Holy Spirit’s Workshop [www.holyspiritsworkshop.com] – Sat 29.04.

2006

Success and His Successor

Does it surprise you that the word success does not occur in the New Testament at all, and neither does
any of its derivatives or associated words, whether by grammar, tense, noun or adverb format? In truth,
it should not surprise any of us, except we have been so loaded down with doubt concerning the
magnitude and the ability of Jesus and the truth of His word, that we would pray that God grant us
success!

The truth is: Jesus is SUCCESS. He has succeeded, and being the Heir, He is the Successor. And if
you are in Christ, then you are in the Successor and the One who succeeded; and if His words abide in
you, then success also abides in you, for they are the words of He who succeeded and who personifies
Success Himself overcoming all odds and gaining His goal, as well as being the first to do so, which is
why He is the Firstfruit.

As Paul put it - Christ, the firstfruits1 - not the firstfruit but the plural firstfruits, alluding to the twelve
fruits of the Tree of Life that He is. As such, Jesus has the firstfruits, which are the signs of success, for
you do not know if a tree is good until you taste of its fruits…

The object of all adventures, be it in the political, military, financial or scientific arena, is success. So
likewise, the object of all faith is to successfully obtain that which you believe for. As such, for you and
me, it is not a matter of whether you have faith or no faith or how much faith, but it is a question of
where you have placed your faith, as Jesus asked the disciples, “Where is your faith?”2

‘Where’ speaks of location. If your faith is located in Jesus, then your faith is located in Success
Himself, and when you are practising His words, you are practising success, not practising to be
successful or hoping that you will succeed in your practice, but you are practising success, and as such,
the fruit of our practice can only be success.

The location of our faith also includes which particular phrase or words of Jesus you believe in and put
into practise, and as such, each person will have a varying degree of success based on which teachings of
Jesus they can tolerate. Those who can tolerate the hard teachings of Jesus will be able to practise the
hard and harder things, finally coming to the hardest things.

As Gale taught, Jesus asked the Pharisees who were entertaining evil thoughts in their hearts, “Which is
easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?”3 Since forgiveness of sins for them
was impossible because they had no Ark of the Covenant upon which the blood could be sprinkled on the
Mercy Seat anymore, then saying, “Get up and walk” was easier, and in their days, they did have a form
of spiritual power by which signs and wonders were already being performed. As Jesus said, “And if I
drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out?”4 there must have been
counterfeit deliverance ministries back then already, as is mentioned in Acts 8:9 there were men like
Simon the Sorcerer.

If “Which is easier?” was the question for the Pharisees whose thoughts of their hearts were evil, then
surely, you should expect the Lord to ask you and me, “Which is harder: to say, ‘Yours sins are
forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’ to a cripple?”

Because of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is easier than to cause a cripple to walk because He said to the
disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive
them, they are not forgiven.”5 Yet rarely do we say this to each other before we practise using the power
for miracles.

One area where Jesus’ success is rarely acknowledged, because men seek holiness unto God in order to
justify themselves, is that Jesus succeeded in allowing the Father to fulfil His gracious promise to
mankind, which He made through the prophet Joel: In the last days, God says, ‘I will pour out My Spirit
on all people.’6 As such, all flesh has received the Holy Spirit to forgive sins, but not the power to be
witnesses of Jesus. It is now easier to forgive sins than to do miracles, whereas in the days before the
Holy Spirit was poured out, it was easier to do miracles than to forgive sins.

1
1 Corinthians 15:23
2
Luke 8:25
3
Matthew 9:5
4
Matthew 12:27
5
John 20:22
6
Joel 2:28

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It is time to bring out the harder teachings so that we can go onto the hardest teachings, for it is those
teachings that can bring you up to full power. Now, you will watch the Lord sort out the harvest of His
words based upon those who have endured the hard teachings and have not deserted Him. Jesus said to
John’s disciples, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of Me.”7 And many did, for as I
have taught you, many of His disciples deserted Him and left Him in John 6:66 because of the hard
teaching of the drinking of His blood and the eating of His flesh. That was only the hard teachings, but
what of the harder teachings and what ears could bear to hear the hardest of teachings?

Do you remember the promise of Jesus, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.”8? With the advent of these
harder teachings, you will find that just like Moses, others will say to you, “…but do not have God speak
to us.”9 Or they will say to you, “Stop speaking of such things,” and they will question your authority.
Like Jesus, you will need the power to prove that you have the authority to speak such things, so that the
foundation is set for the False Prophet to make his appearance through a resurrection of power to back
up his authority to speak the blasphemous things that he will speak in order that the prophecy
concerning him is fulfilled, as it is written: “The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify
himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods.”10

Unlike him, you will speak of unheard-of things for the God of gods. And when he and the Beast
demonstrate the power they have been given to back up their authority – power to call fire down from
Heaven in the sight of men, power to raise the dead, heal the sick, stop famines and end droughts – so
you will move up the ante and prove your authority by the fire that comes out of your mouth and stop
the rain whilst prophesying and turn water to blood and strike the earth with plagues as often as you
wish.

The harder teachings are to make the easier teachings more attractive, and those who have not placed
their faith in the Lord to come to know Him at all costs will be deluded to stay in the easier teachings, so
that refinement will continue to the end. The advent of the harder teachings and the hardest teachings
are not to make things difficult for people for the sake of making things difficult for them. No, God is not
cruel. God is kind, but He is also the God who seeks glory and right now, God is seeking to glorify His
Name again… except this time, it is the Name of God, the Holy Spirit.

