In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of understanding and interpreting the scriptures to protect ourselves from deception. He mentions an article by Reggie Kelly about the perspective of natural disasters, specifically the tsunami. The speaker also emphasizes the need to support and contribute to the traveling expenses of Simon, who plays a crucial role in the community. The sermon touches on the topic of reaching out to the Jewish community and how to convince those who may not sense the calling to do so.

One of the highlights of my life with Klaus is to see him in debate with a rabbi in New Jersey whom I had been visiting every week for over a year. He's a famous anti-Christian, he's a professional anti-Christian missionary, rabbi. Fifth generation Talmudic student and a darling man for whom you need to pray, Rabbi Blumenthal. And so I have brought various of my visitors to encounter him who visit me in New York and the day came when I brought Klaus. And to see Klaus and this rabbi, nose to nose, going at it and the sparks flying was an unbelievable treat. The ultimate German and the ultimate Jew. But Klaus has one defect for which you need to pray that hampers his translation interpretation. He occasionally starts to cry and then I have to wait for him to recover. So it's been a blessed relationship. Our first activity together was at the University of Munich out in the street and I was accused of being a CIA agent and it was a memorable beginning. We had remarkable times at the University of Tübingen which is Germany's theological center and I always remember being on my knees with Klaus by the bedside before going out for that first morning. And while we were in prayer the Lord gave me the phrase, Caesar or Christ? And I took the phrase with me and we stood outside of the cafeteria, the Mensa of that university and I began to speak on Caesar or Christ. And people were arrested and stopped in their tracks. I've seen this more than once, I've seen it at UCLA and other universities where the word arrest meant they literally physically stopped. And those were remarkable days. One of the highlights, I went into the cafeteria for a cup of coffee and the man behind me was the head of the student communist movement and he saw me and he turned to me and he said, you're the most dangerous man that has ever come to this campus. Be true. Okay, I've got something so precious this morning, so fresh, so original that it could easily occupy our entire time together but I don't want to deny you the enjoyment of Simon and your own opportunity to ask questions and interact with us. So I'm going to pray to give the Lord the lordship of this morning and that he will order things are right and nothing will be neglected that's in his heart to be expressed. So Lord, here we are again. Every occasion is full of portent for all the future, even for eternity itself. We dare not miss your mind or heart or will, even for a moment. These are sacred times Lord. We're moving toward the conclusion of the ages. There are great issues that need to be propounded, that need to be effected by a church that has come of age. So we're jealous of this occasion as we are jealous of the precious relationship you have given us with this congregation and the believers in this city. So come Lord and take your own liberty and guide us and employ and do what you will. We thank you, we bow before you for the privilege of hearing from the most high. So to the degree that we will have questions and answers, you prompt them and prompt the replies and make it all together rich. And we just thank you and give you praise for a privileged occasion on this Shabbat morning when my kinsmen are celebrating their Shabbat in the earth. We also, my God, enjoy your rest and thank you for the privilege of it in Jesus name. Amen. Simon, anything to say before I launch off into the deuce? You launch off. This is from Oswald Chambers, my uncle's for his highest. April 8th. My eye fell upon it this morning. Particularly the note that I had made at the bottom of this page. This book was given to me as a gift. What I enjoyed about it was that there's room to write. And I like Bibles like that also so you can fill the margins. And my notes I thought were really pregnant, needing, and I guess the Lord is wanting it to be expressed. It's the issue of obedience in the Holy Spirit. And where he says the Holy Spirit is the deity in proceeding power. Thank God if it is gloriously and majestically true that the Holy Ghost can work in us the very nature of Jesus if we will obey him. Let me repeat that. It's majestically and gloriously true that the Holy Ghost can work in us the very nature of Jesus if we will obey him. The Holy Spirit is given to those that obey him. But the remarkable insight here is that in every occasion where we are obedient by the Holy Spirit it is not only power that is conferred by the Spirit to perform the obedience but the nature of God in his Spirit as well as his power. Did you catch that? The very nature of God because the Holy Spirit is God. It's not only some abstract mechanical impartation of power to commit your obedience. It is that or something more is being conveyed with that expression of power. It's the very nature of God himself. His character, what he is in himself is being imparted. So that is to say his character is formed in us by the totality of our obediences. We need to be consciously aware that something is working inwardly and in character and life in obedience beyond the issue of the power to perform it. When the Lord confers his power, he confers his life. When he confers his life, he confers his nature. And that's how we are formed into the image of Christ. This is the key to sonship is our multiple obediences. So let me read, are you following me so far? This is a rare thought and I don't know that Chambers even had this in mind as he wrote that but it triggered this response in me. And if I have time, I'll add supplementary statements of a like kind by another British saint, P.T. Forsyth. Make a note of that name because I'm bringing him to the attention of all the church. He's my most recent discovery and I'm on cloud nine. Next to Colbert, P.T. Forsyth and the two are kindred spirits. The cruciality of the cross, the soul of prayer, whatever you can get by this man, get it. And it will not be easy reading. He's more difficult than I am in the use of the English language. But he's literary, he's poetic and imaginative and insights in such a remarkable kind at such a depth. So I have some quotation from his writing that relates to what I want to share now. So here's my statement. The character of God in us is formed through obedience, through continual comings by the Holy Spirit, which is given to them who obey him, for each obedience requires the power of that life, while at the same time it administers its character. So the character of God is inexorably joined to his power. And I have another more recent message. You can see Simon about getting a copy of it. It has to do with that woman came behind Jesus and touched the hem of his garment. And it says he felt the virtue go out of him. Other accounts in the gospel say the power went out from him. But in this particular version, whether it's Mark, I've forgotten now which, the word, the Elizabethan word that the translators gave in that gospel only was virtue. The virtue went out from him. So being the kind of Jewish, Hebraic personality that I am, the word virtue excites me in my inner man. Because virtue has something to do with character. Virtue has to do with moral excellency. And so here, when the virtue went out from him, the power went out from him. So here again, we see the conjunction between power and character, which means, and you'll hear this message, which was embryonic, which I put out for the first time tentatively, because I'm on new ground and can awaken the suspicion of heresy on the part of carnal believers who have not heard thoughts like this, that Jesus did not come fully equipped with some magical source of power denied to us, that he could perform his miracles in a way that we cannot think possible for ourselves. On the contrary, the genius of God in Christ is his self emptying. He lay aside his deity. He did not succeed on the basis of his deity. He lay that aside. He succeeded on the same basis by which we are called to succeed, obedience to God through the spirit. And as every obedience, if I'm right in this, and I believe