I think of a miracle that happened in Budapest. There was a lady that came into a healing line. I didn't ask for a line, it was a church that was recognized by the communist government so it had to be run just more or less so. My wife and I had been to an underground church and some of these people had heard what the Lord had done in the meeting of the underground church, so when they came out to this fairly large church, there were four or five hundred people there. And following the service there was a row of communist officials back there to make sure that nothing was said against their government. But these people came up to the front and there was such a flow of them that you couldn't stop them, and I don't think the government officials could stop them. It kind of looked like an infirmary of some kind had been turned loose. But there was a lady that came, and they were coming so fast, and I didn't know their language, I was just praying because God knew what I was saying, He knew what they needed. But one lady came with someone walking with her. And then I saw another lady who looked just like her. This lady was blind and couldn't see. What was happening was she kept coming back. She asked for a hymnbook and she read everything there on it. It reminded me of that little lady who came to Jesus and touched the hem of His garment. But I'm looking forward to these things.
This ministry in the Philippines was something that God has had in mind for a long time. And He let me know about it over a year in a half ago when He let me have that visit to heaven, and He gave me that paper. And on this paper was written that God was going to give me a ministry in the Philippines. Hallelujah. We had a call from some people that the Lord is using around the world, its called trance world missions with John and Linda Olsen. It's a beautiful ministry. They're going to be sharing here Sunday night. Tell your friends about it. I've been asking the Lord for guidance and direction in the type of ministry and what type of preparation I should have or how I should be preparing for this ministry. And the Lord seemed to speak to my heart and calmed my spirit. I believe it was last week that I said I seemed like I was taking a leap into an inkwell. Not knowing where I am going. I only know one thing that I'm going to be at the Far East Advance School of Theology. It's going to be at four different islands. I mentioned to my wife that I wish I knew a little more of what God wanted me to share there. At 1:28 a.m. this morning, my dog whimpered like she does when there's company, so I woke up and took her downstairs, but she didn't want to go out, but I had some heavenly visitors there. Mike asked me if it got to be a common thing. And I want you to know that it's as fresh and real as the first time. It can't be a common thing, because there's such a radiation of divine power even connected to being in their presence with them because they come from God and I'm almost paralyzed. It's not a common thing but it is a beautiful, gratifying assuring thing. I wanted to know more, what should I tell them over there, I don't know what they've been studying. But this great angel told me that the heavenly forces have been at work preparing the way. And many, many, many hearts are filled with great expectancy.
Just to make it brief though he was there for three in a half hours. The angel told me that those people need to hear that the King still reigns. This excited me because when he talked about that he let me practically see the glory of God in all His power, that in spite of nipping things that come along, God is in control and He rules over the whole earth. He let me tune in on the chorus of angels singing again. Telling me more about what God is like. Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord. He explained to me in detail what the meaning of holiness was. And it was such a beautiful thing, and it did no violence to the Word of God. Holiness is the character of God, the very nature of God. And as they sing, and as they magnify and exalt His holiness, I could see the magnificence of God Himself and how little all these other things are in the light of God's presence. And he told me that the people in these islands are going to be made glad that God is on the Throne. And he spoke about this, and then he said that the whole earth is going to be gladdened with this message. That God is on the throne, that He's still ruling, that He's in charge. If you were there and felt the Living Force of this truth, you see God is doing something so very, very special. And He encouraged me; this angel did mention how God was pleased with the sharing that many, many of you people have been doing. He told me that God was pleased. Keep doing it.
I asked him if there was some reference that he could give me so I could, when I went to the Philippines here it is right in the Bible what God has to say. So he told me that God had arranged all this in his ministry and as he met with David, David wrote down the very things that he was telling me. In Ps. 96, and he even mentioned the first part of Ps. 97. It was beautiful just to see the Living Force of this Truth. "Say among the heathen that the Lord reigns. The world also shall be established that it shall not be moved, He shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad, let the sea roar in the fullness thereof, let the fields be joyful." What he told me regarding this before hand is that the field, and the trees, and the sea and everything is praising the Lord. The whole creation has reached a time in God's great plan where they're praising the Lord. The sea as it roars is praising God, the fields as they're bringing forth are praising God, and the trees as they move in the wind are saying praise God. Praise God. Hallelujah.
So when I read this I could see the real beautiful meaning here. "Let the fields be joyful, and all that there is therein, and then shall all of the trees of the woods rejoice before the Lord, for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with His truth. The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of the isles be glad." I really needed that. Let the multitude of the isles be glad because of that message of hope and confidence that God is in control. He wanted me to tell them what God is like. He mentioned also that many of them are living in a kind of a gloom that they feel that they have to stay in because of the depressed life that they live, the oppression of the enemy. But he said take a look at what God is really like. And I could actually see the throne of God. It's anchored in His righteousness and His justice. Righteousness is His unfailing ability to always do that which is right.