As I have taught you, God the Father gave His only Son to save us. God the Son gave up His only life so
that not only those who believe would be saved, but all will be made new again by His resurrection. So
God the Holy Spirit gave up His holiness by being poured out on all flesh. The Holy Spirit has made it
possible for the Covenant written in the blood of Jesus to be exalted above all other previous Covenants
of God.

But now, as surely as God the Father has received His Son back, who is alive and seated at His right
hand, and Jesus has been raised back to life by the power of His resurrection, so now, it is time for the
Spirit of God to have His holiness resurrected in order that the power He powered out will manifest the
glory held in the Resurrection for Himself - the Spirit of Holiness. This is being done through the
resurrection now of one and ones who are called to be the elect of the Holy Spirit.

So that when the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way for the Lawless One to be manifested, the days when
the Spirit of God was poured out on selected chosen ones as in the days of Israel will be resurrected.
Resurrected and not restored, because now the Holy Spirit is not poured on certain chosen ones in power
like He was with Samson or Elijah, but now the Holy Spirit will remain in and not on His elect, even as
the rest of mankind will experience a resurrection of the days of distress when the Holy Spirit would not
contend with man anymore. A resurrection of the days of Noah is to be manifested, as these days of
distress will be unequalled since the foundations of the Earth.11

Instead of rain to flood the Earth, there will be no rain. Instead of the fish being the ones spared, all fish
will die. Instead of the Earth imploding under the weight of the water, the Earth will now explode
outwards as it is restored to its former size and the oceans are poured back into the springs of the deep.
These are a sequence of events that will lead to earthquakes and drought with famines and plagues
during which one-third of mankind will perish. It would be in keeping with the Justice of God, that those
who were the lazy servants would pay the price, lazy in where they placed their faith. Those who buried
their faith for fear of losing it will pay the price, but only those who put their faith to work in the words of
Jesus will remain now.

7
Matthew 11:6; Luke 7:23
8
John 16:12-13
9
Exodus 20:19
10
Daniel 11:36
11
Mark 13:19

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Now through His elect, the Holy Spirit will experience His resurrection of His holiness, so that together
with those who will return in the first resurrection, He will once more declare with power, as the Spirit of
Holiness, those who are the sons and daughters of God, fit to reign with the One who first succeeded,
and who will become fellow successors to the throne of the Father. Each one then accorded his own
reward by the Father, according to what they had done with the talents and minas God had given them.

Thus, that which we are working toward, to meet with Jesus in the clouds above Jerusalem, will be a
display of glory for the Spirit of Holiness in His resurrection. This is something that Jesus was, is and is
now working towards, and because He is the very personification of success, then we will also succeed
as He as succeeded and will continue to success.

So, for you, the question is not, “What is easier?” but, “What is the harder thing to do?” Success Himself
awaits us in the harder things of God.

So, be alert and stay awake even as the commandment to listen to Jesus is being restored to the church,
we are not living in the restoration, but in the Resurrection. As such, we are to live in the Resurrection of
the command: “Listen to Him!”12

Everything now must be seen in the Light of the Resurrection. Even the glory that Jesus gave us to be
one as He is One, even that perfect unity must be a resurrection of the unity He gave us the glory for…
and because He succeeded, so will we. AMEN

God is full of success, and from the fullness of success, God did say, “Let there by light.”13 As there is
no darkness in God, there is no failure in God. Now, once more, God is calling to His sons, “Where are
you?” for in Christ, you have success already.

12
Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35
13
Genesis 1:3

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“Lest We Forget” – The Price of Success

It is easy to forget - a trait that you and I have, which unfortunately is rarely directed at profitable and
proper forgetfulness. From Adam till now, we have a tendency to listen and then forget what we have
heard or have been told, or am I providing an excuse for mankind? Did Adam forget that God warned
him not to eat of the fruit? Did Noah forget that it was because of the sinfulness of the world that it was
destroyed by the flood, so that one of the first actions recorded of Noah after he made a sacrifice of burnt
offerings to the Lord1 is that he planted a vineyard and became drunk after he drank the wine? Surely
drunkenness and carousing were two sins of the many that caused the world to be destroyed.

Perhaps the most famous incident of mass forgetfulness occurred with the generation of Israelites who
came out of Egypt. At Marah, three days after they witnessed the miracle of the Red Sea, they had
forgotten that it was in answer to their prayers and cries to the Lord that they stood at the place of bitter
waters. They and we forget that when we stand at the edge of bitter waters that we are there because
we cried out to God and He delivered us. We forget so early about all the wrong things. We forget the
commandments. We forget why we were chosen out of the world. We forget that it was because we
cried out to God that He delivered us out of Egypt.

As soon as we stand beyond the event, we forget. Unfortunately, we do not forget things that should be
forgotten. Adam did not forget that Eve gave him the fruit, but blamed her. Noah did not forget that
Canaan saw him naked and he cursed him, whilst conveniently forgetting that Canaan could only have
seen him naked because he was drunk in the first place. And the Israelites did not forget the food they
had in Egypt. “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks,
onions and garlic.”2 But they forgot the most important thing.

