The Good Laodicean - DON’T BE A MINIMALIST

No. 09 - DON’T BE A MINIMALIST
By: John J. Blanchard
Wednesday, April 03, 2002

Last Day of Unleavened Bread

On the First Day of Unleavened Bread we asked God for spiritual vision. We took a look at that famous scripture in Proverbs 29:18. You need not turn there. I am sure you will remember that we did look at it. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Then we took a glimpse at Revelation 3:17 and noticed that our Church era is in bad need of vision help and that we are blind. Then we looked at I Corinthians 11:27-32. We did that in preparation for the Passover and for the Days of Unleavened Bread. We examined ourselves, asking God for spiritual vision, so that we could examine ourselves and judge ourselves so that He would not have to judge us. We examined ourselves so that we would not be taking the Passover in an unworthy manner. Thus, insuring that in the upcoming year, not only would God’s judgment be light upon us, but that He would answer our prayers, that we would be healed from our sicknesses and that death could be avoided. These are blessings that we should be able to have each and every year, if we take the Passover in a worthy manner. With that frame of mind, we renewed our baptismal covenant - the covenant that we made with Jesus Christ after we were called.

Turn to Matthew 20:16. We will cover some new material now. This should go hand and glove with what we started to study on the First Day of Unleavened Bread. Matthew 20:16 - “‘So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.’” So we find, brethren, that we are called. This is not something we dreamt up on our own. We did not invite ourselves into God’s Church, the body of Christ. In fact, we did very little but be made aware by God that there was something out there. He gently drew us and we responded. We responded. This we have to keep in mind, otherwise we can feel we did something special - that we deserve some sort of special treatment, that we in fact had a bigger part to play in saving ourselves than we really did. It is important not to think and feel that way.

We were drawn, and we can take a look at another scripture in that regard. Turn to John 6. Because we were drawn, many blessings opened up to us when we said, “Yes.” It says, “‘Many are called but few are chosen.’” Few respond. John 6:44 “‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.’” So it is impossible. It is literally impossible. We cannot find Christ without being drawn, and the Father draws us; therefore, it is a blessing. It is an opportunity extended to us and something we responded to. Once we respond to that and we covenant with Him, we then have the opportunity to be drawn into the body of Christ. We have the chance to be fed - fed the bread of life and drink of Christ’s blood and have our sins removed. This is a tremendous blessing offered to few people at this time - very, very few.

So once we have this blessing, each year God says now in the holy days I am going to picture My plan to you, but we are going to start the year off with Passover. I want you to recovenant with Me for another year, that you are going to stay with the program, you accept My Son’s blood, you accept His bread (His body), you wash one another’s feet and renew the agreement. It is almost like a lease. You renew it year by year. We can reject during that year and lose everything. But, we obey God and each year we renew. We renew that gift, that covenant, that agreement that we made at baptism. So this is a very serious time of the year and that is why we examine ourselves.

Are we up to committing for another year? Are we up to this? Can we bear a crop for God? Can we examine ourselves, discern the body of Christ and judge ourselves so that God will not have to judge us harshly? Each year we take some time before Passover, before the new year starts and the cycle of the holy days begins and examine ourselves to see if (A) we bore a crop for God last year and (B) if we are ready to do it again. For once you have put the hands to the plow, there is no going back. You either continue or you reject it. We have chosen to continue and we are being blessed. I know that God will hear our prayers this year. We will have more healings, we will have people protected from death and blessed in many, many ways; because we examined ourselves and humbled ourselves.

But the point I am trying to make here is that this was a blessing offered to us and that we did not design it of ourselves or fulfill it in anyway for ourselves. This is a gift from God. We just said, “yes.” We will do all that You say. We will obey. We will recommit, and we will partake of the body. We will partake of the blood, and we will be reinvigorated this year. We will bear a crop for You God. So, we make that agreement. We understand, though, that we are special!

