Today we can present human thoughts, bragging about the things we do for Him. But His thoughts are not our thoughts. As heaven differs from earth, so His thoughts differ from ours. As the west differs from the east, so His words differ from ours.
We have been fed up with listening to the words. Most of them are empty. Although I am a good preacher, if compared with people. But all this is emptiness if we speak our own words, and not His.
But testimonies of His manifestations – yes. They are beautiful.
We need Him. He. This is what we are here for. Seek Him.
It is written, “Seek the Lord when He can be found; call upon Him when He is near.”
As we’ve come closer to each other in His name we want Him to near us. But He doesn’t have to. He doesn’t owe anything, He has already done it.
Everything we do without love is “sounding brass”. It’s written that the Angels don’t even see it. It’s not recorded. Ananias and Sapphira sold their estate but fell dead because they did it without love. Only what we do with love is recorded in heaven. Not for ourselves, not for our image, not to be praised, not to show off before others.
Why did Christ say, when we do a charitable deed not to sound a trumpet before us? Why did the Apostles teach that one should do good quietly? Why does God teach that the left hand should not know what the right hand does? Because God is this way. Why should we be different? This is what He said about Himself. It is God who doesn’t trumpet, He does things secretly, it is God who hides in silence. Let’s go to Him and learn from Him.
You say: how can we take the world then?! – No way. You won’t “take” the world anyway. Do what you ought to, what you are sent here for. Be faithful in little things. And it will be a great thing that you will do for God. The greatest. To be faithful to your calling.
We don’t have to be like Paul. Paul doesn’t call us to be like him. He calls us to imitate his love for Him, not for himself.
Paul had a specific Apostolic ministry – unlike other Apostles. Peter had a different ministry. James – also different. Paul ministered to the Gentiles. You don’t have to be like Paul. We need to get out of infancy – out of “playing for effects”. We need a result.
Christ was incomprehensible to religious people because He says, “Abide in Me, and I will abide in you.” He was asked: “Tell us what we must do to be saved!” And Christ answered: “Keep the commandments and you will be saved, but if you want to be perfect, follow Me.” And this is something else – this is not morality, not a list of prohibitions, what you can and what you cannot do, this is not philosophy, not an idea, not psychology, what you “feel” or “don’t feel”. It is “abide in Me and I will abide in you. And whatever you want, THEN ask and you will receive!”
What do you want? – You will be very careful to pray. You will pause before prayer to think about whether it is worth praying for – to pull at heaven with this empty thing. Inevitability will take its course. The universe is spun into one point, whether pray or don’t pray. But there are things that we need to change. To pray means to connect with the Father.
For several years I have not asked the Lord to protect me. We have been taught to plead the Blood and ask for protection and covering. I don’t feel them I’m less secure when I don’t ask for it.
Something is wrong with each one.
When we are full of questions, it means there is evidence of life. When you don’t have questions, you either sleep or you know everything, but that doesn’t happen.
Our maturity is not aging or overripening. The bride isn’t aging, she is getting mature. Aging is a process of death. Maturation is the process of life – the entry into fullness. This is the entrance to the apogee, to the zenith. The Lord wants to take her at this point, not at sunset.
This should lead to goodness. We must grow in goodness. John grew so much in goodness that he began to refer to the church as the “lady.”
But we are like hounds – we need results. But sheep are grazing, they are gaining fat and contemplate. The Lord said that He had more sheep, not of this yard.
If we understand the Gospel, it’s all about you. Who are you. We’ve got to jump out of morality, out of the ditch of a sick conscience, slavish fear, various manifestations of death.
All this is dressed in the guise of religiosity, piety.
If there is no love, there is no fire, it is emptiness. That matters, what is of love. All things matter, which are done with love, with conscious love, not with instinctive love, but with love as a choice.
This is your Golgotha, this is your chosen love. It’s your choice to love, every time you have to confess life. This is recorded in the book of the Eternal One. This will be revealed before death.
One sister had a dream. She saw a brother as a general or even a marshal. And there was a stone book, but it was alive, his deeds were written in it. Suddenly the pages began to turn, and some of them were blank. She came to understand that this is what the Lord had removed. Lots of blank pages. I understand that good deeds remain, and bad deeds are erased.
Suddenly, instead of being empty, the pages began to come to life and turned out covered with roses. Flowers began to grow on them. I believe that these flowers were born from the Blood. The Blood that flooded these pages gave birth to flowers.
Here is the Kingdom. Brethren, preach the Word, the truth of God, and you will grow. That’s why we’re here – to give praise, so that in every place pure incense of praise from the Gentiles will be brought.
