Hearing the Still, Small Voice - Why David Wilkerson Sold His Television

It was nearly midnight when David rose to turn off the television. As usual, his wife and children were already in bed. Pastor Wilkerson always stayed up later than the rest of his family, he found that he needed a couple of hours to wind down from the day. Time when the house was quiet and he could stop thinking about other people's problems. Stop thinking about everything. That's where the TV came in. 

He  didn't feel like going to bed yet so he went to his office and sat down in the chair. 

"How many hours do I spend in front of that television every night?" He said aloud. It's a couple of hours at least. Two hours a day, seven days, that's fourteen hours a week! His eyebrows rose at the realisation. What would happen if I spent that time praying?  His thoughts instantly filled with objections: I watch TV at night because I'm tired. I can't be a pastor all the time! A pastor needs to keep up with the things his people are seeing and talking about. 

David Wilkerson was in the habit of praying whenever he had a major decision to make. So once again he knelt to place 'a fleece' before the Lord. Gideon had laid an actual fleece out on the ground and prayed God would confirm what he wanted him to do with a sign - the fleece he left out being dry in the morning though the ground was wet with dew. God answered this prayer of Gideon's and though Pastor Wilkerson wasn't laying out a literal fleece he too would ask for a sign of confirmation.

 "Lord Jesus, help me to know if this idea is from You. I'll post an add for the television set in the paper tomorrow and if it's your will for me to sell it have a buyer call for it within the first hour, no, the first half hour, after the paper gets out on the streets."

 ...

"Half an hour! David Wilkerson, I don't think you actually want to spend that time praying!" His wife, Gwen, said the next morning when he told her his plan. She was right. The truth was that he didn't really want to get rid of the set and if God didn't send someone in the first thirty minutes he would have an excuse to keep it. Perhaps his motives weren't the best but he posted the add anyhow. 

Gwen and the children, all greatly amused by the experiment, watched with him as the minutes ticked by. David's eyes moved back and forth between the television set and the clock on the wall. When twenty- nine minutes had passed he was preparing to breath a sigh of relief. Then the phone rang. 

"Well, aren't you going to pick it up?" Gwen asked. It had only rang twice but she doubted his resolve to follow through with the plan. Without replying he reached for the phone. A man's voice came over the line. 

"Hi, you had an add in the paper for a TV set." 

"That's right." Dave was watching Gwen's face as he gave the man the details about the set. 

"And how much do you want for it?" 

He hadn't even thought about a cost! "A hundred dollars." 

"I'll take it."

"Don't you want to come look at it first?" 

"No. If you can have it ready in fifteen minutes, I'll be there with the money." David felt like laughing as he hung up the phone. Clearly God wanted him to pray instead of watch TV! 

Beginning that night, David Wilkerson went to his office, closed the door, and knelt to pray. The two hours a night that had previously been wasted became working hours. He knew it was a glorious opportunity but it felt more like a dull and tedious chore. 

For the first several nights he ran out of things to pray for within the first half hour. Then, slowly, he began to learn how to pray. To pray praise as well as petition. He started reading through his bible as he prayed - he read it from cover to cover. From this time of prayer David Wilkerson gained a new perspective that changed the other hours of his day as well. 

"All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up." (1 Corinthians x. 23)

In April 15th's post,  Relinquishing Life, my friend, Katie Stone, mentioned that we should be removing things from our lives which may be hindering our pursuit of Christ. Sin is not the only obstacle that can stand between us and a life that is fully surrendered to God's will. Katie used the illustration of a marathon to demonstrate that things which may not be 'against the rules' can still hamper our ability to preform well. She spoke of how many Christians are 'trying to run a marathon in high heels'. In the case of David Wilkerson, that meant he was watching TV in the time that God had given Him to be praying.

"Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul." (1 Peter ii. 11)

What are these passions that Peter is urging, or begging (as the NKJV says) us to abstain from? I recently looked up the definition of the word passions and found that Miriam Webster's Dictionary actually gives four, separate definitions for the word:

1. The state or capacity of being acted on by an external agent or force.
2. Emotion as distinguished from reason
3. Intense, driving, or overmastering feelings.
4. A strong liking, desire for, or devotion to an activity, object, or concept.

 The passions that 1 Peter ii.11 is talking about are things that we have a strong liking, desire for, or devotion to as the fourth definition states. The other definitions portray a slightly different aspect of the word and yet I think that they fit into the meaning of the verse as well. The first three definitions reveal that the person who has these passions does not necessarily have control over them; the passions are 'acting on', 'driving', and even 'overmastering' the person. This is not the way many of us have viewed our passions. We see them as things or activities that we choose to take enjoyment in. They serve us and we use them as it is convenient to us... but is that actually true? The first time that I tried to give up a 'passion of the flesh' I found, as David Wilkerson did, that it was not an easy task. I had emotions that bound me to that activity apart from reason and I found myself regularly participating in things even after I knew they were not beneficial to my relationship with Christ, or to my life in general. Before long I realised that I was actually enslaved to my own passions!

"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey..." (Romans vi.16)


Many Christians are being controlled by things that were never meant to be their masters. We are to have only one master and that is to be God Himself. It is He who has purchased us with the precious blood of Christ that we might be His own possession (1 Peter ii.9 & 19). We are the possession of the One who calls Himself a jealous God (Exodus xxxiv. 14).

 Luke xvi. 13 says, "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other." We can not serve God well when we are clinging to fleshly passions using the excuse that they are not 'technically' wrong. We need to be willing to hear Him when He asks us to set them aside so that we might pursue Him even better. David Livingstone prayed, "God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."

