Abide In Me

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It’s good to be a Christian, to live forever and have eternal life. When you talk about eternal life, people make the mistake of talking about eternal life in the sense of ‘someday’. But the message I’m preaching is not for ‘someday’. It’s for right now! We’ve already passed from death unto life. I’m not preaching that ‘someday’ I will enjoy eternal life. I’m already enjoying eternal life. Some might question that, you know, and say, “He doesn’t really have it now,” but I do. The Bible says that I have this heavenly treasure in this earthen vessel. Now is made known to the church the manifold wisdom of God, even to that which is in heavenly places. If I have the heavenly treasure, which is eternal life, in my earthen vessel, which is my human body, then that means Christ within me is that hope of eternal glory. So I have eternal life. I’ve already passed from death unto life. I’m not expecting to pass from death unto life.

Someone may say, “Well Brother Pike, I still feel like I have to die.” Well, I don’t. If you’re expecting to die, I recommend that you get born again and that you pass from death unto life. Somebody said, “That’s a good saying but you still die.” No, you don’t die. It’s not just a good saying. It’s true. You don’t die. When you come to Christ, you don’t die. You never die. Someone would say, “Well, you must be one of those ‘never die’ fellows.” That’s right. I’m never going to die. There are a few people that are considered eccentric like I am, and they believe the same thing I do. They say that I’m a fanatic. The definition of a fanatic is that whatever he believes, he feels like everybody else should believe the same way. That’s the way Jesus was. He believed something, and He believed that everybody should believe the same way He believed. And I believe He was right.

There are so many things God has given me that I could write a great volume of commentaries. The Bible says that if all the things that Jesus did were written and put in books, the world itself couldn’t contain the books, and He has shared some of that with me. There are so many wonderful things in the Bible. This is the book of life. There are lots of books in the world, but there is only one book of life, and this is the book of life. This has the Words of life. Jesus, when the seventy turned away, looked at the twelve, and asked, “Will ye also leave Me?” They said, “Where will we go? You alone have the Words of eternal life.” Where will we go? These are the Words of eternal life, and I believe in this Word, and I’ve passed from death unto life, and now I am alive eternally.

The Bible says that the thoughts of a man’s heart are continually evil. God looked down from heaven after the flood, after He had destroyed the wicked, and He found Noah getting drunk, and things were going on that shouldn’t be going on. He saw that the thoughts of man’s heart are continually evil. But there is a mind of Christ, and it’s called a pure mind. Man’s mind has been interwoven and entangled with sin and the mind of Lucifer. But there is a mind of Christ that is pure, and the Bible tells us to stir up our pure mind. When the preacher starts talking to you, then your pure mind is stirred up and you get hungry, because that mind, that spirit, always hungers for the things of God, inasmuch as we’re partakers of the divine nature when we stir up the pure mind.

Let’s read in the book of saint John in the fifteenth chapter, the first verse: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine" no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered" and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit" so shall ye be my disciples.”

Now I would like for you to think on this. We say, “Lord, we are Christians. And Lord, we honor and obey You, and we follow You. You know that we love You, and You know that we serve You.” If we serve Him, we then we abide within Him. Isn’t that right? If you served Him, you would abide in Him. He said, “If you abide in Me, you just ask what you will and it will be done.” I wonder how many of us ask God what we will and always get it? I wonder how many folks we have like that. Now you would say, “Brother Pike, what in the name of reasoning are you talking about?” I’m talking about abiding in Him. Are we abiding in Him? We’re using a little bit of thought here to discern our position in God. Are we abiding in Him? We don’t like for anybody to question our integrity with God, but are you abiding in Him? Do you ask Him what you will and get it? Do you get it? If you do not get it, then you’re not abiding in Him, because He emphatically states, “If you abide in Me and My Words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.”

It’s just like it’s written, “If you abide in Me.” He can’t lie. What He said can’t be changed. It can’t be altered. There is no shortcoming on His part. He didn’t fail to do it. He didn’t put it out of reach. It’s just like He said it. If ye abide in Me, then ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. So then, that makes us find out how much of a Christian we really are, and that makes us to find out where we’re going and where we’re at.

