The Simplicity of 'Believe Also in Me' — Hans R. Waldvogel

Jesus’ Call to Believe Without Fear

Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. Jesus says those words, and they're just as powerful this morning and the meaning is the same today as it was when Jesus spoke them to his disciples.

Christ’s Departure and the Disciples’ Troubled Hearts

They were being troubled because he had spoken to them about leaving them. He says, I came forth from the father into the world and again I leave the world and go to the father. And they were troubled.

You can imagine how troubled we would be if someone that we thought a great deal of, upon whom we depended very, very much for guidance, for help, for blessing, said goodbye to us and left us. I had to show them that there was the thing I thank God for.

The Living Fountain Within the Believer

It's not a New Year's text. It's a text for every day. My heart be troubled to me is that we're so, when Jesus Christ says, you believe in God, he said that God was within him and God worked in him. And just like God was in him, the life for me to be in you.

And in everyone waiting to birth and to send forth rivers of living. And Jesus Christ says, tap that fountain. Forsake the stagnant pools that can hold no water. You don't get anything out of them. Grace, all that I need for life.

To me, the chapter read from Ephesians, made alive. Sometimes I see a meeting, I see the condition of the meeting. To Jesus Christ, our Lord, it cannot be unless we tap that fountain. We've got to have it, but we need it in our home.

The Contemplative Life and Knowing Jesus

And when Sister Herzog, the wonderful manifested, I thought, really wonderful, happy, a lot of people before coming down. Somebody gave me, remember the name of it, Contemplation or something. It's a compilation of writings, John of the Cross.

Really, you'll get misty when you read their writings. They'll talk about the contemplative life and what constitutes the contemplative life. And they just somehow makes your hair stand on end. And you think, well, how will I believe in me?

Glory to God. Let him be the mystic within you. Let him be the teacher. Let him be the light. The Lord is my light and my salvation. And it reduces the spiritual life to such great sympathy on earth is to be devoted to Jesus.

And Jesus is here and he manifests himself. Thank God. And all I need to know about sanctification is not a lot of high pollutant words about psychology and philosophy and all those things, but just how to please Jesus.

And the Bible tells me how. Why don't you do the things I say? And the things he says are so simple. Rejoicing in hope is simple, isn't it? Rejoicing in hope. How do you do that? I think it's Pastor Funke, a minister in Germany who came to an institute where poor children were kept in school.

Rejoicing in Hope

They were by benevolent societies. And one of them was there skipping around and laughing and rejoicing. And he caught makes you so happy. Seven years now. Rejoicing in hope. Seven years meant nothing.

Like him. Praise the Lord. Rejoicing in hope. And that we be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. We're begotten again unto a living hope. Our inheritance is in heaven. It's waiting for us, waiting to be revealed.

God commands us to rejoice in this hope, not to be moved away from it. To this and sin shall not have dominion over you. And when Jesus Christ himself is your hope for his coming, the church has been looking, those that have been looking for his coming and delighted themselves in the thought.

They who love his appearing, not dead, none of them are dead. God's not a God of the dead, but of the living. They simply grew out of this dust. And they went into their home, rejoicing in hope. How simple is this instruction?

And yet, how few people really live in this hope. Seven year nine gone home. Glory to God. Hold me down. I went to, got into a place, a vestibule of some gladiators going into the arena to be killed, you know.

Hail Caesar. And they looked at me with such pity as if they said, here's another customer. Oh my goodness, where am I? That was in the vestibule of the maternity ward. And these were hopeful fathers.

They were all in hope. That's why they were in such despair. But you know, you come into some churches and you'll find the people looking just like that. It ought to be joy. Rejoicing in hope. Every meeting of ours ought to be marked by that joy.

Meeting Jesus in Every Gathering

Why we're coming to meet Jesus. Jesus is here to meet us. Praise God. And no matter how for the I'm with you always. Do you believe that? There's mine in heaven and in earth and lo I'm with you always.

I fear no evil for that's the wonderful thing about it. Didn't seem to know much about know him about mysticism or any doctrine. She wouldn't know a thing about it, but she's, she knew Jesus. She walked with him all the time from the day she accepted him.

Why she started shouting when she first came to the altar, she didn't want to come at first because he had come out of Austria. Here she looked for a church where the priest could talk Bohemian. That was her.

Finally, someone directed her to a Bohemian priest and she went to come. Two years she was in despair. Absolute despair. 66 years old. She didn't know how long she lived. She thought, well, she came to the altar.

She was weeping. My sister weeping for, she said, oh, my sins. You're the lost sheep that the good shepherd has found. Then telling her the God and she opened her heart. And that night she began to laugh and she laughed for 45 minutes.

Remind you to come into a Protestant church for the first time in her life and laughing for 45 minutes. And when she was, these were gone. Her years. I remember when she came for the first time, two sisters had to assist her.

She couldn't walk alone. Now everything was gone. She told me 66 years. She grunted them moment. Jesus came into her heart. Jesus was her everlasting portion and she never stopped shouting. I'm glad I have a tape recording of her shouting and her dancing.

