We're looking at 1 Thessalonians 5.23, Entire
Sanctification.
May the God of peace himself sanctify you.
Yeah, we were looking at 1 Thessalonians 5
.23. May the God of peace himself sanctify
you entirely and may your spirit, soul and
body be preserved complete without blame at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he who calls you and he
also will bring it to pass.
And we were seeing, first of all, that
it's God who does this work and he
wants us to have a pure spirit.
And I want to speak about the soul
now.
God wants us to be pure in our
soul as well.
And our soul consists of our mind and
our emotions and our will.
And I want to turn in this connection
to Romans chapter 12 and verse 2.
The mind is perhaps the most important part
of our soul.
And it says here, do not be conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind that you may prove
what the will of God is, that which
is good and acceptable and perfect.
So we see here that transformation, which is
God's final goal for us, to be transformed
into the likeness of Christ, is dependent on
my mind being renewed.
As I said, the mind is a major
part of this second part of our being,
our soul.
So it's more important than our emotions.
Emotions are also created by God, but it's
to take a secondary place to our mind.
But transformation is dependent on my mind being
renewed, being changed to think like God thinks.
And the other thing we see in Romans
12 too is that worldliness is also something
which is primarily in our minds.
Now, generally speaking, in Christian circles, worldliness is
associated with dress and makeup and many things
on the outside on your lifestyle and what
type of television programs you watch, etc.
But worldliness doesn't lie in any of these
things.
These are only the outward symptoms of a
worldly state of mind.
And when we address those issues and try
to change people there, you haven't delivered the
person from being worldly.
There are some very, very modestly dressed people
who are thoroughly worldly in their thinking.
There are people who never go to the
movies, who are very worldly, because worldliness is
in the mind.
It says here, don't be, if I were
to paraphrase this verse, it would be, don't
be conformed to this world in your mind,
but be transformed in your mind.
The Bible says in Romans 8 and verse
29, that God has predestined us, predestination is
another very controversial subject, but very often people
think in terms of predestination as to whether
God has decided whether to send people to
heaven or to hell, but it's got nothing
to do with that.
Predestination is for one purpose.
He predestined us to be conformed to the
image of his son.
If God predestined a man for anything, it
was to be like Jesus.
So that predestined purpose of God, that we
might become like Christ, once I see that
that is God's destination, once I see that
this is the destination God has for me,
predestination means a destination previously determined by God,
that God's destination for me is not primarily
that I might do a lot of things
for him on this earth.
That is secondary.
The primary destination God has for me is
to be conformed to the image of his
son and everything must flow out of that.
In John chapter 7, where Jesus speaks about
the gift of the Holy Spirit that's going
to be given on the day of Pentecost,
he expresses it like this.
He who believes in me, John 7, 38,
as the scripture has said, from his innermost
being shall flow rivers of living water.
Many people place the emphasis on the rivers
of living water.
That's what I did earlier on in my
Christian life too.
But I've come to see that the emphasis
should really be on the first part of
that sentence, from his innermost being.
In the Old Testament, when the Spirit came
upon people, their ministry did not come from
their innermost being.
It was an external thing.
Judges 6.34 says the Spirit clothed Gideon.
That's the accurate translation of that word.
Clothed means it's like a person wearing a
shirt or a dress.
It's something worn and that can be taken
off.
And this is exactly how the Spirit came
upon people in the Old Testament, like a
dress or a shirt that they put on
and then they took off.
You know, Samson could put it on and
take it off.
Gideon had it on and took it off.
It wasn't from their innermost being.
It was an external thing.
Samson could kill that physical lion on the
outside, but not the lion of lust inside
him.
But the moment you come to the Day
of Pentecost, it's different.
It's from the innermost being.
And if it doesn't come from the innermost
being, it's Old Covenant.
Any service that I do for God, which
is because of external factors, the lowest level
would be perhaps somebody serving God for money.
But there could be something better than that.
I could serve God because I want to
impress people or other reasons.
But if it's external, it's an Old Covenant
thing.
It has to be from the innermost being.
The Holy Spirit has come that everything that
flows out of us flows from our innermost
being.
