Make Your Life Count 4 — George Verwer

Spiritual First Aid for Wounds and Offenses

Keep calm. Steal your soul before God at the moment of impact. Be still and know that I am God, the Bible says. Rushing about, this is what we do, trying to correct the injury usually causes greater damage.

Number two. Apply direct pressure of understanding to the wound. What caused the incident? The incident. Could you have prevented it? Negligent? How does the offending party feel? What if things were reversed?

Then what? Three. Wash the wound thoroughly with kindness to remove all harshness and vindictiveness. Beautiful. Four. Coat liberally with the ointment of love. This will protect from the infections of resentment and bitterness.

Which by the way can create another 30 or 40 or more illnesses. Which some of you have already started to read about in that book. Incredible little book. None of these diseases. Five. Bandage the injury with forgiveness.

This will keep it out of sight until the wound is healed. Bandage the injury with forgiveness. Six. Don't. This is very important. Please get this. Don't pick the scab. Don't pick the scab off by bringing up the subject opening your wound.

Serious danger from infections in number four still exists. This picking of the scabs could prove to be fatal spiritually. Okay. Seven. Beware of self-pity. Have any of you ever get in the self-pity puddle?

Yeah. Hmm. Especially when you're not appreciated. Your gifts are not recognized by the body. Go to a fellowship. They talk about body life, and no one's recognized you. That always is a special blessing, isn't it?

Beware of self-pity, which is painful and touchy. This is often referred to as withdrawal pains. Evidenced by the injured one withdrawing from others, especially the one inflicting the injury. Remedy.

Accept apology. These things, by the way, work very well around the home. Any of you who come from homes, this is very helpful. Very helpful. Your minds are going a little slow this morning. Okay. Number eight.

Prescription. Take a generous dose of antibiotics from the Word of God several times daily. Using prayer each time. This has a soothing effect and is definitely a good pain killer. Nine. Stay in close contact with a great physician at all times.

Depend upon his strength, joy, and peace to help you during your convalescence period. And then number ten. Evidence of full recovery is noticed when the patient is in full fellowship and harmony, especially with the offending party.

Restoring Relationships Through Love and Forgiveness

Praise God. You know, I believe one of the things the Holy Spirit wants to do as a result of our time here is restore relationships. We can do this by a phone call. We can do this by a love gift. There were two ladies that hated each other on the same street.

Always fighting, always bickering. You know how these things happen. One lady's dog goes over in the other lady's grass and you know, all these heavy experiences. People start screaming and yelling, calling the police.

And then the one lady got converted. And one day she went down the road with a beautiful cake. She knew her neighbor liked this particular kind of cake, so she baked her cake and she just went to the door and she said, Look, I know you're very busy and I've not come to take any of your time.

I just wanted to give this expression of my appreciation for your being such a wonderful neighbor over the years. I tell you, there was a mini revival on that street. A love gift. And then you can write a letter or you can go to someone or you can apologize without digging for a little bit of self-pity remuneration.

What a wonderful thing. If every one of us goes from here and we put right at least one or two relationships, maybe a relative, maybe a loved one, maybe someone that's misunderstood us. Maybe someone that's totally opposed to your Christian convictions.

You're still human beings. They still need a certain amount of respect. Sometimes with Christians, we behave very well, but with the unconverted we get very upset. This was one of my problems. And I also had a lot of convictions about little things.

This is one of the problems with Christians. They get too many convictions about little things. One of my convictions is when a man is pumping gasoline into my car, I don't have a car, but if I'm borrowing a car, he's pumping gasoline into my car, I don't like him to spill the gasoline on the car or on the cement.

I mean, at the price, you know, 85 cents a gallon up here in Canada, you don't want to pour it all over the cement. I mean, this isn't right. And I remember one time, here I am, you know, Christian, preaching, sharing Christ.

Here I am in a gas station. The guy made a mistake. He probably was caught up, frightened by my face or something happened. Anyways, he started putting the gas all over the car, all over the pavement.

