Things God Has Taught Me This Year 19.2.1972 — George Verwer

The Daily Battle Against Selfishness

Firstly, I have continued to see how naturally selfish I am, and all of mankind.

On every side, as we look, we see the selfishness of man. The terrible things that have taken place in Bangladesh and in Vietnam and Burundi, these are only larger demonstrations of man's selfishness that we see continually on a smaller level.

I have, again, just recommitted my heart to declare daily war against self.

And I have, for the rest of my life, vowed to God that daily, as a challenge to war against my own selfishness.

No matter what blessing we may have had yesterday, we can become selfish today unless there is a real act and a walk of faith. It's easy for us even to be involved in religious work with selfish motivation.

And I really am searching my own heart. Why do I do this? Why do I go here? What is my real motivation? You see, selfishness has so many different ways of appearing. It easily comes into the home, American.

We demand our own rights. We want our own way. And self, of course, gets irritated. Self gets offended. Self feels it's not appreciated enough. And so many ways, so many ways, selfishness just continually comes out.

This is why in our own countries, in our own churches, we have everything. And the man in Bangladesh, in India, he gets so little. We can see our own needs first. We always can get involved with that which has some way in touch with our own ego.

Prayer as Spiritual Warfare

And I've seen in my own life how it's a continual battle. The man who doesn't think he has a battle with selfishness is a man who is spiritually blind in that area, at least. Then the second thing that the Lord has been dealing with me now.

Is the need for more prayer, more intercession. This is where the battles are won. And the greatest work of saints will be to try to get the saints off their knees.

And it's like Satan, first of all, tries to get the saints off their knees.

But in most of the countries I've been in, very few people come out to the church prayer meeting. Many freely admit, even Christian leaders, that they have no real life of prayer. If you look in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 10, verses 4 and 5.

Here we read that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty unto God, to the pulling down of strongholds. We must never forget this. We know Paul's burden was the whole world. You'll notice this in verse 16.

Where he speaks, read it, about his burden to preach the gospel in the regions beyond, not just building on another man's foundation. And we see how the prayer life and the weapon of prayer is so linked with reaching the regions beyond.

Now it's easier to have a prayer life when you're on a going team, than it is when you're at home, like many of you are right now. In fact, we know it's harder to be a real disciple at home, than it is out on a team.

Of course, our home churches and the believers at home, should be just as alive, or more alive, and more active, and more fellowship. More everything, than an OM team, but generally it isn't so, and that's the problem.

And this is why many seem to grow cold, or lukewarm, when they get home. And it's harder to maintain this intensive prayer life, worship, spirituality. And there's always so much to do. We all get so busy.

One thing that has helped me, is at times, to just take a whole day, and just go off to the mountains, to the woods, and be alone with God. This has been a great help. There's always more work. And we know, by an act of discipline, get away, and get with God, we'll never become the men, and the women God wants us to be.

I feel that I myself have so much to learn from God.

Discernment Against Satan and False Doctrine

Much of this will only learn through prayer. Now another thing the Lord has been very much showing me, is the power of Satan.

Especially to try to deceive the believers, into some false cult, or some secondary rope. Something that may look very nice. Very attractive. It's a sinister, unbiblical activity. There are so many side roads.

Away from the main road of spiritual revolution, and love, and Christ-likeness. And that's why it's so important to get grounded in the whole Word of God. Not just certain favorite verses, but to really see the total picture of Scripture.

And to be very wise, and discerning the different things that come our way.

And also to be wise, and discern the different things that come our way. And we really need wisdom in this area. I often ask the Lord to give me wisdom.

To know where truth is, and where there is a false doctrine.

May God give you wisdom.

Love, Unity, and Humility Among Christians

May we pray for one another. And another thing the Lord has been impressing on my own heart. Is that we need more love for one another. We talk about this all the time. You know we're always preaching this, always emphasizing.

And yet it is still the greatest need. If it was not for the emphasis, and the teaching of love, and unity on that shift of project, would have been finished a long time ago.

The devil is so subtle at bringing disunity in so many different ways.

Christians are so quick to listen to this, and then to gossip, and then the devil brings disunity and confusion in. Many Christians are so quick to criticize, and it's a fruit of the barrenness of their own lives.

And oh, how little fruit of the Holy Spirit we see in some places.