Peter said, "the passions of the flesh...wage war against your soul." The Bible makes numerous references to warfare, teaching the Christian that he or she is in a very real battle. A battle in which they must behave as soldiers. Imagine that a man of war could cause the soldiers of the enemy troop to be distracted every time that their commander was giving them orders. That man would quickly gain the upper hand in the battle because without the strategy and instruction of their leader the unit would fall into disorder and be unable to perform any mission on which they were sent. If he could distract them for long enough they might even forget the purpose of their fight altogether. Does that sound familiar? This is a very real tactic and our enemy, Satan, is wielding it against us! Distracted by other things we regularly miss the conviction and prompting of the Holy Spirit and we stand around wondering why God isn't speaking to us. The truth is that God is speaking but we just aren't listening. God's instruction usually comes in a still, small voice (1 Kings xix. 11 - 13) and if we are distracted by entertainment or other worldly passions that which our Lord is telling us will easily be missed.

“How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don't even have the strength to turn off your TV?” - Leonard Ravenhill

                                 

In Christ

    quiana 

Count It All Joy - The Man Who Prayed to be Given a Cross

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." (Matthew xvi. 24)

*"You'll never have me for a disciple." Richard said aloud. "I want money, travel, pleasure. I have suffered enough. Yours is the way of the cross and even if it is the way of truth as well, I won't follow it."

At the age of twenty -five Richard Wurmbrand had already gained significant wealth and influence. He knew the vices of the world well and, though he recognized that they were 'counterfeits' - incapable of satisfying, he had determined to take full advantage of the pleasures they offered him. Not yet a Christian, Richard had eyes to see what many miss - he could not walk both the road of pleasure and the road to heaven. It had to be one or the other, for the paths opposed each other.

 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew vii. 13-14)

The ease of the one way was familiar to him and he was not sure that he liked the idea of abandoning it. The road called 'difficult' would be just that. Still the beckoning to live for a purpose greater than his present pleasure could not be ignored. All his life he had been unable to satisfy the emptiness that accompanied the materialistic philosophies he believed. The answer to Richard's prayer came like a plea: *"Come My way! Do not fear the cross! You will find that it is the greatest of joys." 

 On the day that he become a Christian,  the man who had told the Lord he would never walk the way of the cross knelt to make a very different request: *"God, I was an atheist. Now let me go to Russia to work as a missionary among atheists, and I shall not complain if afterwards I have to spend all the rest of my life in prison."

Instead of taking him to Russia, God brought the Russians to him in Romania. For at the close of the Second World War, the Russians took the country as their spoils. Now an ordained, Lutheran minister, Wurmbrand recognized God's answer and took every opportunity to share the gospel with the Russian soldiers who had invaded the entire country. Even as he ministered, Richard began to prepare himself to face the suffering that would come as a result. The man who had once dreaded the cross was impatiently awaiting its coming.

*"My life as a pastor, until this time, had been full of satisfaction. I had all I needed for my family. I had the trust of my parishioners. But I was not at peace. Why was I allowed to live as usual, while a cruel dictatorship was destroying everything dear to me and while others were suffering for their faith? On many nights, Sabina and I prayed together, asking God to let us bear a cross."

As He had before, God gave Richard what he had audaciously asked for. It came by the means of an opportunity to defend the name of His Lord... In 1945, four thousand clergyman of varying denominations were gathered together by the communist government for the 'Congress of Cults'. The Prime Minister began the meeting with lavish promises for any who would cooperate with the government and Richard Wurmbrand watched as one minister after another spoke to welcome the sacrilegious proposal. It wasn't long before Sabina had heard enough! She leaned close to her husband.

*"Go and wash this shame from the face of Christ!"She said. He did not look surprised by the charge. 

"If I do, you'll loose your husband."

"I don't need a coward. Go and do it!" He nodded. Then he rose and asked for permission to speak. 

"It is our duty as priests to glorify God and Christ, not transitory earthly powers! To support His everlasting kingdom of love against the vanities of the day!" So began both Wurmband's speech and the fourteen long years that would follow it. He was arrested shortly after and taken to prison, where he faced many forms of the cruelest torture - both mental and physical. To these were added the struggles of prolonged isolation, tuberculosis, freezing temperatures, and starvation. Two years into Richard's imprisonment, his wife, Sabina, was also arrested. She was sent to face the harsh conditions of a labour camp, leaving their only son, who was not yet ten, without both of his parents. In all these trials the Wurmbrands proved faithful to their God.

How did Richard Wurmbrand go from being the man who told his Saviour that he would not take up a cross, not even to follow Him, to the pastor who not only faced trials well but actually prayed for them? The answer is simple: Richard chose to believe His Lord when He said, "Do not fear the cross! You will find that it is the greatest of joys."

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."( James i. 2-4)

The world perceives suffering as a bad thing and many Christians yet share this view. We need to realize that the heavenly perspective of suffering is altogether different. In heaven, suffering is a commodity of the greatest value. Every heavenly treasure comes from God Himself, but suffering is the means by which many of those gifts are imparted to us. 

"...we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans v. 3-5)

Our reaction to the cross should not be one of fear, but rather rejoicing. All Christians should pray for crosses and carry them willingly, not just Richard Wurmbrand.  For in Matthew xvi. Jesus did not say, "Some of my disciples will carry a cross." He said, "Unless you take up your cross...You can not be my disciple." 

Later in his life, Pastor Wurmbrand explained that the means to suffering well is not suddenly gained when one is thrown into prison and tortured.

*"I had prepared myself for prison and torture as a soldier in peacetime prepares for the hardships of war. I had studied the lives of Christians who had faced similar pains and temptations to surrender and thought how I might adapt their experiences. Many who had not so prepared themselves were crushed by suffering, or deluded into saying what they should not." 