As such, as you and I stand at the edge of the Kingdom of God who is Success personified, it is a timely
warning that you and I have the unkind trait to forget the wrong things and remember the wrong things,
and so grief God. Have you ever considered how God felt when the Israelites said, “We remember the
fish…” but forgot the slavery and as they stood at Marah, they would ask a question like, "What are we to
drink?"3

Yet one of the greatest thorns in all your flesh, mine included, as well as Paul’s, is that we will refuse to
forget our sins, our failures and the sins of those who have sinned against us, even though love covers
over all wrongs4 and God has forgotten our sins after He has forgiven them. If there is an area of which
demands continuous repentance is our ability to forget the things we should remember and to remember
the things we should forget. One of the greatest tests of your Godliness, that is your Godlikeness, is your
ability to remember what ought to be remembered and to forget what ought to be forgotten.

I say this now to all of us as a warning because the Lord is answering our cry for deliverance and it will
involve a period whereby after great signs and wonders, there will be a three and a half day march into
the desert to face bitter waters. Remember when you stand at the waters of Marah, you are there
because God answered your prayers and cries for deliverance.

Our introverted selfish view of our situations and circumstances, something common to all, will cause us
to forget the price paid by the One who succeeded.

You will forget if you have not experienced this already and even if you have, you will experience it again
and again, that the purpose of eternal life is that you may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
He sent.5 Many realise too late that this also involves going through what He has gone through, even if it
is only in part, and part of that knowing includes coming to know the price He paid for His success.
Although in His kindness and holiness, He will not expect you to die as He did, although great are the
numbers of martyrs who were killed and crucified for their testimony. It is never quite the full price. You
must wonder how many of the martyrs would have thought, “What is happening to me? How could God
allow this?” and we forget what we asked for. We say words and prayers so loosely, “I want to come to
know You,” and, “I want to serve You,” and, “I want to follow You,” so lightly that we rarely count the
cost.

Like Peter, we will want to die for Him and be with Him and never deny Him, and like Peter, you and I will
deny Him and run away if He had not pinned us down so that we would not be proved liars and cowards.

1
Genesis 8:20
2
Numbers 11:5
3
Exodus 15:24
4
Proverbs 10:12
5
John 17:3

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The hard teachings are over and the harder teachings are here. You who want to dwell with God, have
you ever considered what it is to dwell in the deep darkness? Could you endure it in silence with the pain
of the cross tearing you apart? It is best that we should stand from afar and watch, for surely we will be
proved liars if we now say, “Yes, we want to be where You are.”

So do not boast and do not be quick to answer the Lord anymore. And even as the Red Sea parts,
consider whether the swords of the Egyptians would be better than a miraculous passage through the
sea, for to perish at the swords of the Egyptians would have saved them a sentence of 40 years of
aimless wandering and millenniums of ridicule by all who followed them.

So at the edge of the Land of Success, when all that has been written about this time will be fulfilled
because you dared pray and cry out to the Father for justice for Jesus, it is a most opportune time to ask
yourself, "You do not want to leave too, do you?"6 It is no disgrace to remain where you are and go no
further. You are saved and eventually New Heavens and New Earth will await you. But to go on,
remember the waters of Marah came before the crossing of the Jordan in triumph.

Why such dark warning, just as we stand on the edge of the Land of Success? Because you must know
and understand this about each other now, that you will forget the things that you ought not to forget
and remember the things that you should forget in the days to come. Expect that behaviour from
yourself now and those you stand shoulder to shoulder with now before it happens, so that when it does
happen, it will not surprise you and deprive you of your goal. If you love one another now or are trying
to as Christ loved you, then forgive one another now as Christ forgave the eleven before they deserted
Him.

Just before His greatest battle and ultimate triumph and therefore success, Jesus said, "You believe at
last! But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will
leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for My Father is with Me."7 So that when they did desert Him, He
had already told them and above all else had forgiven them. They believed at last in John 16:31-32 and
a few hours later they were all gone.

The Israelites stood on the opposite side of the Red Sea and saw the Egyptians drowned and wiped out.
It is written: And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the
people feared the LORD and put their trust in Him and in Moses His servant.8 A few days later, they
grumbled against Moses saying, "What are we to drink?" They forgot that at least they were there
because they did not have to drink the waters of the Red Sea.

If there is anything that you must practise now is to not forget what you should remember and to forget
what you should not remember. Repentance and forgiveness of the sins of forgetfulness and
unforgetfulness are two things that you must preach to yourself and practise now. For at the edge of
success, you will forget to remember and remember what you ought not to remember.

Adam, just when dominion was given to him, forgot. Noah, just as the entire Earth was given to him,
forgot. Israel, as they stood three days into their journey of freedom, forgot. The disciples, a few hours
later into the night, forgot why and how they got there and the price God paid for them to be there.

Do not forget you are here to come to know Him and He chooses the way for you to come to know Him,
and do not forget the price He paid to get you here.

As I have said, Jesus’ success opened the door for the Father to pour out His Holy Spirit on all flesh. We
have read it and preached it, but did we ever consider the price paid, and even as we did, we too often
looked at Jesus’ and the Father’s price only, always, I say always, forgetting the price paid by the
Holy Spirit. If we are to worship God in the fullness of Spirit and truth, then the Holy Spirit should be
and must be worshipped even as we worship the Father and Son, otherwise our worship is incomplete.
Yet, what is worshipped of the Holy Spirit that would not offend Him, the Invisible One, who is always
listening and doing that which He has been asked to do without complaint? Would it please the Holy
Spirit to have His Name lifted with the Father and Son or would it not please Him more to have an elect
who understands Him and worships Him in secret, in Spirit and in truth.

