In John 10, verse 6 till 10, I
read in the translation of Philip, Jesus gave
them this illustration, but they did not grasp
the point of what he was saying to
them.
So Jesus said to them once more, I
do assure you that I myself am the
door for the sheep.
All who have come before me are like
thieves and robbers.
But the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the door.
If a man goes in through me, he
will be safe and sound.
He can come in and out and find
his food.
The thief comes with the sole intention of
stealing and killing and destroying.
But I came to bring them life and
far more life than before.
I came to give them life and life
abundantly.
Jesus is the door.
I read a parable about, I don't know
from whom it was, I believe from F
.B. Meyer.
And he said the life of a Christian
is like one who is living in a
palace.
And a palace has several rooms.
C.S. Lewis once said, we are often
like children satisfied with a puddle when they
have been invited for a day at the
ocean.
Too many of us are just happy with
nothing more than to be saved.
That is tremendous much to know that you
are saved for time and eternity.
But there is so much more that is
in connection with this salvation by Jesus Christ.
It is so good to know that we
have to walk with Jesus in this life,
in this time.
Today, I remember that in the concentration camp,
once we had to go to the place
where we had to stand on roll call.
Really, the roll call was at 4.30
in the morning.
And we had a very cruel head of
our barrack who sent us a whole hour
too early.
So at 3.30 we had to go
into the icy cold night or early morning.
And we had to wait for roll call.
Betsy and I then never went straight to
the place where we had to stand.
But we made a walk around through the
camp.
It was not yet light.
Everything was dark.
And when we walked there, we had the
light of the stars and the moon.
And then I can tell you, Betsy and
I walked with the Lord and talked with
the Lord.
And then the Lord said something, and then
Betsy said something, and then I said something.
And then the Lord again spoke to us.
Both Betsy and I understood what he said.
That was a little bit of heaven in
the midst of hell.
And the Lord will walk with you and
me now and here.
But we must understand that the promises of
the Bible are in him, yea, and amen.
There was a man in a bank who
told me, there are many unclaimed deposits in
my bank.
And I have the idea that there are
many unclaimed deposits of the Bible in the
lives of many children of God.
What are you, a professor or a possessor?
I think we must understand that we may
claim all the riches of the Bible.
Now I will tell you about this palace
with its many rooms.
The first room is the rebirth.
Jesus said, except you are born again, you
cannot see and you cannot enter the kingdom
of God.
Are you born again?
There has to be a rebirth.
And the Bible tells us very clearly that
we have to come when we say yes
to the Lord Jesus.
That means a decision of one who loves
the Lord and who is loved by him.
Like a young man who asks a girl,
will you receive me as your fiancée?
And when the girl says yes, then the
young man is happy.
And so Jesus asks you, will you receive
me as your savior?
Some people say, oh I have not to
do that because I have had already so
many answers of my prayers.
The Lord has helped me through so often.
But just imagine, just think of the young
man, that the girl says, but you gave
me such beautiful presents with Christmas and we
had such good dates.
And the young man says, I know it,
but now I will have another answer.
About that we will speak later.
But will you receive me?
And so it is the Lord Jesus who
says to you, if you have never done
it before, will you receive me as your
savior?
And when you say, yes Lord, that yes,
that means such important news that the angels
in heaven rejoice.
Yes, you are very important in the eyes
of the Lord.
And that is why the angels rejoice when
you receive Jesus as your savior by your
simple, well-meant yes to Jesus.
That moment you come into the palace of
riches.
And the great joy is when you have
said yes, that the Lord does in you
that great miracle of the rebirth.
You have not to understand it, he does
it.
But then when you are, when he does
that and makes you a child of God,
that moment he takes your hand and he
brings you into that palace.
And through that first room you come immediately
in the second room.
And that is the assurance of salvation.
In the concentration camp sometimes we could have
a shower, a hot shower.
Oh, that was a tremendous blessing.
We had to go with many into a
kind of room and there came at one
moment hundred hot showers from the ceiling.
Lack of hygiene was one of our sufferings
there.
But now the terrible thing was that people
had told us that room is not only
the shower room but also the gas chamber.
