A Balanced Prayer Life, Pt. 5

Ronald Weinland

July 18, 2020

This will be the final portion, Part 5, of the series we’ve been covering entitled A Balanced Prayer Life.

It’s incredible how we can look at various things and look at things like an outline of prayer that Christ gave us and continually build upon it as we grow spiritually within the Church. That’s good because that’s what growth is all about. It’s about being able to build upon things that are constantly before us that we’re ever shown and reminded of and brought back into an area of focus and with that kind of a sharper focus it gives us the opportunity for added growth and for building upon what we have already to this point. So, every one of us should be able to add to, to grow in this particular area in our lives.

Toward the end of Part 4 we were covering the portion of the outline of prayer that states in Matthew 6:12—And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Then it was mentioned how this is stated again, but a little differently, in Luke 11:4 where it says, And forgive us our sins even as we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And so, probably more, and more than just one occasion, because there are different things written in a different manner not because they’re contradicting each other but because something was said at different times or they heard it through different witnesses and they may have asked Christ questions at different times and so, again, they may add something different.

Just as an example here, Matthew and John were with Christ as the original disciples, but Luke and Mark weren’t. They came long later. They were younger. They came along later. They recorded things as a matter of potentially some of their witness, of things they saw, because they had others that followed along as well, but much of it was an accumulation of all those whom they talked to and things that they learned that was a witness of that time period of things that others had seen and heard. When you have two or three telling the same type of incident, of something that Christ had said, then that’s something he could use, that’s something that they were able to record then about this flow, and God inspiring all this in the first place to give that kind of a uniqueness in the sense of going into scripture, that you have to be called of God to see the truth, but even more so when you realize that God has structured things in a certain way so that the world isn’t truly able to grasp too much.

Because the world does pick on a little bit here and a little bit there, like has been mentioned, like the word “baptism.” So, an entire Church understood that it meant to immerse and so names themselves after that, even after they had been a Sabbatarian type of Church for a long, long time and finally changed and started going in a different direction. Some continued in that particular direction but some of those things began to change.

History of different things like this, it’s quite incredible to see what mankind has done. That’s why Christ said he spoke in parables, so that people wouldn’t be able to see it and grasp it. It takes God’s spirit to truly see those things, which has to do with the next series we’re going into. But anyway.

It was further stated that when it comes to forgiving others it’s about our attitude. It’s our attitude toward others and not about any right we have to forgive someone. Because we don’t have that right. We don’t have a right to forgive sin. That’s between an individual and God. We know those things; we’ve been told those things many a time.

Our attitude is not one of what we believe is owed to us, because sometimes we can be that way as human beings. We think people owe us something. They’ve done something, they’ve said something, so they owe something to us - at least an apology. We may be demanding then of an apology because that’s what they owe us. The reality is you have to do your part, and especially if two are in the Church. We're not even talking about relationships in the world and how we’re supposed to conduct ourselves. But two in the Church, you may feel, well, they’re in the Church, they should do that. Well, we all should do a lot of things in life we don’t end up doing because we’re weak at a particular moment in time or we’re just wrong at a particular moment in time, or whatever it might be. We have sin in our life. We all have sin. None of us are perfect. We have to repent continually.

Our attitude toward others is that we have to do what is right, be forgiving toward them, love them, care for them, want to see the best for them, and hope and even pray that they’re able to come to deal with something if you know that something is really wrong in their life, that they are sinning, that they have a sin, that they’ll be able to come to see that. Sometimes that has to do with going to a person alone, especially when you’re involved in something like that, that hopefully they’ll come to see that.

Because if you’ve been around for any length of time and you’ve had friends and different ones go by the wayside, it’s an ugly thing. It’s a hurtful thing. It’s a painful thing and rather than just watch that happen, if we have the ability, the opportunity to be able to reach out, to be a part of something to help someone turn that course, to be able to come to repentance, that’s a beautiful thing. Because it’s an ugly thing when people leave. It’s a hurtful thing. It’s a painful thing.

Our attitude should be toward others what we want for our lives. We want salvation. We want to be able to continue to repent. We want God’s spirit to continue to come into our lives – never to cease, never to stop – and we should want that for everyone else in the Body.

So again, our attitude is not one of what we believe is owed to us, but a willingness and even a desire, as I’ve just said, to see someone forgiven by God. Because otherwise, they’re going to go by the wayside. There isn’t much love involved if we’re not concerned about someone going by the wayside if we have the ability to do something, to say something, or to pray even about it. At least we’ve done our part regardless of what the final decisions might be on someone else’s part.

It was also then brought out that that doesn’t mean then we just forget what someone else has done in life. We recognize certain things and sometimes there’s a matter of wisdom. But we don’t keep count. There’s a big difference in that—of remembering things and another thing to keep count.

That’s why I love the parable there. How many times do we forgive? Seven times? No, seventy times seven. You quit counting because you can’t keep track of that. If you have the tablet out there doing that you’ve really got problems.

Then we went on to Romans 15:1—We then who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Now, I love this when you dig into various words and you come to see something that is stronger. Because the word “ought,” it’s like we talked about last week, it’s like you should, you ought to do that. You ought, but maybe you don’t, but really, you ought to, but it’s okay if you don’t. That’s not what this is saying. It’s the word for “owe.” You owe it! There are things we owe in our own lives.

We who are strong ought to bear the infirmities, the weaknesses of someone else, and not to please ourselves. Again, this is very poorly translated, as we brought out. So, what’s pleasing to ourselves? Well, maybe to keep track, keep count, “There’s another one,” whatever, ever how we think, ever how we judge, whatever pleases self instead of striving to do what the beginning of the prayer talks about in doing God’s will, pleasing God, serving God. That’s where our minds should be.

Then again, we talked about how this word is used, like in 1 John 4:11 (I’ll just read it quickly, again), Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to also love one another. It just isn’t strong enough. It’s watered down. It puts a wrong concept, a wrong thinking in one's mind if you’re not careful. It’s easier to let down then. No, we owe it also to love one another. If God has loved us, given us what He has, then our response needs to be this is what I owe. This is a minimum, in many ways, to what I owe in life to others. If God has blessed me so much then my response should be likewise to others and not going to sacrifice nearly anything close to what he did, speaking of Christ.

So again, we talked about the correct translation for this is in Romans 15:1—We then who are strong owe it to bear the weaknesses of those without strength. There are just times when people are without strength, for whatever it might be, some trial, some hardship, some whatever it might be that’s taking place where they’re not praying as they should and not zeroed in and focused as they should on God’s will. That’s when they need someone else that’s closer to them that can encourage them and help them, and the right words to try to reach out to help someone, and hopefully that they come through it.