In the spirit of the question and true humility that comes from knowing that we have never considered
the price He paid to sacrifice His holiness, that He is poured out on all flesh, even flesh that has not
believed and accepted the blood of the Lamb of God. It is not as if He was poured out only on flesh that

6
John 6:67
7
John 16:31-32
8
Exodus 14:31

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has been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb through repentance and faith. No, He was poured on all
flesh, including those who refuse to repent.

So as much as you and I will do what our forefathers did (Adam, Noah, Israel and the eleven) and seek
to defend our righteousness because we forgot the commandment, we forgot the deliverance, we forgot
the revelation, we forgot we prayed for more of Him… it will do well now to acknowledge that our sinful
nature continues to wage war and that we will do the things we know we ought not to and not do the
things we ought to, as our brother the apostle Paul put it so eloquently in Romans 7. And before we
enter the Land of the Promised Time of Success, we need more than ever the Spirit of Grace.

The graciousness of the Holy Spirit shows itself the most in the enormity of His successes when He has
prevailed and overcame. Who knows of the distaste that the Spirit of Holiness may have for sinful flesh,
which is not yet washed clean by repentance and faith in Christ’s blood? Yet He overcame and allowed
Himself to be poured on all flesh and has remained on all flesh since the day of the outpouring until the
day when He will be taken out of the way, and like Jesus, will no longer be seen by those He had tried to
teach and comfort, just as Jesus did withdraw to Gethsemane with His elect for a short period. Unlike in
the Garden, which was a period of weakness and powerlessness, this period of withdrawal will be a period
of power and strength and success, but not as you or the world would call success. Who has ever been
through days of distress unequalled since the foundation of the Earth? No one.

But we know of the behaviour of those who went through their days of distress – Noah, Israel and the
disciples. They forgot what they should have remembered and remembered what they should have
forgotten. Likewise, be assured that you and I are no different. When we go through our days of
distress and especially as we pass through them, we may forget what we ought to remember and
remember what we ought to forget. Even now, we should pray that we are not led into such
temptations, but be delivered from it, for will we be able to survive the temptation to be idolised as gods
when we display the power we have received to rescue and deliver the multitudes that are in the days of
distress?

What will your attitude be? Will it be cavalier at the triumph, and grumbling and faithless at the bitter
waters? If you find Jesus to be difficult to see now, consider this: did Jesus rejoice at the feeding of the
5000? Did He rejoice at the raising of Lazarus?

Our success will mean the demise of others. Is it the time to rejoice? The teaching is hard and will get
harder so that the success will be greater, but do we rejoice? Remember that our ministry exists
because of the failure of others, so consider carefully the price of success and understand the humility
of the Holy One.

With this in mind and in your heart, then enter the Kingdom of God who is Success and is successful in all
that He does so that all who abide in Him and in whom abides His word cannot but succeed even to being
perfect and merciful.

Remember that it is those who hear His words and put them into practice who are like a wise man who
built his house on the rock, not those who hear His words and believed it. You believe you can walk on
water like Jesus did because of what He said in John 14:12, but have you practised it? Too often, you
and I mistake the word ‘practise’ for the word ‘try’. Many try and fail and turn away, others try and
succeed and run off into the ambushes of the enemy. Practising is not trying, practising is practising
until the game is over and there is no more to do.

The Israelites tried to build a second temple after they came back from exile, and after laying down the
temple floor, they left it unfinished for years. You have tried to do the things and have had some degree
of success. Now, will you continue to practise or will you forget how you got here and why you got here,
just like our forefathers? Was it not the desire of your heart to know the more of God that you now face
the harder and hardest teachings? Then, let your heart be true and stay the course and learn the price
God paid for success in you.

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And God Remembered

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark…1
This has always struck me as an incredible verse, as if, in the midst of the destruction of the Earth
through the flood of Genesis 7, God had forgotten Noah and his family, the only humans left alive. Of
course, God did not forget about Noah, but rather, when you come to know God, you would realise what
He remembered and reminded Himself of are the plans He had for Noah before even the Earth was
founded.

This is where we differ from God in our remembering. We forget why we started our journey and we
then adjust our plans and expectations according to the events of the journey until our goal is completely
different from that which we started with. Just like Israel, they forgot that they were the ones who cried
out to God for deliverance from their slavery, and that the food they longed for in Egypt was ‘free’
because they were slaves. We forget why we started the journey, and in the midst of the circumstances
of our journey, we wish we hadn’t started and we compromise and change our direction.

Israel did just that again and again, and they tested God. As early as Marah, they had forgotten how
they came to be in the desert in the first place. In Numbers 11, they began to crave for other food. The
rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we
had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks,
onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"2 And
when they came to Canaan they heard the report of the spies, but believed the ten and wanted to go
back to the desert. They forgot that there was nothing in the desert. They forgot about the bitter waters
and they forgot about the slavery, all because what seemed to lie ahead of them appeared so difficult.

