The Meaning of Life - 4. From Negative to Positive Believing — Norman Grubb

Holy Spirit, you're always speaking by your wonderful living voice, you have been all these days, and you are tonight, and through this evening, and through tomorrow. So we're able to hear your voice, and through you, hear and see, and come in living union with Jesus.

So we thank you. Amen. I'd like just to say, I suppose with my own missionary background, and therefore some worldwide outreach, how moved I was by hearing from Tom and Virginia Price yesterday afternoon, and today, and of the extensions of this foundation farthest out.

I find I can usually sense when God is on the move, and I sense that, as God is moving in a new way, through this foundation farthest out, which is taking CFO Fellows and Witnesses round the world. As I know the world, I believe it's right for something like this, and I have a conviction that this beginnings of the foundation farthest out is going to be as big as the beginnings of the whole movement.

You'll find that maybe in some ways the foundation farthest out will overwhelm the CFO just in this country. So I hope we can begin to catch the thrill that God is beginning to call us out now, to build, to reproduce the same kind of living fellowships in India and Africa and Indonesia and Jamaica and all around the world that we have here.

So I hope the day will come, maybe it is. I don't know. When the whole fellowship of camp fathers catch on to this, and find it part of the camp farthest out commission from God, and I suppose I shouldn't say this, but I'd like to see the day when every camp where they met had some time when it was presented to them, this calling of God to expand ourselves to the world, because as Tom knows and I know the world is ripe for this kind of thing.

I also have a strong conviction that God's seal is on those two. God seals men and women, and I believe those two are sealed in this kind of ministry, and God set him apart to be a large part with Dale Anderson, whom I know too is a precious man of God, in planting this witness worldwide.

God's Eternal Purpose in His Sons

So I thank God that it was brought to us these days. Now we've been talking these days of God's plan for eternity to manifest his lover father self and whatever purpose he has for eternity through his sons.

His son, and through his son the sons, are a vast company of people by whom he manifests himself, so they're the God manifesters. It's through the sons, the Father, Son and Spirit will be seen in his love action and love purposes and love fulfilments.

And we've been seeing how he has brought us as persons, as we come to a place where we can be reliable sons, through phases of recognition of our relationship to him. The first phase was the redemption phase, the justification phase, where as lost sinners we found our Lord Jesus Christ, who reconciled the God through faith in his blood, were producing in us the consciousness of justification.

That's what we saw on the, using those terms that the one John used, as the little child, first phase of recognition, coming to his living, saved, redeemed love relationship with Jesus, Father and Spirit.

Then we saw we moved on, to what is the meaning of being a real person, to the consciousness of a unified relationship, that the actual meaning of the living person, Father, Son, Spirit and ourselves, is that we have become a conscious unity.

So it's we functioning, we do function as humans, it isn't really we functioning. We functioning is Christ functioning by us, we are really Christ in human form. And this is what his purposes of redemption brought us into.

And again, it's always by an inner consciousness, because all we ever are is our inner consciousness, we are what we know we are. So we've spent some time seeing how God has brought us into this in Christ, and how we by faith move into the consciousness recognition of it.

The Fatherhood Level and Living for Others

We now move on for a few minutes tonight, to the final of the three, where it says that we are to have a relationship with him, which is like a little child, young man and father, right? Two little children, right?

Two young men, right? Two fathers. And we saw that the first two relationships are for our development, little children and young men. The third is for what is reproduced out from us, in the fatherhood, because as in fatherhood we move out into responsibilities for the family and our place in the world and in all normal activities out from us.

So the first two are into us, the third is out from us. The statement made in the John word about it here, it doesn't seem at first to mean much, it says this, I write unto you fathers, because ye have known him it is from the beginning.

Twice over it says, I write unto you fathers, because ye have known him it is from the beginning. Now remember, knowledge is being mixed with something, knowledge is knowing it, being it, it's part of me, it isn't something I just know here, it's something that has become part of me.

So I write unto you fathers because you have become part of him it is from the beginning. He's not even given a name there, he's just the eternal one. Not him at the beginning, him from the beginning.

You see here the third relationship is union with him in his outgoing purposes, in his perfecting purposes, him from the beginning unto the ending of it. And we are in union with him, participators of him on that relationship.

That's a very strong message, a strong presentation, because you see this person, this living person, we've seen all along, he only has one nature, he's for others, he's love, he is for others. His whole existence, his love, his thrill, his joy, his fulfilment, he's the means for which others, his universe is perfected, people are perfected, he's out firing himself, giving himself for others, this is the only nature he has, this is where his joy, his peace, his fulfilment is.

