INDEX TO VOLUME ONE(5)
40. Why do we seek God?
41. “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection”.
42. Only through the Spirit of His Son.
43. To be Filled with the Holy Spirit.
44. Delight in the Lord.
40. Why do we seek God?
When we listen to the prayers of the Christians in our country and all over the world, we realise that we are focused on what God has done for me and even more, what He must do for me right now. Partly, it is true that God has to do great things for me. But must He provide me with the things I desire in my flesh? Should He keep us from physical threats and evils? Or is it more important that He protects us from spiritual threats? Should He give us human wisdom so that we can make the right decisions in the world to benefit and promote our existence here on earth? Or should He give us divine wisdom so that we can do God’s will on this earth? Should He give us rain so that our crops will be great and we can live in luxury? Or should He rather pour out spiritual rain for us so that people will turn to God and His people will be established here on earth? We also desire that He will preserve and bless our children and give them the ability to excel in school, become prefects and stand out, exemplary children, capable of studying and performing, pursuing successful careers so that they can be reputable in society – and of course make a lot of money. For that, we need the blessings of God. He must give them good partners and bless their children. These are just prayers of: Bless me, bless my children, bless my people! Oh, yes, most people’s big goal is to also not go to Hell! They do not want to go to Heaven so much because they know that there they will always be close to Jashuah and the Father to live forever in His sweet presence, to enjoy His love and to sing hymns before Him forever and to worship and serve Him. So it’s not about what they can give Him but about what they can and want to receive from Him! So, as I said before, they are seeking His right hand and not His face! The throne room of God is thus a great “welfare office”! And Jashuah sits there at His right hand to intercede for us at the “Head of Welfare” so that we can only receive and receive again!
I am fully aware of the wonderful truths in Scripture that say that God is the Giver of all good gifts, gifts that descend from above on the children of men, as James 1: 17-18 also tells us. But the greatest gift is His Son. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3: 16). Yes, the greatest gift God could give to mankind was His Son (Eph. 5: 2), and the abundance of His grace that He poured out on us through Jashuah Messiah (John 1:16; Rom. 6:23). So, there is therefore a difference between seeing Jashuah as the One who intercedes for us with God so that we can receive the tangible, material blessings of God, and seeing Him as the One in whom all the blessings of God are embodied (Eph. 1: 3).
God has already blessed us in various ways. But often we experience that it is precisely the blessings of God that stand in the way of His sanctuary where we would have fellowship with Him, love Him and serve Him. Distresses and problems make us look up to God, but the blessings make us busy with the things He poured out on us in His love. For example, we pray that He will bless us with rain, and as we pray in the greatest drought, our eyes and hearts are directed toward Him (1 Chr 16: 9). The moment the rain falls, we become exuberant with joy, and yes, we say thank you, but very soon our eyes are not as focused on Jashuah as was the case when we were still cramped by the drought. We also sometimes pray for a better home or vehicle, and the Lord listens to our prayer and blesses us with a home or vehicle. As we pray and are deeply dependent on Him, our hearts are always directed towards Him until He sends us that dream home or vehicle. Then our hearts are on the blessings and we are overwhelmed with His gift of grace and enjoyment. We talk about it and rejoice in it, but soon our eyes are away from Him and focused on the blessings. The blessings are in many cases an obstacle to loving Christ with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength (Matt 22:37).
