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15 Minutes We will be ever finding different ways of describing the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ in that he gives the rest that both Moses and Joshua sought for the people of God. Joshua 22:4 I Kings 8:56 But there is a sabbath rest that remains for the people of God. Hebrews 4:9 And this rest remaining is a rest of grace, and comfort, and holiness. A rest in glory, the everlasting sabbatism of heaven, which is the repose and perfection of nature and grace too, where the people of God shall enjoy the end of their faith and the object of all their desires. There are two who have actually taken possession of this rest: God and Christ. It is certain that God, after the creating of the world in six days, entered into His rest; and it is certain that Christ, when he had finished the work of our redemption, entered into his rest; and these were not only examples, but earnests, that believers shall enter into their rest. Please see that the “all things new” mean we cease from works of righteousness, and from the works of the law, as God and Christ have ceased from their works of creation and redemption. There is no works in the new creation. As we are still, silent, present, and allow God to work in us on earth, we rest in every spiritual provision, we rest in the increase of our being with God, we rest in the deepening of our relationship with every being in creation, we rest in the love, the hand and the heart and the mind of God. In the new earth the sabbath is more than the day. It is Jesus. In him is the promised rest in eternity. Remember, the “rest” was in the sabbath, before the sabbath was in the law. Jesus is Lord of the rest. He is God in creation. It is our rest in Christ that frees us from the works of the law, allowing us to rest in the finished work of Christ to forgive sin. When the heavens and the earth were finished, God did not start His work again on the eighth day...He was finished. Our entering into the sabbath in all its truth means we no longer “work”. We “rest” in all that Christ does. The rest found in Christ is much better than the one day of rest found in the cycle of seven days. It is Jesus Christ that makes us right with God. It is here that our worship will be as it ought to be. God is a Spirit. Jesus is the truth. We will be the answered prayer...God in him and he in us...that’s worshipping in spirit and in truth, attributing worth, reverent honor, and homage to God the Father and God the Son. Heaven will be where God is...on the new earth. The shrouding of our new clothes will not be material...but a fabric of light. They won’t be cotton, but compassion. Not linen, but love. No silks, but service. We will adorn spiritual garments of holiness, of anointing, of grace, of gloriousness. But we are fitted for our finest covering while here on earth... Romans 13:14 The seventh day sabbath on earth was given to teach us how to spiritually use our two primary sources of experience to discern God’s will; choice and time. The choice to be obedient and the time designated by God to set apart for remembering the sabbath day. Neither of these sources will be required in the “all things new” realm. In this life we sacrifice time to gain space. But man’s ignorance, thinking to have more, means to be more, terminates at the borderline of time...life will end! God has given the time of sabbath where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. There is happiness in the love of labor, there is misery in the love of gain. Man attempts to make God a god. He has much enthusiasm for the idea that God is present in the universe, but that idea is taken to mean God’s presence in space rather than in time, in nature rather than in history; as if God were a thing, not a Spirit. When we fail to reason every revealed attribute of God, saying what God cannot do, we are literally fashioning God...might as well use wood or stone and determine God to be but a shadow of man. Most people resist the sabbath principle because they have a deeply rooted dread of time. They see it like a furnace incinerating every moment of their lives. The higher goal of spiritual living is not to build up a wealth of information or materialism, but to look toward sacred moments. These experienced moments are not a thing that imposes themselves on man but are a spiritual presence to reason with God to come to truth. What is retained in the soul is the moment of insight when the time opportunity to just reason was abandoned rather than the space where the act came to pass. A moment of insight is a fortune, transporting us beyond the confines of measured time and space. Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal. And what is eternal is truth. Time and space are interrelated. They are components of creation. Remember, God spoke to us in moments of time showing the things that occupy space. We must not forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment; it is the moment that lends significance to things. The time that Light was brought forth outweighs the sun’s coming on day four. The timing was God’s order, the thing was spaced in its time. The sabbath on earth is a special time. God set the world in a dimension of time to complete His plan. Events over countries, history over geography.

21 Minutes God, who is the perfect Master will have a perfect servant. We have seen a perfect servant...once. We should get instruction from him. Being made perfect may be being made to burn in fire, or hung up to the stars, or buried in the earth, or dragged through the sea. Or it may be showing faith enough to stand on truth for the elemental reason that truth is the truth and that's just the truth. We should rejoice in any price we might have to pay for perfection. Perfection must be an absolute certainty for Christ to speak it. Why would we put off being like Christ when God the Father Himself tells us to be holy? I Peter 1:15, 16 Leviticus 20:7 Why we should be perfect...is the faith God gives us perfect...is the love God shares perfect...is our hope perfect...are God’s purposes perfect...His promises...does God possess all possible perfections...can perfect come of suffering. Hebrews 2:10 Our being made perfect is the counteracting of divine power through the Holy Spirit. It counteracts the tendencies of our sinful nature. Moment by moment trusting in Christ renders our bias to sin weaker and weaker. We will never claim sinless perfection. We are all painfully aware of our lives. In Christ we are brought into a right position to overcome. And we are for never, by even a thought, to come to believe that perfection leads to the conclusion that both Christ and the Holy Spirit are unnecessary even once this state of eradication of the sinful nature is reached. Christ is the life eternal. Being made perfect is an increase in dependence, an increase of repentance, and constant prayer for forgiveness. Christ is our sole perfection, our sole righteousness. In this life we are capable of not sinning, capable of being good, capable of righteousness, but it is as we are all Christ’s. God cannot act wrongly. And Jesus recommends us to God. And here is the wonder in that; is it not a strange thing that the advanced believer, as we are made to reach to the very height of reverent reasoning, having fidelity to the very root of truth, just comes to the spot where Jesus commenced our eternal being? Do we not begin at the cross, and when we have climbed over so high in our learning of the spiritual ascriptions of God, that the clarity or intelligibility of perfection and righteousness, is it not at the cross that we come again and again for there is where is shown divine perfection? Here is where we resolve all tension. We stop trying to solve the mystery of how God makes us perfect, we begin to experience it. It was not the crown of thorns that showed him king...it was the crown of blood about his head. It was not the rusted spikes entering his body that held him to the cross, it was the unleashed light of life from the wounds that caused him to stay that we may have life. It was not the flow of the blood and the water from his side that proved his death, it was the flow of the many bodies of the saints which slept that appeared to many and the flow of the word of truth from the centurion; “truly this was the Son of God”. This is the ground for our confidence in being made perfect. None can be made fit for this purpose except Christ be in them. Have you ever learned that elephants “sound” the ground they walk on? It is for their safety, it is for their direction, it is a way of listening with their feet. As we walk for God, we must sound the ground. It is not good enough just for us to see others take a path that ensures that path is the right way. We know that God’s word is sound footing. His covenant is the strenght of His promises. Psalms 119:133 II Samuel 22:33, 34 We are in the court of divine inspection in order that it may there be proved that we may be made perfect. It is here that we bring our faith to God’s tribunal. And the terrors of God’s law are not loose. No transgression is hidden from view. We must stand silent in the perfectness of Jesus Christ as his blood speaks for us. Be not presumptuous in your faith. Thinking you are chosen when you have no evidence of it. Let not confidence lead to idleness, but to thoroughness in service to God. We must begin to have higher thought, elevated thinking, that we may realize our higher self and the revelation of Christ inside. Our right judgment and our spiritual wisdom must go beyond the perception, the knowledge of pretension. We are called to a more complete reliance on God and a more diligent level of study. We have a conscious acquaintance with the Source and a desire to express the wisdom of Spirit. The word, the truth, the promise of God says He will not forsake us in temptation; do we not know that with just as much presence He should be with us in communion with Christ and with others? It is our faith in the word that grants us access to God on the footing of perfection. Hebrews 10:14 We are perfected through the blood of Jesus Christ as were the vessels sprinkled for service in the sanctuary. God can accept our worship. And now, whatever God uses us for, He uses us as a perfect instrument, regarding us as being perfect in Christ Jesus. Faith before perfection is a submitted humility. Faith embraces God’s sovereignty and all that is Christ...his suffering, his obedience, his love, his voluntary sacrifice, his heart and his mind, his offer of salvation and eternal life. The bible gives a specific reason for the ability to come to an understanding of biblical truth. The reason, that the bible gives, is that God’s Spirit leads one to the understanding of these truths. We must be the ground of truth. The term “ground of truth” conveys an essence of completeness. There is going to be a people of God who will be standing on the ground of truth. When we look at the “commandment keeping” people of God today, we see a disarray, a true disorder of beliefs. It is clear that the people do not represent a body that has received the promise of truth that we have just read, or the perfection that we have been looking into. So, what has happened? There are some in the body who receive what they ask for. Their pursuits have been to a large degree skewed in nature. These are interested in a more sensitive relationship with one another. Then there are those who have desired to have a greater “joy in the Lord”. These ask for what is in God’s will...the perfecting of His people. These have the desire to grow in truth. We declare our memento of duty. Let no events of the day override our duty of the day. John 14:13-17 The text just read is a plain, dynamic, and wonderful promise for those who have a need to live for truth. By our conscientious care we perform our trust, in universal obedience to his commands; this is better than sacrifice, better than tears. With this relationship between our asking, the keeping of the commandments, and the indwelling of the spirit of truth, we are brought to the perfecting of truth. Why is this needed? As of now, the truth of a matter is not sufficient enough to motivate us in all that we do. We push truth aside for relations that border idolatry. Siding with another for the sake of need. Forced to feel a certain way or do certain things opposing truth when in a relationship. Friends of convenience, rather than a friend of truth, being in the same friend group. This is lacking the love of the truth. Are you in spiritual relationships that promote questioning, decision making and a definite commitment to things proven true in all areas? Let’s stop for a moment, and consider our normal attitude in regards to valuing truth. We all know that the truth of a matter is not sufficient enough to motivate us in all that we do. This is borne out, as a regular occurrence, for all of us to one degree or another. Our popular health message is a prime example of our tendency to push truth aside. In this case, for convenience and taste. Worldly variations, as opposed to milestone viewing of important and significant events in the development or history of discovery and life’s progress in television viewing would also be an area of concern. As we look at our daily routine, we can easily see the concessions that are made to something other than a way that would reflect the true instructions of the Word of God. Perfecting is doing everything possible to fulfill that command in the spirit of truth. The instruction is perfectly complete...be ye therefore perfect. How then are we able to grow into the stature of the person this is speaking about? We have to ask for it in faith, with a devout heartfelt desire - a desire that God knows is the truth. What should we be asking for? That every question that we could possibly have, be resolved with a perfect answer from God. We are not yet the bride of Christ. We must lay a true foundation. When God’s word gives evidence that we can use to make a decision, we have a responsibility to effectively use that evidence. By His spirit, we can reach for the calling and the perfection that is being offered to us. Without that reaching, and asking, we won’t come close. It is becoming clearer and clearer who we really are. Being made perfect is a considerable subject in itself. Truth, plain and simply makes a point. The first fruit is only a total of 144,000 people, our calling is commanding, and beyond our present ability to really understand its greatness. This thing is clear. Because the number is that few, the perfection that God speaks of is well called for. To help qualify the possibility of that number we should notice that the “great multitude which no man could number”, has repented and been cleansed by the blood of Christ but have yet to receive “life as perfected” as we have. Hebrews 11:39, 40 We are the callen chosen of unprecedented value. This may bring a new appreciation of the work being done in us, an understanding of the degree of righteousness that our Father is guiding us into. We will stand on the ground of truth. We will be made complete. When that will be, is the question that we are learning to resolve. Being made perfect is a higher calling than being made very good. The “very good” was designed to achieve God’s intended eternal purposes – to perfect us that we might be worthy. Being made perfect is the redemptive purpose to restore His intent, it is not a plan “B”. This path inoculates the faithful and true believers against defection from the faith. You cannot contend that it is impossible for a child of God to come to perfection in Christ. This mystery carries with it overtones of true conversion. With this faith comes rank, favor, and priviledge. God’s perfected are viewed in a separate class as spirits of just men made perfect. The “perfectedness” is not the result of human merit; the glory is to God yet certainly does not exclude our obedience to the Lord’s requirements. We are being brought to completion of the promised victory and there to abide in. Our trust is grounded in Jesus. Being made perfect requires a faith greater than any fear. The fear of God is the only acceptable fear. This fear comes with wisdom, understanding. Enormously difficult, hurtful, harmful, high risk times will be the norm in the last of the last days. Very serious decisions will need to be made. We must be determined to live by faith, rather than in fear. Faith is grounded in truth; fear is grounded in misrepresentations. Fear is not wanting to hear every word of God. To have faith in God means to trust in His integrity. What kind of fear causes one to resist searching the word of God for truth? Unless we seek to serve God with our undivided affections, we will fail to perfect holiness in His fear. SOP - The Lord has pledged His glorious perfection that those who seek Him with humility of heart, confessing their sins, will find Him precious to their souls. But those who refuse to obey, for fear of displeasing earthly friends, cannot be friends of God. {TDG 153.5} What kind of perfection are we talking about in reference to God? Being made perfect has to do with knowing God and His ways spiritually. To do this means that we need to refuse to accept ungodlike thoughts and strive to express genuine, God-given qualities, such as love, forgiveness, and wisdom. As God’s goodness is reflected in our lives, it brings restoration to a likeness with God’s created intent. Our thoughts begin to with divine perfection. Through our prayer and study, we see more of spiritual reality and divine harmony. Matter loses its importance as we see its unreality and begin to understand the purpose of God with spiritual consciousness. We become aware of our spiritual identity. Being made perfect is not something that sounds good in theory. Perfection is obtainable because God has made divine provision for each of us to become perfect. It is the highest aim of what God, in His great power, can do for us. There are no degrees to perfection. It is not based on any type of measurement, but upon expressed, visible character virtues. And as far as being made perfect...you either are, or you’re not. We realize how far from the perfection of Christ we really are. And we know that no amount of human effort can make us perfect as Christ is perfect. Our dilemma - we are commanded to strive for perfection while inhabiting a body incapable of achieving this perfection. We embrace this command just as we embrace the command to keep holy the Sabbath day because we are called to it by Christ. Perfection is the standard by which we examine our lives despite the knowledge that we are not yet complete. We strive for this perfection because in doing so we demonstrate our sincere faith in Jesus, godly perfection in human form. Because of this faith, therefore, God considers us perfect in His eyes now, while we await our transformation.