So this is what this world is saying to us, the recognition that if I'm a justified person through Christ, if I'm a unified person in Christ, so it's not I living, it's he living, now I'm also a cooperating person and there's no other meaning to my life except for others.

That's a strong statement, there's no partial meaning, the only meaning to life, if you and I are justified, unified, people in this living relationship to him, there's no other purpose for time and eternity, no other meaning to our life except for others.

That's a strong statement, it means that whatever happens to us, see we so easily slip back into the old concept, old outlook, why is this happening to me, why am I in this situation, why am I in this health condition, I'm relating to myself.

Now as this new consciousness settles into me, this new recognition settles into me, every single thing happens to me because God has some purpose by me for others, some means of which he's manifesting himself to others by me in this situation.

No situation ever happens to me again for myself, it's always part of a purpose for others, that's why I keep saying it's a strong thing, a strong thing to recognise it. Now in each case we learn, what we recognise, faith, faith is recognising facts, when we were saved we recognised a fact, Jesus took my place, and then the consciousness came into us.

When we recognise this unified relationship, we recognise it isn't I, it is living Christ forever as a person, as a real person living here, I recognise it by faith, the witness came into me, settled me in this fact.

So you see, in each case it's a recognition of a fact. So I'm just, in this final statement, throwing it out to you, for those of you who are here to hear. Can I begin to recognise there's never any other meaning to my life, everything that happens to me is always because God has some outgoing purpose by me in his saving, self manifesting purposes in the world, nothing else.

If I begin to recognise it, it will begin to settle into me. As I say, you think on the health condition, often you know seeking health is selfish, it's why aren't I better? No, no, no. Start by saying, what's God got in this?

Don't start by saying, may I be better? Start by saying, what have you got in this? My body is part of you, what are you after? In what way are you revealing yourself through me in this situation? Every situation, start by saying, I'm a cooperator with God, my amazing privilege is to be the means by which God manifests himself.

We are the God manifesters in this world. This is our high privilege. Cooperate with him. And begin to have that outlook on life. You see, we've moved over. It used to be a question of our dependence on him, now it's our cooperation with him.

We used to know him, he's my living bread, he's my living water. That's a permanent fact now, you don't have to find him again, he's forever my living bread in here, he's forever my living water. Don't have to find him again or I have to recognise him.

We talked about the difference between soul and spirit on that level, I think, yesterday. So that's our permanent background. But our foreground is, we are co-bred with him for others. We are outpoured wine with him for others.

We are co-with God for others. It's a different relationship. It's a relationship of fellowship, cooperation, co-acting, not, oh God, I'm hanging on to you. No, no, no, that's fixed, he's hung on to me, he's got me, praise God.

That's finished. Those are hanging on, he's got me, I'm part of him, he's part of me. We are he in human form, forever. That's fixed. So don't look at that, take up, now as he, we are as he, with him, what's his purpose in manifesting himself in some way by me to others?

So this, I'm just presenting it to you, this is the fatherhood level. It's actually the level which we, because all these begin in the beginning, even when we're born again we begin to do that. You know, the moment we're his, our delight is we're going to be blessing to others, isn't it?

We know it already. Our true joy is when we can be something for others, isn't it? When our lives can tell for others, that's our joy. That's eternal joy, it's the only joy there is. That's eternal thrill, joy, fun, gaiety, wonder.

When we, in some way, are bred, other people can eat and find Jesus. And outpoured living water, as it were, by which other people can drink and find Jesus. That doesn't mean, it doesn't mean, don't get back, doesn't mean we try to be for others.

Cut that trying out. It's this person acts by us, we don't do it, he acts by us. He takes us his way, so we don't try, don't try. Just be yourself. This wonderful life, you're just yourself, as if you're just for yourself.

It's a paradoxical life. You're just yourself, you're not you, you're Jesus. We talked about it yesterday. Forget that and be yourself, this is Jesus operating through you. Live your life, live it freely.

But the person in you is the person for others. The Holy Spirit in you is the person for others. He'll cause you to be for others. You can't help it. He'll cause you to relate your life so there can be some reason which other people can find.

They're also sons of God by grace in Jesus Christ and so on. So I'll just throw that out as a third recognition. See, faith is recognising fact. So we begin to settle into this higher recognition. This is what's called the ascended recognition.

See, there are three phases, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. Crucifixion cut me out from the old dominion of Satan. Resurrection introduced me into a new relationship with the Lord himself, Christ himself.