And that's why true service, as I said,
first of all, originates in worship.
We worship and we serve.
Originates in conformity to Christ in our innermost
being.
Because that's God's destination.
He predestined us, not that we might serve
God, but that we might become like Christ.
And a subsection of that is that I
serve God.
And a further subsection of that is that
I serve God in this particular place or
this particular organization.
But if I make that second subsection the
main thing, I'm going to completely miss God's
purpose.
Because his destination is that I might become
like Christ.
And from that inner conformity, becoming like Christ
doesn't mean I don't serve him.
Nobody served the Father like Jesus.
He served the Father so completely that he
could say at the end of his life,
Father, I finished the work you gave me
to do.
There is a work that the Father gave
Jesus to do which he completed.
So to be like Christ is to finish
the work the Father has given us to
do during our earthly lifetime.
But that can come only out of a
transformation of our character.
If it is to be the quality of
work that God intends it to be like.
And so once I see this as God's
destination for me.
See, the reason I emphasize it is until
you see God predestined you not to go
to heaven, not to escape hell, not even
to have your sins forgiven.
He predestined you, Romans 8.29 says very
clearly, to be conformed to the likeness of
Christ.
It's very clear.
There is no other verse anywhere in the
Bible which tells us what God predestined us
for.
It's the only verse which tells us what
he predestined us for.
It is to be conformed to the likeness
of Jesus Christ.
That's not character alone, as I said.
My work must flow out of that inner
conformity to Christ.
And that's where we come back to Romans
12.2 where it says that that transformation
is dependent on my allowing God to renew
my mind, to change my way of thinking.
The world lives in a certain way, people
in the world, because they have a certain
way of thinking.
A certain way of thinking means they have
certain thoughts concerning money, certain thoughts concerning pleasure,
certain thoughts concerning comfort, certain thoughts concerning how
I should behave towards my enemies, and certain
thoughts concerning sex and greatness in the world.
They're thoughts.
Based on those thoughts, they live.
They take their decisions based on their understanding
of these different subjects.
So, if my mind has not been changed,
transformed from that worldly way of thinking to
conformity to Christ, I'm going to bring all
those thoughts into Christian work and create a
lot of confusion.
And that's exactly what's happening.
So, I just want to say three things.
First of all, concerning strongholds in our mind.
Second Corinthians chapter 10.
It says here, we are destroying speculations and
every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge
of God.
And we're taking every thought captive to the
obedience of Christ.
There are many lofty things and speculations in
our mind which are raised up against the
knowledge of God.
And I have to destroy them.
I have to bring them captive to the
obedience of Christ.
Destroy a certain way of thinking, not destroy
our minds.
Our minds must be brought captive to the
obedience of Christ.
As I said in the Old Testament, they
could not go through into the most holy
place.
That veil was there.
We could say a good Old Testament life
was a life in the soul and the
body.
Good Old Testament worship was a soul and
body type of worship where the body and
the soul played a major part.
And that's impressive.
We see a lot of it today in
certain Christian circles where body and soul play
a very important part.
But God's looking for worshippers in the spirit,
as I said.
In the same way, in the Old Testament,
they couldn't go into the most holy place.
And so this is all that they could
do.
They could serve God with their mind and
their body.
But now in the New Testament, everything has
to be controlled from the spirit.
The Holy Spirit has to control my mind.
So it's not destroying my mind, but dethroning
my mind.
There's a lot of difference between destroying our
intellect and dethroning our intellect.
I believe that's a mistake that a lot
of people have made who emphasize the life
of faith.
There's a lot of emphasis today on faith.
But very often, the type of faith that
is proclaimed there is telling you to switch
off your mind.
That's useless.
Don't use your intellect.
But that's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says, renew your mind, not destroy
it.
And you can't be transformed if you don't
renew your mind.
And when people want to control you, the
first thing they'll tell you is to destroy
your mind.
Don't think.
Just believe.
And that sounds so spiritual.
But it's not according to God's word.
Word of God does not say destroy your
mind.
It says dethrone it.
Give it a place.
It's something like, you know, husband and wife.
Think of a home where the wife runs
the show as the boss of the home.
It's not God's will.