that I am, formed progressively and increasingly the character of God, which is the virtue that went out from him. So if it went out from him, how did it come into him? It came into him as it comes into us by our acts of obedience, particularly those obediences that make a real requirement of us and are radical. The kinds of obediences to which we are called by God are never a call to convenience. They are always a call to the prospect of failure, of embarrassment, of humiliation, of being reproved or suffering a reproach. Last night speaking, as every speaking, is exactly that. There was an obedience, but it was an obedience with dread of the prospect of failure, the prospect of being misunderstood, the prospect of collapsing. Not having ever spoken that way, on that theme, with that text, with the privilege of being called to celebrate the cross, the greater the prospect, the greater the collapse. So an obedience is always a prospect for humiliation, failure, misunderstanding, loss of relationship. Remember I even prayed last night, Lord if it should be required in the obedience of this message on the cross, that certain things would be spoken by me through your prompting, that would be misunderstood or in some way bring injury or threat to the relationship, which is privilege which I enjoy with this pastor, I'm willing to suffer that. And it may well be that that was a prophetic prayer, and has in fact is being acted out, I don't know. But I had to take that risk. Every true obedience to God is a risk, it's a threat, it's the cross itself. Every obedience is the cross. A death of embarrassment, of failure, of misunderstanding, of all those kinds of things to which you open yourself, and the obedience to which God calls us. He never calls us to convenience. He doesn't need our convenient obediences, he needs our radical obediences. And so how did virtue become built up? Built up in Jesus, by the same means by which it is built up in us, by the succession of obediences, by which the Holy Spirit was imparted to him. Because Acts 5 says, the Holy Spirit is given to them that obey him. So, you want to be a son of God? It's not automatic, but what you can do is welcome the opportunities for obedience. That you're willing, let the Lord know you're willing for obediences of a kind that might embarrass you, might threaten you, might end your relationship, might constitute misunderstanding or reproach, in family, fellowship, friends, those that are close, those that are dear. These are the kinds of things that are threatened. My obediences have threatened my marriage. My children. I didn't attend my own mother's funeral, who received the Lord 10 days before her death in her 96th year. Why didn't I go? Because I was in Scotland, and heavily involved in the labors of the Lord. And I was contacted, your mother has died, she's been buried at West Palm Beach, Florida. And the brother who was with me found me the most economical fare from Edinburgh to West Palm Beach. That was a treat. I could have conveniently made that trip at a real economic cost, and then returned to my labors, but I would have missed 3-4 days of actual ministry in Scotland. And so, it was not automatic that one goes to one's own mother's grave. Let the dead bury the dead, even the saved dead. So I put it before the Lord and those with whom I was staying, and I finally was impressed not to go. And that, with the future of Jews and their safety and salvation, than merely honoring my mother's funeral. And in fact Lord, I put out a fleece, let the very first speaking, the very next speaking that I would have missed, prove and show that it has everything to do with the survival and salvation of Jews through Scotland in the future. And the Lord exactly showed that. But my uncle Harry, my only surviving family member in London, who is now 84 years old and attends a reform synagogue, was profoundly offended that my mother's only surviving son, and the one who's supposed to be spiritual, did not attend her funeral. And I'm still suffering that reproach. That's only a minor illustration of the multiple things to which we're called, where family has to suffer and be put aside. Well I can go on in this, that the means by which the Levites were consecrated for the service of God, was that there was blood on their hands of their own brothers, fathers and friends, when they had to go in and out of the camp. When Moses said, who's on the Lord's side? And they said, we are. Oh, you are? Strap the sword on your side and go in and out and let every man kill his own brother, friend, neighbor. Not some impersonal or abstract judgment, but an intentionally personal and painful requirement. And God says that day, the Levites were consecrated for my service. Obedience is bloody, dear saints. You're going to have to get over your Christian respectability that is aided and abetted by your Chinese culture. It's not Levitical. It wants to make nice. It wants to do the thing that's respectful, but will put you often in opposition to God. Okay, you want this character of the Lord as the aspect of your sonship? It will come through your multiple obediences. And you can even ask God and invite him to give you occasion for obediences of such a threatening kind that will require his Holy Spirit for you to perform. Because if you can perform it without the Holy Spirit, how is it an obedience unto the Lord? That's just a religious function or some other thing that you can perform out of your own humanity. And it does not aid you in any way, except maybe to receive a compliment from those who receive the benefit. But an obedience to the Lord requires the Holy Spirit. Because it is opposed to the current of culture and life and the mentality of the world. You need its power, its enablement. But the beauty is this, that when God confers his spirit, he confers his life. For his spirit is his life. And his life is not some abstract dynamic. His life is a personality. His life has character. It is the son of God. And that character is transmuted and given with the spirit in every act of obedience so that the virtue, the character, the moral excellency of God is formed in us through our multiple obediences. And we go on from faith to faith and obedience to obedience so that the virtue can go out from us as power. Which happened when I left Singapore the last time I went to Indonesia. And part of those days, they took me to see a jungle camp being prepared for the Malaysian army by the wealthy contractor who was my host in those days. And when I saw that camp in the jungle, my thought was it may be that its first purpose is for soldiers. But its ultimate purpose is for Jews. Its going to be a place of refuge for Jews in flight in Malaysia. And when I said that to my contractor host, he was stirred. He said you need to pray for the engineer on this job. I said gladly. So we went to the shack where the engineer is. And he was a Buddhist, Chinese. And I'm praying and I just went like this just in the course of my prayer. And boom! The man went down like the proverbial sack of potatoes. I've never seen such a collapse under the power of God. On his back, hitting the pavement. And his mouth, demons were pouring out. Virtue had gone out of me by a touch. So I'm spoiled. I enjoyed that. And I want to see more of that. But here's a beautiful thought. This saves us from charismatic power that has nothing to do with character. Which I think has been one of the most fatal mishaps of our contemporary Christianity. That we have separated power from character. And we're so craven and so carnal and so desiring to see the evidences of power that are exciting that we make no thought and make no requirement of the man who's performing it. And that's why we have had the most recent embarrassment that took place when I was here last. That one of the most celebrated oracles of the hour was found to be both in homosexuality and in alcoholism. But what is worse than that, not repenting of either. Because the church in its lapse and its lack of insistence and its lack of esteem for the issue of character. For the lack of its awareness of the moral components that make life life and make man humane and human. We have gone the way of just excitement and carnality and celebrated power without being careful as to examine its auspices or its origins. There needs to be, I believe, a conjunction in the last days of the apostolic prophetic church between power, character and power. Once they are separated and we single