"Apostle of Faith" - a Biography of Smith Wigglesworth
[Viewings: 60]
Smith Wigglesworth was born in 1859 to a very poor family. His father did manual labour, for very little pay. Smith himself went to work at the age of six to help with the family income. At six he was pulling turnips and at seven he was working in a woollen mill twelve hours a day. His parents did not know God, but Smith hungered in his heart to know Him. Even as a youngster he would pray in the fields.
His grandmother was the critical Christian in his life. She was a Wesleyan Methodist and would take Smith to meetings with her. At one of these meetings there was a song being sung about Jesus as the lamb and Smith came into the realization of God's love for him and his decision to believe Christ for his salvation was decided that day. He was immediately filled with the desire to evangelize and led his own mother to Christ.
Smith had various church experiences as he was growing up. He first went to an Episcopal Church and then at thirteen a Wesleyan Methodist Church. When he was sixteen he became involved in the Salvation Army. He felt deeply called to fast and pray for lost souls. He saw many people come to Christ. At seventeen a mentor shared with him about water baptism and he decided to be baptised.
The Salvation Army was experiencing a tremendous level of the power of God in those days. He describes meetings where "many would be prostrated under the power of the Spirit, sometimes for as long as twenty-four hours at a time." They would pray and fast and cry out for the salvation of fifty or a hundred people for the week and they would see what they had prayed for.
At eighteen Smith left the factory and became a plumber. He moved to Liverpool when he was twenty and continued to work during the day and minister during his free time. He felt called to minister to young people and brought them to meetings. These were destitute and ragged children, whom he would often feed and care for. Hundreds were saved. Smith was often asked to speak in Salvation meetings and he would break down and weep under the power of God. Many would come to repentance in those meetings through this untrained man. At twenty-three he returned to Bradford and continued his work with the Salvation Army.
In Bradford, Smith met Mary Jane Featherstone, known as Polly, the daughter of a temperance lecturer. She left home and went to Bradford to take a servants job. One night she was drawn to a Salvation Army meeting. She listened to the woman evangelist, Gipsy Tillie Smith, and gave her heart to Christ. Smith was in that meeting and saw her heart for God. Polly became an enthusiastic Salvationist and was granted a commission by General Booth. They developed a friendship, but Polly went to Scotland to help with a new Salvationist work. She eventually moved back to Bradford and married Smith, who was very much in love with her.
The couple worked together to evangelize the lost. They opened a small church in a poor part of town. Polly would preach and Smith would make the altar calls. For a season, however, Smith became so busy with his plumbing work that his evangelistic fervour began to wane. Polly continued on, bringing Smith to conviction. One day while Smith was working in the town of Leeds he heard of a divine healing meeting. He shared with Polly about it. She needed healing and so they went to a meeting, and Polly was healed. Smith struggled with the reality of healing, while being ill himself. He decided to give up the medicine that he was taking and trust God. He was healed.
They had five children, a girl and four boys. One morning two of the boys were sick. The power of God came and they prayed for the boys and they were instantly healed. Smith struggled with the idea that God would use him to heal the sick in general. He would gather up a group of people and drive them to get prayer in Leeds. The leaders of the meeting were going to a convention and left Smith in charge. He was horrified. How could he lead a meeting about divine healing? He tried to pass it off to someone else but could not. Finally he led the meeting and several people were healed. That was it. From then on Smith began to pray for people for healing.
Smith had another leap to make. He had heard about the Pentecostals who were being baptised in the Holy Spirit. He went to meetings and was so hungry for God he created a disturbance and church members asked him to stop. He went to prayer and prayed for four days. Finally he was getting ready to head home and the vicar's wife prayed for him and he fell under the power of God and spoke in tongues. Everything changed after that. He would walk by people and they would come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and be saved. He began to see miracles and healings and the glory of God would fall when he prayed and preached.
Smith had to respond to the many calls that came in and gave up his business for the ministry. Polly unexpectedly died in 1913, and this was a real blow to Smith. He prayed for her and commanded that death release her. She did arise but said, "Smith - the Lord wants me." His heartbroken response was, "If the Lord wants you, I will not hold you". She had been his light and joy for all the years of their marriage, and he grieved deeply over the loss.
