By John Thiel, mp3

Scripture reading: Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

This is a very personal message; it is not just a general subject, it is me and you. It is something that we need to understand so that in what we have studied in reference to the twelve tribes we may not only see ourselves in those tribes, but that we might actually engage in the purification exercises that are required to be among the 144,000, rather than just know about them. We need to be engaged in the sealing work. As we read in Revelation 7, these 144,000 come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. We want to really understand this as we are to participate in this purification. Washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb, what does this really mean in practice?

Washing Our Robes

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Here is a wonderful comfort. Don’t disregard yourself as a child of God. Now are we the sons of God; why? Because Jesus has died for us; He has bought us. And we are here because we have chosen to be at the footstool of Jesus Christ and have accepted His sacrifice for our sins. Therefore now are we the sons of God. However we still see that we are not what sons of God should be in all perfection. It doth not yet appear what we shall be. We don’t see it yet what exactly we are going to be like; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And now comes a very important point:

1 John 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

So we want to be like Him when He comes; what must we do now? We have the hope operating within us that we are going to be like Him. And that hope that I carry is going to purify me. I am going to purify myself, even as He is pure.

To understand our part in this activity is what we want to do. If I asked for you to raise your hands whether you want to be there ready when Jesus comes, I’m sure you would all raise your hands. How important is it then that we actually understand the subject of this hour in practice. What is our part?

Philippians 2:12 …work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

This is our part. If you consider this for a moment, what is actually required here? Many people have said to me over the years, “You can’t do it; don’t even try. You can’t change. You’ve got to let God do it.” We hear this time and time again because we feel so often that if I try I’m not going to get there. I’ve tried long enough; I’m still not perfect, and yet there is this statement ringing in our ears, Work out your own salvation. Lord, what is this?? How am I going to achieve this being like Him when He comes? With this hope in us we will do something about it.

Our Part

Your part is to put your will on the side of Christ. {AG 209.3}

This is your part, to put your will on the side of Christ; because that’s all you can do.

When you yield your will to His, He immediately takes possession of you, and works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your nature is brought under the control of His Spirit. Even your thoughts are subject to Him. If you cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, you can control the will, and thus an entire change will be wrought in your life. {Ibid.}

Let us explore that activity. The only way by which any of us are going to change and progress, is if we make a choice. I have to make the choice; no one will do it for me. I have to make the choice, and I have to put my will behind every word of God that is shown me to do. And the Holy Spirit is just waiting for me. The moment I want to do it and I look to Him, Lord, help me! in He comes. I’ve experienced it, it is so beautiful. But I have to keep on doing it, because I can stop doing it for a while, and then the Holy Spirit is so courteous He doesn’t force Himself upon me. God is an amazing being; He never forces you to do anything but by your own choice and will. This then is our part, to put our will on the side of Christ. This is what has to happen.

It is a frightening experience when we read statements of this nature that we must be perfect when Jesus comes. Doesn’t that frighten you? Doesn’t that generate in you the exclamation, I don’t know whether I’m ever going to get there! It is a frightening thought, but the Bible is explicit in the fact. This is the calling, the challenge before us, that we might be like Him:

Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

We are going to see Him as He is, we are going to be like Him. What does that mean? Perfect like Him. It nearly chokes me when I look at this. This is what I must be, and look at me.

A Frightening Prospect

1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

“We shall see Him as He is.” “We shall be like Him.” There is no escaping it; sinless perfection is a condition we must reach. Frightening. Apostle Paul understood the challenge, and I love the way he describes his experience in the challenge. Someone like Apostle Paul met this frightening experience, and at the end of the road he could say, I have fought the fight; there is a place made for me.

Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

He is speaking as someone who has recognised what God expects of us. The law teaches us; it is very broad, it is spiritual. And as I strive to do what the law says, says Paul, I discover I am sold under sin. I don’t allow the things that I do, because I want to do what the law says. The things that I don’t want to do, I do.

Romans 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Oh, I love the law of God after the inward man; there is something inside of me that really wants this;

Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Aren’t these the words that come up in your own heart so many times when you discover your shortfalls? These are the words of Apostle Paul who knows the struggle, and he puts it under inspiration in such perfect words. There is a law in my members that although my heart yearns to do what God’s will is, there is something working inside of me; it is the law of sin in my members. If you study your gene pool, as you search out what sort of a heredity you have, you get a shock. Oh no, all these experiences that my forbearers have had are in my gene pool. I cannot rid myself of this flesh; it is the sins of their practices and behaviours and situations of life that they have reacted to that has been installed into the very fabric of my flesh. Apostle Paul says, There is a law in my members; and we know it today, it is called the law of heredity. Don’t you hate it?

