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Scripture reading: John 16:8
When we look at Matthew 25, we can see that at midnight there was a sudden cry made, “Behold the bridegroom comes.” There is a scramble now! There is no way you are going to put your soul straight in a situation of terror. God is saying, “Get your oil in your lamp!” We have oil in the vessel, we know it! Do you know why you know you have oil in your vessel? Put somebody on the piano and as they start to sing a song of God, see how you feel. The Spirit rises up in you, and you feel so blessed. That’s the oil in your lamp, in your spirit. You are all right when you are in the Spirit. You need to be all right when you are in the flesh!! God is saying to us that we have to make another step forward from where we are, so that the soul part of us is also protected under the shadow of the Almighty, just as the spirit part of us is protected.
When the bridegroom came, there was a cry made. Did you notice the scripture didn’t say this one cried, or that one cried? It says that there was a cry made! It means to say that there is a watchman company that God has watching, and when the bridegroom is afar off, he is going to spy Him, and cry out, “Get ready! He’s coming!” And this is what we are hearing now!
When the cry that the bridegroom is coming sounded, all the virgins arose. But for some people it was too late, they were shut out, and they were not in the bride class anymore. I don’t know if you understand what we are talking about. There’s a class of people that God is selecting. He wants some people to reign and to rule with Him, to be the rulers in this world, spiritually. He is now selecting His people. You can be selected and yet you drop out. For even in the selection, it is part of the testing to make you hardened and ready for the job that is ahead of you.
God is saying that if you are going to move, move now! The way that you thought you should move in the past is not the way that God is speaking to you now. God is speaking to us to move on ourselves. Go to God. Be worried about your condition. Some of us want a wife, or we want a husband, and it becomes an obsession to us before God. Go to God with it. “This thing is an obsession to me, it’s disturbing my concentration upon You. Help me!” He might just give you one and that might be the help. But He might say, “Look to the Lord; turn your mind upon God.” And guess what? When you turn your mind upon God, you will get all the things that you need to carry you on the next few steps. It is a God we are dealing with! It is not a man! Amen!
But we have to trust Him. Many of us don’t trust God. I am telling you, we don’t trust Him! I had a confrontation, a good confrontation with one of my dearly beloved brethren. It was, “Oh, brethren, please pray for my son. Please pray for my son. Oh, God!” I said, “Do you think you love that boy more than God does? Leave the boy alone in the hand of God. Just tell God what you want and go rejoicing! God will do the rest! Stop worrying!” If you worry, you don’t believe Him. You are just deceiving yourself that you believe God. We’d better put the things that we need in life before God and say, “Papa, take charge of it.” And we love Him. “You love me, You are going to do it for me.” And you start rejoicing! Forget it! Because this soul must be fixed. Do you hear me? Get into it, put your soul into the shop like you would put your car and leave it. Let God fix it! Because the time is late, late, late, late. I would hate to see anything happen and you just start running. When the situation happened in New York in 2001, all the churches were full! People are still going to church thinking that is the way to appease God. But God wants us to begin to examine ourselves, and the blessed thing about it is that we all are wrong sometimes. Sometimes you say something and you think, “Man, I wish I didn’t say that,” but it was in there and you said it. But that coming out of your mouth, let it be a blessing. If you talk something wrong let it be a blessing, because you are conscious of it and you say, “Oh, God, don’t let this happen again.” And no sooner than you say, “Don’t let it happen again,” it happens again. You know what I mean. Don’t give up on yourself! God is true! John 16:8 says that it is the Holy Ghost that comes to judge the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Even our righteousness sometimes is not up to mark, but He pricks you, “Alright, Jesus, leave it to me. I’m going to fix it. I won’t do it again.” But He will always be there with you. If we take God as a present help in trouble, One who knows and understands us, we can stop worrying about our condition. Stop worrying about our brethren, our children, or whatever else; put them in the hand of God and say, “Alright, take charge of it, Lord.”
(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, April 28, 2002)
Thought for today: When you turn your mind upon God, you will get all the things that you need to carry you on the next few steps. It is a God we are dealing with! It is not a man!
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