As it says here, and not to please ourselves. In other words, by being impatient, being of a judgmental spirit. Because, sadly, that’s the way we are as carnal human beings. We tend to not think about God’s will but what we want, and if we automatically judge in a certain way, well, that’s just wrong. We should seek to judge according to God’s will. Being impatient? God’s patient. Well, we should strive, we should want to be the same thing. He’s patient with us. Shouldn’t we strive to be a little patient? A lot patient with others?

So anyway, it’s a matter of thinking, of the attitude of mind.

So, continuing on then in Romans 15, just picking this up. It goes on to say in that context, Let each one of us please his neighbor for good. We tend to be focused in on selfishness. That’s the way we are. But we need to be focused on others. Especially within the Body, within the Church we need to think about others. That will come into our prayer life. That will come in to how we think. That will come into our actions when there might be a conflict between two in the Body.

If our thinking is right and we’re in the practice of doing that then we’re going to respond differently than we normally would. Which is a good thing. Because how we normally respond to things just, frankly, isn’t good. If it’s carnal, human nature, selfishness, that’s just not good. It’s really evil, actually. But if it’s toward others for the right purpose because we’re in this together, we’re God’s children, we’re a part of a family, then it should work upstairs here in our thinking toward them.

It says here, Let each of us please his neighbor for good leading to edification. I love this word too because it’s a word that has to do in Greek with the act of building, building something, edification, “to build up.” When you think about building, we’re part of a building and if we can help and be a part of someone else being molded and fashioned in a proper way, in a good way within the building, rather than being rejected from the building, then that’s a good thing. That’s the way we should think.

For even Christ did not please himself, but, as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. You know, a willingness to suffer for the benefit of others. That epitomizes his life. It epitomizes what he did, his purpose as Passover, a willingness to suffer on an incredible scale, to be looked down upon, to be spat upon, to be slapped, to be flogged as he was with skin ripped off of his body, beaten like he was, made fun of, mocked in all of this – willing to go through those things. Well, we should be willing to go through the same things because it’s just a part of our lives once you’re in the Body of Christ. These things are going to come your way so how do you respond to them?

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through patience... Something we’re not always very good at. I have a battle in that. It’s easy to be impatient as a human being, especially with the kind of fast paced world we live in. And you know what? We're kind of programmed in that because here we work with things like the internet, and if it’s not working as fast... I think back to, what was that dial-up speed? Was that like 14k type thing? It’s like, just like the old phones were, takes a while to get the number. Now you just poke it in there. But you think how things have changed.

I know when we were travelling, and we would try to hook up and do various things and we’d get to New Zealand and it was always way behind everyone. Until they finally changed. When they changed, they got high speed and they got good high speed. We still have situations across the country. Because you get used to this. Like a cell phone, use it or the remote type of device that you can use as a hotspot. I love it when they have, you know, good 4G networks.

We get caught in this and we want it to be faster. You can be sitting there and have you ever sat at your computer and all of a sudden it’s going slower? It’s like ugh because you just get programmed to things working fast and you think this way and you work this way. After a while, if you’re not careful, you can find yourself in bad attitudes from time to time. That’s not good.

So again, this thing of patience. We live in a very impatient society, a very impatient world. Just drive down the highway. Sometimes you wonder where on earth are people going. I think a lot of it is because they start out so late so they’re catching up, just trying to catch up. So, you see someone going 90-95 in and out of traffic and you’re like, “I’d like to get a hold of the nape of their neck.” But then you have to pull back, you know. So, attitudes, always having to fight certain things in this ole world.

...that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. So again, God reveals to us (which is a beautiful thing), how to have peace, how to work toward peace, how to get rid of the drama in life. That’s an everyday struggle in our lives, as a whole.

Verse 5—Now may the God of patience... I love it. What an expression, “the God of patience.” You think about His patience. To have a plan before anything was ever created. To have a plan for a son. To have a plan for a family. Then the patience to work that out over we don’t know how long, and the length of time involved in that? The patience then to create a universe.

If we’re not careful, as sometimes I think people have thought in the Church, it’s like God just said, “Okay, be there!” and it was like billions upon billions and trillions of stars and solar systems were just there at one moment in time. Didn’t happen that way. It was built. It was created over time. It wasn’t a matter of something instantaneous. The angelic realm had big part in that. We don’t know exactly what yet, but they were a part of all that.

God blessed them in things that they were to do. They’re not just sitting back there twiddling their thumbs watching all these things over millions and millions and millions of years. You talk about being bored if you just sit there and watch. It’d be like watching TV all the time, the same station pretty much. After a while it’s not going to be rewarding. It’s not going to be stimulating. It’s not going to be exciting.

God’s way of life is stimulating and exciting and it’s about creation, the creation of things, the building of things, work. Work! Something that sometimes it’s like we don’t get that in life. Because there’s reward in that and that’s the way God is. There’s always something within the plan being worked, being done, being created, being built, being structured. These are the things here that we’re talking about in our lives, within the Church and so forth.

But the God of patience! You talk about patience. We ought to be able to see ourselves. I think about how much patience He’s had with me, let alone the universe and 6,000 years of man living the way he has. We better be able to see this. “He’s been incredibly patient with me.” We all ought to be able to see that clearly.

That’s a lot of love. That’s a lot of love when you understand that, to have that kind of patience because He sees an end product that He desires, that’s His will, that we be in His family, and knows indeed that we don’t get from point A to point B just by a quick snap of the fingers. It takes a lot of time. He’s willing to do that to create His Family.

We need to think that way about others. It takes time. We can’t expect certain things of people. We tend to be that way as human beings. We just expect certain things of others. So much so, sometimes, we just don’t expect the same of us. We don’t see ourselves in the mix of all that. But we need to. It’s a part of examining ourselves before God realistically.

When you read through things like this it’s better not just to speed through them sometimes but to think about them. “Now the God of patience.” It says a lot. It really does. I could give a sermon series on that alone, “the God of patience.” Beautiful. It really is.

...and comfort... It’s the way God works. It’s the way He works with those who desire Him. ...grant you to be likeminded toward one another. It’s going to take a lot of patience and comfort from God to help change us so that we can have that kind of a mind. But we have to want it. You have to want to be of the same mind, to want to do things the way God wants them done, and to pray. This thing of prayer has a lot to do with that because these things don’t just happen.

You know, it’s a powerful thing in prayer as a tool, when you pray to God. It’s about a focus you have spiritually in your thinking and if you sharpen that in what you’re requesting before God in matters like this, then there is a power and a strength there that God gives to us to help us become better focused and for it to become a part of our thinking. When you involve that in prayer in your thinking there is something that God does in here that is a beautiful thing that begins to change us. That’s what transformation is all about.