Ascension is seated. Seated means you've finished it. Jesus Christ has finished the death and resurrection. That's out. It's out for us too. That's a background. Now, having finished the past, now you're occupied in the next step.

The next step going out is to bring in the multitudes, the harvest. And we're the means on which he goes out. So we're seated with him to go out with him to bring in the harvest. On the victory victory level we're far above Satan and all the rest of it.

That's the ascended life we're in now. We've left behind the cross and resurrection. We're living in the ascension which is the outgoing life by which, by us, he can reap in his harvest. I say again, don't try and interpret that.

Don't try and say ought I be this. Cut that ought out. I don't know what's in it. But if you recognize and accept by faith this is the meaning. Accept now Lord it's up to you to put this through me now.

Now Lord you're in me like this. It's you who in your own way move through me, manifest yourself through me to others in whatever way that may be. And I accept that by faith. I remember, it was a young man.

Precious scripture might be for a young person here. I remember I was a young man. I got those two scriptures in John. One is he shall be in you a well of water, Jesus Christ. A well of water springing up in everlasting life like an artesian well.

That's Christ in you. A well of water springing up. There it says, here it bleeds on me, John 7 .38. Out of him, out from his inmost parts, travail, shall flow rivers of living water. In you, springing up in everlasting life.

Out from you as rivers of living water. I remember when I saw that in my early ministry. Maybe 20, 21 years of age. Rivers. Maybe one day a muddy trickle. Muddy trickles get cleaned up somehow and rivers flow.

They do. Might there be one person who catches on to that? Maybe one person who says, OK. God says, I don't do anything. If I believe him, he said, out of my innermost part will flow rivers to the world.

OK, God, I take it. I sign this up. If you take that, I took it and made it my own. Well, I don't know. Muddy trickles? I don't know. Streams do flow. Streams do flow. That's all about it. Rivers is a big word.

At least streams flow. And they don't dry up either. So, you see, this is the... That's all I wanted to say about this. What's the meaning of the fatherhood level? But the Holy Spirit in you is the one who fulfills it in your life.

Relate you to this or that by which he manifests himself by us. Now, I just want to ask for a moment or two, by what ways does God manifest himself by us? By what ways are we God manifesters? We're in the foreground, persons in action.

This is persons in action. But the persons in action really are Christ manifesting by us. By what way are we people in action? So really it is the living God expressing himself through us and moving out into whatever his purposes of grace and power may be through us.

Faith as the Inner Source of Action

By two ways, inner, inner and outer. Because we're inner people and we're outer people. Or, if you like, we're spirit and we're body. Or soul and body together. Spirit, inner. Soul and body, outer. Two ways by which he manifests himself by us.

Now, remember, we are inner people. Every outer thing comes from an inner relationship. The supreme importance is the inner relationship, the inner activity. What's the inner activity is it comes out in the outer form.

So, first of all, the inner one is the one that matters. Now, the simple term used in the Bible, of course, is by faith. By faith, we know that. But it's given a place of supreme importance in the Bible.

There are only two words in the Bible which are chapters themselves. One is faith, Hebrews 11. The other is love, 1 Corinthians 13. And faith works by love. It works by the inner motivation. The self-giving motivation.

But faith always works by love. We used to have a self-loving motivation. And we worked with faith for our own ends. That's the old unsaved life. In the new life, we have the other love motivating us.

And that lies behind our faith. Faith works by love. But faith. So, faith is given a central place. Jesus always gave it to us. Jesus put a startling emphasis on faith. For instance, when the woman came to him with the issue of blood.

She touched him. And he knew virtue came out of him. He didn't point to his virtue. He said, daughter, thy faith has saved thee. What interested him was somebody who moved in by faith. And the faith liberated the virtue to come through.

And he was centering around the human element of the faith. Which made it possible for the virtue to come through. So, faith. Now, there's an attitude of faith and an action of faith. I want to say on this a moment.

Attitude of faith. How you see things. All faith is how you begin to see things and then you attach yourself to it. All faith is, you see something, you believe something, you want something. You take it.

You go to it. So, it starts by what you're seeing, you're believing in. What's attracting your attention. And then, faith is, I'll take that. I'll go there. Your action of faith, your attitude of faith and action of faith follows your attitude of faith.

I've got a tremendous revolution on this one. I don't know if you have. You see, we humans are geared to one attitude. That's the negative. We're in a negative world and we're always seeing things negatively.