41. “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Phil 3:10)
His great desire is that we know Him. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17: 3). That is why we were crucified with Him and raised with Him. Hear what He says in Hosea 6 verse 2: “After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.” As it gives a parent great pleasure when his children play before him, so it gives God, as our Father, great glory as His children live before Him. His desire was so great that we would know Him that He made a covenant with us through the blood of His Son, a covenant that also included a promise: “None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them ”(Heb 8: 10-13). Oh, this desire in my heart, to know Him, is only getting bigger and bigger by the day. I have a longing to know the Father and the Son, up close, in times of sunshine and also when darkness comes down. I always want to walk and live before him. It was David’s greatest trait: he loved God. He “delighted in the Lord” (Ps. 37: 4) and so the Lord gave “the desires of his heart”. His psalms all speak of his love for God, and also of God’s love for him. “And he said, I love thee warmly, O Lord, my strength” (Ps. 18: 1) (Ps. 116: 1). He said, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You” (Ps. 73:25). All that made heaven attractive to David was his God. And on earth? The same! Apart from the Father and His Son, He desires no one on earth! Can we say that too? Or do we desire so many people and things on earth? I’ve heard people say that if their dog or their horse isn’t going to be in heaven, then they don’t want to go to heaven. In a more funny way, a mother once said that if there wasn’t going to be ice cream in heaven, her daughter wouldn’t be prepared to go. Just as David loved the Lord’s word (Ps 119: 140), so did Mary. For her, it was most wonderful to sit at the feet of Jashuah and listen to His words (Luke 10: 38-42). If you fell in love with Him, you will now know what I am talking about. No magazine or book or TV show or video is as refreshing to you as sitting at Jashuah’s feet and listening to His words. Have you ever fallen in love with Him so much that there is no better place for you than His presence. Has your Heavenly Father’s love, grace, and mercy become so wonderful for you to behold and drink, that there is no better place for you than with Him?
Now you will tell me right away that you do not have the time to spend so many hours at His feet. No, the ideal is that during a day of a very busy program, you will be in communion with Him all the time, listening to His words all the time. Would you be able to do this while your mind is busy with things you need to decide on in your daily work? Well, there is wonderful news: when you serve God in your spirit, the Holy Spirit does this work that you normally had to do with your mind. Unaware of the communion of the Holy Spirit between you and your Father and His Son, you are thinking about important decisions while sitting in a large company meeting, or when you, as a housewife, are busy with the children with their schoolwork to help.
Knowing Him requires a sacrifice that very few Christians are willing to make. It asks you everything! Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” What are “the things” that will be added to us? These are the things we are now worried about: “what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on” (Verses 25-32). These are the things the world is looking for and we are also looking for them. These are the things that Christians are not supposed to set as their first priority in their lives. Paul says that “No soldier in active service gets entangled in the [ordinary business] affairs of civilian life; [he avoids them] so that he may please the one who enlisted him to serve.” (2 Tim. 2: 4 – Amplified Bible). But you might think that this Scripture actually speaks to someone who wants to go to work full-time for God. i.e. A teacher or evangelist, a missionary, or preacher. However, at the end of these days in which we are now living, we will realise that many people have died, even good Christians, and that there will be a small remnant who will all be warriors of Christ. The whole remnant will therefore belong to God full time and live and walk in an unbroken community of love with Him, obeying Him.
Once you have experienced a slight taste of His love, you will now seek more of it. You will say, as Hosea 6: 3 says, “Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth”. Increasingly, the things that are important to you in this world will become worthless and meaningless to you. An evening visit with friends, which used to be so nice to you, is now starting to feel empty. And while it used to be fun to socialize with the people, you now begin to long — as you sit with them — to get away a little, alone with Jashuah and your Father. If this love for Him continues to grow in this way, you will soon be able to say like Paul: “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death … ”(Philippians 3: 7-10). Yes, it truly takes a sacrifice to know Jashuah, but once you have fallen in love with Him, no sacrifice is too great to pursue this love relationship. We see and hear daily about the love between a man and a woman and the great lengths they are willing to go to for each other’s love. God’s love for you caused Him to sacrifice His Son in order to make you His child. Jashuah, in turn, laid down His life for you on the cross, draining every drop of His blood out of love for you and me. He even went to Hell in our place to bear the punishment of our sin — out of love! All He asks of you is a reciprocal love, that you will also love Him with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. As He loved us, He expects us to love one another (John 13:34) and to love Him even more. Again, I want to emphasize here: You cannot do this out of yourself, you must only be willing to do so and believe that He has already poured that love into your heart through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5: 5). If you do not believe it, you will not receive it (James 1: 6-8).
42. Only through the Spirit of His Son
We have heard it so many times that the Scripture says that we cannot turn on this life of Christ in us ourselves. We have to allow it to be turned on by the “Specialist”, namely the Holy Spirit. The question is how are you and I going to allow it to be turned on? First, I want to mention that through the prayer of someone who truly believes God, everything happens. Matt 7: 7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you…”. James 1: 6 “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting…”. Hebrews 11: 6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” To get the Spirit of Christ you must pray for it. Hear this promise from the mouth of Jashuah: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13). And then if you do not receive what you are praying for, James 4: 2-3 says “…Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures”. So there will have to be a major change to that for which we pray in order for God to be happy with it. What is the purpose of our prayer as we pray for the fullness of the Holy Spirit? That’s the big question!
I wrote in a previous section about a renewal of our minds and pointed out that only a renewal of your mind can happen once you have laid off the old man. Do you remember that it was very important for you, out of your own free will, to lay off the “old self”? Along with the old self, there may be an unclean spirit, or spirits, that play a bigger role than you can imagine.
When I write about these spirits, I want to say right away that I am not “obsessed with evil spirits”. But there are certain important truths about the workings of evil in a man that we must not overlook. Ephesians 6: 10-20 says very clearly that our wrestling battle is not against flesh and blood but against evil forces. You should read it! It is extremely important.
The dying of self is a painful process and the workings of the cross within you, which annihilates the old self, will almost certainly not be without tears. Therefore, you will still have to remain willing when the first work of the Spirit of God begins to deal with the “own self” and with your connection to the world and all the things that are so important to you. Just a few days ago I said to the Father: “Father this self who must die is a painful process but I beg of you, please go ahead with it and leave no stone unturned until all of the flesh and the self are removed from me, by letting it die”. This is the message that many Christians do not want to hear! Like the rich young man (Mark 10: 17-31), who walked away from Jashuah grieving because he could not stand to lose everything that was precious to him.
You can only receive the Spirit of Christ by believing the Word that He speaks to you. The Spirit and the Word He speaks to you are one (John 6: 63; 1 John 5: 7). And it is the Spirit that quickens, the flesh is of no use. When I read the word where John the Baptist said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) and also: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God”(John 1:12). When I saw Him, I accepted Him as my Redeemer and Saviour. But take note, you must first ‘behold’ Him and then you will believe in Him. You must also confess it with your mouth (Rom. 10: 8-11). Hear what Jashuah says in John 6:40 “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day ”.
Did you ever have the opportunity in your life to see the Son, as the Lamb of God, hanging on the cross where God allowed Him to be sacrificed and killed for your sins? Have you ever seen Him in the great love with which He bore your sins on that cross and also went to Hell to be punished for it? Yes, your sins, your own self, your laws and the things that are important to you on this planet earth? Have you ever seen Him in the glory of His resurrection? John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us – and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father – full of grace and truth”? You will tell me that that word was spoken by the apostle John because they saw His glory. Where are we going to find such an opportunity 2000 years later, because Christ is no longer on earth, He is sitting in heaven? If you make time each day to get up early in the morning and sit before the Father, where you worship Him and love Him and serve Him with songs of praise and thanksgiving, you will at one time or another see His Son in His glory. Then your life will never be the same again. A renewal of your mind will occur once you have seen Him, and you will grasp His feet and kiss Him with tears of gratitude, and you will serve nothing and no one else but Him. And then you will believe Him and also confess it with your mouth and say: Jashuah now that I see you I cannot help but believe you – every word you have spoken.
Then you will also experience that the words He speaks to you are not like the words of people, not like the word your minister spoke to you from the pulpit Sunday morning, “… but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe”(1 Thess. 2:13). Yes, the Word that works in you too, if you believe it! Then you can say, “It is God who works in me to will and to work according to His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). Once the Word starts working in you, you will notice that everything is not so difficult to achieve! It now becomes your normal religion! Every day! Now read Romans 12: 1-2 prayerfully. “ I beseech[a] you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your [b]reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. ”
Again, I want to reiterate that you need the Spirit of Christ in your spirit. The Holy Spirit in your spirit will enable you to serve God in your spirit (Rom 1: 9). It is the Holy Spirit who glorifies Jashuah in your spirit (John 16:14). It is the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8: 9) – the Holy Spirit – that reminds you of Jashuah’s words (John 14:26) when you get into a situation where you need to hear what He wants to say to you. Without the Holy Spirit filling your spirit, you will never be able to have a personal love relationship with the Father and the Son. If you further consider that faith works through love (Gal. 5: 6), then you will also never be able to have faith without the Holy Spirit filling your spirit. In summary, without being able to say that you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, you will not be able to successfully serve God. So for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit is much needed, actually urgent! Even if you came here without being filled with the Holy Spirit, you will no longer be able to continue in this country, South Africa, and also in the whole world, without the Holy Spirit within you.
43. To be Filled with the Holy Spirit
Just the thought that a time will come for God to reveal His Son in us should get us excited. If you have already tasted the glory of revealing His Son to you, how much more will you be filled with glory when He reveals His Son in you. It will be the appearance of Christ through His body on this earth. We have talked and written about this glorious revelation of Christ through His body in the past, but now it becomes a greater reality for us as the Holy Spirit leads us to begin praying for it. We know that nothing happens unless someone prays for it somewhere. God answers prayer! And if what we ask is according to Father’s will, He gives it to us (1 John 5: 14-15). If it is not His will, He will not give it, even though He listened to your prayer. So if He answers “No” to your request, it does not mean that He did not listen to you.
However, if you ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of His glory, you are asking for something He wants to give you (Luke 11:13). But then the motive with which you ask it must be the same as His. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, God’s purpose was to fill the believers with power from on high so that they could be His witnesses throughout the world (Acts 1: 8). He wants the Holy Spirit to glorify Him (John 16:14), proclaim the things to come (John 16:13) and remind us of all the words that Jashuah spoke to us (John 14:26). He wants the Holy Spirit to pour out His love in our hearts (Rom. 5: 5), a love we cannot turn on ourselves. He wants the Holy Spirit to work faith in His Word in our hearts, also something that we ourselves cannot do (Eph. 2: 8). Yes, He wanted to pour out the full life of His Son in us through the Holy Spirit (John 16: 14-15). He wanted to join us into a unity by making us part of the body of His Son. He does this by baptising or immersing us into the body of Jahshua (1 Cor. 12: 12-27). Yes, the Holy Spirit alone can guide us in all truth (John 16:13) and do all these things in us. Yes, and much more.
But, you will ask, “How do I become filled with the Holy Spirit? I desire it so intensely to be filled with His Holy Spirit ”. Do you believe that He speaks to you through Scripture? Do you believe that if you pray earnestly to Him that He will speak to you, He will allow you to open the Bible in a place that you did not plan to open, and that He will speak to you as if He Himself stands in your midst and speaks those words to you? Do you believe that? If so, He will speak to you about being filled with the Holy Spirit.
I can still remember how far I drove after conferences and services where I heard that there was someone praying for the “outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” Nor can I forget how disappointed I was every time I did not ‘speak in foreign languages’ (tongues) as they did on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-6). One day, years later in my life, while praying earnestly before my heavenly Father, I had such a deep desire that He would fill me with His Spirit. I then suddenly felt that I had to open the Bible randomly. The Bible opened on John 20:22: “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” From that moment, that word began to come alive in my spirit when I said, “Father, I receive Your Holy Spirit, and I believe from this moment on that I am filled with Your Spirit.” That day, something truly happened in my spirit: I experienced an operation of the Holy Spirit in my heart, a glorious operation that has just always increased. Don’t you think it’s time for you to get serious before your Father so that He will fill you with His Spirit?
44. Delight in the Lord (Ps 37: 4)
This passage in Psalm 37: 4 reveals a great secret in answering prayer. Namely, if you have a life in which you constantly delight in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart. Note: He promises to give you more than just your needs, He will give you your desires . But, if you end up in distress, and have never had the habit of delighting in the Lord, you cannot suddenly try to delight yourself in Him. It does not work like that. Then you try to love Him with an ulterior motive. Therefore, do not wait until darkness descends upon you, but start in time. If you want to love Him just to save you from need, you can immediately confess and say: “Father I seek You with the wrong motive and just want to delight in You so that You will save me from need, when it comes. The Father is so loving and understanding that you are a human being born into sin. Therefore He forgives you and if you truly beg Him to work the right motive in your heart, He will.