So when we stood there we did not
know what is it today.
Did it come water or gas?
Such moment you look death in the eyes.
You stand as it were for eternity.
What a joy was it that Jesus had
brought me in that second room the assurance
of salvation.
I knew when it has been gas then
after a short time I go to the
house of the Father with the many mansions
where Jesus is preparing one for everyone who
belongs to him.
No, I was not afraid.
I could say, Death where is thy sting?
Hell where is thy victory?
I praise the Lord for the victory of
my Lord Jesus Christ.
And I felt his hand in my hand.
But it is also only a beginning.
The Lord Jesus brings us into the third
room and that is the surrendered will.
Now understand that Jesus is the door.
Even in this one, yes, we have to
surrender our will.
And sometimes we think that our will is
better than the will of the Lord but
that is not true.
And shall I pray you change your will,
O Father until it is a corner unto
mine?
But no, Lord, no, that never shall be.
Rather, I pray thee, blend my human will
with thine.
I was in New Zealand in a house
where also a young man was a theological
student, a dear child of God.
He had had an accident and he had
broken his neck.
Now he was paralyzed from his head down.
I had many talks with him and I
said, Chris, Chris, you must surrender your will.
But he could not.
He said, I don't know why I have
to be paralyzed for the rest of my
life.
And then once I heard him praying during
the night this prayer, O Lord, make me
willing to be made willing to surrender all.
And that was it.
That moment he arrived in the room, the
surrendered will, and the next day when I
saw him, his face was beaming of joy.
For it is a joy to surrender your
will to the will of the Lord.
When you have had that victory, and when
the Lord has brought you in this surrendered
will, then you come very soon in the
fourth room, and that is the total surrender.
Now, just one word about the third room,
the surrendered will.
Too many people say to me, I never
know what is the will of God.
But then I ask them, do you expect
the Lord to tell you his will?
Then they all, most of the time, when
they are honest, they say no.
I said, no, when you do not expect
that the Lord will show you his will,
then he will not do it.
The Lord is a good shepherd, and a
shepherd speaks to his sheep.
And I believe it is very important that
we know the will of God.
If there is in your life at this
moment, this experience, that you are not sure
of the will of God, then don't go
to sleep tonight before you have asked the
Lord, and you know his will.
Too many Christians major in minors.
It is a major to know the will
of God.
And that is something we must major in,
to know the will of God.
And the Lord is willing to tell you
his will.
But there is only one thing, you must
be obedient.
When I came from Germany, after my terrible
experiences in Germany, in the concentration camp, I
said, Lord, I will go where you send
me.
I don't mind, I will go over the
whole world, but one thing, Lord, never send
me back to Germany.
I will not hear a word German.
Then I came to your country, here in
America, and there came that difficulty that perhaps
some of you share with me.
I did not know the will of God.
I have no church behind me, or mission
that tells me where to go.
I have to depend absolutely on the Lord.
I am a friend for the Lord.
But when I said, Lord, where must I
go?
And the Lord did not give me an
answer.
I said, Lord, what is the matter?
I am sure there is nothing the matter
with the shepherd.
There must be something the matter with the
sheep.
And then the Lord said, Germany.
It took me some minutes, and then I
said, then also to Germany, God.
And I went to Germany.
You can read it in my book.
Especially Amazing Love tells about the time that
I came in that country.
No, the Germans are not my enemies.
My greatest friends live there.
But I also found my enemies.
I found my former guards in the concentration
camp.
And it was a joy to speak to
them, and to tell them what it means
to have forgiveness.
You never touch so the ocean of God's
love, that you love your enemies.
It was a joy to show these people
that I had forgiven.
Do you understand?
We have to surrender our will, and we
must be obedient.
It is so true that we can expect
boundless resources when we go the way of
obedience.
The Lord Jesus has shown us his obedience
to the Father, and we have to follow
him.
This total surrender is in the eyes of
some people such a problem.
People make it so complicated.
It is not complicated.
You know, I have a slogan that helps
me sometimes when I speak with people who
make things so very complicated.
And that slogan is KISS.
K-I-S-S.
Keep it simple, stupid.