...that He grant you to be likeminded toward one another according to Christ Joshua. It says a lot. It’s about a family and what our goal is and the process we have to go through to get there.

That you may with one mind... That’s a beautiful thing. I think whenever I read this, think about this, I think of Mr. Armstrong, and especially at the Feast of Tabernacles when he would talk about some of this and he would speak of the scriptures that talked about the anointing of Aaron and the oil that ran down and how beautiful it is when, basically (paraphrasing some of this), when brethren dwell together in unity, in harmony and peace with one another. It’s a beautiful thing.

But that’s part of this process of becoming of one mind with God, one thinking with God, and having unity within the Body. Some of you because of time, if you go back in the time of Philadelphia when you came into the Church, you’ve seen a lot of things in this area of life where that hasn’t been really good within the Church. Because it’s a part of our education. It’s a part of something we have to experience in order to learn from it.

Just like the matters of government here and being likeminded and at one with God. Just in that very issue along, the matter of government and order and unity and being at one with God and all speaking the same thing.

I think of the 18 truths (the 21), and how that there was always that struggle within the Body of not being at one in those things. Yet that’s so basic. 21 basic foundational truths, and yet there was a continual struggle within the Church of people who were resisting these things, ministers who were resisting these things, teaching things differently, others who wanted to come along and teach something differently than what was there. It caused a lot of hurt, a lot of harm.

But you have to experience that. It’s a good thing to experience because you know why? Because you learn to hate it. You learn how bad it really is and you’re able to see it more clearly so that in a future time you’re going to be able to spot it and help others quickly because you know what it is. It’s in you. You know what that does. You know how it hurts the Body.

That’s why it’s so good to come to the point where we really hate sin, all sin. The more quickly we can spot those things in self and in the world, what a beautiful thing, the more help we can be as a part of molding and fashioning and building, if you will, within the family, being a bigger part of that.

That you be of one mind and with one mouth glorify God. Because this all goes back to “with one mouth.” Because that’s the problem. When people aren’t of the same mind it tends to come out of here, out of the mouth, and certain words that come out and it shows this disagreement then amongst people and not working according to the will of God, not seeking to work according to the will of God. Anyway, God wants us to be at one, to be at one with Him and to be in unity.

That’s why I love the way the Church is now more than any other time, in that sense. Doesn’t mean there aren’t weaknesses but we have a bond and a unity within all the truths that God has given to us in a beautiful way. Because it’s the strongest I’ve seen that kind of unity and oneness and experienced it. It’s a good thing. It's a refreshing thing.

Because the other, it’s just painful. I don’t care where you go to within the scheme of time. The last big time where there wasn’t that unity, and many of you experienced, was around 2008, and then up around 2012 and 13 and in through there. Those things are painful to go through, but we learn from that experience.

That’s why God allows them to be a part of our experience. Because God can’t give you experience. It is what the definition is. You have to live it, experience it, and then it does something in the mind when it comes to God’s way and God’s truth that can cement it in your mind to where that’s you, that becomes you, of the same mind then with God. It’s a beautiful thing.

So that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God and Father of our Lord Joshua the Christ. Therefore receive one another... There is a lot said there. Again, that’s a sermon or a series in itself; to receive one another and what that means. These aren’t just simple words. It’s a lot of work to receive one another. That means you have to build friendships, you have to build relationships, you have to build closeness. Those things don’t just happen.

That’s why fellowship is so important within the Body, and that’s why we have so many differences within the Body. If we were all pretty much alike that wouldn’t be healthy. We wouldn’t have the opportunity of learning like we do. But because there are so many differences within the way people think and do things and so forth, and backgrounds, that should force an individual to learn and to learn to live right toward one another, to learn to judge right.

Because our tendency is in those kinds of situations to judge improperly and to pigeonhole people in different spots. “Way down there! They’ll never get out of that one because I’ve been counting!” It’s our human nature. It’s so ugly.

Therefore receive one another, beautiful what it says next, just as Christ also received us. How did he receive us? When we were deep in the doo-doo. Okay? We might have well just been out there. I see those in my mind, these great big ole vats outside. They have these great big arms that go around and around and around and all this brown sludge on top. I don’t want to tell you what it is. You should know what it is. It stinks. It’s pretty bad whenever you’ve seen, driven by one of those places. I think they put domes over them more now than they used to.

But my recollection is and what comes to my mind and I see those out there it’s like, that’s basically where we were when we were called. We had our head above the water a little bit. Anyway. But that’s how our lives were and that’s how we were seen. We had all kinds of problems. Not that we don’t have problems now, but not nearly what we had then because we were deep in the world. We were a part of the world and God begins to draw us out of that and begins to help us get cleaned up. He helps us to get washed spiritually in our lives, in our minds, and we begin to be cleansed.

That’s why the examples of having white garments and the one mind, the mind of God, is such a precious thing, a powerful thing, a valuable thing. We should see it in that light.

…just as Christ also received us. That’s saying a lot! So, can’t we tolerate some differences in one another, some weaknesses in one another? Do we think we’re so good? Do we think we’re so good that we can’t tolerate some weaknesses in someone else? Do we think we don’t have weaknesses? Because that sometimes is a big problem too, because we can be so filled with haughtiness and pride of how good we are, of how righteous we are. The reality is it’s of God. If we’re right, then it’s because it’s God’s. It’s God’s mind and God’s truth, God’s way, the cleansing that comes from God that makes us at one with Him. That’s beautiful. But we should want that for others as well.

And so, our willingness to tolerate things in others is so important because God’s put up, and still is putting up with a lot with us. But He has patience with us because He loves us because He sees the outcome of what it’s going to be.

I think of one of the most rewarding things for my wife and myself is seeing time elapse and being able to discuss various situations in people’s lives and seeing where they are now compared to where they were at another time and just thinking that’s so incredible. To have experienced it with different ones – and basically, that’s pretty much the Church. We see these different things and it’s so rewarding when you see how people respond, how they are fighting and working on self.

To be here today all of us within the Church, within the Body, means that people are fighting still. You have to be. Because it doesn’t just happen. That’s a beautiful thing and it’s a rewarding thing and we should see that in one another and respect that in one another and really want that in one another.

These are things to be prayed about in how to live and how to think toward one another, just as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Because that’s what the goal is, the desire is. It’s to God’s glory because it’s about His plan and all of us becoming a part of His Family and wanting to see everyone else succeed and become a part of His Family, to the glory of God! We should want to be pleasing to God and that means, then, looking out over the fellowship in the Body and wanting to see this fulfilled in everyone that’s in the Body.