out power as a thing in itself, we are on the way to deception. So we need to esteem the subject of character. The character of God, the character of the Son and desire to see it formed in us. Not magically, but the same way by which it was formed in the patterned Son. He didn't come down with it from heaven. He left it behind, he lay it aside. He took upon himself the semblance of a man and a Jew and a servant. So whatever he acquired was by process of obedience to the spirit by which he achieved virtue and power. And why did he do it that way? That there should be for us a pattern by which we would come equally to the stature and status of sons. Got the picture? Did you get the picture? It's my wife's Danish accent. You've got to get the picture. This is a remarkable statement and I can enlarge upon it, but I don't want to rob you of the time to respond. Let me see if there is something more here. So character is inexorably joined to power. Inexorably. Inextricably, you cannot separate them in the divine wisdom of God. I'm so grateful that he insisted on that. He insisted on that for his own son. So will he not insist upon it for us? I love him for that wisdom. So the unmistakable outworking of that nature is the humility and meekness of the Lamb. That is the essential character of God's personality. And it cannot be imitated. I don't know if you've ever tried to imitate humility. I'll tell you, save your breath. There's no more patent absurdity than trying to imitate humility to be the first in your neighborhood to have it. Humility is nothing less nor other than the essential character of God. And the thing that saves us from false apostles is their apostolic meekness. So I had a very high compliment paid to me yesterday by a precious sister in this audience. I'm not embarrassing her. I've never heard such an expression from me. She said, you're a gentle giant. Well Lord, I don't know. But I wouldn't mind becoming that. And if I will become it, I'll become it by obedience to obedience. And not some magical waving of a wand. It's a process of growth in the Lord. But there's a dynamic of obedience that is at its heart and not some kind of magical possibility or that we have a charismatic personality or anything like that. And therefore the door is open to all of us to be formed as the sons of God, daughters included to the obedience that are peculiar and given to us by the Lord in our own life and condition and circumstance. We have to avail ourselves of our historic occasion and opportunity our culture, our society, our family where we are, what we are and the Lord will address and give us occasions for obedience in that context. That's what he gave Jesus in his context and that's what he gives me in my context and we give it to you in your context. So you know what it does? It heightens what we would otherwise have discarded and considered ordinary, commonplace and considered irrelevant the circumstances of our life as not being spiritual when the fact of the matter is that it has every prospect for issues of obedience growth in character in the nature of God if we but see it and perceive it and make ourselves candidates to be called to the obediences in that context that's why our life is so significant something is being formed because when God will have a complete people in the character of God the corporate name for that formation is Zion you're so privileged this morning you don't even know it who has ever heard such a statement and such a thought that what God, as I've been speaking to you individually how virtue is formed in your life through obedience but what is the one word given when that phenomenon is performed and fulfilled in an entire corporate body, the church and that word is Zion the mystery word and where does the deliverer come out from in order to save Israel from her transgressions and her sins in the last days he comes out from Zion not the physical, geographical location which I'm not ignoring which is very important but in this context, the Zion which is the church that has come of age in the character of God through its obedience and that character will be displayed as humility and as meekness not some affected salesman's decorum in order to make a sale and be self-effacing Otto, call on me, I'm not a speaker humility is different humility overturns the money changer's tables and can get violent because it's the same what was that act? it was an act of obedience that was contrary probably to even the very disposition of Jesus' humanity but he performed it and the vehemence with which it was performed was not some human emotion but the reality of the Holy Spirit that was angered by the misuse of the Holy Temple in the court of the Gentiles for merchandise why? because my house shall be a house of prayer for all nations and in that place where the mystery of Israel as the beneficent provision of God for all nations was being violated by merchandise and so the indignation and the right anger of God was expressed through the son of obedience to receive the requirement and to act and perform it in the spirit that was given but you know what he gained by that? he received an additional dimension of virtue with the power of the spirit that made that obedience possible came a comparable measure of the very character of God because the spirit of God in power is inexorably tied together with the character of God and cannot be separated thank you Lord so who is more meek than the lamb? who is more meek? who is the meekest man on the face of the earth? Moses the same one who threw down the tablets of the law smashed them to pieces grounded the golden calf to powder and made the people drink it you call that meekness on? yeah if the Lord required it not to have done it would have been arrogance meekness is sufficient to whatever the Lord is requiring so you know what the irony is? the unbelieving and the carnal Christians will misinterpret that obedience as being arrogance so my greatest arrogance has been my humility but it's not recognized as humility it's perceived humanly as arrogance and what I'm most commonly faced with everywhere is your arrogance Mark and the man who hit me with his Bibles on my chest not long ago having spoken a certain particular message that offended him he said cats you and your Jewish arrogance I said you dear man if you had heard the Lord in what I had spoken and obeyed it and humbled yourself and bent to enter the tent of Shem you would have a completely different and other view you would see it not as arrogance but as humility but are you willing to suffer being misunderstood? you Chinese believers? notice how I rub it in all the time Zakata I said I know you only so well you're so Jewish so mental, so cerebral and they laughed, it's true are you willing to be misunderstood? are you willing that your obediences which glorify God and delight his soul will be misunderstood and completely reinterpreted by men on the earth as being offensive and being grounds for reproach obedience is a suffering sense obedience is the cross but the cross is power the cross is glory the cross is God it was not something that Jesus performed to consummate his life it was the statement of the way his entire life had always been lived it was the logic of his life even before he descended to the earth it was the essential wisdom of God acted out in his finality at Calvary on a cross so every act it was an act of obedience let this cup pass from me but nevertheless if you will I'll drink it and he did so right to his death he was acting as a son and every act of ours as sons is in some portion a death can you believe that last night I was dying as I was speaking and this morning waking up harassed by the enemy and told that I've missed it and I caused offense and you're always tempted to agree with the accuser of the brethren so this is not a picnic it's a struggle but it's a glory to which he's bringing many sons through obedience have to save this for another time if it should come otherwise you yourself obtain a copy of The Person and Place of Jesus Christ by P.T. Forsythe try and get it out of you's books it was published in 1904 but it's a remarkable classic The Person and Place of Jesus Christ I'll read you one paragraph and then I'll shut up don't hold me to that promise he says of Jesus he grew in the grace which he always was isn't that remarkable it makes your head spin and in the knowledge of it remember when Jesus remained in the temple in the Passover and his