I remember that I was in a group
in New York.
It was a group of Norman Vincent Peale's
church, young adults.
We had a good time.
We really listened to what the Lord said
to us.
But then little groups came to me to
ask questions.
And there came eight students to me.
And one said to me, why did not
you approach us more from the intellectual side?
I said, because of my slogan.
He said, what's your slogan?
I said, KISS.
K-I-S-S.
Keep it simple, stupid.
And then they all laughed.
Now, I like it when people laugh.
So when you laugh, you also listen to
the deeper challenges that the Lord gives me
to give you.
So, after we had laughed, I said, now
listen now.
You ask me this question.
Is it perhaps that you are hiding yourself
behind your intellectualism because you are afraid for
the challenge the Lord has given you today?
What have I said to you?
I have told you that the Lord will
have your heart.
I have told you that Jesus has come
unto me all who are happy laden and
I will give you rest.
Did you go to the Lord Jesus?
Now I ask you, and I said that
to that student who had spoken to me.
I said, now I ask you one thing.
Will you receive Jesus as your savior?
Yes or no?
Nothing in between.
He said, yes.
I said, that's good.
And then I prayed with him.
I showed him in the Bible that when
we say yes to him that the Lord
does that miracle that he brings us into
the palace of riches.
That he does that miracle in us that
we are born in the very family of
God.
And then I asked all the students and
praised the Lord.
They all said their yes to Jesus.
Sometimes the Lord uses a little bit of
humor to reach the heart, and I am
glad for that.
What does the total surrender mean?
I heard a talk about it from Dr.
Oswald Smith in Toronto.
And he took four books and he said,
I have surrendered all to the Lord.
I have said, Lord, here is my money.
And I laid it on the altar.
And here is my time.
And he laid a second book.
Here is my house.
Lord, I surrender my house.
And here is my family.
I surrendered all to the Lord.
I laid all of my possessions on the
altar.
Yes, but.
All that yes, but.
Obedience says yes.
Disobedience says yes, but.
He said, yes, but my money, I surrendered
it to the Lord, but I must have
some money for my vacation for the hotel.
I've ordered already that hotel.
So that money is for myself.
Then not my money, and one book went
back.
Yes, my time.
My time is the Lord's.
But this two weeks vacation, that is for
myself.
Then not my time.
A second book went back.
My house.
Oh yes, when we came into the house,
we have really celebrated to tell the Lord
that our house was his house.
And we know it, and the children know
it, it is the Lord's house, but.
Yes, but.
But my sister is rather ill, and she
has six naughty boys.
Now you understand that we cannot invite these
six naughty boys in our house, for our
house is stick and span.
Then not my house.
And the third book went back.
My children.
Yes, my wife and I have surrendered all
my children to the Lord.
But that daughter of mine will be a
missionary.
But we cannot allow it because we have
a big family, and she must help her
mother.
So not my family.
The altar is empty.
I must tell you, I went to my,
I left that meeting, and I went to
the garden and I talked with the Lord.
And I said, Lord, is the altar empty?
And the Lord said, yes.
And I took my whole life again, not
for the first time, but again I took
my whole life and I laid it on
the altar.
And Jesus had brought me into the room,
told to surrender.
Didn't I get a vacation in a hotel?
Perhaps when you surrender all, you get a
far more beautiful hotel than you had ordered.
But in that hotel you will be used
to win souls for eternity.
It is a joy to surrender.
Some time ago, I was burdened.
I had got a part of the schedule
new American friends had made.
And I must tell you, it was a
far too busy schedule for an 80-year
-young woman like I am.
Oh, I wanted to do it.
I'd like to do it.
But I knew, no, it is too much.
And then that day I got letters from
Africa, from friends, about Christians who had been
killed.
The whole school of boys where I had
worked, all the boys had been killed because
they were Christians.
And I know it.
These boys are now in heaven and they
have a martyr crown.
But I was moved.
I was downhearted.
There came more difficulties that day.
And then I said, Lord, what must I
do?
And then the Lord gave me a vision.
I saw my bag that I have always
with me in the airplane.
When I go with an airplane, I put
the very heavy things and the things that
I need during the trip in that bag.
