The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1 (ESV)
Your greatest enemy is fear.
The birth of Jesus was unique. How many people do you know who chose to come into the world before they were born, or before they were even conceived?
Before His birth in Bethlehem he was happy with the Father in Heaven.
The Son of God looked ahead and saw the humiliation of growing up in a small minded village community.
He knew he would be persecuted by the religious leaders, unjustly arrested and executed in the cruelest possible way.
He knew all this because he was God in Heaven but he decided to be born. He knew what would happen but he still chose to be born.
He natural human reaction to such anticipated suffering is fear but Jesus made a decision not to be afraid.
The Christian life is a supernatural life but it has its natural side as well. We have human feelings.
Jesus was sometimes horribly tired. He suffered deep rejection over and over again. Once he wept in public but we don’t know how many tears he shed in private.
He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Isaiah 53:3 (NLT)
Jesus was often rejected and it hurt deeply but he decided to love anyway, to love the very people who hurt him.
But God will be with you with the same miracle working power which he demonstrated in the life of Jesus.
No matter how dark your situation might be, you have a friend who can turn on the light and show you the way.
I was 24 when I faced the reality of this life. I had only 50 or 60 years left on this earth before the lights would go out for ever.
There was no consolation on earth that could make up for this grim fact.
I knew what Jesus said and it was Jesus who offered eternal life, a life with a future and a hope.
The words of Jesus had thrilled me.
John 11:25-26 (ESV) ...“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
My uncle and aunt had been converted through Billy Graham years before and I somehow knew they had found the answer.
Then something happened that made all the difference.
The Charismatic movement arrived.
The way of salvation was no longer a matter of Biblical correctness. It was a living reality.
The supernatural glory the Bible spoke of, was something you could experience right now in our generation. This was wonderful. I could experience the presence of God in a warm and wonderful way even before I took the step of committing my life to the Son of God.
I could see that the Holy Spirit was not just the One who made it possible to believe and live a good life.
The Holy Spirit was the wonderful person you could experience and know personally, God living inside you, not as a doctrine but as a living experience that changed everything.
That was many years ago and I am now 63, with grey hair and getting older. The presence of the Holy Spirit in my life is more exciting than ever. I never get tired of knowing God.
I have experienced deep darkness and been close to despair a number of times. I know this truth for myself.
Psalm 73:26 (NKJV) My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
I know with God I have a future and a hope, with God. That is the what makes all the difference, with God.
I wrote this message 12 years ago, and I am now 75. I still enjoy the adventure of knowing and experiencing the presence of God in a way that goes far beyond mental understanding or blind faith.
What is God really like?
We can so easily get confused about this.
You look at your life and you match what you see against the high standards of religious virtue. You start to think of God as a fearsome judge and you hide from Him.
Or you look around and you think, if there is a God, how could he be good, to make a world so full of cruelty and suffering?
Or you look away from humanity in horror and see the glory and beauty of nature, so you long to be in harmony with the mysterious spiritual essence permeating all that beauty.
Love and relationships always disappoint you, so you despair of finding a personal God. Often people let you down and sometimes the church that preaches a personal God is no better, sometimes but not always.
With the limitations of our faulty human nature, there is no way out of this confused mess.
As children we enjoyed the love of our mother and father, or if not we longed to have such a love. We heard stories where people lived happily ever after and we wanted them to be true.
There is no way out and no way home to the dreams of our childhood.
But as I grew older, I found there were at least some people who had found love and peace and a heavenly hope that was not just shallow religion. Of course I was confused and disappointed by much of what I saw in Christian churches but I longed for something better.
I found it in the lives of some people who followed Jesus.
They were full of love and they accepted me. When I was with them, I felt a warm glow like an aura, a spiritual fragrance in the atmosphere.
I felt a spiritual presence far warmer and sweeter and more comforting than the spiritual atmosphere around New Age people. There was a comfort that was real and inviting far better than anything I had ever known.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (ESV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Mark 1:14-15 (NIV) After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
The time had come. The Kingdom of God was really near.
The King of the Universe had arrived on earth.
He had started to proclaim His mission, to win back the earth from the power of darkness and to restore the rule of heavenly goodness.
This was Good News and it still is today.
When Jesus died on the cross, He suffered the full penalty due to you and me for our faulty and selfish lives.