And we see so little of the fruit of the Virgin Mary in these different places. We must dare to seek more of that love, even though we don't have the strength to talk about it. We need to have it, and God will be able to continue.

There are so many bad things that we can't talk about if we want to.

When we turn the microscope on, as the doctor did to my eye, we can always find something on everybody. You know, the speck in our brother's eye can be at times a pretty big thing. These days I've become very conscious of specks in eyes.

And it was a pretty big thing. But the Word of God says, even though that speck in the other brother's eye may seem very big, your first concern should be the big log that's sticking in your own eye. Imagine if I came here with a big log sticking in my own eye.

And the doctor, to get this speck out of my eye, had to put me in a special machine, and had to use a special instrument and a special big microscope to get this out of my eye. And this is what some Christians seem to specialize in, they get their microscopes, they're all going around looking for the specks in everybody else's eye.

Let me help you, brother, criticizing, backbiting, and gossiping. And not seeing their own huge faults in their own eyes. The biggest thing that will teach us the way of humility is when we see our own selves as we really are, then our mouths will become quieter, and we will become more humble and more Christ-like.

Looking Beyond Visible Evangelistic Success

That is for sure. And we will begin a revolution, brother. Another thing the Lord has been really impressing on my mind, is how we quickly get excited about outward things. And this is why, if you want to hear the gospel, the best thing today is to become a long-haired or a drug addict.

You won't have a chance to hear the gospel in the world today.

So the best thing today is to become a long-haired or a drug addict. There is so much work that is being done right now to steal the souls of people. There is a lot of outward blessing in the gospel.

When a drug addict gets saved, then knock them off.

Praise the Lord for it. But you know, the dropout culture only represents less than one-fourth of one percent of the world's population. But you see, it's something we can see. And there is much outward blessing.

So more and more people get this vision. But I mean, who can save the nine billion people living in Iraq? Or the fourteen million people living in Afghanistan? Where there are only fourteen believers?

And I know many young people now have gone out to Afghanistan to witness.

But they don't witness to the Afghanis, they only witness to the tourists. People think they're going to evangelize Afghanistan. So now there is more work, real gospel work, among the tourists and the dropouts and the drug addicts in Afghanistan than there is among all the fourteen million Afghanis.

Let us not be deceived just by outward things. Only over a period of years can we tell whether there has been a true revolution of reality. It takes a few minutes to give a decision. It takes a lifetime to get a disciple.

The Superficiality of Religious Movements

Lately in some places it's become popular to follow Jesus. Especially in certain parts of the states. Thousands are singing about Jesus. A Christian leader just wrote me, he's been involved in the Jesus movement.

There are already great numbers, thousands are going back into the world. And back to drugs. And this is such a great danger. Things in our day always tend to be very superficial. And we're too quick to write books about it all.

For nine years I have refused many publishers to write any books about Operation Mobilization. We have not yet proven that we are really soldiers of Jesus Christ. Now they want us to write a big book about the ship.

Then it will be a best-seller, we'll make hundreds of thousands of dollars. We're told. Great curse of modern evangelicalism is we too quickly give honor and praise to men. And this hinders and quenches the work of the Holy Spirit.

We run around praising men. When God's word says he will share his glory with no one. And then the devil moves in. A young person who maybe a film star, he gets saved. Immediately he's giving his testimony, he's preaching.

He's playing the gospel tunes in front of the television. And then the old devil moves in. And makes a mess out of the situation. Praise the Lord for the Jesus movement, praise the Lord for every movement.

Long-Term Discipleship and Spiritual Growth

And let us be aware of the wiles of Satan. Let us make our goal the grounding of men in discipleship and spiritual revolution that they may live a long life of militant, dedicated service to Christ. The same with Noel.

Same thing can happen with Noel. People come for the summer. They think they're going to become a disciple in the summer. If I go on Noel, I'll be cured of all my problems. They come on Noel and they finally got no problems.

And they discover that our program is a long term program for spiritual growth and spiritual revolution that may have crisis but also must have process. How sad it is. Very like the rich young woman. When they see the long way of spiritual discipleship.

And what it will cost. They turn back.

We should not be surprised when many turn back. When many fall by the wayside. Because it has always been so. Only a few seem to be willing to live a life of daily denying the self, taking up the cross and following Christ as he clearly taught.