Jesus was a man, a man that stood on the earth just like we’re here on the earth. He was a man that looked at other men, and He told them these things. Now, if He was a liar, then that means that He could not have been the Messiah. If He was a liar, then that means that all of God’s efforts were in vain. If He lied to these men, we can place no confidence in what He said at all. If He stood there as a man and lied to other men, who would want to put confidence in what He had to say? But we know that He did not lie. It is impossible for God to lie, and that God was in Christ, reconciling the world back to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Here we are positive that He didn’t lie. He didn’t stretch the truth. He simply made a statement that is valid and very true.

Was there anything that ever showed up in their lives to contest this? There certainly was. They wanted to cast out a devil, and when they got ready to cast it out, the devil wouldn’t come out. Then, when Jesus came, Jesus cast the devil out. They were all baffled. They couldn’t understand, because He had told them this, and they accepted what He said. They believed what He said, as to their conviction, and that’s the way it is with us. We believe what the Lord says, and as far as we’re concerned, it is exactly the way He said it. We believe it. We don’t question it. But consequently, it doesn’t happen for us the way that He said it would. What causes that? The problem is, we are too much of a make-believer. I’m not talking to those out in the world, for they’ve never been converted to Christ. They should come to Christ and should be in this condition as to ask and believe. But I’m speaking to the church. We make believe, and the same thing happens to us, in that these things don’t take place in our life. The same thing will happen to us when we stand before the judgment of God, and we’re expecting to be allowed into the joys of the Lord, and we suddenly hear Him say, “Depart from Me ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you.” We suddenly hear the Lord express Himself to us, and we find out that all the time we’ve been make-believers.

What causes this? It’s because we do not live holy. We do not walk holy. We do not talk holy. We do not make any effort to conform to the ways of God. We do not make any effort to cast down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, to bring into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ every thought. We don’t follow Christ. We don’t deny ourselves. We don’t give of that which we have, of our substance, of our strength, and of our time. I’m speaking in general of people. Paul said, “We (that we say not, ye).” God, speaking to all of us, as humanity. So then, what is the problem? We’re make-believers. We eat, we drink, we go. We don’t pray. We don’t fast. We don’t seek after God. We don’t study the Word. We don’t know exactly what He said about it. We don’t know exactly what He wants us to do. And if we do come to that, then we don’t do it. We don’t yield to holiness, though the Bible says that we should serve Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life, and He said for us to be holy in body and in spirit. But we don’t make any effort to be holy in body.

We don’t withdraw from the world, even though He said, “Come out from the world.” We go big-time in the world. We continue on in the world. We’re busy in the world. We’re going to be a celebrity in the world. We’re going to have a career in the world. We’re going to have education. We’re going to have money. We’re going to process our children. We’re going to see that they have the best in life. We’re going to have securities. We’re going to have businesses. All these kind of things we’re going to do. We’re going to look like the world, and we’re going to dress like the world, and we’re going to fellowship the world, and we’re going to be part of the world. We’re not going to come out of the world, though He said to come out of the world. Yet we say that we are believers.

We’re make-believers when we do that, and when we call on God, and when we want something, we don’t get it because we are make-believers. And as far as eternal life, we’re confessing something that we don’t have when we’re like that. We’re confessing something that isn’t there because we’re still make-believers. We’re making believe that we are Christ-like, saying we’re Christians, carrying that title when it means to be Christ-like. At Antioch they were first called Christians because they were Christ-like. So we see in this that when we come before God, or when the race is finished, or when our work is done, as we say, and we go to meet our Creator, then we don’t have eternal life, and then God turns us away. Why? Because all of our life we were make-believers. We didn’t deny our tempers, we didn’t deny our jealousy, we didn’t deny our selfishness, we didn’t deny our self at all. We didn’t take up a cross to follow Him where He was, as to His sufferings and self-denial. He said, “If you’re My disciples, you’ll be there, too.” But we didn’t do that as a people. We haven’t done that in the past. We’re still not doing that. And the future shows that we’re not going to do that, because millions of people are going to be turned into hell.

So then, being make-believers, we’re not true believers. We are not abiding within Him, for if the Word abides within us, and we abide within the Word (which means if we know the Word, and we let the Word live within our heart), then we’ll incorporate this into our life and live according to the Word. We’ll go the way of the Word, and we’ll do the things the Word tells us to do. Daily, we’ll conform to the Word, and daily we’ll do the things that the Word tells us to do. This is abiding in the Word. He said, “Ask what you will, it will be done to you.”

