“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” 2 Timothy 4:3

As a youth working in the inner city of Chicago, I was always mystified by the drug dealer. He would stand next to an expensive convertible, have on a fur coat and big hat, flash gold teeth, and usually be accompanied by more than one woman dressed to fit the motif. He exuded all the deeds of the flesh. There was always a demeaning air about him as he dealt with those lining up to make their purchases. He had something that they wanted (or had to have, in some cases), and that gave him the upper hand; he could be as rude as he wanted to be. It was vexing to watch the twisted, worn, and toothless come to make their purchases. Even then I knew that a lesser gave way to a greater, and the reason he so despised those pathetic creatures was because he needed them to maintain his lifestyle. Something in him knew that he was lesser and they the greater, and this he disliked. I am seeing something similar that is disturbing today. The “spiritual” dealer is nearly a mirror of the drug dealer. I have heard the sermon on “seed money” so many times from the “spiritual” dealer as he admonishes believers to give and it will come back to them. The “spiritual” dealer may own three twenty-million-dollar homes, a jet, designer clothes, a multitude of luxury cars, and jewelry. This is all justified, because Jesus deserves the best. But Jesus is not living in the houses. Jesus had a robe with no pockets for collecting things; His Kingdom was not of this earth. Yet believers line up to give to such foolishness, even though the “spiritual” dealer talks about his followers with disdain, due to the clear separation between “us and them.” I watched a hidden camera catching the  “spiritual” dealers sweep up the donations, put them in trash bags, laugh, and gad about town on a shopping spree. I have to say that these things are good, because God has permitted them for the revelation of many hearts. In the context of His will, He gives the desire of the heart; and if it is health, wealth, security, and fame, it may be given. However, if the heart’s desire is to know Him in this short life, that also will be given. We are not to peddle or promote ourselves, but Christ. The best way to stay away from a drug dealer is never to let what he has stir something in our flesh. The best way to avoid the “spiritual” dealer is never to let his appearance stir some flesh in us. Finally, we can ask for the grace of God to accomplish, in this life, our never being sidetracked by giving attention to something that surrounds Him, but is not Him.

James 1:14, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” Galatians 5:16-17, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”

I am starting to believe that people are deceived because there is something in them desiring the deception. First, if Satan has the ability to deceive all men, then all men would be deceived. Obviously he does not have that kind of power. So what does he look for in a man that would allow for a deception? Satan is looking for something in the heart of man where the deception can begin. It would be impossible for Christ to deceive any person, for there is nothing in Christ that the flesh desires. True Christianity cannot deceive, for again, nothing in the flesh wants anything at all to do with Christianity.

Christianity has one message for my flesh: “Move over!” So what is it that makes man’s heart open to deception? I believe it is the desire of a heart that says, “I can be God.” Rephrased, it is the desire of the heart to be independent from God. This is why the Mormon religion is so successful; it is cleverer than the early Catholics who embraced the local gods of the people, or just gave them different names. As you know, many “Catholic” countries are rife with blends of Catholicism and witchcraft. Haiti is an example. However, the Mormons offer something more: man can actually become a god. Man can invite his wife to his celestial kingdom, where she can be eternally pregnant. This “deception” has incredible drawing power to those who have suffered under the hand of their unjust god, or who have served a god all of their lives. After all, who would not want to believe that he could become the one who hands out punishment and receives gifts from others?

Such a person is deceived with a ludicrous teaching, but moving past the cobweb to the spider, we see at the root a heart that says, “I want to be God.” Deceptions all offer the flesh something, and Christ is always taking something away from the flesh. When someone converts to Mormonism, or any of the other “-isms,” I never feel that the Mormons won one while the Christians lost one. Instead, I believe that the person, in believing the deception of Mormonism, actually revealed a heart previously hidden that is anti-Christ. Again, we see that nothing is working against us. God is permitting all the “-isms” for the revelation of hearts. The germ of every cult is this promise of keeping the flesh alive through some kind of God-playing. The amazing thing is that it holds any attraction, when it is so much easier to have a God than to play God.