Then to drive this point home and putting real teeth into its importance after this outline of prayer, it’s important to see the first thing that Christ stated. Here is that verse as we have it in the outline of prayer again, Matthew 6:12—And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Then right after this outline of prayer here in Chapter 6, verses 14 through 15, it’s good to see what is next because this is a valuable, exceedingly important part of the outline of prayer. This is after the outline, but he magnifies this, and he says, For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, if we’re of that mind to understand that no one owes us anything, that we don’t have the right, in that respect, to forgive sin, especially, and we’re of a forgiving spirit ourselves toward someone else and we want to be able to see them be able to be forgiven. More importantly, it says, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses... So, if we have this attitude, this thinking of keeping track of these sins we’re missing the mark. That’s what Christ basically was telling from the very beginning when he talked about how many times do you forgive someone. It’s not a matter of the count, it’s a matter of your thinking.

...but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, because we have no right in the first place, but this is how we think as human beings oftentimes. It’s about our attitude toward them. But to understand this, if we’re not forgiving toward others no matter what they’ve done toward us neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. If we can’t work past something and have a desire within the Body, within the Church to see someone come through all this and to succeed, to make it, to become a part of the family, we’re missing the mark.

If we’re not of a right spirit then we can jeopardize the very fact of whether or not we’re able to be forgiven of our sins when we go before God and ask to be forgiven through our Passover, Joshua. This is very strong in what it says here. It’s just flat out the way it is. We can quench God’s spirit. We can become weak just in our wrong thinking toward someone else within the Body, of an attitude we may have toward them.

The next portion then of prayer, going on here, Matthew 6:12—And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (Verse 13) And let us not be led into temptation but deliver us from evil. Now, this can truly be misunderstood in a very big way of what we’re to be praying for. It takes understanding the purpose and the plan of God in our lives, how He works with us in our lives to be able to grasp what is being said here and what this prayer is about then, this portion of this outline of prayer. Because this is a capsule of something that with God’s spirit we will come to magnify and grasp clearly as time goes on.

This isn’t asking God to keep us from ever being tested or having a trial. It’s not asking that at all. But if one were not careful, they could think that’s what it’s about, “Let us not be led into temptation.” It’s like, okay. That’s not what it’s about. You’re not asking to never have a trial or a test in your life. It’s saying something else.

How are you led into this? That’s what this is about. It’s about the response to trials and tests in our lives. It’s about the thinking involved in our response to trials and tests in our lives. Often we make our own trials. It’s because of our own carnal human nature we just make our own trials so often.

But there are others that come our way that are part for refining us and molding and fashioning us. We’re not asking not to have them. That’s, obviously, not the case. You’re not asking God that you not have to go through trials and tests because then you’d be asking God, “Help me so that I can’t grow. I don’t want to grow anymore. Accept me the way I am.”

That’s kind of the Protestant world, isn’t it? “Just come as you are. It’s okay. All your hang-ups, all your problems, don’t worry, God understands, Christ understands. Just come as you are, listen for twenty minutes, and then go back out and live ever how you want to live because you’re going to do it anyway. That’s okay.” That kind of thinking just so blows my mind, but anyway.

We should understand. I know we do within the Church. That not to have trials or tests would work against how God molds and fashions us, how He transforms our very minds. We have to have them. So, the process of making decisions and choices at such times is how we’re able to grow. That’s what we’re forced to do when we come to a trial or a test, even some that we may be at the point of almost causing ourselves. That can fit into this as well. But again, how we handle them, that’s what’s important then.

We went over the following verse in Part 3. I’m going to read this to you right here, the section on Luke 22:40-42 when it said, Coming out he went to the Mount of Olives, as he was accustomed, and his disciples also followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, Pray that you not enter into temptation.

Again, it’s not asking that you not have any trials or tests, because a big one was about to come their way. That's the whole point of this. He knew what was about to come their way. Because they weren’t expecting that he was going to be beaten beyond recognition. They weren’t expecting that he was going to be hung on a pole to die. They weren’t expecting that he was going to die and have to be buried. They weren’t expecting any of that. Now, this is going to be a big trial for them!

Look what happened to the Church coming up to the Apostasy, being told for a long time that in the end-time there would be a great falling away. There were sermons about it! But we didn’t grasp the power of that, the significance of that, of how it would come about in time. The magnitude of it, maybe, is a better way of explaining. We had no comprehension of that whatsoever! Then it happened and wow! All of 2,000 years almost, told it was going to happen, nineteen hundred and some, that it’s going to happen, that there is going to be an apostasy, a great falling away within the Church before Christ will return.

Well, it came and what was it? An incredible trial, an incredible test upon the Church! What are people going to choose to do? Then I have flashbacks of things that happened, like those two elders I sat down with. I brought a deacon at the time with me to witness some of the things being said to them. Told them that I’m resigning, I would expect you to do what we’ve always done, to hold on, and yet there is someone in Pasadena, he’s going to expect you to do the exact opposite. He’s going to expect you to support him. And so, you have a choice to make. You have to decide right now what you’re going to do because the Church, in large part, is going to depend upon how you respond to this as well.

A trial and a test was coming. Knew it full well. We’re not asking not to have the trial or the test because these are the things that make us. These are the things that mold and fashion us. The greater the test, the greater the trial that we can go through successfully with God’s spirit, with God’s favor and help in our lives, the more we’re going to grow. We truly are. It’s an awesome thing.

I think of what’s been molded into those who went through that who have continued to hold on and hold fast to what God has been doing. That’s incredible! There is that which is ahead of us we cannot yet comprehend that’s been placed in the mind, see. Not many have witnessed and lived through, and been able to continue on, after an Apostasy. In the angelic realm two-thirds continued on, but a third didn’t. Okay? Gone. Look at what happened within the Church.

Which reminds me, there is a new video out there on the subject of the Apostasy. I love being able to do some of these shorter ones like this. It’s the way the world thinks now, short-term. We’re getting to the point where we’re able to zero in on those things now and have bursts of something out there that hopefully and prayerfully—which I believe is going to take place—that God’s going to use some of those to work with some as time goes along.

He said, he told them, pray that you don’t enter into temptation. What is he telling them? That they not have to experience this trial that’s about to take place? No, not at all. It’s their response to the trial. It’s their response to what they’re going to experience. Just like people who came up to the Apostasy, what was our response? What did we experience? How did we respond to that? That doesn’t mean we’re better than others, because God works with us in different ways, but there were choices that people had to make.

