ashamed and felt lost - something they never experienced before and did not know how to handle. But, these days people hide through pride, because of stubbornness and due to that delight of showing to others they are not wrong, trying to win the prize which exists only in their minds. They cannot stand to loose a mere argument. The fact is, people nowadays decline to reveal for more reasons than the ones Adam and Eve had and we should never comply to any of them nor take those as acceptable reasons, especially for us. The fact is that someone who hides is a looser thinking and believing he is gaining something.

I believe a rich man who is holy in and through his money is able to achieve great things, even though he might go through greater hardships and temptations than a poor man who has only self-pity and pride to strive against. One can and may have a holy marriage or no marriage and also be holy. One should be found faithful in or through any gift coming from God, whether it is health or sickness, apostleship or computing - let us do all for the Lord, whatever it may be achieved for Him and through Him.

If you have a living encounter with Jesus you either become like Him or like the devil. The disciples managed to live with Jesus and they turned to be like Him eventually and eternally, while the Pharisees became extremely bad by having Jesus too close by. Jesus' living made trees either good or bad, Mat.12:33. Profound conviction may turn us into most holy beings or into people who stone Steven. No one will ever remain the same after a genuine, real, unmistakable encounter with Jesus or with truth. If that encounter is real, we will either end up as Judas or as Peter and John. Never again will it be the same. If you are praying for real revival, you should expect these things to happen this way because people will suffer real encounters with the Spirit of Jesus. Do not dare to believe all will be well after the way called "Holiness" is opened up in the desert where you live, Is.35:8. Things will be really different among bad people as well as among holy ones. You shall see holiness as you have never imagined it possible and you shall see evil as you have never seen it before. Make sure you don't show yourself surprised when it happens. And, if real bad ones are converted to the Lord, you should also know that, the worst people are, the better they may become because God is really at work. Never be dismayed nor stunned by the realities of the workings of God. The Red sea will open up and it will create a nation for God and another for hell. Make sure you don't become numb when it happens. Do not offend God by being stunned when God is at work. Admiration is unbelief in disguise. Unbelief reacts that way when things happen. It admires because it refuses to change. If you prepare yourself for greater works now, you might not offend God through admiration and by acting surprised when He comes down.

Prayers with no answers or with no concluding outcome (a yes or a no), are not prayers at all.

There are times we believe we are fine and we aren't; there are times we believe we are not fine, but we are well and only do not feel it that way; there are times we are not well feeling fine, and not well feeling bad too. Feeling well when we are well is a perfect feeling - so is feeling bad when we are in a bad state.

There are people who are afraid to do, since they fear to do things without God and there are people who overdo things because they feel they need to appease their consciences by doing. We may rest assured, either way, that there is no man as active and actively engaged in God's will as he who stands up to take his full rest in God continuously. Find your way into the rest of God, that kind of rest which still remains to be found by the people of God all over the world, Heb.4:9.

If we love ourselves, God’s work must be done at our inconvenience. If, however, we love God’s work and God above all, there is nothing to deny because all is denied and replaced for a better love.

If God talks to us we will become either meeker or harder, depending on how we react to Him. One thing is certain: we shall never be the same again. If we hear and obey, we shall change for the better; if we hear and neglect His voice, or disobey it in some way, or obey it partially, we shall become harder, more impatient and more obstinate than we have ever been. No one can avoid it happening that way. Have you ever seen someone becoming more obstinate and yell more than ever? Has that person heard the gospel or has he heard God speak to him recently? The conclusion you may take is: that person has not been obedient. When God speaks to us we may either become like angels or like demons.

Each of Jesus' prayers has been heard by the Father. He has prayed that we be one with the Father and the Father with us, (John 17). Unless we become one with the Father now we will be very lonely people because of that prayer. If you refuse to be one with the Father through ignorance or unwillingness, the fact that you feel lonely proves that prayer has been heard. Now, the choice is yours: you either become one with the Father or remain lonely forever. You cannot stop feeling lonely by trying to have the company of people instead of being one with the Father. Only He fills the gap.

"Through Your Commandments I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way", Ps.119:104. This does not mean obeying the commandments is understanding, but rather that it grants access to understanding. After obedience, understanding and knowledge is easy. "If anyone desires to do His will, he shall know...", John 7:17. However, my hope cannot be set on the fact that I fulfil all but rather on Jesus. He is the one who enables us to fulfil and to understand afterwards.

One of the reasons why people move away from God or draw away from obedience is that they are not instructed by Jesus personally. We may become learned people, church addicts or even theology students. However, none of that can be compared to the personal instruction Jesus promised us. He promised we would receive it individually and from Him personally. "I have not departed from Your judgments; for You have taught me", Sal.119:102. It is very difficult to depart from God when we are taught by Him personally. It is not always necessary to stop going to church or to stop listening to the brothers to be taught by Jesus, unless my hopes are settled in them. Jesus can instruct us anywhere and anyhow.

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him", John 3:17. People easily assume they may carry on sinning after they read verses like these. They say Jesus did not come to condemn them and saves from hell and not necessarily from sin. However, we cannot afford to misunderstand this piece of Scripture to suit the flesh. This verse intends to say that we should fix our lives before or when Jesus comes to us. "Behold, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, that I not come and strike the earth with utter destruction", Mal.4:5-6. Jesus did not come so this would happen. However, the greatest stumbling block in the Universe is Jesus Himself. We should fix our lives immediately, before He comes to us. "And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil", John 3:19.