What are you doing, man? Pretty soon I really chewed him out, gave him a piece of my mind. I think it's one of the reasons I've got some troubles. I've been going for years, giving out pieces of my mind.

I'm getting short. I hope you don't do that. I hope you don't do that. And as I drove away, you know, I was really convicted. And it's easy at times to go back and apologize to a Christian. But to go back and apologize to, you know, an unconverted person, first of all, you know, they don't understand it.

But oftentimes, that speaks to people. And I believe one of the benefits of this time together is there's going to be healing of persons, healing of relationships, and the blessing we receive here is going to be carried back to many, many people.

Marriage, Commitment, and Living Beyond Feelings

I believe God is going to put families together. I believe God is going to put husbands and wives together. I've seen that many times. A young man about this time last year, come to me for counseling.

He said, it's all finished. It's all finished with my wife. I can't stand her. She's just the opposite of everything I've ever wanted. I was tricked. I was fooled. I went into it too quickly. We went on for hours talking.

I let him talk all this out. He was infatuated with another girl. He couldn't get her out of his mind. It really seemed, bad scene, end of the road. And we talked, pointed out from the Word of God, the way of faith, rather than the way of feelings.

And many other verses. And then I just let him. I kept accepting him. I didn't reject him for his wrong. Though he knew where I stood, kept loving, kept accepting. And God was speaking to his wife. His wife wasn't mainly to blame, but she was partly to blame.

And you know what we saw? In a wonderful way, God put those two people together. I talked to him on the phone recently. Everything's going fine. He loves her again. Marriage is going great. I don't know what he means by love her again.

You know, I believe when God puts you together in marriage, that's it. You're one. There's no possibility anymore of not really loving one another without becoming schizophrenic. Because you're one. You're one.

You're committed to each other, regardless of feelings. Maybe we ought to put that into the marriage pledge. We say, for better or worse. And we should put feelings, for better or for worse. It's great to have wonderful feelings toward our wife.

I still have them. Not all the time. Yeah, I'm going over the hill. You can see. I know from a distance. I look very young. You come up close. That's what my wife tells me. But it's a beautiful thing to realize that as husbands and wives, we are committed to one another.

We don't live by feelings. And oftentimes, with a young couple, it's not that they aren't in love anymore. It's that their feelings are going through a time of trial or because of problems, lack of communication, sin, unbelief, whatever.

Their feelings have become dulled. I say this because the same thing can happen between you and Jesus. Some of you get some real wonderful Jesus feelings. Nothing wrong with that. Climb a tree and shout hallelujah.

I used to do that. I don't do it so much anymore. Because a few months ago, a few years ago, you know. Fortunately, I caught myself on a limb. But it left a pain in here for about four months. So some of you may want to stand at the bottom of the tree and just look up and say thank you, Lord.

Faithfulness When Spiritual Feelings Fade

And it's wonderful to have great feelings. You know, I listen to this Christian music all the time. Jamie Owens and this scripture group, I have their record. I got a record player. I didn't want to spend much money.

I was praying, Lord, give me a record player. You know, all our money is committed to gospel literature. Our work, you know, it's not quite like it is here in the States. I was praying, Lord, give me a record player.

My secretary knew my burden. He went down to Salvation Army. It was just fantastic. It must have been the first stereo ever made. It's actually stereo. It's got two speakers. Of course, the same thing comes out of both speakers.

No, it's a real stereo. He paid six dollars for it. You should hear, you know, these old-time speakers. They're really simple. I just turn the volume up. And, of course, the neighbors are always complaining about my music.

Barry McGuire. You can't hear his hair. But it really, really comes through. So, you know, when I'm listening to my music, it's easy to feel nice. Start, you know, start grooving around and praise the Lord.

Of course, you have to watch out. Somebody doesn't come there with a television network, get in trouble. But there's a lot of other times when your feelings are blah. I have this problem. I go, in one day, I can go up and down ten times.

I always wake up blah. Blah. I don't even feel saved in the mornings. In fact, one of my problems is that I can't get out of bed. I love the sack. The sack. I love it. And I know what you're all laughing about.

