We regret that some mains interference broke through
into this recording whilst the original was being
made in the marquee.
It has been reduced as much as possible
by filtering and we hope you can obtain
blessing in spite of the unpleasant noise.
Here now is George Verwer.
Now let's continue on with some of these
basic principles of perseverance.
We're assuming, because this is a series of
messages, and we hope if you haven't been
here that somehow you get the series, otherwise
you can't really follow it very well.
And we're assuming that you've caught the vision
to move.
You've understood Acts 1-8, you're a fulfillment
of Matthew chapter 9, and you're beginning to
move.
And our burden in sharing with you these
principles of perseverance is simply that you may
keep on moving.
So when we meet you 10 years from
now, 20 years from now, you're still moving.
Actually I've had the opportunity to meet quite
a few people, not in comparison with the
total number, but quite a few in general,
and it was a blessing last night to
meet a sister I don't think I've seen
in 15 or 20 years.
She was on OM in 1963, and she
shared how this was a turning point in
her life.
And I believe operation world for many of
you is going to be a turning point
in your life.
You might want to even say that if
it's true on that little piece of paper.
You can even give it in tomorrow night.
This is a turning point in my life.
I need prayer, because I tell you when
you turn away from some of the things
in the world and some of the very
subtle, softening type of lukewarm Christianity of our
day, and you start moving in the flame
of God's love, the enemy hates it.
We've already brought that out, and you will
need prayer.
I'm convinced very, very much that if you
will take seriously these principles we've been sharing,
that is going to enable you to persevere,
to run and keep on running for Jesus.
And then I can meet you 20 years
from now.
I'll be pretty old then.
I'm not going to tell you how old,
but we can have a reunion.
And you'll say, you know, it was an
operation world in Chester that God, not yourself,
God turned the direction of my life.
Now we've already covered some of the principles.
Let me review them.
We've talked about number one, knowing you're accepted
and forgiven.
Number two, we've talked about casting every care,
constant, constant upon the Lord.
First Peter 5, 7.
Number three, we've talked about making God our
goal.
God.
God-centered living.
God-centered evangelism.
Number four, we've talked about learning how to
be heard.
Do you know that amazing book, Where is
God When It Hurts?
That's a great book.
And then number five, we talked about the
reality of praise and thanksgiving.
I had such a great time this morning.
I hardly slept a single wink last night
because of my, my body clock is still
out in Colorado.
So I finally, boy, it gets light early.
About four of them looked out the window
on the bus, sleeping there in the bus,
and it was light out.
So I put on my eclipsals and about
five o'clock, I just had a time
of praise around the wall.
You can just have very good jogging, especially
five in the morning.
There weren't too many people.
Just, you can go right around.
This is a beautiful city.
What a privilege you have living in the
city.
A walled city.
You must just be constantly thinking of Joshua
living here in this city.
And oftentimes I find it hard to pray
in a stuffy room.
I like to get outside in the woods
and I like to have a prayer walk.
I got inspired to do that through Oswald
J.
Smith.
He always prays marching around his office.
He's been marching around for 70 years.
I mean, not the same office.
It'd be a hole in the floor.
So I just walked and praised and worshiped
the Lord.
And then I went back and I finally
did get an hour or two of sleep
before my next meeting.
The reality of praise and thanksgiving.
And then we ended last night with talking
number six, that God is easy to live
with.
And his love, his care for us, his
mercy, his grace, his forgiveness.
The way he meets us when we've fallen
flat on our face.
All right, let me share a few other
points because we want to be a little
brief for tonight.
Allow time for a break, get some of
the literature and then have prayer together.
So number seven, learning the reality of the
rest of faith.
Now I really got excited when I came
across in full intensity, Hebrews chapter four.
Have you meditated on that chapter?
Where it speaks, it's a paradox, labor to
enter into that rest.
And for some years I preached the rest
of faith.
Some of you have heard some of those
old tapes as sort of a crisis experience.
And I used to give invitations for people
to come into the rest.
Then a couple of theologians took me to
task and I started to think about this
and wrestle with some of the theological implications
of the chapter.
And I'm more convinced now that this is
a way of life.
There is a sense that of course, coming
into the rest speaks of salvation.
And some seem to argue that way.
Some argue for it being some second experience.
I don't want to get into that tonight,
but I just want to say this.
I don't care how you get it, just
get it.
It's what Billy Graham says about the work,
the reality, the presence of the power of
the Holy Spirit.
You see, there's a great danger after this
conference.