We have the responsibility to reach the point where we can easily distinguish between the leading of God and the impulse of emotion; between good-sense and impulsivity; between doing with the heart its feelings and doing because of the heart and its feelings. The sooner we reach that point the better it shall be for anyone of us. We shall avoid being misled by the devil and by ourselves. We shall avoid being misled some other way when God speaks. We cannot reject being led on account of the possibility of being misled; and we cannot refuse to make the best use of good sense only because emotions are part of us. The voice of the Shepherd must become so familiar to us that we should know it better than our own. We need to become eternal, constant beings and distinguish between God and us.

God gave a staff to many pastors and preachers so they can use it to lead the flock and not so that they can lean on it. The same must be said about offerings and tithes. The leaders should know the aim of those offerings are the people in the congregations and not the pastors and leaders. Do you lean on your staff or do you use it for God's glory?

When we are tried and tempted, we should never believe that it would be enough to not fail. Avoiding a fall is good, but not enough. We still need to reveal the Life of our Lord in a continuous way. Not becoming angry is not the same as living in all patience and readiness of the Life God gave us; not stealing is not the same as giving out of a pure heart; not lying is not the same thing as telling the truth. Our aim should always be to live the Lord's life out to the full and not merely staying away from sin. Not sinning is very little for eternal beings which share in the eternal life God grants in this present age. We should rule through the new life and not merely avoid being ruled by sin. We should not expect to be without opposition or enemies before we will live through God. "Rule in the midst of your enemies", Sal.110:2.

You cannot expect God to bless you in those things He does not approve and neither may you ever think God won’t bless the person He approves in whatever He approves. Unfortunately, people start praying to God holding in the heart and desires what God can’t bless. They pray and God doesn’t answer. Once they clean up their motives and their lives, they go to God remembering the previous sinful experiences of unanswered prayers. We must assume everything has changed after we have really changed.

Another unfortunate thing that usually happens to humans is that evil people don’t have evil appearances. They are not used to reveal their hearts and minds. Once we come to the Lord and all becomes new, we have nothing to hide anymore. We shouldn’t be afraid to reveal all in the sincerity of our hearts. "He who practices truth comes to the Light so that his works may be revealed, that they exist, having been worked in God", John 3:21. In practical terms, we should be able to assume truth as truth, lies as lies and evil as evil. None of it should be hidden or helped to be hidden. We cannot afford to be divided between two thoughts anymore, 1 Kings 18:21. If Ball saves, let’s live for him; if only Jesus saves, let’s live for Him alone. We shouldn’t be wavering between sin and God anymore. Let’s take a stand. If sinning is good to people, why should they hide it? And if God is good to them, why hide Him from people?

To Doubt is to disbelieve in a camouflaged way. Perhaps it is a feigning way to believe lies. However, we cannot afford to believe at any cost or just for the sake of believing. We need to know we believe the truth. We need to experience the truth so we can exterminate doubts against truth from its roots. We need to experience it to extinguish any kind of trust in any lies or illusions as well.

Who is there that forgets to drink water? Only those who hate water or those who are not thirsty. And who is there that constrains himself to drink water? Isn't it a sick person or someone who loves to drink something else? Think of it next time you push yourself to read your Bible and to drink from the water of life.

"Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart", Sal.97:11. Many wish to have light to become righteous. However, we read here light is sown for those who become righteous. "If anyone desires to do His will, he shall know ...", John 7:17. We shouldn't forget, as well, that joy is for the upright in heart and not the other way round. I mean, many wish to have joy and not uprightness. Their aim is joy and not the salvation from their sins.

Fear is a kind of excessive confidence in the flesh. Every time people suspect the flesh will not avail them anything, they fear.

"I have found David, My servant; with My holy oil I have anointed him. My hand shall be always with him... If his children forsake My Law, and do not walk in My judgments; if they profane My Precepts, and do not keep My Commandments; then I will visit their wickedness with the rod, and their sin with stripes", Ps.89:20,30. God can let the people go their way when they forsake Him. However, part of His covenant is that He will rather punish than let go. We should be happy and rejoice every time God reprimands us about something. To visit us with stripes is the fulfilment of His covenant.

Sin is an illusion. It it were not, it would get along with truth. (Let's assume truth and reality cannot be separated). Because sin hates truth, we may assume it is based on illusion. Truth is reality and that's where the enmity of sin against it is born. Reality and illusion just don't match. And if sin is an illusion, then truth can't mislead people. It is simply not possible. You may trust it. Make sure, therefore, that the truth you hold on to works and saves - make sure it is practical and real. It must become practical and firm or it can't be truth at all.

Every time the providence or the operation of God grants us something, every single gift He gives to cover our needs means only to reach the heart we have and to assure us of His goodness. It is wrong to believe God does things only to satisfy us or our needs. He doesn't. He aims further and deeper than any of that.

Many times we fear that something bad might happen to truth since so many people despise it, change it and trample on it. It is sad and unfortunate what they do. However, try to picture a piece of gold out there in the streets. People will trample on it, dust will cover it, but it won't be able to change the gold into something cheaper and worthless. Its value will remain and speak for itself. That's how it works with truth. Trampling on it will never change it. However, we cannot say the same about the ones who despise truth themselves, for they shall change for the worse. Truth won't change, but they will. Those who trample truth shall experience in themselves what any enemy of God and of truth experiences in the long run. Their own hearts shall testify against them and start speaking on behalf of truth.