parents found that he was not there he was not with them and I don't know how many days they went back and they finally found him and they said in the Jewish way what have you done you've caused this great concern and apprehension oh he said didn't you know that I had to be about my father's business they didn't know they didn't understand he couldn't instruct them but it says that he went down with them to Nazareth and there he abided and remained with Joseph and Mary the next verse says a paraphrasing he grew in grace and in something else grace and stature stature stature stature stature stature stature he grew in grace and stature how by going down to Nazareth can any good thing come out of Nazareth it was a stinking hole and he went down there to submit to Pharaohs who did not understand his calling and submitted to them as a dutiful son and grew in grace and in stature as a son by the obedience of going down Jesus had to grow did you ever think of that we need to disabuse our minds with the thought of Jesus in some magical way that he came all equipped with power and divinity deity and all the prerogatives of God and he did this and that in a way which we could admire but never hope to emulate that would be a totally foreign view of Gods intention in allowing his son to be emptied so that we might be instructed and be brought to sonship by the same means by reaching attainment going down so listen to this remarkable he grew in the grace do you fasten on words do you hesitate do you jerk do you he grew did you let that sink in you hadn't thought that way you thought he was a finished product some magical thing he grew that is very suggestive of humanity which is humility it's a process to which he had to be submitted that was not convenient he grew in the grace in which he always was in the knowledge of it as his personal history enlarged and ripened by every experience and he was always found equal to each moral crisis excuse me I have to wipe this away P.T. Forsythe on every page at least once if not more mentions the word moral and you need to ask yourself when have you mentioned the word moral last when have you ever considered what the word moral means and how the issue of what is humane or humanity is the issue of what is moral if you take the moral component away from man you strip man of his humanity the issue of what is moral ethical right whatever the cost is the issue of true humanity so Jesus faced those issues it's a meeting moral issues like was it moral to ignore your mother's death and not to be at her funeral knowing it would offend her brother who is your uncle and the only surviving member of your English Jewish family or was it moral to remain in obedience to God in the place to which I was called trusting that my mother now in the invisible cloud of witnesses overhead is saying stay where you are son now I understand what you're about I never understood it for 40 years now I understand and you don't have to come to my graveside that's only sentimentality you remain where you are and I'll be looking down from heaven and applauding and blessing you in your obedience because your obedience has everything to do with the glory of God and the survival of your own people what was moral the conventional wisdom of men or the obedience to God by which a family member is left offended to this very day how about taking 45 minutes when it said take 4-5 and I didn't see the dash what is that 40 years ago and I'm still suffering the reproach of being willful and arrogant and doing his own thing and ignoring the requirements of men who will believe that I didn't see the dash as his personal history a history enlarged and ripened by every experience Jesus had a personal history do you have a personal history? or is your one day like another just the accumulation of days I have a history and God I cherish that history that history is being added to even by coming to Singapore every obedience every coming every act speaking what the Lord gives that has been untested is part of my history so we need to be mindful not about the word moral which needs to be resuscitated and pursued and examined because he never Forsyth never defines it and I went to the dictionary and I'm not happy with the definition great words need to be intuited not defined you need to intuit what the word moral means and more than that you need to see your every issue in your history as a moral issue in employment in the job in business in marriage in family relationship whatever the circumstance there's always a moral component to any issue that's before you it needs to be recognized we need to act on the basis of what is moral not what is convenient or what is expected by men that's our history we have to have a history before God and be conscious of it and to know that it's being audited and being sovereignly given we each one have a unique history what a remarkable thing that God he attends to us as if we are his only object of concern but I know of course that the same love that is lavished upon me and the same attention to the details of my life is equally true for everybody for it the only difference is I'm conscious of that history and of that attention at most or not you need to be aware that there's a history being established with the Lord and so the latent Godhead became more and more mighty as his life's interior and asserted itself with the more power as the personality grew in depth and in scope foresight too much that you can say all that in one paragraph that it begins with that he grew and ends with that as he asserted himself with more power in his life's interior in the issues that were moral that had come before him he grew in depth and in scope well I just want to confess I want to grow in depth and in scope I don't want to be a shallow piece of goods I want to grow, I want to be enlarged I want to be deepened, I want to be a channel for the deepest expression of the heart of God and we're being brought to it cumulatively, obedience by obedience what is being transacted in these days in Singapore will have consequence in New Zealand, Australia and the four countries in Africa to which I'm going and after that back to Ben Israel for the son of a prophetical school to which you're invited and the students there will receive the benefit of my increase both in scope and in stature and in depth because of the obediences that took place in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia got the idea? ok so Lord thank you for this choice tidbit mamma mia, wow thank you Lord let it not fall to the ground but find a receptive place where we would brood and turn this over in our thought and our consideration the conjunction between character and power we have been jealous for power but we have been mindless for character and you and your great wisdom have not allowed them to be separated they are inexorably joined and Lord we appreciate that we want to grow in stature as sons as well as express the authority of sonship through power and it all comes to us cumulatively obedience by obedience we welcome those invitations to obedience however frightening however threatening however we will be misunderstood by obeying and we thank and give you praise for the privilege which is ours to have such prospect and history with the living God which we will eternally celebrate and rejoice in Jesus name Amen Amen OK any questions to Simon? I should what I want to ask is this strange that you should bring within my soul that you are seemingly ostensibly that you are the Lord Ranger the Lord voice on the face of this earth speaking this which is so tremendous and scriptural so in the company of God the current situation is still continuing with respect to all the churches there they belong to God why is God allowing the situation where there is not a flicker of consciousness of what the Lord is doing in your life on the face of this earth and by and large the churches on the face of this earth is not awakened in their consciousness this thing is not breaking upon the consciousness of the church why is God allowing this to happen? wait what? why is God allowing this to happen? you'll have to ask him his ways are mysterious and terrifying to God because every one of us is tempted from time to time to fault him why doesn't he do what we would think is obviously appropriate why are my sons in their present condition? why in one moment of time could he not give my son Ariel the same experience that he gave me and call him by name