The words of the Lord were like fire that cleansed all darkness in my heart. We were still in the wilderness and His words are cleansing me over and over again. This could be the reason He has also said that faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of the Lord. A clean heart is a powerful heart, able to listen and obey the Lord without any reserve. Some people speak about serving God, others do serve God but only those whose service are genuine and full of joy will truly get reward. Drudgery is not service. If you serve the Most High God, the most powerful Being in the universe, how can service feel like toil?

God’s holiness does not seem to be a fire that burns like hell; it was a cleansing fire. I have felt the same in the presence of some of his anointed servants that I have met in conferences and in churches. Their holiness does not turn one ordinary person off. They continue to hold power over me as they seem to encourage me to be just like them. Holiness is what I seek for to live; it was elusive during my High School but seems even more elusive after being cared and nurtured in the college and then being sent off into the labor field. I do not really know how much I performed during my college and afterwards in terms of this virtue. We tend to count our holiness and measure them with others like falling into lust or not having fallen into it. Others do so like in terms of having corrupted money from the treasury of their barangay or city or not having to do anything with the treasury. Some Christians ignore this while others tend to vehemently oppose it.

The lust for sex and love for money does not seem to go away even at different ages. They are tools which the devil use to hold sway of this world. Some sex delinquents even brag about their experience during their high schools and want to display their shameful acts as if gold medals won in a prized contest. Others who fell for the love of silver and gold are not satisfied with the millions they already had. Unlike the legendary King Midas who regretted having the touch of gold, these do not have one bit of remorse over the way they gain the riches of this world. It seems the world has gone mad, wars and rumours of wars does seem to keep on escalating at a greater level than the previous ones that have been heralded by newsmen and broadcasters. I was still thinking of these things when the skies opened up before us and like a panoramic cinema, heaven and hell collided in a loud bang.

Greater is He Who is in you

There was great darkness in the land, people were running to and fro their eyes were obviously blind, swelled to a great degree because of their cataract. There was no way these people can save themselves, I mused. Then a thunderous clap appeared in the horizon, a brazen army of the devil with their banners and weapons quickly gathered in a formation that would seem to overwhelm the people. Some whose eyes were able to recognize the demonic army quickly run away as far as they could in mountains and holes. Others did not know they were already overran by the devil and surely satan took them as his slaves in his army with devils riding atop the people. When this happened, the demons gained strength from the humans and they seem to gain even more as they oppressed and rode on more of them.

The enemy had a large army, and the expanse of the horizon seems covered by it. The loud beating of the horses and the clouds of dusts produced by their hoofs had kept me anxious of what is happening. I do not know how the Lord’s army and His weapons could be more powerful than this. It seems we were on the brink of annihilating each other. Even so, as I continued to look on, a few of the remaining saints gathered together in prayer. As they did, their prayers rose up like incense that ascended to heaven. And in the Father’s chambers, the prayers sounded like a loud thunderous clap. Then the Father commanded His angels, He sent Michael and His army to protect the few praying ones. As the handful saints continued in prayer, the angels gained strength and pushed the devil’s army away from them. It was like Gideon and his few hundred troops chasing the enemy’s more able and fully equipped army. There were commotions in the enemy’s camp, his army had just been routed and his plan to overtake the land with his evil assault resulted in a disastrous defeat. The saints however seem oblivious of what had just happened. How could so few, a number of men, beat a thousand armies? It can only be a miracle.

The strength of faith

Then one angel spoke aloud, “Oh Lord strengthen the faith of thy people.” Just then the scenery changed and I was back with the Baptist. I looked for the Lord but could not sense Him nearby nor could I see Him in the crowd. The Baptist was in the middle of a series of preachings, all the people to my left and to my right were still transfixed and awed by what power he held them in his hands. I thought of how Hitler with his dynamic and passionate speeches resonated more not just to the German psyche but even to their innermost beings. His enormous and powerful speakers, artistic and literature propaganda spared no one in the nation so that even both the Catholic and Protestant churches saw him as the German savior.

How could such one man hold more than eighty million people in his hands and throw them all into the cliff without them understanding one bit how he did it? That was strange. But just as Lord has His passionate and fiery messengers, who could hold people into their hands like wax, so does the enemy prepares his own. When truth is preached and not accepted, people have chosen death over life. They have trampled the very truth that could have saved them such as what the Jews did when Jesus Christ first came.

Undaunted and fearing no one in the crowd, John the Baptist began to preach to those who were about to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.  “Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Luke 3:7-9). The Pharisees who lined up blushed with the degree of reprehension that they received from the Baptist so that they were taken aback. Embarrassment and shame tied their feet to the ground with some who want to run away trying to gain cover with the multitude that is pressing on them. As they were still listening, there was an uproar among the people, some who came early to see the Baptist preach lined up ferociously trying to guard their imaginary lines.

How then should we live?

“How then should we live?” Cried the people, some were obviously irritated at the denunciation of the fiery preacher while others pressed for more and cried again, “then what shall we do?” Such questions necessitate us quick answers so that only those whose hearts are truly seeking the truth can find it. Most oftentimes those who have great desires are at once sick and weary of their conditions. A proud man can never be satisfied by the silver and gold that he gets or the properties he possesses; he could never be at rest. The simple and the humble however is always at peace with the world since his heart is filled with virtue and truth.