We simply cannot receive it all at once!

Psalms 89: 45 “You have shortened the days of his youth.”
I was talking to a fellow who was discouraged that at age 22 he hadn’t seen that Jesus was his life. I laughed. “Brother, if you could know all that you need to know before entering heaven at age 22, God would not have set the length of man’s life at 70 years! Relax.” God has created this world for a purpose, and it functions under His permit. There are things that can only be learned here. We are in the process of losing all, in order that we might gain everything in Him. In one study the average age of coming to see that Christ was actually in a person was between 55 and 70. We simply cannot receive it all at once! We are not intended to get it all at once! We are in a process!

Through defeat, what was man’s became the enemy’s.

Luke 10:18, “And He said to them, ‘I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. 20Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.’”
When one king defeats another king, the subjects of the defeated kingdom become slaves. Satan conquered the man Adam and became the ruler of the world over which Adam had been given dominion. Through defeat, what was man’s became the enemy’s. However, when the second Adam, Jesus, conquered Satan, things above, below, and on the earth became the Son of God’s. We are in His kingdom, and therefore, what is His is ours. This simply means that we do not have to be controlled by spirits! If you don’t like a spirit, remember that in Jesus’ Kingdom you have authority over it. In Africa an old woman would not call alcohol by that name, choosing instead to call it a spirit. If the spirit of alcohol is controlling you, it is by your permission. I have known those that are controlled by the spirit of suicide, and there simply isn’t any excuse for that. Draw near to Christ and simply tell the spirits to leave. You are in His kingdom, and what is His, He has shared with you. All spirits must now yield to Him. Again, at the highest revelation of Jesus there will be no opposition.

“Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and {began} to recognize them as having been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13

Are we happy to be in the company of the Unknowns? To go into the ministry of the unknown, ministering to the Unknowns? This is the true ministry of faith. He came, God in Man, unknown! He didn’t attempt to make Himself known, He wanted the Father to be known. Divine humility! Amazing! We too are to be unknown. We are making Him known.

Why are we unknown? Being unknown keeps us safe. Being unknown will keep the elect from kingdom building, self-righteousness, glory, and image. All these things must be broken at His feet. It is the kind of wealth that we don’t need and belong to Him. We must lose everything to discover the power of the life within. It is crucial that we are unknowns. Amazingly, we are entrusted with the greatest message and kingdom and no one wants to know us! We represent Him, we have direct access to Him, and no one wants to know us. We will judge angels and no one wants to know us.

A ministry of the Unknowns, a company of the Unknowns, all with the same vision to remain attached to the life of the vine, the life of the vine to flow out of the Unknowns. We are all one, yet all different; all tapped into the same life, not branch to a branch but a branch to the vine. The ministry of the Unknowns is a WITH ministry. Unknowns band together. Unknowns are not recognized. We work without recognition.

This world’s system is not an accident. It is all permitted. It is all in the plan of God. It is all there for a purpose: the breaking of kingdoms, righteousness, pride, strength, glory. It is all in the plan of God. Permitted. It is, well, nice, that He is using man’s stupidity. It all works to His end. Nothing is bad. This is the best possible life. How do we judge that things are good or bad? The soulish judge them on the basis of their outer life, their soul life. The soulish don’t like their outer life broken. They fight against being Unknown. However, everything must go that hinders the release of the life in me. Nothing is bad that accomplishes that. Being Unknown accomplishes that, and remember, we are known by Him!

“And as for you, you meant evil against me, {but} God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
Gen 50:20

I really dread bringing up my bible college days, those days when we sat around and discussed how ignorant congregations were, how they didn’t do what they knew was right, and how they could be so stupid. I can’t stand those memories primarily because all my judgments befell me.