I saw it in my parents, especially in my father, and I said, I don’t want to be like that! Then when I fully saw myself as a grown man, I thought, Oh no! The very thing I didn’t want to be is what I am. And we need to come to the realisation of this, as Apostle Paul realised it here; because if I don’t realise this I am living in a delusion.

So he cries, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” And then comes the wonderful answer, which we need to pick up in dealing with the participation in our personal sealing work:

Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What is the important word? Through Jesus Christ. I am going to conquer here; it is through Jesus Christ our Lord. What did Jesus say? I am the door; any man that comes in must come in through the door; there is no other way. If any man comes in any other way, he is a thief. We must come in through the door; Jesus is the one through whom we are going to gain the victory in participating in our personal sealing work.

Through Jesus Christ

Let the word and the Holy Spirit really crystallise this in our living fabric.

Hebrews 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; 8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

My will must be placed on the side of Christ. What did Jesus do? In the days of His flesh what did He do to develop perfection like I have to develop? He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation; He became the door. He became the being through whom I will learn the process. You can see why it is so essential that we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. To hold a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is to look at Him, to see Him one with me in my struggles, in my gene pool, which He also had, and to appreciate that He lived an experience that I am experiencing. He was trembling, working out His own salvation with fear and trembling. Some people have picked me up on this, and have said to me, “John, you don’t know what you’re talking about; He has come to save us; He didn’t need to save Himself.” He came to save us by going through the experience Himself, so that He could become the door, the one through whom we can be saved.

He cried with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death. So He needed to have help from Him who could save Him. It’s so simple, isn’t it? When you read the Bible as it reads, you don’t end up in any false conclusions. Jesus cried to be saved by His Father, like I have to cry to be saved. And He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Praise the Lord.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Didn’t Apostle Paul come to the edge of that when he said, “Who can saved me? I’m such a wretched person”? Instead of giving up, he said, I thank God; I’ve got the answer through Jesus Christ our Lord. To understand in this personal work, I need to know the flesh and its properties, and how Jesus dealt with it, so we can copy Him.

I know that many of us have already handled this before, but you know, I have handled this countless times, and it’s always fresh to my own needs. So I make no apologies for going over similar scriptures again and again, because every time we go over it, the Holy Spirit sends another dimension of discovery for our own personal selves. I am thrilling for my own personal self as I am sharing this with you, because it cements my resolve to keep on looking to Jesus and deal with my personal battles in atonement with Him.

A Helper in Our Personal Battles

Jesus dealt with our experience and conquered, and was a helper because of this.

Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part…

Of what? How does it read? Something like it? This is often what we hear people say, “Only in the likeness, that means not exactly the same;” but here it says

Hebrews 2:14 …he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

If I don’t become perfect, I’m going to die. It is a fearful, frightening thought that I must be perfect.   

Hebrews 2:16 For verily he took not on [him the nature of] angels; but he took on [him] the seed of Abraham. 

He took on Himself the gene pool of Abraham.

Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto [his] brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things [pertaining] to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. 4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

The Scripture not only tells you that you need to be perfect; it doesn’t just tell you what the law tells you; it doesn’t just tell you what is the perfection that you are reaching for; it tells you the battle through which Jesus went so that you could go through Him to reach that. And He is there to succour us. How many times people have said, “I’m battling on my own, nobody cares; nobody knows how I feel!” Well, does Jesus know? You know, I have often felt completely alone in my struggles. People don’t seem to understand what I am going through. But I’m never upset, because Jesus knows, and He is very dear to me, and I am pleading with each one here that Jesus becomes your personal Saviour, so that when you feel totally alone you are not alone.

I don’t know whether this is such a discouraging thought. I will never forget the sermon I preached quite some years ago. I highlighted that reality that you are never alone; and a person came to me afterwards and said, How discouraging! and I thought, What? How can this be discouraging? You are never alone; Jesus is very close to us, so close, closer than a friend can be. You are never alone, and if nobody cares, to your observation, yet He cares and He is right there with you in your bed, He is there with you in your personal life, everywhere you are; He is with you! He is a wonderful Saviour to succour us.

