I have spoken to you from this portion regarding living in harmony with one another and also I have spoken to you about how to deal with the opposition of those who oppose without fear. But all of these are accomplished in truth only by embracing within your hearts the attitude of My Son. And you see in this final portion that by so doing you will be able to endure suffering. In fact, as it declares here, it will be like a weapon. And what will it be a weapon against? What will it combat? It says it will overcome evil human desires. And with what will they be overcome, and for what will you live instead of those evil human desires? It declares that you will live the rest of your earthly life for the same purpose for which My Son lived and that is to do My will. Yes, you must see that this is the attitude of My Son with which you must arm yourselves. And by that attitude you cannot only overcome those pressures of evil human desires to please their demands, but you can stand in the face of the opposition of those who seek to oppose you and to insult you because you live for My will instead of pleasing yourselves by indulging those evil human desires. And you see that this attitude, which is that of My Son, not only resists sin and stands firm in the face of opposition to those who are committed to sin, but it also takes into account that which is lasting and is willing to embrace the disciplines that produce the kind of conduct that truly in all things glorifies My Son. Look and see, for it declares that this involves clear mindedness and self control which enables you to pray, not just as a religious exercise but truly as an expression of faith and obedience, even as My Son prayed. And in such, as it says here, above all else enables you to love each other deeply. And such love will express itself in the giving of hospitality. And such giving will be with a glad heart, as it says here, without grumbling. It will also be expressed in the employment of the gifts that I have given you to serve others faithfully. Your very speech shall be a vehicle of My Words. Your service will not depend upon your strength and your own mere human effort, but upon My strength. And in all of these things, your motive will not be to obtain praise and honor for yourselves, but rather that I may be praised through the name of My Son.
These indeed will be the consequences of carrying in your heart the attitude of My Son to do My will and to please and glorify Me in all things. You, as you read these words and consider in your hearts what I have said to you about them, know full well that you cannot fulfill them by your own effort and striving. Everything that is involved in truly fulfilling these is beyond the power of mere human effort. And even if you should try in that way, you would not only fail and fall short, but the motivation of your heart would really be toward self-glory and not My glory. This surely would not be the attitude of My Son. But then what can you do in order to have this pattern fulfilled in your lives? This you can do; you can choose to have the same spirit by which My Son accomplished these things work in your own hearts so as to be armed as He was to do My will. And you can affirm and reaffirm this choice over and over again throughout your lifetime on this earth. And I promise you that as you steadfastly embrace this choice to do My will and to glorify Me, that it will surely be worked out in your lives according to the pattern of the life of My Son that My servant Peter presents here. And in this working out I will truly be praised and receive the glory.
Tags: Choice, Give Glory, Pleasing Heart
You know that there are those who consider what I have revealed and what I have caused to be recorded in the first covenant and they declare from their shallow reading and their very limited understanding that I am a cruel God, vindictive and harsh in My judgments. But you see here how I dealt with My people when they had sinned grievously and how I said in the previous portion that I would destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. But recall how that even My servant Moses was angry with them and broke the tablets, but also as he declared, that he interceded before Me and prayed that I would not destroy them. And why did he pray this? Because he was jealous for My name and for My reputation. And he declared before Me that the Egyptians would observe their destruction and would declare that I was not able to take them into the land of promise and that I hated them and was out to destroy them. Now if I were indeed the vengeful, harsh and wrathful God that some declare that I am, could I not have destroyed them anyway and chosen another nation to replace them? And should I really care what the nations think who do not know Me? But though, as you see, I spared Israel whom I had chosen, and I spared them, not because they did not deserve judgment, but rather because indeed I did love them and chose to show them mercy. And I indeed glorified My name before the nations in a much surer way because I dealt with them in mercy.
And you see that in the heart of My true servant there was also a cry for mercy, even though he was angry with them and commanded that My judgment be carried out on those who had sinned. Yes, My son and My daughter, they were given another chance to obey Me, even when they had rejected Me for a graven image. Now what is it that I would say to you through this? First of all that I have the same power of choice to choose a people for My name and for My glory that I had in that day. Secondly that I can be angry and judge and it would not be a contradiction of My love, even as it was not a contradiction when I judged sinful Israel. And thirdly that My true servant, though he too may share My anger at sin and disobedience, is also one whose heart is touched and moved by My heart, so that he too, like Moses, may desire that I show mercy and that he too may intervene and intercede in behalf of My people. And fourthly I am ready in showing them mercy to give them another opportunity for obedience. And finally that I through My servants will make an appeal to My people. Now I want you to understand that while you may see today, both among those who do not believe who are not yet My people but still My creation, and also among those who do believe, but yet have been walking in disobedience, that I will deal with them the measure of judgment that is necessary, not to destroy them, but to bring them to the place where I can show them My mercy. And if this is true of those who do not know Me, it is even more true of those who do. But I want you, if you would indeed walk with My true servants to carry that same mercy in your own hearts. And like My servant Moses, be more jealous both for My glory and for the preservation rather than the destruction of My disobedient people.
Tags: Compassion, Give Glory, Judgment, Mercy
Jericho was a stronghold which as it declares here was tightly shut up. It would have been impregnable to the efforts of the Israelites. They might have laid it under siege for a long time. But that would have not only delayed their entrance into the land and the campaign of conquest which I ordered, but it would have also left the people with the impression that they had overcome Jericho by their own efforts. I wanted them to understand very clearly that it was not they who overcame Jericho, but it was I who delivered it into their hands. And you see here that they were given very specific directions, which if judged by human reckoning, would not have made a lot of sense as to how to overcome this mighty stronghold.
But you see that I directed this message of how to take the city. And I declared to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands!”. I not only gave clear directions as how to proceed and the sure promise of victory, but I declared that all of the booty and the precious things were to be devoted to Me. The victory at Jericho was Mine and the booty, the spoil of war, was Mine. Now what would I say to you through this? Though you may not face physical strongholds like Jericho, filled with power and with practices directed by the evil one, you surely do face spiritual strongholds which in the realm of the spirit are as mighty and are as impregnable as was Jericho in the natural realm. But have I not declared that your warfare is truly a spiritual one, not after the order of the natural? And have I not declared that your weapons are only powerful through Me? And even as I gave directions to Joshua for the people concerning Jericho that seemed to defy the natural order and hold no promise of victory, yet have I not declared also that the warfare to which I have called you and the weapons which are mighty through Me will indeed pull down those strongholds. And though the tactics may differ from time to time and situations to situation, yet the strategy is the same and the weapons are the same and both are utterly dependent upon Me. And since that is so, even as it was in the defeat of Jericho, the spoil is Mine, the glory is Mine, the credit is Mine. Since it is by My power and My plan that strongholds that you face will fall, so it is that by My decree that when they do, there shall be no boasting, no glory, no credit, except in Me and to Me. Though the fame of Joshua spread as a result of what happened in Jericho, I want you to understand that it was not for the purpose of giving glory to Joshua, but for the purpose of spreading the fear of Me to the Canaanites, because I was working in and through Joshua as My chosen vessel. Therefore the glory was still Mine and so shall it be with you and with all that I call to come against the strongholds that you shall face.
If you will embrace the fullness of what I have told you here, you shall also expect the victory over those strongholds.
Tags: Give Glory, Spiritual Warfare