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 worth it 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 only teach his own heart to take to the end whatever is good, but also gives up any wrong thing; 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 to the end 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. 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 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.

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 is. In fact, such definitions may be mere confirmations of what has already been happening in 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 not to 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 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. Take the land 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. According to truth, the opposite of life is sin and the opposite of death is holiness lived in the Spirit.

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. 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 in 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 that 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 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 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. All virtues work out that way.

People, even when they see sinning is bad, still try 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 and 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 convince man 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 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 Christ since holiness is experienced and lived through the Lord. 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, incompetent and unable. Those are halfway gone into the reign of Christ already.

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 today? 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 about 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 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. Faith is not believing - it is the ability to believe the right thing. 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 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 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 the 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 as well. The main curse of sin is 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 good way. 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 those 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. 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 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 as well? Is it fully settled in them? Does it feel at home in God? Do you feel at home with truth and do you feel at ease by being fully transparent? Or does light annoy you often and makes you feel 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 besides you. 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, 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 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 so you may 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 and a bad spirit demand 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. 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 - He expects that sort of action from us!

Many assume almost unconsciously a difficult thing must be accomplished through grace and an easy thing should be carried out through self. That is a simple way to feed self and to keep it alive. The main secret of the gospel is to do all through grace, not because of what we do, but rather because of we do whatever we do. The flesh is fed and kept alive by using any other means besides grace. Things must be done here on earth exactly the same way anything is done in heaven. Therefore, you must be aware that, whenever people say they must pray a lot because they are facing something they consider a great difficulty, the other side of the coin is assuming easy things need not be done through God.

So many question what they hear, having certain doubts about whether what they hear comes from God, the devil or from the flesh. There is no easy way to solve that 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 that close to God?

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 in 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 heart and there is nothing that can ever hinder such promises to be fulfilled in their 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 of 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. 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 and not anything else besides you. 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. 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 for 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 towards you. 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 why 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. 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. 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 to 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. 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 the Lord.

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 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 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 hiding all the time?

God trusts only a heart which has the inborn habit of depending on Him to be faithful all the time. God trusts a work in which He has He has participated 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 such disasters which we shall never be able to avoid in any way.

Every saved one comes out of Egypt. Have come out of the love for novels and any kind of worldliness? Only those who really came out of Egypt can consider themselves as free people and as 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 appearances. 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 have 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 out of 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 on hospitals and on contagious diseases how much more would the washing of hearts decrease the infecting of souls with 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 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 and not even your sleep. Simply give it. Have you given your whole self to Jesus for real?

My life is a continual management of promises and of cooperation with God in them and 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 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 hiding 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 the fathers and mothers more than from anyone else. They will be the most obvious consequence 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 life. 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 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. 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.

The person who less accepts advices from others is the one who can easily refer to past experiences which are not experienced 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 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 or 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 all the time. 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.

Jesus never demanded that we accept Him the way people do it in church nowadays. That doctrine is simply 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 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 through the blessing of the Lord all the time. 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 towards me. My garment will be even more wonderful than the one Joseph had on him. Mine shall not be worn out.

Kindness is not acceptance towards evil. Never think that accepting evil is what goodness is 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 its 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 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.

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 the evil others do. 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 at all. 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 to 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? You 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. If you still owe Him anything, I am sure you won't near Him with confidence at all.

Greed takes 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 towards sin the way they deal towards 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 might be?

"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 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 follow.

Never fear to refuse hastening or speeding up the proper time of the Lord for certain things to happen. The man who refuses to do that will also easily refuse to have the proper timing of the Lord postponed or delayed. One thing leads to another. 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 in their proper place and timing. In fact, by trying to quicken or hasten the right time for something often delays it instead of quickening it up. 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. We must rather choose to be "a prepared people for the Lord".

"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 in 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 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 to 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 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. We may also 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 where 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, which some people were penalized by doing the same. We could mention thousands of examples more. This only proves God is not bound by rules, whether good or bad, and much less by absurd rules.

If we put all we have and are into taking hold of Life, we are surely helping Life to get a full hold on 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. 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 having 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, later on God will need to pull those weeds of fanaticism out of us through much pain on our part and, also, through much effort on 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 disobedience, whether it is a direct fruit or fruit of 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. 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 patiently wait. 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 as we know do or to be as we have become.