After his wife was buried he went to her grave, feeling like he wanted to die. When God told him to get up and go Smith told him, “If you give to me a double portion of the Spirit – my wife’s and my own – I will go and preach the Gospel.” God was gracious to him and answered his request. His daughter Alice and son-in-law James Salter began to travel with him to handle his affairs.
Smith would pray and the blind would see, and the deaf were healed, people came out of wheelchairs, and cancers were destroyed. One remarkable story is when He prayed for a woman in a hospital. While he and a friend were praying she died. He took her out of the bed stood her against the wall and said, "In the name of Jesus I rebuke this death". Her whole body began to tremble. The he said, "In the name of Jesus walk", and she walked. Everywhere he would go he would teach and then show the power of God. He began to receive requests from all over the world. He taught in Europe, Asia, New Zealand and many other areas. When the crowds became very large he began a "group healing". He would have everyone who needed healing lay hands on themselves and then he would pray. Hundreds would be healed at one time.
Over Smith's ministry, it was confirmed that 14 people were raised from the dead. Thousands were saved and healed and he impacted whole continents for Christ.
Smith died on March 12, 1947. His ministry was based on four principles:
- First, read the Word of God.
- Second, consume the Word of God until it consumes you.
- Third believe the Word of God.
- Fourth, act on the Word.
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LOVE - AGAPE STYLE
by Ty Hardin
[Viewings: 95]
Love is being purposely abused and debouched by certain factors in our society today. Christians have stood by and watched this word being undermined and misused by certain factors in our human society for the past fifty years. Human Love, a divine attribute, has been reduced in our society to a meaningless word that is being misused by most of our society. They do not accept or recognize it's divine origin, with it's God given spiritual meaning to connect man's lost soul to His Creator. "I love You, I love this or that" has become trite meaningless jabber that is blatant evidence of our souls being lost in the muck of rhetoric while our society grapples for a true meaning for life. The abuses and debauchery from the misguided use of love in human love experience is astronomical. Why haven't our churches and higher thinkers stepped up to the plate and given it a specific, precise, meaning it deserves in our society? How can they continue to allow mankind to love so many inanimate things and put our soul mates on the same level as ice cream, cars, dogs and golf? We have allowed the word Love to become a meaningless trivia in our present society. It is being used haphazardly and irresponsibly in our everyday conversations. We have lost or submerged the true meaning and identity of Godly LOVE into slang, trite phrases, of meaningless dialogue that is being used by all. We have allowed certain Hollywood degenerates and mass media mongrels to diminish and debauch it's true meaning and destroy it's spiritual aspect that is so desperately needed in human society of today. In the old movie days, actors like Clark Gable, TY Power, David Niven, etc. used to revere the word love as a deep emotional expression of commitment to well defined spiritual and physical bonding with their vows to their loved, made before God, in a Church, with a commitment to each other until "death do us part". Great movies like "Gone With the Wind--Doctor Zhivago--and Casablanca" to name a few, gave love it's special meaning.
Once, we had laws in our courts to protect the sanctity and privacy of the human relationship. Those laws were used to prevent the debauching and blatant graphic illicit use of sex on the silver screen. Our children, for years, were being protected by these laws preventing the film industry from capitalizing on the use of debouched language and their perverted sick actions. Today, the Movie Corporate Moguls run rampant over the minds of our young kids and population with a constant barrage of sexual gestures, bad language, and sick plots geared at destroying and undermining the values and the significance of God's love in the human experience. When I was a little boy, some seventy odd years ago, Love defined clearly a man-woman relationship. We were selective in how we used the word. It wasn't used flamboyantly or irresponsibly, as it meant something special to the human experience and was a expressing a deep affection and attraction to your soul mate.
Today our society no longer teaches the true meaning of Love Agape and we are no longer guiding our children into a clear defined understanding of what love truly means in the human experience. Fifty percent of all marriages, where the partners are under the age of forty, end up in a divorce. Let's look at it another way. If Love was properly taught to the human populations it would end all wars, stop fights, and curb most conflicts between mankind. It would turn our earth into a heavenly experience that would bankrupt our corporate giants that thrive off of contrived desires and lusts propagated by their usury. Violence and debauchery on TV, polluting the brains of our kids, would cease and mankind would be refocused, reaching upward to seeking his highest calling from a loving God Creator who desires to be loved.