Life's full of it. We see our problems. We see our difficulties. We see the large and small things. We see everything in terms of difficulty. Difficulty in people. Difficulty in things. Difficult situations.

The whole of life pours in on those negative situations. Dark, evil, bad, negative, disturbing situations. So, we live in the negative. Now, when you see a negative, you're beaten by it. What can you do with it?

That's the trouble. Life is a trouble. What can I do with my problem? What can I do with that difficult situation in people's lives or these family situations? What can I do with finance problems? What can I do with people who've hurt me?

What can I do with larger things in the world which are hurtful today and evil and so on? What can I do with them? Well, what can we do? The devil's stronger than the human self. We can't touch it. What can we do with it?

It was a tremendous revelation to me. Have you had it? When I got a reverse in how I'm to see things. A total reverse. And that total reverse was when it dawned on me that I must see things wholly differently.

For one thing, I had a stretch in my understanding of God. See, I understood God personally to me. I understood Jesus Christ personally to me. God personal. Christ personal. Holy Spirit personal. God universal.

I had a vague idea. It dawned on me, God's in everything, everywhere. Of course He is. We've been talking about it all the time. Everything is expressed in Him. The whole universe is expressed in this one.

This person's in everything. Good and evil? Oh. So, everything, whatever situation it is, their situation, God's in it. I went further. I'll prove it to you in a moment. I found that God means a thing to be what it is.

God means evil to be evil. It is in it. That's difficult, isn't it? God means evil to be evil. He means evil things to be evil, and evil people to do evil things, and evil consequences to follow. He means it.

I've cut the word permissive a long time after my life. Means it. What do I mean? Well, I saw it like this. The only way God can have living persons, living sons, they must be free people, of course. Like Himself.

Free people. So, He has to start, He does start, by making persons feel free. Now, freedom is a necessity of choice. You know that. Freedom is I have to choose all the time. All life, I'm free to choose, and what I choose takes me over.

You've come here this week. You came, it took you over. Life is, that's what faith is. You're free to choose, but to your alternatives, you choose it and it takes you over. So that's what freedom is. So, if we're to be people, we have to be free.

And so we're free to make our choices. And, of course, our basic choice, we talked about it in other talks, is am I with Christ as a self-giving person, with Christ expressing His self-giving love through me, or am I with myself, or really with Satan, in being a self-loving person?

Is my choice with Satan to be a self-seeking, self-satisfying, self-gratifying, self-centered person? Or is my choice with Christ, by His Spirit, by being a self-giving, utter lover? Well, you know what happened, of course.

The whole human family went this way down. Now, God's not responsible for the consequences. He's responsible for the freedom. He's not responsible for the consequences. So God's not responsible for any evil thing.

Evil things all come out of our misuse of freedom. Now, we're all involved in this world, so we get its corruptions, we get its diseases. Some things we are responsible for, indirectly. Mostly, things just happen, accidents, hurts, tragedies in the world.

We aren't directly, but we're mingled in the whole human family in this chaotic condition, this corrupting, disastrous, hurting, evil condition of this world. We're in it. Now, God's not responsible for that.

God's responsible for the freedom which we use and produce this. But, because He's God and perfect love, because He's everywhere, He's also in the situation. Everything is He. So He's in the evil situation.

But because He's love, He's in the evil situation to bring good out of it. Oh, that's it. He's in every evil situation. He's not responsible for it. It came into being through the product of this freedom of thought, which produces those things.

But He's everywhere. He's right in those things, therefore. Therefore, the very evil thing, He's there. It's He, in a sense. But because He's love, because He's perfect purpose, He's there to turn that thing into a redemptive end.

Don't you see what that means? Do you see? I can have a reverse way of seeing things, and I find this a key to a liberated life. I can either say, oh, what on earth should I do with this, seeing humanly?

Or I can see with God's sight. Wait a minute. It looks like that, but I'm not seeing it like that. I'm seeing the perfect God with the perfect purpose who meant it, a perfect action, perfect love, and a perfect outcome to this thing in that situation.

Thank you, Lord. You meant that thing to be. You aren't responsible for it. You're meant, in freedom, to have its effects. Freedom to have its effects. You're not responsible. But because you're everywhere, because you're perfect love and you're in the heart of that business, and you're going to turn it into a new revelation in yourself.

Now, that transformation forms your inner seeing. You are governed by your inner seeing. Do you understand that? With inner consciousness. You live and are controlled by the way you see things. Not by things as they are outside, how you see them.