So what's the solution?
Solution is not to shoot the wife and
get rid of her.
Because your wife is very useful for many,
many things.
Otherwise, God wouldn't have created Eve.
The thing is to get her to recognize
that she shouldn't be the head, that she
can never fulfill her God-appointed function if
she takes first place.
She's got to be.
She got to recognize that she was created
for man, like he was created for Adam.
Like it says in 1 Corinthians 11, Adam
was not created for Eve, but he was
created for Adam.
This is prior to sin coming to the
world.
It was not a sort of change of
mind that God had after sin came.
Before sin came, 1 Corinthians 11 says God
created woman for the man.
It doesn't mean woman's inferior.
Not at all.
Any more than Christ is inferior to the
Father.
In fact, 1 Corinthians 11 speaks about the
relationship between man and woman as similar to
the relationship between the Father and the Son.
Who's inferior there?
Nobody's inferior.
I don't believe for one second that a
woman's inferior to a man.
But Jesus voluntarily took that position of submission
to the Father.
In fact, 1 Corinthians 15 says that for
all eternity he's taken that position.
He's going to be subservient to the Father
forever.
And that's not a disgraceful position.
It's a very honorable position.
And 1 Corinthians 11 says women are asked
to follow Jesus' example.
What better example to follow than Christ, who
voluntarily chose a position of submission to the
Father because that was God's plan.
So, this is the position of the woman.
And this is the position of the mind
in subservience to the Spirit.
It's not destroying but dethroning.
So, when I'm filled with the Holy Spirit,
I'm still going to use my mind.
But it's not going to be supreme like
I said earlier.
If your mind tells you something in your
heart, your spirit tells you something else, listen
to your heart.
But the mind is very important.
But in the mind there are these thoughts
and strongholds which want to have the upper
place.
And I believe we have in Christendom two
extremes.
Some who have made the mind everything, who
don't give any value to the spirit.
You know, for example, a lot of people
who study the Bible.
I believe this is a mistake in numerous
Bible schools.
The mind is emphasized to such an extent
that you don't need the Holy Spirit at
all.
And when you study, here's one of these
strongholds of the mind, you know, when you
study the Scriptures without a dependence on the
Holy Spirit.
And you know how it is, it's described
in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 like this.
It's like taking a handkerchief and putting it
over your Bible and trying to read it.
How much can you understand when you got
a handkerchief over your Bible?
It says that in verse 14 or verse
15.
To this day, whenever Moses is read, when
they speak about Moses, remember that's the Scriptures.
We can read it like this.
To this day, when they read the Bible,
there's a handkerchief over it.
They can't read.
There's something they can't understand there.
But when a man turns to the Lord,
that handkerchief or that veil is taken away.
That means you can begin to see what's
written there.
And which Lord is he talking about now?
Not Jesus Christ.
Verse 17.
This Lord is the Holy Spirit.
He's talking about the Holy Spirit.
This is one place in the New Testament
where the Holy Spirit is being referred to
as Lord.
So, verse 16 means, when you're reading the
Bible, if you turn to the Holy Spirit,
then it's as if this cloth is taken
away and you begin to understand what's written
there.
So, we can say that anyone who gives
such a place of importance to his mind,
remember the analogy of the wife running the
home, where the husband is probably unimportant, shoved
away to a corner, is the picture of
a person who does not give the place
to the Holy Spirit in his study of
the Scriptures, in his understanding of God.
It's what's happening, as I said, in a
lot of Bible schools.
They're studying the Bible with this cloth on
top of it.
And naturally, they'll get a wrong understanding.
Now, you have 10,000 different interpretations.
But when a man turns to the Holy
Spirit, that veil is taken away.
And that's why we got to come to
the Scriptures and destroy these strongholds of the
mind that wants to be supreme and say,
come down, listen to the Spirit.
And I believe this is one of the
functions of the gift of speaking in tongues.
And the reason why Paul said, I thank
God I speak in tongues more than all
of you, Corinthians, was Paul was such an
intellectual man that he needed to keep his
mind in secondary place always, dethrone it all
the time.
And one way he did it was by
praying with his spirit often.