22 Minutes Psalms 138:8 This text charms me. It contains in itself the very essence of the grace of God. It reads like music to the soul, and is like a flagon of water in the desert. May I ask you to read it again... Let’s spiritually understand this statement. It literally means “be complete”. We are to, with all our spiritual might, reach a singular level of maturity in our growth in terms of spiritual integrity. Moral excellence, upright righteousness are imaged attributes of God. We are to be devotedly and eminently set apart as we run hard after God. And it’s not just us...God wants a holy people. Jesus says to be perfect, the belief would be that he would not require us to do something that is impossible for us to achieve. Please do not allow doubt to blind you. There is a special work of the Holy Spirit that God assigns us whereby we can have victory over all sin, over all intentional sin. Perfectionism is not that target. The ongoing struggle with sin has to be met with “it is written”. Can a person be perfect? Even Hezekiah walked with a perfect heart. Job 1:1 Genesis 6:9 Being perfect is finding it never, ever necessary on any occasion to choose to sin. It is being diligent in our behavior. It is not some metaphase that transforms the structural composition of our bodies. Too many are fiercely self-critical as opposed to trusting in the word of God. Please, have no grief in misunderstanding. Jesus expects us to be all that we are supposed to be. The sorrow for our sins is to be perfect in our truthfulness with God and with ourselves. The enmity that God gave us perfects our hatred for sin. It ensures that God is loved above all else. You are not inadequate when you are in Christ. Jesus was enjoining us to be perfect and praying that we be made perfect, for perfect love perfects us, perfect contrition perfects us, perfect suffering perfects us, perfect obedience perfects us. Being perfect is Christ’s life manifested through us. Matthew 5:48 John 17:23 God knows how we receive His word to rise above our broken natures. And He gives us the grace to share in His power. By the power of God’s promise, we become what we were made to be: partakers of the divine nature. II Peter 1:4 Perfection is not more of a concern about actions we perform to a certain level, spiritual perfection is about becoming totally dependent on God, letting Him work through us to perform His will, not ours. It is not concerned about “self.” We don’t have to make ourselves perfect. It is God who perfects us in Jesus Christ. It is in our reconciliation with God by Christ, that God sees us perfect. We may, or will make missteps, but remember, the perfection spoken of in scripture is not about what we do; it’s about what Christ does in us. Hebrews 6:1 We must not lose them, we must not despise them, we must not forget them. We must lay them up in our hearts, and lay them as the foundation of all our profession and expectation; but we must not rest and stay in them, we must not be always laying the foundation, we must go on, and build upon it. Philippians 3:12-15 Hear this word, “this one thing I do”... Blessed are we who can give this same personal testimony. We have received permission from the Almighty God to go on to perfection. We are apprehended of the life of Christ in all its fullness. The life of Christ, which we have attained to so far, does not stop us from further heavenly pursuits. The race of following Christ is not something we have to do, ought to do, or must do; it is something we are permitted to do, something that is “privileged.” We serve in the newness of the Spirit and the result of its work is our sanctification. Our exit from this earthly life becomes a rich entrance into an eternal life. The powers of an eternal life, exampled by Christ, have already increasingly permeated our mind and life. Our life is a testimony of love and devotion to our God and to our Savior. It is as we have given each other our “yea, yea,” and our desire is to be united for all eternity. This is also by permission of our God. The truth of being made perfect is in our faith in the imputed and imparted righteousness of Jesus...God restoring us to favor. With this favor is God’s enabling grace, that moral power to obey with high regard His every commandment. This faith makes us right with the law of God. This is how God saves as many as desire to be saved. He transfers His own righteousness to us. This is what adorns the change in our spiritual nature whereby we can be made perfect. Just take a moment and contemplate the power received in reasoning with God. The believing family of God now present are the very ones who can know truth as it is in Jesus. Use your faith in the truth to act as a staff whereon we may rest through the pilgrimage of the most dreadful times and events ever to come upon humanity. Perfection was to be the heritage of mankind. In the very bowels of the prayer of Jesus is that promise that is ours. We are to now have a concern, in and a concern about heavenly things. We are to know that eternity concerns us more than time; that the mansions of heaven are more worthy of our consideration than the material stuff of earth. Immortality looms brilliantly before us and we’re casting more hope toward these perishing bodies. Faith is knowing that the life of the present is preparation for the ultimate perfecting when we see Jesus. This faith means that we have no perfection and no righteousness of, and in ourselves; that we must trust wholly and solely in Christ. The things that concern God must concern us...that is His perfecting us. We must appropriate the things the Holy Spirit is guiding us into and teaching us as though we are concerned. Any delay in our faith is the sign of spiritual retardedness. We should, each of us, put one hand upon our heart and lift the other to God and say, without stammering, as in the sight of God; "I am concerned about the things of God, of Christ, of salvation, of eternity. I may not yet understand His assurance, but I have concern. If I cannot say, I know in whom I have believed, I can say I know in whom I desire to believe. If I cannot say, I know that I am where I must be, I can say I desire that I may be found in him at last, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." And I say this to my soul; suffer Christ not to take any part of his precious perfecting; it is all mine. Jesus was manifested to show us the Father, but his blood, his life was manifested that we might see the Father. Brothers, sisters, I just cannot hold this any longer...there is this most secret place, even more secret than a mother’s womb, that God has revealed to me, that irregardless of any circumstance, I might view from the perspective of perfection every discernible sufficiency that God makes available for my being made perfect. Christ himself...HE IS THE SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. We must endeavor to do all righteousness that is found in him. Psalms 18:24 There can be no cleanliness apart from the blood of Christ; and we can never be purified apart from the purifying operations of the Holy Ghost. Being made perfect is having the work of God in our heart. And the spirit of prophecy records as it is the testimony of Jesus, that what human power can do divine power is not summoned to do. God makes a way that in our flesh we can be born of the Spirit. The human power is the choice to accept that power of God...grace. And with God’s grace we are to celestially focus on His word, we are to suck all the sweetness from every word, that our faith becomes so strong, and our love so hot, that there is no “if’s” or “buts”, about our being made perfect, it is as “though” He has done it all, and will do it all. We must come to trust God as far as we can see Him. And we see God in all things. When there’s no food to eat, we see Him in the ravens coming. And if the ravens do not come, we see Him in the faith of His word...bread, water will be sure. When death threatens to end life, we see His promise of eternal life. We cannot wait to believe the thing of perfection until we get it, we have no doubt that we have the perfecting now. We take the “Lord will” as it is future. The “Lord will” is now. Everything is always present with the Lord. We say not “the Lord may make us perfect”. We say rather, “the Lord will make us perfect”. That means “now”. If we would only accept the fragrant aromatic incense of the priviledge of a confident faith. Have we not witnessed how the purposes of God are being fulfilled in our higher learning? The purposes of man will be defeated.