It's very serious. It's a serious problem. So, I arrange for someone who's more disciplined than myself to get an alarm clock or an automatic time switch with a bucket of water over his head. Some mechanism to get him up.

Then he comes and knocks on my door. Usually around 6 .30. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Of course, I can't leave the guys, you know, standing at the door all morning. My wife doesn't like to hear all the knocking anyway.

So, I get up and I go jogging or exercise. Usually after that, plus a cup of tea. If I'm in England, I begin, oh, you know, feelings start to come. And sometimes I grab, I reach for my Bible. Oftentimes, the last thing I want in the morning is a Bible.

Now, I just admire those of you who wake up all spiritual. You know, just reach for your Bible. Oh, my Bible. Here it is. And then you just, you know, just fill with the Spirit from the pillow. You know, I admire you.

In fact, after the meeting, you could come and autograph my Bible. Really. But I feel terrible many mornings. And it can be very serious because sometimes it doesn't go away. And one of the things that has kept me going, both in marriage and in my relationship with Jesus, is to realize that I can't live by feelings.

Now, I'd like to read this little thing by A .W. Tozer about feelings. Let me read it. Somebody must be very ill back here. Anyway. Feeling is the play of emotion over the world, a kind of musical accompaniment to the business of living.

And while it is indeed most enjoyable to have the band play as we march to Zion, it is by no means indispensable. Isn't that beautiful? We like the music, the feelings of the music. He goes on to say, we can work and walk without music.

And if we have true faith, we can walk with God without feeling. Praise God when the feelings are there. But when they're not, it may be God testing us. It may be God trying us. Now, some of you are young in the Lord, and this next quotation may be a bit too heavy.

But I want to give it. It's from a man named H .A. Hodges. Some of you feel that perhaps you've lost your first love. There's a difference between the first love, which is not primarily an emotional thing, and the initial fervor of the young Christian.

There is a difference. A .W. Tozer said, the greatest gift needed in the church today is discernment. We have to be able to discern between that which is soulish, that which is man-made, especially man-made manipulation, and that which is from God.

It is the greatest gift needed in the church today. We need to be able to discern between our first love, which I believe we can maintain all our life, I still have mine, and the initial fervor, the initial bubble, which will change.

Here's what Hodges said in his incredible book, The Unseen Warfare. This fervor, the initial fervor, is especially characteristic of beginners. Nothing wrong with it. But its drying up should be welcomed as a sign that we are getting beyond the first stage.

To try to retain it, or to long for its return, in the midst of dryness, dryness, ever had that? Is to refuse to grow up. It is to refuse the cross. By our steady adherence to God, when the affections are dried up, and nothing is left but the naked will, clinging blindly to Him, to Christ, the soul is purged of self-regard and trained in pure love.

That's God's training program. And if you and I would start to see the seriousness of this biblical message, it would revolutionize our lives. And many of you would go on to become great men and women of faith and of prayer.

Testing Spirits and Walking in Truth

I want you now, in the middle of our time together, to turn in your Bible to 1st John, chapter 3. 1st John, chapter 3. Verse 4, sorry. Chapter 4, verse 1. I want to go back to chapter 3 as well if I get time, but I think we're going to run out.

Don't forget operation feedback. You want to say anything to me, you want to ask me a question, just take a piece of paper, write my name on it, give it in at the literature tent. You're limited in the number of people you can see here.

If you're not limited in the number of people you can write to, or send something to, that will be helpful. Maybe you're facing a particular problem in your life. I have exposure to about 3 ,500 Christian books.

I think I might be able to recommend a book that can help you. So if you have a particular problem and you'd like a book, you can use the feedback system for that. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this, know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.

And that is that spirit of antichrist of which you have heard that it should come. And even now, already, it is in the world. Then going over to 3 John, a very small book, not often studied. 3 John. Can everybody hear okay?

Can you hear okay back there? Good. Thank you. My problem is I often speak too loud. It's hard to know how to speak with these microphones. But generally the deaf people, the hard of hearing, often come up to me after the meeting.