He said, I pray with my spirit and
I pray with my mind.
And he made sure that the spirit controlled
the mind.
I'm not talking about a public use of
it.
Paul hardly ever used it in public.
But he obviously used it extensively in private.
But it was this dethroning of the mind,
not destroying, but dethroning where the spirit rules
supreme.
And the purpose of this is, comes back
to what we said earlier in 2nd Corinthians
3, the spirit of the Lord is there
is liberty.
And verse 18, this spirit transforms me into
the likeness of Christ from one degree of
glory to another.
So these strongholds in the mind need to
be destroyed.
The place of supremacy that the mind wants
to have.
That place, that desire must be destroyed, but
the mind itself has to be used.
Now, let me turn to another verse.
Second, I want to speak about the mind
as the place where we learn to think
like God thinks.
Matthew 16 and verse 23.
Matthew 16, verse 23.
Jesus turned around and said to Peter, get
behind me, Satan.
You are a stumbling block to me for
you're setting your mind.
You're not setting your mind on God's interests,
but man's.
Is it possible for a born again believer
to set his mind on man's interests and
not God's interests?
There's ample scope for that.
There's plenty of examples of that all around
us and in our own life.
And how serious is that?
When my mind has got such a position
of importance in my life, it's set on
my interest.
Now, when we are born into the world,
that's how our mind is.
Every child, his mind is set on his
interests, whether it's grabbing a toy or wanting
something or screaming for something.
Right from birth, our mind is set on
our own interests.
What's most important for me?
What's the best thing for me?
People join Christian organizations thinking, what can I
get for myself here?
The pastors change churches thinking of what can
I get for myself here?
It's Christendom is filled with it.
And this is so serious that Jesus said
that such people, according to verse 23, are
a stumbling block to him.
How many of us realize that, that if
I don't get my mind renewed, and here's
what renewal means.
It means to be interested in the thing
God's interested in and not to be interested
in the thing that man's interested in.
If I don't get on that way of
renewal, it doesn't happen overnight.
It's a lifelong process.
This is what sanctification is all about.
To get a sanctified soul, a pure soul,
a pure mind.
It's a lifelong process.
And I have to allow the Holy Spirit
to change my way of thinking.
And here this verse tells me what, from
what to what, from man's interests to God's
interests, from my man's way of thinking to
God's way of thinking.
And if I don't submit to that, if
I don't allow the Holy Spirit's willing to
do that job, it's his work as I
said.
It's not my work.
I cannot change my way of thinking, but
the Holy Spirit will do it in me.
But he will not do it if I
don't permit him.
He's such a gentleman that he won't come
in anywhere if you don't open the door.
But if you permit him, he'll do a
thorough job of cleaning, cleaning up and throwing
away these wrong ways of thinking and making
us think like God thinks, have our mindset
on God's interests.
Then our service for God is effective.
Then we understand the way God works, God's
ways.
Otherwise, we're only interested in God's actions.
In Psalm 103, verse 7, it says that
Israel could see God's actions, but Moses understood
God's ways.
That was a vast difference between Moses and
Israel.
Everybody saw the miracles.
You know, the manna coming every day, the
rock being split open, water coming out, the
Red Sea being split open and the healing
through the bronze serpent and many, many things.
Moses also saw it, but Moses saw something
more than what all the other Israelites saw.
He saw beyond what the Israelites saw because
he met God face to face.
He was one of those, you know, new
covenant people living in Old Testament times, just
like we have multitudes of old covenant people
living in new covenant times today.
Moses was one of those rare people who
somehow got through the veil and lived before
God as it were.
He saw him face to face.
He understood God's ways.
And this is our privilege.
Many people are taken up with God's actions.
They are excited and they hear, oh, God
did this over here and God did this
over there.
They're always waiting to give a testimony about
what God did in my life, this answer
to this prayer.
It's all good.
I want to tell you there's something better
to understand God's ways, to understand his way
of thinking.
You see, that's the difference between a child
and an adult.
A child is interested in what's daddy brought
for me from his trip.
Are there any chocolates in the suitcase?
The things that he can get, things that
dad does for him, gets him a new
bicycle or something like that.
