The title of my message today as a springboard into some things that are very, very important. I've titled this, "What lies ahead." We can hear of a lot of things ahead and we wonder just what is right. Are we facing dark days? Is there going to be a great depression? Is the church going to suffer great reverses? What does lie ahead? I feel that the Lord has placed upon my heart. And possibly some of the things that you have read do lie ahead. There are dark days, there are days of departure from the faith. There are days of lawlessness and wickedness and defiance of God where people have no respect for the laws of God or of men. It is true evil men will wax worse and worse. That man's inhumanity to man will increase. There will be those who literally deny the existence of God. There are days when suicide almost becomes a popular thing where people want to descent loudly enough. We're living in the days where even the whether is shaking up. But what does God want us to do in view of them?
Do you know what Jesus said? He said, "When these things begin to come to pass, lift up your heads, and look up for your redemption draws nigh." Great days are ahead for us. For the believer, for God's people, the greatest days of all history lie ahead for us. They are the best days, they are days of continued renewal, they are days of revival. They are days when life is going to be springing forth from the seeds that have been planted and sown.
I can't help but think of the way that God dealt with me through a ministering angel in the Philippines and spoke to me about a seed that had been sown down through the past centuries. Being humans we think only of what's happening right now. And I thought that since this was my first time in the Philippines maybe it was this angel's first time there too. But he didn't intend just to give me a history lesson but I learned a few things about history. He told me about Magellan coming to the Philippine islands in 1532 and landing on Cebo Island. He told me some various things, the people that had come and the angels had supported them as they came and represented Jesus to those early people 400 years ago. And through the years, gospel seed had been sown and that country now that is teaming with people the seed is there. They've heard about God, they know He is there, they know what God is like, they know what to expect.
And God now in this day is raising up men and women who are shining with the light of heaven. And as the sun warms the kernel grain in the ground and causes it to spring forth there is warmth that's beaming from the lives of men and women who are like Jesus, who are warming the seed that has been sown. And it's germinating and springing forth into life all over those islands. I went out with a challenge, he wanted me to be like Jesus to let Christ shine through my life and let Him walk around in my shoes. And I asked God to help me do it. And the warmth that God beamed through my life to them, I saw 100's of people who had seeds sown in their lives, I saw it spring forth. And I saw them like little green shoots just reaching out to the sun, they reached out to God. And around the world the gospel seed has been sown. Seed has been sown and people know what to expect from God. And now God is challenging His people, let the beauty of Jesus be seen in you, let the sun of righteousness arise in your heart.
Can you see the purpose that God has for you? He wants to shine through your life like a living sun warming that seed that's been sown. He wants that seed to be continued to be sown, but it's sown everywhere in hearts and lives. This angel didn't even tell me that those were Catholic people that were there in that early day when he was helping. He said that they were people of God. "Lord, I'm so glad that you don't read labels. But that people who have the life of Jesus in them can be used of you. And that great harvest that You're going to be reaping in this day, it will come not only to those who have sown the grain; we thank you that word from Paul that one has sown and the other has reaped."
God is bringing His people together into a great family reunion. These are days of visitation. But since they are, we have an added responsibility in fitting into the plan of God. When I was giving the message of the believer's position to a Filipino congregation, I had one come up to me and say, "If we really believe that Jesus has covered our sin, we'll just get happy and sit back and not do anything." So I asked him before they knew of the covering what made them become lazy. You see, when we know, when we can use our spiritual energies serving God instead of cringing in fear 24 hours a day God can use us. Paul did say "use not the liberty that God has given you as an excuse to let up, to become lax and prove to God that you don't really believe what He said." But God wants us not to continue in sin of any kind because grace is abounding. God wants us to cast off the works of darkness, and to yield ourselves to Him. He asked us to wake up; it's high time to wake up out of sleep, to lay aside every weight, to clear the deck for action.
God is calling upon His people at this moment to lay aside every sin and weight that may beset them. I had somebody tell me that because of what God was doing in his life God has convicted them, they kept a few cans of beer in their house and he had to throw them out. God does care; He wants you to be the best for Him right now. He wants the world to see you like Jesus, and because men and women are lost and it's the life of Jesus within you that is going to cause them to come alive and awake we need to be like Jesus. What have people seen in your life? Have they seen an "I don't care attitude?" If there's anything that's keeping us from being our best for God let's throw it away.
Does that mean anything to you? Can you see the duel message? The message that ascends towards God and the message that He's bringing towards us. Praise God. Now because you're accepted, now because you can quit struggling with that, start putting that energy to work for God. I have something here I would like to read before I take communion. Early this morning at 2 o clock I was awakened. And these ministering angels from God's own heart spoke so clearly to me for several hours. And I wrote down some of the things that had such a message to my own heart. And I want to share them with you because they are so applicable to what God's doing today. I want you to listen to them and apply them to your own heart. "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have each gone after a way after his own choosing. But the Lord saw no difference in these paths. All of these paths were empty and futile. In His love and His desire to restore, the iniquity of every man was laid upon Him, Christ. The deceit in man's heart, which was the seed of satan, planted in man's life blinds him to the truth. And results in efforts to justify his own way."
Some of the things that I didn't get down in the message that he was giving me, that the various ways of religion that people are walking on, the deceit that was put in the heart of man at the fall, causes man to do the thing, feeling that the deeds of every man are right in his eyes. And he seeks to justify what he is doing and the way that he is going. And for this reason, efforts have been made to support one path or another. But God said that these paths of religion are futile and empty. And God in His desire to bring man to Himself laid on Christ the iniquity of all so that He can bring all back to the beautiful path of His atonement. Praise God forever.
"Now He invites you to walk in His ways without fear and without penalty. Don't look at the ways of another and ridicule and or set at naught your brother. The Lord has laid on Jesus the grievous penalties and the other things that may be wrong as far as your brother's concern. God's taken care of that, the Lord has laid on Jesus all of the wrongs in that way. Jesus has paid the penalty for that that He might open up a new way. Now you are brothers by one blood. The seeds of death that came on all men have been replaced by the seeds of a divine life. The anguish of uncertainty, the plague of every man, the fear which shrouded every life was born by Him, because of God's desire for you, not because you loved Him so much but because He loved you so much. He bore your griefs and carried your sorrows. In His blood that is given to you are the conquering seeds of His divine life, power over sin, power over sickness of mind, power over sickness of the body. The time is come to cast off the works of darkness, the pointing of the finger, the harsh words about others. For God has included all of them, He has received them in His plan. God has chosen you to be a light, a light burning with this message of hope, a light ushering a new day for His Body during earth's darkest night. Lift up your eyes, look away from your own ways, and pass the walls of the ways of others. And discover your family, those born by the same blood and having the same Father." Hallelujah.
These are sketches that I wrote down of the conversation. That God is pulling people from all of the different religious ways that they have gone. He's pulling them. The Lord has laid the iniquity of people of all of these ways upon Jesus. And He's asking us now to look for men and women born by the same blood, having the same Father, with the same Life. This week as your heart and spirit witnesses with those who come across your path who know Jesus, why don't you put out your hand and say, "hi brother?" Because you have the same Father. Do you know what God is doing? He's fulfilling that prayer that they might all be one.
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