Likewise, our forefathers forgot the futility and slavery of the Law by which they hoped to attain
righteousness, forgetting that all the sacrifices and ritualistic observance of the traditions never caused a
single miracle in their lives, nor gave them a purpose or the joy and freedom that Jesus’ commands and
teachings gave them. And they were quick to re-embrace the watered down teachings of the Law that
men like James the Younger and his disciples reintroduced, which led even apostles like Peter and
Barnabas into hypocrisy. They forgot the wrong things and remembered the wrong things. Men like
James the Younger, who would never have been of any importance under the old system – a son of a
woman who was of doubtful reputation, having fallen pregnant before she was married, now by the grace
and mercy of God had received servanthood and fellowship as an elder in the new system of life in Christ
– now sought to pamper to the old system that had rejected him in the first place. Then they [James,
and all the elders3] said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all
of them are zealous for the law.4

It is as if James was seduced by this sudden popularity that he and the elders now enjoyed with the Jews
that they were afraid to offend them. And even Paul was led astray, although earlier Paul had opposed
Peter to his face in Galatia about catering to the zealousness that the Jewish believers still had for the
Law. They forgot what they should have remembered, that under the Law they were rejects… and
remembered what they should have forgotten… the artificial and superficial veneer of godliness and
holiness afforded to them by ritualistic religion.

They faced their trials of remembrance and forgetfulness, and we will face our trials of remembrance and
forgetfulness. And if we are not careful, we can become bitter and hypocritical before God and against
God, just as the Israelites did and James and the elders did.

Remember the slavery from which you were set free, the slavery of sin that led to death and the
hopelessness of palliative religion, which offers powerless words of comfort that fade away like the dew of
the morning. Words that made you feel good, but did not make you good, just like the free fish and food
of Egypt that kept them alive for slavery, free food that offered no freedom. Likewise, we all came from
a land of words that made us feel good, but never made us good. Whereas the manna from Heaven that
looked like wafers and tasted like coriander may not have tasted good, but it was free food that gave
them true freedom. Likewise, the words of Jesus may not make you feel good about yourself, but they
are words that make you good, such as: Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus
about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think
that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I
tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the

1
Genesis 8:1
2
Numbers 11:4-6
3
Acts 21:18
4
Acts 21:20

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tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?
I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."5

One of the first words of Jesus, when He began preaching was: “Repent…” By that first word, He
declared all to be sinners and none to be righteous, a truth many will find to be a stumbling block,
especially those who are rich and confident of their own self-righteousness like the young man of Luke
18:18 who was rich and confident of his righteousness because he had kept the commandments. To
him, to sell all he had and give it to the poor and then to follow Jesus was a stumbling block, for it meant
that his efforts to keep the commandments availed to nothing and his wealth was not a sign of his state
of blessedness by God. As such, neither is a man’s poverty and wretchedness a sign of condemnation
from the Lord. Rather, it is the willingness to repent and to ask for forgiveness that is the sure sign.

Had Israel cried out at Marah in repentance for the bitter waters, because they no longer believed in
God’s servant Moses at the first sign of hardship in Exodus 5:21 when Pharaoh made them gather their
own straw for the same quota of bricks, the waters would have become sweet without the wood. Had
Adam repented first, he would be spared the curse. He would still die, but he might have died in the
Garden instead of outside of the Garden.

Where did the bitter waters of Marah come from? And why did it take a piece of wood to make them
sweet? And then at Marah, it is written: There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there
He tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in
His eyes, if you pay attention to His commands and keep all His decrees, I will not bring on you any of
the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you."6

Does it not remind you of another time and another place, where God made a decree and a Law for them
also, and gave them a new revelation they had not known before when He said, “This is My Son, whom I
love: with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”7 And Jesus was transfigured before them.

To us, each of those places are places of new revelations, but are they places of new revelations or are
they places of remembrance for God? Are they occasions that God uses to remind Himself, and to
remember why He was also there with the Israelites in the desert and on the mountain with Moses, Elijah
and the three disciples?

As surely as we remember like the Israelites and the elders remembered, what we had in slavery that
seemed good but never made us good, so God also remembers, not as we would remember, but God
remembers and remembers it His way. And if you will learn to remember as God remembers, you
will grow in your eternal life and truly come to know Him more.

But God remembered Noah… What was it that God remembered Noah for? …Was it to dry up the
ground? Or in the midst of the chaos and destruction when His beloved Earth was under water and
drowned, God remembered… God remembered why Noah was there, why the Earth was under water and
above all else, God always remembers this… that His Son, Jesus, is the Lamb crucified before…
yes before… the foundation of the Earth. God remembers why He started His journey with us and the
price it costs, for He paid the price before Their journey began. The price of having to crucify Jesus did
not come after He said, “Let there be light,”8 but before He said, “Let there be light,” Christ was already
crucified. So, in truth, if the Lamb was crucified before the foundation of the world, then the blood of the
new Covenant for the Forgiveness of Sins is not new to God, but new to us. The blood of Jesus for the
forgiveness of sins was already there before the foundation of the Earth.

Repentance does not cause God to create forgiveness. Repentance merely reminds God that He had
already forgiven sin before sin even came into existence. That in fact, sin was part of the plan. It
was as if God foreknew men would sin, and as such He paid the price beforehand so that out of those
who sinned and repented, God would receive something for which He brought creation into existence… to
bring into existence men, male and female in His image, who would not just obey Him, but love Him.