I think of that one that I just gave about the Apostasy. A third of the Church just quit and gave up on anything to do with organized religion because their belief system had just been shattered. Because the thinking of mind is if this is God’s Church and this could happen in God’s Church, that something is totally reversed, where is God? How could this happen?

It wasn’t a matter of questioning self and what happened to all of us and what did we all do. It’s where’s God? Why did He let this take place? So, their belief system was shattered. A horrible thing.

We do go through trials and we do have to make decisions and much is determined then by what course we follow after that. Just as some had the choice to make as to whether or not they listened to someone from headquarters for three or four hours and then began to agree with him about what his father had just done, you know? So, there are choices to make in those things, aren’t there? Incredible, what we live through.

So, it’s your response to the temptation. It’s your response to the trial that comes along that Christ was warning them about. How are you going to respond to what’s going to take place? How are you going to deal with this? Pray for help so that you go through it properly; whatever trial and test comes along, that you not be led away, that you not succumb to the trial in a manner that is carnal without God’s help. Because without God’s help you’re going to deal with it in a carnal way. That’s the whole point of this.

It says here, pray that you don’t enter into temptation. And when he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, he knelt down, and prayed, saying, Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from me. You know, “If You would let this be Your will, let this cup pass from me.” Awesome! Nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done. There are a lot of things in life we see coming our way sometimes that we don’t want to have to go through, but you go through them and you ask God for the strength to do so, to hold fast to His will, what His purpose is in your calling and what He’s doing in your life.

It’s a matter of doing the things that God has shown us, the things that God tells us what we should do at various junctures in our life. It’s not rocket science. Truth is truth and we just have choices to make as to what we want to hold fast, what we want to cling to. But you have to ask for help in that in a trying time because our nature wants to do something different sometimes. It wants to flee or just relax from the battle because you’re just tired of fighting.

There are all kinds of trials that can come one’s way because of the severity of a trial. It’s not an option. You’ve got to keep fighting. That’s what we’ve been tried in in a very powerful way. Are you going to keep fighting? And everyone who is still with us today, everyone who is together today just keeps fighting. It doesn’t mean you don’t fall flat on your face from time to time, do stupid things, whatever your weaknesses might be in life, but you get up and you keep fighting and you ask God for forgiveness because you want to keep going and you want to hold on and see this through to the end, whatever that end is.

Again, it’s a matter of doing things the way God has shown it and asking for help to do so in order not to succumb to our carnal nature that’s wrong, that defeats the purpose of the trial and the test in the first place.

Another commonly misunderstood verse is in 1 Corinthians 10. This has been highly misunderstood in God’s Church. Truly has been. I’ve heard things said about this, spoken about this, taught about this that are just totally wrong.

1 Corinthians 10:13—No temptation has overtaken you except such is common to man. Should learn from that right there. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you or as some have said, will not allow you to be tempted (tested) above what you are able. So, it’s like God’s going to keep you from having to go that far, whatever, and this is what this is all about. No, that’s not what this is saying at all.

It’s like God knows how much you can take and He’s not going to allow you to be tested, He’s not going to allow you to be tested in the Apostasy because two-thirds are going to be leaving and you might be one of them! Sorry, but that’s not what this is about. It’s not what is being said here.

God allowed that to come along and take away two-thirds of the Church for a purpose and a great teaching tool for throughout the Millennium and the Great White Throne. It’s going to be a very powerful teaching tool as much as the Church has used in times past about what happened in the angelic realm when Lucifer did what he did, turned to Satan and took a third of the angelic realm with him.

…no temptation has overtaken you except as common to man. But God is faithful. God is faithful! How is that? He’ll give you the help. He’ll give you the strength. But you have to ask for it. You have to fight for it. You have to cry out for it. You have to ask for the help to continue to see, to be able to continue the course, to stay on the course, to keep hold of His truth, His word, because you want His spirit so you cry out for His holy spirit because you can’t do it on your own. It’s constantly crying out for help of God’s spirit. Then in the midst of all that to be forgiven of your sins because that’ll cut you off from the flow of His spirit. That defeats the purpose of the prayer, asking for His spirit, if you’re not repenting of your sins.

So again, all these things go together don’t they?

But God is faithful. If we do those things that He’s revealed to us He’s there to help us all along the way. He wants us to pray. He wants to give us His holy spirit. He wants us to repent of sin because that’s how we’re saved, that’s how we grow, that’s how He can give us more.

But God is faithful, who will not leave you alone is what the Greek language is here, the words “suffer you.” It’s the Greek meaning “leave you alone.” Now, if we leave Him, if we turn from Him, if we’re not looking to Him for His help, guidance, favor, help, His holy spirit, we can be on our own indeed as so many before us have.

...who will not leave you alone to be tempted, to be tested, above what you are able. Now, you can read that totally wrong like I’ve just explained, or you can read the rest... but will with the temptation, with the test, also make a way to escape, that you may be able to endure it, to bear it.

Do you know what that has to do with? He’s already done that. You know how He’s done it? He’s given us His truth and we have to make choices then along the way. He is faithful, He’s given us everything we need, He’s given us His truth, He’s told us to flee fornication, to flee adultery, to flee ‘this,’ to flee ‘that.’ He’s told us, “This is the way, walk you in it. This is how you’re to live your life.”

This is what we’re to obey, and anything else, the temptation to go toward something else, when you’re tried in those things because of your carnal human nature, ask for help! Because you can’t do it on your own! How do you know? Because you’ve proven it to yourself many times before when you’ve fallen flat on your face.

We all fall flat on our face from time to time. We all have sin. We all have things that we repeat in our lives, and we keep fighting those things, whatever your number 2, 3, and 4 are, down through there. You know what your number 1 is, as I’ve talked about – spiritual idolatry, adultery if we don’t put God first. That means that we have to work on those others to make sure we’re upholding and seeking God’s way of life, His will in our lives.

Again here, God has made a way to escape our carnality, our human nature. It’s to do His will. It goes back to the beginning of the prayer. That’s what it’s about. It takes us right back to the beginning of the prayer. It’s about doing God’s will. But you need help to do God’s will. He’s given us to see what the truth is. We already know the answers. We already know what we’re supposed to do. We already know right from wrong. We already know what sin is.

And so, to deliver us from temptation, from evil? Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. What is the evil? The sin, yielding to sin. God has given us a way to escape. Where does it start? With our Passover. All we had to do is think about it a little bit, a way to escape. He’s shown us how to escape. It’s about sin. It’s about being able to be forgiven of sin. It’s about then because we do that we cry out for God’s spirit and He is faithful to give us what we need. He’ll help you.

