Encouragement from Ephesians Chapter 1 Kathryn Kuhlman

I might just as well confess to you that I'd rather preach than to do anything else in the whole world. I just love it. There isn't anything that I'd rather do than to just take the Word of God, just take the Bible, and talk about the glorious promises of God. This is the very Word of God. Know that. You can stake your very life on it. I don't care who you are. And remember, I've staked everything that I have. Everything. My life. That which is beyond today. Beyond this earth. I've staked everything on God's Word. If you don't think that it means a lot to me, I hope... Some of you feel so sorry for me because of my poor Bible. I hope it holds together. I hope it holds together before I finish. If while I'm talking to you, you find a page or a two falling on the floor, think nothing of it. Don't get nervous. I'll pick them up and put them back again. After all, you know. It's what you have in your heart. You can pick up pages. But when this word has become a very vital reality to you, it's inside. Really, the pages never fall apart. Well, I hear Pocono talk about how hard it is to live the Christian life. I'm going to talk to you today about the wonderful sealing of the Holy Spirit. Do you really, really know what it means to be a Christian? Do you really? Some people only see the negative part of it, that which they have to surrender. In receiving the best that God has for you, they can only see that part of, do I have to surrender this thing or the other thing? Let me ask you something. Do you really know the provision that God has made for those who will follow him? Do you really? Maybe you are there, a Christian, an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ Jesus. You haven't fully understood the provision, the inheritance that is yours as one of his children. Maybe you are not accepting your full inheritance as a child of God. You were never made for defeat. No man, no woman was ever made for defeat. Know that. If you're living a defeated life, then, my friend, you're not living according to the will of God. He did not create any man or any woman for defeat. You were made for victory. To live a victorious Christian life. Paul understood all about it. And I'm going to read, if you will, please, from this precious word, his word. Ephesians. I'm going to begin with the very first chapter and the very first verse because I love it. Paul. Oh, Paul. There's so many wonderful things that God revealed to you. He must have trusted Paul an awful lot because he entrusted so much to him. Paul, at the very beginning, wants you and wants me to know that he knew that he'd been called of God and more than that, that he was living according to his will. And so he begins, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. And he wants it to be made very clear that that of which he was speaking was not just to the living saints at that time, but to all of the saints of all generations, Christians. Grace be to you and peace. And where will you find greater grace? All peace and who can give peace? In this world that is so lacking in peace, oh sure. Much is being talked about peace. We've signed documents. We read about peace. But there's so very little peace on the earth. Sometimes I think the only place where you find real peace. Peace of mind and peace of soul is in the human heart of that one who knows the Christ, who alone can give that peace. And I do not believe there will ever be real peace upon the earth until he returns, the glorious Prince of Peace. Bless it. Be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now, get at this because this is very meaningful. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without blame before him in love. Be full the foundation of the world. Even before God said, let us make man in our own image and after our likeness. A way back there, generations, centuries ago, you as an individual, as a part of humanity, were predestined. By God. To a place in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. You were predestined to be an heir of God in the joint heir with Christ Jesus. You were predestined as a member of humanity to live a life of victory. He's not willing that any should perish. If you leave this old earth at the time of death, when the heart takes its last beat, you've lived your last day, your last hour, your last moment. And you'd leave this earth without the joy of salvation doomed. to an eternal hell, you'll never be able to blame God. You were damned because you chose not to accept Him, not to accept His beloved Son as your Savior and the forgiveness of your sins. You chose not. to be an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ Jesus. And again, I want to repeat, because sometimes I think we misunderstand this thing of predestination. There are those who may believe that some are predestined to be lost and others are predestined to be saved. In His perfect will, He has made provision that all might know the joy of salvation in his plan for man. He has planned that all creatures should become his heir and a joined heir with Christ Jesus. But man was created with free moral agency and man makes the choice. Let's continue now with the glorious inheritance. It is for those who have chosen to live according to His will, having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ in Himself. Isn't that thrilling? Do you really know what it means to be a Christian? Do you know what it means to be an heir of God? a joint heir with his Son, Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood. Remember, there