Suffering is a part of the Christian life whether or not we are willing to accept it. If their job is to be done well the Christian must prepare for and rejoice in suffering, but how is that practically done? We can be training for war even while we still have peace but the problem is that most of us have no idea how to practice suffering. Thankfully, our Father has given us others who are willing to teach us the way! Pastor Richard Wurmbrand wrote the following ten points for the purpose of teaching the church how to prepare to suffer well, for the sake of Christ:

Preparing for the Underground Church 
By Richard Wurmbrand 

Part One - Preparing to Suffer Well 

Suffering cannot be avoided in the Underground Church, whatever measures are taken, but suffering should be reduced to the minimum. What happens in a country when oppressive powers take over? In some countries the terror starts at once, as in Mozambique and Cambodia. In other places a false sense of religious liberty follows and then, suddenly, after the necessary police force and army staff have been established, the clamp-down begins. In Russia, the Communists gave immediately great liberty to the Protestants in order to destroy the Orthodox. When they had destroyed the Orthodox, the turn came for the Protestants. The initial situation does not last long. During that time they infiltrate the churches, putting their men in leadership. They find out the weaknesses of pastors. Some might be ambitious men; some might be entrapped with the love of money. Another might have a hidden sin somewhere, wherewith he may be blackmailed. They explain that they would make it known and thus put their men in leadership. Then, at a certain moment the great persecution begins. In Romania such a clamp-down happened in one day. All the Catholic bishops went to prison, along with innumerable priests, monks and nuns. Then many Protestant pastors of all denominations were arrested. Many died in prison. Preparation for underground work begins by studying sufferology, martyrology. Later, we will look at the technical side of underground work, but first of all there must be a certain spiritual preparation for it. In a free country, to be a member of a church, it is enough to believe and to be baptized. In the Church Underground it is not enough to be a member in it. You can be baptized and you can believe, but you will not be a member of the Underground Church unless you know how to suffer. You might have the mightiest faith in the world, but if you are not prepared to suffer, then when you are taken by the police, you will get two slaps and you will declare anything. So the preparation for suffering is one of the essentials of the preparation of underground work. A Christian does not panic if he is put in prison. For the rank and file believer, prison is a new place to witness for Christ. For a pastor, prison is a new parish. It is a parish with no great income but with great opportunities for work. Free church-goers look at their watch; "Already he has preached for thirty minutes. Will he never finish?" When arrested, watches are taken away from you; you have the church-goers with you the whole week and can preach to them from morning to night! They have no choice. There have never been, in the history of the Romanian or the Russian Church, so many conversions brought about as there have been in prison. So do not fear prison. Look upon it as just a new assignment given by God. But what about the terrible tortures which are inflicted on prisoners? What will we do about these tortures? Will we be able to bear them? If I do not bear them, I put in prison another fifty or sixty men whom I know because that is what the oppressors wish from me, to betray those around me. Hence comes the great need for preparation for suffering, which must start now. It is too difficult to prepare yourself for it when you are already in prison.

 Part Two - You Must Really Know Jesus 

How much each one of us can suffer depends on how much he is bound up with a cause, how dear this cause is to him, and how much it means for him. In this respect we have had in Communist countries very big surprises. There have been gifted preachers and writers of Christian books who have become traitors. The composer of the best hymnal of Romania became the composer of the best communist hymnal of Romania. Everything depends on whether we have remained in the sphere of words or if we are merged with the divine realities. God is the Truth. The Bible is the truth about the Truth. Theology is the truth about the truth about the Truth. A good sermon is the truth about the truth about the truth, about the Truth. It is not the Truth. The Truth is God alone. Around this Truth there is a scaffolding of words, of theologies, and of exposition. None of these is of any help in times of suffering. It is only the Truth Himself Who is of help, and we have to penetrate through sermons, through theological books, through everything which is 'words' and be bound up with the reality of God Himself. I have told in the West how Christians were tied to crosses for four days and four nights. The crosses were put on the floor and other prisoners were tortured and made to fulfill their bodily necessities upon the faces and the bodies of the crucified ones. I have since been asked: "Which Bible verse helped and strengthened you in those circumstances?" My answer is: "NO Bible verse was of any help." It is sheer cant and religious hypocrisy to say, "This Bible verse strengthens me, or that Bible verse helps me." Bible verses alone are not meant to help. We knew Psalm 23 - "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want... though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...." When you pass through suffering you realize that it was never meant by God that Psalm 23 should strengthen you. It is the Lord who can strengthen you, not the Psalm which speaks of Him so doing. It is not enough to have the Psalm. You must have the One about whom the Psalm speaks. We also knew the verse: "My Grace is sufficient for thee." But the verse is not sufficient. It is the Grace which is sufficient and not the verse. Pastors and zealous witnesses who are handling the Word as a calling from God are in danger of giving holy words more value than they really have. Holy words are only the means to arrive at the reality expressed by them. If you are united with the Reality, the Lord Almighty, evil loses its power over you; it cannot break the Lord Almighty. If you only have the words of the Lord Almighty you can be very easily broken.

Part Three - Start Practicing “Living Without” 

The preparation for underground work is deep spiritualization. As we peel an onion in preparation for its use, so God must "peel" from us what are mere words, sensations of our enjoyments in religion, in order to arrive at the reality of our faith. Jesus has told us "that whosoever will follow" Him will have to "take up their cross," and He, Himself, showed how heavy this cross can be. We have to be prepared for this. We have to make the preparation now before we are imprisoned. In prison you lose everything. You are undressed and given a prisoner's suit. No more nice furniture, nice carpets or nice curtains. You do not have a wife or husband any more and you do not have your children. You do not have your library and you never see a flower. Nothing of what makes life pleasant remains. Nobody resists who has not renounced the pleasures of life beforehand. I personally use an exercise. I now live in the United States of America. Can you imagine what an American supermarket looks like? You find there many delicious things. I look at everything and say to myself, "I can go without this thing and that thing; this thing is very nice, but I can go without: this third thing I can go without, too." I visited the whole supermarket and did not spend one dollar. I had the joy of seeing many beautiful things and the second joy to know that I can go without.