Now meaning that we are special, but we are not going to stay unique. We are not in some way “better.” We are not superior to the rest of mankind, but we are special. For one reason - we are first! We are part of the firstfruits. We are spiritual Israel. We understand that we are the body of Christ. We understand that we are the bride, that we are part of the temple and that we are considered by God the “apple of His eye.” The temple is considered the “apple of God’s eye.”

Turn to Psalm 17:8 - “Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me under the shadow of Your wings.” That is David talking to God. David knew he was part of the temple. He was called. He had the Holy Spirit and he wanted to be remembered by God as part of the apple of His eye. Now last week, it just happened that for the Night To Be Much Observed that was the theme - the “apple of His eye.” We had decorations of apples and scriptures on the apples reminding us that God looked at us as special people. But we also were taught during the sermon and sermonette that we are special because we are first and God has extended this wonderful blessing to us. But, we are not special because we are superior. We are not “better.” Then I concluded that sermon with the question, “So where do we go from here?” We have discerned the body of Christ. We examined ourselves. We got ready for another year. We agreed to bear a crop. What’s going on now? Where are we going from here?

That was the question I left you with. I want to devote the rest of this sermon to answering that question. Let’s answer that question. We are going to do it with the correct way of thinking and that is God’s way of thinking. We are going to try to think like God, and I am warning you that is not easy for a human being - but He helps us! We have a bit of the mind of God in us and that makes it possible!

Turn to Psalm 92:5 - “O Lord, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep.” Very deep, incredible depth to God’s thinking, incredible depth to God’s plan, and He has let us into that plan! He let us have a part of it. He let us have a bit of His mind so that we can comprehend what we are doing. Otherwise how could He say I want you to examine yourself, judge yourself, see if you can bear a crop, if He knew we could not understand one thing about it? He could not ask that of us.

So it is obvious we can think like God because He gave us a little bit of His mind. So He says now I want you to examine yourself. I want you to judge yourself so I do not have to judge you. I want to be able to bless you this year, heal you and take care of your needs and protect you from death. I want to hear your prayers so you judge yourself, and I won’t have to judge you. What does that take? The mind of God! We do not know how to judge correctly. We are not like the Supreme Court with human beings trying to figure out human motives and what’s right and what’s wrong. We need to know. If we are going to judge, we need to know. This is practice for what we will be doing for the world and through eternity.

So we have been doing that and we have been working on it. With the mind of God and Him helping us, let’s look at the kind of thoughts God has. Isaiah 55:9 - “‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” God’s thoughts are so high, and He says I am giving you a bit of My mind to help you reach up there. “‘For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater…’” so it can bear a crop. We are to bear a crop and how do we bear a crop?

We bear a crop each year by examining ourselves, by bearing fruit, by striving to grow in holy righteous character. We do it by thinking big! That is how God thinks. God thinks big. So that is why I titled this sermon, “Don’t Be A Minimalist” because human beings think small. We think tiny thoughts. So God tells us in His word My thoughts are so high above your thoughts but I am going to give you a bit of My mind so you can reach - reach up there - look in My plan, look in the word of God and My holy days and expand your mind! Expand your thinking. Do not think piddlely, little, stupid thoughts! Think like Me! Don’t be a minimalist. I have given you a bit of My mind and now use it! Now He says in another place, no man can imagine the things that He has in store for us, but we are to try. The holy days give us the opportunity to try to live life in the future now with harmony, with peace, with the millennium during the fall. So we can examine God’s future for us and think big.

Now there was a great architect, a man by the name of Daniel Burnham. He was a man who was one of the first to invent skyscrapers, and he designed the city of Chicago, the layout of the city. Many of the first skyscrapers in Chicago he designed. Daniel Burnham had this philosophy and this saying, “Make no little plans for they have no power to stir men’s blood.” You need to think BIG, to get people excited, BIG to make people want to live forever! If God told me, John, you can live forever and think big. The house you live in now I am going to give you two of them to live in forever. I would say, “What, that’s not big!” No, He says, John, you may have five cities, ten cities and the end of My government no one can see. It will grow and grow and you and all of humanity can take a part in that! It will never be finished growing! Now we can get excited about that! We are never going to run out of things to do! God looks at His plan and He says, look, if Daniel Burnham, a man created after My image, can realize little plans have no power to stir men’s blood, do you think God is going to come up with tiny little plans? No way! It is going to be huge, it is going to be awesome!