There are many dangers when you come and
get an exposure as you're getting here.
All day long, some of you, there's a
danger that you're going to run out of
here and try to do an awful lot
of things in the energy of the flesh.
Now, of course, all of us in our
effort to live for God and to allow
the Holy Spirit to work, there will always
be some things that are part of what
I call the human factor.
I'm just longing to write a new book
and call it The Human Factor.
I'm thinking about this.
Lo and behold, I looked in Smith's the
other day and a secular book has just
come out.
And guess what it's called?
The Human Factor.
Anyway, I probably never get around to writing
a book because of my human factor of
procrastination and lack of discipline and a few
other things.
But it does disturb me that Christian spiritual
people often become very black and white in
their thinking.
They either think on any particular day they're
all in the spirit or they're all in
the flesh.
Most of us live quite a few days
a bit mixed in that we're probably basically
walking with the Lord, but there are times
during the day because we're human, because the
devil's clever, because of other basic reasons, the
deception of our own hearts, we do things
that are in the gray area.
And of course, sometimes even in the black
area.
You know, God is not just concerned about
your actions.
He is concerned about your reactions.
He's not just concerned about your outward activities.
He's concerned about your disposition.
How's your disposition?
And sometimes we can have a big smile,
a big evangelical smile.
Praise the Lord, brother.
Oh, so good to see you.
How do you feel?
Oh, fine.
Yes.
And inside there can be crocodiles and snakes
and cobras.
And we're really in a very, very foul
mood.
Sunday morning can be the most miserable morning
of the week, as we have, especially if
you're a family, the kids don't really want
to go to church and everybody would like
to sleep in.
They got to bed late Saturday night.
And yet this is the Lord's day.
This is Sunday morning.
We're running around the house.
Somebody's gobbling down his cereal and somebody else
can't find her dress.
And somebody else is running, trying to scratch
up a little money for the offering.
And you finally pile in the car and
you're driving off to church.
Your nerves are frayed.
You know, you know, you're going to break
bread.
You're praying, Lord have mercy on me.
And somebody cuts you off and the car
breaks down.
What do you do with that?
You hear this sound in the back, boom,
the tire.
And then, you know, some people like the
second blessing, boom, the second tire.
How do you handle that?
You just say, now family, let's just, let's
just thank the Lord for this experience this
morning.
And son, you change that tire.
Daughter, you change that tire.
I'm going down here.
I have a cup of tea and I'll
be back after a little while.
No matter how spirit-filled you are, there
will still be in your life, the human
factor.
Every spirit-filled man that has ever lived,
that I have ever read about, I admit
I have limited knowledge, very limited, but I've
read about a few, a few hundred actually.
They have human factors.
They say dumb things at times.
They get in the flesh.
They make mistakes.
And young person, it is absolutely essential that
you don't go away from here, thinking you're
going to live on some hyper, super spiritual
plane every day from now on.
There are going to be those difficulties.
There's going to be that human factor.
Of course, our desire is always to be
as close to Jesus as possible, the thing
to keep other aspects of biblical truth in
mind or in balance.
Well, let's move on.
Number eight, accepting God's growth pattern.
Have you seen Lane Adams' amazing book?
Why is it taking so long to get
better?
I don't know if I can find any
more copies of that book, but if I
can, I'll be happy to send you one
as a gift.
Put it on your feedback paper.
Send me that book.
If you feel you'll read it, you need
that book.
You're asking that question to yourself.
Why is it taking so long to get
better?
To be more spiritual.
Have you ever become impatient with your spiritual
growth rate?
The next time you become impatient with your
spiritual growth rate, go out into a nearby
woods and watch a tree grow.
Just sit there, take some sandwiches and just
sit there and just watch this tree grow.
You can imagine we're walking in the woods,
you come up and there's a tree and
you see a little fellow there with his
Bible and sandwiches and you say, hello, what
are you doing?
He says, oh, I'm just watching this tree
grow.
You might want to get somebody on the
phone for him.
Yet trees grow and some of you need
to stop worrying about your growth.
You're growing, you stay in the word, you
walk with Jesus in openness and brokenness and
just press on in the very basics that
you found in the New Testament, you'll grow.
Stop worrying about it.
And I am convinced that every Christian is
growing at a different rate.
Now, if you're growing super fast, you may
be a little careful because you know what
grows fast?
Weeds.
And I think in the long run, pacing
ourselves, pacing ourselves, growing.
Some of you want to go off to
India next week, you know, you're ready to
go.
