I repeat, as disciples of Jesus, we will not become entirely like Him until after we die. Our God Jesus will complete and perfect literally all the elect children of God together on the same day (Heb. 11:40), on the judgement day in heaven, after death and after the end of the earth—all past, present and future elect, those who became conscious disciples and priests of God as well as those who did not. He will perfect each one individually, according to what is required for his or her inwardly desired destiny in heaven, after this life on earth. For this life on earth is like a training ground for one's spirit. This earthly body and life is like a weight that our spirits must carry daily, to make our spirits stronger, until we receive permanent, new bodies in heaven, bodies not made of rebellious flesh, but made of a spiritual substance that obeys our spirits (e.g., I Cor. 15:50, cf. 15:42-44, 51-54).
Unfortunately, some elect seem to make better use of this training ground, while others do not seem to do so as much. Yet even this is not entirely a man's decision. For Jesus controls all destinies and He has chosen each elect one for a different destiny in heaven. So each elect individual's life on this earth prepares that one to perform a different role in heaven, in serving the immeasurable multitudes of creatures that will be there. Each different kind of life on earth prepares each spirit for a different kind of work beside one's Father and Jesus in heaven. So, if an elect one is making poor decisions on earth, and never serves as a true priest in the church, that too was ordained by God, so that elect one can serve a different role in heaven. For, just as some of the Levitical priests served as carpenters, farmers, stone-masons, guards, singers, musicians and so on, and not all served as teaching and judging priests, so too not all the elect will serve as teaching judges in heaven. Also, the teaching judges were of many different sorts and kinds, each with a different role. Thus, if we try to force every elect one to be the same kind of “Christian,” we will be striving against God's will. Only some elect are called to be conscious disciples of Jesus, to be priests serving this world as His true church. We must realize this. Each elect one must simply do whatever Jesus gives one's hands to do each day and leave all the inward saving works to Jesus Himself, with humility, trusting Him only. For we cannot trust ourselves. We can save no one, heal no one, do nothing good. So we leave all to Jesus.
One thing is certain, it is not a personality cult leader or a man dressed in robes patterned after the robes of ancient Roman pagan priests, standing on a stage and lecturing to people in an institution well organized and run by man alone, that will ever cause any real progress in Christ's salvation. And a teaching, judging priest is not to be esteemed above the others. For God Himself is also a builder, farmer, singer, musician and so on. We can deem no heart's occupation to be less or more demeaning than any other. So we cannot esteem any man as the head of all, giving him authority that belongs to Jesus. In fact, the delusion of esteeming one man over others has always been granted to people and nations of this earth as a punishment from God, whenever they refused to trust in Him. God hands a rebellious people over to such delusions when their hearts refuse to hear Him as their Lord and God. For example, God taught this lesson to His church of Israel when they rejected Him as their only King. God warned them that human judges (rulers) would exploit them (I Sam. 8:4-22). In fact, His worst punishment is to abandon a people to the delusions of humanism, the religion that worships man, so they might esteem man, trust in man and build man-made institutions that exploit man for men. Even if man worshipped sinless animals, instead of their Creator, it would be a great sin. But to worship sinful men is far worse. It is, by far, the most dark, evil, irrational, vile delusion of all. This is why humanism will be the religion of the future world leader, the beast, who is Satan's messiah.38
It is never because a man is more holy than others that causes his prayers for another person to bring healing, blessings and salvation. Yes, God hears the prayers of His elect, and not the prayers of those whose spirits come from Satan. And, yes, the elect learn some true and loving righteousness. So God also hears some elect more than others. But this is only because those elect hear Jesus more in their hearts, and more often pray according to God's will, not according to their own wills, especially not according to the wills of the emotions and intellects of their minds of flesh. “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will he hears us” (I John 5:14, ESV). God does not heed the prayers of one man more than the prayers of others simply because that can make himself look more holy and righteous than others by wearing fancy robes and by performing physical deeds that look religious to the superstitious eyes of the eyes. We can have absolutely no faith that Jesus will ever grant any of our requests that are made according to our own wills. For nothing but Jesus' personal will and power can do what we ask. Jesus only does what is according to His own will, not what is according to man’s opposing will. And Jesus only wills to do what complies with His Father's will. But the Father only wills to do what He predestined from the very beginning, for the good of all. An elect heart's simple faith in Jesus and His words, a pure and humble trust in His power and truth, allows Jesus to glorify the Father through that elect one, by granting that one's humble requests in prayers made from that elect spirit according to Jesus' will. As our spirits long to do what Jesus also wills to do, we pray for that. Then Jesus grants those requests.