All of us should learn to do all things from the right motives. All it takes is to start doing anything for the right motives. Start doing until you can do it the right way. Even when God ordered Israel to destroy cows and everything the nations owned, He only had Israel's motives in mind. The spoil should never be what motivated Israel to destroy the nations. "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them", Ex.15:9. However, every time Israel's motives against the enemies of God had been right and righteous, God allowed them to take home of the abundance of the spoil and divide it among themselves. David, however, would dedicate to God every piece of gold and silver taken from the nations.

"Yea, God shall wound the head of His enemies, and the hairy crown of him who walks on in his guilt", Ps.68:21. There is a natural enmity between the flesh and the Spirit of God. Sin is responsible for that sort of enmity and has a consequence of guilt and further transgression. It so happens because people walk in their guilt. That's the main reason sinful people along with sin are made enemies of God. They can't stand God if He appears to them in a real way the way He is. Walking in sin and hiding or holding on to our guilt to feel bitter and justified against truth and God shall cause us to be mortally wounded sooner or later. We must do all we can to avoid that happening to us. The sequence of happenings should be reverted and we should walk all the way back to cause our hearts to love God spontaneously and naturally on the long run.

If people do not change, it isn't because their time has not come. It can't be. People do not change because they are not willing to change and ignorance takes over the reigns of their lives. Whenever the gospel knocks at our door, the time to change has come. Whoever does not change then is unwilling and yields rather to lies.

It is much better to finish one single task than to try and carry out many things which we don't finish. It is far better to end one task in perfection than to do many and not perfect them. We should also have in mind that the last bit of any difficult task is the most difficult part of it for many reasons. One of those reasons is that people love to celebrate before the time.

The evidence that I have been forgiven is the change in me which is visible to everyone around. The change in the person who pleads for forgiveness is, also, a sure sign of the presence of the mighty grace of God in the inner parts of the heart.

Pray until you can pray. Ask till you can ask and receive. Be willing until you are willing. Talk till you can say things the right way with fewer words. Listen till you can hear the way you should hear and delight yourself in it. Obey till you can be obedient and willing. Do not wait until you become willing to do something - just start doing it right away! Don't wait till you feel like praying - pray till you can be heard.

"You have given a banner to those who fear You, to lift it up because of the truth", Ps.60:4. It is interesting to know that God does not destroy the evil which chases those who fear God to annihilate them, but rather lifts up a banner where they can run to and be protected. God does not destroy liars for the sake of truth, at least not now. The truth needs to stand out before them. We shouldn't need to fear the bow of evil - we should only fear to be found outside the banner of God. "And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do", Lk.12:4.

If joy is to be real and existing, there must be a converging of motives, life and ways between man and God. Have you ever thought about what a coincidence really is? Well, let's say there must be a 'coincidence' between man's spirit and God's before happiness, glory and joy can be real. This kind of match needs to happen. This is the kind of reconciliation we are talking about if we are to be fully reconciled with God. We converge towards the Lord, we start loving as He loves, do things the way He does them - in fact, we do them through Him so reconciled are we. Have you been that 'coincided' with God lately? Do you meet with God and with God's needs that easily? Are you that coincident? That's what happens to clean people very easily. There is a synchrony, a real converging of minds, spirits and thoughts together with the way it should be done or carried out. Anyway, for that to happen, we must be a "prepared people for the Lord", Lk.1:17. The initiative must be on our side when the Lord is near because there is no better way to converge towards God. When He comes, we must already be willing and converging towards Him. Mercy hands the responsibility over to man so God may find man converging towards Him. Man is the one who must become willing to change and not willing to change God. God is in no need to change. He shall be there for man to stumble over Him. It is man who must change. "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you", James 4:8.

There is this false joy which people try out by showing something in the outside which is not happening inside them. It is not wrong to reveal the true state of our spirit and heart, especially if we are indeed joyful. But, I believe it is far better to reveal the sadness of our hearts when we are sad, than to reveal a false joy and to lie to people around about us. It is true hypocrites look like truthful people. However, true joy can never be considered as a falsity; and falsity cannot be considered joy since it is just too given and too used to lying.

A son was promised to Abraham and he just wouldn't be born; the promise of a huge nation rested heavy upon Isaac's shoulders and his wife was barren; Samuel anointed David to become king over Israel and it just wouldn't happen, at least not as David expected it would; we could also speak about Joseph, Jacob and even Noah whose ark took about a hundred years to build. There is a pattern in all things God promises before they happen. It always seems as if they shall never be fulfilled. If you see this pattern happening to you remember the that what is happening is according to Scripture. An if it is, be assured things are happening to you the Bible's way. You need to be faithful to the end, until the promise becomes a reality. Its fulfilment is just a question of time.

"According to Your name, O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth", Ps.48:10. This is a true statement. Let's try to figure out what it means, though. We should always remember that the genuine praise towards God shall always be according to the reality of the experience people have about Him, of His presence and of His goodness. It shall always be according to the name of the Lord and the reality of His genuine presence. Have you been using God's name in vain lately? Is He a great king around where you walk and talk? Or is it only your words that say He is? Is He great to you for real or is it just your words which say He is great? Does He manifest Himself to you and through you as He really is? God's praise will always be in accordance to what is revealed of Him for real. There is much praise going on which is not according to God's name, but is rather in accordance to what people love to sing and to the way they would like to do it.

"The second greatest revelation man must have from God is the revelation of God's plan and will for his life". This is what a friend of mine told me today. It made so much sense to me. Christ being revealed to man is the greatest revelation.

"Be strong, and He will make your heart stronger", Ps.31:24. Strengthening and strength comes mainly from the fact that I walk close to the Lord. He strengthens the heart in a real way, then. In other words, for one to be strong, one needs to take good care of that relationship and that it is spotless. To have and to keep that relationship, one needs to stay away from any kind of sin. To be strong, therefore, means that we stay clean and spotless all the time.