That is what I tell you today. Let’s not be minimalist in our thinking. Let’s think BIG! Let’s think bigger than we have ever thought before! So we are going to get rid of our piddlely little minor thoughts and we are going to think grand - grander than ever! Because I tell you right now, God hates vain thinking. We are going to take a look for a minute at vain thinking.

What is vanity? What does God consider vain thinking? You can look this up in the Strong’s. It is there for you to discover. Vain thinking is wasteful thinking, destructive thoughts, futile thoughts, thoughts of destruction and desolation. You will find that in your Strong’s. God calls that vanity or a waste of time! Thoughts of death and destruction, of vainness, of futility - that is not God’s way. God hates thoughts like that and in mankind they proliferate. They come from Satan. Tiny thoughts and thoughts of competition, envy, strife, taking from your neighbor, of destroying your neighbor’s country, destroying his family - those are vain, futile thoughts because they are thoughts of destruction, of wastefulness, wasting human life.

God literally hates that kind of thinking. In Ezekiel chapter 13 God devotes a whole chapter to talking about that kind of thinking. We are just going to look at part of it. Ezekiel 13:4 - “‘O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts. You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the Lord.’” Speaking of the temple of God. “‘They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, “Thus says the Lord!” But the Lord has not sent them; yet they hope that the word may be confirmed.’” So referring to the futile thinking, destructive thinking in the temple of God, God says I did not send you to say that. I do not like wasteful, desolate destructive thoughts. I hate that!

Verse 7: “‘Have you not seen a futile vision, and have you not spoken false divination? You say, “The Lord says,” but I have not spoken.’” God has not said those things! Satan is the destroyer. God is the master builder.

Verse 8 of Ezekiel 13: “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you.’ says the Lord God. ‘My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God. Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, “Peace!” when there is no peace - and one builds a boundary wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar - say to those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it down.’”

Some day in the near future we are going to examine that more closely, but I want you to notice that God hates vain, futile thoughts. He does not want people talking for Him in that vein of thinking because it is wrong-headed. It is not correct. God thinks big. God thinks grand and God is a builder. He realizes that no little plan is good for stirring men’s blood so He has a HUGE plan! He starts with Passover. He shows us, I send my Son to save you from your sins. That’s BIG!

God says we are going to go through the holy days and examine how eventually My government will expand itself through the entire universe! So do not be a part of My temple thinking vain thoughts; rather fill in the wall. Build a solid house with solid mortar joints so that it will remain standing when the tempest comes - when the storm comes.

Isaiah 45 talks more of this. Isaiah 45:18 - “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is no other.” God formed the earth to be inhabited. When it was created, God said it is very good. Now Satan has been trying to destroy it ever since. Vanity: vain thoughts and desolation, come from Satan. God has mentioned desolation in the Bible, but He is always showing mankind a way around it. When we are fooled into thinking there is no way out, that is the trap that Satan has laid for mankind - vanity, wastefulness! God is not going to waste His creation. As a matter of fact, that term “vain” here in verse 18 is tohu - the same as in Genesis. When Christ refurbished the earth and renewed the surface, He found it in a condition of tohu and bohu - “total destruction, void.” God said I did not create the surface of the earth to ever go through that again. That is what He promised.

So when we say God Himself wants to destroy this earth and save the precious few who are the apple of His eye and no one else, that is futility. That is vain thinking. That is desolation and destruction. That is playing into the hands of Satan the devil who, indeed, is the destroyer. That is part of his name. He does want to destroy the earth and shut off the family of God. He does want to ruin God’s creation and he is the god of this earth. In a way it is his right, but Christ took that rulership away from him 2,000 years ago. That is what we are portraying here in the spring holy days.