It’s a beautiful thing. You may have to fight and fight and fight. There may be certain things you have to fight repetitively throughout your life because of who you are. I have to because of who I am. That will always be a part of me, my carnal human nature. Though we seek and should, in that respect, be growing and conquering and overcoming in various aspects of our life and becoming more fully transformed in unity with God, but there are going to be certain things of our carnal nature, because of who we are, because of going all the way back to the time that God called us. Because that’s what we were when He called us, and that doesn’t disappear. That still will be in us, certain aspects of it, until the day we die or the day we’re changed. We have to cry out to God to be saved from all this, cry out for His holy spirit to conquer, to overcome.

James 1. So again, these are things that God wants us to pray about. It’s about the fight we’re in. Because we’re fighting an incredible battle and most of it is right in front of us if you look in a mirror. Every day we generally look in the mirror. What do we see? Well? Anyway. Spiritually, we need to do that as well as physically.

James 1:1—James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Joshua the Christ. So again, we recognize, we understand we’re all to be such servants to God because we’re God’s. What else is there? That should be our desire, to be such. ...to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings.

My brethren, we know these, so rather than not wanting to go through trials and tests it says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. I wasn’t real joyful during the beginning of the Apostasy. I wasn’t jumping up and down thinking how exciting this is I have an opportunity for greater growth. It just wasn’t in my mind. Other things were. Survival was. What are we going to do? What’s the next step? What should we do? How should we do it?

All the things you’re tried in sometimes in life. What choices we make along the way. Along the way, what do you do? You ask God for help. Because you can’t do it. You can’t do it. You just keep crying out to God for help and a little bit at a time, slowly but surely in different things He begins to give to you clearer vision, the ability to see what is needed in order to keep going. Because why? Because it’s in your heart to keep going, to keep going forward and following through with what God has started in you. Because you believe that. Because you know that.

You have experienced that in your life, what it is to be called out of the world, to be baptized, to have your sins forgiven, and to taste of a different life that you know is good. You want that. You look forward to that. You look forward to the time this whole world is going to have that opportunity.

I can’t wait to see when there is just one world government! Just. Righteous. No need for a bunch of lawyers, which we are trapped with today in this world. No need for a bunch of judges. Because they can’t do the job. Human beings can’t do it. We’re incapable of it because we don’t know the spirit, we don’t know the intent of what people do in their life or what they have done.

But God will. The God Family will. 144,000 and Christ? They know exactly what’s taken place. They know exactly what’s taken place in the mind of an individual that has done the things they have. It’s going to be quick. It’s going to be fast. “This is what you did.” Clear as clear can be. It’s not a matter of whether it was recorded on a camera and people get in there to interpret it. “Well, get this angle over here!” I’m sorry. It’s sick what goes on in human life. Five different witnesses, ten different witnesses—I don’t care how many you have—and they disagree with each other. “What color was the car?”

Human beings. We’re weak. We can’t govern ourselves. That’s the whole point. We can’t govern ourselves successfully. God’s letting the world experience that right now. We can’t agree on diddly of how things should be done. I don’t care what part of the world you go into everybody has a different plan.

You think, well, what about that plan? Isn’t that kind of like...? No, it’s different. Everybody has something different out here that they’re doing and none of them fully agree with each other on anything. And you know what, as many human beings as there are there are opinions. Doesn’t that get tiresome?

That’s why I hate the news now a days. Have you ever sat there and listened, and they ask people their opinion? “Well, what do you think?” “Well, you just wrote a book.” “He’s an expert!” I get letters every once in a while, card things, “We want a certain person in this particular area because of the background...” And so, what do they do? They call people in and they generally reference their book. I hope you’ve seen this because this is what they do oftentimes. It’s like, “If you’ve done that then you’ve got to know what you’re talking about and we want to know how you see this because you may have the solution. Wow.”

I’m sorry. I hate it. I don’t care. Asking everybody their opinion? Who cares! I don’t get it. This world has gone nuts and you get to witness it. You’re witnessing the end-time, of what God’s bringing to the surface because of technology, because of the way the world is right now, because of the various things coming upon the world right now, that is showing what people are like and it’s not a good thing.

What government is like. It doesn’t matter what phase of it, every piece of government is messed up in the world. It really is. Because it’s not led by God. Only God has what is right, the right way of doing things. I hope all of us are becoming immensely convicted of that because this is something you’re experiencing in a very unique way with the truth, with God’s way of life.

Something is being molded and fashioned in you that wasn’t molded and fashioned in people in the Church during Sardis or Thyatira. There is something unique. We’re all unique in different phases of God’s purpose and God’s plan. That’s a beautiful thing. It’s going to dumbfound a lot of you once you get to where you’re going, truly, what God has blessed you with, where you get to be, what you’re going to get to do, to be a part of. It’s going to be exciting and stimulating, inspiring!

…count it all joy when you fall into various trials. You know, it takes time to do that. I do now. I wouldn’t give anything for any of them. I’ve said that many a time. Though some of them were horrible to experience, the experience has made me who I am and I’m thankful for that. Because without those I wouldn’t see the things I do to the depth I do. That’s the way it is with each one of us.

Whatever you’ve gone through is what is making you, molding you as you are yielding to God’s spirit. See, because He’s the one that’s molding and fashioning the mind. If we’re yielding to that process and striving to make the right choices to do His will along the way the molding will continue on and things will happen in the mind that are awesome and beautiful in every way.

...knowing that the testing of your faith... So, it has to do with what we believe. It has to do with the convictions of the belief that God has given to us, the truths that God has given to us and our choice to live by those truths. That’s what faith is. ...produces patience. Which we all need. Because then we begin to see things how? According to something God’s working out.

That’s why I look at the scattered Body and I look forward to the time before the Millennium that many are going to be given an opportunity to once again, to be awakened from a sleep, a deep, deep, deep sleep. I can’t put into words how I’m looking forward to that. I really am. I think about that from time to time, different ones we’ve known. Talking to my wife the other day. I told her about the situations, and I’d forgotten some of the names, people I was really close to! It’s only been forty years and you’ve forgotten already! But something happens in the mind after forty years if you’re not constantly with someone. You can actually forget someone’s name. But then it comes back. But what’s in my mind are the experiences and seeing them and the things we did together. And you think, how do you forget the name?

I look forward to those things and we should. Whether it be different family members, we look forward to those who are going to have the opportunity of living on into a new age.

We also know that there are going to be people we know who aren’t going to live through this, what’s coming. But we have a patience in our thinking to know with a confidence and a fullness and a happiness, in that sense, about it that it’ll be in the Great White Throne. It’s just longer up the road. Then the excitement at that time is going to be absolutely incredible! To be able to visit with them, to work with them, to help them? They’re going to receive much from you because they’re going to want to know about what you have done and what you’ve been doing for the last thousand years.