The best way to avoid having evil people settled down in a congregation is to preach in such a way that they will go away if they do not have plans to get converted. And if they go away, they might come back converted. However, the main reason for having them go away is that God does not work if the leaders are stained with some sin which they refuse to put in the light. The less evil people there is among the members of any congregation, the better and the more God works. Let people be few and pure. They will multiply according to their seed.

Wouldn't it be wonderful? If I touch, God touches? Wouldn't it?

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; you shall dwell in the land, and you shall be fed on truth", Ps.37:3. "...You shall be fed on truth..." How meaningful! Have you been looking for truth lately? Are you fulfilling the conditions to find it? However, never dare to separate truth from reality or it will become just another fantasy. Truth has the means and the power to become real. Dare to fulfil and to have it that way always.

Whoever knows how to wait (on God), surely knows how to receive and to be faithful to it. Every person you doesn't keep hope and expectancy awake and aflame, shall surely waste away whatever he receives - f he receives at all - or shall let greed hide it away somewhere.

Any holy man of God here on this earth of temptation is like a giant being attacked by ants: he just won't become an ant.

It is good when torture and persecution happen only for the sake of the fulfilment of prophecies. It means they do not happen for our correction anymore.

Having grudges is a very bad sin. However, feeling sorry when it it is not pure mercy is just as bad a sin.

Many believe prayer is talking and speaking to the Lord who reads the heart of men. If it were mere talking, what is this that David puts this way: "...Consider my meditation...Listen to the voice of my cry"; "For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping", Ps.5:1,2;6:8. These voices God hears so easily are not words but sighs. It is like recognising someone's voice whom we would love to hear. It would be like hearing a mere meditation in us.

No one can ever feel inferior to me near me without my own consent and permission. However, I can't say the same thing about people feeling superior to me.

A complete, unconditional surrender which is also a voluntarily one is worth all we can ever desire or even more. It also serves as a proof of how faithful God is indeed. Our kind of surrender is what proves God to be right when people ask from us to descend from our crosses so they might believe.

"Let no one despise you", Titus 2:15. In order that no one despises me when I speak the very words of God as He would speak them Himself, I need to have a life inside, outside and in every aspect of my practical living where God can manifest Himself without being ashamed of doing so. So people may never come to despise me, God needs to be able to present Himself to people as He is wherever I am. "But, I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills. And I will not know the speech of those who are puffed up, but the power", 1Cor.4:19.

Whoever judges other people easily, surely loves appearances and unrealities. Judging is a kind of conspiracy to hide own sin - it is part of secret power against God and, especially, against walking in the light in a practical way. And appearances cause people to hide better.

Meekness is not being tolerant towards sin at all. In fact, the less tolerant people are towards sin, the meeker they become. People have an idea that meekness is more or less tolerance towards sin. However, the more tolerant we are towards sin, the less meekness we shall experience. If you ever whish to share in the fruit of meekness, which comes from the Holy Spirit of God, you must have an intense hatred towards any kind of sin in you. Truth in the mouth of a genuinely meek person does not hurt, however sharp and accurate it is when it strikes - even when it strikes like lightening. Meekness mixed with truth is like sharpness in a sword: it cuts deeper and better. Truth without meekness is like a blunt knife: it hurts more. And meekness without truth is hypocrisy. We may not change truth because we are blunt, but should rather move closer to the Lord. Then shall truth mean something to people for they shall be cut deep in the heart.

Many use darkness and the dark places to walk on in order to avoid being seen. But, God commands us to walk in the light and not merely to walk on. Walking in darkness is not walking at all. "Walk while you have the Light, lest darkness come upon you. For he who walks in darkness does not know where he goes", John 12:35. It is good that we don't know how to walk when we are found under the darkness caused by any sin. "Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of the world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because there is no light in him", John 11:9,10.

If there is carnal love, surely there is also carnal faith; carnal hope; carnal meekness which is hardness; and many more carnal things we can think of, as many as there are virtues. Will God ever accept any carnal offer from us? Did He not kill Aaron's sons for putting strange fire on His altar? Why would we believe it shall work differently with anyone of us?

"Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the LORD of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we return?", Mal.3:7. Is it possible that the words of God are not feared even when we do not have a clue of what God is trying to say? Shouldn't we fear only because of whom He is? Why would we ever dare to waver, resist or question whatever God says because we don't grasp the reach of Hs words yet? Is His name not enough reason for us to listen and to listen carefully? Can't we believe Him only for the sake of who He is?

"I will be a swift witness against (...) those who do not fear Me...", Mal.3:5. To be a swift witness means, above all, being so efficient that the testimony of God remains for a long, long time with whom it struck. The effect of surprise plays a huge role here as well. To be swift by coming whenever no one expects causes a bigger impression on people than a thousand sermons on the subject. God comes to testify about Himself in a moment people do not expect Him to do so. But, for it to happen regularly that way, men of God need to be extremely holy and fully sanctified. "Because of them I sanctify Myself...", John 17:19.

Mutual trust between God and man will bring peace into man. It will also do away with any kind of wavering or double-heartedness. If we are honest concerning the kind of faith we have, we shall be able to trust God in the same degree that God can trust us. We know that trust in God is directly related to the amount of trust God bestows upon us. Are you faithful? Or, perhaps, have you forgotten that genuine faith is both fruit of the Spirit and, also, a gift of the Spirit? God cannot trust you less or more than you are able to trust Him. Faith for miracles is a gift and honest people believe only according to what God has spoken. Faith is believing a word from God. Any other kind of faith is not faith at all.