And I saw that bag was empty.
And the Lord said, You have surrendered all.
That means that you do not possess anything
whatever.
I possess it.
I said, Oh, Lord, what a joy.
The Lord said, You have no responsibility anymore
because you have surrendered all.
I have the responsibility.
And what you possess is not your possession,
but you are a steward.
And suddenly there came such a joy in
my heart.
What good is it to be only a
steward of the things that you have?
Because then He to whom you have surrendered
has a responsibility.
And then I saw what a dynamic experience
it is to be surrendered to the Lord.
Because His power was my power.
His power was demonstrated in what I had
thought were my possessions.
No, I'm just a steward about it.
But the responsibility He has.
And what a quietness.
How relaxed I was.
People, don't tell that when you surrender all
that it is static.
It is dynamic and it is relaxed.
Jesus is the door and my hand is
in His hand.
How safe I am.
If you are not quite sure that your
hand is in Jesus' hand, then ask Jesus
to bring you into the room, the total
surrender.
And that means the difficult things of your
life, but also the joyful things.
The total surrender is not only when you
are in a concentration camp or when you
are still over the years in problems.
No, this afternoon I will speak about the
love of God shed abroad into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who is given to
us.
And that means that that highest potential of
God's love is available in the everyday life.
There is a Bible who says, be sure
that your everyday life is according to the
glory of God.
I saw it in my father.
Daddy was a surrendered man.
He sometimes said, Corrie, on our jewelry store
is my name.
But really, God's name should be on the
jewelry store for I am a watchmaker by
the grace of God.
You see it?
He had surrendered himself and his job and
his daily work to the will of God.
And I have worked with him shoulder on
shoulder 25 years in the workshop and the
jewelry store with him together.
And I saw what that meant.
There was not one difficulty, too great or
too small, that father was not going to
bring to the Lord.
Yes, to have your hand in Jesus' hand,
that is a great rest and a tremendous
power for everyday life.
Yes, for your life too.
If you have the feeling, oh, I am
not able to stand all the problems, I
am not able to do my work, to
have this difficult connection with that person with
whom I must work, perhaps with your husband,
with your wife, with your teenagers, whatever your
problems are, lay your hand in the hand
of Jesus and let him bring you into
that room, the total surrender, and then his
power will be demonstrated in your everyday life.
What a joy!
Through this room, Jesus brings you into the
room of the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
What a joy is it that the Lord
has told us in the Bible the great
word, be filled with the Spirit.
That's a commandment.
The Bible has no suggestions.
The Bible has only commandments.
And the sweetest commandment of the whole Bible
is, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
How can you come to that experience?
Jesus is the door.
It is Jesus who baptizes with the Holy
Spirit.
It was already John who has said that,
I baptize you with water, but he will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
And the Bible says, be filled with the
Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 1 it's written, you have
been eager to receive his gifts during this
time of waiting for his final appearance.
He will keep you steadfast in the faith
to the end, so that when his day
comes, you'll meet fear, no condemnation.
God is utterly dependable, and it is he
who calls you into fellowship with his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
It is God himself who brings you in
fellowship with Jesus, and Jesus baptizes you with
the Holy Spirit.
Why does the Bible say, be filled with
the Spirit?
Now look, my hand is still in the
glove, but only in the midst.
And the glove cannot do anything, because the
fingers are not filled.
If you have not only the Holy Spirit,
but has the Holy Spirit you, then every
finger, every little part of your life is
filled with the Holy Spirit.
And every part of your life is the
room, the place, where the Lord can demonstrate
his victory and his glory.
Through this room, Jesus brings us in the
room abiding in Christ.
He in us, we in him.
What a joyful experience, and what a possibility.
Now, today, you can be in Jesus, and
Jesus can be in you.
And it was John who said, abide in
him, so that when he comes, you will
not be ashamed at his appearance.
To be ready for Jesus Christ is possible
when we abide in Jesus.
When you say, oh, I'm not able, sometimes
I have success, but then again I have
no success and I cannot abide in him.
No, you cannot, and I cannot.
But Jesus is the door.
He brings you into that room, abiding in
Christ.
