By John Thiel

This extension of heaven for making us citizens with them is such inspiration we want to absorb.  It is a preparation here in our fellowship that is taking place so that we may get to heaven one day and not criticise the angels.  If we haven’t learnt here to be meek and loving as the angels are, we will be like that there and it will make heaven unpleasant.  What should our communications be here so as not to be critical there?  We are to appreciate the nature of the angels and the condition and communication we will have with each other as we look to them.

No unpleasant words are spoken in heaven. There no unkind thoughts are cherished. There envy, evil surmising, hatred, and strife find no place. Perfect harmony pervades the heavenly courts.  {UL 163.3}

If we are going to have a place there, where are we going to have it first?   We are going to have it amongst us as believers who are going to be there.

Well does Satan know what heaven is, and what the influence of the angels is? His work is to bring into every family the cruel elements of self-will, harshness, selfishness. {UL 163.4}

Because he knows that is what is not there.

Thus he seeks to destroy the happiness of the family. He knows that the spirit governing in the home will be brought into the church.  {UL 163.4}

How many have expressed our little church is a family?  The atmosphere of my home is going to be transferred into the church family and Satan knows this.  He knows that the spirit governing in the home will be brought into the church.

Let the father and mother always be guarded in their words and actions. {UL 163.5}

There is a guarding that mother and father must do in the family what must we do in the church family?

The husband is to treat his wife, the mother of his children, with due respect, and the wife is to love and reverence her husband. How can she do this if he treats her like a servant, to be dictated to, ordered about, scolded, found fault with before the children? He is forcing her to dislike him and even to hate him.  {UL 163.5}

Here is a description of how Satan wants to break things up.  All of us have been in a family and been in these interactions for sure.

May God help fathers and mothers to open the windows of the soul heavenward and let the sunshine of Christ into the homelife. Unless they do this, they will be surrounded by a mist and fog most injurious to spirituality.  {UL 163.6}

The church is going to be affected by the spirit of the homelife and if we are a little church family then the same principles apply. We are men and women in this church.  Can you see the danger of mother and father interaction entering into the church as difficulties?  How many times have we experienced the sense of a woman feeling under the pressure of a man in the church or a man claiming a woman wants to rule him?  This is all foreign to the society of heaven. We have become a family because we have frequently gathered.  We meet frequently through the week and in our deliberations and business meetings.  Some say I don’t want to go to business meetings as its handling things I don’t want to be a part of.  We are called upon to function and that is what home is like.  Familiarities are developed in the home and church.  The angels are our fellow servants.  I am your fellowservant and of your brethren the angel said to John. We are being given our queue to work harmoniously together and to create a spiritual home.  We long for a spiritual home don’t we?  Some people say I have no spiritual home as they are scattered by the churches.  We need a spiritual home. The angels are working to provide a spiritual home to prepare us that we might change now from our erring ways.  The angels are watching how we are dealing in the home and church with each other.

Angels are watching with intense interest to see how man is dealing with his fellow men. When they see one manifest Christlike sympathy for the erring, they press to his side and bring to his remembrance words to speak that will be as the bread of life to the soul. {COL 148.4}

Someone is Erring

Someone is erring and another in the church is filled with sympathy to the erring and the angels press to their side.  When you see someone erring, don’t you think what can I say?  The angels press to his side to remember words that will be as bread of life to the soul. We are to choose words that are as bread of life.  What do we usually do in the home?  We usually blurt out what we think don’t we?  And our words are not like the bread of life.

…angels of God will be round about him, giving him words to speak that will bring light and hope and courage to many souls.  {6T 314.2}

When a person is erring in the church, is it usually because they are stumbling around in their erring ways.  They know they want to be better but what kind of words do they need when they are stumbling around?  Hope and courage.  Angels are hovering around to help us.

Isaiah 50:4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him that is] weary:

We saw the ways of Jesus communicating with the people and is not that what the angels are doing?  They will give them words to speak.  A word in season that will encourage rather than give a thrust.

There is to be no sharp speaking, no fretful scolding, for angels of God are walking up and down in every room. Christ loves to commend every faithful worker, and He will do it. Every good act is registered in the book. Little mistakes may be made, but words of censure arouse feelings of retaliation, {HP 182.4}

If you can hear someone saying something censorious and something comes up inside of you, it is not the word of bread of life but a word of a shrivelling effect. There are to be no sharp words.  Angels are there, they are trying to help us the other way.  Although mistakes are made, how many times we see people make mistakes and we are ready to rag them.  How does a wife feel when a husband rags her. The one that she loves is ragging her. She has sensitive feelings.  Or the husband who is trying to please his wife is ragged by her?  These are contrary to the way of speaking by the holy angels.

Any word spoken thoughtlessly or unadvisedly should be retracted on the spot. . . . We are to remember that as Christians professing to work in unity we must not act like sinners, whose sinful words and works, unless repented of, will condemn them. . . .  {HP 182.4}

Can you practise that?  If at anytime we say something that is not the way the angels would have said it, by saying sorry I shouldn’t have said that it already has a beneficial effect. We often bring into the church some of the mannerisms that we have come from and the angels are trying to help us get out of them. Notice that as a preacher, the angels would choose the words for him as the preacher is to help the church and there is some counsel given.   As you have felt the angels and the spirit of God being present, have you ever felt them give you a thrust from God?  A rebuff?  It is not the way that they work.  They come in ever so gently as they are not like that. The preacher in the pulpit has to correct the church.