God does not remember the days before He created with longing as if they were better days, for if they
were, He would not have started such a course of action so desperate in its execution that He prepaid the
price before it began so as not to allow Himself to go back or even regret that He had made man, even
though: The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the Earth, and His heart was filled with pain. So
the Lord said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created from the face of the Earth—men and animals,

5
Luke 13:1-5
6
Exodus 15:25-26
7
Matthew 17:5
8
Genesis 1:3

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and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made
them."9

But God remembered Noah… God remembers the price He prepaid for the salvation of creation—the
price of Him who is perfect being brought into even greater perfection and moved on… and He sent a
wind over the Earth, and the waters receded.10 It is as if God’s grief burst forth and the world was
drowned in His tears and sorrow, but through Noah, a new beginning had come, and as it was a wind
that blew and caused the waters to recede, so the Spirit of God moves and the sorrow of God recedes.

It is little wonder that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is unforgivable, for when God gave us the Holy Spirit
to be our Comforter; He gave us His Comforter, He who brings comfort to the Father and the Son. And
recognising that is the hallmark of your maturity in growth as one who has shared and partaken in the
Holy Spirit.

God remembers as the Psalmist said, He remembers His covenant forever, the word He commanded, for
a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the oath He swore to Isaac.11 If God
remembers these temporal covenants to men who are flesh, forever, then how much more He
remembers the Covenant He has with His Lamb, Jesus Christ His Son, forever, that through the blood of
Jesus, sins, all sins against the Father and Son are forgiven, forever.

For He remembers these words that He gave His Son: “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been
forgiven for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”12 That somehow, in
the misery that sin would cause His heart, it is the very instrument by which love for Him would come.
That somehow, out of those who have many sins, a great love for God can come that through
repentance, forgiveness can flow. Out of that forgiveness, not only does the sinner experience the
love, but God also receives the love, a greater love than from one who has been forgiven little. Those
who have been forgiven much therefore love much as well, so that from the greatest of sinners, God
would receive the greatest love.

As such, this is a harder truth, which is unpalatable for the self-righteous who are confident of their own
holiness, because they have obeyed the Law flawlessly. There is no sin against God or the Son of Man
that is unforgivable, for they have all been forgiven already, for the Lamb of God was crucified before the
foundation of the Earth, and God remembers why He started this journey. For out of the worst of
sinners, He will receive those who love Him the most with all their hearts, soul, might and mind.

And just as the woman loved much, so you who love God much, He will allow no sin in your life to go
unrepentant and therefore there will be no sin in your life that He will not convict you to repentance in
order that you do not miss out on the love that awaits you. For the more you have been forgiven, the
more you will love. As such, God will not permit you to not forgive your enemies, nor will He permit you
not to forgive your mothers and sisters, nor will He permit you not to forgive yourself, for through
repentance of all your sins, which are abundant and plentiful, will you experience the abundance and
fulfilment that was prepared for all sinners before the foundation of the Earth. And God Himself will
receive the fulfilment that He prepaid for with the sacrifice of the Lamb. So when God says, “For I know
the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.”13 …He is not speaking of
plans that come as an afterthought, but plans He has already made before creation came, before sin
came, before death came. Indeed, even before death came, the Lamb of God was slain. No wonder
death has no hold over Him, but rather, He has always held the key of Death.

As such, this time of distress is not an afterthought of God. It is not coming because the church failed for
2000 years to declare the word of Truth with the power of the Spirit of Truth, but it is now here because
it has always been here in the plans of God. So, in the distress, do not remember as men would
remember, but remember as God remembers.

Remember, we are here because we cried out for salvation in the wretchedness of our sins and God
revealed Jesus to us, and refuse the temptation to remember the food of Egypt that fed you and filled
your stomachs only to kill you. Remember that you are not here so that you may feel good, but to know
Good, and God alone is Good.

9
Genesis 6:6-7
10
Genesis 8:1
11
Psalm 105:8-9
12
Luke 7:47
13
Jeremiah 29:11-12

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Remember you are not here to be made king, but to prepare for the arrival of the King. In John 6, after
the people were fed and they felt good because they were now healed and fed, it is written: After the
people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to
come into the world." Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him King by force, withdrew
again to a mountain by Himself.14 Likewise, in the days of distress to come, your ability to do what Jesus
has been doing and to even do the greater things will cause people to proclaim you as the prophet who is
to come. You may be tempted to forget why you came to be here at this time. Do not forget, for even
Jesus remembered the time was not yet right and He withdrew.

Remember, the days of distress that are coming are the distress that this world has stored up for itself
and you are like the wood that makes it sweet. But Israel had to move onto Canaan… So likewise, don’t
stop just because you feel good after the bitterness has turned sweet, but know that the best is yet
ahead. When the disasters come, do not think those people are worse sinners than you, for you who
love much have been forgiven much more.

In truth, we who live and believe and live are the worst of sinners. If you remember nothing, remember
this one thing: “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.”15 As Mordecai said to Esther, “Do not think
that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at
this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s
family will perish.”16

Likewise, do not think that you who have eaten of the hidden manna will escape if you keep silent. And
also, do not think there is any Egypt to go back to, for even if you wanted to return, the devastation of
this Earth will mean there is nothing to return to. As God brings us to the bitter waters of Marah, now
learn this: it is the bitterness of the sins of the Amorites and the Egyptians, and of the world that have
grieved God’s heart, that He wanted to share with them, that they may know the bitterness of God’s
heart, which has been made sweet by the sacrifice of Jesus.

The willingness of the Lamb to be sacrificed before the foundation of the world is what God always
remembers whenever God remembers… So when you and I remember, let us repent of our
remembrance, and remember as God remembers, for even in our remembrance, we have sinned against
God.