18 Minutes If you have prayed sufficiently through the Holy Spirit and are in peace of mind with your fellow sisters and brothers, it may be that this reading may allow us mental and spiritual access to the third heaven by faith to learn of the truths not yet uttered. If not, your understanding will reside in the atmosphere of earth only. This is not just an academic exercise. It is one of holy reason. All our enquiries are to be made to God, in full submission to the authority of God, seeking understanding without making things up about God. Let us draw ever nearer, to a deeper level of intimacy, to greater faith through greater understanding, on our knees in adoration and prayer, to a recognition with fear and trembling of the awesome true sense of the holiness of God and to a breathtaking, life-giving, humbling gratitude that this Holy God calls us, His creatures, to be holy too. This is not just a writing task for me. My hope is that is offers us a sobering effect. The particular end is one of devotion for us. Good sounding writings have their place but on our knees in prayer, in our hearts and minds engaging with scripture...that is where and when we take our leave from this world, from self. Understandably we will be limited by our verbal and conceptual tools, but God’s truth will be rendered and revealed through the testimony of His word illuminated by the Holy Spirit. We are covenanted with the heart of God. Our complete surrender to Christ involves God’s command and promise. This third heaven is to be understood as a place where spiritual clarity is given. It is not with intent to attempt to peer into what God says should not be spoken...sayings of God too sacred for words. But coming to know the character of God the stunning experience humbled the man. This experience prayerfully enhanced the repeated teaching that our temporary suffering in this life is not worth comparing with the glory believers will experience in eternity. That gives understanding as to why the experience was mentioned in order to introduce the consequences of that experience. Hope tells me that what was spoken to the man was the revelation of the power of resurrection. Might this be the source of inspiration written by the man based upon the experience at Lystra. II Corinthians 12:1-5 John 11:25, 26 Acts 14:19, 20 Matthew 22:29-32 Could the unspeakable words be what the voice of the archangel might sound to bring forth the dead in Christ? Most will miss out on not having this experience. God trusted a man to hold his peace. This teaches us that there are things God reveals to some and not to others. There are some who know God and His Word more intimately than we would ever hope to. Have you ever read a passage over and over again only to have another believer teach you something about the verse that you had never known before? I believe this is not because people are heedless, but because there are some people to whom God gives understanding because of their trustworthiness. God reveals His truth to those who will use His truth for others. The bible makes this very clear. Psalms 25:14 God reserves such an awesome manifestation for few. Watch God’s man stand. Where were the disciples when Paul was being stoned? Where were the disciples when Jesus was being crucified? Paul and Isaiah and John have been granted the opportunity before death to hear the counsel of God. It is in the Holy Spirit that we ask to be given a glimpse of heaven while we are still on this side of eternity. Pray that we keep ever in mind our frailty and complete reliance on God’s grace. We check our motive for wanting to know the closeness of God. That it be not for the boasting or pride of reaching higher. Whatever encounters God allows are to be humbly acknowledged. We must open no breeding ground for the enemy. Our emphasis is to be brought to the brilliance of the basics of truth in our walk with Jesus. Inclusive of what we learn must be our desire to serve others and to demonstrate the love of Christ for them. This third heaven experience, though joyful and profitable, is not the attaining to where the final people of God will dwell. There are far greater heights of coming to God that will be gifted to His people. Ephesians 4:10 Holiness is the heart of God’s covenant with His people. It is the covenant invitation to be God’s people, and the command for these people to be holy as God is holy. The holiness of God is the perfect rectitude of His nature, whereby He is absolutely free from all moral impurity, and, in all that He does, acts like Himself, and for the advancement of His own honor; delighting in what accords with, and abhorring what is contrary to His nature and will. Holiness is the glory of all the divine perfections. And every perfection is an act of God’s self-revelation. God’s self-revelation is, by its very nature, an act of God’s graciousness. God’s graciousness is life-giving, but in giving life also opposes sin. Holiness is opposition to sin. Holiness is tasked as our word in speaking of God. Our language has no degree of comprehensiveness meaningfully adequate to express the character of God revealed, even in the biblical witness. Holiness suggests that there can be no promotion of any of God’s perfections above the others. And God’s perfections are a study of God’s character. God possesses all possible perfections. And there is not the least resemblance to be found among any of His creation. God is unbounded in every perfection, love, wisdom, power, wrath, mercy, forgiveness. Biblically revealed is the perfect knowledge of God is competent to none but himself, whose understanding is infinite. He knows all things, not by information, nor by deduction. Job 11:7 Holiness is an exercise in holy reasoning characterized by weakness and a sense of inadequacy in the face of the “high and holy matter to which it is called to bear testimony.” This sanctification of reason, by the work of God’s Spirit, is the process whereby reason is made alive to the terrifying and merciful presence of the holy God. God is intimately present; and His immensity extends infinitely beyond the boundaries of all created substance. God fills all places at once with His essential presence. Jeremiah 23:23, 24 He has all life, glory, and blessedness, in and of Himself. His existence is necessary and underived. His holiness results from absolute perfection of His own nature. And all His perfections are infinite excellencies. God does not leave His present behind Him as the past to proceed toward the future. His livingness is His own essence. We cannot grasp God is our creaturely reality. He is what He tells us He is. Holiness is characterized by the truth that God is always God. It is in holiness that we realize that covenantal relatedness is not settled, static, or fixed. God emerges new ways in response to our faith and restoration from the sacrificing of animals to the circumcision of human flesh to His writing upon the heart and mind His law. This holiness of the covenant is God’s way in the sanctuary. The agreeing spirit to offer sacrifice justifies our faith, the work to remove the deadness of self sanctifies our new born life, and the written law in our heart, our mind, glorifies our sureness of salvation. We are in the Way of the Word. This Way is the Spirit of God acting upon and in us. We obey with or without understanding. This faith opens our eyes to the power and glory of God. Thiscovenant between God and God’s people does not take away from God’s sovereign Lordship, it demonstrates His perfections which are incomprehensively broad, long, high and deep. The covenant shows that grace and holiness are not separated, neither are mercy and judgment. It is because of the intolerance of God to anything that tries to take away from His holiness, that we are faced with the wrath of God. It is by the covenant that we are made alive in Christ. Romans 6:11 Holiness is bringing us into the full force of divine truth. As we study to know and understand, the Holy Spirit will ingrain in us such a liberty of consciousness that God will give us that extra Word that only those who are reconciled to the doings of the law can have true peace with God through Jesus Christ. Faith is our principle that without acceptable works cannot be performed and our salvation cannot be attained. Let it be clear, holiness affirms wholesomeness in God. And it is only by, in, and through the meritorious righteousness of Christ. That makes holiness contingent upon God. What, then, of God’s command to “be holy as I am holy”? This command is not to be attained or attempted by efforts toward status or merit, but rather by cleaving to God’s grace. Thereby becoming holy in virtue of the holiness of the God who graciously takes action on His own behalf. Our attention and submission to the gospel is indicative of our election and the imperative of obedience. Holiness is our response to God’s act which by God’s own decision, allows God to act on our behalf. God’s people are holy because God is holy and graciously intervenes on our behalf to make us holy as He is holy. How, then, are God’s people made holy? They are made holy by God’s intervention through Jesus Christ, God with us. Do not think that holiness is a state which rests passively on the hearts of an individual without requiring anything more. Holiness is an election to pursue all that is Christ. The pattern of this is characterized by mortification (putting to death) and vivification (bringing to life). From this arises the “movement of holy living,” turning away from ourselves and toward God, whose we are. We are God’s election; submitting to God, the Holy One who elects us to enter into relationship, standing under the authority of the scripture that attests this Holy God, bearing witness to the risen Christ who speaks this word into being, and declaring in praise and worship: “Behold, our God!” This is our joining together in Christ. The dwelling place of God is us, a spiritual temple, built and sustained by God. Here is the relational wonder of holiness... God’s holiness is not only that which separates us from God in His transcendence, but it is also the majestic sovereign power which descends down to us as grace in our midst as God’s condescension. This condescension is central to the covenant God made with Israel, in that as holy God, He offers us, the called people, to be God’s people, purifying and maintaining us against all threat of sin so that we may be God’s possession. Go to the sanctuary...this is the reconciling mission of the Son and the outpouring sanctification of the Holy Spirit. This is the determinate act of the Godhead. The movement of holiness is the purposed revelation of the 2520 prophecy...God’s condescending to elect and gather in communion those who are found in holiness of God with the plentifulness of grace to live that “God is Almighty”. There is a greater holiness in Heaven. With holiness God’s people go beyond prophecy, beyond faith, they go to love. Let’s put that in perspective to God. Ready? Read this next sentence to gain all you can. Ready? HOLINESS IS SO OF GOD THAT HE DOES NOT NEED A REASON TO LOVE. Stop...pause. We say, “we love because”. Is there a reason behind our love? God loves us in Himself...that is where we are. Let’s sound this out scripturally. Revelation 12:17 Our dependence on prophecy is both to delineate and bind together the events of God determined for fulfillment of His purposes. Prophecy offers inspiration, compels obedience and corrects our behavior in circumstances, gives us reliance upon the word of truth. Revelation 14:12 Central to Jesus’ faith is our entering into the Kingdom. It is with this faith that we please God. Prophecy is time and event measurable. Faith is hope and hope is not limited to time or events. God gives His elect the strength of obedience and prophecy. He gives His very elect the strength of obedience, prophetic witness, and the blessed hope to look for the glories of another world, to which a sober, righteous, and godly life in this world is preparative. It is the great thing we look and long and wait for. Prophecy events the accomplishing of our hope, our faith and the sureness and greatness of it. We prophesy and hope to the second appearing of Christ. And there is something that does not come by prophecy or faith... II John 2, 3 Beyond prophecy, beyond faith is this truth and love that we are to put on and wrap ourselves in, which is the perfect bond of unity, for everything is bound together in agreement of these. These do not insist on their own way, they embrace holiness. Determining prophecy based upon faith is the strength of the study of the Revelation and the 2520 revealed in the vision. There is a present darkness that will cause many to be everlastingly too late to rise to the light of holiness as is the truth and the love of God. Let us come into the radiance of what our holiness is to be like. And it is the Sabbath which is an illustration on how the Lord makes us holy. This will be our completeness. The Sabbath did not make itself holy. This seventh day was totally powerless and helpless, bordered by sunset to sunset as it was created after day four. It was the seventh day of the world. God set the honor of that day. Genesis 1:5 Psalms 74:16 As the acknowledgement of God is the constant succession of day and night, God made the seventh day holy. Likewise, we can do nothing to make ourselves holy, yet God can make us holy just as He made the seventh day holy. Thus, the Sabbath is all about grace. It is a sign that all of God’s work is complete, and we can rest without trying to add anything to His work. So, we rest our faith in His amazing grace. The Sabbath is as are we...the climax to a purpose of God...the Sabbath to His creation...we to His plan of salvation. Both are for our rest...rest from our labor and rest in eternal peace. Holiness is belonging to a God of infinite love and power. We are to have hope to come into the presence of a holy God and survive the experience. We must be discerning of the hope and holiness relationship. I Peter 1:13-16 This shows what we have been given and how we are to act upon it. God chose us, He has caused us to be born again, giving us a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has promised us an inheritance. This is a salvation in which we greatly rejoice, even in the midst of trials, of sufferings, because the fruit of those trials and sufferings is a more pure faith and greater confirmation, greater certainty of the genuineness of our faith proven under trial. This pursuit of holiness is to fashion our character after Christ. We must have a fully engaged mind. We are to be confidently and reasonably expectant of all events to try us, to try others’ willingness to stand for what God reveals as truth. This without dilution or distraction. Lives will be lost because of former passions or even by emotions. The truth that you can know must be sought through the convincing of the Holy Spirit. He purposes that you not conform to the desires of your former ignorance. God will set you apart alone to strengthen you in holiness. The goal of our holiness is God’s glory, so He will not leave us on our own and let us struggle in our pursuit of holiness. Hope will motivate holiness, and holiness strengthens our hope. II Corinthians 7:1 The lamb that represented Jesus had to be without spot because only perfect holiness is acceptable to God. Our life is to engage with God and others in holiness. Remember the Sabbath because God is interested in our holiness.