You're in a challenge of India, you know,
you've been looking for two days trying to
find the thing on the map.
You've never looked at a map before and
you're ready.
You're ready to go to India.
That's not God's way.
You need to get into the word.
You need to wait upon God.
You need to grow stronger in the faith,
in your understanding of God, in your knowledge
of his way and of his word.
And then as you learn to walk with
Jesus in your own home area, a little
bit, maybe in a nearby country.
And in God's time, he can lead you
to the next step.
I believe it's a great mistake to base
too much of our missionary movement on feelings,
on experiences.
I believe we need to use those minds
that God has given us.
It's wonderful we're all willing.
That should be true of every spirit-filled
disciple of Jesus.
But in many cases, the Lord is not
going to lead people out to some of
these countries.
Accepting God's growth pattern.
Philippians 1, 6, that which he has begun
in you, he will continue.
Basically what that verse says.
The navigators.
Oh, I love the work of the navigators.
How many of you have been encouraged or
helped at some time in your life by
the navigators?
That is amazing.
They always looked like a rather slow operation
when they first, people first watched them.
Looked like a bit of a tortoise operation.
But you know, slow and steady, slow and
steady.
Discipling individuals.
They disciple other individuals.
What an army they have across the world.
Discipling individual people.
No one can measure the influence of the
navigator movement.
They have a lot of great materials.
I'm sorry they don't, they weren't able to
put a display here.
They're probably all out.
They have a display.
I didn't see it yet.
So go see their display.
But they didn't used to have these displays.
It used to be too busy.
Discipling individuals.
Not going to put up any displays.
We're out discipling.
We're out.
Now they're putting up a few displays.
Well, it's spiritual balance.
But they've got some tremendous courses.
You can get into their Bible study courses.
You can get even Bible memory verses and
all kinds of materials to help you grow.
We were in a missions conference together, navigator
man and myself together in Cornwall just before
I went on this last trip.
And I was amazed at the material they
have to help people grow.
You know that verse in Peter, grow in
grace and a knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
One of the greatest books that can help
you along that line is Ralph Shallis' book,
From Now On.
How many of you have read that book?
It's been widely circulated lately.
It's available in that special bargain pack.
I think it's free in that pack.
We've got quality of that book.
I think we'll cut the price in half
just for tonight.
That book is being used of God in
about seven or eight languages.
It's a book on growth, growth.
All right, let's move on.
I put here number nine, The Freedom of
a Disciplined and Ordered Life.
We talked the other night about that book
by Raymond Edmond on discipline.
They're all gone.
But Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones' book on discipline
and it's almost an encyclopedia on the spiritual
life is now available again.
Many of you could not get it and
some more copies have arrived.
That book on dealing with spiritual depression and
the chapters on discipline and dealing with feelings.
They're just tremendous.
You know, Lloyd-Jones had this practice of
talking to himself.
This is really good.
Some of you ever find your body's always
sort of wanting to do things that really
your mind is saying, that's not on for
today.
And Lloyd-Jones had this practice of talking
to the body.
Paul said, I buffet my body and bring
it into subjection lest after preaching to others,
I become a reprobate.
If Paul had to say that, what about
the rest of us?
People sometimes say to me that often.
People that know me say, are you still
jogging?
And they heard, you know, five years ago,
10 years ago.
You know, when you're younger, you don't expect
when you're younger in the exercise thing.
But I mean, everybody gets that up.
I mean, that's a pain in the neck,
jogging, running around.
Unless you're, you know, unless you have an
infatuation for running.
I have an infatuation for running away from
running.
And they seem to be surprised when they
say, you know, when I say, well, yeah,
I still jog.
They say, when did you start this exercise
thing?
I said, well, about 24 years ago.
You've been doing it almost every day for
24 years?
I said, yeah, what's, what's, that's no big
deal.
I say, you eat every day.
You get the same thing with the quiet
time.
You have a quiet time every day?
Isn't that bondage?
You know, somebody did the other, oh, it's
a long time ago now.
Oh, it's OM, they get into quiet time
bondage.
You know, they all get up early in
the morning and they sort of have to
study their Bibles.
Wow, this is really bondage.
We need to be set free from this.
You get that same person, hey, you have
breakfast every morning, huh?
Ah, bondage, breakfast bondage.
You go to the toilet every day, huh?
You got a real problem.
You need deliverance.
Maybe I have a little prayer over here
for you.
You know, there's some things that are just
basic.
We don't talk about whether you're going to
do it every day or every other day.
They're basic.