There’s a place that you can walk where God will give you the desires of your heart. He’ll answer every prayer you pray. He will do everything you ask Him to do. Everything. The Bible says that everyone who asks receiveth, if we ask according to His will. The Bible says that if we ask anything according to His will, we know that He hears us, and if we know that He hears us, then we know that we have the petition that we desire of Him, because we do the things that please Him. Hereby we assure our heart, and this is our confidence that He heareth us, and we know that if He heareth us, then we have the petition that we desire of Him.

When we abide in the Word, and when we ask of God, then God will answer us, and God will give us the desires of our heart. But, when we pray and don’t get it, that means that we have lied. That means we’re not abiding in the Word, because He said, “Everyone that asketh,” if they ask according to His will. Then we say, “Well, what is His will?” The Word of God is God’s will. Jesus said, “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” So then, the Word come forth as a body, as flesh and bone. And so we see that the will of God is His expressions, His Word. The Son of God that dwells in the bosom of God hath declared God, or made God a declaration as to human concept.

Faith cometh by hearing, and faith is manifested by that which we do. When we do the thing that pleases God, then we know that we believe, and God knows that we believe. If I say, “Repent every one of you, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin,” and you honor me and obey me, then that proves that you are a believer. If you don’t do that, it doesn’t matter what you have to say, you are an unbeliever. His will is His Word. And what does His Word tell us? That we’re to serve Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. His will is that we be holy and righteous. He has expressed that to us. His will is for us to come out from among the people of the world and the things of the world and be a separate people. His will is that we be holy in body and in spirit. If we ask according to His will, that is to say, if we are doing according to His will, abiding within the Word, in Him as the Word, and His Word abiding within us as Christ, the hope of glory, then we are in His will, and His will is within us, and we are walking in His way, and we are asking according to His will, and we get the very desires of our heart. Whatever we ask of God, He giveth to us. Everyone that asketh, receiveth.

So then, we see the error is not with God, but it’s with man. These are the elementary things, whereas I would love to talk about the deep mysteries of God. Paul spoke of being a steward of the mysteries. He said that he would that we be spiritual, because he would like to speak unto us as unto spirituals. But seeing that you’re babes in Christ, then desire the sincere milk of the Word. The great wisdom and understanding of the mysteries are things that we have to come to. We feel like we’re so advanced and so great, having moved on into the mighty things of God" and when we feel we understand, we suddenly learn that we’re not even moving along as to just what the Word says, as to ask of God, being in the will of God and abiding within God. We’re not even in that place as to the benefits that we’re drawing from our prayers and what we’re asking.

Your joy is knowing that you have eternal life. It’s knowing that the Lord is your fellow, that the Lord is on your side and He is blessing you. It’s knowing that the Lord hears you and walks with you, and He takes care of you and protects you, that the Lord will give you the desires of your heart and provides for you, and the Lord makes you to ride upon the high places. That’s your joy. The Lord is your joy. The joy of the Lord is the inspiration of the Spirit as to Christ within the body of Jesus, that Christ is within us, and the joy of the Lord is our strength. When we feel that we’re not honoring God, and we’re not going on with God, then we feel that God is contrary to us and we’re contrary to God. He said, “If you walk contrary to Me, I’ll walk contrary to you.” We get cast down. It becomes a gloomy day. We read Scriptures that says if you do that which is right, then God will rejoice over you to bless you and make you a great people. But if you do not that which is right, then God will rejoice over you to destroy you. When we get on the opposite side of the thinking toward faith, our believing becomes of such that we are drawing the wrath of God, for the Bible says that if you abide in unbelief, then the wrath of God abides upon you.

Then we say, “Well, that’s what the Bible says. We have to believe that.” But what we don’t stop to realize is, although the Bible says that, it said that to the unbeliever. It said that to the disobedient. It said that to those who were going astray. We who are stumbling and staggering, trying to do our very best, then that is not for us. I’m trying to do my best. I’m a Christian. Why should God rejoice over me to destroy me? But we get our minds all warped up and we get bogged down in our minds. We have God warring against us, as we think, and we’re warring against Him. How can we ever get anything from God? How can we ever have God to help us because there’s a continual warfare between the body and the soul anyway? We’ve let the devil deceive us, in that he’s even taken the Scriptures to do it with.

We must walk circumspectly before God. We’ve got to do the things that please God, so the devil can’t get an advantage to come to us with those Scriptures, to put us down and charge us with something that we’re not guilty of, for the Bible says a good man will fall seven times and get back up. Why should I listen to those Scriptures that come to me and put me down and tell me that God’s going to pursue me until I perish from off of the face of the earth? The Bible says God will pursue the wicked until they perish from off of the face of the earth. We get in a mess because we get all out of sorts in our minds.