Are you going to have a story to tell! I mean, really. You talk about giving someone a boost and an excitement for life, for God’s way of life, you can’t imagine the effect that’s going to have on people.

...knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work. That means time, doesn’t it? Let it have its perfect work. It’s like finally being in God’s Family. It’ll get there. It’s just, wait. You just keep fighting until you’re there. Then the thousand years. Work through it. We’ll get to that hundred years. All whom we’ve ever known who aren’t living at that time and whatever, and people we’ve known in the past. Awesome! Because of a unity and a oneness with God.

...but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Verse 5—If any of you is lacking wisdom... I love the way that’s stated because it’s like, do we have to stop and think about that one? That’s a no brainer. Yeah, we all should stop, make us stop and think. Because if anybody reads over that and thinks, “Oh, I’m not lacking that so...” Kind of read through it. Then we’re in bad shape. We all lack wisdom.

...ask God, who gives to all, the word is translated here “liberally,” but the meaning in the Greek seems to say that it’s just God’s way to simply give. It’s just God’s way to simply give. It’s just the simplicity of His way, to give, as it is a single purpose that He has. So, the word simple and single go together in this in the Greek word and it carries more meaning, in that respect, as to what it is talking about here.

...and without reproach. It’s being stated in such a way that it’s unlike mankind, in other words. That God does not look for fault or weakness. That’s what this is about. We tend to and that’s where our problems are sometimes within the Body and the Church and how we see one another and the desire we should have for one another, to see each person succeed and come through this together. We are a family. It’s a beautiful thing.

So again, we want to become like God and not to be the type of person who looks for a fault or weaknesses in others. But on the contrary, to look for the time that people are able to work beyond those things. Because these are the things that hold us back, our faults and our weaknesses. This is where the battle is for each one of us and we want each one to come through those things and to have patience with one another in those things.

...and it shall be given, as it says here, and it shall be given to the same. It’s God’s will. God has this will toward us. We should have that will toward others as well, to agree with God.

But ask in faith. There are things that God wants us to ask because He’s given us the ability to believe it, and then we believe it and we live by it. This is what this is saying. ...not doubting. We know God’s desire is to give us His spirit. We know His desire is to forgive us our sins. That’s why we continually cry out to God to forgive us of things we see that are wrong in our lives. Because we want to be forgiven. We believe that so we do it.

...not doubting. Don’t doubt God’s desire toward you, His will toward you. It goes back to this matter again of God’s will. What is His will? Well, if we see that clearly, we’re going to be stronger, we’re going to be healthier spiritually, we truly are.

For whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea driven and tossed around by the wind. So, like this ship. I think of Paul being on different ones, tossed around and some of them disintegrated then, basically, and then he’s out there bobbing around in the Mediterranean for a while.

Indeed, that person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. So again, it goes back to whether or not we are living by faith and exercising it.

Again, that goes right back to this whole thing about following this outline of prayer. “Your will be done” and what that means, to understand God’s desire for us and that we’re crying out for help to continue in this and to know His will, to live it, to exercise it. When we go off base that He correct us, that He help bring us right back on course, help us to see ourselves, help us to see the stupid things we do so that we don’t deceive ourselves into thinking certain things are okay. Because this is a common thing that happens, that somehow we get to a point where we think, we can think away sin, we can think away certain action and don’t see how bad it really is.

As it says here, Indeed, that person shouldn’t expect to receive anything from God. If we doubt, if we’re not thinking right.

1 Peter 1:1—Peter, an apostle of Joshua the Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect, the chosen, the selected of God. That’s the elect. What an incredible expression here, in that respect. God chose to call us. You can’t examine that one. Just be thankful. That’s all you can do.

We look at those things and learn to be thankful for those things and recognize that God has set us apart for special purpose. Sanctified. To be His elect. To be some of the first in His family. We can’t even begin to comprehend how awesome that is, how incredible that is to have such opportunity.

Again, selected by God, chosen by God. How awesome is that? ...according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Here it even goes back further. Not about us specifically individually, but it’s talking about a plan that God had from the very beginning of time, to have a family and how that was going to be accomplished and be achieved. That there would be those who would be called at different stages in the first 4,000 years, then the next 2,000 years within the Church, then during the Millennium, and then during the Great White Throne. Look where we are and what a blessing then to have that opportunity now to be the elect, the chosen to fit into His purpose at this time. Awesome!

...through sanctification of the spirit. His purpose was this is how it’s going to be accomplished, a “sanctification through the spirit.” We have to have His spirit to do these things. We have to be set apart by the holy spirit. It’s the only way. This mind has to receive the impregnation of God’s spirit in order to be able to be fed a continual supply of food spiritually, drink spiritually, the bread of life spiritually. We have to have that and so God set us apart to be able to have His holy spirit in our lives.

...unto obedience... These are the things we’re tried in oftentimes. ...and the sprinkling of the blood of Joshua the Christ. We can be forgiven of sin. So again, you go through these things and you think about different phases of it and you think, it’s so incredible, step by step by step, of what God has placed before us, to work with us, to give us what it says, Grace to you. That’s God’s mercy. That’s God’s patience. That’s God’s love. Awesome!

...and peace. I love that one because in my mind it means exactly the opposite of drama – drama, drama, drama. I hate drama! You have to learn to hate drama because drama is the thing that takes God out of the picture in life. It really does, if we’re not careful drama.

The world feeds on drama. People tweet about it all the time, sending out drama to the world. Then people debate it. People debate different people’s drama. “What did they mean?” “Why those...!” It’s a sick world! Technology is just feeding the sickness. It really is out of control. It’s gone stark raving mad.

You look for soundness of mind anymore. It’s in God’s Church. Then sometimes we’re lacking. But it’s not in the world. Because soundness of mind comes from God, from His holy spirit. Thank God that you’re not pulled into that out there, that you can see that it’s there for the purpose of bringing us to the point of erasing the world of it. It’s a sickness.

Again, that these things be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Joshua the Christ, who according to His abundant mercy... God has been so merciful to every one of us. ...has begotten us again into a lively hope. Only people in God’s Church fully grasp these things, in that respect, of what it means to be begotten of God’s holy spirit and what that means for us, what we’re looking forward to. That’s why I love the example of Mr. Armstrong’s again, about the Church of God in embryo waiting to be born, but begotten.

…has begotten us again into a lively (living) hope because it is lively but it’s something we live. It’s a hope that God has given to us, that we just live it until it comes to pass. We know that Christ is soon to come.