As I am going through these feelings, Jesus feels it, because He remembers it as though it was now. He is the I AM – past, present, and future. He is my High Priest who remembers it all perfectly as though it is happening right now. And I want to meditate on this, to open my heart to it, because this is how I am going to get the victory over all my besetments. And if I lose sight of that, I need to quickly gather it again the moment I go down over something.

Our Condition

What is the nature of my flesh?

Isaiah 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

This is the condition of the flesh. A seed of evildoers – this is what is passed on to us, this is the condition.

Jeremiah 17:1 The sin of Judah [is] written with a pen of iron, [and] with the point of a diamond: [it is] graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

The sins are in our body, in our flesh, and we need to understand this if we are going to walk together with Jesus, because He too had that flesh. In the days of His flesh He met that experience.

Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? [then] may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

It is a physical condition of being, like the skin of a black man, or the fur of the leopard. It is in the DNA – deoxyribonucleic acid. It’s in the acid, in the chemistry of our being. It creates and produces personality, which I don’t like about myself as I compare myself with the personality of the Ten Commandments and of Jesus Himself.

The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil. {8T 312.2}

What was the sacrifice required? Jesus. The value of the sacrifice is infinity; the more you think about it the deeper it gets. It is just like looking out into the universe; it just goes on and on. The sacrifice required to redeem us is of infinite value. Think about what this is saying. Whatever comes up in your life, there is a wonderful recovery program for us in the sacrifice.

Through sin the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted. Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul. Temptations from without find an answering chord within the heart, and the feet turn imperceptibly toward evil. {Ibid.}

You want to study this in appreciating what happens to us. The feet turn imperceptibly. You don’t even notice that you ae doing it until you’ve done it. This is what Apostle Paul says, The good I want to do, I don’t do, and the evil which I don’t want to do, imperceptibly I’m doing it! And I wake up afterwards and think, What have I done?? What have I said? How have I reacted here?? I didn’t even know it was going to come upon me! Have you met that experience? We need to understand this. There is a science involved here to reprogram this derange organism. It is

A Science

There is a science of Christianity to be mastered–a science as much deeper, broader, higher than any human science as the heavens are higher than the earth. The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained; for we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination. {MH 453.4}

Inborn means it’s in the gene pool, in the flesh. And we are called upon to do service for God in ways that are out of harmony with this natural flesh of ours.

Hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil must be overcome. Often the education and training of a lifetime must be discarded, that one may become a learner in the school of Christ. Our hearts must be educated to become steadfast in God. We are to form habits of thought that will enable us to resist temptation. We must learn to look upward. The principles of the word of God–principles that are as high as heaven, and that compass eternity–we are to understand in their bearing upon our daily life. Every act, every word, every thought, is to be in accord with these principles. All must be brought into harmony with, and subject to, Christ. {Ibid.}

This is the science. It is a science of understanding the flesh and working together with Jesus in retraining that hormonal DNA.

Don’t say for one moment in your inward self, This is beyond me, I can’t do this. Don’t say this, because if you do you are actually shutting yourself out by your choice. I can choose to think that I’m so dull in my brain that I can never understand this science. But don’t do that, because even a little child can understand this subject. The only thing that is in the way are my own impulses that stop me. That’s all; it’s just my personal impulses, my flesh especially as an adult.

All should have an intelligent knowledge of the human frame that they may keep their bodies in the condition necessary to do the work of the Lord. The physical life is to be carefully preserved and developed that through humanity the divine nature may be revealed in its fullness. The relation of the physical organism to the spiritual life is one of the most important branches of education. It should receive careful attention in the home and in the school. All need to become acquainted with their physical structure and the laws that control natural life. He who remains in willing ignorance of the laws of his physical being and who violates them through ignorance is sinning against God. {COL 348.1}

So we need to understand this science, and it is essential in conquering to become part of the 144,000. The physical processes operate via the brain nerves, which themselves receive messages, and by cognitive brain exercises, send a message back for action. As the brain gets messages from the sinful flesh, the brain has to make careful consideration as to what it is going to do with those impulses, those feelings, the hormonal influences of my life, dictated to by my deoxyribonucleic acid. This is all chemistry. And this chemistry, this activity in the human body – brain messages received, thought about and acted upon – is a network that has been deranged by sin. This is me and you; we are in it together! And isn’t it wonderful that Jesus is in it with us?