It’s like a musical instrument. As long as the strings are in tune, it brings out beautiful music. But when it gets out of tune, it’s just noise, and that very unpleasant. So we need to walk with the Lord, and we need to stay in tune with God. We need to pray and fast, and we need to study the Word. We need to conform to the ways of the Lord, and do the things that please God, so that our thinking will always be that God rejoices over us to bless us. Doesn’t He rejoice over a Christian to bless them? If your little child went out and played in the mud, are you going to rejoice over the little child that you might destroy it? And yet, the little child could just go all to pieces, because some people are so ignorant. They speak so harshly to the child. But if a real mother and the love of a mother is in there, she’s not going to injure that little child. She’ll have to correct him. She’ll have to clean him up.

I’m simply saying one thing: the devil uses these things and he’s got an approach. He comes to you and quotes the Scripture to you just like he did to Jesus when he said, “It is written.” He was trying to use the Scriptures to persuade Jesus to destroy Himself, because he knew that Jesus was a human being, and he recognized Him as the Lamb of God. He’d heard John say, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. There’s one among us whose shoe latchet I’m not worthy to stoop down and unloose.” So we realize that the devil uses the Scriptures, just like the Holy Spirit uses the Scriptures. Satan knows the Scriptures, and he uses the Scriptures. When we don’t do what the minister says, and we don’t incorporate these things into our life, and we don’t stay away from the beaches and the frolics of the world, and the non-virtuous things on television, and the non-virtuous things in the newspapers, the obscene books and magazines, then we get in trouble. That’s when we program our mind wrong. Then we start feeling under condemnation, and we feel distant from Christ. Then, when we start grasping for faith, we hear something say, “And as I have rejoiced to bless you, I will rejoice over you to destroy you.”

Though we are a child of God, when we’ve stumbled and when we’ve erred, we still run into this. We are lighthearted and didn’t really get down to business and just wobbled about and let little things come in. The Bible says that the little foxes spoil our vines because our vines have tender grapes. So then, these things come in, and the first thing we know, we are warring with God Almighty. We’re trying to get a prayer through and we can’t get a prayer through because we feel like God doesn’t love us anymore. We feel that God is now our enemy, and God won’t listen to us. And why do we do that? It’s because of the lack of faith. We don’t have any faith in God. Why is it we don’t have any faith? Because we didn’t do the thing that pleased Him, to convince our conscience that we might have confidence toward God.

When we get out of bounds with our heavenly Father and we go contrary, when we get all muddled up with the world, when we get bogged down, when we get our minds on the world, then we get stuck and we get bogged down. It’s hard to get started off again. And it’s all because we have been contrary to God, and God becomes contrary to us. God doesn’t want to be contrary to us. How could somebody that took the blood out of their veins to die for us be contrary to us? He cannot be contrary to us, except when we go contrary to Him. Isn’t that right? God is just one way: Peace on earth and good will toward man. An eternal love, an eternal life, an eternal concern about you and your welfare. But if you go contrary to that, then that means it’s contrary to you, because you’re exactly the opposite of what this thing is speaking of. Because of what you’ve done, you’ve got your conscience all defiled, and you’re all out of shape. Paul said, “I strive always to keep a conscience void of offense toward man and God.”

Why is it that we do not get what we ask for? It’s because of you and I. It’s our contrariness. It’s our frivolousness. It’s our desire for the world and our love for those things, and the enticement for those things out there. Why do you get poison ivy all over you? It’s because you mess with poison ivy. Why do you get drunk? It’s because you drink whiskey. Why do you get out of your head? It’s because you take dope. Why is it that you run your car into somebody out here? It’s because you’re not looking where you’re going. The Bible says to watch and pray. Isn’t that right? You might be looking and not praying. You might be praying and not looking. But the Bible says watch and pray, and especially watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. Pray that God will lead us not into temptation.