Let me express to you what God is teaching me in my last productive years. All Love is from God, for God is love, and the author and finisher of my faith. Remember, human words bring limits to thoughts but God's love and holds no boundaries. Therefore, humans made in God's image, can only fully express the depth of His divine love by seeking His will for their lives. The privilege of being in God's will remains in the spiritual plain, directed to those who become enlightened by seeking His will for their lives. The true meaning of Agape (Godly) love comes from God to the soul of the man who seeks divine awareness.
"Seek and you will find". Let me express to you that I am a follower and believer in Jesus Christ and He has blessed me with a divine expression of God's love that will last me a lifetime. He has given me lasting hope and truth that has given my soul rest and peace. I will be in eternity with my creator.
My life is a constant daily effort in meditation reaching upwards for deeper enlightenment of revelations from God. Most important of all I am learning to LOVE all God's creation and offer compassion and tolerance to all souls on this earth. I am learning the true meaning of Love while struggling each day to express that love toward all mankind. The greatest challenge to Man's life is to love the Lord thy God with all your heart and soul and to put no other gods before Him.
Are you ready to take that step of faith and reach your highest calling for your life? Serving your creator demands the very best out of your life but the rewards come in the enjoyment of a abundant life in a society that is on a direct course to self destruction. Seek First The Kingdom of God and all things will be added to you. A small price to pay for internal and external peace. May God grant you His desire to seek and find rest for your soul in these trying days ahead. Your faith in God will soon be tested. This nation, that was given the commandment to take the Love of God to the world have failed. His word to establish world peace and harmony on earth has been ignored and we now serve the all mighty dollar. We will reap what we have sowed. This vision was given to me to pass on to you. Time is running out as Evil forces are gathering for the final culling of world populations.
Repent and Seek God's mercy.
Ty Hardin (Star of the 60’s Western Series Bronco)
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Crucifixion
(Anonymous)
[Viewings: 129]
Crucifixion
And they crucified him. Mark 15:24 <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark 15:24>
In The Expositor's Bible Commentary C Truman Davis, MD writes, 'What is crucifixion?'
A medical doctor provides a physical description: 'As he slowly sags down...on the nails in the wrists, excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain; the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of the feet. As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath...hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It is now almost over; the loss of tissue fluids reaches a critical level; the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues; the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues...finally he can allow his body to die.'
The Bible records it in these words: 'And they crucified him'.
What wondrous love is this?
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
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Halloween
By : J.John (Canon)
[Viewings: 89]
Halloween only started being a major event in the 1960s and many welcome it, saying that in our all-too-divided society we need festivals that cross cultural, racial and religious boundaries. However, as Halloween gets bigger and darker in emphasis, even people with little or no religious faith feel uneasy.
In pre-Christian Europe a pagan festival around the end of October marked the shift from the light six months of the year to the dark six months; some modern pagans wish to reclaim this. The church, however, designated 1 November, still celebrated in some churches as All Saints Day, for celebrating the saints in heaven. The evening before became ‘All Hallows Eve’ or Halloween, always followed by declaring Jesus Christ's triumph over evil. But today's Halloween comprises various elements: the magical (or supernatural); the macabre (or scary); and the malicious (the trick or treat aspect).
Most Christians are uneasy about the magical - dressing up as witches, wizards, vampires etc. For us, the spiritual world exists, having both good and evil components, and we are involved in it. The Bible goes beyond condemning evil powers, pointing out that Jesus Christ destroyed the powers of evil through his death on the cross. Although evil powers are ultimately defeated they still have potential for harm. However, two sorts of people are likely to object to this argument. First is the atheist, who says that there is no spiritual world and so Halloween poses no risk. To deny the existence of the spiritual world is as much an act of faith as to say that it exists. And historically the vast majority of people have believed in spiritual forces of some kind or another. Second, those who acknowledge a spiritual world but see it as harmless would also be unhappy with the Christian rejection of Halloween. But what is celebrated is not the good side but the very darkest side of the supernatural.