There are reflexes in our body, emotional impulses that come as reflexes to stimulus around us. This is very simply explained. You see a bull chasing you, what do you do? You don’t stop to think, Oh, poor little bully, I’m not going to do anything here. No; you run for your life without thinking. This is a reflex. And a young man looks at a jezebel walking down the street; there is a reflex; he can’t help himself. I have talked to lots of men and they all say it; they have a hard time on this area, because it is in the DNA.

Impulses – Thoughts and Feelings

There are thoughts and feelings suggested and aroused by Satan that annoy even the best of men; {2MCP 432.2}

Who was the best of men? No question about it. Jesus is the best of men. Did He have this problem, thoughts and feelings suggested and aroused by Satan that annoyed Him?

…but if they are not cherished, if they are repulsed as hateful, the soul is not contaminated with guilt, and no other is defiled by their influence. {Ibid.}

This is why Jesus was pure. The thoughts and feelings that came through the sinful flesh arrived to be recognised; and what did He do? “No, thank you.” In the mind the thought was not cherished. What does that mean? As the thought arrives, you say, “This is foreign! I know it’s wrong. Out!” Don’t stop for a moment to think, “Hmm, feels good… I do like it… but I know I shouldn’t do it…” You’re cherishing it. Chase it out the moment it comes. Out! No response. It is there as a feeling, as an impulse, but you say, Not wanted, thank you very much. Jesus did that every time, and therefore He was perfect.

The question is, How do you actually do that? In this computer age in which we live, you have to remember we are computers. You have to get right down to the hard drive. You have to deal with the hard drive.

Working at the Core

Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me thine heart,

This is the hard drive; this is the motive. The wonderful covenant that God has made is that He will take your heart and replace it with a pure heart. “I will write my laws in your heart,” He says. “Give Me your heart, so that I can reprogram your heart. Not your flesh, but your heart, your hard drive. I am going to give you a new heart, and I am going to write my laws therein.” How does He do that? Let us get the science very clear. How does the heart become reorganised?

The brain nerves which communicate with the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man and affect his inmost life. {2T 347.2}

You want to get your heart right? Then the only way by which God can get into your heart and rearrange your heart is through the brain nerves that communicate with the inner soul. It is so important then that we actually understand that as I want my heart to be renewed, if God is going to give me a new heart, He is going to give it through the communication of Hs word through the brain nerves that go deep inside of us. As I listen and meditate and let God do it, He is going to touch my heart and change me; and as I look at Jesus this is how it happens.

Every soul who truly believes the truth will have corresponding works. All will be earnest and solemn, and unwearied in their efforts to win souls to Christ. If the truth is first planted deep in their own souls, then they will seek to plant it in the hearts of others. The truth is kept altogether too much in the outer court. Bring it into the inner temple of the soul, enthrone it in the heart, and let it control the life. The word of God should be studied and obeyed, then the heart will find rest and peace and joy, and the aspirations will tend heavenward; {5T 547.1} 

You want the hard drive of your computer system to be affected? Here is the answer. Brethren and sisters, don’t let this go over your head. As you struggle in your life, here are some profound answers. What you receive through your brain nerves, the senses – touch, taste, hearing, eyesight – that is the only way by which God can reach the inmost life, therefore let the truth, whether it be given from the pulpit or whether it comes from the Sabbath school lesson or through personal reading, let this truth go beyond the intellect, the outer court. Let it go from the intellect into the seat of your affections, the heart. And as you concentrate on the study of God’s word, as hard as it may be, it will do something. If you put your will on this side, you will feel the presence of the Holy Spirit rushing in immediately. When we don’t feel the Holy Spirit, what is the problem? I am actually distancing myself from this exercise. This is the problem. The Holy Spirit is always there. But I’m not feeling Him because my receptors are not focused, and He can’t force Himself upon me. I must place my will on God’s side, I must make a choice.

It is not enough to have an intellectual knowledge of the truth. . . . There must be an entrance of the Word into the heart. It must be set home by the power of the Holy Spirit. The will must be brought into harmony with its requirements. Not only the intellect but the heart and conscience must concur in the acceptance of the truth. {TMK 192.3}

Think about this. You may study the Bible and say, Yes, that’s right; you may hear the word of God in all its platform of truth that we stand for as a people, and you can say, Yes, I love it; it’s true, I know intellectually that this is true; but what do you do inside of yourself? This is the part that each one of us must answer for ourselves. What do I do when I know that something is absolutely right and I should be doing what it says? What happens inside? “Hmm, it doesn’t quite feel comfortable for me.” I tend to think inside of myself, “Maybe later.” “Yeah, I love it, but what I’m doing at the moment I’m happy with.” All these kinds of things come in because the affections of the heart have been indulged in for so long, and therefore I agree and I assent to the truth, but the heart, the conscience, does not concur with the knowledge.