Then He says, "the forces of light, the brightness of God's presence is strong enough to destroy and to push back all of the forces of darkness." Oh, praise God. So I could see something that God is going to do, He's going to push back some darkness over there because the people are going to be able to look up and see God on His throne reigning, being fair to them, bringing to them a real touch of His life and His message. "A fire goes before Him and burns up His enemies round about. The brightness of the Lord, the forces of light shall push back all of the forces of darkness." He did drop a suggestion, he told me to tell the people here to go out and tell everybody else that God still reigns, that He's in control. Let them know how God feels about them, that He loves them, and that He cares for them. When he talked to me about holiness, the very character of God, and how that God has allowed us to worship Him in the beauty of holiness. This holiness, the very nature of Jesus, is being developed and is growing in the lives of His people today through the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's called the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit at work is developing in you the fruits of holiness. Holiness is described in Gal. 5:22. Someone asked what holiness is in my class this morning. And nobody said it was for the ladies to have long hair. And no one said it was the ability to overcome the commonly known sins. But what real holiness is, is letting the life and the nature and the beauty of Jesus shine through. And so holiness is, love, joy, peace, gentleness, long-suffering, goodness, meekness, faith. This is holiness. This is the nature of Jesus.
So real quickly I'm going to give you a little Bible study on the first little flash, this is like a diamond with flashes coming out all around it. But one of those, the first one is love. The fruit of the Spirit is love, holiness is love. And the Spirit in this day, the outpoured Spirit is producing these evidences in the believers' life. It isn't only the struggle. It isn't looking at a person that is hard to love and saying, "I'm going to love this person if it's the last thing I'll do." Do you know there are little quirks and not everyone fits the same mold, and there are personality clashes that people have, and you know for to long somewhere down the line some place, people turned their eyes away from the Bible, away from what God has done to what people could do. And they have much have said God we would rather do it ourselves. But I just love those old hymns that exalt the greatness of God, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." What a beautiful truth is in that song. "A mighty fortress is my God." Some of these old hymns are so beautiful and bring out the character of God, and tell us what He is like. But something was lost because people decided, "How can I mold myself so I can be how God wants me to be?" But there's that tremendous effort of trying to produce something that you just can't produce.
The great renewal the world is experiencing is due to increased supernatural activity. God is restoring His church, and preparing His people for the greatest day of all history, the gathering together of His people to Himself. The present day move of His Spirit is to help complete the task of readying His Church for that day. Much has been said about the dynamic work of the Spirit, of the operation of gifts and the demonstrations of power which are so evident among us. Of equal importance is another purpose of the Spirit, that of implanting the nature of Jesus into the lives of believers. Something on the inside is taking place; the Spirit is at work today putting the nature of Jesus, love. People that come into this assembly, I've had them over and over again tell me, "Oh I felt such a warmth, such a love in that congregation." The Spirit was at work producing the nature of Jesus. God wants His people to be like Jesus.
When He speaks of bearing fruit He is referring to the Christ like traits seen in Gal. 5:22. Most of the nine characteristics mentioned have to do with our relationship with others. How we could let others see Jesus. We conclude then that the Spirit was given that the world may see the beauty of Jesus in our lives and be drawn to Him. The world wants to see what Jesus is like. Now if you have your Bible and would like to turn to Corinthians 13, there is a beautiful chapter on love.
"If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than a blaring brass or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God and if I also have absolute faith that can move mountains but have not love I amount to nothing at all. Yes even if I give my own body to be burned but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing. This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience, it looks for a way of being constructive, it is not possessive, it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love has good manners, and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy; it does not keep account of evil, nor gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, or no fading of its hope. It can outlast anything, it is in fact the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen. For if there be prophecies they will be fulfilled and done with, if there be tongues the need for them will disappear, if there is knowledge it will be swallowed up in truth, for our knowledge is always incomplete and our prophecy is always incomplete. And when the complete comes that is the end of incomplete. When I was a child I talked and felt and thought like a little child. Now that I am a man my childish speech and feeling and thought have no significance for me. At present we are men looking at puzzling reflections in a mirror the time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face. At present all I know is a little fraction of the truth. But the time will come when I shall know it as fully as God knows me. In this life we have three lasting qualities, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."
You might want to jot down just a couple of thoughts here. That what the Spirit is producing in you. I wonder how many of you have ever had a real longing to talk with that person who couldn't speak, or thought how you could see the full restoration of that person. I bet all of us have thought that one time or another. Love is the greatest of all of the Spirit's work. Without love nothing else works. Love is the thing that makes it work. Praise God. Love is greater than faith, greater than wisdom, it's greater than prophecy. I had a lady tell me the other day, "Oh I wish I could be used in giving prophecy, but I saw that her eyes were shining and there was a radiance from her life, just the love of Jesus. And I said, "God has given you the highest and best gift He could possibly give you, let that love shine. And the Lord will use you in other ways, but that love is so important.