But a mature son who is in partnership
with his dad in the business, is not
interested in chocolates and bicycles.
He's trying to understand, how does my dad
run this business?
He's running so efficiently and here I'm going
to take over from him.
I want to understand his way of thinking.
And that's the person who's going to be
a really useful son in the business.
It's the same with God.
If you want to join God, the Father,
in the business he's doing on the earth
today, and you're just taken up with his
actions, you won't be a very effective servant.
You've got to get beyond the actions to
understand his ways.
Why does he do it like that?
Why didn't he do that?
And there's where our mind comes in.
Submit to the Holy Spirit.
There will still be many, many things which
we cannot explain.
And we must be humble enough to acknowledge,
I don't know the answer to that.
And as we progress and mature more and
more, we'll understand a little more.
But there will still be many things, even
at the end of life, that we can't
fully explain.
But that doesn't matter.
We are to progress in understanding God's ways.
Otherwise, as we read in this verse, we
are a stumbling block.
It's a very serious word.
I mean, none of us wants to be
a stumbling block to God, at least.
Okay, if we don't do anything, at least
let me not be a stumbling block.
But if I get into God's work, as
all of you are doing, and you don't
understand God's ways, do you know that you
can be a stumbling block?
Then it's far better that you are out
of the way.
Don't hinder other people who are doing God's
work.
It's terrible.
And there's a lot of it going on
in Christian work today.
People are trying to do God's work, and
they haven't understood God's ways.
And they are messing up God's work.
I see plenty of it in India.
In fact, most of what's called Christian work
in India, I don't believe it's done the
way God wants it to be done.
And that's why it's such a pathetic testimony
that we have, not only in India, in
the United States, everywhere else too, the nations
of the world have not, many people in
the world have not rejected Christ.
They have rejected the Christ they have seen
projected by Christendom.
And very often, that's not the real Christ.
I don't believe India has rejected Christ.
Not at all.
I believe a lot of people in India
have rejected the Christ they have seen projected
by Christians in Christendom, which is not the
real Christ.
And that's because a lot of people in
Christian work haven't understood God's ways.
They haven't allowed the Holy Spirit to renew
their way of thinking.
And therefore, they're a stumbling block.
And not only a stumbling block, the other
word he used was even stronger.
Matthew 16, 23, he said, it's satanic.
Get behind me, Satan.
The only two places Jesus ever said that,
one was when he directly met Satan in
the wilderness, Matthew 4.
And the other is when Satan came through
Peter, saying something which sounded so compassionate and
good.
What is the context here?
When Jesus said that he had to go
to the cross, Peter said, no, Lord, I'll
never allow you to go to the cross.
You, you're not supposed to suffer.
And Jesus said, that was Satan.
A voice that said, you don't have to
suffer if you're a Christian.
You don't have to take up the cross.
You can do God's will without taking up
the cross.
Can you believe that that's the voice of
Satan?
So, it's quite a job, you know, to
understand God's ways.
And it's very easy if you submit to
the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will show
us.
What does he show us?
We read in 2 Corinthians 3, 18, that
the Holy Spirit shows us Jesus.
And we use our mind as we read
the scriptures.
And the Holy Spirit shows us how Jesus
lived, the principles by which Jesus lived.
And we understand that and say, Lord, those
are the principles by which I'm going to
live.
Those are the principles by which I'm going
to serve.
It doesn't matter if all the rest of
Christendom is not interested in that.
That doesn't interest me one bit.
How many of us would have the courage
to go a certain way which you see
Jesus, is the way Jesus would choose in
your situation.
Even if everybody around you that you know
is going another way.
If you're not willing to take a stand
in a situation like that, we can't really
serve God.
That's what I see here.
There was not a single one of those
disciples who understood the way of the cross
that Jesus chose.
He knew that it was the way the
Father wanted him to go.
And he was determined to go.
It says he steadfastly set his face to
go to Jerusalem.
Not one of his disciples understood it.
But he was determined to go.
To set our mind on God's interests, to
think like he thinks, to look at people
and circumstances and everything on earth the way
he does.
To set our mind on God's interests.
A third thing I want to say.