Therefore the carnal man easily falls when tempted, even of trifling evils because his spirit is weak and given to sensual things. All earthly desires tie the person to the contours of this earth; he could hardly abstain from his lust. Repentance is farthest from his heart and though he seeks peace, he pursues it using his unbridled lust and deception. Political expediency is the heart of his talk, vain attractions have set him towards destruction.

True peace however, dwells in the heart, by resisting unbridled passions, not in satisfying them; there is peace in the fervent and spiritual man. Religion is the work of man but faith and relationship is the work of God. Some use religion for their own image but God cannot be fooled because there is no deception in the truth. Whenever man uses religion to appease his goodness and compensate for his unholy acts, this righteousness has more in common with rags than with His holiness.

Man had always been dreaming of the ultimate solution to his problems in life. Some blamed the Jews, others blamed the devil while a fewer ones blamed it on themselves. Whether the cause is a combination of these or simply because of moving away from God, the only answer can be found in His statement, He is the gate by which everyone must enter, the only way, truth and life that leads to the Father of us all.

Suddenly I heard a bomb explode just before the hedge where I was hiding. Behind me were children and women running for shelter, after the billows of smoke cleared, an army formation has returned. The bombs were accusations of the enemy and they were bombarding our fortress, the heavens opened up and rent the veil of clouds so that I could see at the crowds where John preaches and at the same time the army of the devil in the heavenlies. It was like watching two screens at the same time but I was still with the crowd, listening to the gracious words of the man of God.

I did not understand what I just saw, but I kept them in my heart and continued listening to the words of John. Once the apostle Paul also visited the Galatians and he commended them for receiving him as an angel of the Lord in spite of his flesh. Paul may not have been the ideal messenger for them and even John is to the Jews but when God sends a man to proclaim His message, He also seals His message with His signature. The fruit of their works attest that they have been sent by the Lord. Not that they merely desired to go and preach, rather in their pursuit of God, they were caught up in His presence, and He placed His hands inside their tongue and feed them with His Word.

Word as sweet honey and bitter water

It may have tasted as honey inside their mouths but bitter in their belly because they sought not merely to become vessels of His messages but examples to the flock. One can give messages, even write many ones, but the test of a vessel is not merely by passing out water to others, it is also by experiencing that water turned into wine! There are many vessels who try to seek for honor and excellence without adding with it faith and patience. Because they wanted to quickly pass the water to others without actually allowing time for the dregs to settle in, they also transferred their dirt to others. Waiting could be the greatest trial of our flesh but it can also be the greatest opportunity for us to witness His power to change us.

Most people admire the colorful butterfly but few wanted to know or learn that it was first an ugly caterpillar. Consider then yourself that you be not proud asking that you bend the will of others to conform to yourself. Patience is bearing the weight of others calmly and by faith that they would be transformed into the image of Christ. As Thomas àKempis said, until God ordains otherwise, a man ought to bear patiently whatever he cannot correct in himself and in others. They may be rough, rebellious, proud and blasphemers but until your obedience is complete, you also have no right to conform them to your will.

Perhaps your burden is greater than what you can actually bear, under such conditions continue to pray that God will send you help and rescue you in the darkness of the pit. If you have advised the person once or twice and he continues in his path, give the whole matter to God because He knows well how to correct your circumstances and turn evil to good. Always consider others as better than yourself and think of their interest first before yours.

It is far less annoying in a relationship if we lessen our grip on others and rather pray them all to Christ. Since you are not perfect, and you seldom think of yourself how much others maybe suffering because of your ways, then you ought to endure what God has given you. No man is sufficient of himself, therefore be wise and learn to console, bear and uphold others mutually for the measure of man is revealed by the adversaries he meets.

Keeping a good conscience

Paul was about to be executed but he feared none, not his enemies nor that of death. Many years have passed since he has taken the gospel across the Roman world and planted the cross in major and strategic cities. I have kept my conscience clean, he said, writing, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene” (2 Timothy 2:15-17). To walk as an approved workman brings the testimony of a good conscience.

But keeping one’s conscience clean could be one of the hardest thing to do on earth especially if you live in the market place; At least that is what we often think and say that those who work inside the churches are much better of than most of us. The advantage of a good conscience is joy in the midst of trial while an evil conscience cannot even keep peace or happiness. Sinners do not have interior joy or peace for “there is no peace to the wicked” says the Lord. Even if they say we are at peace and happy, do not believe such lies because no sooner that these words have flung from their lips and the wrath of God will arise quickly to destroy them.

Good conscience is the safeguard against any accusation or condemnation that is hurled by the enemy. When true peace keeps our hearts, we are covered and our conscience cannot be stricken with any disturbance that arises from doubts, accusations and despair. Its foundation is truth and its guard, the peace of God that no man or devil can steal. However, any man who fails to bridle his tongue or his affections can easily fall away into the pit of self-doubt and despair, his conscience striking him heavily because he has not nailed himself to the cross of Christ. Unmortified affections stumble more men and women than booze would do to a drunken driver; you have to be crucified with Christ, walk with Him and you crucify the flesh. A good interior life is the greatest safeguard to a debauched and seared conscience.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:16-21)