There is renewed hope for the world. The Church has a big part to play. The firstfruits are the government that God is going to use to replace that evil government that wants to destroy everything. So we must not preach the message of Satan, the message of vanity, destruction, desolation, futility and waste. No, we need to bring the good tidings of good news, and we need to think grand. We need to think wonderful thoughts because God hates the thoughts of vanity. His thoughts are so high above our thoughts, and we need to think like Him. We need to think like a builder, not like a destroyer.

So let’s not make the mistake that so many of the prophets, it says here in Ezekiel 13, made, and preach vanity - no hope for the rest of mankind. Preach to ourselves peace and safety, when there is none! Because there isn’t any. If we preach vanity, we are in danger of getting destroyed because we have God’s anger on us! We are to be preaching hope to the world, to help preserve the world, to give them the light of God, to show them that God indeed has a wonderful plan and it will eventually be for all mankind.

We heard in the sermon earlier this morning about bondage. We have been released from bondage - released from captivity. We are first! The rest of the world has not been released yet, that’s all. So we are held accountable to this covenant. We have imbibed of the body of Christ, the bread of life. We have been washed clean by His blood; the rest of the world has not had that opportunity. So, are they worthy of destruction? Satan wants to do it, but God says, no, I am going to release you all from bondage.

Now the earth was under a curse. We do not have a lot of time to spend here, but I would like to look briefly at Malachi 4:6. Yes, the earth was under a curse. It was going to get destroyed for it was under Satan, the master destroyer, the god of this world, and had no hope. It had no hope, but in God’s plan He found a way! He made a way! Malachi 4:4 - “Remember the law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” If you look up in Strong’s you will see that that is Father - God the Father turned to mankind; and mankind in the form of the temple, the apple of His eye, turning to God to remove the curse from the world. This curse here is “utter destruction.” So God has a way and we are part of that way. We are part of the way that God is going to liberate the world held captive. We will talk more about that in a future sermon as well.

Under the god of this world there was no hope. The earth and the people on it were doomed. If we continue to think like that, we are being minimalist for we are saying God can only save the firstfruits. He can only save a few of us and build a new world on the ashes - build a new world out of destruction. God says, no. He said in Isaiah 45:18 I did not create the surface of the earth to get destroyed. I did not create it in vain. I created it to be inhabited - ultimately to be inhabited by His government and people forever at the seat of the government for the universe! He did not create the government to become a huge cinder or a pile of cosmic dust. He created it for a beautiful purpose, and He will succeed.

We have to think big, brethren. We have to stop thinking that God can save a few people because His arm is not short. So think big! God is not a loser. He will not allow the earth to be destroyed. He wants to deliver this world held captive, and it is our job to give them hope. It is our job to show them how God can do it. You see God took the firstfruits, a small harvest, and He is successfully harvesting us. He successfully put in some of His mind. He successfully called us and gave us salvation and released us from captivity. We are now going to show the entire world how God is going to do it with them. So do not think worthless thoughts.

Turn to Psalm 4:1. God does not want us thinking worthless thoughts for one minute. We do not have time to dwell on worthless thoughts. Psalm 4:1 - “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me when I was in distress; have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. How long, O you sons of men, will you turn My glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness…” which we sang in the hymn earlier this morning. How long will you love the thoughts of vanity? How long are you going to believe that message of destruction from Satan? I can save My creation! I can save mankind!

Continuing in verse 3: “But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly; the Lord will hear when I call to Him.” God is going to save all who answer His call, we are just the first. There will be billions later on. They will be called the innumerable multitude, the second fruits, if you will.