he's not done it why does he allow injustices and terrible offenses to take place in the earth wholesale murder mayhem, rape I can't answer that he allows we are tempted to say we were God this is what we would have done we would have been much more prompt but let every man let God be true and every man a liar this I know he's absolutely righteous this I know I prayed this morning again and again Lord you do everything well you are perfect in all your ways and beside that you don't owe me any explanation at all I believe what your character is and you're more compassionate than I could ever think to be I know that you ache for every bloody thing that you see transacted in the earth and yet somehow you withhold your hand you wait for the cup of iniquity to become full or you give preliminary judgments like tsunamis and things of that kind that yet fail to be understood as preliminary judgment that would have saved a repentant people from the great judgment of the last days the day of judgment that is to come so what shall we say Lord we trust in you we know who and what you are as God and that you do all things well and so that saves us from perplexity and chomping at the bit and feeling insecure in our faith and raising questions about God and his faithfulness because he cannot help himself he has got to be merciful it's not an appendage it is what he is in himself and that's why David cried out Oh God have mercy upon me be yourself in my behalf you cannot help yourself that's what you are I'm 41 years old in the Lord's name you know what I have to say I'm astonished again and again by the faithfulness of God I have not found one instance in 41 years where he has not been faithful it's not because he has a track record to keep up he cannot help it he has got to be faithful it's what he is in his own nature and that's what we need to rejoice to know God as he in fact is and not as we thought him to be or as we would like him to be which is our errand boy and do things for our enjoyment satisfaction etc. he's God that's a good question ok you need to hear from Simon his English is so much better than mine at least in accent he corrects my grammar talk about arrogance Michael I'll just add to what you were asking we do what what is given us to do and let the Lord take care of the rest however insignificant it seems and his sovereign interests are his problem his he's in charge you want to ask anything about the Ben Israel community we are about 35-40 souls living in the Arctic zone of North America for over 30 years in relative poverty how we got there, why we are there is that of any interest to you because a lot of the benefit that you are receiving has had its auspices in that place in that struggle in that life, in that context which we very rarely speak about except in the book True Fellowship which Simon put together as he did the Holocaust book and several other books which if it had come to me I would have said to the publisher I'm not ready yet but Simon in obedience to someone greater than myself saw to it that it got to the press and I come home from a trip and I find the book is published how did that happen well he just submitted it to this publisher and the man was so impressed he thought that if Simon submitted it that I had submitted it and he went ahead and published it so we were stuck and once we were stuck with the book then we had to edit it and so it came out now in 3 or 4 editions and now in German, French, Russian Bulgarian pray for the Dutch publisher who is cowardly and afraid to publish it pray for the Hebrew edition that needs to go forth in Israel so Simon is a remarkable key to the flow of the riches that God has privileged us to express both in book and in tape and he is also the deacon of our community and he does he is in charge of the office all of the hub around which this activity moves that has to be kept in impeccable integrity we dare not allow anything to slip as slim as our finances are even there would be opportunity for cutting corners so the integrity of Ben Israel rests in the operation of those who watch over its bookkeeping and on top of that Simon arranges all my travel this one trip, 7 weeks 17 flights 4 visas that had to be sent with the applications and returned I needed extra pages in my passport it was filled from cover to cover Simon saw to all these details do you know what it means to be relieved of these details from me? I don't have a word to express I'm always telling Simon my gratitude my gratitude but don't compliment him he may ask for a raise okay what's your name? last year but before that I went to Washington State where I saw a group of community of believers, sold everything and choose to go to a ranch far away, inside a Christian community and a prayer house, a house of prayer and also a retreat center for prayer for purposes of end time, that it will be a refuge for the end time believers to take refuge and shelter so in December we went up to Minnesota and stayed 3 days only but 3 days were like 3 months for me because every moment is relishing that it's just moments of eternity and I was just wondering whether Simon would like to share what constitutes a true community and I come back Singapore it is urban but we do not seem to have a true community yeah in bits and pieces yes, with relationship but how do we have a spirit, how do we do that connection maybe Simon would like to share that well I'm very fond of Richard Bonhoeffer where he says that God meets us in our brotherhood that for me was a statement that floored me so that ended any privatistic thought that I had of a relationship with God independent of a brother or a sister or a community the advantage of a community is that we live in proximity of each other so the morning prayer time you can walk to together, you can which for us is the life of our fellowship is that morning prayer time, you can't do that if you're living one side of the town and the other is the other side but I would think that the thing that moved me toward the consideration of the seriousness of God in living in community was that I needed my brother because as Art said I can't see my own faults my own sin that's hidden from me it hides itself but a brother can, a sister can see my faults better than I and we need that cleansing that comes through the encouragement of the youth the exhortation the things that as true church we need each other and that's been one of the aspects of living at Ben Israel that we've always cherished this this ability to be to one another what we need to be so my six years there, it's a privilege it's living in the northern woods of Minnesota, it's incredibly cold I'm from Africa everything in my flesh says I don't want to live there it's the conditions are I left our sewage, our septic tank was overflowing because the thaw was where the ice melts everything is mud you walk and your shoe gets left in the mud because it's stuck so the conditions in flesh are just not what we would want but it's not what we want God is after something much deeper much more real, much more true something that divests of our desires our and just to let you know that the privilege is far away the distractions the conflicts the tensions of living with people you would not choose to live with because we don't have a a criteria of who comes and who doesn't we just trust the Lord that he's giving us whom he will because there's distinct purposes in it so it's been a phenomenal blessing but I don't think I could have received it had I not understood totally what was what I was going into so something has to be birthed of a desire of a revealing of what God intends in fellowship for fellowship to be true we chose community for many reasons but a proximity of relationship is probably a a definition of what community is yeah so that's just a quick answer I hope some measures answer your question how close do you get to one another besides a prayer time? well, we only actually take one meal together it's a Friday evening meal each each household is responsible for their own family units their own financial well-being we each have our own homes for example communities that do meet together we've been there I've visited those I think Art may correct me but household the head of the household is responsible for his own household so that has just been one aspect of it it may differ from others it just seems, I guess, appropriate for what we're about that is the format that we have our schools that we hold