So our Father, through our Lord Jesus, will grant His healing, His counsel of prophecies, and other blessings of salvation through the prayers of any of His elect, if an elect one prays according to the Father's will, from the heart, as one's spirit is prompted by Jesus' Holy Spirit. But the minute a man esteems himself above his brothers, and takes glory for himself, there can be little or no healing, prophesying, blessing and saving worked by Jesus through that man. If one takes an esteeming title as a “holy man,” and puts on a clerical robe, or lets others call him “pastor,” he becomes a rebel against God's commands, a corrupter of truth. For all men are just ignorant sinners. And promoting the esteem of men is promoting rebellion against Jesus, the King and Head of all, usurping His position and authority over all. So this is a sin against God's first-order commandments. Thus, it is a sin worse than murder or sexual immorality. Then false preaching is a sin against God's third-order commandments, worse than murder. And, if one promotes a particularly strong worship of man, God often abandons one to many other sins too, even sins of murder and sexual immorality, although one may condemn such sins from the pulpit. God casts them into the darkest delusions and hypocrisy. So let us confess that there is no respect of man by God, that God alone, Jesus alone, is our Saviour and Head Teacher. There is no other. We rely on Jesus alone. The flesh and the world order keep turning us away from acknowledging this fact. But our hearts must keep returning to it, over and over again.
There can be no such thing as a holy person, place or object that can impart spiritual blessings to a person. A holy place is wherever God chooses to reveal Himself to a person, which can be anywhere at any time. And, even if God is currently making a place holy for one man, God will not necessarily make that same place holy for another man standing right beside him. For a place can only ever be counted as holy if God is revealing Himself or something of Himself. And Jesus may reveal Himself to one and not to the other. Thus, no person, place or thing can ever be holy in and of itself. Only God Himself can be holy, and only He makes people, places or things holy by His current presence.
Therefore, God does not hear prayers and save one because one goes to a holy man or a holy place. Rather, if a spirit is an elect child of the Father, but builds a life on earth with the unholy and base things of the world order (which are figuratively represented by wood, hay and straw), one will suffer loss. That elect one will have his or her life's work for worldly things burned away by the consuming fires of the Lord's rebuke on the final judgement day. Nevertheless, that elect child of God shall be saved in the end, and enter heaven to fulfil one's destiny. For salvation depends on God's choices, according His own will, not on any man or thing on earth. Since Jesus is working His saving work of writing His “law” in their hearts, the foundation of Jesus is in them, and all the good and eternal works He does in their hearts shall never burn away. On the other hand, if an elect spirit is chosen to serve in the true church, as Christ's disciple, and builds a life with simple faith in Jesus, resulting in one doing the just and loving works of Jesus (which are figuratively represented by gold, silver and precious stones), one shall not suffer much loss on that day. Very little of one's earthly life, kept in the mind of the spirit, will burn away. For the rebukes of our Judge, Jesus, will be a light and small fire to purify one's heart. Such a one will find mostly gain and perfecting on that final day (I Cor. 3:12-15). Still, after that judgement day, I assure you that both kinds of God's elect children will enter heaven together, both entirely perfected and completed, made entirely fit for heaven's works.
However, there are also many human spirits who were not born of the Father in heaven, but born of Satan, spirits who love the darkness of lies and delusions more than Christ's light of truth and reality. They too shall receive exactly what their spirits cherish on earth, and dwell in it forever. Since their spirits loved the emptiness of their dark, self-contradicting, destructive, impossible delusions and lies, they shall be cast into the dark, spiritual void, into the bottomless pit called hell, so they can embrace that darkness, so they can cling to it and cherish it for all eternity. They shall fall forever down into the darkness of their own precious delusions, never finding the bottom. For God is not so cruel as to force them to dwell in the unrelenting light of heaven, which their spirits hate, making them suffer eternally and infinitely more than they would in their beloved home of hell. Of course, with their delusions and lies, they will suffer anywhere they go, because their hearts always desire unreal things, which are impossible to give in any just way. Lusts and greed can never be satisfied after death. So their passions and longings will burn painfully within them, as they do within their father in hell, without the possibility of gratification. The blind, self-contradicting desires of their spiritual darkness will eat at them forever, like worms that cannot die, with unremitting pain. And they will never want to let go of their beloved darkness, even though it causes this eternal torment.
