Desire of Ages
Chapter 73
"Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled"
However did Jesus survive mentally the incorporeal attacks on his soul during his ministry? Teens are making suicide attempts just for sheer perspectiveless outlook on life or when their lover leaves them. Depression is up to an all time high this year even within lives of those who seemingly 'have everything'. What was the pivoting strengths of mind that held Jesus sane? E.White writes : "It was this that He kept ever before Him. It was His joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name."
Jesus in his kindness and care gave wonderful mental health words to his followers which apply to us as today's followers, "Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Me. ......I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be also." It is a fasinating thought that Jesus left earth and is in heaven building mansions for us. And He left us here a wonderful legacy for good mental health, too. He said "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it not be afraid. In the world ye shall have tribulation, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. "
A very strong point of carefully caring for the emotional future of his followers is to brace them for what lays ahead. He didn't give blow for blow detail, but enough outline to stable them so that their fantasies wouldn't run wild in the darkness of not knowing. Prophecy of His coming death was given a number of times. Prophecy of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and how to handle themselves during the phases of it were given them. Prophecy of the falling away from faith by church members and also how the apostasy would open door and window for all sorts of false teachers. His warnings about the false prophets coming were explict. He told them about the false Messiahs popping up with their 'flags' of come-follow-me. His warnings to don't even go to check them out was stern. YES, our Jesus fathers us with loving care for our mental health by giving us E.White as a needed prophet for today's Satanic attacks on the church in this era. Reading her Great Controversy book has stabilized a lot of us in understanding these last days before the second coming of our Lord. Great is our God! Jesus be praised that God is taking care of us who love Him.
The purpose of the Lord Jesus was to come to this world to display the Glory of God. He was God come in human flesh. He came to lift up man to a restored position from which he had fallen. He exhibited powers and character qualities that we might have when we exercise faith in Him. It all is dependant upon whether we possess the same subjection to God as He has. What was wonderful about Jesus is that he never lied to anyone. There is probably no one living, even up till their death, which hasn't lied to some one on some occasion about something either in a big awful black way or in a light grey coloring. But our Jesus was pure truth and never was a lie in Him. Everything that Jesus predicted was found to be true as it's fulfillment came. There are a few items that we of the end-times will experience that too will prove so true that when we meet Him we will also have our faith again strengthen in the fact that Jesus never lied.
What was exciting in it's faith strengthening values was that after the ressurrection the puzzle pieces of past prophecies, pertaining to the Messiah coming, were so clearly understood finally by the disciples that Jesus indeed was the Messiah lamb of God promised as well as the Messiah king. It was just a matter of waiting up the timezone for each phase to take place. He is indeed coming as King of Kings and Lord of Lords ! But just for the meantime we all have to hang on in there and 'wait-up'.
What does keep us in connection since the Ascension of our Messiah is the presence of the Holy Spirit that is not 'body-bound' like Jesus was. A fasinating networking can be achieved now in the invisible kingdom of God between us and the heavenlies. It doesn't matter where we are physically, the inbuilt 'modem' abiding in us links us up with the Almighty. The prayer of faith is the codeword. The secret of our sucess depends on keeping the lines up and running. In our prayers we are opening up to receive unlimited resources and power to do that which God can do through us. With God nothing is impossible. The condition is that it must run along His will.
"Every sincere prayer is heard in heaven." "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it. Greater works than these whall he do, because I go unto My Father. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." (thank you, Jesus, for all these words of truth you spoke for us as encouragement. I pray for my brothers and sisters in faith that we all seriously will apply the principle of what you want us to do. To pray to you. For everything. In season and out of season. But always in faith. So let it be. )
A lot of us are not keeping the commandments of God rightly in our private lives. We have watered down the holy expectations. We put then a low estimation upon ourselves thinking we shouldn't go to God in prayer asking for something. We sort of at times ask others to intercede for us when the going gets hot, fearing that our inadequacies are not allowing us to enter the holy presence of the Almighty God we worship but fear. There's a wrong attitude here. It is to be corrected only if we accept the habit of first confessing any sin that has broken our trustful relationship to Jesus and then accepting the forgiveness by forgiving ourselves as well. We then ask in trust for His strength to overcome when we need to resist again the temptation that we fall prey to so easily. Try to picture His wanting intensely to be in communion with us more than we want to be with Him in communion. Try to picture Him speaking to us to allow Him to put the armor of faith, word of God, salvation, truth, righteousness, and the gospel of peace on us. But our will has to be in cooperation with His doing.
It's imperative to understand the Vine and we-are-the-branches analogy. We'll be pruned of the dead leaves, unnecessary outshoots and non-producing elements in our lives. It's all going to seem like a pretty bad trail that stirs us to want to break out and run away. What helps is to keep saying that all these trials are necessary for our character development so that the beams of the Sun of righteousness fall better on us to produce more fruit that is richer and more abundant. Let's each one of us pray that we not be broken off from the Vine because of unforgiveness, or unbelief in Bible statements or SOP. It would be awful to have been part of the Vine and then cast off to wither. Such branches will be gathered for the fires of destruction. That happens to branches which do not bear fruit. They bluff with a lot of religious leaves but are not of use for the things of God. The whole fig tree was cursed back there outside of Jerusalem for giving false impressions. So the phony believer branches that are bluffing true discipleship will get the same treatment. There is apparantly a connection to the Vine without real union to him as a possiblity of religious life. The character and conduct of such show that they do not know Christ. For those bearing fruit it is the result of abiding in the Vine properly. These are those 'eating His flesh and drinking His blood'.
[This message has been edited by Joan (edited 04-14-2001).]