Therefore remember this elect, all sins against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the sin against the
Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. Do not blaspheme Him and speak out against Him, for you are
being brought to the place where you know Him and the magnitude of His sacrifice, a sacrifice that
was not agreed upon before the foundation of the world, but a sacrifice that was a new thing, that the
Holy Spirit who was only ever shared or partaken of by the Holy Father and the Holy Son would be
poured on all flesh. Regarding the last days, God said, “And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all
people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will
see visions… and everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.”17

You are called to be witnesses of the resurrection of the Holiness of the Holy One, as those who were in
the beginning were called to be witnesses. So, when you come to bitter waters, remember as God
remembers. In the days of distress that are now here and are still to come, remember, God remembered
Noah and all the wild animals…

14
John 6:14-15
15
Luke 13:3,5
16
Esther 4:13-14
17
Joel 2:28,32

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Why?

In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the
Babylonian kingdom- in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to
the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy
years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in
sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: "O Lord, the great and awesome
God, who keeps His covenant of love with all who love Him and obey His commands, we have sinned and
done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from Your commands and
laws. We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your Name to our kings, our
princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. Lord, You are righteous, but this day we are
covered with shame—the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all
the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. O LORD, we and our
kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against You. The
Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him; we have not obeyed
the LORD our God or kept the laws He gave us through His servants the prophets. All Israel has
transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey You. Therefore the curses and sworn
judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we
have sinned against You. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by
bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole Heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been
done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we
have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to Your
truth. The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in
everything He does; yet we have not obeyed Him. Now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of
Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for Yourself a Name that endures to this day, we have sinned,
we have done wrong. O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, turn away Your anger and Your
wrath from Jerusalem, Your city, Your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made
Jerusalem and Your people an object of scorn to all those around us. Now, our God, hear the prayers
and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, look with favor on Your desolate sanctuary. Give
ear, O God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your Name. We do
not make requests of You because we are righteous, but because of Your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O
Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your
people bear Your Name."1

“And when the people ask, 'Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?' you will tell them, 'As you
have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land
not your own.'”2

One of the hardest questions I have found to answer in the past has been, “If God is so good, how could
He allow such tragedies?” and, “What is God doing about this or that?” Certainly, for many who are
Christians, comes the question, “How can God let this happen to us?”

It is easier to stand on a high and lofty place when disasters befall others, that it was because of their sin
that this happened. But before we embark further up this razor’s edge, let me remind you what Jesus
said, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they
suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”3 As such, we need to
understand that before we examine this question, “Why?” we must judge ourselves and see that we have
been and continue to be and will continue to be just as sinful.

One of the truths that has escaped the world and the church is this: For the last 1900 years, neither the
world nor the church has ever seen what God had really planned for the church. What the church knows
of itself and what the world knows of the church is a pallid-anaemic picture of what God wanted her to
be. Historically, the church, after the early persecutions, became the problem of the world rather than
the answer to the world. Instead of being the light of the world, more often, it has brought darkness,
destruction and disbelief. You and I see the world as it is because the world has grown up with a church
devoid of miraculous powers except for brief flushes, but certainly not enough to sustain light to a dark
world. In its state of powerlessness, the church turned to the powers of men, of intellectual power,
political power, financial power and worse of all, military power. It became a place of great philosophical
and scientific learning instead of learning about God Himself. It became a great repository of wealth with
its land holdings, architectures, artworks and hoarder of silver and gold, instead of a distributor of

1
Daniel 9:1-19
2
Jeremiah 5:19
3
Luke 13:2-3

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wealth. It became an institution for political advancement instead of an institution of holy advancement.
Through the kings and merchants who grew wealthy through her, it became a dispenser of death through
the swords and cannons of the colonial powers, instead of a source of life and life abundantly for
believers and unbelievers alike. If its different branches were prepared to torture and slaughter each
other over doctrinal differences, what chance does the pagan world stand when the eyes of the ‘holy’
warriors of Christendom were inflamed with a lust for gold and glory?

With the loss of miraculous power to the general populace of the church, those who held to the
compassion and love of God became the meek who were weak and endured patiently the truths and
tribulations because that was all they could do.

How different from their Saviour who was meek not because He was weak, but because at one command
He could have twelve legions of angels given to Him by the Father,4 one of which alone could slay
185,000 men,5 and who endured six hours on the cross not because He could not come off that cross or
end His own life sooner, but because He chose to remain there.

It is one thing to be powerful and choose not to resist as compared to one who is too weak to resist.
When Jesus gave His commands in Matthew 5-7, it was given in the context that we would be receiving
power from the Holy Spirit with which we would practise His word. So that even when He commanded
us, “But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person,”6 He was not telling us not to resist because we were
powerless, but that in spite of having power to squash any evil person like an ant, not to do it. Draw
them out and give them the confidence to be as evil as they desire, then according to their actions, bless
them. Jesus could have stopped Stephen from dying for He showed Himself to Stephen just before
Stephen fell asleep,7 but did not in order to draw that which was murderous in Saul out so that Saul
could have his own encounter. Did Stephen receive justice? Yes, Stephen was retired early to Heaven
and watched from Heaven in comfort the ministry Paul had to perform in his place. Was Paul blessed?
Yes, with Paul undoubtedly asking Stephen for the forgiveness of his ignorance. Even when Paul was the
great apostle, the Lord left him his thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment him and accuse
him. My theory is that the message of that messenger would have been one who reminded Paul of
Stephen and the other Christians he martyred. Is Stephen coming back to reign in the Millennium? Yes.
Is Paul coming back to reign in the Millennium? Yes. But who had the shorter journey to their throne?
Stephen did, for he died at the first stoning compared to Paul, Five times I received from the Jews the
forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was
shipwrecked…8 just to mention a few trials. Did Stephen prosper in a business? Did he build a big
church or write many bestselling books or was known within the church as an ‘apostolic ministry’? Yet he
is coming back for the Millennium after spending 2000 years in the comfort of Heaven.