While you live on this earth, you need to know that two kinds of human spirits have been created upon it, because you will not be able to grow spiritually mature until you realize this fact. Truly, not everyone can be saved. Not everyone actually desires the real salvation of Jesus. Yes, some non-elect may enjoy a false church and become members, but for impure reasons, since they have no desire for the real truth and the real Jesus. But striving to be a member of a “visible” church means absolutely nothing to God, especially since most churches are actually false churches, and are mere sects of theistic humanism. And no church, by its own power, can save, heal, bless or spiritually improve you or anyone else. For we all must all pray to Jesus and rely on His power, His directing of our thoughts and words, His ability to bless, heal, change and save. And I mean this. Churches may say this, but they turn around and rely on themselves or others for all things. Now we must actually trust in Jesus.
Paul, after a time of great hardship, once wrote, “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (II Cor. 1:9, ESV). And, concerning the ministry of this very ordinary sinner, he himself stated, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” (II Cor. 3:5, ESV). Paul's ministry produced greater good than the works of most men in history. None of the secular “great” men in all history ever came even close to accomplishing the good that Paul's works did, and most “great” men actually did more real harm than real good, though the world is far too ignorant to recognize this fact. Yet Paul was nothing special. In fact, his anger, lack of eloquence in speaking and writing, and his outright evil life before his conversion are well known. Paul was more of a sinner, and more “ordinary,” than most men, outwardly worse than most. But his total reliance on Jesus for all things reveals the “secret of his success.” Paul accomplished more real good because he simply did what Jesus' Spirit called his spirit to do each day, placing his faith in Jesus, not in man.
Also, just like Jesus, Paul refused to preach to some people. Like Jesus, Paul only preached when and where the Father told him to preach—since the Father had previously prepared the spirits of His elect children in those particular places and at those particular times for the effective preaching of His Word. For instance, Paul and his companions were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the Word in Asia,” and “they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (Acts 16:6,7, ESV). Later, God made some of the elect in those places ready to hear the preaching of His Word. But, until the Father prepared those elect hearts to hear Him, preaching would do no good.
On the other hand, during another occasion, after Paul saw a vision, he and his companions said, “immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them” (Acts 16:10, ESV). Then, when Paul reached Corinth, the “Sin City” of the Roman Empire, God told him, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are My people” (Acts 18:9- 10, ESV). Now we know that most of the elect Gentiles in Corinth, whom God called “My people,” were immoral, pagan, idol worshippers at that time. Paul told us some of the sins they committed, even criminal acts (I Cor. 6:9-11). These Gentile elect served and participated in cults with temple prostitutes, male and female, practising all kinds of vices associated with pagan idolatry. Yet God still called chosen ones among these horrible sinners, “My people,” even while they were still doing these vile sins, while they knew nothing about Him, not even His name. But notice that God did not call all the Corinthians His people, only “many”—and clearly none by virtue of faith, since none of them had ever heard of Jesus. Only “many” (a good portion) of all the people everywhere on the face of the earth are born with elect spirits and are God’s children. But not all are born with elect spirits.
Therefore, we can conclude that “many” human beings in every part of the world, no matter how ugly that region’s religion might be, are born with elect spirits and are God’s elect children, destined to spend eternity in heaven. Furthermore, we know that some parts of the world (which also must have some elect living there), should not receive the preaching of the Gospel until God prepares the circumstances for His people in that region. So we must listen for the counsel of Jesus and go where He calls us to go, and only when He wants us to go. Yet, if the untaught Gentile elect were ready for the Gospel in Corinth while the elect were not ready for the Gospel in Bithynia, this suggests two things: (1) Jesus must have already prepared the spirits of the “many” Corinthians, the hearts of those who were His elect children, so they would be ready to receive the Gospel, and thus He had already initiated the work of their salvation before He ever sent His servants there to preach His Gospel; and (2) Jesus must have been doing some other type of work in the hearts of the elect in Bithynia, perhaps preparing them to receive a different group of preachers, since He forbade Paul and his group to preach the Gospel there. But whether God does the first or the second, we can be certain that God always begins to work upon the spirits of His elect, and starts the work of their salvation before they believe, long before any of them hear anyone proclaiming Jesus and His Word.
So there are “many” who are God's elect, who are called His people and destined for His salvation before they know it. Then there are also some who are “implements for wrath, fitted together and thoroughly prepared for destruction” (Rom. 9:22). God cannot open the ears of those spirits to hear His words, since God indirectly created them by allowing those spirits to be created by Satan, as creatures destined for separation in hell. And God cannot reverse His initial decision to create them for hell. God cannot now write His precepts on their hearts, since nothing in them is able to accept and cherish His truths. To save Satan’s children, God would need to destroy their spirits and create entirely new spirits inside them. But this would alter His plans, made before the beginning of all time. And it is impossible for a truly omniscient, omnipotent Being to contradict Himself like that. So the spirits created to love the darkness of hell will go to hell and all the elect will go to heaven.