22 Minutes In the calling of the chosen is the redemptive design revealed by God purposefully that there is full legitimacy to the question “who then can be saved”? God is revealing to us an unbreakable fetter that starts in eternity past, goes through time, and on into eternity future. This bond is forged by God Himself, and has five unbreakable links: God foreknows, predestinates, calls, justifies, and glorifies. As God's faithful people struggle through difficult times it helps to look back on the way He has led in the past. When we see His faithfulness and recognize over and over again that He is in complete control over the affairs of planet earth, we marvel and feel greater confidence as we look to the future. Who are the called, the chosen? We are God's true and loyal followers in every age whose love for Him. We are committed to Him. We are too strong in the truth and too deep in the faith to be shaken. God has always had a people, a people called to stand separate from error and compromise and lies and counterfeits. God has always had a people, a people chosen to show and tell the world what He is really like and to defend and proclaim His truth. And God still has a people standing in an unbroken line of the faithful to every word of God. God has a called and chosen remnant today. And to His remnant people, God has given the urgent task of reaching out to the world with His good news of winning them to Jesus Christ so that when He returns soon to this earth, they will know Him and be ready to meet him. Who is called? Who is chosen? By God’s determination you are called to a cause, you are chosen to a purpose. God makes the choice to chose you. Your being chosen is based on His choice. The called are not always the chosen, but the chosen hear and accept the call. Those chosen are those who have humbled themselves and obeyed through faith the gospel of God. It is God's will to choose those of faith who follow His commandment of the gospel. We are elected by God on account of our faith, by His grace. Israel was selected by God to be God’s witness to the world. Our calling indicates a relationship with Him. Deuteronomy 7:6-8 Isaiah 43:10-12 One’s calling is an act of God. And the true blessing is to be called out of the confusion of erroneous teachings that are so extant in this world into the light of God’s truth. John 6:44 I Peter 2:9 To be chosen, a person must accept his or her calling, be grateful for it and move forward in serving God and His Son. The combined decision by God to both call and choose His people, indicates these are to hold fast to what they are taught, whether it came from God’s Word or from one whom God uses for His glory. These must be and remain obedient to God. Ephesians 1:13 We have to make a decision after we hear the word of truth. We are to be obedient to God. We cannot just accept the wonderful calling of God and continue to live a life following our own desires. We are to be the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Being called is to embark on the life changing path to become more and more like Jesus and to be converted. The called are to play a vital role in aiding in the saving of humanity from total annihilation in the crisis at the close of this age. The called-out ones must be spiritually prepared and be clothed with righteousness. Job 29:14 I Peter 5:10 It is the will of God to open our minds to His truth. He wants us to remain faithful to Him after our calling, so that we can be His chosen, His elect. There must be an effectual calling based upon truth. There is a calling that is a general appeal. Matthew 22:13, 14 Romans 8:29, 30 John 11:43 And the dead man was given life by the call. The call creates the obedience, the call creates the life, and, the called will be glorified. It is true that Jesus died for all people and all people have the ability to choose out of their own free will whether or not they will accept God’s grace, God’s calling and be saved. Yet, on the other hand, it is also true that there is a sense in which each person is predestined. God has determined to place each person He will create into a unique circumstance in history. By placing each person into certain circumstances and knowing how each person will freely choose in those circumstances, one could say that God “predestines” those who are “elect.” Is God’s Sovereignty to be questioned? God purposefully orders the world so that, by the end of human history, as many people as possible are placed into circumstances in which they will freely choose to be saved. God orders the world the way He does for good reasons. And God knows that everyone who is lost is a person who would reject God and be lost under any circumstances. Predestination applies to each individual individually responding to God’s necessary grace by their personal response in faith. Here is the beautiful approach to being the called, the chosen...God foreknew. He did not know something about particular people chosen, He knows them in the individually equivalency as of living out their entire life in Him. Is their faith the cause or the results of their being chosen? All are not foreknown by God in the sense spoken of. Jesus saying “I never knew you” was because he knew the choices you’d make to foster an evil character so as not to be regarded as an object of his favor. Few are called according to God’s purpose. These are His. God needs no other compelling reason to differentiate what is presupposed. Foresight of faith is in accord with every determinative action of God. It is not the foresight of difference but the foreknowledge that makes the difference to exist, not a foresight that recognizes existence, but the foreknowledge that determines existence. It is a sovereign distinguishing love. Amos 3:1, 2 These are qualified in the mind of God to be conformed to the image of Christ. God knowing particular individuals, it often means that He has special regard for them, that they are the objects of His affection and concern. God had a special regard for Jeremiah before he was in the womb. Now with this God shares His determining power. And determining power can bring you to salvation. The faith that God gives is the effectual limiting of the number chosen. Understand what trust in God means. God does not in the spiritual content decide who will be saved. He rather refers to the destiny appointed for those who are chosen. He unconditionally sets His favor on whom He will, then, He destines them for their role in life. It is in His chosen that aims at and secures the end which God must have in order to be God and the end which we must have in order to be the preeminent glorification of Christ. II Timothy 1:9 Believers are chosen in grace before the eons, before sin, before creation and before any decision. This great faith and confidence in the sovereign God is gratuitously granted to some now without cause except that it is God’s choice beforehand according to what pleases Him to accomplish His purpose. Foreknowledge and the human will are propositions of faith. God’s foreknowledge is not in time. And God knows the truth of every event before it occurs. This is where human will intersect God’s foreknowledge. The will carries maximal causal force due to the necessity that we must make choices. But the truth or the falsity of that choice is in knowing the past, yet the sufficiency of that choice is in knowing that God knows what is going to happen. This is “the ordering of the times”. There is no changing truth about where the future is headed. Faith fills the gap between divine knowledge and human will. God knows of all the evidence and other knowledge-conferring factors that human beings are aware of in all situations. God’s knowledge makes present all future contingents in the same way that our discernment can know them. Circularly, God knows. He knew whether our every choice would lack truth or accommodate His determined future. Too many misrepresent God’s knowledge because they wrap God in time. God is not in time and God has no temporal properties. All temporal events are before the mind of God at once. To say “at once” is to think of the whole of reality as being before God’s mind in a single presence. It is a presence in which God has a single complete grasp of all events in the entire span of time. God knows who His are because God sees who His are in the faith of their doings. God’s presence to each and every moment of time is compared to the way in which the center of a circle is present to each and every point on its circumference. God is the very center and the circumference of all creation. This is why and how free will is never threatened. This is why and how God knows those who are His. We are in Christ’s infallible foreknowledge and the freedom of his created will is in us. It is as though we are choosing to be chosen by our faith in Christ. And in that truth there is no accidental necessity. We are God’s foreloved. Understood to be equivalent to those who are the objects of God’s love, marked out for salvation. God’s forelove is in agreement with the efficient and determining action which is so conspicuous in every other link of the chain; it is God who predestinates, it is God who calls, it is God who justifies, and it is He who glorifies. Foreknowledge, with reference to God, connotes foreordination. The doctrine of election affirms that God chose those whom He would save. It also occurs in the same kind of construction and where the thought of election is manifestly present. The doctrine of election affirms that for purposes known only to Himself God chose those whom He would save. He did not choose them because of anything about them but for His own “good pleasure”. Election is grounded in foreseen faith. This is a divine initiative by God, not a response. Election is according to grace, the outworking of His purpose. Romans 9:11 II Peter 1:10 Romans 11:5, 7, 28 On one level we respond to the call of Christ and in that sense “chose” him. What the word plainly indicates is that it was not, in fact, our choice of him that determined his choice of us; it was, rather, his choice of us that determined our choice of him. Sovereign election comes first. John 15:16

8 Minutes When we grasp the purpose for our being, we will become rooted and established as God’s chosen elect. We become rooted and established in Him as our solid foundation. Here is a great reality that stands at the center of our life. Jesus Christ lives by his Spirit in the soul of every true believer. His prayer expresses this, “I in them”. Think of the mind of Jesus settled in your conscience, in your thoughts, or even in your memories. You would be an entirely different person. Your experiences would be different, your awakening would be to a spiritual realm, your rest would be in God-given hope, dreams, desires. Your active faith of living the blessed life that God intended for you will be your unique mix of divinity and humanity. It would be your full expression of yourself as Jesus in you. At all times your focus would be shifted to his truth. As with Christ in us we discern the approach of every trial and temptation. The presence of Christ in us, the consideration of Christ toward us, the strength of Christ in us, that is what gets us through. He is our hope of glory. The assurance that we will be glorified. It is this mystery that says he in us that we may be made perfect in him. Colossians 1:27, 28 And it is Christ in us by which we are the temple of God, the dwelling place for His truth. The degree to which God and Jesus Christ dwell in us depends on the extent to which we follow the leading of God’s Spirit and use its power. When the Holy Spirit is in us, it empowers us to actually become the likeness of God the Father and Jesus Christ in nature, character, spirit, attitudes, approach and love. Christ in us is under our will and control, not his. God wants us to choose for ourselves to live as Jesus lived. He doesn’t force us to do it. This involves a humble, earnest seeking to become like Jesus Christ, so his life becomes our life. He becomes formed in us. II Corinthians 6:16 Galatians 4:19 We in Christ is where we are placed according to God’s purpose. Our position is in Christ. In the fullness of time God has this place for us. If we in Christ is where we are placed according to God’s purpose, then Christ in us is where he is placed according to God’s purpose. If all that is Christ’s belongs to us when we are in him, then all that is ours belongs to him when he is in us. Ephesians 1:10; 2:5, 6 There is a mystery that is made manifest to us. Being born again, we are not only moved to a new place in Christ as a new creature, but we are changed from the inside out as we are in Christ. Christ is the covenant and we being in him places us in agreement with God. We live by our faith in Christ. Christ is the end of the law and we in Christ is us in the law. We must come to this knowledge, and we are to make all men see it. "In Christ" is a positional term. It means to be in Christ before God. Being in Christ is likened to being taken in the spiritual reality to the presence of God. Romans 8:1, 38, 39 This place is secured for us through faith in Jesus. And Christ in us is understandably his character, his power to overcome, his love, his wisdom. It is the capacity to have his principled features formed and displayed in us. With Christ in us comes righteousness, sanctification, justification, redemption, and the ministry of reconciliation. If Christ be in us and we in him then our relationship with all others is to seek justly, rightly, and faithfully for the Christ that is in them. Christ in us implies that the new kingdom to which we now belong is now resident within us. And we are his character of display having a new frame of mind. It is a wonderful blessing for us to be in Christ but until Christ is found in us, the blessings of the kingdom will elude us. It is the level to which Christ is formed in us that determines the degree of liberty we enjoy in our outward life. Again, the level of development of Christ in us is solely dependent on us as an individual. It is our responsibility to let him have absolute pre-eminence by habitually feeding on God’s word and submitting ourself to it. We must embrace and nurture the word of God with a Christ consciousness within us and our outward manifestation of God’s glory will be noticeable and indisputable. Christ is in us because the Holy Spirit begets in us a new life. We in Christ is as having clothed ourselves with Christ in his righteousness. Galatians 3:26-28 We are right where our faith is...in Christ. We were in him on the cross where he paid for all our sin so that now, being hidden in Christ, God can look upon us, for He sees Jesus. Spiritually, we are now really alive for the first time. The intimacy that our hearts crave for our Lord Jesus and our Father God can now be satisfied. We become the righteousness of God in Him. II Corinthians 5:21 We are in Him. He is in us. His word abides in us. We are his Righteousness. We are his Life. We can do his works now. That is why he says, “greater things than these shall ye do”.