You just do them.
And I think when we're born again and
we know Jesus, that communion with Jesus is
basic.
And we just do it, whether we feel
like it or not.
And I think today in this generation, where
often we don't get so much exercise because
of the automobile and because of a lot
of other modern contraptions.
Soon churches in America will bring the preachers
in, many of them overweight on conveyor belts.
You know, these churches are big, it's an
enormous strain.
He has to walk all the way from
his car to the Pope and he could
have a heart attack.
And it's been one of the things I've
at times disliked, getting daily exercise.
And yet it's been one of the things
that's helped me the most.
It's not a total answer.
No one of these things is a total
answer.
Do this and your Christian life will be
fine.
No, it's part, part of the answer.
I find it a help because when I'm
more awake, I can study the Bible more
diligent.
Some people find that it helps them to
exercise early in the morning.
Other people may do it some other time
in their life.
Freedom of a disciplined and ordered life.
It's not bondage, it's freedom.
If you discipline your time, you discipline your
eating, you discipline in different areas of your
life, you have more free time.
I have free time to do a lot
of the things I want to do, including
once in a while, play a little game
of tennis or take my children out and
just do something, run around with my daughter's
dog.
I'm convinced that so many have been wiped
out in the long run in the spiritual
race because as a young Christian, they never
learned to discipline their life.
We're free.
Some of you like certain sweets.
This is a nation of sweet dudes.
Never seen so many sweets for sale in
any other nation.
I don't believe it's just in these shops
for display.
Somebody must be eating all this stuff.
Entire shops dedicated to sweets.
And I've talked to a number of dentists.
I have a Christian friend who's a dentist.
He's trying to get me weaned off Coca
-Cola.
That's still one of my weaknesses.
I'm trying to get off that stuff.
But it's so important to realize we are
free.
But it seems to me that a lot
of these areas, 9 out of 10 times,
we ought to say no.
And the 10th time, maybe just if it'll
help you relax or if it's, you know,
you're getting uptight about something, all right, go
get your ice cream, go buy your little
chocolate bar.
But if we could learn something about moderation,
something about self-control.
Imagine all the money we could pour into
world missions if we just cut corners.
An Indian brother in the United States is
challenging people to give up all their soft
drinks, Coca-Cola and all these things.
Every time they're about to spend money on
that, it's getting more and more expensive.
Dedicate that money to gospel literature.
And a lot of people are doing it.
Moderation, discipline, the ordered life can have a
direct effect on whether the gospel is ever
taken to the ends of the earth.
Don't become neurotic.
Don't become legalistic.
Don't become critical and judgmental of others.
But realize what it is to have your
body controlled by your mind and by the
word.
But what you sense the Holy Spirit wants
you to do rather than by its appetites.
Oh, I hope we learned something about that.
And then number 10, learning to refuel.
You notice that some of these basic principles
balance off other principles.
And I have seen people who somehow don't
know how to refuel.
You know what I mean by that?
Refuel.
We're human beings.
We run out of energy.
Mentally, we can be drained.
And our spiritual life and our physical life
are closely related.
Some people think they have a spiritual problem
and it's a physical problem.
I had a beautiful letter today from a
very, very weak believer who's had a lot
of emotional problems.
She was in one of my meetings about
two weeks ago, and she thanked me for
having compassion in my message on people with
emotional difficulties.
I don't remember what I said, but over
the years, the Lord has shown me that
some people are just much more emotionally weak,
and they need to accept that and not
get so guilty and not think it's all
spiritual.
Some people go into a depression that proves
later on to be basically physical.
We know there is spiritual depression.
We know often there's a combination of spiritual
and physical.
That's very hard to discern.
But I find, try to follow me on
this, that too easily in the church, we
make everybody feel guilty without giving them any
really down-to-earth answers as to what
to do with all that guilt.
And it's my burden that we may understand
what it is to really accept ourselves, to
face up to our limitations.
I believe I would have destroyed myself and
my family and a hadn't faced up not
only to my limitations, but the results of
those limitations, things I have to live with
because of my limitations.
I got neurotic about that statement that was
made to D.L. Moody.
You remember the statement?
Someone said to Moody, the world has never
seen a totally dedicated man.
That hit me like a truck.
My type of temperament and commitment, I want
to be a totally dedicated man.
I was straining, it's a miracle, you know,
I didn't just pop.
And I was not living a restful, balanced
life.
I was not living a restful, balanced life.
Spiritual balance is not optional, my friend.
Spiritual balance is absolutely essential.