Whoever applauds and encourages others is co-author of whatever they do, whether good or bad. And those who oppose good encouragement simply show how much they resent being good themselves. Also, whoever criticises evil and breeds a bitter heart just reveals how bad a person he is or, at least, how bad he wishes he could be.

There are trials and temptations which do not kill people at all. They are like the pit where Joseph was thrown: it had no water in it to drown him. Are you still in the presence of God? Then be sure that trials are like a pit without water and they won't kill you. Remember Job and how his trials never managed to kill him at all? "I have freed Your prisoners out of the pit in which is no water. Turn to the stronghold, prisoners of hope; even today I declare that I will return to you double", Zec.9:11-12.

Forgetting is a human asset. Forgetting can help a lot in many aspects of our faithfulness. Forgetting may be as good or as bad as remembering, depending what one remembers, what one forgets about, and why. By forgetting temporarily or even eternally about certain things, we free some space and resources in us to be used and filled by what we do, whether good or bad. We cannot do two things at once. Let's only try to forget when we need to and remember what needs to be remembered. Remembering evil can be bad.

Conscience does not need force to function the way it ought. In fact, it works much better when not forced. Whoever wants to cause conscience to believe something it already knows, also knows how to try to make it believe something against what it knows. People try to deceive conscience by talking it into something they wish it to approve or, at least, not disapprove. The law of God should remain untouched, and yet, many people try hard to look at it from some other angle which will not be harsh against transgression. To force conscience into something is to lose the much needed spontaneous spirit which is so important for the sake of truth inside. And to be anything less than spontaneous is the way towards error and hypocrisy.

The ways of the Lord, when real to us, are very beautiful and simply wonderful. Imaginations may cause us to think about the things of God as unreal. And the things of God shouldn't be anything but real to us. The ways of the Lord are practical ways. We can never talk about doing anything about them unless they are real. Imagination is good if it is an aid to thinking. But, in as much as it can cause a sane spirit to see truth and reality as it is, it also can cause people who taught their hearts to lie to be mislead concerning the reality of God and of all His works. Are you a real person? Or are you scared away when the things of the Lord work out for real? Fantasies are stubbornness and stubbornness always cries out to be satisfied. It also teaches the mind to avoid being real about certain things it would rather have as unreal. Are you real? Do you take God's things as real or not? Do they work out? Only those who take them as real shall see them as a duty and as a responsibility. No one can ever become responsible towards fantasies or towards unreal things, no matter how hard he tries because we simply know they are fantasies.

Any kind of secret love towards sin causes a heart to be judgmental against others. It so works that a secret love wishes to remain secret and hidden. Judging others is an utility and an ability of a perverse mind because it helps to hide a bad conscience away by the judgments it makes. People easily assume and believe they are concealed behind judging. The mind of the judger tells him no one who judges is guilty of what he judges. But, Jesus says the opposite. He said one judges only because one has similar sins which demand a hiding formula. This is why Jesus promised that whoever judges shall be convicted of the same kind of sins he is able to see in others and use them to hide. And many of those who are driven into a corner concerning their own sins often turn judgements upon themselves. Accusations are, also, ways the mind has to excuse sins or, at least, to maintain the approval from others it seeks to have. However, as soon as the love of Jesus is poured into us abundantly, all kinds of judgments cease, even those which accuse self of something. Clean people are not accused and, consequently, become unable to accuse others as well.

Habits and ways man learns over the years are always a kind of hindrance to a spontaneous good conduct, especially when changes in circumstances linger or take a while to occur as promised. If it is not yet the right time for things to happen according to God's will, people may gain habits and attitudes which are not appropriate for a (future) life with God. Just as happens with obesity, a bad tongue, bitterness, many sins may be a consequence of being bored and of feeling useless. We should be careful if we have long term promises to be fulfilled with us. "And take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts are weighed down with headaches and drinking and anxieties of this life; and that day should suddenly come on you", Luc.21:34. I cannot believe I shall change after things happen. I won't. The kind of heart I have now shall go on with me wherever I go. Let's be careful about getting roots outside the promises and never allow your heart to become addicted to anything, however good it seems to be. Also, do not allow your mind to convince you it is still not time to change. Change now and wait. At least it shows you are not the one hindering the promises of God to be fulfilled. "Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry", Hab.2:3.

Whenever you talk, you need to make sure your silence wouldn't be better or wouldn't achieve more on the long run. And whenever you keep quiet, make sure your words wouldn't be a better investment after all. Take the honour of God always into consideration. And whenever you need to say what God requires you to say, whether it is because He has given you a word to speak or because the written commandment demands it from you, especially then, do not dare to add apologetic words or attitudes to what you are saying. Neither add bitterness or any feeling to your words which may pervert the good things you were about to achieve by speaking. Those who talk and apologize for having said something and those who are harsh and bitter when talking, have one and the same heart.

Giving leftovers is never the same as giving what we are needing. We shall be rewarded according to what we have left and not according to what we have given. What you keep back is what shall determine whether you shall be rewarded or not. However, there are many who give what they lack just to feel sad or accomplished afterwards, and there are those who are scarcely aware of giving away what they could use for themselves. There will also be people who shall be rewarded having still a lot which they have been unable to give away because the abundance of God was great. It won't change a thing concerning their reward because God can read the heart of man from afar. What counts is the heart that God sees.