The second heading, love adds meaning to all of life. He tells us in these verses that we just read, love never fails. It never fails. That love constrains, it activates the gifts of power. Galatians 5:6, He tells us that faith, that gift that everybody wants that power that everybody wants, faith is activated by love. So pursue and ask God by His Spirit to develop in you this likeness of Jesus, that love. The times that I have seen God do something really special has been times when my heart literally overflowed with compassion. And as that compassion went out, it just seems like God's hand went with it. Faith works by love. It adds a dimension of life to life that puts a halo around even the drab things. Those routine things suddenly get a halo when the love of Jesus is there. Praise God.
Now I want you to know the evidence of love. Now this is a picture of someone that the Spirit has added the force and the power of this love and has developed this part of Christ's nature within. Rom. 13:10, "love works no ill," actually could be paraphrased to read this way, "abstains from things that would hurt another." Gal. 6:2 "bear ye one another's burdens." He said get under the load with your weaker brother. He said "you that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak." How is it seen? That love will give you a willingness to forgive. Is there someone you haven't forgiven? You said I'll just give them a partial forgiveness, I'll put a band aid on their sore and write forgiveness, I've forgiven you but I won't forget the thing. Forgiveness, willingness to forgive.
2 Corinthians 2:7-8. Here is a case of a man who had been convicted of a very gross sin, and he had been disciplined more severely than what God intended. People picked on this guy, but God had to tell these people. He said sufficient to such a man as this punishment which was inflicted of many, so that contrary wise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one shall be swallowed up with overwhelming sorrow. There may be people that you feel are in trouble with God because of things they have done. God says, "Go to them, help them, go to them." Confirm your love toward him. Oh what love, God wants us to forgive. satan takes advantage of unforgiveness as you read in verse 10 and 11, "to whom you forgive anything I forgive also for if I gave anything to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I in the person of Christ, lest satan should get advantage of us. For we're not ignorant of his devices," and I want you to know that satan will take advantage of unforgivness faster than almost anything else there is. I wonder how many of you in the past had experiences where you held a grudge and you had bitterness and satan took advantage of that thing. And people were hurt by it. But he said forgive, that just like Jesus, in the person of Christ. Because if you don't satan will take advantage of the thing, and you'll leave a loop hole for him to get through, but when you forgive then you spare him and you confirm your love one to another.
Now the next thing, it is seen by restoring the fallen. Gal. 6, "brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted." Now there are a lot of people who have said yes I'll forgive but that person will never be in the spot again in my thinking. They let me down, they hurt me, and they can't be the same. I have to put them over here and watch them, yes I've forgiven them for this thing but that's about it." It does remind me of that song that we used to sing right in church, that the bird with a broken pinion never soared as high again. And it could be, but we're not birds and we don't have pinions. I suppose they're talking about wings. But the Word tells us that God's restoration is so complete that you could soar higher than you could ever soar in your life. Praise God.
And so in our forgiveness with another, in restoring them it means to put them back just the way they were. To do anything else would be incomplete. Put them back in your love, put them back into your heart. But you say, "That's a horrible thing they did." Restore them, restore them, restore them. This is His love. But do you know what? It's hard for you to do this yourself. But as you wait in the presence of Jesus, you partake in His nature, then you can see what Jesus wants to do and you can stand there in the presence of Jesus, like Paul who said I forgave in the person of Jesus, you can do it knowing that you are representing Jesus Himself. You can take that person and lift them out of that pit to where they have sunk. Lift them back up into the place of your thinking, in your heart, in your love, restore them. Do you know anyone who needs to be restored that you can restore, start thinking and then wait in Jesus' presence, and let the love of Jesus beam out from you as you set them back into the place that God wants them. Do you know what we're talking about here? We're talking about the beauty of holiness. This is true holiness.
This angel told me that holiness was neither the absence of sin, nor the presence of works. It was Jesus, the nature of Jesus; it had no bearing on either one of those. It was the nature of Jesus. Praise God. And the absence of sin was the result you see of holiness but not holiness. That's what holiness does, it makes us abhor evil. Let's quickly go to another one here. Eph. 4:1-3. He tells us to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. He's actually referring here to putting up with the faults and the quirks of other people. Have you noticed that there are a lot of quirks? Love helps us to reach out and accept people. This love that Jesus is producing is slow to lose patience, looks for a way to be constructive, it is not touchy, does not account of evil.