in the summer we do all of them together it's a whole different format also the frequency of going from house to house breaking bread invitations that come spontaneously and of the moment when you just drop in when you're just invited or something comes up, a conversation so that proximity makes possible the frequency of fellowship we are on the same property together it's a 160 acre farm it was a dairy farm, a retired dairy farm we're not farmers but we're occupying the property the Lord has given and in such proximity that we walk to the prayer meeting walk to each other's homes every believer is accessible to the other at any moment as the spirit prompts so it's a remarkable dynamic and interactive life that is very rich. Correction can come not only at the prayer meeting but the walking back from the prayer meeting with some brother who lives near you or someone inviting you in for a cup of coffee or have breakfast with me so I love that richness of that I know that that condition is not available to you in such a city as Singapore. I see the same problem now in New York where I presently am. It forbids there's no opportunity required a property where believers can live together so you have much greater difficulty in finding each other beyond the circuit of services but you need to make it a conscious desire, a priority, an object in itself that is of value even though there's no practical benefit and may even be an inconvenience to have to travel from one side of town to the other merely for fellowship as if fellowship is some kind of secondary icing on the cake rather than the cake itself true fellowship is the heart of church which is community. So you'll have to find a way to experience and realize that in the context where God has brought you here in Singapore experiment in the country. I'm a city man I am much more comfortable in that urban environment than I am in back woods northern Minnesota but that's what the Lord called us but we're not monastic. First of all the world comes to our door. Evelyn was there with her fiance and we have visitors almost continually and the summers were wide open. We'd have hundreds of people coming to our summit and convocation of Prophetical School by the way to which you are invited because those occasions are events life of a life changing current so and then I'm in New York why am I in New York? The Lord called that I should be available to my Jewish kinsmen in that principal city so I've been sent out from Ben Israel to New York and now I understand Simon and others are taking the word seriously to the Jew first and they're making, I have to talk to them about it's rather new trips to Minneapolis which is five hours by car south of us to visit and make contact with the Jewish community through the synagogues there so and then wherever we go to get my hair cut, attire fixed shopping grocery, always an evangelistic experience as a community there was a growing sense among some of us that the gospel was to be taken to the Jew first as much as the gospel as we had, had somehow to be tested with the Jewish community for us living four hours from the nearest Jewish community of any significance meant that it would be inconvenient for us but there was a growing sense that we bear a burden, a message to the Jews in the last days that somehow what we as a community as a fellowship we ourselves must be in that dynamic of relationship and outreach to the Jewish people not only for their sake but for our sake that we need the gospel, our gospel needs to be tested so we've had some preliminary contact with them I actually got an email letter from a rabbi which I haven't even shown off yet he kind of dismissed us but that is we will get rejection but there's an obedience involved in the inconvenience of taking something to the Jewish people that I guess it grew out of an inner desire an inner obedience that the time had come where we had reached a certain point where this was a decision that needed to be made and implemented so it wasn't any magical word about I think just a growing maybe that's all that it takes don't look upon it as a program because ironically we are 10 miles away from the headquarters of the Chippewa Indian tribe the same tribe where they recently had 10 people slain in the Red Lake District in the high school, did that come to your attention here in Singapore? we're 10 miles away from the headquarters of that nation and have been for over 30 years and have no effectual contact or ministry to the entire Indian community how do you explain that? God sends me to New York to Oshkosh, to Singapore to the outermost places on earth and 10 miles from us is an entire nation in alcoholism, drugs devastating conditions and yet we have not been moved in any way yet to reach out occasionally there has been some contact but it's not in any significant measure, why? the Lord has not yet called for it I don't understand it but I believe there will be a time because their participation in the mystery of Israel yet to be fulfilled through the locality and region where God has placed us 100 miles from the Canadian border will require their participation they will be leading Jews through the northern American wilderness something will have to happen to them to communicate the mystery of Israel and the privilege of their participation which has not yet been touched but it will come in the Lord's time so we must not ourselves devise programs we need to be led of the Spirit of the Lord even though it leaves you baffled that here's a community 10 miles from you that lies in apparent neglect while we're yet going to outermost places elsewhere in the world this question has been asked before how do we get to the scriptural order to preach the good news to the Jews first we don't have any literal Jews like other Catholics so how do you go about the preliminary teaching or consciousness awakening or what how do you do that it doesn't make sense to all of us it's the obligation of all the church to the Jew first whether or not they're even presently present so the church needs to to inculcate to take into itself God's call the mandate it's a mandate for the church even before you have opportunity to actually express it but you need to cultivate nurture it dwell on the mystery why the centrality of the Jew in Israel what is the passion of God in this in purpose the history of that people their long apostasy the glorification of God through their last days of restoration and then this knowledge also that even though Jews may not be present at this time they will come that I will sift you through all nations and that's why the Lord quickened to me when I saw that jungle camp that being built for the army is really a provision of God for Jews in the Malaysian jungle how in heavens name will they ever get there only through beaten spurs only in flight from terror of death only by being pursued by Islamic murderers will they find themselves in places in the earth that they would never themselves have chosen but when they get there they will find that there are people who expected them and are prepared for them not only physically but spiritually because they will be shattered to their root they will be full of frenzy and fury and confusion about what has happened and they come to that condition where they need to be received with love and patient accommodation but it's not a test that you will be able to pass in the moment of it's coming it's a test for which you need now to be in preparation because you've been instructed by the prophetic word and the prophetic messengers that it will come and so you need to have it into your consciousness now and community is part of that provision because it's more than any single individual can handle or bear as Jews in that condition of the last days it takes the concerted strength and texture and knit of an established community that has already done it's own work and working it out with each other before the Jews come so our anticipation of the eschatological future is an incentive for our present attention to the issue of community and Christian life so that's how it all comes together so I will sift you through all nations be assured of that got to see the consistency of God in every place so they will not dismiss that they received cordial reception in Latin America because that's the Latin temperament but in China they got a cold and merely technical obligatory acceptance they've got to see the same compassion and mercy and goodness of