"Do not My words do good to him who walks uprightly?" Mic.2:7. To do good to someone or to tell a person what needs to be told doesn't always work a pleasant feeling in the person who receives or in the person who gives. Feelings cannot measure or judge whatever we may have done or not done. God can curse by giving blessings when man is not ready to receive them. And God can grant a lot of good things to His own enemies to uphold His name before their eyes in the day they shall be judged. Giving it to them will also cause them to be careless and unworried till the day they die and face judgment. That is a message Sal.73 teaches us clearly. The enemies of God don't always find a reason to repent under their circumstances.

Answers to all prayers, even if it is a 'no', means that we have a real relationship with God and that we have moved away from a fantasy-relationship.

If you ever learned something from God, you surely have heard His voice already. Maybe you weren't aware of that fact. Now, take it from there and learn how to distinguish it from other disputing voices which have claims upon your heart.

Every reward from the Lord in this present age shall be according to the need of the man who serves faithfully. Let everyone walk faithfully in the ways of the Lord and there shall be no lack and no surplus either. There is something wrong with anyone who receives less than the will of God; and there might also be something wrong with receiving more than needed.

Do not wait until you feel special or until you are special so you may believe you can change the world where you find yourself. Things just don't work that way at all. All it takes to change the whole world around is to have Christ as special to you personally. Hand yourself fully over to the Lord, surrender to His care and love. That is what makes you special anywhere, even to those who start to be against you because you have changed for the better. Neither wait until you change before giving yourself fully over to the Lord. How will you ever change without Him? Besides, Christ trusts a kind of transformation in which He has participated and for which He was responsible.

Let there be said whatever people wish to say, but there is an accuser only where there is someone who defends himself or is defended by someone. When anyone recognizes sin and acknowledges being guilty, surely, accusations shall cease. Confessing our sins also demolishes every accusation and it does not matter who accuses you. Just try to confess instead of protecting yourself and see for yourself what happens. The accuser shall be ashamed. The Saviour, however, shall rejoice over you. But, this does not mean that there needs to be a transgression so accusation takes place. All it takes is to have someone who does not acknowledge guilt. This is why the innocent are innocently accused, since they have no sin to admit or to acknowledge at all.

Every time God doesn't give me something I desire deeply, it is because I am more important to Him than what I want. God chooses often between us and what we should be doing for Him. The choice shall be clear then: He chooses us above anything else. The same works on this side of the field: if I have to choose between Christ and His work, I shall definitely choose Him.

Many may ask: "Why does God tell us to seek for Him if we have been chosen to be the gospel?" This is very easy to answer! First of all, whoever has been chosen to hear the gospel wasn't chosen for his own sake only: he has been chosen to save himself and to take the message further to people who may not have been as chosen as he was. If you, however, have been chosen and do not obey or hear the gospel the way you should, election will mean nothing to you. God shall choose another as He did by choosing David to replace Saul whom He rejected. You have just added unto your condemnation by trusting on your election and not on Jesus. Secondly, we know how things work with people who do not have a real relationship with God: they don't want to have it at all. They shall need to be willing, to desire and to have it with their whole heart the way it is offered. This said, let me ask: which better way is there to cause someone to want and to wish deeply after something he does not desire to have at all? Isn't it by handing the initiative over unto his hands? By having the initiative, unwilling people confront their own kind of (un)willingness directly and with greater success. Seeking for it works against the lack of willingness and makes people willing towards what they did not desire to have. They convert rebellion into willingness by seeking as if it all depended on them. To hand the initiative over unto man is the wisest way to make him willing.

Our faith is as real as the one we have under pressure, temptation and trials. No one has more faith elsewhere or any other way than the one has experiences and shares when under intense trials. Trusting according to circumstances is not trusting at all. If we trust only under the times of fat cows, does it mean that God changed when those cows become slim, greedy and hungry? If God does not change, could it mean my faith is only circumstantial? Or could it mean I look to see according to circumstances and do not look to the Lord as He is? God remains the same under any circumstances. Faith is trust un a person and is not dependable on anything else.

Dying with Christ means me getting out of view and getting into stage at the same time. It seems like a paradox, but it isn't. If I die with Christ I should never be concealed and hidden. Dead people do not have the power to hide away. Then, by being that dead, Christ shall surely be seen as I walk, talk and eat. If I move, Christ reveals Himself and whatever I do, He shall be seen. Getting out of view means Christ is immediately seen when people look to where I sit, walk or say something. But, this needs to be a reality - it needs to be so indeed. And who can avoid that being so if I really died and rose with Him, I mean, if it indeed happened and it is not only a mere doctrine to which I hold on to through the power of force?

When the Lord said to the house of Israel, "look at Me and live", Amos 5:4, Israel was put under a very heavy curse of destruction which had no return. Many bad things were hanging over Israel's head including wars, hunger and things we can't even imagine. By saying "Look at Me and live" God did not mean those curses would be lifted up in case people started living. No. He meant people would become alive under such circumstances. It meant the material part of their world would cease and the soul would be saved of wrath because people had been able to believe in God and to trust Him for their salvation under such heaviness and because of those curses. It happened that way with Daniel: he believed in the Lord while in captivity and not because the curse had been withdrawn or lifted up from him. But, unfortunately, many nurture grudges against people and God under heavy circumstances. That's mainly why the Lord says: "So the understanding ones shall keep silent in that time; for it is an evil time", Amos 5:13. Daniel was hit hard by the hand of God, lost his country, his family and a lot more we do not know about. However, he became an intimate friend of the Lord. It could not be said of Daniel that, "I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people; they returned not from their ways". "Yet the people have not turned unto Him that smote them, neither have they sought the Lord of hosts", Jer.15:7; Is.9:13. Even if God does certain things for the sake of mere trials we are not able to understand, we should hold His loving hand and never breed grudges in us against Him. That's what happened to Job. "Though he slay me... I will maintain my own ways before Him", Job 13:15.