32 Minutes Through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, we are being transformed into Christ’s image, both mind and heart. This is the promise of the new covenant and God’s eternal purpose for His elect, so that Christ would be over all and in all. With a divine mind and heart our intent is not just to talk more intelligently about God, but to “come to Him”, to encounter Him, that we may reason with Him. Too many read the word but never hear His voice in the silence of His expressed thought. We must “seek” the Word exposed in the word. The joy of revelation is acquiring interaction with God, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit. Let us always think of God as present and speaking with us, disclosing His mind, His heart, His will. Our God is articulate. He talks with us through His word. We are to reflect upon His words until His higher thoughts begin to take form in our mind. Oh let us pray that we be given a divine mind and heart to come to God. The power of the Holy Spirit reveals God’s word and the mind of the Lord is His thoughts. When we study His word, we are reasoning with His mind. He tells us what we are to know, to want. He tells us how He feels towards us, how He loves us. I Corinthians 2:16 We are to take occasion and measure to endorse all that He says that what He says may echo back to our hearts and our minds. Use spiritual deliberation with each word that we may negotiate what is truth with what we may not yet understand. Prayerful contemplation until God’s heart, His mind is revealed so that His word flows into the very recesses of our soul and our hearts and minds are exposed. As we see His faithfulness in reasoning with us through the truth of His word as He knows our thoughts we will see His unfailing love that motivates us to love Him more. We will savor His every word. So much of our pursuit to attain a divine mind, a divine heart depends upon our temperament, our character, our spirit. When we approach God this way He gives us more of Himself. We can never understand God through our intellect. His ways are too high for us. So He gives us the Holy Spirit who gives us insight from the purity of heart – from love, from humility, and from the desire to obey. Matthew 5:8 The more of God’s truth that we know and obey, the more we come to know. There are those who believe they believe in God, but by their willing ignorance they believe only in the idea of God, not in God Himself. You cannot make your heart love God. You cannot make your mind obey. Reason with God. This humbling will cause you to think more deeply, to respond more intensely. Esteem, cherish, regard your alone time with God, we can learn from, and find out God in our solitude. Making visible the invisible. Behind our whole spiritual quest to be like Christ must be our profound expression of the deep hunger we have for the Word. With a divine mind, divine heart, we come to divine sonship, what it means and why it matters. In the word we hear God speaking, in His doing we see God working, in His reproach we know God’s judgment, in His love we are His heart. If this be not true, we know nothing of God at all. If it be true, and we know it is, then Jesus is God manifest in our flesh, unique and incomparable, bringing Christ in us as God is in him. We can be of a divine mind, a divine heart. There is a purpose of God to explain why we need the Christ-self within us. It is for us to overcome our shadow that is our internal darkness that is caused by our blocking the light. The divine heart includes the lesser, to experience divine love to awaken our divine core to connect with the heart of God, the Heart of Hearts, and we can, with a divine heart, then love others with what is experienced. Praying together, studying together and sharing in God’s love can quicken the awakening of the divine heart within each human heart. God has an illuminated people whom He causes divine light to spring up in their minds, and He has taken them into His favor and covenant. He gives these the sufficiency of truth to reason with others. But there are some things that the thunders uttered that we are yet to know. The truth that God has revealed is sufficient, but it is not exhaustive. There are many things that God will reveal to us in the last time. Things that He will require of us and expect us to know. And for that, we need a divine mind that can hear what the Spirit saith. Adam and Eve were given insight into future salvation. Moses suffered for Christ. Genesis 3:15 Hebrews 11:26 A divine mind is key to trusting every word of God, revealed and being revealed. The bible is able to be understood, but will not be reasoned with for truth by the majority of the people. Every believer should study the scriptures for themselves. Nowhere do we find the scripture telling believers that they should only listen to some “teacher” to know the truth. The source of our learning, our reasoning, our hearing the truth is divinely appointed. John 16:13, 14 John 14:23-26 Please understand what Jesus is saying when he says “keep my words”. He is not only referring to the written word. Jesus is saying that there is a divine aboding with him and his Father based upon the love of a divine heart to reach a divine mind. He says he messages a word, a word that is uttered by a living voice, a word that embodies a conception, an idea, a thought which is continuous in its narration for discussion for a divine mind alone to reason to know the intent. When we are being led by the Holy Spirit it demonstrates in us a growing maturity in the purposes of God. The more we can do things God’s way the more we will experience the greater happenings of God in and through our lives. And we can only do that as we are sensitive enough to hear His voice to us, telling us what He wants us to do. And so it is with a divine mind that it is therefore absolutely imperative that we live in God’s Word because of the nature of scripture as God breathed and is profitable for doctrine or teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction or training in righteousness. The word of God is of divine revelation, which we may depend upon as infallible truth. Do we not realize how much power God invests into His word? Truth is the fundamental principle that absolutely answers all questions. And truth is that which conforms to the mind of God. And where we study about God’s thought, we are studying about the mind of God, and that therein lies all truth. Truth matters. This same word of God breathes reason into us while breathing revelation among us. With a divine heart the harmony of the word is received as accomplished truth, purity, and is transcendently impressive. And the wonder of God’s word is how He performs it. No spoken word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment. God, Himself, stands over and watches over His own Word, making sure it is fulfilled. What is the performing that gives us confidence in God? Our having a divine mind and a divine heart are predicated upon where we stand with Christ. And to stand with Christ means to do absolutely nothing, not anything that is contrary to God’s will. And this entails us being in Christ as our eternal hope and Christ being in us as God’s performance of perfection. And so it is that God opens the eyes of the divine heart and the ears of the divine mind that we being His chosen may see and hear the truth of His every word. Every word is tested, tried, and proven... Colossians 1:27, 28 Romans 8:9 Jeremiah 1:12 Matthew 13:13 There is a spiritual seeing through and beyond natural seeing. There is a spiritual hearing through and beyond natural hearing. There is spiritual discerning through and beyond natural reasoning. The great majority of people have personal ideologies, deep self and beliefs they are not even aware of. Put two, three people together to look at the clouds and each say what they see. Different views huh. What rationale does one have in chosing a political party? Can there be intelligent people on opposite sides? People don’t always see the same facts, the same evidences before their eyes. And so, with similar logical abilities, they conclude different things. The heart, the eyes of the heart...our diverse experiences, our personality, our deep self. All of these are filters we have which make us see things differently. There is much power related to our choices - and sometimes, even if we understand reasonable arguments, it will take more than this to fully persuade us that what we hear, what we see, what we reason is the truth - very deep inside these make themself the Youniverse. Love for God should conclude reasoning to love the truth. The mind and the heart are to attune each other in the truth. When one hears the truth who is it from? John 7:17 Jesus is talking about a “heart-mind-reason” recognition where a just person hears the truth and says immediately, “yes, that is truth”. We have this witness in our hearts that we were made for His glory. When the mind becomes hostile to the word of God it reflects the hardness of heart. This is a deep aversion to God bordering on self exaltation. And so it is that those whom God chooses have a responsibility to realize the power of words and be mindful of their trajectory. These have a responsibility to pay attention to how words may land on the hearts of others. These have a responsibility to be aware of the potential consequences of words and use them as wisely as possible. How others hear words is of their choosing, but God’s people are to be ready always to present the evidence of the word to those who will hear with mind and heart letting one inform the other to mature reasoning. God’s people give forethought not to think what is truth, but to know the thought of truth. That is the mind of God revealed in His word. The divine mind and the divine heart are the passionate products of divine faith. Divine faith is possible because God gives us the grace to believe. We are able to listen to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, who enlightens the mind and moves the will and therefore makes it easy for us to accept more than just what we read but also what God has revealed. This is a divine injunction into the spirit of every born-again believer that enters into the privilege to be born of the WORD of God, born into a divine nature of Christ in us. This faith changes hope into reality and acts in the face of contrary evidence because “We Believe God!” His divinity bursting through our humanity equals divine favor, divine plans, divine ability, divine life, divine power, divine healing, and divine principles. All this and more of His divine will come through His Divine act. Divine faith is a violent force, spiritually speaking. Our faith must be aggressive. Matthew 11:12 Luke 16:16 With a strength, and vigor, and earnestness of desire and endeavor, with fervency and zeal, we are required to strive. With a divine mind and a divine heart, the self will be denied. The frame and temper of the mind will undergo hard sufferings. We will be in an agony with a strong desire for the contention of entering into the kingdom as the divine life of Christ is the force within us.

10 Minutes There is no other mind but the divine mind of God. At creation our mind was one with the One Divine Mind. And because God is all-in-all, we are of His mind. God is the word, the name given to our source who is above and beyond all names and who, in the purest sense, we know as absolute truth and absolute divine love. Like drops of water in the ocean, our minds are individual components of this singular mind. In truth, there is no separation between what we experience as our mind and the mind of God. This is the eternal thought of God that possesses all the divine potentials we will ever experience. One of the primary purposes of the word of God, because God is our creator and He is infinite, is to reveal the true source of individuality. As a pattern of this one mind, our individualized mind extends the spiritual attributes of the One Mind into creation, giving it form. Our mind, individualized and without boundaries, manifests particular expressions of the divine mind. He will leave the ninety and nine to search for the one. The person that we are, with all our uniqueness, exists for the glory of Christ and the glory of God. Followers of Jesus are called to find their identity in him. Our true identity is ultimately based on what God has done in us. In Christ, we are loved. We were created with a purpose. We are not just a convenient carbon copy of someone else. We were created uniquely and with intention. God lovingly designed every detail of our person. Can you imagine the love involved with that intricate design? Christ in us makes us not only loved but chosen. God sent His own Son to earth to die in our place so that we could be included in His family. God was not obligated to choose us based on our performance or credentials. He chose to carry out an intricate plan that involved the death of His own perfect Son, which allowed us the opportunity to be a child of God. In order to be counted a child of the perfect Father, we had to be free of sin. That is, we had to be perfect with regard to doing right and not doing wrong. That is an impossibility on our part considering our nature. But Jesus was perfectly sinless for us in his life and is perfectly sinless for us when we come to justification by faith in him. Not one of us can attain perfection by our own effort. We are individually justified in Christ alone. Because Jesus, who was without sin, died the second death for us if we cease to sin, we can be forgiven of sin, otherwise the penalty will be due us. All that Christ did, all that Christ is, was accounted for us. This forgiveness allows us to be considered a child of God. Therefore, in God’s eyes, if we have accepted what Jesus did for us, we are completely forgiven. From His perspective, we are without sin. It’s not that we won’t sin, but when He looks at us, He calls us forgiven knowing our faith in Jesus. That is something on which we can build our identity. God wants us to understandthis for ourself by studying His Word. It is so important that we go to the word of God to find out how He thinks about us. Our identity should never be based on a hope or a guess. God gave us His Word, written, so we can know Him and know who He is making us to be in Him. We can be God’s righteousness. We are His goodness and rightness because of what Christ did on the cross. This allows us to be an ambassador to others around us. Because our righteousness is not earned but freely given through faith in Jesus, we can share this gift with others and invite them to be God’s righteousness too. With the likeness of a divine mind and a divine heart as someone who is forgiven, we can now freely forgive others. God’s extended grace is undeserved favor to us. We can extend that grace to others around us. A divine mind does not align with mental faculties alone. We have heard the saying, think before you speak. Why, in moments of strong emotion or ignorance, words that do not edify are weaponized. The biblical concept of the heart is broader than love and affection. The bible reasons that the heart and the head are combining elements of mind, will, fundamental commitments, hope, trust. What the heart trusts, the mind justifies, the emotions desire, and the will carries out. If our heart actually includes how we think in our mind and behave along with how we feel, then the expression of this collective wholeness demonstrates the composition of our desires through our words, habits, and behaviors. The words that flow from our lips are a sample of the content that lies within our hearts. In this we should come to realize the godliness in Christ that patterns both a divine mind and a divine heart...divinity garbed in humanity. Without the guiding of the Holy Spirit our own desires, affections, thoughts, and actions are bent toward sin at all times but by the grace of God. When the word of truth is heard by the natural mind, the carefully guarded “christian façade” will be exposed through the words that are spoken impulsively without thought reflection. Conviction and faith by the Spirit, and redemption through Jesus, causes the natural heart state to being transformed to the spiritual seeking to put to death the desires of the flesh and direct our hearts and minds toward the Spirit. Jesus’ teaching on this point is not that we must will ourselves toward holiness, but that it is through relationship with him that the desires of our heart are transformed, cleansing the outward expression of our hearts through our words and actions to now reflect him in place of our attempt to gain advantage, which entice us and drag us away. A divine mind and a divine heart are vital to this kind of creative discernment. The functioning of this capacity to discern actually happens through the unity of mind and heart because without love, there would be no compassion or sensitivity to the mind’s discernment. Understanding the capacity of both mind and heart presents the experience of the transformation of life to a loving desire to know truth bringing life into the process of revelation. Here’s how the Holy Spirit guides the mind into all truth. The moment we make a right judgment, we