God in the varieties of God's peoples throughout the earth and in the nations as my mother had opportunity to see in our community before she lived with us in the last year of her life she used to visit we used to circulate her, send her to this household for lunch this household for dinner and so she would visit each household come home with a report oh she said, the children are so beautiful they're so well behaved because generally Jewish kids are and the parents, the atmosphere and finally I said to her what do you think this is? accident? that this is just an issue of temperamental accident? that you're finding this consistency in every household? what you need to know you dear Jewish lady, is that you're being exposed to another kingdom and that's a little piece of what an entire nation will learn through its last days sifting through the nations the first part was easy, it was the mandate of the Lord, supernaturally given I was a speaker in northern Minnesota living in a 17 room house in New Jersey 9 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms with 2 vultos charismatic darling and I was in northern Minnesota as a speaker and someone said, oh there's a property for sale, would you care to see it? well I said, why not, let's go for a drive we got to this bankrupt boys camp and there was a chain across the road the door was closed, no trespassing I got out of the car and I stepped over the chain and when my foot came down on the property the Lord said dominion, end time teaching center so in the very first supernatural commissioning of God he gave us the word refuge and we didn't at first understand it it came subsequently later in our history that he began to take the word off the shelf and show us refuge for Jews in flight stations is a strategic place that I myself would never have thought to live, so from the beginning we had a supernatural mandate by the word of God and then as the word unfolded my own understanding of the subject I could communicate that in the prophetical schools we understand the principal burdens that are the centrality of the Lord's dealing with Israel and end times so we are aware of perhaps more than most churches, most fellowships that there is this end time drama that we are called to I would say in our own fellowship we would not necessarily have to be 100% in agreement about making it some kind of evangelistic outreach to the Jew I can't say for everyone there are some that are not able to attend prayer meetings as regularly as others but when shared corporately there was a sense that this was right I think principally it came the desire probably I was the one that initiated it there were a few other brothers that were very supportive of that but I guess it had to come to one person and then there was a general agreement and whichever that one person happened to be sensitive enough to hear that obedience, that call and I think all it needed was the support of the brothers that were there and sisters did not necessarily have to come to each one individually we are going through an unusual time in our history now because the Lord has given us about four Hutterite families these are descendants from the early Anabaptists of the 16th century of which the Mennonites are another expression these Hutterites have been expelled from their communities in Canada because of their baptism of Holy Spirit and we have taken them in as refugees they are living now on our property they started a business nearby but they were not part of the calling or part of the original vision and yet they are on the property and being integrated with the community so we are in a process of winning them and persuading them about the call that they didn't elect but they need now to discover seeing that God has physically brought them how can they be living with us and not share in the dynamic and purpose of our own life so it's a very interesting thing going on right now just to show you how the Lord works I came home for Christmas New Year for three days of fasting and prayer to the old year out the new year in and we are sitting in Pearl's house a black lady from Moorville, Alabama behind my house in one of those prayer times the word came up about a prophecy that had been given me in California by a woman that was just extravagant she poured out like nothing I had ever heard and I got the tape of it on the second day and Pearl said well I have transcribed the tape I said you have? so let me see it and I began to read from the transcription of the prophecy spoken by this woman in California about New York about the Jews, about publications about the last days and the hearing of these Hutterites and they were profoundly affected by the communication of the vision by the inadvertent and unprogrammed event of reading the transcription that I did not even know existed and that proved to be a remarkable New Year weekend where the government of Ben Israel was re-established Simon was appointed as Deacon Reggie Kelly that you remember from the school is now one of the elders and one of the Hutterite brothers is another elder and there was foot washing and setting in and blessing and I was being sent forth from this new re-administered community in a very precious way that I counted that as a real apostolic sending by the laying on of hands and all of that happened just by coming, just by being present, just by being together at the appointed time with the Lord knowing the factors that constitute our life and these that have come to us from another kind of background himself affected them by the accidental accidental reading of prophecy by which the vision was communicated so if I had sat down and determined now I'm going to address you guys and communicate our vision that you might share in it it might have failed but without any thought of my own the Lord himself was attending it in his own way that's not to say that we're all now one happy family and all seeing eye to eye but it was a profound step in the right direction it's a process of growth for individuals as for communities and growth is always painful I'm only hearing you in part so Simon's going to have to relay she's asking if you look at present day Israel surrounded by numbers of Islamic enemies she also thought about this Singapore itself surrounded by small nations surrounded by larger often militant Islamic nations she's wondering if there's any connection between what Singapore represents and what Israel represents is there any relationship there that you can comment on I have never considered it that way there may be a certain symmetry and divine intention both in the geography of Israel and Singapore and the circumstances of modern times religiously and politically I've never before considered it that's an interesting question but this much I know our geography is not an accident our location is full of divine wisdom and intention of a strategic kind so it behooves us as the church of our location to seek him for prophetic understanding of why we are where we are and for what purpose in the end I'm the one who made the remark some years ago there may have been others as well that Singapore is the Antioch of the Nations a sending auspices out into the nations and I still profoundly believe that so I'll think on this but interesting Singapore, Israel interesting also about China and the the desire of certain overcoming saints there to revive the civil route the ancient trade route from China to Israel and not to revive trade but to bring the witness of the God of Israel as experienced by Chinese believers back to the place where it had its origin which would be the profoundest witness to Jews because they're going to have to pass through numbers of Islamic nations over that in that overland route and face opposition, persecution and suffering and death each step of the way so Jews will have to ponder how to understand this, what have these Chinese believers received of such a kind as to motivate them at the risk of their lives to make this trek in itself physically difficult let alone through Islamic oppositional nations to testify to the God of Israel I think that's going to be one of the most profound elements of the last days, so there's no accident here in all of these remarkable geographical cultural, political things Could you just enlighten us some more what makes you so certain that the Holocaust which happened in Germany is a preliminary to this Jacob's Trouble and yet the Rabbis and the synagogue is deadly against