God's truth can only affect His elect, and only at appointed times, after Jesus has prepared their hearts to be affected by His truth. None of the spirits born of Satan can hear God’s words with any kind of understanding and respond to the in an inwardly saving way. Some non-elect may be standing in a crowd together with the elect when God sends a man to preach there. But God's words, from a man truly sent to preach in Jesus’ name, can only reach the hearts of some elect. Only if the appointed time has come for certain elect spirits to hear, because their hearts have been prepared by Jesus, will hear with understanding and with and effective response for their salvation. Whenever true preaching has been believed, we can be certain that only “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48, ESV). But, if some are “appointed to eternal life,” there must also be some who are not. There must be some who are not able to believe. To those who are not appointed to believe, Jesus said, “The person originating from God hears the words of God. The reason why you people do not hear them is that you are not those who originated from God” (John 8:47, ALT).
God allowed the non-elect, the spirits born of Satan, to be created for a reason, to cause the true elect spirits, who originated from God, to know God better. For, when God’s elect see how the ways and delusions of Satan and his children are not God's ways and are not related to the reality God created, these elect value and cherish God's ways and God's verity much more. Therefore, we conclude that all non-elect “implements of wrath” were made “in order that [God] might make known the riches of His glory set upon the implements for mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory” (see Rom. 9:21-24). Satan's children help God's elect children better “know,” better love and better appreciate God's “riches” which He created and “set upon” them during life on earth; and in His eternal heaven, where these “riches” and “His glory” clearly refer to His loving attributes and His created realities.
God allows Satan—a spirit He created to be at enmity with Him—to create human spirits inside real people on earth. These non-elect spirits, who are “originating out of” or “born of” or “seeded by” Satan, are his children, created in his image. Now most of these non-elect are also dull of spirit, not awake in their spirits. So, fortunately, they walk according to the flesh, according to their outer consciences worked by their minds of flesh, and do not walk according to their wicked spirits. That is, these non-elect simply obey their outer consciences worked through their minds of flesh. So they adhere to societal expectations through a fear of society's reprisals. They conduct their lives through a carnal, superstitious fear of doing wrong, lest they suffer negative consequences perpetrated by the people around them. Of course, they will do evil whenever they can safely get away with it, if they can do it without any negative consequences and never be found out. They also constantly strive to “legally” manipulate others for their own benefit. But the children of Satan seldom overtly act evil, since they fear man. They simply live by the demands of their outer conscience, through their minds of flesh. Only some spirits of Satan's children are awakened, freed from the fear of man. So their spirits rule over their minds of flesh, and they are not governed by an outer conscience. We often call them psychopaths, people who enjoy causing pain and death, because it makes them feel like gods.
But we have brothers and sisters in every land, people with elect spirits “originating out of” or “born of” or “seeded by” God, spirits created in His image. God is a Spirit, so these spirits bear attributes similar to those of their Father. And the principal inherent attribute of their human spirits is love, just as the principal attribute of their Father is love. Thus, we can recognize them by the love worked by their spirits, a God-like, just, pure love built upon verity. Our focus is on finding this kind of love, not on whether one received a “sacrament” or said a “Sinner’s Prayer.” And God draws us together, so we do not need to analyze others and manipulate them into relationships with us and our church.
But note how this kind of love is not of the flesh. It is of the spirit. All the kinds of “love” worked by the mind of flesh are things like a selfish desire to control the lives of other people, or an addiction to one who controls one’s own life, or an obsession formed through lust, greed, ambition, pride or some other delusion. But even if love comes from a non-elect spirit, it is never God's kind of love. For all human spirits born of Satan want to be their own gods, just as their father in hell wants to be his own god. Ultimately, all sins come from this spiritual desire. So any “love” coming from a spirit born of Satan will be very conditional. All spiritual love from the non-elect imposes many conditions on the objects of its “love,” but seldom ever binds itself to any kind of conditions. And you will never find any non-elect whose spirits are able to make an unconditional covenant to care for loved ones. The non-elect never hold themselves to any standards or conditions for the sakes of others. All spirits born of Satan have selfish and impure motives for everything they do, although they are often very good at hiding these motives. And many are even openly arrogant, domineering, oppressive, unjust, deceiving and destructive. Still, another kind of Satan's child can be very submissive and placating, deceptively passive and always seeking approval from the world in a very narrow, self-centred way.