is no redemption possible to any human being. There can be no forgiveness of sin except through the divine son of the living God. Anything less is not redemption. This is the word in whom we have redemption. and in him and him alone is there redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself that in the dispensation of fullness of times he might gather together In one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. His will did these things for his children. Look what you're missing. Look what you're really missing if you're outside of the family of God. But there's still more. That we should be to the praise of his glory. You and I were made and created to be to the praise of his glory. You were not made for defeat. I was not made for defeat. Man was made to be the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. I've wept many tears over this. You'll never know. Probably that's the reason my poor Bible is in pieces. I've wept over it. I've rejoiced in his promises. It's the living, vital part of me. Take it from me, I have nothing. I've wept many tears over that glorious portion of the word. When he speaks of the Father and says, He who first trusted in Jesus. Do you realize? that Jesus could have blown the whole thing, the whole plan of salvation. Often you've heard me speak of Jesus having offered himself first through the Holy Spirit to be given. Knowing that he'd have to take the form of flesh. Knowing he would come to earth in the form of flesh. Having been possible for him to have yielded their temptation, he knew that one day, in the form of flesh, he would stand face to face with Satan, the adversary, he knew. He understood. And that is the reason that, first of all, before he consented to take this position, he offered himself to the Holy Spirit to be given. He knew the power of the Holy Spirit. He knew he couldn't do it of himself. But there was even more. There was that trust. There was that confidence that the Father, God the Father, had in his Son. God knew that Jesus coming upon the flesh would debilitate. To yield to temptation could blow the whole thing. I know not how better to phrase it. But he trusted in Jesus. He had confidence in his son that he wouldn't blow it. I weep because... He has that confidence in you. He has that confidence in me. All the responsibility that's ours. Sometimes that responsibility is so overwhelming. When I know that there's a Heavenly Father who's called me. A Heavenly Father who has given a work for me to do. And He's depending on me. He's depending on me. He's depending on you. In exactly the same way that he trusted his son. How often I've looked up and I've said, Wonderful Heavenly Father, trust me. Please trust me. For years I used to pray, bless me. I no longer pray that prayer. Now I pray. Trust me, will you please? I'll do my best not to betray that trust and that confidence. But as Jesus had the power of the Holy Spirit to take him through Victoria State, there's something more in the word. in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit, the promise, that wonderful sealing of the Holy Spirit, that glorious sealing of the Holy Spirit, that divine seal of the Holy Ghost. Do you know what he's talking about? A seal. Remember, Daniel in the lion's den, and the king put his seal, his seal, upon that incident. Not that the seal could not be broken, but it... took one with greater power than the king to break that seal. Remember what the Roman government did to the tomb of Jesus. The government placed its seal upon that tomb. It meant it was a seal of authority and only one that had greater power than the Roman government was to break that seal. The child of God and as the seed of the Holy Spirit. At that time of that wonderful experience of the new birth. His spirit, the Holy Spirit, bears witness with your spirit. That you've passed from death unto life. There is an identification. You are identified with him. That glorious seal of identification. I fear not of the unknown future. I tell you the God's truth. I know that it's getting darker. I know Bible prophecy. I know what to express. I know that we're on the very threshold of the darkest night the world has ever known with suffering. Such as no generation has ever known, the Bible teaches it. Decry peace, but there is no peace. I'm not afraid of the unknown future. I tell you the truth. I'm not afraid of tomorrow. I walk with my head up. I can smile unafraid. Because of that glorious seed of the Holy Spirit, I am identified with Him. And no one can break that seal except one who has greater power than the power of our God and the power of the Holy Spirit. And there is no greater power. The cattlemen in Texas will tell you that for years they have tried to get a foolproof means of branding. Because as of now, they tell me that it is possible for brands to be altered. Satan's great masterpiece will be the branding during the time of the rule of Antichrist. Satan's brand, his mock. will either be upon the forehead or on the palm of the hand of those who would serve him. But my Lord and my God has an identification that Satan can never get to. For Satan can never get to the heart and he brands you and he brands me. The heart. I'm branded. Can never be altered. His brand. His mark. I am identified with him. I know to whom I belong. Oh, just to know to whom you belong. When you belong to Him, you can face tomorrow and all of the tomorrows of your life unafraid. Wonderful Jesus, forgive us for not being able to tell it better. May the Holy Spirit speak to that heart. For Jesus' sake. Amen.