It's tremendous. As you see a thing, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Now, you always talk like that. We're human. All our life, oh dear, what about that? We're meant to be human. So I'm taught, bewildered, hurt. But when I know the secret, wait a minute, I'm doing it all the time.

Wait a minute. God, it doesn't look like it. It looks like the devil. It is the devil. But God, you gave that freedom. Out of freedom there's been this operation, if you like, of the devil here. But you're everywhere.

You're there. And you're in the middle of that thing. And I see you meant to be. And I see you're going to turn this into a new revelation of your grace and love and power and presence. Oh, I say, all right.

Okay, God. Okay. Praise the Lord. And from depression and a sense of binding and defeat, so I'm liberated. God's in that thing. And you'll see God going to come out of it. Transfer it out. Out of it. So do you see this terrific thing?

If this is true, there are no problems left in life unless you see them as a problem. There are no difficulties left in life unless you see them as difficulties. There are no diseases left in life unless you see them as diseases.

Don't look at diseases. See the living Christ in you. Let God handle diseases. Don't try and get the diseases healed. Get busy seeing Jesus. Much better. Much better. Don't. Don't. You get it. Don't see evil.

Now that's tough. Don't see evil. Bible says God doesn't. He's the purer eye than the whole evil. Read it. Habakkuk says that. There are the purer eyes than the whole evil. And then it says to us, this is the purest heart.

But then you see God and that's all you see. The pure only sees God. Now I'm not to see evil. But of course that's evil. Ah, ah, ah. It looks like it. And it is. It is so on the outside. But I'm not. It's how I think matters to me.

It's actual fact. It's an evil thing right there. But what matters to me is how I see it. My contribution to it will be to how I see it. Now, you see. So is it evil? No, I'm not seeing it as evil. No, I'm not seeing it.

It is evil. It can be called evil. It looks evil. But I see everything as what God meant. Out of freedom. He didn't produce that. But he meant it to be the effect. But because he's perfect love, perfect purpose, perfect will, out of that thing it's going to come out of the thing.

Now, I'm sure if I asked the hands raised in this room for the number of people who had tragedies in their lives and they'd been blessed. I'd look up all over the place. Or over the place we found tragedies turned out a new blessing.

A new consequence. Precisely. Precisely. You see. You thought, oh, it turned out to be a new relationship for you to God and to people and so on. Precisely. But I say again. Do you see the tremendousness of that?

Do you see? Everything in the Bible is total. It's never partial. Do you see the totality of that? There's one problem left. There's one tragedy left. I'm hurt as a human. That's the human part of it.

If I can see through. Oh, no. It is like that. And that came out of misuse of freedom and so on. But my perfect God meant it to be. My perfect God meant freedom to have its effect. My perfect God is fitted in that thing.

He's going to come through with a new presence of his power of blessing of salvation and so on. How could revolutionise this thing? That's where we become on top people. If I just think I should do. You know it.

Calvary, Gethsemane, and Seeing God's Purpose

If I give one or two biblically proofs. What could be greater? What could be greater than Jesus at Calvary? It's fantastic. Who did Jesus see at Calvary? Who crucified him? Well, we know Satan did. We're told in the Last Supper Satan entered into Judas.

And Jesus knew Satan had entered into Judas. And he said quietly, Judas, he loved Judas, try to win him. All right, go out Judas quietly and do what you're going to do. He knew what he was going to do.

Betray him. And Satan was on the march now. And got into the Caiaphas and Pilate and the Pharisees and the soldiers and the... Pilate wasn't so much to blame as other people were to blame. Judas and so on.

But Satan was wide open. Do you get what Jesus said? Twice over. Do you get it? The last verse but one in John 14 is the Supper Table. Wonderful Supper Table conversation on the Supper Table. The last verse but one says this.

Jesus, his beloved disciples. Hereafter I won't be much with you. I won't speak much with you. For the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. In me is in the consciousness. Out everything.

Tear him to pieces. And scourge him. Crucify him. In him not at all. You are not a person. You're only a person. This is the great secret when you learn it. There are no prisons except your own self. A prison is not a prison unless you take it as a prison.

There's nothing binds a person. A communist isn't a bound communist when you've got Jesus. He's a Jewish thing. Jesus is in him. And Jesus is giving you a chance to sort of like what he is. There are no bindings and no prisons on earth.

Except the way you take it. That's your only prison. When you take a thing as evil and you're caught up by it. Then there's evil and you fight it. When you say, God put me there. It's love. Love is perfect.