As wings on an airplane, so balance on
a committed believer and keeps him in the
right direction.
You go over to the airport in Liverpool
or Manchester and you see just a just
a body of a plane going down the
runway, get out of the way.
Now I know for some people this is
not a problem because there's nothing to balance.
There's nothing to balance.
They've never put their life on the line.
They've never been filled with God's spirit.
They've never really dedicated themselves to Jesus and
to his great commission.
That would be like going to an airport
and see two wings going down the runway
with nothing in between.
That would really be interesting sight.
You see it, you'd be sure to send
me a photo.
It's got to be both the commitment, the
zeal, the love, the passion, then the balance.
So he says, but I can't find the
word balance in my New Testament.
Now there's a word they use in the
New Testament instead of the word balance.
You'll find it a lot of times.
It's spelled L-O-V-E.
Try Galatians 5.22. The fruit of the
spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faithfulness, temperance, meekness.
Against such there is no law.
We don't ever have to talk about balance
again.
You get that Holy Spirit, that fruit falling
in your eye and I believe as you
stay faithful to the word of God in
obedience, you'll be balanced.
Balance is simply just a modern term to
try to help people understand the great principles
of this revolution of love.
When we face up to this reality, then
we learn to refuel.
For some, it's a walk in the woods.
For some, it may be some music.
For some, it may be a one-month
total holiday just getting away and reading.
Some people are just greatly, greatly relaxed when
they read.
Reading doesn't relax me so much.
I respond very intensely to what I read.
I start crying out if I hit something
hot in a book.
I start crying out.
When I have a night of prayer, I
want to immediately go out, grab somebody and
share what I've just read.
I can relax more easily just watching maybe
a good film, you know.
What's that film?
You know, the girls dancing all over the
hills.
I haven't seen it in a long time.
Sound of music, yeah.
Well, we better move on.
Number 11, learning real fellowship.
Have you had some real fellowship in these
days with people?
Boy, I think that's one of the purposes
of Operation World.
You know, initially, I wasn't too impressed with
this Operation World idea, even though it was
in O.M. that started it, because I
felt this kind of thing is lopsided.
People get all caught up in all these
world evangelism months.
You know, every meeting, you know, India, China,
then one minute you feel you're called to
China, the next minute you're called to the
Sudan, then another guy comes in and makes
you all feel guilty if you're not traveling
in a truck in the back of North
Africa.
I said, you know, this can really be
lopsided.
And O.M. does get very lopsided at
times, I can assure you.
But as I talked to people involved in
Operation World, I realized though they wanted to
present world evangelism and they wanted to present
missions, their burden was also for spiritual health.
That's my burden.
You get your life on the line.
You know the fullness and the reality of
the Holy Spirit.
You get right with Jesus and walking day
by day with Him, and then He can
guide you far more as to where you
should be working.
The first step is not geography, it's reality.
And that's why in these evening meetings, we're
not mainly talking about all these different countries.
Yes, we're doing that, but we're focusing on
how to live the Christian life, how to
keep on keeping on, how to be a
witness, how to be a missionary the rest
of your life.
That's our first burden.
And part of that is the need to
emphasize fellowship.
Taking the mask off, being real.
Some of you are never going to get
more victory in your Christian life until, because
your problem is quite serious, you've tried various
ways to get more victory until you get
that mask off and you're honest about where
you really are.
It's easy as a Christian, a supposedly keen
Christian, to pretend you're living up here when
you know you're living down here.
And God wants to just take that mask
off.
Doesn't mean you have to jump up in
front of your old church, you know, and
air out all of your problems, but you
can have some people that you're walking in
the light with, you're fellowshipping with, you're praying
regularly with.
I pray that when you leave here, you
will find a prayer partner and a share
partner, maybe more than one, that you can,
you know, pray together about these things and
share together.
Because it's just so basic in the Christian
life.
I can't tell you how much fellowship has
meant in my Christian life.
And long-term friendship, it's incredibly important, incredibly
important.
And God will give you long-term friends.
He who wants friends, let him show himself
friendly.
Let's start, let's start taking the initiative.
It's not a matter of sitting in your
home on Saturday night, nobody loves me.
Little Sally sitting up, nobody's asked me on
a date in the last 25 years.
Take the initiative.
Now that doesn't mean little Sally picks up
the phone and says, you know, how about
it?
How about it, Joe?
Some of you are already doing that.
I'm talking about fellowship.
But I believe a lot of people are
lonely because God's people don't know the way
of fellowship.