Part Four - Doubt will Make you a Traitor 

I am Jewish. In Hebrew, the language which Jesus Himself spoke and in which the first revelation has been given, the word "doubt" does not exist. To doubt is as wrong for a man as it would be for him to walk on four legs - he is not meant to walk on four legs. A man walks erect; he is not a beast. To doubt is subhuman. To every one of us doubts come, but do not allow doubts about essential doctrines of the Bible such as the existence of God, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or the existence of eternal life to make a nest in your mind. Every theological or philosophical doubt makes you a potential traitor. You can allow yourself doubts while you have a nice study and you prepare sermons, and you eat well - or you write a book. Then you can allow yourself all kinds of daring ideas and doubts. When you are tortured these doubts are changed into treason because you have to decide to live or die for this faith. One of the most important things about the spiritual preparation of an underground worker is the solution of his doubts. In mathematics, if you do not find the solution you may have made a mistake somewhere, so you continue until you find out. Don't live with doubts, but seek their solution.

Part Five - Passing the Test of Torture 

Now to come to the very moment of torture. Torture is sometimes very painful. Sometimes it is a simple beating. We have all been spanked as children and beating is just another spanking. A simple beating is very easy to take. Jesus has said we should come to Him like children, which is rather like candidates for spanking! However, with us, Communists did not stop at beatings - they used very refined tortures. Now torture, you must know, can work both ways. It can harden you and strengthen your decision not to tell the police anything. There are thieves who resist any torture and would not betray those with whom they have co-operated in theft. The more you beat them the more obstinate they become. Or, torture can just break your will. Now I will tell you of one very interesting case which was published by the Czech Communist Press. Novotny, who was the predecessor of Dubcek and who was a Communist dictator, had arrested one of his intimate comrades, a Communist leader, a convinced atheist, and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. (Not only Christians, Jews or patriots were in prison. One Communist arrested another and tortured him just as they would do anybody else.) They arrested this Communist leader and put him in a prison cell alone. Electromagnetic rays, which disturb the mind, passed through this cell. A loudspeaker repeated day and night: "Is your name Joseph or not Joseph?" (His name was not Joseph.) They tried to drive him mad. Day and night. He felt that he would lose his mind. At a certain moment, he got an illumination. "I have now met unmitigated evil. If Communists torture a Christian, it is not absolutely evil because Communists believe that they will construct an earthly paradise. Christians hinder them, so it is right to torture Christians. But when a Communist tortures a Communist, it is torture for torture's sake. There is absolutely no justification for it. But wait a little bit. Every coin has two sides, every electric cable has two poles. If there is an unmitigated evil, against whom does this unmitigated evil fight? There must be an unmitigated good. This is God, and against Him they fight." When he was called to the interrogator, he entered smiling into the room and told him that he could switch off the loudspeaker now because it had attained its result. "I have become a Christian." The officer asked him, "How did it happen?" He told him the whole story. The officer said, "Wait a little bit." He called a few of his comrades and said, "Please repeat the story before my comrades." He repeated the story, and the captain told the other police officer, "I told you that this method will not work. You have overdone it." The Devil is not all mighty and all wise like God. He makes mistakes. Evil torture is an excess which can be used very well spiritually.

Part Six - Preparing for “The Moment of Crisis”

Torture has a moment of explosion, and the torturer waits for this critical moment. Learn how to conquer doubt and to think thoroughly. There is always one moment of crisis when you are ready to write or pronounce the name of your accomplice in the underground work, or to say where the secret printing shop is, or something of that kind. You have been tortured so much nothing counts any more; the fact that I should not have pain also does not count. Draw this last conclusion at the stage at which you have arrived and you will see that you will overcome this one moment of crisis; it gives you an intense inner joy. You feel that Christ has been with you in that decisive moment. Jailers today are now trained and refined, aware that there is a moment of crisis. If they cannot get anything from you in that moment, then they abandon torturing: they know its continuation to be useless. There are a few more points in connection with torture. It is very important to understand what Jesus said: "Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for itself." I have had fourteen years of prison. Brother Hrapov had twenty six, Wong MingDao had twenty-eight. It seems impossible to bear long years of prison. You are not asked to bear it all at once. Do not bear even one day at a time - bear an hour at a time. One hour of pain everybody can bear. We have had a terrible toothache, a car accident - passing, perhaps, through untold anguish. You are not meant to bear pain more than this one present minute. What amplifies pain is the memory that I have been beaten and tortured so many times and that tomorrow they will take me again, and the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow, I might not be alive - or they might not be alive. Tomorrow, there can be an overthrow, as in Romania. Yesterday beating has passed: tomorrow's torture has not come yet.