Continuing in verse 4: “Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, ‘Who will show us any good?’ Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased. I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Many are saying who is going to show us any good? The people in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa - the hopeless of the world, who is going to show them that there is a God who cares and loves them and is, indeed, going to redeem the planet? Who is not going to allow this planet to get destroyed and all mankind to die with it? Who promises a millennium? This 6,000 years is hell on earth because we are under the god of this world, not because we are under the true God. We understand that. We have the hope to tell the world that very shortly so there will be an innumerable multitude that can make a knowledgeable decision and say, yes, I want to covenant with You, Jesus Christ. I want to accept Your blood. I want to eat of the bread of life. I want to be in Your kingdom. They do not understand that right now. They need to hear that. They need to be taught. That is our job.

We are going to be doing it very soon and we better think big and go to people with huge plans and tell them this earth is going to be liberated! This earth that has been held captive under Satan’s government is going to be released. You will have a chance to become slaves to God rather than Satan. Bond slaves of the true God and free in the millennium and forever thereafter to do good - to bear fruit, to become holy and righteous in character! Now that is the good news that we can preach to the world. This is what will make them happy and give them hope.

Psalm 94:8 - “Understand, you senseless among the people; and you fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? He who instructs the nations, shall He not correct, He who teaches man knowledge? The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile.” God knows we are stuck with tiny little minds that cannot think out of the box, that cannot project themselves into the millennium (the world tomorrow) the plan of God, except for those of us who have received a little bit of God’s Holy Spirit - a little bit of His mind! God says now reach up to My thoughts, reach up to My grand thoughts for mankind. The position that I have for you where you will judge angels, where you inherit all things with My Son! Think like that! That is what He is telling us. Each year in His plan we agree to think like that and to get rid of vain thoughts and futile thoughts. We agree to be the hope of the world. Each year we let Him down flat telling them they are going to get destroyed! There is no hope. You will get resurrected sometime far into the future but prepare to watch your children die, prepare to get burned on the earth, prepare to get destroyed in war, prepare to die from disease, prepare to lose it all first. That is not God’s message. That is futility. That is wastefulness. That is destruction. That is desolation. That is Satan’s message.

God says in His word as we just read in Malachi 4:6 that is what would have happened to you, but I am not going to let it happen to you. Turn to Me and seek Me. Bow to Me when the opportunity comes when I call you and draw you to my Son and I have given you a little bit of Our mind to think big and say, “Yes!” Do not think your futile, wasteful thoughts that you get from Satan. Reject those thoughts. Give hope to the world because I am going to do this. You have a chance to do it with Me. But you cannot if you continue to prophesy futility and doom. You cannot if you continue to be a minimalist. I need people who think like Me that is why I gave you some of My mind! Think like Me and I am helping you with the holy days and My word. Think like Me.

That is what we are going to try to do this year: think like God and bring hope to people, joy to people. Tell them this is about to end. Satan’s government is going to come crashing down and a new perfect government will bring utopia very shortly! There is hope. You will be released from this captivity. You are not all going to get destroyed - only the wicked, those of you who refuse.

Turn to Isaiah 50:2 - “‘Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.’” God says why is there no man showing My greatness? Why is there no man showing My power? I will only destroy the wicked. Please, He says, proclaim My power - the hope for mankind!

Isaiah 59:1 - “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity.” Why? Because we tell people there is no hope! We say we are speaking for God! God does not like that. He says think grand thoughts, think big.

Turn to James 3. How we use our tongue, especially when we speak about God, is incredibly important to God; because we do not want to misportray the Creator of the universe. James 3:6 - “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.”

We are being told here that we want to bless God and say we are with you God and curse men with the same mouth that we bless God with. That cursing in the scriptures if you look up the Greek is called an “execration.” It is pronouncing doom on mankind! We cannot and we must not pronounce doom on mankind. Instead we need to have the point of view that there but for the grace of God go I. I am not better than anyone else on the earth. I am only first.