are seeing an implication, which reveals another possibility of experience or another dimension of knowingness. In this we are acknowledging God to be the source of all that is right. We are all living in God’s mind; we are creations of God’s mind, contents of God’s mind. And it is in this capacity that we can trust that God, as the One Divine Mind, is forever imparting all the wisdom we need. We can be confident that whatever answer we need is His word and we can receive it as we humbly hear what the Spirit says. We are being conformed to the image of His Son not only to reason upon God's thoughts expressed in His word, but to ask God for that which we need. That requires the examining of our heart and the evoking of our thoughts, which happens when God's Word becomes the orienting center of our common existence as His people, shaping our very perception of things as we have spiritual consideration about them. Our being transformed is an intricate process commencing from conversion that requires active attentiveness to avoid “careless” or “useless” words slithering out at times when our diligence wains or our flesh wins. When truth overwhelms the natural mind, our willpower and capacity to resist temptation is impaired. It is in this time that our prayers ask God to allow the Holy Spirit to isolate our consciousness acknowledging that the Holy Spirit works on our behalf to give words and interpretation to our groanings. A divine mind and a divine heart work to promote a constant vigilance and care of our whole self. We reorient our mind, our heart toward God. With Christ in us there is loving power with a divine heart. We all have sinned and will still often remember our sins, and those memories can make us feel unworthy, keeping us from accepting our true identity. We know what we have done; we may also remember what people have done to us. Maybe we were mistreated at some time or another like as was Jesus. Maybe someone rumored an untruth thing about us like they did about Jesus. The world is broken by sin. There are people who have experienced unspeakable injustice. From gossip to verbal and physical abuse, outside messages are trying to shape our identity every day. Those outside messages can lead you to believe that you are unworthy of what the word says is true of you in Christ. How do we respond? We forgive. Our spiritual individuality is substanced in Christ. Do you recall how the first man’s mind was in complete agreement with the mind of God? With this knowledge, please do not balk at the idea that God is the only true source of intelligence and identity, that He is the actual Mind of each individual, including ourself. We realize that most people don't often act as if God is their Mind. And all having the same mind...what would happen to individuality? Mentality is influenced more by carnal thinking than by a divine mind, but that is not the ultimate reality of things. You have a choice to reason carnally or spiritually. Whichever you choose, God is the true source of all intelligence and all wisdom, and He knows your thought even before you were born. Knowing that, and because God desires all to be saved, He has designed a distinct path that expresses your capabilities...let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Jesus' profound sense of individuality and effectiveness was not limited by his turning to God as his only mind. Jesus' dependence on God was responsible for his every decision, his every choice. Dependence on God is true wisdom. When our true identity is God's spiritual image, then our individuality is expressed in the true expression and recognition of Jesus’ unique contribution...he became flesh, sinful flesh like as we have and did no sin that we might by reason of a divine mind cease to sin like as he never did. God created our inmost being. And He filled us with ways to deepen an intimate relationship with Him. The divine mind is to be the fount of wisdom flowing with the spirit filled sensitivity of the Holy Spirit. This sensitivity is the maturity of the divine mind and the divine heart. With this sensitivity the mind, the heart focuses on hearing from God, then we will hear words from Him that others will not pick up. We will have such a closeness of relationship, a willingness to “not miss a word” that God speaks to us, to demonstrate a priority to Who comes first in our lives. We will have “God opportunities” come to us that, when acted upon, will cause us to be more effective and fruitful than the norm. The divine mind makes clear the purpose for which Christ became us. It is so we can know what it is to be filled, led, used more effectively, in those things that can impact people in time that will last throughout all eternity. God desires us to become more and more mature in His purposes so that we have the joy of being led by the Holy Spirit. Being led by the Spirit is the evidence that we are the sons and daughters of the Living God. Sons and daughters do what their Heavenly Father wills for them, because His love acquaints us with His divine essence, His perfections, plan, and His sovereign right to command and direct our lives. Galatians 4:6

28 Minutes God is the ultimate cause, the ultimate source of what truth is. Our ultimate truth is our abiding confidence in God our Father that can never be shaken. It is when we come to God unitedly to reason with His word that we go from strength to greater strength, from faith to increased assurance and confidence in the truth to know the righteousness of His cause and purpose for us. The ultimate truth is that rock upon which we firmly stand in the principles of the word of God. Because ignorance is a miserable dark bottomless ocean, knowledge is the float with a light on it. At the end there is the dawn of right knowledge, that which is essential to understand the word of God, to raise the mind to the best possible order - the knowledge of the ultimate truth. And similarly, the resultant right attitude of the person desiring to learn, willing to reason is the attitude of the ultimate truth itself. As Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, so he becomes our being. On our way to this truth, through reasoning, we are shown the hard realities of the word of God. We are being transformed by every step. In fact, the passage has only just begun. Let us pause and check ourselves, whether we are qualified enough to be here in a passage that few, very few will traverse. Bring the vastness of the universe to your mind. God’s truth is infinite and love for the word is the power that widens the corridors of our mind. Our aim is to know the ultimate truth that we may come to the ultimate reason of our ultimate purpose. And the ultimate truth is that our ultimate purpose is that God’s glory is clearly displayed in the faithful obedience of His last day people to show the same love He offers us, to others so they can come to know him. This is done in God’s over-arching purpose for all true believers: to conform us to the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. God’s glory must be uppermost in His purpose. If God would put anything else before Himself, He would be guilty of idolatry. He sovereignly chose to make His glory and grace known to and through His Son and His chosen few. Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14 What may we conclude from this reasoning of redemptive history? We may conclude that the chief end of God is to glorify God and to so enjoy our salvation in Himself forever. He stands supreme at the center of His own affections. This is His ultimate truth. I John 5:20 If you read this verse you know that God is the true God. But if you hear what the word says then you know the truth of truthfulness says that in the fulness of His being, God is the ultimate truth of power that brings life from the beginning. In the person of Jesus Christ is the evidence that we should run after it with all our hearts. And it’s even the more reasonable to search for ultimate truth in God. We are in the throes of compassion orienting the mindful heart to understand the basis and the appeal of the ultimate truth. God is the truth. He is truth absolute, ultimate, eternal, in contradistinction from all that is relative, derived, partial, and temporal. And when we know this, the foregoing comments show that it is of the triune God in the mystery of unity in triunness and triunness in unity that we make this affirmation. Only triune unity can explain such terms as “the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” together with the correlative teaching of scripture respecting the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit also is the truth. John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13 When we speak, therefore, of the sanctity of truth, we must recognize that what underlies this concept is the sanctity of the being of God as the living and true God. He is the God of truth and all truth derives its sanctity from Him. This is why all untruth, all error, all willing ignorance, all unwillingness to reason is wrong, all misapprehension, every deviation from what is true in thought, feeling, word, or action is a contradiction of that which God is. This is why He asks us to come now to the bar of right reason and let us talk the matter over. God welcomes us into covenant and communion with Himself. It is His perfection to be consistent with Himself. God’s word reasoned is expressed in His faithfulness and is exemplified in the certainty and immutability of His promise that He cannot lie. God’s reasoning is of faithfulness to such an extent that what His word reveals is the fulfillment of the essential features of the covenant concept. And there can be no doubt that the specifically redemptive name of God, “I am that I am,” points distinctly to the immutability of His covenant grace and promise. There is a huge mound of evidence of ultimate truth for God, Jesus, and those who are emptied of self. And based on this evidence, it’s reasonable to believe that God reveals truth through revelation. Where can we find revelation today? And what do we learn from it? The best source of revelation is God’s word—every experienced event in the bible. Here is where and when the relevance of precept is contained. When we are of the truth and know the truth, we discern in the inscripturated word of truth the living voice of Him who is the truth, and there is no tension between our acceptance of the living God as “the only true God” and of His Word as the truth. I John 2:21 Be not uninformed of how God voices His truth. It is the certitude which is the only appropriate response to confrontation with God Himself that His Word, the Word of Scripture, must bring forth. God’s Word is truth because He is truth. And the truth must be informed in us ultimately. Discount no witness of scripture because of the imagination of the thought, of the heart. In the bible, God gives us history lessons, unfolds His plan of salvation, and gives us guidelines for how to live our lives. The word holds the truth for all kinds of circumstances, and we can trust it for answers to all kinds of questions. It is the ultimate truth of revelation that gives the best account of the true God and administers the best eye-salve for our discerning the living and true God. The Son leads us to the Father, and we are in both, in the love and favor of both, in covenant alliance with both, in spiritual conjunction with both by the inhabitation and operation of their Spirit: and, that we may know how great a dignity and blessedness this is, we must remember that this true one is the true God and eternal life or rather this same Son of God is himself also the true God and eternal life so that in union with either, much more with both, we are united to the true God and eternal life. Then we have, as is the ultimate truth, an incomprehensible Spirit that has begotten us to God. We are brought to cleave to Him in faith, and love, and constant obedience, and in opposition to all things that would alienate our mind and heart from God. Knowing the truth is being the truth. And beingness in Christ will go on forever. Coming to ultimate truth is the realization that the unique phenomenon of choice sounds the expression of an Almighty Righteousness. I Corinthians 1:30 Christ in us is our righteousness. We are to be his expression of perfection. And with that and beyond, it means that we are an expression of God’s righteousness.This means we make the right decision the first time. It means we think the right thoughts. We choose the right words. We go to the right places. We do the right things. We are righteous in and to and for and with Him. And our consciousness of that reality is what enables us to do life right. The groaning of the Holy Spirit is that crying out for the manifestation of God’s people to display the life of Jesus here on earth. I Peter 2:9 We are not yet perfect family, but the reasoning with the word of God has been given to us to attain exactly that. And the precisification, the countable and uncountable aspects of ultimate truth, as our knowledge grows, distinguishes that which resembles truth from that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of Christ. Ultimate truth is the way things really are because God declared it so and made it so. Therefore, God is the author, source, determiner, governor, arbiter, ultimate standard, and final judge of all truth. It is Christ’s rightful declaration of his deity. Jesus makes it clear that ultimate truth is defined in terms of God and His eternal glory. Jesus also said that the written Word of God is truth. It does not merely contain nuggets of truth; it is pure, unchangeable, and inviolable truth. It is ultimate truth that scripture cannot be broken. Truth means nothing apart from God. Truth cannot be adequately explained, recognized, understood, or defined without God as the source. Try defining truth without reference to God. The whole pursuit of ultimate truth is to have the thought of God in the mind. When any abandon reasoning with every expressed biblical truth, unrighteousness is the inescapable result. Just watch and you will see the widespread acceptance of homosexuality, rebellion, and all forms of iniquity. Truth and knowledge are coherent significant parts from a fixed source, namely, God. Embody every aspect of every truth of God and you will construct ultimate truth. You will come to the revelation of Jesus Christ. How one responds to this truth is conditionally crucial. Ultimate truth adds divine measures to an infinitely divine God. His realms of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience are accompanied by His omnibenevolence. And in wisdom’s growth other omniproperties are to be learned. Ultimate truth is eternal. And in God’s plenitude of Being, the highest holiness of existence, in the richness of the diversity of beings, all related, all communotheistically equal, will show the principle of the continuity of ultimate truth. Everything will be possible. Every creature-being will share the attributes of every creation. The redeemed will seek for nothing, possess nothing, has need of nothing, yet have everything that overflows to all others. Ultimate truth unites and provokes a divine experience. And in its search through reasoning with God is achieved the most fundamental highest and deepest source of fulfillment. The image and likeness of God had no intention of simplicity. All possibilities were to be determined. Ultimate truth is discovering truths that engage the relational mystery of how God created in its entirety that which He determined was necessary to be between Nothing and Something. How God’s creation of the world through and for Jesus was to meet its ultimate purpose in Jesus' sacrifice for "the sins of the whole world" is the mystery of ages. There is an ultimate truth to be revealed in the mysterious group who will sing the song. The mystery of God’s exhortative approach to this group is the ultimate truth of prophecy to bring the likeness of Christ to the behavioral conduct of these assigned to be sealed. The ultimate truth reveals the deliverance of this approach. As these understand the written mysteries, only after that will the unwritten mysteries happen in some mysterious way. What the seven thunders spoke must be in agreement with the ultimate truth of God. Our contentment is in our reasoning with God who will give revelation. God's concealed mystery is being revealed to us that we may come to a more clear understanding of it. The advent of the new creation, its mysterious and ultimate reality existing for absolutely all eternity, in a spaceless, timeless environment tells us more of the transcendent, infinite judgment of God. I Timothy 3:16 It is that glory that is the mystery to be ever sought in the ultimate truth. It centers and sources in God who is Truth Himself. Mysteriously known wonder will create new wonder through divine disclosure of ultimate truth. God has brought us to Himself, and our hearts are content as we find our rest in Him. Ultimate truth is knowledge of the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit — the One Three-Personned God. This will be God’s testimony of His Truth...when man comes to perfectness, God, who is over the truth, will crown us with an amaranthine love.