How many times have you said to people, "You've done that 10 times?" Have you ever kept account of evil? But love never knows a limit to its endurance. Have you thought to yourself, "how much more can I ever put up with, how much more, how much more does God expect of me?" I've had a number of ladies tell me, "How much more does God expect me to take." Love, this work of the Spirit within knows no limit. We reach a point where we feel we can't go one step further but He builds within us the strength and pushes back some walls, and you go a little bit further and a little bit further. There's no limit to the endurance of love. No end to its trust, no fading of its hope, it will outlast anything. It is the cement of the church, love is the bond he tells the church. It's the highest priority in this day. So I want to encourage you today to allow yourself as the Spirit is at work today, God has poured out of His Spirit in these last days. I want you to see how this fits God's plan.
God has a two-throng liberating thrust today. He is using heavenly hosts in drawing people, in ministering to people, in helping people. Then He is using men and women filled with the Holy Spirit with the Spirit producing within them the nature of Jesus to go out and to draw people, to let them see what Jesus is really like. It's the drawing power, the motivating power of the life of Jesus within us. So God has two arms working in the world today. He has believers that He is controlling by the power of the Holy Spirit, the seen force; He has the unseen force that is also controlled by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is sent forth at God's bidding.
So today in the great move of God, God's revealing His desire, and the favor that God has shown on the world today. So He says, "get busy, let Jesus be formed in your life. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen because the world that the Spirit and that the angels are working on in bringing to the point of choice are going to be drawn by your life. We're working together, we've got a job. It's a great pensor movement on this earth. The forces here, and the forces there, are bringing people to God. Aren't you glad you're a part of that great army? Oh hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
The words that have been used so often to me, and I've used them and given them to you. That you are highly favored of God, highly favored of God. What does that mean to the unbeliever? They may not know God, but they are highly favored. God is reaching for them. In talking to me about this early this morning, this messenger from heaven said that the favor of God is actually life. There's death in the world, the sentence of death is upon it but God's favor opens up the door of life. God is saying to the world, "you don't need to die, you don't need to die, here's life, here's life." And he even gave me a verse of Scripture. In Psalm 30 verse 5, he let me know that God's favor is life. Oh, hallelujah. God's favor is life. Praise God. Praise the Lord.
God is doing so many things. I've committed this congregation to The Lord a couple of weeks ago. And I said, "God we're not going to fail, but we're going to let the world see the beauty of Jesus. This is what He wants to happen. He already sees us looking just exactly like Jesus, but now He wants the world to see Jesus in us. His acceptance of us will not be on what degree Jesus is formed in your life and what people see. His acceptance is already complete. He accepts you because you're complete in Christ. But to be effective for Him He wants us to be like Jesus. And I know that's your desire. Let's stay close to His heart and like the iron that's in the fire partakes of the nature of the fire. It becomes warm, the dross turns into sparks and burns away, and then that iron takes on even the appearance of the fire as it radiates and glows its warmth. That iron doesn't have to say, "I'm going to shine, I'm going to radiate," it shines and radiates because there's something working within it. It has partaken of the nature of the fire. Praise God, Praise God, Praise God, Praise God. Jesus, may the beauty of Jesus be seen in us today.
There's a man here from Washington. Yesterday when I was praying with this brother, I didn't know how important his trip to Boise was. But early this morning this angel told me to give a message to this man. That God had in his preparation for the work that he's doing in his contact with people, God was preparing this man to carry this message that God reigns, that He's still in control and that the beauty of Christ might be seen in his life. I don't normally do this, but I had distinct orders from the heart of God through this angel to do this. And I'm going to ask this whole congregation to stand. And I'm going to ask Von Robertson if he would come here and stand with me. And I'm going to in Jesus name God is going to anoint this man for a work that he didn't know anything about. In fact there was a distance between him and the Lord till he came. But he told me early this morning to dedicate and consecrate this man for this work that I've prepared for him. It's not the giving up of his secular work, but it is using the skills and the talents to be used of God where he is. Hallelujah.
Come over here Von, you didn't realize that God cared that much did you? Sometimes you wonder. How do you feel about taking on a challenge like that? Well He put me here, I'll work for Him. Would you pray with me for the consecration of this man? Probably we are praying for you because you will be used in the moving of some lives that could not be touched otherwise, because there are lives that your work will carry you to. "Father, I thank you today for bringing this man to yourself. You had your eye upon him a long time ago; you prepared him through training and education to touch lives that others may never touch. And Jesus, in your great love and your great care, because of the shortness of time you have brought this man. And today you have called for him to offer himself and his talents to be used and he has come. And at your order dear Lord we're offering him to you. We're asking that an anointing of the Holy Spirit will come upon him. We're asking God that the Spirit will truly begin this great work of forming Christ within him. That the beauty of Jesus will shine out from him to others. We know that there may be some risks but they will be risks well worth everything. In Jesus name, in Jesus name. May he feel that glow, may he feel that glow that touch of God. Praise God.
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