We are our brother’s keeper. Cain asked that question 6,000 years ago - am I my brother’s keeper? What was he told? Yes, you are! That has been shown over and over again. God showed us. Jesus Christ did with the story of the good Samaritan. He showed us that we are here to preserve mankind, as the salt of the earth. We are our brother’s keeper. When we tell our brother you are doomed and I am special, I am going to a place of safety, we are doing exactly like it says in Ezekiel 13. We are building a wall of untempered mortar and we are going to face the wrath of God for that!

Luke 9:51 spells it out quite plainly - from Jesus Christ’s own mouth. “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem...” This is Jesus Christ and several of the apostles headed toward Jerusalem. “...and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’ but He turned and rebuked them and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.’”

He was telling them, Satan wants to destroy all of mankind. Do not be like Jonah who wanted Nineveh destroyed. You are here as the salt of the earth to help preserve mankind. Get with the program! I have called you into the body of Christ and the purpose of the body of Christ is to feed people so they will have eternal life. We do not want to pronounce execrations, doom and gloom, on mankind. We are here to help mankind.

You know it is time to remember the most quoted scripture of the Bible. You hear it everywhere but often we never think about it. John 3:16 - “‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’” That is perhaps the most quoted scripture in the Bible. Did it say God gave His only begotten Son for the firstfruits, for My special people? No, for all of mankind. We are simply the firstfruits, and God is going to use us to help bring hope to all of mankind. To help liberate them from captivity of Satan the devil - that is our purpose as the temple of God! We need to remember that.

God is going to open the eyes of billions and billions of people soon! They will be called the innumerable multitude from every tongue, kindred, place and people. They are innumerable because there are so many of them! For when God pours out His Holy Spirit upon all flesh and they have the blinders removed and they are ready to be taught, they will need somebody to show them the true way versus the false way, to allow them to answer their calling, to allow them to receive the Holy Spirit. At that point when they bow their knee to Jesus Christ and they are baptized and they covenant with Jesus Christ, they will become one of the innumerable multitude! What an awesome plan God has! We will go into the millennium with billions of people living on this earth and the wicked will have been eliminated. Those who refuse and want no part of it, of course, will not be there. But I dare to say, when the blindness is removed from the world, very, very few will refuse.

Let’s turn to Psalm 119:113 - “I hate the double-minded, but I love Your law. You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word. Depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God.” The evil doers will depart, but that will be the few because the rest will have accepted because their minds will have been opened.

Psalm 119:116 - “Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live; and do not let me be ashamed of my hope. Hold me up, and I shall be safe, and I shall observe Your statutes continually. You reject all those who stray from Your statutes, for their deceit is falsehood. You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross; therefore I love Your testimonies. My flesh trembles for fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments.” How do you get rid of the dross, the wicked, if they have never had their minds opened to refuse Christ? You cannot, they are blind. When they have their minds open and they have a choice and they willingly refuse Jesus Christ, yes, they become dross. Until that point, there is hope and they can, and most will, become part of the innumerable multitude. Think BIG!

Go to Joel 2:28 - “‘And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also on my menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.’” That is these days! Now when God pours His Spirit upon the earth like He has in His Church, you watch the rate of conversion. It will be a fire that consumes the earth, it says in Isaiah 33. That is the fire of God’s Holy Spirit converting the world. We are about to witness that and be a part of it actually happening for the harvest is ripe! God is going to do a wonderful work. We, brethren, are among those to bring the good news of this to the world and stop pronouncing desolation, destruction and execrations upon mankind.

Isaiah 40:9 - “‘O Zion, you who bring good tidings, get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, you who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, behold your God.’” That is what we are trying to do: lift up our voice to show hope to the world and bring good tidings. Verse 10: “Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young.”

Now that is the same God who called us and is leading us. He is going to do it to the world because Satan will be eliminated and his government will be gone! God’s Holy Spirit will be poured upon mankind so that they can see and understand and receive the bread of life, accept the blood of Jesus Christ and make a covenant with Him! This is wonderful good news to the world that they have never heard before!