We've seen about the strongholds in our mind
that need thought life, that need to be
brought down.
We've seen about setting our mind on God's
interests.
And thirdly, I want to show you a
verse in Colossians, in chapter 3, where it
says we've got to set our mind on
the things that are above.
Set your mind, verse 2, Colossians 3, on
the things that are above and not on
the things that are on the earth.
Similar to what we read in Romans 12,
verse 2.
Be not conformed to this world.
So, the New Testament does speak a lot
about our mind not being set on the
things that are on earth.
And the reason given is, verse 3, if
you have been raised up with Christ, I'm
sorry, verse 1, chapter 3, verse 1.
If you have been raised up with Christ,
keep seeking the things that are above, where
Christ is seated at the right hand of
God.
The Holy Spirit expresses it in different ways.
In Ephesians 2, it says we've been raised
up and seated in the heavenlies.
So, that's where my mind has got to
start thinking in those terms.
Since, positionally in Christ, God has already placed
me.
Physically, one day I'll be there in the
future.
But in my spirit, God's already raised me
up.
I've died with Christ, I've been buried with
Christ, I've been raised up with Christ, I've
ascended with Christ.
I'm seated in the heavenly places, it says
in Ephesians 2, in Christ.
And therefore, my mind must look at everything
from this heavenly standpoint.
That is transformation.
The Holy Spirit changing my way of thinking
so that everything that happens around me in
my life, I don't allow my mind, my
mind wants to think of it, the natural
tendency is to think of it like everybody
else in the world would think.
But to discipline myself, as the Holy Spirit
says, allow me to change your way of
thinking.
It's tremendous.
You know, in the beginning, it's a battle.
It's like learning swimming.
The first day you jump into the pool,
you struggle.
But after a while, it's almost effortless.
It's like learning to brush your teeth.
Barbarian who's never brushed his teeth for 30
years, you try to teach him to brush
his teeth.
It takes a little while before he learns
to do it.
He may forget a few days.
But then gradually, I mean, we don't forget.
How is it we never forget?
It's become a habit.
It's something like that.
You know, in the beginning, it's a struggle
to discipline ourselves to think, allow the Holy
Spirit to make us think of a particular
situation the way it would be if I'm
really seated in heavenly places physically.
Oh, after some time, it becomes almost automatic
that we begin to think.
For example, if some bad news hits you,
and as long as we live on this
earth, what the world calls bad news anyway,
it can happen anytime to any of us.
And particularly if you're in Christian work, there
are all types of things that can happen
unexpectedly.
One of the things that's really helped me
is to say to myself in such a
situation, Well, Lord, that's a surprise to me.
I never expected that to happen.
But it wasn't a surprise to you.
And God knew ages ago that that was
going to happen on this particular day to
this favorite child of his.
That's me and you.
Not just me.
God knew that.
And yet he allowed it.
Must be with a wonderful purpose.
And say, Well, Lord, I don't see yet
what that purpose is, but there must be
some wonderful purpose.
It brings our mind to rest.
That's the way to be free from anxiety
and tension and panic.
And imagine if over a period of time
as we allow the Holy Spirit to change
our whole way we look at things, we're
looking at it from a heavenly perspective.
Can you imagine the rest that it will
bring into our lives over a period of
time?
No matter what news we get.
I say, Well, God's still in control.
Is there anything that can happen?
I mean, right now when things are going
smoothly, we know we have the right answer.
God's in control.
He knows everything that's going on.
And there's nothing outside of his control.
But that's true even when things go wrong.
He's still, okay, as far as the world's
concerned, it says something is wrong here.
But God is in control then.
The devil was, it's still true that the
devil was defeated on the cross 2000 years
ago.
But sometimes we have to remind ourselves of
that.
And I find it's helpful to remind myself
and ask myself, Who's in control now of
this universe right now when this terrible thing
has happened?
God's still in control.
The devil was still defeated on the cross.
It's good to remind ourselves of these facts.
I find I need to remind myself of
that, of these facts when sometimes casting out
demons from people.
Sometimes a demon-possessed person can, unexpectedly, you
come across such a person and he looks
at me in such a terrifying way with
his fierce eyes.