"Seek Me, and you shall live. But do not ... pass through Beer-Sheba", Amos 5:4,5. Many do a lot to linger or to make a longer turn on their way to the Lord to be saved from all sin. They consult this and that first, say goodbye to this sin and that one and are not straight forward and do not go directly to the Lord and away from sin. They linger on the way out of sin. They go by Beer-Sheba first. Do you consult the things you are losing before going to the Lord? Do you look back to them? Why don't you just go to the Lord immediately and get it done? Are you still delaying, avoiding or postponing the unavoidable? You might never find the Lord if you do so.

"Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so Jehovah, the God of Hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken", Amos 5:14. Many people say God is with them and it can't be true. In fact, God is nowhere seen near them. We cannot make God be with us because He shall be with us out of His own free will if we comply to certain conditions that make it possible for Him to be with us. Then, we shall be found in God's presence for real. As soon as we are faithful, loving, unfeigned, true and truthful, God shall surely near us and say, "Here I am".

To many, being unfeigned means becoming rude and cruel. They see it that way. But, being unfeigned is being truthful, genuine in speaking and hearing the truth without wavering and with no need to raise our voice above what distance requires as if truth hurts all the time.

When people change their hearts, when they manage to get it right and the way they should, the heart is not changed because they may have changed place, job or circumstances at all. Unless you change right where you are, changing circumstances won't work a change in you. Unless you change now it is not likely that you will change under different circumstances. Wherever you go, the heart you have now shall go along with you.

Hypocrites always praise you, especially when they speak of you in front of you. They believe pleasing people is what love is all about. Moreover, whoever listens to them might even believe what they say. Consequently, hearers easily start to put on a mask which is in accordance to what is said about them. That's how an hypocrite creates another.

There are so many promises in the Bible which God Himself has spoken. They shall all be fulfilled under the conditions they have been promised to. Promises need to meet their respective conditions fully. If people do not comply to those conditions or if circumstances are not fulfilled and accomplished, promises made by the Living God will not become true. When people do not fulfil the spirit and the conditions to which promises are aimed, when promises have not the environment that will sustain them and, also, uphold the glory to God, people's lives and the lives of everyone around them shall suffer great losses. Faith is one of those conditions which must be there in an outstanding measure. But, I believe promises are not the only words God speaks in order to create faith where it should be clearly available and visible. If God pronounces a certain curse and people are able to believe it to despise it instead (just as the second man who heard Joseph's interpretation did); if people do not hold grudges against God or people after a curse is announced to them; if they instead repent and give themselves to God and work to His glory; that kind of faith emerging from a word of a curse is also able to save further and to reach the deepest part of the soul of man. "And the people of Nineveh believed God", Jon.3:5. Faith is to be able to believe whatever God has spoken. It is so important, therefore, that people really believe that whatever overtakes them comes from God. We have examples of this in Amos 4. Here we may also say something about the two sides of the heart of man: whoever would be able to hold on to a grudge against God for a curse He has spoken, would surely feel proud were that a promise instead of a curse.

Many believers become confused because they have so many issues they would like to have it discussed with God and find genuine and resolving answers to them. The confusions come, mainly, from the fact that there are too many issues and doubts in man's own imaginations. If man could just reduce the amount of his own thoughts and "maybe" answers, he would surely be able to think better and to use all his resources in a better way. You may ask: what should I reduce from my mind? There are a lot of things one can stop thinking about to use resources in a better way so doubts and useless thoughts will never multiply. For example, you can stop reasoning about those sealed things God will never discuss with you; you can stop thinking about inquiring God to negotiate on those things God is inflexible about, things like holiness and truth, and comply to it on the spot and unconditionally; you may reduce vain imaginations, religious thoughts which always take a great amount power from you by increasing feigning and lying to self and others about you - (religion is the best or greatest enemy of God); you can stop breeding or cultivating false hopes about many things, since true hopes need to take the place those false hopes fill easily; you may reduce dreams and replace them for realities about the Lord for He is greater than you can ever imagine or conceive in your mind; in fact, you can do a lot more to reduce or even remove hindrances and stumbling blocks from your mind over which busy people stumble and hold on to easily. Our mind and spirit works much like a hard disk of any computer: the less crap there is the better it works and the faster it is able to function to solve real and important issues.

Any clean and spotless Christian will feel as bad in a worldly domain as any dirty Christian would feel near God.

If people in this present world feel encouraged and strengthened through false comforts or a kind of faith which believes amiss, can you imagine just how strong and how strengthened people could feel would their faith be based on truth and on things which really matter? Every person who walks after the "lies which... lead them astray" (Amos 2:4) feels encouraged over nothing and needs nothing more than lies to carry on as always. Yet, such people easily feel encouraged to go on. But, how may times those who have real reasons to remain steadfast on their way give themselves over to discouragement and trivialities common to a passive mind which has given up thinking the right way? Christian, if you are indeed clean and spotless or at least know how to be made clean and spotless, if God is indeed so near your soul that you can believe Him, why would it be harder for you to "take good courage" and to carry on with whatever God left in your hands to be faithful to, than it is for worldly people who have not met the Lord at all? Just try to think about it for a moment. Take some time off just to see the reality of what God means to do through you. He shall indeed accomplish it fully. It is just a question of time and, perhaps, of timing. "Be strong and of good courage", Jos.1:6. These words could mean a lot more than we can imagine about them.