We go through life and we feel like we know everything. We don’t need any instruction because we know. It’s that way because we think that’s the way it is. Every man’s ways are right in his own eyes. But that’s not the way it is. Not at all. In the first place, God lets you, as a sovereignty, go through life, and whatever you do with your life, that’s what happens to it. Some people take care of their health and their life, and they live longer than others. God didn’t mark up their days so they would come to an end. He gave them a life. It’s their sovereignty. Some use their life up quick" some don’t use their life up quick. It is a true fact that God has said in the Scriptures that our years shall be seventy, three score and ten. But it is also true that God said that some shall live longer by reason of strength. It depends on how you handle your life, how you handle your health. Do you understand what I’m saying? It is the way that you handle your sovereignty, as to your natural life and your spiritual life. It’s all running as one and the same. As in heaven so in earth. As in the spirit, so in the world. It’s the way that you handle it.

You can shorten your days by your disobedience. You do the thing that’s wrong, and God cannot protect you as He ordinarily would. You do the thing that’s right, and He might add fifteen years to your life, like He did to Hezekiah. Do the thing that’s wrong, He might smite you, just like He did Pharaoh. God raised him up for that purpose, but he kept doing wrong, he kept being in rebellion, and finally the Lord smote him, because he was interfering with the work of God. You shorten your days by your disobedience, because God blesses and adds strength to help you protect yourself, and even if you get sick, even if you have let your body run down, even if you’ve been careless and ordinarily would have died because you haven’t used wisdom with your sovereignty of life, but, because you are a Christian, maybe you’ve called on God, or because you did something, God will come and help you. God will give you a few more days, or God will heal you, and your life is extended. Daniel warned Nebuchadnezzar, “Nebuchadnezzar, after the other way of life, as to wickedness, I would that you heed the words that I say. I’m giving you a warning from God. I’m interpreting your dream. Why not do what I’m telling you and have extension of life, and a blessing as to the tranquility of your life? The lengthening of your days?” But he wouldn’t listen to him.

I’m saying that you might do wrong, and in doing wrong you might have had more years if you had just went on as a sovereignty. Your health might have been all right. You might have lived longer, but you keep interfering with God, and you keep going contrary to God, to injure other people, and to encroach upon the rights of others, and finally God has to do something. And so, your days are shortened by your disobedience. Satan comes in on you and takes an advantage. It’s all a ‘serve yourself’ way of life. It’s whatever you do. Whether it be in the spiritual as to a thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or a hundred-fold, going on to a full reward, or going on to the full measure of the full stature. It’s up to you. Some men apply themselves and they go on. Paul said, “This I do, forgetting those things that are behind. I press forward to the prize of the mark of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus.” That is to say, going on with the Lord, some of you don’t do that. You don’t have time to do that. You’d rather eat, drink, frolic, have the world, do the things of the world, and if you can just get in, as we say, by the skin of the teeth, that’s all right, as long as you don’t go to hell. That’s foolishness. That’s crazy. You know that’s crazy, and that’s out of reasoning when you think of all the great, wonderful things that you could have. But somebody would say, “Well, Brother Pike, you go to heaven. I go to heaven. We all go to heaven. So what?”

But that isn’t the way it is. That isn’t the way it is at all. I tell you again, that some people will be sitting on a throne up there. The Bible says every man will be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. There will be some that’s so magnificent and so greatly surpassing others in those things in heaven. The way that you think about it is altogether out of control as to your mind and understanding. We see that God says, “And this man shall have the greater damnation.” And He said, “This man hath received the greater blessing.” And He said of Judas, “It would have been good if this man had never been born into the world.” And then He said, “There’s some that’s never known the depths of Satan as to the punishment or damnation.”

The Bible says that godliness is profitable for this world and for the world to come. If we do the things that He tells us to do, then the Bible says all of His paths are peace. If we keep our mind stayed upon Christ Jesus, we shall have perfect peace. The Bible teaches that the joy of the Lord will fill our heart. And the joy is like wine making the heart merry. He’ll give to you the new wine, that you will draw waters out of the wells of salvation with joy. A merry heart will do good like a medicine, making you to ride upon the high places of the earth, giving you the desires of your heart, the blessings of the Lord, making rich and adding no sorrow. It is the Lord thy God that giveth thee the power to get wealth. He makes thee to be like a tree that’s planted by the waters, and you’ll bring forth your fruit in your season, and your leaves will not wither.

Whatsoever you do shall prosper. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesses his sin and then forsaketh his sins, the Bible says that whatever he does shall prosper. If we walk in His way, ask of Him, abide within His Word, then we can have the desires of our heart. We can delight ourself in Him. We can tell Him what we want. Whatever we ask in His name, He will give it to us. For everyone that asketh receiveth. And when we ask according to His will, we know that He hears us. And the Bible says if we know that He hears us, we know we have the petition that we desire of Him, for the Bible speaks of fasting and praying to make your voice to be heard on high.