The two qualifications for entry into the Kingdom of God were these:
- REPENT is a translation of the Greek word METANOEITE, which means to change your mind, let your whole way of thinking be transformed, so that your attitudes and your way of living cannot help but be changed.
- REPENT means to enter into a relationship of FAITH in God which transforms your heart, you mind and your life.
Once more we are at a strategic turning point in history.
Many events around us indicate the time prophesied in the Bible is very near, the time when Jesus will come again.
This time He will not come as a humble servant but as the Lord and King from Heaven.
To be ready for His return, we need to be transformed in our thinking and believe with a deep, God given trust in His love.
We need to go deeper in our faith and be open to change our entire way of thinking because these are increasingly troubled times.
Jesus told a parable referring to exactly the time we are living in.
Matthew 25:1-13 (NIV) "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.
The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' "'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'
"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. "Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
For hundreds of years, many Christians have lived with second hand faith.
However, we are living in dangerous times. So many preachers have failed. Not only the world but the church is shaking.
Each one of us needs to have a personal love relationship with Jesus.
The wise virgins were personally and individually filled with the Holy Spirit.
There are two kinds of ministry.
The kind that God likes is encouraging and comforts the heart.
Isaiah 40:1-2 (NKJV) "Comfort, yes, comfort My people!" Says your God.
"Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins."
The Good News of salvation must always be GOOD news.
Jesus preached against sin but He always attracted sinners with his genuine love and encouragement.
Jesus was a nice person to be with.
The religious leaders despised him because he associated with sinners. He was known as the friend of sinners.
John 3:16-17 (NKJV) 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.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
The other kind of ministry is judgmental and controlling.
Matthew 23:4 (NKJV) For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we see both kinds of ministry contrasted.
Paul shows us the best kind of ministry in Chapter 1.
Firstly Paul directs his readers to focus on God and particularly His love, grace, mercy and peace.
2 Corinthians 1:2-3 (NKJV) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort..
Certainly God wants us to be virtuous and moral but He is not interested in virtue that is not motivated by a heart of love and mercy.
In 1999 there was a day of public prayer organised by Christians in Argentina. Homosexuals responded by organising a protest march.
The hostility was defused by the believers who went to the homosexuals and asked their forgiveness for the cruel judgment they had suffered from Christians.
They blessed the homosexuals. Some of them left the protest to talk to the Christians and nine accepted salvation.
A young homosexual man was dying of Aids in a Chilean hospital.
Cold hearted people went the hospital like visitors at the zoo but one Christian grandmother visited to show love and mercy.
- She prophesied over the young man that his next blood transfusion was to be his last and God would heal and save him.
The second kind of ministry is controlling, based on authority, titles and positions. Paul deals with this very directly but sadly we often don’t take any notice.
2 Corinthians 11:19-20 (NLT) After all, you think you are so wise, but you enjoy putting up with fools!
You put up with it when someone enslaves you, takes everything you have, takes advantage of you, takes control of everything, and slaps you in the face.
There are Christians who base their Christian lives on the ministry of preachers who control them.
They are deceived by pride, by the pride of the preacher who takes the place of Jesus in the life of the believers.
- The followers of these preachers also can become infected with pride. They imagine they are superior because they follower the superior doctrine of their chosen leader.
If you pastor discourages you from visiting other churches or listening to other preachers, don’t be intimidated.
Exercise your God given freedom.
We are ONE BODY in Christ.
Galatians 5:1 (NKJV) Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
As we draw near to the end of history as we know it, we see amazing events looming up not far ahead.
For centuries theologians has supposed the restoration of Israel as a Jewish nation might be some kind of mysterious symbolic message in the Old Testament.
Some have speculated that the Old Testament prophets were talking about the Church.
Others have thought the prophecies would not come to pass because the Jews rejected the Messiah.
However they were missing the point.
In Romans 9 to 11, the Apostle Paul discussed the very problem of Israel’s rejection, Israel’s rejection of Yeshua Messiah and God’s rejection of Israel.
In Romans Chapter 11, Paul makes it clear that the rejection is partial and temporary.
Not all Jews rejected Jesus. If fact the first Church and the Apostles were Jewish.
Secondly, Israel’s unbelief is neither total nor permanent. Consequently, God’s rejection of Israel is neither total nor permanent.
Romans 11:1 (NKJV) I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Romans 11:13-15 (NKJV) For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
Romans 11:25-27 (NKJV) For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."