It would be good if every child of God came to a point where the devil, to tempt them, would need to show his face and reveal himself. It would only mean there is no more flesh through which he is able to tempt them anymore. If there is nothing more on earth that man considers worthy, if there is nothing more on earth the devil can tempt man through, then he shall need to show his face and come out of his hiding darkness to tempt. Direct confrontation is the only option left to him. How victorious a stage is that?

We know depression is a mountain of sins which have not been brought to the light by having them all confessed one by one to the Lord, to people we have wronged and without anyone who is able to pray with us. Doctors have many explanations for depression and so do psychologists. But, bring someone in that state of mind to the cross of the Lord with every single known sin and you will see just how marvellous a change shall occur almost instantaneously. However, we must distinguish between frustration and depression. People who only occasionally walk with the Lord are often frustrated people in their ways because their sins hinder them and the Lord to accomplish whatever is needed to be accomplished. Or, perhaps, they want to go a way which the Lord frustrates because He has another way for them.

There are two ways by which we may assume God's things in due time. One of them is, unquestionably, the providences of God. The other is the warmth, the inner assurance, the simple certainty which convinces or simply shows us it shall happen for sure. For this, one needs to indeed have or to be close to have the Spirit in the promised fullness. Faith, then, brings to life right there what we expect. This divine, living experience of knowing about something beyond doubt is what convinces us not only of God's will, but of when it shall take place. It is not us convincing God anymore, but God showing us.

"The seed is rotten under their clods", Joel 1:17. Sin in man is like having rocks and clods heavy on the seeds or on the words of God. Those seeds just do not bring forth what they must. Do you know that your grudges, your pet sins, to much talking, quarrelling, a disputing spirit, complaining and many more sins are heavy upon the fragile seeds of the words of God inside your heart? These words are fragile inside any heart who does not pay attention to them or mixes them with the poison of sin or of self. That is the only reason why the strong words of God become fragile. Can you imagine? Can you conceive in your mind that the words that made the sun and the moon to exist (so powerful they are) are made useless and rendered powerless in people's lives through sin?

It is a shame that when man lacks everything earth can give him, he is left with no joy. It just shows where his hopes had really been settled. It also shows they did not have the important part in them or, at least, they did not have Him in the proper fullness. "The vine is dried up, and the fig tree droops, the pomegranate and the palm tree, and the apple tree; all the trees of the field are dried up, of men and joy has dried up from the sons", Joel 1:12. This is indeed sad to hear. "Though the fig tree shall not blossom, and fruit is not on the vines; the labour of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food. The flock is cut off from the fold, and no herd is in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation", Hab.3:17-18.

Believing we know better or know all when truth is trying to convince us otherwise is an ancestral way of resisting the truth.

We may never be able to believe lies. Many people assume believing is what shall make the difference. Well, believing truth makes the difference because we do not take God for a liar. However, believing is not the same thing as believing truth. If something we believe in is not truthful and genuine, then believing avails us nothing at all. In case you inhale a poisonous gas will it help you by believing it is oxygen? Will it prevent your death? Let us stop lying to ourselves about things because there is real truth and some good evidence about many things which leads to salvation every day. And the only reason why we should believe beforehand something shall surely happen is because we have heard it directly from the mouth of God. We cannot pronounce a word of faith unless God has said something about it. Faith is to believe God's word. Abraham believed after God spoke to him and not before. If God is indeed there to speak, to help, to confide, why would we ever wish to believe at random before God has said anything at all? Would a faith based upon a lie avail us anything? There is nothing impossible for the Lord. We may, also, consult God about certain things, but, to say it will happen before a clear answer to that prayer is given, is foolishness especially if there is a real possibility to receive a real answer from the Lord. Promising only because that is what man wishes to hear or what a prophets wishes to say is what makes a prophet to be false. There is no real benefit in a faith grounded upon a lie. "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied", Jer.23:21.

Many state they believe in God while breeding strange motives in their kind of faith. The only reason they believe is to strengthen self-confidence. And self-confidence is not faith at all. In fact, it might be faith's greatest competitor. Faith which lives together with a dirty conscience is not the fruit of the Spirit. The only motives such faith has is the maintenance of sin and the possibility to keep hatching it. That kind of faith is an excuse to carry on sinning as always. It encourages people when they have many reasons to be discouraged from their ways.

God shall answer for His words just as we shall answer for ours. And God shall answer for the words we speak only when those are His words and we fulfil all conditions any holy man must fulfil to speak them out. "Let your speech be always with grace, having been seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one", Col.4:6. "Whoever speaks must speak God's words", 1 Pet.4:11.

If any person lies, I will not believe that person, not even when he speaks the truth. And when I keep lying to myself and to the Lord, shall I ever believe the words of the Bible I speak up and memorized? If I am only pretending; if I promise things and do not fulfil them; if I make vows and do not keep them to the end; how shall I ever believe in the things that go on inside my own heart? It is important to realize we need to be a certain kind of people to be able to believe God's words inside of us because it is in the heart man hears from God most. God does not become a liar simply because I can't believe Him concerning a certain matter. And unless my heart is made one with the Spirit of truth, I will always be striving to believe truth and shall, also, be wavering on account of it. Nevertheless, Jesus commanded us to believe Him and not our hearts.

I believe it is demanded from all of us to end our race fresher and more restful than we have ever been. Usually people are more tired after a race than before it. But, the godly race works the other way round. We have all reasons to end in a much better state of mind, of spirit and of heart than when we have started it. Unfortunately, those who are