Say, oh, praise the Lord, brothers. It's the first message I've heard. Not when there's a sound system like this, but in some of the churches. Verse 4. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Spiritual Balance and the Danger of Misguided Enthusiasm

I want to get into this subject in a little greater dimension of spiritual balance. If you want your life to count, you've got to learn spiritual balance. Tozer said, the more enthusiastic young person, the more keen young person, is more easily led astray.

That really spoke to me because I've seen that happen. They're hungry to become more spiritual, to know God, so sometimes they're more easily led astray. Somebody comes along with an instant spirituality trip and perhaps a little superior reputation for Godliness and they fall for it.

Away they go. We see in the word of God tremendous emphasis on balance. For example, some people very much emphasize love. Even to the point of compromise, feeling they can fellowship with anybody and anything, and they don't emphasize enough truth.

You know, if it wasn't for the truth, all the message about love wouldn't be here. The Bible says, we should speak the truth in love. Never allow these two things to be put against each other. They must come together.

We are the salt of the earth. Salt, the little I know, almost failed physics, chemistry, consists of sodium and chloride. If you take those separately, I believe, you'll find rather a disaster. Have a glass of chloride?

You may actually need the emergency unit. Have a bottle of sodium. But sodium chloride is salt. Salt without savor is of no value. Love without truth, no value. Truth without love, no value. This is a thesis of my little book called Revolution of Love, which is incorporated into this book, Revolution of Love and Balance.

Truth, Love, and Christian Character

And in that book, I've especially emphasized those words in James. Turn to James. Book of James, Chapter 3. This is really powerful. Look at it in the Word of God. Don't accept what I say. Verse 13, Chapter 3.

Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? In other words, who has all the right doctrine? Who has all the right answers? Let him show it out of a good life. Did you get that? Let's see it in his life.

Truth and life, doctrine and life, both are essential. Let him show it out of a good life, his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth.

That's an amazing phrase, isn't it? Have you studied that? You can lie against the truth. Why? By being truthful without love. Truth without love becomes a lie. It's still truth in the legalistic sense, but it's not truth in the full sense.

It becomes a lie. And it's destructive. And if you're a leader, it's not just a matter of knowing what they're due to do in your assembly or church. It's not a matter of just telling someone what to do.

It's saying it with love. If you're the head of your family and husbands, you ought to be the head of your family. Not the dictator, but the loving head of your family. And as your wife submits to you, you love her as Christ loved the church.

That's more difficult than submission. And if you are the head of your family, then you must not just speak the truth, but you must speak the truth with love. I've often said the right things to my children in the wrong way.

And I had to go to my children, and I had to apologize because it was unkind. And unkindness is a sin. Look what else it says. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

Wow! Earthly, sensual, devilish. Those are strong words. That's what happens when we have orthodoxy without reality. When we have the teaching and the talking without the walking and the living. And this is the greatest need in the church today.

For where envying and strife are, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure. Now here's the real stuff. Here's the real wisdom. As leaders, as fathers, as wives.

For the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy, good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace.

That's the balance. And that's what God wants in our lives. In these closing ten minutes, I want to give you other areas of spiritual balance that I have been studying. And I want to commend them to your attention that you will study them and that you will try to find the balance.

Crisis Experiences and Gradual Spiritual Growth

Number one, there's the balance between the crisis and growth. Acts 4 .31 was a crisis experience. Acts 20 .32 says, I commend you to God and the word of His grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them who are sanctified.

Don't put the crisis against the process. And remember this, God works in different people, in different ways. I believe the greatest miracle of this Jesus Festival, and I know about many such gatherings, I believe one of the greatest miracles of this Jesus Festival and of this gathering and people all over the world when I've told them about this, they have been impressed.

The greatest miracle is the coming together of both people of a non-charismatic and a charismatic background. That is very unusual in North America because the devil is trying to polarize these two groups and when he gets them polarized and if you know anything of what's happening, then he begins to divide the two camps.

There's already plenty of division between non-charismatic people because they've been much longer on the scene. But now the charismatic movement has gone into several major streams. Some of them really at each other's throats.