Yet many who call Jesus, “Lord, Lord,” and have developed and built a great reputation on Earth by their
prophetic ministries because they drive our demons and do miracles in His Name, may hear these
dreadful words from the Lord, “I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!”9

So when the hard questions are asked, like, “Why does God allow the atrocities and tragedies of this
world to take place?” the answer is not simple, but it is there. Can anyone bear to hear it?

It is not because God failed, but because the church failed. Just like Israel, she was decimated not
because God allowed her to be decimated, but she failed to protect herself when she went and served
other gods against the command of God. God must be true to His word. So when Israel forsook God,
they received the fate of their decision.

In the same way, when the church council of Jerusalem chose to adopt the recommendations of James,
three of which went against the teachings of Jesus directly, the church had to pay for the consequences
of her choice, and the world has spent 1900 years with a powerless church.

People died of hunger because the church could not multiply the food. People died of diseases because
the church not only could not heal, but in the Name of Jesus, introduced smallpox, measles and the
common cold to people who were never visited by such diseases. Instead of being a reservoir of healing
so that even James would recommend that the Jews seek the elders of the church for healing in his
letter,10 it became a reservoir of plagues. People suffered poverty because instead of being a source of

4
Matthew 26:53
5
Isaiah 37:36
6
Matthew 5:39
7
Acts 7:56
8
2 Corinthians 11:24-25
9
Matthew 7:23
10
James 5:14

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distribution of wealth, it became a hoarder of wealth. Peasants rotted in such clothes while popish
ministries rode by in their chariots encased in robes of gold and linen, etc.

It is not God’s fault that the world is the way it is now. It is ours. It is not God’s fault that the days of
distress are coming. It is ours, for we did not keep the power of God entrusted to us, but cast it aside as
if it was worthless and sought after powers not of God.

In our powerlessness, we could offer no solution, no cure, only palliation. We comforted people with
tepid words of lukewarm excuses of why they were suffering, all the while bringing the word of truth into
disrepute, for the people experienced no miracles, no healing, no provision, as empty hearts mouthed
lengthy prayers devoid of sincerity in the faith they profess and certainly with no power. The blind
remained blind as they sipped on tea made from used tea leaves sent by some kind hearted soul from
their home country as they listened to the missionaries’ message, the blind remained blind in the
homeland of the missionaries and also in the mission fields of those gallant souls who were sent out,
equipped with a message, sanitised of all miraculous powers. If the Holy Spirit did display Himself
through those early church fathers in power, the vessels themselves were quietly disenfranchised or
worse still killed for heresy.

The lame remained lame, the deaf remained deaf, lepers remained lepers and the dead remained dead.
Now, do not get this wrong, they were comforted with kind gentle words and soothed with songs and
even encouraged with some words of wisdom and were persuaded to hang on a little longer. Some even
received relief in the form of clothes, food, monies and even housing. But very, very, very few were ever
cured and delivered so that they needed no words of comfort or items of relief. Words of comfort and
items of relief are not instruments to replace miraculous power, but rather, they are companions of
miraculous power to display the compassion and practicality of God.

The compassion of Jesus caused all who were sick amongst the 5000 to be healed even though Jesus
Himself needed time to grief John’s death.11 The practicality of Jesus caused the five loaves and two fish
to be multiplied so that 5000 men and their families were fed, but these were done because of the
miraculous power He had. He did not start a hospital for the sick of the 5000 or commenced a fast food
chain to feed the 5000 eventually.

It is when you and I are able to come to the stark truth, that it is we, the church, because of our
disobedience and unbelief with encouragement from false teachers and people like the Nicolaitans,
Balaamites and Jezebelians, who are responsible for the mess the world is in, that we can truly repent.
And like Daniel, we can pray, "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with
all who love Him and obey His commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and
have rebelled; we have turned away from Your commands and laws. We have not listened to Your Son
Jesus. Lord, You are righteous, but this day we have covered Your Name with shame and we are covered
with shame because we have sinned against You. Now, disaster is about to come upon us with days of
distress unequaled since the beginning of the world, as it has been decreed. Now, our God, hear our
prayers. For Your sake and the sake of Your Son and Holy Spirit. Bring justice to His Name, the Name
You gave Him. We do not make requests of You because we are righteous, but because You love Your
Son and are jealous for the holiness of Your Spirit. For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because of
Your Son and Your Spirit, and the people You gave them. Amen."

If we can confess the truth of our powerlessness as being the cause of all we see in the world, then God
in His love for Jesus and His Spirit might entrust to us once more the power we lost.

Then, in these last days, the world and the church might see the difference between palliative Christianity
and the true power of the word of truth, which came through Jesus Christ the Son. Amen.

So when you are asked, “Why?” answer, “Because we sinned and did not listen to Jesus.”

11
Matthew 14:13-14

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