Part Seven - Christ Must Rank Highest 

The Bible teaches some words very hard to take: "Whosoever does not hate father, mother, child, brother, sister - cannot be My disciple." These words mean almost nothing in a free country. You probably know from The Voice of the Martyrs literature that thousands of children had been taken away from their parents in the former Soviet Union because they were taught about Christ. You must love Christ more than your family. There you are before a court and the judge tells you that if you deny Christ you may keep your children. If not, this will be the last time you will see them. Your heart may break, but your answer should be, "I love God." Nadia Sloboda left her house for four years of prison. Her children were taken from her, but she left her house singing. The children, for whom the police waited with a truck to take them as she left, told their singing mother, "Don't worry about us. Wherever they put us, we will not give up our faith." They did not. When Jesus was on the cross He not only suffered physically; He had His mother in front of Him, suffering. His mother had the Son suffering. They loved each other, but the glory of God was at stake and here any human sentiment must be secondary. Only if we take this attitude once and for all can we prepare for underground work. Only Christ, the Great Sufferer, the Man of Sorrows, must live in us. There have been cases in Communist countries when Communist torturers threw away their rubber truncheons with which they beat a Christian and asked, "What is this halo which you have around your head? How is it that your face shines? I cannot beat you anymore." It is said of Stephen in the Bible, that "his face shone." We have known cases of Communist torturers who told the prisoner, "Shout loudly, cry loudly as if I would beat you so that my comrades will know that I torture you. But I cannot beat you." Thus, you would shout without anything happening to you. There are other cases when prisoners really are tortured, sometimes to death. You have to choose between dying with Christ and for Christ or becoming a traitor. What is the worth of continuing to live when you will be ashamed to look into the mirror, knowing that the mirror will show you the face of a traitor?


Part Eight - Resisting Brainwashing 

One of the greatest methods is not only physical torture; it is brainwashing. We have to know how to resist brainwashing. Brainwashing exists in the free world, too. The press, radio and television brainwash us. There exists no motive in the world to drink Coca-Cola. You drink it because you are brainwashed. Water is surely better than Coca-Cola. But nobody advertises, "Drink water, drink water." If water were advertised, we would drink water. Some have driven this technique of brainwashing to its extreme. The methods vary, but brainwashing in my Romanian prison consisted essentially of this: we had to sit seventeen hours on a form which gave no possibility to lean, and you were not allowed to close your eyes. For seventeen hours a day we had to hear, "Communism is good, Communism is good, Communism is good, etc.; Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead, etc.; Give up, give up, etc." You were bored after one minute of this but you had to hear it the whole seventeen hours for weeks, months, years even, without any interruption. I can assure you, it is not easy. It is one of the worst tortures. Much worse than physical torture. I had passed through brainwashing for over two years. Now the Communists would have said that my brain was still dirty. In the same rhythm in which they said, "Christianity is dead," I and others repeated to ourselves: "Christ also has been dead, but He rose from the dead.” We remembered that we lived in the communion of saints.

Part Nine - Enduring Solitude 

One of the greatest problems for an underground fighter is to know how to fill up his solitude. We had absolutely no books. Not only no Bible, but no books, no scrap of paper, and no pencil. We never heard a noise, and there was absolutely nothing to distract our attention. You looked at the walls, that was all. Now normally a mind under such circumstances becomes mad. I, and many other prisoners, did it like this. We never slept during the night. We slept during the day. One prayer at night is worth ten prayers during the day. The demonic forces are forces of the night, and therefore, it is so important to oppose them during the night. In solitary confinement we awoke when the other prisoners went to bed. We filled our time with a program which was so heavy, we could not fulfill it. We started with a prayer, a prayer in which we traveled through the whole world. We prayed for each country, for where we knew the names of towns and men, and we prayed for great preachers. It took a good hour or two to come back. We prayed for pilots, and for those on the sea, and for those who were in prisons. After having traveled through the whole world, I read the Bible from memory. To memorize the Bible is very important for an underground worker.

Part Ten - Exercising the Joy of the Lord 

Just to make us laugh also a little bit, I will tell you one thing which happened. Once while I lay on the few planks which were my bed, I read from memory the Sermon on the Mount, according to Luke. I arrived at the part where it is said, "When you are persecuted... for the Son of man's sake, rejoice you, in that day and leap for joy...." You will remember that it is written like this. I said, "How could I commit such a sin of neglect? Christ has said that we have to do two different things. One to rejoice, I have done. The second, to 'leap for joy,' I have not done." So I jumped. I came down from my bed and I began to jump around. In prison, the door of a cell has a peep hole through which the warden looks into the cell. He happened to look in while I jumped around. So he believed that I had become mad. They had an order to behave very well with madmen so that their shouting and banging on the wall should not disturb the order of the prison. The guard immediately entered, quieted me down and said, "You will be released; you can see everything will be all right. Just remain quiet. I will bring you something." He brought me a big loaf of bread. Our portion was one slice of bread a week, and now I had a whole loaf, plus cheese. It was white. Never just eat cheese; first of all admire its whiteness. It is beautiful to look upon. He brought me also sugar. He spoke a few nice words again and locked the door and left. I said, "I will eat these things after having finished my chapter from St. Luke." I lay down again and tried to remember where I had left off. "Yes, at 'when you are persecuted for My Name's sake, rejoice... and leap for joy because great is your reward." I looked at the loaf of bread and the cheese. Really, the reward was great! 10 So the next task is to think of the Bible and to meditate upon it. Every night, I composed a sermon beginning with "Dear brethren, and sisters" and finishing with "Amen." After I composed it, I delivered it. I put them afterwards in very short rhymes so that I could remember them. My books, With God In Solitary Confinement and If Prison Walls Could Speak, contain some of these sermons. I have memorized three hundred and fifty of them. Out of bread I made chessmen, some of them whitened with a little bit of chalk and the others gray. I played chess with myself. Never believe that Bob Fisher is the greatest chess master of the world. He won the last match with Spassky. He won eight games and lost two. I, in three years, never lost a game; I always won either with white or gray! Never allow your mind to become distressed because then the Communists have you entirely in their hands. Your mind must be continually exercised. It must be alert, it must think. It must, everyone according to his abilities, compose different things, etc. I have told you all these things because they belong to the secrets of the underground worker when he suffers.

May God bless you, 

Richard Wurmbrand 

God is currently giving us a season of peace in North America; it is a time to practice and prepare for the persecution that will come. Do not to waste this time! I hope that you will not only read the above message, but that you will read and re-read it, learn the lessons in it, and begin to put them into practice. 

We easily recall that Jesus went to the cross for us, but most of us prefer to forget that He called us to take up a cross as well. Leonard Ravenhill said, “People don’t need to know that there is yet room at the cross, they need to know that there is yet room on it!”  

"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy." (1 Peter iv. 12-13)

In Christ

quiana

(* Quoting Richard Wurmbrand, In God's Underground )

Relinquishing Life - Katie Shares the Story of Perpetua

Perpetua was a young Carthaginian woman who found Christ. In 203 A.D. She lived a quiet life with her husband and infant son until, while attending Catechumens (classes designed to instruct Christians in their faith before they received baptism), she was arrested for her faith. Two slaves, Revocatus and Felicity, had also been attending these classes alongside two free men, Saturninus and Secundulus. The group of five were taken to prison and to trial together. They were joined there by a man named Saturus, who had voluntarily gone before the magistrate to proclaim himself a Christian. At their hearing the governor, Hilarianus offered these Christians a choice: Face scourging and a cruel execution or simply make a sacrifice to the emperor, in an act of worship.

I am going to pause for a brief moment to introduce you to a friend of mine... Katie Stone is a sister in Christ who is also a fellow writer and blogger. On her blog, All My Affections, Katie writes specifically to challenge and equip young christian women. Last week, Katie shared the story of Perpetua and used it to teach a valuable lesson. She has generously agreed to share that post with us and finish telling you this story:

Perpetua held her wounded friend in her arms, a perfect picture of bravery and joy even in the centre of chaos and blood. Around them the crowd cheered as the two girls stared death in the eye.

Perpetua came from a wealthy family. Growing up with her brothers in Rome during the height of it’s glory, her future seemed bright and certain. But when she heard the gospel she eagerly gave it all up to follow Christ. Even though preaching the gospel was a crime in Rome, Perpetua boldly confessed Christ, knowing it would mean certain imprisonment and possibly death. Sure enough, the Roman authorities soon came to arrest her. They offered her freedom for a simple sacrifice to Rome. Even her father urged her to renounce her faith for his sake and the sake of her newborn baby. But she refused. She would not renounce Christ as Lord. “For,” she claimed “the name that belongs to me is the name of a Christian.” As a result, Perpetua was forced to give up her baby, her wealth, her position in society, her future in exchange for a Roman prison. But even prison could not steal the joy she had found in Jesus. Clinging to her Savior she said “the dungeon is to me a palace.” When Perpetua and her friend Felicity, who had also been imprisoned for her faith, heard they would face the beasts in the Coliseum, they rejoiced to be counted worthy to die for the sake of Christ.

In the Coliseum, with Felicity bleeding in her lap, Perpetua boldly faced the angry bull. And when it suddenly and unexplainably stood still while the crowd roared for blood, she radiated with peace. As gladiators rushed into the arena to answer the people’s cry, Perpetua confidently helped guide her hesitant executioner’s blade into her body.

Whenever I read about Christians whose faith cost them everything, I am left with a deep longing. I long for their boldness and confident hope in Christ. I envy their single eye for the glory of God and passionate love of the gospel. And sometimes after reading these stories I become discouraged, because I don’t see anyone living like this today. I can’t find examples of such bold, confidence in God. Such complete trust in Him and glad surrender to His gospel. Why is it that we as modern Christian women fail to live the same kind of radiant, world-changing, courageous life as Perpetua?

It’s easy to excuse ourselves by saying that this kind of Christianity was only possible for previous generations. Or that it’s easier for Christians in China. But Jesus never gave any qualifiers for a completely surrendered life. He never said “deny yourself and follow Me unless you live in 21st century North America.” Rather, as Leslie Ludy says, our femininity falls so far short of past generations “because we do not understand the reality of who Jesus Christ is meant to be in our lives.” In other words, we don’t understand what it means to be a Christian.

What do you mean when you call yourself a Christian? That you read your Bible and go to church? Or that you believe in God? Even demons believe in God and they tremble. (James ii.19) But demons are not saved. So clearly being a Christian is more than just believing in God, reading the Bible and going to church. Perpetua was willing to suffer and die because she called herself a Christian.

Jesus is our life

Leonard Ravenhill said being a Christian means, “your life is hid with Christ. You are not your own. You have no time of your own, no money of your own. Christ must become your complete Master.”
So many of us have believed that we can be Christians without dying to ourselves. That we can just add Jesus into our lives like we would add a plane ticket into our suitcase. Keep everything else that might be helpful along the way, the credit card, makeup bag, swim suit, just add a plane ticket so we can get to Hawaii eventually. But Perpetua’s radiant faith in God and sweet friendship with Him didn’t come by adding a “ticket to heaven” or “comforter in her affliction” to her life. Rather it came by letting go of family, friends, future and comfort and embracing Christ. If you want a satisfying, joyful relationship with Christ it will literally mean letting go of all preoccupation with yourself. It will mean getting rid of your comfort, pleasure, dreams and desires, in order to gain His.

Removing Hinderances

If asked “what things can hinder your relationship with Christ” most of us would probably answer “sin” or “disobedience.”  But It’s not just sin that dampens a vibrant relationship. Hebrews xii.1 exhorts us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and … run with endurance the race that is set before us.” If you register for a marathon, there are certain rules you have to abide by. For instance, you can’t take drugs to boost your performance. So let’s say you keep all the rules, you don’t get disqualified for taking drugs unlike some other contestants. And on race day you show up on time! But, wearing your favourite pair of heels (you wanted to look good for pictures). You still make it past the finish line, but you couldn’t run fast, you sprained your ankles, and are completely worn out and miserable by the end. We won’t find any rules in the Bible about watching movies or social media, just like we won’t find any rules in the marathon fine print about wearing heels. But some things hinder our ability to pursue Christ and make us worn out and miserable.

A vibrant, joyful relationship with Christ is only possible when we get rid of everything that hinders our walk with Him. Take some time to ask the Lord to show you what is keeping your relationship with the Him from growing. You might need to get rid of movies or Netflix or delete your social media accounts. Maybe throw out your favourite books, or stop watching YouTube videos. Quit going to the mall every weekend. Be willing to give up your “me” time to help someone in need. Stay home from a party. Let go of your obsession over that guy. Stop listening to secular music. Or any number of other things. Not because these things are in and of themselves “sin” (although they can be), but because they might be hindering your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Something Better

We need to remember that we aren’t exchanging joy and excitement for misery and pain. Rather we exchange our pathetic hopes and worthless pursuits for God’s incredible plans and fulfilling pleasures. As Paul says to the Phillipians:

“What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind.” (Phillipians iii. 7-15)

Before he became a Christian, Paul had what every Jewish man wanted. A high education with a great career in front of him. The love and respect of his leaders. A blameless record of law keeping. But after meeting Jesus he counted these things as loss, utter rubbish, good for nothing, garbage.
In contrast, he counted a relationship with Jesus as excellence. A prize worth pursuing.

“The Christian life can be explained only in terms of Jesus Christ, and if your life as a Christian can still be explained in terms of you — your personality, your willpower, your gift, your talent, your money, your courage, your scholarship, your dedication, your sacrifice, or you anything — then although you may have the Christian life, you are not yet living it.” – Ian Thomas

In order for us to experience the courageous, joyful, femininity that Pertetua and Felicity knew we must get rid of everything of self so that Christ can be clearly seen in our lives.

In Christ

katie

P.s. More of Katie's writing can be found on her blog, All My Affections. 

Riding the White Stallion - A Lesson From Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great rode into many of his military campaigns upon a black stallion, Bucephalus. The horse was one of the king's most prized possessions. The story of how Alexander first attained the horse is a rather remarkable one, in which lies a lesson for us to learn. Although there are many myths and fables surrounding both the person of Alexander the Great and his horse, the facts of this particular story were recorded by the Greek biographer and essayist, Plutarch, and so are generally believed to be historically accurate.

 Philonicus the Thessalian shifted nervously as he waited for the king's reply. It was easy enough to see that the horse was truly of the finest breeding, King Phillip II had little worry on that account. Yet what good is the horse to me if it can not be trained! It is a magnificent animal, to be sure, but altogether a useless one. Philonicus did not rush the king's thoughts. If he was to sell the creature at the price he had named, it must be to the king. The nobles would hesitate to pay thirteen talents even for a horse that was of both the fine breeding and sound training. The stallion reared and bucked in the pen behind him, for no apparent reason. It was doing little to aid in convincing the king. Philonicus cursed the beast in his head but showed no outward sign of his foreboding. Despite his caution, his hopes were soon disappointed.

"I have no use for the horse, Philonicus. You shall have to take it elsewhere." 

"Are you quite sure, your Majesty? I can assure you that you shall never find his equal!" 

King Phillip discarded the warning with a laugh. "Perhaps in breeding, but I have five hundred chargers in my stable and all of them are better mounts!"

The countenance of Philonicus fell. If the king would not buy it, the nobles probably wouldn't either - even at a lesser cost. He would have to take the beast into the next kingdom and who could tell if the journey would be worth his while. 

Alexander had been at his father's side throughout the entire conversation, listening to the sale with interest. Now he touched the king's arm.

"May I buy the horse, Father?" King Phillip looked at his twelve year old son in astonishment.

"What would you do with such an animal, Alexander?"

"Ride it." The few noblemen who were gathered around laughed aloud at the comment. The best horsemen among them had already failed to ride the beast! The king did not laugh, he knew his son was neither a foolish boy nor ignorant in the art of horse training. Thus, Alexander's confidence intrigued his father. "I will make you a wager, Father. Buy the horse, and if I can not train it, I will, myself, work until I have earned you the full sum back." King Philip's brows rose at the proposal. 

"And how would you go about earning such a sum? A king's son can not hire himself out to work like a peasant's child."

"No, but why could I not work in your stables with the boys who are there?" The king laughed.

"You have thought it all out! Philonicus, I will buy the horse from you as a wager with my son." Philonicus looked more surprised by the king's decision than even the nobles, but he had no intention of arguing. The king sent one of the servants to get the thirteen talents that the horse dealer was to be paid. Alexander looked towards the stallion with eagerness.

"May I go in with the horse now?" 

King Phillip nodded. "Do as you like." The prince removed his cloak, which had been fluttering in the wind, and slowly walked up to the fence. The ebony stallion paid him little attention. He was agitated and covered in sweat from constant pacing. One of the nobles had suggested that the animal was anxious because it didn't like to be caged in, but Alexander had a different theory. All morning he had watched the horse, as the nobles and even the king himself tried to work with it. The prince had little interest in doing the two years work that it would take to earn thirteen talents on a stable boy's wage, but he had made an observation that he was willing to rely upon. Standing outside the paddock he spoke to horse softly.