Celebration of the ugly, scarred and horrific is the macabre aspect of Halloween. Why should ugliness be associated with evil? We need to say clearly that being ugly and being wicked are two very separate things.
Finally, one must consider the malicious element in Halloween. Trick or treat would normally be called 'demanding with menaces'. Is this something we want to teach children?
So Halloween is a dark celebration that focuses on evil, horror and wrong and there is no element of good triumphing over the darkness.
Think through the issues surrounding Halloween. Do we really want to celebrate evil, glorify the macabre and encourage the malicious?
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The Great Tsunami
By Rick Joyner
[Viewings: 103]
In 1987 I had a two-and-a-half-day prophetic experience in which I was shown a panorama of coming events that I wrote about in my book titled, The Harvest. Most of what I saw coming has now taken place, but the biggest event of all, the harvest that was at the end of the age, has not. It is now approaching. Jesus said, "The harvest is the end of the age" (see Matthew 13:39). This will be the greatest in-gathering of new believers in history, greater than all the previous ones combined.
In my vision, this came in two great waves. The first wave was the largest up until this time, but it was only the ingathering of those who were called to be the labourers in the coming even much greater one. This first wave began shortly after I was given this vision and lasted for almost twenty years. During that time more people came to Christ around the world than had come to Him in all of history up until that time. Some estimates were that an average of almost four hundred thousand people a day, were coming to Christ during its peak. There were countries where people were being born again faster than they were being born. Hundreds of millions came to Christ in Africa, South and Central America, and Asia.
Though this wave hardly seemed to touch North America and Europe, they provided many of the evangelists and workers for the other great revivals around the world, and their time is coming. I then saw a period of relative calm before the greatest of all moves of God began. We are near the end of that time and are about to be hit by a wave of revival like the earth has never seen before.
The Magnitude of the Harvest
When a tsunami is traveling across the oceans, it is barely a discernible ripple in the water, but when it approaches land, it begins to rise fast, sometimes to a height of several hundred feet. In minutes, a calm sea can rise up and sweep away everything in its path. Even though it may seem that we are in a spiritual calm now, a spiritual tsunami is coming, and we must prepare for it.
The biggest problem virtually every church will be facing is how to handle explosive growth. In the vision, I saw small churches of less than a hundred people adding a thousand new members a week at times. Of course, this happened on the Day of Pentecost, and then there were other days in which thousands came to Christ in a day. Even with a dozen apostles personally trained by the Lord, there was stress caused by this. Pressure points gave birth to new ministries such as the deacon. The infrastructure of church life that this produced is still the model that works, and we need to return to its effective simplicity to handle what is coming.
I saw churches that grew so large that they started renting football and soccer stadiums in which to hold their services. At times, hundreds of thousands would gather in parks and huge outdoor meetings just to hear Bible teachers to pray and to worship. Not only were whole cities coming to Christ, but also entire nations were coming so that the state itself became like a large church.
A few years ago I decided to watch the news for several hours a day for a week to determine what percentage of stories could be considered good news. During that time I did not see one good news story. They were all about problems, crises, disasters, and suffering. This was during the time of some of our greatest economic prosperity. Now it's worse. However, change is coming. When this next wave hits, the news around the world is going to be dominated by good news. We will see events like hundreds of thousands of people gathering spontaneously for prayer and worship, becoming the biggest news stories of the day. News teams will be following apostolic teams and evangelists like they do politicians and business leaders now. Much more is happening now than most are aware of, or that is making the news, but when the Lord "suddenly comes into His temple," it will be the news, and the whole world will be aware of it.
There will be individual newscasts from secular networks that will cause more to come to Christ than Christian networks have in their entire existence. This is not to negate what has been accomplished by Christian networks but rather to stress the impact that this revival will have. We will go through a period when the news of the great things God is doing will crowd out just about all other news around the world.
Both the Welsh and the Azusa Street Revivals made front-page news around the world repeatedly for nearly two years. That was just a foretaste, a seed being planted for what is to come. The coming move of God will in some ways be a composite of many of the great moves of the past, but in one basic way it will be different-this will not just be a move of God, but it will be God moving.
This is not just semantics, because every true move of God is at least initiated by God, but He will bless many things He will not inhabit. His manifest presence will be so great in what is coming that people will not chase after individual truths, or acts of God, but they will be after the Lord Himself. He will be the conversation, not just what He does. This is a move that will lift up Jesus. When He is lifted up, all will be drawn to Him, not just to doctrines, projects, or missions, but to Him.
Doctrine certainly has its place, and there is a great need for sound biblical doctrine to be imparted to all new believers, and for all other believers to build stronger foundations on His truth. There is a need for projects and missions that are His will, but "the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing," and the Main Thing is Jesus. The true apostolic Gospel was Jesus: "They preached Jesus and the resurrection from the dead." Jesus will again be the Message, and it will be what He is doing that gets the attention.
What is coming is the return to the apostolic gospel. The Way is a Person. Truth is a Person, and if we don't know that Person as our Life, then we don't really know the Way or the Truth either. He is coming to take His rightful place in His church. When He does, the church will be profoundly changed. When Jesus becomes our desire as He should be, the church will become the ultimate society on the earth that multitudes will be streaming to. There is no greater adventure than the true Christian life, and there is nothing more boring than religion. Religion is about to be displaced by the true Christian life, and the great adventure will supplant institutional religion.
Catch the Wave
We are coming to the most exciting times in history, but this is also a warning. If we are not prepared for what is coming, we will be victims of it. This coming worldwide revival will also be one of the biggest challenges ever. Moves of God are often referred to as waves in history because a wave is an accurate metaphor. For a surfer, there are few things as thrilling as catching "the big one." However, if you're casually strolling in the surf and the big one catches you by surprise, you will likely eat a lot of sand and drink a lot of salt water. Revivals can do the same thing to churches and ministries that are not prepared for them.
Riding a wave is not possible unless you are positioned right to catch it. To catch a wave, you must discern where it is going to break. Then you must position yourself in the right place. Then you have to begin moving in the right direction when it comes. Though it may seem that everything is quiet right now, we need to be getting prepared for what is coming by getting into position and be ready to move in the right direction as it comes.
The most important thing that we can do to get into the right position is to recover and strengthen our first love-Jesus. We all signed up for Him, not just good teachings, or a better way to live, though we do get those too. There is nothing on earth more contagious than a person who is getting closer to the Lord. Those "who have been with Jesus" are going to start standing out as never before. We only have true spiritual authority to the degree that we are abiding in the King, and the leaders of what is coming will be those who are the closest to the Lord.
What is coming will be far too big for any human leadership or strategy to control. Only the Captain of the hosts can lead this one, and He will. It is not just hearing the words of the Lord as much as it is hearing the Word Himself. The main strategy for what is to come will be to know His voice and to obey Him. He will be giving personal direction to His people. This is why we are told in Acts 2:17-18 that "in the last days" when He pours out His Spirit, the result is dreams, visions, and prophecy upon the old and young, male and female, which obviously includes everyone. This is because we are going to need this kind of guidance for what is to come, and He is going to give it to us as He always has for those who would seek Him.
The coming move of God will be the greatest challenge we've ever faced but also will be the greatest time of our lives. These are the times that even the prophets of old desired to see. The Lord has saved His best wine for last, and many who are reading this will witness the greatest move of God of all time.
It is right to appreciate the honour of living in these times, but it is also right to treat it as the great responsibility that it is. To whom much is given much will be required, and this will be a time when much work must be done. Even so, when we are yoked with the Lord, we will find rest and refreshment in our labours as we are told in Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."
You do not put on a yoke to go to bed but rather to do work. However, there is no greater rest and refreshment for our souls that we could ever find than being yoked with the Lord in His work. There is no job or profession we could ever have in this life more fulfilling than doing what He created us to do before the foundation of the world. This will be life on a level more exciting and fulfilling than most have ever known. Even so, knowing and abiding in the rest of the Lord will be crucial for all during this time. As much work as there will be to do with so many coming to the faith, we must not fall to human striving. Striving is counterproductive in the work in the true work of the kingdom.