There is no end of division and if those who are non-charismatic separate from their charismatic brothers and sisters, that is not the end of division nor the end of your problems and vice versa. There is no end of division until it gets right down into your own family.

If you know anything about the exclusive brethren, you know that they eventually ended up teaching that a husband should not eat with his wife if she was not baptized in an exclusive brethren assembly.

Don't get that confused with an open brethren assembly of which there are quite a few live ones yet, especially in Europe. And oh my, what a beautiful thing it is. We may not all agree with one another.

We may have different ways of worshipping and some may be a little noisier than others. Some may be heavy on dancing. In Britain, the devil is trying to divide the believers over dancing. Those who believe in dancing in the spirit, those who don't believe.

And now there's just come a division between those who believe in dancing because one group believes in dancing too much and the other group doesn't believe in dancing so much. And in England, we just had a major split among those who are, have been touched in the last years by the Spirit of God and one group has excommunicated a major leader of the other group and now they have two magazines and two conferences and two everything.

There's no end to it. And I'll tell you the result of these continual divisions. Young Christians eventually, they get sick of it. They throw the whole thing over. And I've counseled too many in that camp.

When we even are listening to a speaker or we go somewhere, maybe we don't like something, maybe that's not our scene or maybe we've had a bad experience in the past so that gives us a block against something that's happening at that moment.

Nobody's forcing you to accept it. But in all things love, in all things let us try to believe the best. Let us try to understand the other man's viewpoint, the other man's spiritual experience and reality instead of dogmatism and extremism because it's easy to get involved for God on the basis of your own ego trip or because you're overreacting to something else.

Many a church has been planted not guided by the Spirit of God but because one brother was reacting against another brother because he was hurt and he didn't know God's first aid. He said, I'll show you, I'll show you the Holy Spirit's with me as much as with you.

I'll prove that the Spirit of God is in my heart. He goes down the road, I'm going to plant a church. Jesus, Jesus, please help me. I've got to prove he's a worm. I want to tell you, you may laugh but if you would have seen the religious nonsense that I've seen for 23 years, you would not laugh.

Extremism, confusion, division and the devil gives three cheers in hell. We need crisis experiences. Some people are more emotional than others but we also need growth, the Word, discipline, constant prayer, exhortation.

Don't put one against the other. Don't put different groups one against the other. The Holy Spirit is sovereign. We're turning the Holy Spirit into some kind of spiritual midget. He is sovereign. He works in different people in different ways.

His power is beyond measurement. We can't even write about it in all of our wonderful little gospel gazettes. And one of my fears for North America is the over-emphasis on publicity. And little Johnny, he's just converted.

He knows how to play his guitar. Pretty soon he's in the front lines of the paper. What happened to Mr. Flint, this pornographer who made his great decision for Jesus Christ? The mass media got a hold of it.

The Christians got a hold of it. Now I read last night he's gone back on his conversion if he was ever converted. Nobody knows and I don't even know if the article I read last night is the truth. But what I do know is that the devil is a mastermind at using publicity.

He's a mastermind. Another area of balance because our time is just about gone is between discipline and liberty. Those who are heavy on liberty, they like to sort of belittle those who believe in discipline.

Oh, that's all bondage. Oh man, you're under the law. You know, just because the guy believes in a little bit of discipline. And the disciplined people, they can belittle the liberty people. Oh, watch out for him.

He's always, you know, lots of things to talk about. We need both. And if you study Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 8 .13, Galatians 5 .13, 2 Corinthians 3 .17, you'll see the need for both. Mix that in with 1 Corinthians 9 where Paul said he buffets his body, brings it into subjection, lest after preaching to people he becomes a reprobate.

He was the same man who wrote 2 Corinthians 3 .17 where the Spirit of the Lord is. There is liberty! And Galatians is very important. Yes, we are called unto liberty, but used not to liberty as an occasion to the flesh.

That's the key, isn't it? But to serve one another. We try to put the Marys and the Marthas against each other. It's true. In that passage in Scripture where Jesus spoke, Mary seemed to be doing the better thing.

