We are reflecting on the final two sections of Rick Joyner’s book, The Final Quest, which we’ve been reading and highlighting for spiritual heart health.
NUGGETS OF WISDOM
***What looks good on earth looks very different in heaven. What will make you a king on earth will often be a stumbling block to keep you from being a king in heaven. What will make you a king in heaven is lowly esteemed on the earth.
“What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.” (Lk. 16:15 – NLT)
“What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Lk. 16:15)
***We fight for truths more than for the people for whom they are given. We will fight for our ministries while running roughshod over the people in them.
While on the earth Paul the apostle had learned that according to all he was given by the Lord that he was the least of all saints and the chief of sinners. He wasn’t saying this to be humble, but because, compared to both saints and sinners, he had been given so much from the Lord and yet didn’t walk in alot of it. He was given so much light but fell short of it.
***Those who learn this kind of humility on the earth are the closest to the Lord throughout eternity and are of the highest rank in heaven. One cannot measure himself by others, but according to the light God has given to him personally.
Here’s a testimony of one of the cloud of witnesses, a minister of the gospel on the earth, who was now in glory but in a lower realm of heaven. It seemed he had lost his reward but still gained his salvation according to this verse:
“If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1 Cor. 3:15) or as the NLT version states:
“The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.”
*** “From the outside my ministry looked like a smooth running machine where everyone was in unity and there was perfect order, but it was the order of a concentration camp. I took the Lord’s own children and made them automatons in my own image instead of His. In the end I was not even serving the Lord, but the idol I had built to myself. By the end of my life I was actually an enemy of the true gospel , at least in practice, even if my teachings and writings seemed impeccably biblical.”
This minister was considered great on the earth. History had given us a very different picture of him from the one seen from heaven’s view.
*** “God has a different set of history books than those on the earth. Some have had a tiny glimpse of this, but they do not yet know how different they are. Earthly histories will pass away, but the books that are kept in heaven will last forever. If you can rejoice in what heaven is recording about your life, you are blessed indeed. Men see through a glass darkly, so their histories will always be clouded, and sometimes completely wrong.”
Yet so many people and leaders esteeemed this ministerial figure when he lived on the earth, but only God could see his true heart and motives.
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” (1 Cor. 13:12)
*** Very few people and even Christians have true discernment. Without this gift it is impossible to discern truth in those of the present or the past. Even with this gift it is difficult. Until you have been in heaven and been stripped, you will judge others through distorted prejudices, either positive or negative. This is why we are warned not to judge before the time. Until we have been in heaven we just cannot really know what is in the heart of others, whether they are performing good or evil deeds. There have been good motives even in the worst of men, and evil motives in the best of them. Only in heaven can men be judged by both their deeds and their motives.
The wise judge themselves lest they be judged.
The even wiser ask for the judgements of the Lord, because they realize that they cannot even judge themselves well.
PRAYER: Father in heaven, I judge myself today so that I will not be judged. I humble myself that I might receive more grace to truly discern right from wrong, good from evil, and the divine from the human. Remove the stumbling blocks and the veils from my eyes that keep me from seeing as You see. I ask You Father for Your judgments.
P. S. Purity Of Heart, is one of my books that deals with the motives and values of men’s hearts. I highly recommend it for the earnest reader and disciple of Jesus. And of course, my newest book, The Supernatural Church of Love and Power, which is a word from the Lord for the time and season we are now in where God is separating the Spirit churches from the flesh churches.
Discounted Pre-orders available now from our new website — holy-fire.org
Finally, consider subscribing to our blog, The Flaming Herald, to receive the word of the Lord and wisdom for the times. The anointing to write has increased and we rejoice greatly because lives are being changed.
I love you all very much.
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