15 Minutes The Sabbath is the holy day that God set aside for His recognition. It’s a perpetual sign of God’s relationship with His creation. And we are invited to share in its commemoration. Sabbath rest is a summons to practice holiness for eternity in God's presence. It is an act of intentional trust of God's sovereignty over all things. Since God is not bound by time and there will be no night in heaven, how is it that we hear John referring to months...a period of time measured. Let us reason that we not struggle with acceptance of the power of God. In our sphere of existence there can be no event occuring without time. But God is before even eternity and time and He brought both forth for His most distinct purpose...God will have a people who will master His plan. They will come to know “the Word”. Their teaching will be absolutely astonishing. No other generation of people ever had the mind that God’s word will produce in these. No other people ever knew truth the way these know truth and no other people ever understood God’s way the way these understand. No other people ever understood the scripture the way these understand the scripture. No other people ever had greater facility with verbal and written communication, and it will be literally astonishing to hear them witness the word of God. God created events without time, and eternity rolled unmeasured until God’s love was tested. Was the Determinate Counsel an event? Jeremiah 17:12 “From the beginning”...an event in eternity where time was not. Angels are created beings before time was determined “in the beginning”. And there was war in heaven before the time of the creation of “the world”. Revelation 12: 7-9 Satan’s fall must have occurred somewhere after the angels were created and before earth was formed where he tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God the Son was himself the witness of the event before time. Luke 10:18 Here again must we reason. Why didn’t God say it “was good” the second day of creation? Because it was then that God separated the firmament and the waters. The waters consisting of an ejaculate of sort, urine and semen was the place where the rebellious angels had been cast after the war in heaven. It was part of the providence of God in creation that Satan would be allowed to behold the most crowning act of God...the creation of the earth for Man. These same castaways recognized the One who expelled them from heaven before ever there was “time” and they begged to not again be cast into the deep. Luke 8:26-31 Matthew 8:28-31 Mark 1:23-27 Luke 4:41 Genesis 1:1 Please see darkness and waters in the concordance – H2822 and H4325. Job 38:4, 7 Sons of God are beings existing before ever the earth was formed. And these morning stars are brothers. These were attendees to special meetings at the dawn of existence before time. And in God’s providence there is still this distinct purpose. I John 3:1, 2 What situations and events will occupy our experience in heaven in an essentially timeless existence, where the categories of past, present and future just do not apply? There will be succession, duration, and sequence because from one new moon to another and from one sabbath to another we will come before God. This “all thing new” that God will bring forth is amost wonderful envisioning and inspirational mystery. It is impressive. We know that we will have a pure language, new names, bestowed immortality with phasing bodies with the ability to pass through solid objects not being bound by nature laws. God is going to dwell with us, not among...with. He will touch us. We will have a constant consciousness of the highest understanding of all things. If we could only know of the objective reality of what is coming for us in the eternalage our questions and responses today would be filled with reverent expansion acclaiming the wonderment of God. The invincible purpose of God for His new creation and for His people will be complete when all things are made new and all new things are filled with the glory of the Lord. And as the body of His glory is, so will ours be. This is certain. God is going to make us spiritually and morally new and glorious. And knowing that nothing related to selfishness will exist, what manner of creativity is in the inmost self of God that will be brought forth without comparison to any other thought made audible, made visible. Something so immense and noble and boundlessly powerful is coming for all of us in our relationship with God.

20 Minutes As God is the ultimate source of all being, He is also the ultimate source of all truth. And as He is the infinite and perfect Being, He is also the highest, the most beautiful and lovable truth, because things have in truth, in goodness and in beauty, the same rank as in being. And truth is the being of Christ. Truth is a presence. It is a living reality. Truth is the presence that the mind seeks to understand. Let there be no distance between your mind and truth. If the mind is to know, then let it know the truth. And if truth is reality, then let it realize the truth. Participation in truth opens the mystery to the mind of reason. And reasoning and mystery must participate by faith in exploring unutterable truth that no formula can exhaust, by bringing its depth of mystery more fully to light. Reason is that power like a flower to burst open from cold ground. Reasoning to truth illuminates the infiniteness of the incomprehensible truth of God. Reason and truth are a pilgrimage taken by the soul journeying into God, walking by the power of the mind, sustained by the power and grace of God endowing it at every moment with the power of the Holy Spirit. Each truth gained gives reason to search for that which is comprehensible of the divine. And the unsearchable mystery will become a mystery searched. Mystery is just what we don’t know now. It is now that the heart of the mind is afflicted; for ignorance is to be abandoned. Mystery vanishes where truth is reasoned to an explanation. How did Jesus convert water to wine...he is God. How can light come from darkness and be divided into light and darkness...by the word of God. Why does prayer work...because of relationship with God. Why does the moon cause tides...God said so. How can a holy spirit become sinful flesh yet do no sin...when it is God. What counts as a legitimate explanation...TRUTH. Mysteries solved! The mystery of reasoning to truth is solved in our commitment to the word of God. It is the evidence of our faith. It is the existence and quality of our faith that guides us to truth. But do not let the mystique of the working of the Holy Spirit rob the mystery that is of God, for by it the limits of our understanding are unexplainably brought to wisdom. This is the determined intent spoken by God to come now. Not to ask questions out of curiousity, but in awe of the contemplation of the revealing of the mysteries of eternity, of life, of God’s marvelous structure of reality. Our coming to God to reason for truth is that behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable whereas no word manipulation can affect its revelation. II Corinthians 13:8 To that extent, true veneration of God is mystery accepted. We come now and find that the mystery of the word, is found in the construction of the word, as it is by the love of God that He desires to speak revelations into our heart through the Holy Spirit. Our real revelation is understanding the depth of God’s love. And to receive of this revelation we must "know," "understand," "recognize," "be conscious of," "experience," "believe," "adhere to," "put faith in," and "rely on" God's love, God’s word. Truth is the essence that we subsist in and the presence we experience as our own awareness. Truth not only is the objective of the mind, it finds a subjective path through the heart. This requires devotion and love, not speculation or theory. And unless we find love for the truth we will be confined within our own deception, our own delusion and low consciousness. Because the Word says God is love, spiritual pursuit to know the truth comes through love. It is the love of truth that opens the mind to spiritual heights of understanding whereby one comes to deeper revelation in the word of God. It is by our spiritual experience that we come to the knowledge of ultimate truth. Ephesians 4:15 Truth gives definition and direction to love. Love gives compassion and kindness to truth. Love rejoices in the truth. Love is glad when truth is spoken. Therefore, love aims at truth. It supports truth. Truth’s manifestation is eternal. Acts 4:32-35 I Corinthians 13:6 Ultimate truth is the final path of our relational positioning with Christ to come to reason with Supreme truth. The limit of knowing is ultimate truth. It is truth at all times, in all places and has relevance for our lives. And final truth is reality. The final truth is that we are all of God, we are all One and our greatest gift to each other is love and compassion and truth. And in Christ the final truth is without conclusion. In truth, we can be more than what we are, for only God can conclude all that there is. Here is a truth to find essence in the wisdom of knowledge...the universe has more spirit than matter. Think on it, no, rather reason with it. God is Spirit. The spiritual quality of our life is consciousness based on truth. And the consciousness of our mind involves more things than we are currently aware of. Consider the emptiness of a human being seeking truth. This emptiness is expressed character with the highest consciousness to be filled with a God-like spirit. It is perfect emptiness. The spirit guided mind, the spirit taught mind is an awareness of unique thoughts without feelings, memories of promise, contemplative prayer, inspired speech, and moral reasoning that are beyond internalized experiences. It is when the power of the mind is distinct from feelings that physical response is individuated in every experience. The presence of the Holy Spirit renders both a hierarchical and a chronological sense to reasoning. And rather than being reactive to knowledge not yet understood, we have a more perceptual approach to conform to truth as revealed. Where reasoning power is present, the mind comprehends, proves, and embraces truth. Truth can be defined as “conformity with fact or reality.” Jesus says God's Word is truth. And it sanctifies us by setting us apart to be holy and live with purpose – God's purpose. The truth can be known. Jesus says he is the truth, so when we follow him, we are living truth. Our choice is to love the truth, hate the truth, ignore the truth, or run from it. Proverbs 23:23 There is already a verdict fated for those who receive not the truth. Choose to be courageous. John 3:19-21 Don’t just listen to the word of truth and not respond to it, for that is the essence of self-deception. So always let his word become like the written fulfillment of your life. If you listen to the word and don’t live out the message you hear, you become like the person who looks in the mirror of the word to discover the reflection of his face in the beginning. You perceive how God sees you in the mirror of the word, but then you go out and forget your divine origin. But those who set their gaze deeply into the perfecting law of liberty are fascinated by and respond to the truth they hear and are strengthened by it—they experience what God requires of all. Deuteronomy 10:12 Micah 6:8 It is by the Spirit that truth is discerned as that evidence that proves faith. And faith is that substance that elevates truth to a higher dimension where the invisible Presences are nurturant to our minds. For it is by God that we are given faith and in Christ where we are made to possess faith and through the Holy Spirit that we do faith. Faith is what brings about our salvation. Romans 10:9, 10 Ephesians 2:8 This is the ultimate truth...faith leads to eternal life. Both are gifts of God. Both are the word of God. Believing the word with the heart can only come about when we are persuaded of the truth in the mind. Ephesians 1:13 Psalms 119:41, 81 If the heart is not opened to every word of God, every word, then you lack the faith to respond to the persuasion of God by the truth that He has given. Self-persuasion is frustrating. I and II Corinthians 4:6 Many confuse faith with knowledge, when these are not the same. Knowledge is attainable by being disciplined enough to pursue it. We can choose to learn and fill our mind with all manner of biblical facts, but this will not produce faith. Anyone can believe the truth intellectually, but this is not the same as having heartminded belief. Heartminded faith is the seat of the soul, the embodiment of spirit. It is the order of the Divine. Intellectual knowledge of the truth will not bring about the transformation that God desires for us. One of the primary functions of the Spirit is to lead us into all truth. And this is done when we have a change of thinking. And this strengthens awareness of ultimate truth which is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come. Nothing in the word of God is to be neglected. Every word of God is causally efficient. Not imaginative, not opinionative. Each word, every text is intrinsically or objectively real, existing in and of itself as a “unique particular”. Every word is “life of life”. It is what makes us what we are according to our conditional choices. It is the ultimate truth of reasoning by faith that gives us eyes to see the depth of wisdom. Let us retain the word of God and wisely comment that God is not to be believed blindly but to be understood to the best of reasons. Our understanding is the key to open the heart of truth. Ours is a God of ultimate truth, Jesus is the ultimate truth, the bible contains the ultimate truth, the Holy Spirit reveals the ultimate truth. Deuteronomy 32:4 I Corinthians 10:4 John 17:17 John 16:8