They have the unchangeable, eternal word of God, and they should reveal the fact that they have the truth as it is in Jesus. Their words must not be rugged and sharp. In their presentation of truth they must manifest the love and meekness and gentleness of Christ. Let the truth do the cutting; the word of God is as a sharp, two-edged sword, and will cut its way to the heart. Those who know that they have the truth should not, by the use of harsh and severe expressions, give Satan one chance to misinterpret their spirit.  {CW 58.3}

In the presentation of God’s word, we must let the truth do the cutting.  If the truth must be spoken, it must not be spoken by the man himself.  He is to let the truth do the cutting.  If that is to be practised in the pulpit, is it every different with each other? How should we go about others in the church that are erring?  Wait for a pint from the word of God do the cutting.  Here we can see there are no short cuts for telling someone something.  There are many a time we have to not open our mouth but wait for opportunity where it will be a balm for the erring.

Long-suffering

Ministers of present truth, while they bear a pointed testimony, reproving individual wrongs and seeking to tear away the idols from the camp of Israel, should manifest forbearance. {1T 383.1}

Once I told someone the wrong way that when they cut their hair they could preach and I upset them and the Lord told me I could have shown them at a better moment from the word.

They should preach the truth in its solemnity and importance, and if this finds its way to the heart it will accomplish that for the receiver which nothing else can. But if the truth spoken in the demonstration of the Spirit does not cut away the idols, it will be of no avail to denounce and bear down upon the individual. It may appear that some are joined to their idols, yet I saw that we should be very reluctant to give up the poor, deceived ones. We should ever bear in mind that we are all erring mortals, and that Christ exercises much pity for our weakness, and loves us although we err. If God should deal with us as we often deal with one another, we should be consumed. {1T 383.1}

That is the problem, many people consume and devour one another.

While ministers preach the plain, cutting truth, they must let the truth do the cutting and hewing, not do it themselves.  {1T 383.1}

Do we have the right to do it to members of the church?  We are not to do it that way. Some I helped gently would then not be gentle with others.  This is why we are learning from the angels that these things need to be overcome.  Instead of a personal thrust, the angels surround us with the wonderful words of truth to help us. In our walk to heaven as we walk together getting ready for the society of heaven, let us practise together these communication skills that will provide a heaven on earth.  We have experienced these heaven on earth experiences.  There needs to be a well chosen communication.

Courtesy is one of the graces of the Spirit. It is an attribute of Heaven. The angels never fly into a passion, never are envious or selfish. No harsh or unkind words escape their lips. If we are to be the companions of angels, we too must be refined and courteous.  {HP 180.2}

Those who profess to be followers of Christ and are at the same time rough, unkind, and uncourteous in words and deportment have not learned of Jesus. . . . The conduct of some professing Christians is so lacking in kindness and courtesy that their good is evil spoken of. {HP 180.4}

Have you ever had good motives but not expressed them in kind and courteous words and then people rag you and you may ask why are they upset at me?  I had no intention of upsetting them.  Examine your words.  The good we do becomes evil spoken of because of the way we speak.

Their sincerity may not be doubted, their uprightness may not be questioned; but sincerity and uprightness will not atone for a lack of kindness and courtesy. The Christian is to be sympathetic as well as true, pitiful and courteous as well as upright and honest. . . .  {HP 180.4}

True courtesy blended with truth and justice makes the life not only useful but beautiful and fragrant. Kind words, pleasant looks, a cheerful countenance, throw a charm about the Christian that makes his influence almost irresistible. In forgetfulness of self, in the light and peace and happiness that he is constantly bestowing on others, he finds true joy.  {HP 180.5}

Is that not how we want to win people?  To make it irresistible to come be with us? You know what it’s like when you have succeeded to do that, we are having such a precious fellowship.

He spoke a word of sympathy here and a word there as He saw men weary and compelled to bear heavy burdens. He shared their burdens and repeated to them the lessons He had learned from nature, of the love, the kindness, the goodness of God. He sought to inspire with hope the most rough and unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as children of God. . . . Jesus sat an honored guest at the table of the publicans, by His sympathy and social kindliness showing that He recognized the dignity of humanity; and men longed to become worthy of His confidence. Upon their thirsty souls His words fell with blessed, life-giving power. New impulses were awakened, and the possibility of a new life opened to these outcasts of society.  {HP 181.3}

He spoke a word of sympathy here and a word there as He saw men weary and compelled to bear heavy burdens. He shared their burdens and repeated to them the lessons He had learned from nature, of the love, the kindness, the goodness of God. He sought to inspire with hope the most rough and unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as children of God. . .  {HP 181.3}

The religion of Jesus softens whatever is hard and rough in the temper and smooths off whatever is rugged and sharp in the manners. It is this religion that makes the words gentle and the demeanor winning. Let us learn from Christ how to combine a high sense of purity and integrity with sunniness of disposition. A kind, courteous Christian is the most powerful argument that can be produced in favor of the gospel.  {HP 181.4}

Integrity, purity and sunniness of disposition.  This is what the angels are like and they want us to pertain to this.

Amen.