And it almost puts a scare into you.
And the thing that I asked myself at
that time is, Was this one of the
demons that escaped on Calvary?
Or was this also defeated?
Just to reassure myself.
I say, no demon escaped on Calvary.
They were all defeated.
Then I can look fiercely back into his
or her eyes and say, You were defeated,
Satan, on the cross.
Get out of her in Jesus' name.
It goes.
Fear is the opposite of faith.
And the devil tries to bring fear into
our hearts by allowing us at that moment
to forget certain eternal realities.
God is on the throne.
The devil was defeated on the cross.
That my sins are all forgiven.
That I'm a favored child of God.
I love to think of that.
You know, I love that word which John
uses to describe himself.
The disciple whom Jesus loved.
Have you ever thought of yourself like that?
I've begun to think of myself more and
more like that.
Not the disciple who loves Jesus.
I mean, I hope I do.
I want to.
But the disciple whom Jesus loved.
That's easier to believe.
And it's so comforting.
I'm one of those favored children of God.
And that's why the lines have fallen unto
me in goodly places.
My heritage is very pleasant.
And everything goes well for me.
It's why my heart is always at rest.
Because I'm one of those favored children of
God.
In fact, Jesus said that, John 17, 23,
He said, You must live your life.
Let me paraphrase.
You must live your life in such a
way that the world should know that the
Father loves you like He loved Jesus.
That means my whole way of life must
be such that people wonder, how does this
fellow live like that?
I say, I'll tell you.
I'm a favored child of God.
I'm a disciple whom Jesus loves.
That's why.
That's why life is so wonderful for me.
That's why I can be at rest and
not be in a panic like all the
rest of you are.
I'm not talking about you.
No.
Don't misunderstand me.
I wasn't talking about you.
I'm saying that's my reply to the worldly
person.
And that should be your reply to the
worldly person, too.
That's how we are supposed to live our
life.
We're seated in the heavenly places in Christ.
And we look at circumstances and everything.
God's in control.
He's got not only that, He's got a
provision.
He's got a plan in this thing that
He's allowed in my life.
And He's made a provision for it so
that He's got a solution to that problem.
I love to think of the fact that
there was never a person who ever came
to Jesus with a problem in the Gospels
where Jesus didn't have a solution.
Not even one.
There was never a person who came to
Jesus with a problem where Jesus had to
scratch his head and say, boy, that's a
tough one.
I don't know how to handle that one.
Not even one case.
Every single case, He could solve it.
And He's the same yesterday, today and forever.
He may not always solve it the way
I expect Him to, but He has a
solution for everything.
He knows the end from the beginning.
And once my mind is set on these
things, these eternal realities, these eternal facts, I
believe that's the only way we're going to
live in a life of rest in the
coming days on this earth.
Jesus said that things are going to get
so bad that men's hearts are going to
fail for fear.
And that fear comes into the mind.
And it's a tremendous power.
Satan has got to attack people.
Even God's people are being attacked with fear.
And just like we got to hate sin,
we got to hate fear.
Jesus told people, don't sin again.
He told the woman caught in adultery, don't
sin again.
He told the man who was healed after
38 years of lying paralyzed in the pool
of Bethesda.
He told him in John 5, don't sin
anymore.
But much more than He said, don't sin
anymore, which is important.
He also said, don't fear, don't fear.
Just like He said, don't sin.
He said, don't fear.
Don't be afraid.
Many times, fear not, fear not.
But I found that I myself, I did
take the command, don't sin anymore, more seriously
than I took the command, don't fear.
And I think that's true generally in Christendom,
that we tend to hate sin, but we
don't tend to hate fear as much.
We don't think fear, we call sin evil,
but fear is a sort of a weakness.
It's not.
When you fear, you're disobeying God's command not
to fear.
When you get anxious, you're disobeying God's command
not to be anxious.
Now, is it possible to live a life
free from fear and free from anxiety?
If it were not, then it would be
torturing us for Jesus to say to us,
don't be anxious, don't be afraid.
It must be possible even if we have
not attained to it.
We must believe that.
Lord, I believe that I can live on
this earth with a mind free from anxiety
and fear.