14 Minutes God is transcendent; He is above all. God is also immanent; He is near. Very near. It is in Him we have confidence. Whatever charge God gives His angels to keep His people, He does not thereby discharge Himself. Think of this. It is so that, whether every particular one of us has an angel as our guardian or no, we are sure that we have God Himself for our God parent. It is His infinite wisdom that contrives, and His infinite power that works for our welfare. We must need to be well kept for the Lord to be our keeper. Even when in affliction He is our keeper. This same God is He who is engaged for the preservation of every particular believer, in the same wisdom, the same power, with the same promises.God keeps His Israel. This God is our Jesus. And the shepherd of the flock is the shepherd of every sheep, and will take care that not one of us, even of the little ones, shall perish. He is a wakeful watchful keeper. Our God has never slept. He never did, nor ever will, for He is never weary. He not only does not sleep, but He does not so much as slumber. Our God has not the least inclination to sleep, for He cares for us. Psalms 121:5 God refreshes them that are His: He is our shade. The comparison of every thing to God’s loving concern for us has in this showing a great deal of gracious condescension in it. He is the eternal Being who is infinite substance in what He is, in order that He may speak sensible comfort to His people. He promises to be our shadow, to keep as close to us as the shadow does to the body, and to shelter us from the scorching heat, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Under this shadow we sit with delight and assurance. Oh, this is our God and He is always near to His people. He is never ever at a distance. He is never far to seek. His hand is the working for us whereby we turn ourselves dexterously to our duty, and we always find God ready for us, to assist us and give us realization of our being to Him. When is He not with us. He will have an eye upon us in our every motion: for in Him we are immovable. God will provide that His people shall not be tempted above what they are able, shall not fall into sin, though they may be very near it. Shall not fall into trouble, though there be many endeavoring to undermine us by fraud or overthrow us by force. He will keep us from being frightened, that we neither slip, nor stumble, nor fall. God will protect us from all the malignant influences of the enemy. Though the sad changes that sin has made to creation, God’s favor will interpose for us that even the sun and moon, though worshipped by a great part of mankind, and are often instruments of hurt and distemper to human bodies will be a blessing of warmth and comfort; God by them will show His favor to keep us safe in every respect. We will know His creation and keep from the evil of sin and the evil of trouble. God will so watch over us that whatever affliction happens to us there shall be no evil in it for we shall see His working for our good. Even that which kills shall not hurt. It is the spiritual life, especially, that God will take under His protection, and He will preserve our soul. He, with a peculiar care, will preserve us from perishing eternally. His Spirit, who is our preserver and comforter, shall abide with us forever. It is by His Spirit that we know how deeply God cares about our being converted. It’s a turning, a spiritual turning away from sin in repentance and to Christ in faith. If we are not converted we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. This is a dramatic change that completely alters one’s life. It is not a rearranging of things, and it is not as gradual a change like sanctification. It is a dimension of justification. It is a power that occurs much deeper within the soul of a person. It is a decisive break with old patterns of sin and the world and the embracing of new life in Christ by faith. It is so profound that it involves a change of mind, and a change of view, a new recognition of God, self, sin, and Christ. It involves a change of affections, a change of feeling, a sorrow for sin committed against a holy and just God. It involves a change of will, an intentional turning away from sin and a turning to God through Christ to seek forgiveness. The entire person; mind, soul, and body, is radically, completely, and fully changed in this transformation. Listen and hear...being converted moves you out of the realm of that non- saving faith - not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord. When there is true love for God being converted is the crying need of the soul. Until one’s life is turned from sin to Christ, nothing else matters. God cares. God cares so dearly as to bear our anxieties and to replace them with His peace and assurance. When we give God our concerns, we in turn, receive His calming presence. God's system of care is countercultural. His system’s values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of human beings. His is a movement that expresses the ethos and aspirations of a specific divineness in this well-defined era. A span of time defined for the purposes of chronology to draw attention to the prominence of His people to characterize a definable determination to show in every detail of our lives that God is sovereign. He is working to make us more like Him, and in turn accomplishing His will for us and His kingdom. God transforms our cares into what He cares about; and so we cast our cares on Christ. Our story demonstrates the comprehensiveness of God’s care in the lives of His children. God’s interaction in our lives is one of the greatest blessings of life. If we stay close and attuned to Him through obedience and communion and faithfulness, we can see His working in our lives quite clearly. When we do, we see for ourselves just how magnificently comprehensive His love and care for us truly is. We must never forget, never stop praying that God is ordering our steps in His word, especially even in the most challenging of personal, societal, and spiritual of circumstances. Of a great wonder is knowing how God cares for us through relationships. Think of the profound impact of our witness when we have devout love toward others. When our witness brings forth this powerful acknowledgment...thy God is my God. We are given brothers and sisters in Christ who will be there with and for us in times of adversity. In Christ our lives become an important blessing to them as theirs is to us. We influence one another with word of truth. We are in the timed criticalness of God’s plan and purpose. The beginning of harvest. We are now to be His kingdom community on earth. Our God is our God all of the time, in all places, and among all situations. The true believer’s life is a transformative life. We are no longer our own. We have a Savior who has taken our life and completely made every part of it new from our relationships, to our beliefs, to our perfecting of character, it is all His. In all extents of life, God cares for us, He is accomplishing His will and His pleasure. God’s care for us is so filled with righteousness until He gives to all the measure of faith. The measure of faith is that capacity given that you may have a complete reliance upon God’s grace for every encounter in life...spiritual or otherwise. But there is also a power that strengthens this measure. It is hearing the word of God and sharing what we have learned from Him with others. This is because God knows that there will be some who may never hear the name Jesus. The complexity of the world around us tells us that there is a God (even though people can suppress that knowledge in their heart). Even those who haven’t heard of Jesus are accountable for knowing that God is. These have the word of God in all of nature. All our faith is to be in His promises, in His all-sufficient grace. Consider how God equips us spiritually to fit perfectly in His determination. We ask without doubting. We receive instruction in confidence. Our testimony of Jesus is beyond expectation. We have every way to escape from temptation. He gives His angels charge over us. The Holy Spirit is there for us. God takes account of all our tribulation by putting our tears in a special bottle. How precious is that. God so cares about our sadness that He bottles up the reasons and turns them into our joys. And Jesus... Romans 8:34 Hebrews 7:25 We can boldly say God cares for us. He reveals it in His words, His life, and His love. We must be so comforted by this revelation that we never battle wisdom against our feelings. Nothing, no hurt, no confusion, no deep insecurity, no disillusionment, no circumstance is to threaten our trust in God’s love. We must rest in the knowledge that His thoughts are toward us. Jesus is our greatest comfort during the darkness of our struggles where faith may be tested. Experiencing his presence draws us closer to God, especially during difficult circumstances that may extend for long periods of time. God loves us in a life changing way...He loves us extravagantly. In God’s care we grow more confident in our identity in Christ and form a deep abiding relationship with the One who formed us, who knows us, and cares infinitely about every aspect of our being. God is giving us such a self in Jesus that we find identity in being totally loved by God in the ordinariness of doing life. The true self is grateful for spiritual highs without craving them, and...without making too much of them when they occur. Recount how our God has brought us to learn to reason with Him in His word for the discovery of the depth of His truth. This knowing God is possible through spiritual growth and by weaving our testimonies and experiences as reminders of Jesus’ faithfulness through answered prayer, encouragement, and grace overflowing as we are transformed in how we think, we love, and we live...how we see ourselves and how we relate to others. God gives us rest on every side. He is not blind to our circumstances or our choices to confide in Him, entrusting our every breath to Him. Because of God’s care we have a confident certainty in Jesus Christ. We are confident and certain of his very near return. We are confident and certain that it is impossible to be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We are confident and certain that in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We are confident and certain those whom he predestined he also called, those whom he called he also justified, those whom he justified, he also glorified. Because God cares, we are certain. Certainty is rest, peace, blessedness. God cares for us in His hereness, in His nearness, and that presence is punctuated in Jesus Christ. Psalms 139:7-10 God is not a being that can be moved away from. His people have a constant awareness of His presence and the attentive acknowledgment of His workings. Please do not confuse feeling close to God and being intimate spiritually with God are the same. What is it when you ignore Him, or when your humanness falters? How good it is to know that every moment of our living is filled with His meaningful care. God has deep affection for us. There is no care of ours that He does not care about. And He so loves us that He wants our cares to align with what He cares about the most. God cares most for His people and whether we love Christ and whether that love is expressed in our love for others. That is the beauty of the circle of care. Pause for a moment. Consider the God who upholds and guides the stars, the planets, the worlds unseen. Who controls the winds, the rains. This God cares about you. In your consideration, consider first the person Jesus Christ. Then consider how God cared so much that He sent His only begotten Son into this world in the form of a man to die because He so loved the world. Now consider the love, the forgiveness, the compassion, the mercy, the justice and so on...God cares. God cares because He wants to be in an eternal relationship with His children. He cares because He wants His children to love each other. Jesus showed us the way. God is watching the misery of His creation. When we love as He cares or when we care as He loves, we too will reflect on such suffering. Why does He care? The pain and fallenness of humanity have entered into His own heart. Scripture confirms this incredible truth...Jesus wept. His caring is so much experienced with us until he allows evil to exhaust itself that the power of sin is so completely drained that there cannot even be, there cannot be even a thought of it. It cannot be a thought, a word, a choice. God will finish His plan in today’s age and save the people He knows wants to be saved. He cares for those who follow Him, the ones of His salvation, the ones who have been made complete by Him in Jesus. He cares so much that He will wait for us as long as He possibly can as He has determined. God’s care is so abundant, it is so essential that it will be for the full salvation of His people. God cares...