It is so easy to stand on the work of others, carnal or spiritual, and make judgments. For years I actually believed that my thinking was my thinking, that I owed no one. I would read the anti-nicean fathers and think, “How could they believe that?” It was easy to look back through history and assess what was right or wrong with those believers.

Well, I am getting older and see that I stand on their shoulders, that what many did, in the light of what they had, has brought me into a greater light. I am not independent of them. I am not smarter. I was born in this age, with this education, all for a time to come. It is easy to look at some doctrine that a Luther or Calvin believed and judge them. However, I stand in my reality and judge them in theirs.

My point is twofold. First, all that the believers did before me, good and bad, has helped to make me what I am. I am indebted to them and not as independent as I would like to think. Second, I should never despise the work of God, which can be accomplished through the good or the bad in a saint.

Many are angry over the bondage that they lived under in legalism. They despise those that taught it to them, manipulated and controlled them through it. Don’t! Their teaching didn’t bring you into bondage. Their teaching revealed that you had a righteousness of your own. Only a self-righteous person would attempt such a journey with such a teacher. It’s your fault you were in bondage. You went along with it. God permitted it because He knew that you needed it! It was being in bondage that made you long for freedom. It was bondage that makes your freedom today so precious.

Therefore, bless those that used you, abused you, and brought you under bondage. God used them to make you long for a contrast.

“And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Gen. 1:27

Often I am asked how I can believe in a God that permits suffering. My response, “How can you continue to believe in man that causes it.”

Man seems to love playing God, in science, social issues, in the world, and in relationships. One fellow told me that while watching a loved one die, he realized that he could be God! Incredible!

However, man’s playing God and imitating God seems to come to an abrupt halt when it comes to forgiveness. If man is to imitate God, why not imitate all of God? Imitate His forgiveness, love, mercy, kindness, and will. Why not love as He loves, forgive as He forgave, and be a leaven in the world as He was?

In the end, we see that man doesn’t really want to imitate God. He wants to be God. Man, as God, proves himself to be self-serving, self-centered, void of forgiveness and compassion, violent, and indifferent. We end where we began. Why trust man who causes suffering? There is a way and a “not the way”. Jesus is the way and every other way is not the way.

“And behold, there arose a great storm in the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves; but He Himself was asleep.” Matt. 8:24

This night, I was thinking of two things. First, the story of the storm in Matthew 8. Jesus is asleep, the storm comes, the disciples are frightened, and they call on Him. Shouldn’t we always call on Him in a storm?

However, they call on Him and are rebuked. Why? Jesus had permitted the storm for their perfection. The process was interrupted by unbelief. Jesus stopped the storm, He did a miracle, and all that at their bidding. But it was not a positive. It is not a revelation of their greatness but their unbelief.

Instead of crying out for the storm to stop, they should have crawled next to Him and gone to sleep. They should have rested in the storm. The storm would not have touched them either way. The storm was not the issue; what the storm could perfect in them or expose in them was the issue.

It is interesting that in today’s Christianity calling on Jesus and forcing a miracle is proof of spirituality, but the opposite is true. You have a rebellious child. You are in a storm and you have a choice. Call on Jesus to stop it or lie down next to Him and rest. I know which one you will do!

The second thought was this. We have prayed to share in the power of the resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings and to be like Him in His death. What is the fellowship of His sufferings? It is many things.

However, there is one thing that it must certainly be. If we are parents, we must have a child that refuses Him. That was His greatest suffering. All the created children of God, every one, to the last man, refused Him. We must share in it. We begin to see just how deeply He suffered. We begin to understand the gospel. We will share in all things, suffering, death, and the power. Suffering comes before the power. We don’t like what is happening, but we refuse to be taken out of it.

We must refuse to ask Him to quiet the storm before the storm has perfected us.

Satan must work under a permit. The book of Job proves it.
He had to approach God to get a permit. However, because
of Jesus, the Divine Deviation, Satan was cast from heaven.
His work permit has been permanently canceled. We do not
fight him; we stand against him. He doesn’t have a permit.