We know that things that are happening with China and Russia and Europe. I mean, you’re watching something come together that is incredible. News after news after news article coming out anymore talking about the EU is collapsing. It can’t survive all this. Well, we know that ten nations do. Because of all that, this is what pushes them together. This is what forces them together even more. But still being loosely there, you know, together and not together. Iron and clay; it’s a beautiful picture of an example of something that couldn’t be expressed more perfectly.

We’re witnessing these things come together in the world. Think, we’re on borrowed time. These things are according to God’s time, whatever that time is. And when it’s time...?

That’s why I don’t reject any possibility. I’m keeping my eyes open. I’m keeping my eyes open for the Feast of Trumpets this year. But who knows? Whenever? Before Pentecost next year? I don’t know. But at some point, it’s going to come and it’s all going to fit together in a way we couldn’t know until God revealed it to us. He just hasn’t shown us anything beyond what we did up to 2019. He just hasn’t shown us anything that is absolute.

We have seen things that have brought us to that point in time. We’ve learned from that. It’s been an incredible journey. It’s a beautiful thing to grasp and comprehend the timing of it all because it goes beyond probabilities of anything. Only God could do it.

We realize we learn through time that God will show us this in time. But by the time it is revealed we’re going to know exactly where we are, when things take place. It’s going to shake and shock the world, but it shouldn’t shake one of us because we’re ready, we’re alert, we’re on guard. We know that it can happen. I know that it can happen at any time. I just wonder what the next thing is going to be, what’s coming our way.

We’re kind of weaving our way through what’s happening right now and it’s awkward, and it’s not pleasant, and it’s difficult because we can’t be together at a Feast of Tabernacles. This is one of our greatest times of the year, being able to come together for eight days like that. It’s an awesome boost for God’s Church! But God knows that. It’s all part of a purpose and a plan. It’s His. And so, we’re yielding ourselves to it, and striving to do the best we can as we go through it. Beautiful.

But what awaits us? We don’t know exactly what or when. We may get to go to Europe and end up staying there. I don’t know. We may not get to go to Europe. We may not get to go anywhere ever again. We don’t know.

Could this thing get worse before it gets better? Sure. Could other things come along? Absolutely. But what is it? What is the next stage? I don’t know. We’ll know when it gets here. Just like this one here, it’s not a mystery to anybody. The whole world sees it. The whole world is experiencing it. The next thing that happens, the whole world is going to experience it one way or the other. So, we keep going forward.

...a living hope, by the resurrection of Joshua the Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that doesn’t fade away. It’s what we want. Though we fade away, we look for something that doesn’t. ...reserved in heaven for you. That’s what awaits us. God has it set aside already for us. We just have to keep making the right choices, keep yielding to the process, keep crying out to God as this sermon, outline of prayer has been about, and the series.

Verse 5—who are kept through the power of God. God keeps us through His power. What an incredible thing that you know your life is in God’s hands. Whatever happens to you, it’s in God’s hands and God’s timing. It really is. Everything, your life, because that’s where you placed it. ...who are kept by/through the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last, or the end, speaking of time. It’s just talking about various times here of things that take place, the first resurrection, then the next one and so forth, things that take place depending on where we are in God’s plan.

Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through various trials. So, we all get weighted down from time to time by various struggles and trials and hardships of life. But if we keep focused and keep looking to God and crying out to God for the help to see our way through them, to strive to do His will, He blesses us in going through it and we learn something from it, we grow in something by making those kinds of choices and asking for that help that couldn’t be molded and fashioned in us in any other way. And so, it’s invaluable. It’s exceedingly valuable what God is giving to us and molding in us.

That’s what it said. I mean, isn’t that incredible? That’s what it’s talking about here. ...that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Joshua the Christ. So again, very clearly here looking toward the time of that first great resurrection that’s going to take place.

Verse 8—whom having not seen, you love. Isn’t that an incredible thing? We learn to love God, learn to love Christ. We’ve never seen them but it’s real. I mean, it becomes something that’s exceedingly real in our thinking and we learn to love God’s Church, God’s people because we learn through time that this is God, this is where God’s spirit is. This is how God’s revealing Himself. Through the truth, yes. Through a fellowship that we’re able to have with one another we learn through this process about family and about what God is doing.

...whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though you do not see him now, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. There are times even as we go through, and especially at times of prayer, that there is that thankfulness, there is that ability to communicate the deepest parts of our thinking to God. That’s what He wants to share. He knows where we are, but He wants us to share that with Him because it’s a process whereby He can mold and fashion us more...and give us more, candidly.

Receiving the end or the purpose of your faith, even the salvation of your lives. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. He’s speaking in terms here of something that in the first 4,000 years people didn’t experience. They never experienced a Church. They never experienced a fellowship.

I sometimes think about different ones, of what it had to be like. They were called by themselves and God worked with them on a personal, more of a personal approach and things that happen in their lives. But we have a body, a Church, a fellowship that is unique to us. They looked forward to those things that they saw written, that they knew were written that would come in time. The farther we go, the better it gets, the richer it gets, like the Millennium, and then the Great White Throne, then no human life ever again. All that’s gone because God’s purpose is fulfilled, His Family.

Searching what, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ, which was in them did signify. Some think that this is about the fact that Christ was alive, and his spirit was in them. That’s not what it’s saying at all. It’s about Christ. It was about the Messiah and the spirit of God that was showing more to come that would come through a Passover, the Messiah, the King of kings, one who would rule, establish the Kingdom of God on earth. This is the spirit that was being given to them to see those things that were prophesied about a Messiah. That’s what this is referring to specifically.

...did signify, or in other words, was signifying or manifesting to that point with them when it testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, like it does in Isaiah. It talks about the things he would go through, but it talks about who he was, what was to be given to him, who he would become, and the glory that should follow. Indeed, the King of kings, the ruler in God’s Kingdom, the one anointed to rule, to be the King.

Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you through them that have preached the gospel unto you with the holy spirit... So again, God just continually revealed more and more, progressive revelation, certain things were written in prophecies they wanted to see. They wanted to know more, but it wasn’t for their time. But is has been for ours and here we are toward the end of that, of the first 6,000 years.

...sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. We understand these things that even the angelic realm is excited about, what God reveals and continues to reveal progressively to the Church and so forth.

Because they don’t know all of what’s going to take place here at the end. They’re watching. They’re watching our lives. They’re watching what we go through. They’re learning from things that God gives to the Church and they’re seeing those things as the world is edging closer and closer to the coming of the Messiah. An excitement that they have of what’s coming. Because they worked a long, long time. They worked a long time beside God, with God, for God to come to this point. Incredible.

Then we come to the end of the outline of prayer that Christ gave us: For Yours is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. What a beautiful thing to come to that point and indeed say, Amen.