Because there seems to be so few who really want to go all the way out and live a life of denying the self, taking up the cross and following him all the way out. And then they say, we've been pulled by a few hundred and then we can spread the word of Jesus.

Whether it's on O .M. or wherever it may be. But let us carefully through prayer and the word seek the road of the sanction. Let us continue with all of our energy to disseminate these books about the sanction.

And more than that, let us make sure our lives are demonstrated in this way of life.

I feel in many ways that I'm just a beginner. So much more to learn to feel Jesus. Through the word. Through prayer. Through others. Through everything that comes my way. Oh, we always like to bless him.

Learning Through Trials and Weakness

I was so rejoicing there in Spain. All day out on the streets giving out the word of God, a great blessing.

All day out on the streets giving out the word of God, a great blessing. Oh, wonderful. Then this little thing came.

It wasn't so easy to rejoice. But I've seen through this experience that this little speck and all the pain that came with it was a great blessing in disguise from the Lord. And it's renewed my belief that what Brother Watchman Nee says in his book, Release of the Spirit, that you should all read three times.

And it's renewed my belief that what Brother Watchman Nee says in his book, Release of the Spirit, that you should all read three times.

That everything that comes into the life of the believer, in one way or the other, the hand of God is behind it. Oh, if we learn that, it would revolutionize our lives.

Not just the pleasant things. The blessings. The souls. Great answers to prayer. The difficulties. The trials. The sicknesses.

The weaknesses of the flesh. The battles. God's hand is working through those things in ways we cannot understand. And may we learn that lesson. God can deliver. We have seen that. We praise his name.

But also God can take us through the trials. As he did the apostle Paul. Again and again. He didn't deliver Paul. Many times. From the hardness. But he gave him the grace to go through.

That is spiritual maturity. I'm sure all of us have some particular battle at the present time.

God's Sufficient Grace for Each Day

May we remember that his grace is sufficient.

May we remember that his grace is sufficient. Some people have asked me, why? I keep going.

People are always coming. When are you going to please take a holiday? I keep telling them I'm on a holiday. This is a holiday from sin, Satan, self and hell. But the way I keep going is that his grace is sufficient.

His grace is made perfect in weakness. And I just walk and live one day at a time. I wonder if there's any that are making that mistake. You're trying to live too many days at a time. Oh, what am I going to do next week?

Oh, how am I going to live for one whole year as a disciple? Oh, how am I going to last this long?

That's a great mistake. Just one day at a time. That's all you have to live for. And it all brings to an end.

Principles for Enduring Gospel Work

Praise God. Thank you for this opportunity to share in the burden of my heart. I believe it is proof enough over the past 10 to 17 years. With all the leaders of OM and many, many others all over the world who have continued on in the battle.

Very few, very few who have fallen by the wayside. I believe it's a proof that these principles, these revolutionary principles that you have heard at the OM conferences, they do work. And they are the principles on which we can reach the world for Christ.

I believe that more than ever before. Love. Unity.

Prayer. Feeding on the Word of God. Forsaking all to follow Christ. Esteeming others better than ourselves. Living in brokenness at the foot of the cross. Doing everything to spread the gospel. On these principles alone we can build a solid, long-enduring foundation of work.

Let us continue praying for one another.

Some of you have written. I've been very grateful for your letters. Give me a sometimes I haven't answered. Most times I still read all my own letters and answer them. Though sometimes it's impossible when people don't put their address, don't sign their name.

Prayer for Deeper Discipleship and the Holy Spirit

Other things. Or I can't read their handwriting. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you for this time again. We give you all the glory and all the praise for what you've done. We thank you over these past 10 years we have been able to give the gospel to 160 million souls.

For the thousands have come to Jesus. We know it's only the beginning. We know you want to do a deeper work. We know you want to fill us again and again and again with your Holy Spirit. And teach us the way of spiritual soldiering and discipleship.

And we may be true revolutionaries for Christ.

Not just play evangelical game for a summer or for a year, but that our lives may be given over to you. And we may not be sidetracked by the many subtle temptations that come from sin. But I rededicate my life to you again this morning.

Cleanse my deceitful selfish heart. Fill me with your Spirit even for this day's work. Give me greater love for the brethren. That pride and ego may be crucified and that Christ may live knowing. Lord, I believe there are many others who want to pray the same thing.

We give you all the praise. In Jesus' name we praise you. Amen.