This is my duty as a man of eternity. That’s why my spirit came to earth. That your offering, as Gentiles, be acceptable to God. That’s what the Word of God should carry – the sacrament, the consecration of the offerings.
Ascending and growing in grace should lead us to growing in kindness as a sign. If we don’t find in ourselves that we are becoming kinder, happier, we are going the wrong way. This should lead us to the kind of love that the elder John had for the church – the lady, and as Paul said, “I love you all in Jesus Christ, God is my witness.”
We are going forth not to “conquer the world and the earth for Christ”, to force our songs to be sung, to baptize. But we are going to help to comprehend, to know, to grow in salvation, in order to attain. If we conquer the whole world, but do not attain to the resurrection? Therefore, growth in grace, in comprehension of God’s grace. Ask yourself, are you growing in it? Give three signs that you have grown.
Apostle Peter, the “stone”, saw Jesus, touched Him, raised people from the dead – his “incredibility” lies in the fact that he was with Him, and in himself – he was an ordinary man. And we are the same. Peter said, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and to the day of eternity!”
What legacy can we give? What to pass on as an inheritance. Knowledge will vanish away, memory will disappear, achievements will be gone. – Love for God! Blazing fire of love! If I leave behind a legacy – this is the fire of love. I’ll take it with me, the fire will lift me into heaven, it will carry my spirit away.
If we don’t have it, we’re going the wrong way. We urgently need to find the fire of love. Not administrative vanity, but the fire of love, the truth of the Word, revelations, which are a sign that God is with you, therefore the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. Our Word must always be to the heart, and in order for it to go to the heart, it must come from the heart. A flaming spirit, a blazing heart that chooses to love, each time dying and resurrecting.
This is the kingdom world. I invite you into this world of God, the Kingdom of the Father and the Son, to change clothes, to go through the school of the royal priesthood. We must learn the Kingdom. The Lord is calling us to the Kingdom today.
Fruitful vine. Joseph is the branch of the fruitful vine. Jesus was fruitful, but we sometimes aren’t. Why? Because He was grafted into the Source of life, the Source of all – the strength and power of Life. When Joseph was on the verge of a “breakdown”, because all the brothers betrayed Him, when he cried out from loneliness so that all Egypt could hear, like Jesus at Calvary, – his wife could not comfort him. There is no bottom in this loneliness. God calls into His loneliness. This is conscious contemplation, the greatness of the Kingdom, no words are needed there.
Many of you know that Angels do not open their mouths when they speak to a person. They don’t need “those” words.
Who’s been there – they know, He doesn’t need “decibels” in the air – the spirit goes into the spirit, the depth enters the depth – this is the prayer that enters the heavens.
If to be honest – why doesn’t God answer so many prayers? “The deep calls unto deep with the voice of its waterfalls.”
Perhaps, we should stop and figure it out? – God has already figured it out. There, in Eden, when He made clothes, killing an innocent animal, skinning him and making clothes for the fallen Adam and Eve. The Tailor watched them as they were hiding in the bushes and continued to sew.God the First Tailor.
Then He gave them clothes – cover your shame, your conscience for a while. The fullness of time will come and I will send the One who will take away your guilt, all this eternal shame. He will incinerate it, uproot it, destroy it.
Have you destroyed your shame? Scripture says that He came to destroy sin, not to cover it.
And here we are with you. Rushing to eternity. It will take a little while – and you will come to the Gates. Will you enter in or not? The Lord nows shares the responsibility with you. Because He gave Adam the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Adam went to this tree – there is passion, there is pleasure, it’s so good there, there is life – he drank and drank from there.
The Lord gives us the same thing today – He shares responsibility with us. He will not save us like zombies, He wants conscious steps – choose staying on the Vine again and again. We choose His Words consciously, lovingly, over and over again. We decide to love Christ, to love God, and thus, as a reward, we begin to have a proper attitude to ourselves. We love ourselves. We begin to appreciate the gift of God to us. We begin to appreciate the incredible value of life that God has given us.
Swim to the depths, and cast nets there. Here, by the shore, there are few fish. Better catch a huge “tuna”.
There is a whirlwind here, it spins slowly and gently, but it is powerful. If it gets furious, it will smash everything – it will bring judgments and death. But now it is very gentle, it “whirls” here and draws to itself. Let us give our hearts and souls to it, let us trust ourselves to the breath of the Almighty, Who gives man understanding. Be sensitive and attentive, watch yourself. I am quoting the Words of God. You test yourself, delve into yourself, be sensitive in your conversations, in your places. Do not talk news, but let Him be seen.
Magdalene said: “Gardener! Give me the body of my Lord!” He said, “Mary…” That was all she needed – Him.
Christ said, “I am the door. I am the truth. I am the way. I am from the beginning.”