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 Christ 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 assured yourself about how you will end, even if it doesn't seem it will blow 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 there. It works directly against the efforts of the Lord to get people out of that rut and have them believing and honouring 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, however. We find we believe more and better and 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?

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.

We shouldn't only be motivated by the Lord but also have the same motives He has. God can't motivate 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 carries 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 glorify Him. It is always the glory of God which is at stake. His glory is where the blows of 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 have demanded 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.

The main reason why many don't know much about God's time for something to happen is that people become usually proud about what they know. Many are pleased with what they have - many 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 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 be 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 in 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 the law of their sinful nature, 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 He will be good towards them. They shall also naturally assume God does them good is 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 act. 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" and neither "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 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 counting with evil 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 unto 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 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 do not 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 most things. That way he also avoids pressuring God with his own will or even 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; the best gift is the ability to fix our lives under that light; and the best revelation we shall still 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 told him about it. That will make the unbeliever or faithless Christian even more unbelieving. 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 faithlessness 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 Bible 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 about 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 the range of their experiences 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 it) 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.

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 those people. 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 or anyone else 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 so God could gain back a dedicated work from him. If someone else dedicates us to God it won't affect our 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 still.

John the Baptist was not only full of the Spirit, but he was famous and spoken about since birth. God prepared everything in the inside of 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, just as happens to us. 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 called 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 forth 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 even your own conscience but 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 the matter could be settled. Paul and Barnabas were one of the interested parts and, 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 broken down; and God did 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 as 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 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 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 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 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 a 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 become 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.

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 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 about it.

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 be 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 is being done away with he feels weak and is tempted to feel worthless to tempt God by it. We should know that the more we lose on ourselves, the more the smaller shall be greater. 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 apparent. Find 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 loss he feels or "experiences". Feeling proud or presumptuous is a way to make up for the lies people believe. 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 think 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 found in His presence. Granting our request is something which comes after that. It is not the same thing. 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 as well.  But, if you happen to be ashamed of God and of sin, choose your way and stop being greedy for once.

"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? 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, not anymore! His seed keeps him spotless. Dare to cut your hand off, only when it is able to make you 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 word 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 so they may pray. Negligent people run away from the sight. 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, after hearing it, 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 to believe 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, to state He is there and with me.

Doubt turns faith needed and 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.

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 into any human heart then.

All teachers who have a deep and sound relationship to God are never alike. One may show and teach things pertaining to such people as they might be in need of it and, above all, as he is able to put it forth. Nevertheless, everyone deserves all credit for being a servant of God - as long as they are.

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 it is 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 there anymore, who cares who despises the place where it has been before? Put God there now.

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

To walk a most holy life will spare on time, and people will easily see what it is all about that way. 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.

My little doggie is afraid of thunder and it hides away and seeks comfort because of fear when clouds roar far away – it believes it is in danger. When I hold it, it feels safe only till the next cloud disturbs its peace again. If I only could get into his little mind explaining clouds are normal when roaring 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 concerning a certain roaring, bluffing, lying and blaspheming lion as well!

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 have not holiness installed, need to learn it as much as they need to have it all. 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 unto God, will inevitably hinder God to be able to reach man. Whatever moves man to reach God, turns 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 your 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 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 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 something from Him. 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 then, but the answer of your own heart.

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 so we do not become aware of the need of God in any way whatsoever because we lack nothing, not knowing we are poor, Ps.73.

I didn’t know what to make out from 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 is the same thing. People just cannot get to be of an obedient heart and ear because they cannot enter the narrow door because of sin. Sometimes disobedience and sin is the very curse of sin.

Being bored is being impatient. Being bored can be 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 - 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 after. Hannah wanted a child for herself because she was scorned by others for being sterile. She kept the desire for a child burning within her and changed the heart of the request and gave it 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 for worldliness, now you use 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 cares of this world, through impatience and concerns about what we shall eat and dress tomorrow or even further ahead!

If you live well with what God takes from you and stay unhindered close to Him all along 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 under heavy trials. We should be content to be 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 find Him alone under the heaviness of trials and under temptations to give up. The Israelis who complained against Pharaoh are the ones who died in the desert by the curse of God because they complained on and on still. We read that "God knew them" under that yoke in Egypt where they complained, Ex.2:25. Insatisfaction is always hungry to feed itself - if it does not feed on Pharaoh anymore, it will hunt 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 preach.