As the Jewish nation of Israel has been dramatically restored and miraculously protected in our time, so we have also seen two other amazing developments.
There is a rapid multiplication of Jewish believers in Yeshua Messiah around the world and in Israel itself.
There is a rapid growth of Christian Zionism based on belief in literal Bible prophecies.
Disasters multiply around the world and especially in the Middle East where hatred of the Jews is strongest.
But we must know that God is not the author of evil.
Not all disasters are the work of the Divine Judge.
There is a lot of demonic activity and a lot of human sinfulness involved.
God is love and He remains as He was in the Bible, the Great Worker of Miracles.
As Israel is once more the central focus of world events, know that the Times of the Gentiles are drawing to a close.
Know that you are called to rise and shine in the miraculous power and love of Jesus to love the Jews and to provoke them to jealousy for the sake of Yeshua Messiah.
Expect God to do amazing things even this year and next year, not only in the mighty underground church in China, not only in Africa where tens of thousands of people are sometimes saved in a single day.
Expect God to do amazing things in your life and in the countries we have written off, the so called Post Christian nations of old Christendom.
Expect miracles in your family, breakthroughs in your ministry, turnarounds in your health and finances. Expect God to act and He will act as YOU act in faith.
In cities around the world, small groups of Christian women visit brothels, showing genuine love and concern to prostitutes.
In Germany one of these women took a prostitute to Sunday morning service in a quiet, conservative Christian church.
In the middle of the service, the prostitute jumped to her feet and shouted,” Now I believe in Jesus! Can you baptise me now!?”
I was a guest at a graduation ceremony at Teen Challenge in Australia. Over 30 young men and women had spent over year in intensive rehabilitation with strict discipline including counselling, prayer, Bible study, domestic work, exercise and retraining for life. They had all had serious drug problems before going to the isolated Christian boot camp.
Over six years later, I see some of them progressing very well, living good Christian lives in normal society. After the graduation, one girl said to me: “See those girls. About half of them were involved in prostitution.”
GOD IS RESTORING BROKEN LIVES.
David Wilkerson (1931 to 2011) was a Pastor in a small town in Pennsylvania. In 1958 he saw a news report of violent gangsters in New York. He felt the broken Father heart of God for the lost young people.
Called by God, he drove to New York and established contact with young gangsters. With the help of a Hispanic Pentecostal church in the area, he reached out and preached to the gangsters. They could see the love of God in the preacher and amazingly a group of them responded and many were converted to Jesus.
The book and the movie, “The Cross and the Switchblade” became international best sellers. David Wilkerson set up Teen Challenge, which now runs intensive rehabilitation programs in many countries.
Nicky Cruz was a gang leader who was converted to Jesus in “The Cross and the Switchblade,” later became a famous preacher and wrote his own best selling book, “Run Baby Run.”
WERNER NACHTIGAL
A teenage boy in Hanover, Germany was staggering home from a party one night, blind drunk as usual. Suddenly he heard the voice of Jesus: “You will be an evangelist!”
Some time later some Christians told him about Jesus and the message of salvation and he believed. He had grown up in an unchurched family without any Christian faith.
Later his mother told him about a strange experience when he was three years old. Little Werner pointed across the room and cried out, “Who is that man wearing a white robe? His eyes are so bright!”
Werner Nachtigal did become an evangelist and now preaches to large crowds around the world. Many people find faith in Jesus and many sick and handicapped people are miraculously healed.
- Once he was in his home city of Hanover and the Holy Spirit spoke to him. He was shocked. God told him to go to a brothel. He was reluctant but he took a group of believers with him and asked if they could go in “only to evangelise.”
- They were allowed in and he met a woman from the Dominican Republic in the Carribean. She said she had a husband and two children in her home country. She had been tricked into going to Germany to get a job and earn more money for her family. When she arrived, they took away her passport and put her to work in the brothel. She had no choice and there was no way out. She became one of millions of sex slaves around the world.
Werner told her about Jesus and she was converted to faith in Christ. He also organised help to get her out of the brothel and she returned home to her family.
Around the world the Spirit of Jesus is touching lost and broken lives and setting people free.
What Jesus said 2000 years ago is still true today.
Luke 4:18-19 (ESV) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
Whether you are a prostitute, a drug addict, a preacher, a bus driver or a housewife, God has a plan for your life and it is a wonderful plan.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NKJV) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