Worshiping. But he didn't put down Martha. Martha was needed as well. They wouldn't have anything to eat. We need both. And then the balance between submission and freedom. As you know in some circles today, there's a very, very heavy emphasis on submission.

Everybody must get in line. And there are certain apostles and everybody must get in line. Now there is a biblical basis for submission and a lot of us need that. We see, for example, in 1 Thessalonians 5, 12 -13 that we should respect those who are over us in the Lord.

But that does not turn you into a robot. That does not rob you of the privilege of determining the will of God for your life. Now that's hard. And there are some types of people they'd rather cop out.

They'd rather let somebody else determine God's will for them. And they get into these extremist groups where they can't decide anything anymore. And I can tell you I've seen people just smothered, just smothered and choked.

Balancing Work, Worship, and Active Service

We need the balance in this. I'm not saying what way you should go but search out the balance. And then the balance between work and service and worship. We need a balance in that as well. How important that is.

Both are emphasized. You get a group of people in the church who are very passive. They want holiness. They want to see the Lord. They want to wait upon the Lord. And you get others in the church saying, what are we sitting here for?

We've been doing the same thing for the last five years. Let's go. These people are worried you're going to get into the flesh. They're always worried you're going to get into the flesh. These people feel they're already in the flesh.

They're asleep. I've seen whole churches. They come in too. Look, we need each other. We need those who are a little more active. Men that can get up. People like Randy Birch and his co-workers who organize this stuff.

So others can come in and just feed and get the blessing. We need men with a gift of health. And we shouldn't judge one another. Some people are very mystical and they seem to be more holy. It may not be that you're so holy.

It may be that your temperament leans more that way. I believe we need all kinds of people in the church. This is why the body is so important. Different people fit into the body. We don't judge them.

We don't let division come in. And as you study passages like Hebrews 10 .25, balance it off with Acts 2 .42, you will see the difference. And then the balance between the work of God and the family. This was one of my problems.

Putting Family Before Christian Work

You know, I had this great vision, this great burden, going 17 hours a day. And I started to neglect my wife. Started to neglect my children. I was on the road seven months a year, away from home. God had to break me.

And I had to see again. I thought I already saw it. You know, a lot of things in the Christian life, we have to relearn. It's not all new truth. Not with a spiritual donkey like me. A lot of things have to be relearned.

Some of us are a little bit like that lady with her pet donkey. You know that story. This lady had a pet donkey and the donkey one day froze in the garden, in the backyard. He wouldn't move. And she wanted to get him to move.

She called up an international donkey specialist. This guy can move any donkey in the whole world. And he came and it cost $100 to move her donkey. She said, you've got to move him but you can't hurt him.

You can't hurt him. He said, okay, I won't hurt your donkey. He goes out. He picked up a 2x4, about that big. He picked it up. He clobbered the donkey straight on the head. The lady ran out. You promised not to hurt the donkey.

I'm not hurting your donkey. I'm just getting his attention. Some of you are like that. God has to hit you pretty hard just to get your attention. He loves you. Those whom He loves, He chastens. And that's an area where God had to hit me with a 2x4 and show me that He was first, then family, then family, wife, children, the home, reality of the home, worship, and then the work, operation, mobilization.

Get it in that order. Whatever your gift, however important people make you, no matter how many people want to see you, God, family, the work, spiritual balance. We'll pick up from here in another session.

Prayer for Spiritual Balance and Unity

Let's pray. Living God, we thank You that You alone can bring us into greater spiritual balance. We thank You for this first aid for our spiritual emergencies. We may even get one before we get out of here.

We thank You for Your Word that has an answer to so many of these practical problems. We thank You for the reality, spiritual balance, crisis and growth, freedom, discipline, liberty and authority, family and the work.

Help us by Your grace to function together in the power and the energy of Your Holy Spirit. People of different emphases and different backgrounds, may we understand what Your Bible really says. May we have it.

May we have truth, but may we have it according to Your God-given priority for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.