In reality, only human spirits born of God's Spirit can possibly learn to build up a permanent kind of love straight from the spirit, love that only grows and never fades, a love that is built on a foundation of immutable truth. Yes, the elect on earth have minds of flesh too. So they often manifest the same kinds of carnal love that the non-elect do, with all the same selfish, manipulative symptoms. But only the elect can transcend this fake love, and learn to build a true, pure, just God-like love. Only this God-like love seeks the spiritual and physical good of the beloved ones, and is worked freely, without any conditions. Only elect spirits can make covenants with other elect spirits and with God, placing conditions on oneself but not on the beloved ones. In fact, this God-like kind of love frees its beloved from the selfish demands of those who oppress them. It is just and righteous kind of love, always rejoicing in truth, built entirely on a foundation of God’s real truth, with pure motives. God's Word describes and illustrates this God-like kind of love in many ways, as in this familiar passage:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (I Cor. 13:4-8a, ESV).
Ah, there is the crux of God-like love, it “never ends.” Once God allows this kind of love to begin between two elect spirits, or between Him and an elect spirit, it cannot ever end. It cannot even fade or diminish by a fraction of one degree. At times, the mind of flesh may be distracted and forget that this love exists within the spirit. But, in reality, you could never lose this God-like love, even if you wanted to. It is there forever. No physical distance, time or anything else of the material universe can stop this kind of love, or detract from it in any way. Even if the beloved elect one dies, you know he or she still lives, because your spirit sees and hears the spirit of your beloved one, standing behind Jesus and speaking to Him on your behalf. This love never ends, but goes with the spirit into heaven.
Of course, if an elect one's mind of flesh is damaged or dysfunctional in certain ways, this God-like kind of love from the spirit will not outwardly manifest itself very well through the body of flesh, because of that disabled mind. So some elect, even after being granted much of this God-like kind of love, may not outwardly appear very “nice” and “friendly.” Some are very impulsive and also have a very low frustration threshold, with poor self-control over the body's behaviour, since their executive management functions of their brains of flesh cannot exert adequate control. Yet their spirits can exert very good self-control over what their minds of their spirits believe and receive from Jesus.
And their spirits can even exert extreme self-control regarding the conditions they impose upon their own lives by their inner covenants of love, to the point where they might even die to uphold them.
Then some elect minds of flesh can become emotionally numb. Their minds of flesh cannot “feel” love, even if the love in their spirits is strong. This emotional disability may develop through something like a severe and constant fear and anxiety occurring over a prolonged period of time. So, with a combination of cognitive and emotional disabilities of the mind of flesh, some elect may not outwardly manifest love very well, and some can even look like sociopaths. Yet these sociopathic elect may even sacrifice their lives through God-like love existing in their spirits, while their minds of flesh feel none of the usual emotions. True love in the spirit may or may not affect the emotions and intellect of the flesh. So we cannot define it by emotions and thoughts of the flesh. When we look for God-like love, we must watch for the outward appearances of the flesh. For the flesh is all we are able to see, and the spirit’s love always manifests itself in some way through the flesh. But we do not look for “nice” and “friendly” behaviour, for a “warm” demeanour of the flesh, although such things usually accompany God-like love. For such things can be faked. Therefore, when we look for God-like love, we look for fruits of the spirit’s love being physically manifested, but we watch for more subtle clues. We look for how strong one’s attraction to a God-like, merciful, forgiving kind of justice might be, and how repentant is one after having feelings of flesh rage or a desire for vengeance. Does one cling to a desire for revenge, or does one inwardly strive to suppress those fleshy feelings? Does one’s very spirit strongly react to the preaching of real truth from God’s Word, either by anger from a truly guilty conscience or by a truly broken heart that embraces this truth? We watch a person carefully over a long period of time to find if God-like love exists in them.
Then we also realize that even the most evil of all psychopaths can make themselves look outwardly friendly, or even appear to be loving souls. We have seen them fool people many times. So we do not trust outward appearances, but take the time to watch for true and consistent love from the spirit, not just the common, outward fleshy behaviour usually associated with love. We watch for real God-like fruits, words and works through real truth from God, a truly just kind of love, the kind that produces a “nourishing” type of fruit, feeding the objects of its love with pure godliness in its actions of love.
Again, before I continue, I must warn you that Satan's children are not always manifestly evil, since their behaviours are often kept in check by their fears or by their desires to deceive, or by Satan's manipulations. In fact, when one considers how many of Satan's children are sent by their father into churches, to destroy God's works on earth, one soon realizes that many of Satan's children are more rule-abiding and outwardly religious than most of God's true children could ever become. Satan’s children are actually better than the elect at looking outwardly nice, friendly and loving. Thus, it is very difficult for us to “know them by their fruits,” even after we acquire a knowledge of Christ's real truth and some ability to judge rightly. In reality, the majority of both God's children and Satan's children look almost identical in their outward lives. And, since we cannot peer directly into their hearts, i