Enthroning Jesus Within

I am sharing here material that is the answer to our desire, to our request to the Lord to help us. But when we go home we must engage in this and set our will, our choice, behind what we have absorbed. And once God’s word has reached the hard drive of our being and we concur with it and we open our hearts to it personally and individually,

The only way in which we can gain a more perfect apprehension of truth is by keeping the heart tender and subdued by the Spirit of Christ. The soul must be cleansed from vanity and pride, and vacated of all that has held it in possession, {DA 494.4}

Vanity and pride is the problem. The soul needs to be cleansed of that.

…and Christ must be enthroned within. Human science is too limited to comprehend the atonement. The plan of redemption is so far-reaching that philosophy cannot explain it. {Ibid.}

You might have it in philosophical thinking in accepting the theory of it, but it doesn’t do the job.

It will ever remain a mystery that the most profound reasoning cannot fathom. The science of salvation cannot be explained; but it can be known by experience. Only he who sees his own sinfulness can discern the preciousness of the Saviour. {Ibid.}

It is a science in which Jesus is the door, and I can see it by experience when I open my heart to the covenant. When I let Him reach me in my inmost self and I open my heart to that, Jesus becomes the most precious being in my life; He becomes enthroned within. I can’t explain it to you. This is why the five wise virgins cannot give their oil to the foolish. It can’t be explained; it must be experienced. And as I am showing you this, I am absorbing it for myself, and you need to absorb it for yourself, because I can’t get it across to you apart from the fact that I can show you what is written. Let us go to and do this.

Those who really want to learn of Christ will have to empty the soul of all its proud imaginings, that there may be room to enthrone Him there. {OHC 110.4}

Whatever pridey thoughts and feelings are still held inside, it will prevent Jesus from being there, because I will be of a double mind. Jesus wants the whole heart; He wants to sit there, and He will give me the answers to all my perplexities. I testify to it, it’s true. It changes your whole mentality.

Not a pause for a moment in His presence, but personal contact with Christ, to sit down in companionship with Him–this is our need. {FLB 225.4}

Are we doing it? This is technical reality. The regulating power is then on the throne, the hard drive is now going to function properly. The flesh with all its corruptions is still there, but the heart is pure, the regulating power, Jesus, is there.

If Jesus is enthroned in the heart, will the thoughts be running riot? {CH 295.1}

No, they won’t, because He is regulating the thoughts and the feelings. We want to appreciate the scriptural directives that apply to my experience when the hard drive is reorganised by Jesus sitting in the throne of my heart.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

When Jesus is in the throne we have soundness and we have the power to regulate everything from a sound mind that will govern our impulses.

Ephesians 2:1 And you [hath he quickened], who were dead in trespasses and sins: 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

We have all been there in the world with its corruptions, children of wrath by nature; but through the process that we see in the following scripture we have put on the new man;

Ephesians 4:21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

This is when you say, Ah, I know what this is saying now, I really appreciate it; I know it by experience. This is what Apostle Paul said:

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

This is what must regulate my mind, and I must put my will on the side of this; I must choose to make it happen, and then I can continue to choose because my heart is in love with Jesus and He is on the throne.

Letting Him Control

Now, as I understand what I must do and I exercise my own will and choice, I will work out my own salvation with fear and trembling, because, if I do that,

Philippians 2:13 …it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.

He is a regulator now, and I choose to let me regulate me every moment. And when I discover something that is not of Him, I will cast it out. I will let Him control and comfort me and succour me in my experience.

1 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

So we must have the knowledge of Him,

1 Peter 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that [pertain] unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

And now that the divine nature is come in and it is a regulating force in my life, besides this,

1 Peter 1:5 …giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Here are the 144,000. If we follow this through, the true science of salvation, we have engaged in the process that will seal us among that number. I pray that what I have shared with you here will prove indeed a living experience in your own life, because this is the only thing that will hold us together as we practice it.

Amen.

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