"They think but little of you." The horse glanced at Alexander from across the pen. His ears were moving, in all directions, trying to detect the slightest sound. As Alexander continued to speak, the horse turned towards him. Suddenly it's nostrils flared and it reeled in the opposite direction; kicking and snorting. It careened around the pen as if it were trying to escape an invisible threat. 

"The animal is crazy!" One of the nobles said, others agreed and the king silently questioned the wisdom of the wager he had made. Alexander paid the discussion no heed. The stallion was slowly approaching him, though the progress was interrupted several times as the horse took off in a panic. When he finally got close enough, Alexander reached his hand through the planks of the fence and touched the shimmering coat. The horse was trembling. It brought its head around to smell his hand and Alexander could feel its muscles suddenly tense. He had just enough time to withdraw his hand before the horse reared straight up and took off in a panic again. The boy laughed and quickly climbed over the fence.

"Your awfully big to be so afraid!" The boy's presence within the paddock caused the horse to stop dead from a full on gallop. It was breathing hard as it turned towards him again. "Come on, I'll show you how to get away from it." The boy walked towards the far corner of the pen, squinting into the sun. "Come here." The horse turned towards him and began to follow, this time he approached Alexander without distraction. "That's it! It isn't so bad in this direction, is it?" The horse was finally calm. It lowered its head and stretched it's nose toward Alexander. 

The men waited for another eruption with bated breath. Instead the stallion that they could not hold still with ropes, stood quietly before the prince for several minutes. Alexander took a halter that lay over the fence and tied it onto the horse without trouble. Then he paused and his eyes scanned the courtyard. In a moment, they fell upon that which he was looking for. It is a good thing that the gate is on this side of the paddock! He observed. Should it have been anywhere else his task would have been a trickier one. As Alexander reached for the gate several of the nobles began to object, but King Phillip quickly silenced them. 

"Let the boy alone! He has already gotten further than any of you did." Alexander was careful to lead the horse in a straight line, as he went out of the gate and towards the shade of the stables. He took the horse into a paddock that was between two of the buildings and released him there. Only then did he breath easily again. 

"He will be quite as tame in there as any of our horses."

 King Philip II was confused. "I have been watching you all the time, my son, yet I haven't the slightest idea what it is that you have done." 

Alexander smiled triumphantly as he slid the bolt across the gate. "I simply put him into a paddock that is in the shade." 

Philonicus had received his pay long before, but he had remained in the stable yard watching the young horse trainer with interest. "Why would that make a difference?" The horse dealer asked. He was observing the stallion with growing surprise, for the animal that had paced and reeled almost continually for weeks was walking calmly around the paddock. 

"Because..." Alexander spoke slowly, intentionally dragging out the men's suspense. "He is afraid of his shadow." Everyone looked at him in disbelief. King Phillip II laughed aloud at the simplicity of the solution.

"That is why you turned him into the sun." 

The prince nodded. King Philip shook his head and looked at his boy with admiration.

 "My son, look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee!"

There was a secret to riding Bucephalus, one that only Alexander had observed. The key lay in something other than skill, knowledge, or perseverance; all of which, though useful, failed to take into account that the horse was afraid of his shadow. The best of horsemen could not ride the animal because they didn't understand him. We too have a horse to ride - though few of us think of it in that way. It is a tall, white stallion with an unmarked coat and hundreds, even thousands, of great men have tried to tame it and failed. That horse's name is Righteousness and we are told that he is impossible to stay atop. Most of us have already proven the impossibility of this task to ourselves through numerous failed attempts. Some may be trying to conquer it still, but their best efforts too will fail to accomplish true righteousness. 

As the King and the nobles failed to see Bucephalus' fear, we have missed the fact that we were disqualified long before we even set out to gain success. You see righteousness is a record as well as an attainment. Thus, as soon as we sin we are forever barred from achieving it and Romans ii. 23 says that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." So why are we still trying? Why do we not simply tell the horse dealer to take the animal elsewhere as King Phillip did? 

That option is quite simply not available to us. We know that righteousness is required of us. It is in fact the very standard by which we will all one day be judged. So our very eternity itself depends upon the attainment of it. We therefore find ourselves faced with an impossible task, an untameable horse that must be ridden. If men of skills and knowledge far superior to his could not overcome the horse, Alexander knew that he couldn't either. Yet the prince did not take that to mean that Bucephalus could not be tamed. Instead he showed great wisdom in looking for a solution outside of himself. Thankfully, like Bucephalus, righteousness has a secret. The solution to this problem is also outside of us. It has nothing to do with shadows, rather Righteousness requires a certain rider. We can not do it, however, righteousness can be achieved. 

Righteousness is simply a description of God's character. So He is not only the creator of this standard, He is also the fulfilment of it! God Himself can meet the requirements.The law that commands us to be righteous, that measure we must meet on judgement day, was intended to show us Him. 

"Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." Galatians iii. 24

God calls us to be holy even as He is holy, which in our own power is impossible. Yet when we fail to attain it in our own strength, God intends for us to come to Him. He has known all along that righteousness could only be met by Him and so He offers it to us as a gift. That is not to say that we no longer face the requirement to be righteous, rather that we can now find our righteousness in Him. Jesus has attributed His righteousness to us and thus the impossible task is suddenly done! Yet He offers us still more for He is willing to ride with us, pulling us up into the saddle with Him that we might know what it is to be carried by this great, white stallion. This is the process of sanctification worked in us through His Spirit which is progressively setting us free from sin and building His character within us - essentially teaching us to ride the way He does. So He has tamed and ridden the untrainable horse and attributed that work to your name so that you might be saved. Now He bids you to mount as well. When you do, remember that it is His horse, you can ride it only when He is in the saddle with you.

"For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans viii. 3-4)

In Christ 

quiana