God's got me there. That's the strange reason why Paul said to a slave. He said to a slave, remain slave. Well, it isn't very good social gospel today. In 1 Corinthians 7 he says, if you're a slave, remain a slave.

Why? Because if you're a slave, you're outwardly bound to your master. But if you're Christ's slave, you're Christ's free man. You're free to love. That's freedom. To have Christ in you and to be able to express the love of Christ.

That's freedom. And you, slave, are the free person. And your boss, you're caught up with his flesh stuff. He's a slave. A slave is flesh. Do you know what I mean? And so you see with Jesus, that's the first thing.

Look at that. Right at confronting with Satan. He has nothing in me. Can't see him. Don't see him. Can't see him. He has nothing in me. Outwardly, oh. How do I know he can't see him? Because three chapters afterwards, Jesus went to Gethsemane.

Kind of settled the thing up there. You know that dramatic moment? And that's a wonderful word. You know it, of course, as well as I do. Came out of Gethsemane. There were the soldiers. The torches and the shouts and the noises.

Come to arrest him. And there was our beloved Peter. Having one good shot. One last flesh shot for Jesus. Got his sword out. Wow. He got a little nervous. So he cut the ear off. He meant to cut the head off.

A little shaky, that's why. And tried on. But do you see the beauty of this? Do you catch the beauty of it? Think, for instance, of the poise. If your body is arrested, you're pretty nervous. Because evil.

When you see evil, you're pretty nervous. If Jesus had been seeing the soldiers, he'd be nervous. Pretty tense, wouldn't he? Didn't see him. He was so free, he could pick up the ear and put it back. That's some miracle.

Right. Confronted by the soldiers. Then, listen. Tremendous. Peter said, drop that. Don't use those swords any more. Listen, Peter. The cup which my father has given me, shall I drink it? He called the devil the father's cup.

That's going pretty far. The devil crucified is his father's cup. The devil with his father's cup, into that cup, out of that cup, would be poured life for the world. So he called the wicked devil his father's cup, which the father gave him.

That's going pretty far. So do you see how far we can go in saying, that's the Lord. That's the Lord. It looks like the devil. It's the Lord. You watch. We can see the Lord coming through that very thing, which looks to me like a mess and the devil and everything else.

We begin to get somewhere where we begin to see our lost dear ones like that. It's all right. God means them to go that way to teach them some sense. God means us to go down to prepare us to go up. Leave them alone.

Okay, let them go that way. The father's got them. That's my faith. You watch. The father's got them. Through this thing they are going to come back again. Then you will have freedom and love and faith towards the ones who outwardly all tear you up.

Of course, the other famous illustration was Joseph. I repeat, as you know it, because it's a word used where God has a purpose to make Joseph his deliverer to the children of Egypt. You know the story, of course.

He put Joseph through all that selling of a slave by his own brothers. And then under Potiphar as a prisoner. Potiphar's wife lying him back in the prison again. After 14 years, it says, he ironed into his soul.

Not only ironed on his bands. All the time that precious Joseph knew God. There was peace. I won't go into it now. You can see it. Then he came up to be Prime Minister. And you know, the children of Egypt returned.

And the moment of reconciliation came. But that famous word. It's in the last chapter of Genesis. He said to his brothers, who were still a bit frightened because of what they had done. You meant it for evil.

God meant it for good. Write that under every tough spot you've got. God means that for good. Every tough spot. Like God means it. Doesn't permit it. God wasn't responsible. The tough spot came out of that evil doing.

But God meant to use those evil doings for good. And so, the devil does evil doings. Oh, a fallen man. OK, OK. God doesn't say anything. That's alright. That's the very thing I mean after that's going to become a new good.

Isn't that beautiful? If I wanted one final proof. It's the actual boldness of the statement of Peter. Of the first speech after Pentecost. After the crucifixion. You read there. He spoke to the crowds around there.

He said, your people through determined counsel. Determined. Determined counsel and the full knowledge of God. By which it has a crucified slave. God determined you. God determined you to do it. God determined which it has to crucify.

So, this is the first way in which the light manifests through us. Because when in all sorts of situations. You have poise. And you have peace. And you have praise. Light shining. A light which the world hasn't got.

Because of course the world is always getting torn up by things. You can't see things as we do. Now I want to say one more thing. I've had a bit tonight. But I may be patient tomorrow morning. One other thing.

I'll at least begin it. That's we in faith attitude. That's victory. Faith attitude. I've died, you may say, to the attitude of seeing it negatively. Seeing it as humans see it. I've lived to see it as God sees it.