I'm going to praise the Lord. I want you to hear it. It was real. 20 years until she was 86. She kept shouting, but she let out a yell. She'd shout. Well, it was real. Oh, Jesus is real. Jesus is real.

Loving Jesus Above Theology and Mysticism

And you don't need to know anything under the sun, but Jesus. Praise God. The mystery of the God treasures of wisdom and knowledge are revealed to the heart that simply loves Jesus. How simple are his words in that part?

You don't have to make a study of theology or make a study of mysticism or anything like that. If any man loved me, oh Jesus, who could help but love you? And you know that love of Christ is poured into our hearts when we're baptized with the Holy Ghost.

How that heart, isn't it burning now? You know, last meeting, like I'd seen him, hadn't seen him in a long, long time. Why? Because we've been praying all week. We have been waiting upon the Lord. Thank God.

And when you want him bad enough to seek him, he'll give himself like that to you. He has a greater desire for you than you have for him. He died on the cross to purchase unto himself a church, a bride.

And if any man loved me, he will keep my word. But you know, to get acquainted with them means that we read his words and we meditate therein. How can I please my heavenly bride? Not that ye be not just.

You don't have to. And yet I can see it in the faces of people, not here this morning, but it's always accepted. I've seen people like it. Judge not that ye be not judged. Thank God I'm relieved. He will keep my words.

The Simplicity of Jesus’ Words

How simple are the words of Jesus. The sermon on the mount. How utterly simple. No fault. Troubled expression. Wrinkles on your brow. You know, the bills are come and due. I wonder what the mailman will bring.

The fellow that writes the checks, but they bounce. Jesus says somebody else takes thought for you. He knows. Casting all. How simple is that? Why, beloved, that gives you more knowledge, more wisdom, more understanding than all the books and magazines about divine healing that you can read.

Casting all your care upon him means that you don't have to care anymore. You care about him present with me. Not only present, but you're within my heart. You're that fountain waiting to burst forth with life giving streams.

And I don't give you a chance. It is as simple as all that, but it is so heavenly. Our conversation is in heaven from insults. So we look for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. When I'm occupied only with Jesus and we Pentecostal people are particularly happy, like Sister Schuette said, did you ever hear of a Jesus Christ in the midst that talked to him and heard his voice?

Jesus’ Presence as the Source of Abundant Life

Praise God. Have you ever heard of a church where Jesus Christ manifests himself in every meeting so that you can meet him? You can be sure you've got the guarantee. When I come to that meeting, I'm going to meet the Lord and I'm going to get exactly what I need.

I don't know how many thousand meetings I've been to, but every meeting's been like that for me. Sleep in the meeting. They get nothing. Sure that I meet my Lord and oh how very wonderful, how interesting this life is.

Interesting. And you know, when you meet the Lord like that, you take him with you wherever you go. He makes you bring forth through these rivers of life that he pours into your soul. They pour forth from your life and others are made to drink of the water of life.

The life that Jesus Christ has in store for us is life more abundant and it all hinges on my believing that Jesus Christ is all in all. He's mine. Paying attention to him will keep me praying without ceasing.

Simplicity, Surrender, and Knowing Christ

That's prayer without ceasing, but it's this interior regard, something the Holy Ghost for Jesus to me. I was still a boy, but I prayed without ceasing, without knowing it. I never dreamed of such a thing, but I love Jesus so much that I couldn't help it.

If you've ever been in love, you know that you can't help. There's no effort for you to think of. You can't help. Pursues you day and night, doesn't it? That's what they tell me. The way it was with Jesus, only more so.

Couldn't help it day and night. Jesus. Why? Because he gave himself to me. He'll give himself to every heart that wants him. Oh, Jesus. Wonderful Jesus. I think we're a happy lot of people and you know, it relieves you of all responsibility to be a big shot.

You don't have to be nothing. In fact, the better you understand to be nothing, the more Jesus Christ can reveal himself and be what he is. Oh, the simplicity. The apostle Paul says, our conscience gives us this testimony that in simplicity and godly sincerity, we believe we've learned something.

Where did you go to college? Do you know that was the best? That's the best cure for preaching. Training for ministers is to put their nose to the grindstone and enlarge it. Oh, but to know Jesus is life eternal.

Knowing Christ as Eternal Life and Fullness

This is life eternal, that they might know this secret, this indwelling fountain, that you might tap it, that you might give it a chance, that you might know that you don't know anything and never will know anything, but that God almighty unites you to this tap of heaven, this fountain, this wonderful stream that issues from the throne of God.

In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and ye are complete in him and you'll never know anything until you know Jesus. And when you know Jesus Christ, you'll be through with his fullness.

As Edwin spoke, you don't need to expand 110 volts. When we go to Europe, we all be adjusted and as he'll fill you, he'll keep you filled like a channel. As the channel empties himself, he receives more.

It keeps flowing all. How wonderful is Jesus. Let not your heart be troubled right now. Don't let it be troubled.