I saw a demonstration of this in Betsy,
my sister.
You can read it in the book, The
Hiding Place.
Once she was beaten in her face, terrible,
so terrible that for the rest of her
life she was deaf at one ear.
And I saw it in her face and
said, Betsy, has a man beaten you?
She said, yes, and I'm so sorry for
the man who did it.
Have you ever experienced cruelty, pain through cruelty?
It's very difficult to bear when you experience
pain because a doctor thinks it is necessary
that he does something that hurts.
It doesn't make you angry or bitter.
You know, this I must come through.
He does it for my well-being.
But when cruelties make you suffer, then there
comes all the bitterness and the hatred in
your heart that you can have never had
before.
But Betsy was abiding in Christ, and Christ
was abiding in her.
And that is why she was sorry for
that man who had beaten her.
I'm so glad that Jesus is the door.
I could never have lived in this room
when I had to strive and to try
and to try.
Sometimes people come to me and ask questions,
and then I often ask, will you do
what the Lord told you today?
And too often people say, yes, I try
to do it.
And then I always say, it is not
try, but trust.
It is not do, but done.
Our God has planned for us great victory
through his Son.
Jesus is the door.
You have not to force the door to
all these rooms.
It is he.
Stop trying.
Trust.
And then you come in the seventh room,
the victory over sins.
So many people feel guilty.
And the guilt of the sins of the
past is darkening the lives of many people.
What is the reason that you feel guilty?
The reason is that you are guilty.
You must understand that.
No, don't try to push away the guilt
by psychological means or whatever.
No, the Bible gives an answer for the
sin problem.
Hallelujah.
It is Jesus who is the answer.
And the Bible tells very clearly that we
must repent of our sins.
Repent.
And when you repent of your sins and
forsake your sins in his power, then the
Lord, what will he do with your sins?
The Bible tells it so beautifully.
He casts your sins into the depths of
the sea, forgiven and forgotten.
That is the answer for your guilt problem.
The Bible tells many different things.
As far as the east is from the
west, so far does he lead your sins
away from you.
But you must repent.
He brought them out like a cloud.
Did you ever see a cloud?
After it had disappeared?
Never.
Yes, there is another cloud, but it is
not the same.
That is what Jesus does with your sins.
When you repent, he brought them out.
He makes them absolutely disappear.
Oh, what a joy.
So you get victory over sins.
Jesus is the answer for our sin problem,
because he at the cross has carried our
sins.
At the cross, at the cross, where I
first saw the light, and the burden of
my sins rolled away, it was there by
faith I received my sight.
Yes, at the cross.
There we see God's love who has sent
Jesus to bear our punishment.
But we have not only Jesus Christ who
died for us, he lives and he is
with us day and night, and he is
the door, the door who brings us in
all the rooms of the palace.
And that is why we have victory over
sins.
I was in Australia, and there came a
boy in the inquiry room, Jimmy, and he
had with him several other boys, and these
boys had prayed for him the whole time
that I had spoken.
And now this boy came to the Lord.
Now when people have prayed, then the way
is very open, because then the devil cannot
come in between.
And Chris accepted the Lord Jesus as his
savior.
But then he said, I have a little
difficulty.
Can you give me advice?
I said, no, tell.
What is the difficulty, Jim?
He said, you know, I am so terribly
fond of rock and roll.
Yeah, that was a problem.
And the Lord gave me the answer.
I said, Jimmy, now you belong to Jesus,
and Jesus belongs to you, and that means
that you are standing on the salt rock,
Jesus Christ, and you are on the roll
in heaven, and that is now your rock
and roll.
I understood that this was not sufficient for
Jimmy.
It was a joke what made him laugh,
but then I said, listen, Jimmy, when you
really, you are really now with your hand
in Jesus' hand, and when you go to
your dance, don't forget you are not alone.
Jesus is with you.
And in case Jesus says, say, Jimmy, I
cannot go to that dirty place, then don't
go yourself.
Or he said, I promise you.
You know, I knew when Jimmy goes with
his hand in Jesus' hand, Jesus will bring
him in the places what pleases him.
I believe we must be careful when we
bring a youngster to the Lord not to
start to say, and you may not do
this, and you may not do that.
Let the Holy Spirit do it.
And they are in such good hands, because
Jesus is the door.
But we must understand that we stand on,
really, on victory ground.
You know, I have heard of the pickpocket
who said, I have always been a very
good pickpocket.
I stole about, no, about 50, 60 watches
every week.
But now I am saved, I am a
Christian, and I steal only five or six
watches every week.
No, no, now you laugh.
You laugh because of that pickpocket, but what
about this decent sin that you have still
in your life?
Just ask the Lord, search me, O God.
Show me if there is still a watch
that I steal.
If there is some little decent or terrible
indecent sin in my life, in my action,
in my thinking, in my speaking.
For Jesus brings you when you surrender to
him into the room victory over sin.
And the victorious life is the normal life
for a Christian, because Jesus is victor.
And now we come in the room hearts
rest.
That room is open for everyone when he
has his hand in Jesus' hand.
The worst can happen in your life when
your hand is in Jesus' hand.
The best remains and the very best is
yet to be.
Paul wrote when he was in a terrible
prison to the Philippians, I count everything as
loss compared with the priceless privilege, the overwhelming
preciousness, the surpassing worth and supreme advantage of
knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord, and of progressively
more deeply and ultimately getting acquainted with him,
Philippians 3.8 in the Amplified New Testament.
That I have experienced.
When I was in that concentration camp where
I was surrounded by people who had had
a training in cruelty, where 96,000 women
were killed or died, also Betsy, my sister,
but I learned to know Jesus Christ more
deeply and I got acquainted with him like
never before.
And that is the great joy that gives
you the hearts rest also when the worst
happens.
You need hearts rest also today in everyday
life, but also when terrible things should happen
in the world, in America, in your house,
in your life.
Don't forget that Jesus is the door to
the room, hearts rest.
Nolly, my younger sister, was the first one
in our family who was arrested.
We had not yet had any experience of
the enemy who had arrested us, but Nolly
was found with two Jews in her house.
And that's why they brought her into the
police station.
I went to the police station and I
saw that they brought her from the door
of the police station to the prison van.
I broke through the barrier of policemen and
I put my arm around her and I
cried, but Nolly said to me, God is
love.
How could she say that?
And she said, can you believe that God
is love, that he allowed the enemy to
bring me to prison, my six children are
alone without mother?
Then I could have understood.
But then she said, don't forget, God is
love.
That was a miracle.
How could she say that?
Because Jesus had brought her into the room,
hearts rest.
And when she was in the prison van,
she wrote on the wall, Jesus is victor.
They pushed her into a dark cell and
there was another woman and she cried.
And Nolly said, don't cry.
God does not make mistakes, even by allowing
the enemy to bring us in this cell.
You see, that was not Nolly in her
own power.
She could not have thought and said such
things.
But Jesus had brought her in that terrible
happening into the room, hearts rest.
And then there comes the last room, fellowship
in Christ's suffering.
I have seen this fellowship in many countries.
Behind the Iron Curtain, I have found many
people who were in the power of the
enemy, who had to suffer persecution so terrible.
Oh, you do not know that all here.
But I can tell you, never in the
history of the world there has been so
many martyrs for Jesus Christ.
Even not in the time of Nero.
You do not know it, but you do
not realize it.
But do you know that in Africa, in
this time, is a terrific persecution.
So many people, so many Christians are killed.
Now, in this time, some weeks ago I
got a letter from a missionary and he
wrote, oh Corrie, you know that we worked
in a boys' school and we had such
a good time there.
All the boys have been killed.
He also told that about 80,000 Christians
were killed.
And I asked in World Vision, is that
true, were so many killed?
They said 200,000 is more closer to
the truth.
And I don't know if you will have
the honor to suffer for Jesus.
It's possible.
But don't be afraid, for Jesus is the
door and he will make you victorious.
And don't forget that in this last room,
behind it is a little alley, and at
the other side of the alley is the
house of the Father, with many mansions.
And there is a master crown for everyone
who has fellowship in Christ's suffering.
He keeps your hand, even in that valley.