I praise the Lord for some of the
newer movements that have an emphasis on fellowship,
greater emphasis on relationship and fellowship.
It may be true that some have gone
extreme, but I think it was also true
that so many churches have been frozen into
a formalism that does not lead to life
-giving fellowship and relationship.
And praise God, many, many established, long-standing
churches have understood this and incorporated more fellowship
into their own church.
Many major churches, I'm talking about even Anglican
churches, Baptist churches.
Now once a month, some once a week,
they also have house fellowship groups where people
can get to know one another.
Then on Sunday, they come all together in
the church.
A number of churches have experienced revival and
blessing through putting a greater emphasis on the
small group.
Tonight we're going to be praying in small
groups.
We're going to be sharing.
And I believe that God wants to give
us new friends that are going to stick
with us the rest of our life.
I pray he'll do that.
And then number 12, keeping a positive attitude.
Philippians 4, 8, thinking of that which is
pure and good and lovely.
Take that verse, memorize it, hide it in
your heart.
So easy to be a negative thinker.
I wonder if any of you are sort
of naturally negative.
You just naturally just tend to see the
negative side of things.
Any of you like that?
Any of you?
Let me tell you something.
You're going to have a really rough life.
You're really, you're going to have a really
hard time.
Life for you is going to be, it's
going to be bad.
You better think of something drastic.
Now, before it gets worse, it's going to
get worse.
I don't like to be negative.
I just got that same bad, you see.
I'm going to tell you what you need
to do.
Whatever you do, whatever it costs, start becoming
positive.
I have to force myself.
I can see I'm so easily negative.
Every day I see negative things.
I step on one of our ships, immediately
I see 5, 10, 15 negative things.
I see another book table.
I don't see all the good books.
I immediately see the books that aren't there.
Somebody said to me, boy, when it comes
to book tables, you're, you're a hard, you're
a hard man.
Hyper-idealism combined with a lot of other
funny things.
Wow.
And God has been teaching, I'm still learning,
be positive, be positive.
And I have to do it as an
act of the will.
It doesn't just fall out of the tree.
There's no tree outside my house when I
walk under a little baptism of positiveness falls
on me.
I have to appropriate it by faith.
Lord, help me to see the bright side.
There's 88 things wrong with this brother, Lord.
Where, I'm sure there's something right.
Where's my microscope?
You know, being positive actually creates energy and
being negative actually drains you physically.
I believe that.
I read in a book.
I also believe it.
And then very quickly, a couple of other
things and we'll close, remain constant in the
word and prayer.
We've already dealt with that.
We won't go into it more.
14, keep active in his service with your
eyes on him.
Hebrews chapter 12, running the race with your
eyes fixed upon Jesus.
So easy to get introspective.
So easy to look at the circumstances and
get discouraged.
Look at other people and get disappointed.
Look at yourself and get depressed.
Three D's of the downhill to the doldrums.
Learn to look at Jesus.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Look full in his wonderful face.
Even at the most depressing moment, Jesus is
reaching out.
And then number 15, don't neglect your family.
Some of you, I think during these days,
need to write a letter to your mother,
your father.
And then number 16, in everything, let's keep
the balance.
Now, for many of you, these things are
just very, very basic.
You may have heard it many, many times,
but I've had a few thousand letters and
feedbacks over the past years that indicate that
many of God's people somehow haven't got down
to really putting these principles into practice.
I'm amazed when people write me a note.
I'm 80% of the time ministering away
from OM and churches.
I'm amazed.
I get so many notes.
People say, you know, I never saw these
things before.
I never understood spiritual balance before.
So many people have written and thanked me
for some of the simplest little basic biblical
truths.
I just, I just, I stand amazed.
And I believe that some of you, as
you take these basic principles of perseverance, survivalship,
the word we coin, is going to revolutionize
your life.
So that as you make this big turn
in your life, you will keep on keeping
on.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for so many principles
in your word.
We thank you how one strong, seemingly extreme
truth brings another strong, extreme truth into balance.
We don't want to compromise.
We don't want to reject strong truth, but
Lord, we want to know balance.
We want to know what it is to
be able to run the race through difficulties
and trials and setbacks and heartaches and problems.
We believe Lord that you can deliver us,
but we believe that unless we follow up
what you may do in our hearts through
crisis by your process, that somehow we'll end
up on a dead end street.
So by your grace, we will appropriate these
principles.
We know you're working in different lives in
different ways, and we're trusting you in Jesus
name.
Amen.