God said one occasion, “You fast and you pray to smite with the fist of wickedness,” to have glamour and fame and money and popularity and to achieve a purpose. You do not fast, He said, as you do this day, when He saw a real repentance, to make your voice to be heard on high by God. The Bible says when you deal your bread to the hungry, help the needy and the poor, clothe the naked, and take them that are in need into your house, then shall thy health return unto thee speedily. This tells us what has happened to America. Selfish. Greedy. Their health gone. The Word of God is settled in heaven and cannot be altered. It cannot be changed. He watches over His Word and hastens to perform it. So shall your health return unto you speedily, and your light shall go before you, being the light of the world, that men may see your good works. This is your light: your good works. Then the Lord will hear you from heaven. Before you even call, it shall come to pass, I will answer. That is, I’ve already got it laid up for you. I will open the windows of heaven, pour you out a blessing that you’ll not be able to receive, or that is you’ll have to share it with another. Your cup will run over, your presses will burst out with the new wine. Whatever you do will be blessed and prosper.

So we see that there are many things that we need to know. There are many things that we need to understand. Many hundreds and thousands of things that we need to understand and come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and understand that we be not children that are just blown about by every wind of doctrine. We’re not blown to and fro, but we are established and founded on a rock and anchored in the truth of God. We find out that God has blessed us because He’s given us this understanding. He’s made it available, but if we’re not hungry or thirsty, then we don’t get it.

You need to get where this means more to you than natural life, where you get so thirsty, like David of old said, “My heart panteth after Thee like the hart after the water brook.” I hunger and I thirst. And this is the way it’s suppose to be. You have to have that kind of attitude. David said, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of God.” That was David’s way. He made the statement, “I had rather be a door keeper in the house of God, than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.” Just make me a doorkeeper.

America has been a very gracious, righteous nation, as to her degree of knowledge in the past, striving and trying to come to something that was greater, even as Israel did in their early life when they listened to the prophetical utterance of the prophets and God. They that believe My prophets shall prosper, He said. So America prospered, but now America has become very corrupt. Her women and men have become prostitutes and whoremongers. They dress that way. They’re a generation of vipers, a generation of lustful people, and an adulterous generation, the Bible says, that curses mother, father, disobedient to parents, wearing things, printed things on their shirts and their clothing that’s inviting evil and being wretched. Their hearts are filled with malice, jealousy, gossip, backbiting and faultfinding, tearing down, reproaching everything that’s decent and holy and godly that you would try to establish. And so her end is come. As she hath represented the days of the Gentiles, being the leader of the nations, her end has come.

The end of the world is here. Paul saw it at Calvary when he said, “Ye are the people upon whom the ends of the world have come.” The harvest is come and gone. It’s over and the winter is here and the summer is past. And, as the Bible says, you’re not saved yet, though we say we’re saved. The Bible says we come to the house of God, and we delight in hearing the Word, and we approach as those that have not done wickedly, and as those that love the Lord. But He tells the preacher to lift up his voice like a trumpet and show My people of their sins. Though they take delight in approaching unto Me as those that have not done wrong, but He said He knew that they had done wrong. He knew that they weren’t right, for He said that if you abide in Me, My Word abides in you, even as it did in the early church, when they asked what they will, and God did it for them. He met all of their needs according to His riches in glory. He healed their sick bodies. The people marveled at them, and the people glorified them, and the people magnified them. The people didn’t come down on them, putting them down. They magnified them. There were the abase sort, and the jealous people, and those that were afraid that they were going to overthrow their kingdom that come against them. But the people as a whole had great respect for them. Jesus, though He was despised, a man of sorrow, rejected, yet the Bible says He grew in favor with man and God. The people loved Him. They magnified Him. So it tells us where we’re living today.

Hopefully, this exhortation, as to the elementary things, will help you understand so that you will apply yourself, and you will create a thirst and a hunger. That way, you will go to the house of God looking for the wonderful, deep things of God, to go on into the Spirit, and receive the great rewards of God, that He hath for them that follow Him. Let’s search our heart. Examine ourselves and see if we be in the faith. Let’s don’t make believe, then find out that we don’t have faith in God. Let’s do the things that please Him, to assure our heart that we might have confidence, that He hears us, that we might have eternal life.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord