VIDEO The Healing Power of Afflictions, David Wilkerson

Aug 27, 2014

#David #Wilkerson – The #Healing #Power of #Afflictions Full Sermon

#God uses afflictions to draw us into #His #Word so we can allow Him to deal with the issues of our #heart. If we don’t see God in ALL of our circumstances, the #good and the bad, our #faith will crash. God is not with us in spite of our failure, sin and slothfulness, He is with us because of them. God’s tender mercies are above all His works. Go to the #Lord with an open heart and let Him #love you through your #pain and #suffering.

This is the first of 155 videos of his preaching and teaching

Bible Couples: Joseph and Mary – The Habit of Enjoying Adversity

Bible Couples: Joseph and Mary

And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” John 6:42

Two words describe Joseph and Mary: obedient and ordinary. The Bible tells us Joseph was a “just man” (Matthew 1:19). He kept himself sexually pure and did as the Lord commanded him (Matthew 1:24-25). He was a hardworking provider, a carpenter. Mary, too, was a person of purity, prayer, and Scripture. Her songs and exclamations indicate a love for Old Testament truth and a willingness to trust the Lord. “Let it be to me according to your word,” she said (Luke 1:38).

Yet they were ordinary—everyday villagers, obscure people despite their lineage from the House of David. Few people noticed them. Few knew their names. But one set of eyes saw them. “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). The Lord saw fit to give them the assignment of the ages.

Our goal in life and in marriage isn’t fame and fortune. It’s faithfulness. The eyes of the Lord never miss a man and a woman whose hearts are obedient toward Him. He will give them an everlasting legacy.

A Single Thought: A willing vessel is a useful gift that God can use—even if it appears “ordinary.”

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The Habit of Enjoying Adversity

…that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. —2 Corinthians 4:10

We have to develop godly habits to express what God’s grace has done in us. It is not just a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved so that “the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” And it is adversity that makes us exhibit His life in our mortal flesh. Is my life exhibiting the essence of the sweetness of the Son of God, or just the basic irritation of “myself” that I would have apart from Him? The only thing that will enable me to enjoy adversity is the acute sense of eagerness of allowing the life of the Son of God to evidence itself in me. No matter how difficult something may be, I must say, “Lord, I am delighted to obey You in this.” Instantly, the Son of God will move to the forefront of my life, and will manifest in my body that which glorifies Him.

You must not debate. The moment you obey the light of God, His Son shines through you in that very adversity; but if you debate with God, you grieve His Spirit (see Ephesians 4:30). You must keep yourself in the proper condition to allow the life of the Son of God to be manifested in you, and you cannot keep yourself fit if you give way to self-pity. Our circumstances are the means God uses to exhibit just how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure His Son is. Discovering a new way of manifesting the Son of God should make our heart beat with renewed excitement. It is one thing to choose adversity, and quite another to enter into adversity through the orchestrating of our circumstances by God’s sovereignty. And if God puts you into adversity, He is adequately sufficient to “supply all your need” (Philippians 4:19).

Keep your soul properly conditioned to manifest the life of the Son of God. Never live on your memories of past experiences, but let the Word of God always be living and active in you.

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Beware of bartering the Word of God for a more suitable conception of your own. Disciples Indeed, 386 R

OSWALD CHAMBERS

Experiencing God’s Love

Ephesians 3:14-19

Scripture says that God loves us, and the cross proves it. Sadly, though, this is only an intellectual truth for many believers, rather than an experiential one. The problem is not with the Lord, but with the individual’s capacity to sense His care.

One hindrance may be the tendency to measure divine love by life’s circumstances. When the heavenly Father allows tragedies and pain, some consider Him uncaring. The age-old question then becomes very personal: “How could a loving God allow me or those I care about to suffer?” We’ll never fully understand His ways, but we can know that His compassion and concern are bigger than the suffering of the whole world, and in the fullness of time, He will make all things right.