Jacob, or what makes you so certain, you're harping on it but you're not saying that the Holocaust is way back in 1817 I would say primarily the influence of Scripture the prophets but more especially Deuteronomy and Leviticus the two most profound statements of God's judgment to fall on Israel in the latter days, in conjunction with events themselves so the prophetic personality is given a certain disposition to read and to understand present events in view and light of Scripture and prophecy so it's that function that enabled me to interpret the Holocaust in that way and to set it forth as a thesis in the book and judgment is a key and the jealousy for God's glory, not only is accepted of judgment but celebrates it as being the statement of God's righteousness he is not offended by judgment and he sees the hand of God in history as judgment and how then can we understand the systematic annihilation of six million Jews at the hands of the world's most enlightened culture in civilization, Germany in modern times except in the context of Scripture that God that in the last days these things would come at night we would think it were day at day we would wish it were night that in the chamber, that the sword from without and death in the chamber from within, whoever thought that the chamber being referred to in Deuteronomy 32 is the gas chamber but it says in that text, the grey heads and the elderly and then under them, over them the grey heads with the infants and over them the young and the vigorous, which was exactly the composition of the bodies as they were found in the chamber after their gassing because the weakest and the oldest the infants and the children and the elderly were at the bottom and the younger and more vigorous were scrappling for the place on the top to catch the last of the air that was available, so here in Deuteronomy 32 written by Moses, thousands of years in advance of the event we have a picture of actuality of last days conditions for the Holocaust, which I'm putting forth as a thesis and a consideration that should come to our Jewish understanding and be seen not as accident or aberration in history, but as the fulfillment of God's work through judgment which if we will receive it will save us from the necessity of yet future judgments so that's the urgency of that book and that thesis which is rare we know one of the signs of the end times is the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem we've heard recently that in Jerusalem the site agent has been reconvened and one of the items on the agenda is the rebuilding of the temple and I was wondering if you've heard anything and have any thoughts about that that's a better question for Reggie than for me but there is a society I forgot what they call themselves that have sought even to establish a cornerstone of a future temple and precipitate a riot there will be a temple there will be a millennial temple as described in Ezekiel but there will be a temple evidently into which an antichrist comes who has established a covenant of death with Israel that seeks to save her from the terror of destruction and in the end becomes her destruction so Reggie gave a wonderful insight, if a temple takes 30 or 40 years for the building well then we can lean back and relax because it hasn't even begun yet so therefore how can there be the fulfillment of these last days conditions as if they are imminent and soon his answer was it does not require a full temple to fulfill this scriptural requirement but any kind of an area that is marked out for sacrifice probably on the original temple mount will serve the purpose for which an antichrist can come and seek to obtain the worship of a nation with whom he has made a false covenant of death so that's as much as we understand and can communicate itself not the least of its deception is to think that they can make treaties and alliances with enemies that are avowed and made clear that they will not be satisfied with anything less than their destruction so deception is an effort to believe for something unbelievable hoping against hope because there is little or other alternative but what will break the power of deception for the church and for Israel is the apocalyptic event itself, the actual persecution, the actual expulsion, the actual devastation will wake the church my greatest opposition as I travel in the world is from Christian Zionists who want so much to see the present state of Israel established successfully and sees the present unrest and difficulty as only a momentary thing that will pass I see it as a preliminary to far greater devastation that will eventually finally end their expulsion so who is right in this? it's no small question and I believe that it will take the event itself, if men will not be instructed by the word and by the prophetic interpretation of the word and the authority of the man to whom the office is given, then there is nothing less for them to save them from their own deception than the event itself when it will come, Jeremiah faced that question in his generation and he was opposed by other men who called themselves prophets he spoke of a necessary 70 year confinement a exile in Babylon number 7 multiplied by 10 the number of judgment and yet he was resisted and so there was no answer to this debate and contest between two men purporting both to be prophets but the event itself answered it the tragedy is to have to wait for the event and to find out when it comes that you are terribly wrong and you are left now with your face sticking out and you made no preparation for the disaster and now there will be victims and loss and casualty because of that failure so it's no small question so it comes back again in the last analysis how are the prophetic scriptures understood is it speaking about past devastation or future after the holocaust can there again yet be another devastation that will eclipse it and require an expulsion even from the state and Jews will be uprooted worldwide who wants to consider that kind of apocalyptic scenario that is tinged with suffering violence and death we shrink from those considerations we are escapists we want to be raptured we don't want to face last days conditions well a church in that state of mind will not be to Israel when those conditions come so part of our function is not to communicate this urgency but to encourage the maturity of saints to face hard things and bear them and to see in whatever suffering they will require is also the issue of God's glory and the fulfillment and consummation of the ages in his coming and his kingdom is the last shaking in the earth it's terrible to conceive but there is a remnant that will be saved out of it through the mercy that will come to them by a prepared church that can extend mercy that's why last night's message was so important to actually appropriate the mercy of God through the cross and make it something more than an element of our positional theology or doctrine there's got to be an existential reality we have been saved by the mercy of God because we're sinners that deserve judgment but he bore that judgment and we received that mercy and it has opened us to gratitude to God and love that is jealous now for his glory and willing for any sacrifice that that would require that's why Paul says at the end of conveying his vision in Romans 12.1 make of your body brethren I implore you I beseech you to make of your body a living sacrifice because this vision that I'm positing of the mystery of church in Israel cannot be fulfilled short of your sacrifice why do you make sacrifice? because you're out of gratitude, love and devotion to him who has made a sacrifice to save you from eternal death you have a mercy to extend because you have received it you see? so all of these things are related together but there's a disposition to be deceived that David himself needed the prophetic word from Nathaniel thou art the man to bring him to the place of conviction to which he had allowed himself such a deception as not to consider that he was an adulterer and a murderer David himself who then is safe? the ones of us who are greatest candidates for deception are those who think that we're immune or safe because we're more mature that's why we need each other that's why we need the operation of community, that's why we need others to point out the blind spots that we cannot see for ourselves this we say speaking often one to another in the spirit of word truth is it time to