The Bible says in Hebrews 4, there remains
a Sabbath rest for God's people.
There remains a Sabbath rest for God's people.
And let us strive to enter into it
and not miss out on it.
Here on this earth, there is a life
of rest in God that God has provided
and planned for his people.
And I want to say to you, that's
our birthright.
A mind that is set on the things
that are above, that looks at everything from
a heavenly perspective, that looks at people the
way God looks at them.
Sometimes if you find it difficult to forgive
someone who has hurt you badly or who
is doing a lot of evil to you,
someone who is jealous of you or your
ministry, I find it all depends on how
we look at them.
You can look at them with anger and
bitterness if you look at them from a
human standpoint.
But your whole attitude towards them can change
if you look at them from a heavenly
standpoint.
And I've, you know, tried to look at
people who are evil towards me like people
who are sick.
Why is this person evil?
That's not the way, it could be a
believer.
It could be a believer who is treating
you badly and who is evil towards you.
Why does he do that?
It's because he's sick.
We can say he's like a person who's
got cancer.
If you go to a hospital and you
see somebody sick with cancer, skin and bones,
you don't get angry, do you?
It's impossible to be angry when you look
at a man who's become skin and bones
with cancer.
You have compassion.
How is it that you automatically feel compassionate
towards that person?
You say, poor chap, the fellow's got cancer.
I mean, I'm thankful that I don't have
cancer, but I feel sorry for this poor
man.
It's the way you look at it.
And when we see sin like that, when
we see this evil nature manifesting itself out
of this person as just a cancer, you
find that you feel sorry for the poor
man, not angry.
Because you've changed your way of thinking.
You've begun to look at that person like
God looks at him.
God feels sorry for the multitudes of people
in the world who are destroying themselves with
wrong attitudes.
The more I allow the Holy Spirit to
change my way of thinking, to be like
God's way of thinking, the less anger I'll
feel towards people who are evil towards me
and the more compassion.
And I feel sorry for them.
It all depends on our mind.
I want to say a word about emotions
too.
I didn't want to speak too much about
it.
Just to say this, that emotions also are
a part of our soul, but they must
be under the control of the Holy Spirit.
And that's where I believe again Christendom has
gone astray.
Where a lot of things that are today
being spoken of as the ministry of the
Holy Spirit, it's just emotional exuberance.
Because people don't know what is soul and
what is spirit.
And it's very important to have discernment on
this.
Is this just the emotional exuberance of a
person's soul?
Young people are so often taken up with
that emotional exuberance and say, Oh, this is
Holy Spirit.
It's not.
If it were Holy Spirit, it will bring
holiness.
After all, that's why it's called Holy Spirit.
I remember once some person came to our
church in Bangalore and he was from a
denomination that believed in a lot of emotional
exuberance and a lot of noise.
And he didn't find so much noise in
our meetings.
So I'm not against noise.
I say if it's a matter of your
temperament a lot.
And he said, Boy, there's no Holy Spirit
here.
I said, You mean there's no noisy spirit
here?
Let's be clear about what you're talking about.
I mean, if your Trinity is Father, Son
and noisy spirit, mine is not.
Mine is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
So I say, I'm not against noise, but
I think we're filled with the Holy Spirit.
We love holiness.
So how do you decide we have no
Holy Spirit here?
Have you come and lived with us in
our homes?
Have you lived with us?
Do you know how I handled money?
Do I know how I speak?
You don't know any of those things.
You determine everything by one factor.
The decibel level of the noise in the
meeting determines whether Holy Spirit is here or
not.
This is the deception that goes on in
Christendom today.
So I'm not against it.
I believe in making a joyful noise unto
the Lord.
We believe in shouting, praising the Lord and
everything.
But I say that is not the mark
of the Holy Spirit.
That's the expression of the soul and people
are different.
And God accepts both types of people, even
if we can't.
But holiness is the mark of the Holy
Spirit.
And that comes through our mind being renewed
so that he can lead us on to
transformation.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we pray you'll apply these truths
to our lives so that we can live
according to the principles of your word and
honor you.
Bless us the rest of this day in
Jesus' name.