A sense of personal unworthiness can also obstruct the acceptance of God’s love. Focusing on past sins and moral failures or comparing yourself with others will lead to guilt and hopelessness. Satan specializes in promoting these self-condemning thoughts and feelings in the heart. The Lord never says, “Straighten up, and then I’ll care about you.” Remember that divine love is based on God’s character, not on our performance.

Unbelief is the root of all barriers to experiencing God’s love. When we deny His interest and concern for us, we doubt the truth of Scripture.

The Lord wants each of us to experience His great love in a personal and intimate way. Don’t let the enemy’s lies or life’s hardships steal the enjoyment and security of this great blessing. When doubts arise, rely on the truth of God’s Word. He loves you. Believe it, and eventually you will feel it.

Present with the Lord

“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)

This verse has proved of great comfort to many a sorrowing believer who has just lost a loved one. Especially if they know that the parent or child or friend was also a believer in the saving work and person of Christ, then—although they sorrow—they “sorrow not, even as others which have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

For that loved one, though no longer in that old body which had perhaps been filled with pain, is now with the Lord. That is, he or she has been given a somewhat indescribable spiritual body in which to function in heaven until the coming resurrection day. Although that may not yet be the wonderful life that awaits them in their glorified, resurrection bodies in the ages to come, they will be “with Christ; which is far better” than this present life (Philippians 1:23).

There are a number of sincere believers who argue that dead Christians will simply “sleep” until He comes again to raise the dead. While a certain case can be developed for this “soul sleep” concept, it is hard to see how that could be “far better” than this present life. Paul said that he had a “desire to depart, and to be with Christ” and also that “to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:23, 21). But what “gain” could there be for him in simply “sleeping” instead of continuing to live in Christ?

The Scriptures do not reveal much about that “intermediate state,” as it has been called. But there is that intriguing verse about being “compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses” who perhaps are somehow watching us as we “run with patience the race that is set before us” here on Earth (Hebrews 12:1). That possibility can be a real incentive to do just that. HMM

God Does Not Need Our Help

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. —Ephesians 1:11

Almighty God, just because He is almighty, needs no support. The picture of a nervous, ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one; yet if we look at the popular conception of God that is precisely what we see. Twentieth-century Christianity has put God on charity….

Probably the hardest thought of all for our natural egotism to entertain is that God does not need our help. We commonly represent Him as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world….

Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God. An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his hearers, not only for the heathen but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support. I fear that thousands of younger persons enter Christian service from no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of.

Lord, may I always remember it is a privilege to be a servant of the Most High God in accomplishing Your divine purposes, for You don’t need me to accomplish Your will. You are mighty God. Amen.

God Knows Hypocrites

Let us therefore not judge one another anymore. (Romans 14:13)

I do not consider that it is my place as a Christian to stand around making judgments and calling other people “hypocrites.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only man I know who was holy and perfect enough to call the religious leaders of the day hypocrites.

I am just a man with faults and shortcomings of my own, and I must always consider myself lest I be tempted!

I preach to my own congregation about our faults and our failings, with the warning that some of our professions of blessing and victory may get into the area of “unintentional hypocrisy.” Through the grace of God and the kindness of our spiritual ancestors we may have spiritual light that some others do not have—but in all honesty, we are wretchedly far below what we should be in living up to it, day by day.

It helps us to be honest and frank and humble to know that the great God Almighty knows the secrets of every person’s heart!

The emancipated spirit loves the Saviour

We love him because he first loved us.” Hers. is the starting point of love’s race. This is the rippling rill which afterwards swells into a river the torch with which the pile of piety is kindled. The emancipated spirit loves the Saviour for the freedom which he has conferred upon it; it beholds the agony with which the priceless gift was purchased, and it adores the bleeding sufferer for the pains which he so generously endured.

On taking a survey of our whole life, we see that the kindness of God has run all through it like a silver thread.