He Is Supernatural
We were created to have fellowship with God who is Spirit. Because of this, there is a deep yearning for the spiritual, the supernatural, in every human being. Many cover it up, but we can never be truly fulfilled or at peace without this spiritual fellowship with God. As Jesus stated in John 4:23-25: "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
The Apostle Paul said that if we are at home in the body, or in the natural, we are absent from the Lord (see II Corinthians 5:6-9). We should be more at home in the spiritual realm than we are the natural because the "new creation" is born of the Spirit. This too is going to become a reality in what is coming. Then extraordinary miracles become common, and even the "greater works," such as speaking to mountains and having them plucked up and moved, will be done to prove that the Word of God is true.
The true Christian life is a supernatural life, and this will be a reality in what is coming. However, that we will be seeing such miracles also means that we will be living in times when we will need those miracles. Everyone will be in either continuous awe and wonder at the great things the Lord is doing, or in continuous terror at what is happening in the world. The Apostle Paul said in Acts 14:22, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." This is true personally and for the whole world. In every trial there is a door to the kingdom, and in the ultimate trial of the whole earth, the whole earth will enter the kingdom.
The good thing is that the tribulation will not last, but the kingdom will. For those who are staying close to the Lord, they will hardly know that they are passing through tribulations. In a prophetic experience, I was once caught up and found myself standing in front of a radar screen on a war ship, with the Lord Himself standing next to me. There was a blip on the screen coming straight at us, so I called for the ship to turn 90 degrees. The ship turned, but the blip on the screen remained right in front and coming closer. I called for the ship to turn again, with the same results. I then braced for the impact, but the blip went away and nothing happened. I then asked the Lord what had happened. He said the blip on the radar screen was the great time of trouble. He said that it was coming and there was no way to avoid it, but if we stayed close to Him, we wouldn't even feel it.
For those who are walking in their purpose, even the great tribulation will be a minor event. There will be far more attention on what Christ is doing than on what the antichrist is doing. As we read in Isaiah 60, at the very time when darkness is covering the earth, and deep darkness the people, the Lord's glory will be rising on His people. Then, as we see in verse three, the nations will come to the glory. The light wins! We do need to know the devil's schemes, but true security comes from knowing what Christ is doing, and uniting with Him in His purposes.
As we read in Daniel 2, at the same time all of the kingdoms of men are collapsing and becoming like dust, the kingdom of God is growing, and it will keep growing until it fills the earth. Those who are obeying His command to seek first His kingdom (see Matthew 6:33) will experience never-ending increase. Those who are seeking first the things of this world will experience increasing troubles. Every coming year this distinction will become more pronounced. It is time to put the kingdom first, above anything else that we are pursuing.
One of the most important things that we can do to be positioned to catch the wave that is coming is to come to know the gifts and ministries of the Spirit that we are called to walk in, and begin to walk in them. The Ephesians 4 mandate of all true New Testament ministries is to equip others to do the work of the ministry, not just do it ourselves. Those who do not obey this mandate will soon disappear from leadership in the church, and those who train and equip their people will be the future leaders of the body of Christ. These are the ones who are not burying the talents they've been entrusted with but are investing and multiplying them. We cannot accomplish what we must in these times without every part of the body doing its part.
Summary
For the last five years I have been shown many difficulties and hardships that will be coming, and to date, they have proven to be accurate. Not many wanted to hear or believe what we had to say, and I have to admit that it has not been much fun having so many hard words. Even so, all of these trials have doors to the kingdom that we must now walk through. Those who did hear the warning and prepared accordingly have done very well. The prepared will prosper in any situation. One of the most important preparations we can make for these times is simplicity of life.
Gaining or losing natural resources is not nearly as important in these times as being in the right place, equipped for our purpose. To lose everything we own is not nearly as important compared to missing the greatest of all spiritual opportunities that is coming. The most valuable thing we can accomplish in this life is to hear those greatest of words on the Judgment Day: "Well done good and faithful servant" (see Matthew 25:23). There is not a human being who would not gladly trade all that they accomplished to hear those words on that day. This is also what we must live for now. Those who do will be the happiest of all people and that joy will not go away forever.
Comments
If you have any comments on the above article or would like to communicate with John Flanner about any matters or need encouragement in any way, please email him at:
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