SEGMENT 1: THE GREATEST SECRET IN THE WORLD;
WHAT IS AVAILABLE
In this first session of this Biblical research class on Power For Abundant Living I’d like for you to take your Bible and I’d like for you to turn to the Gospel of John, the tenth chapter. And here in this tenth verse of this tenth chapter we have one of the foundational scriptures for this class. As a matter of fact it is this scripture that literally turned my life upside down many years ago. It was this scripture that brought me to the place of starting into Biblical research. In John 10:10 we read, Jesus said:
John 10:10:
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it
more abundantly.
Jesus said he came that men and women might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. You know, this verse of scripture changed my life. We were in the ministry and we were moving ahead with the things as we thought they were the things of God, but some how or other we lacked an abundant life in almost every category. And here I was reading from the Word of God one day Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it more than abundant. And it sort of shook me because as I looked round about on the different people in the churches and in the communities where I served, and among the ministers with whom I worked; I failed to see an abundant life many times. I look in the secular world and there I’d see people who were not even Christians who were manifesting more of an abundant life than many times the people in the church. So I began to ask myself the question, “Why is it, if Jesus Christ came that men and women might have life more abundant, why is it that the Christian believers do not manifest an abundant life?” Then I noticed furthermore that that verse said he didn’t just come to give an abundant life. He came that we might have life and have it more than abundant!
You know I believe most people would be thankful wouldn’t they, most Christian believers, if they even manifested an abundant life. But that’s not what the Word says. The Word says that Jesus Christ came that we might have life not abundantly, but have a life which is more than abundant. More than abundant! Well, ladies and gentlemen, if Jesus Christ came that we might life and have it more abundantly; he either told the truth or he lied. If he lied to us here in the Word of God when he declared that he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly, if he lied to us, then the best thing you and I could to do is just chuck the whole thing. Throw it all away. But if he told the truth, if he meant what he said and said what he meant when he declared that he came that we might have life and have it more than abundantly, ladies and gentlemen, somewhere, someplace, somehow, surely there must be keys, there must be signposts that will guide us into the understanding and the receiving of this life which is more than abundant. And I believe that this class on Power For Abundant Living, that this class is one of the stepping stones to make available this to people.
And this which Jesus Christ did and came to do, this is the greatest secret in the world today; the greatest secret in the world today. And this great secret is what we want to declare and make known. A secret is like a mystery–sometimes like a woman’s purse, what she has in it–it’s a mystery. Once you open it, once you see what’s in it, then it’s no longer a mystery.
The greatest secret in the world today is that Jesus Christ did come to make life more than abundantly available to believers. And this is the purpose of this Biblical research class: to enable our people, our children, our young people and our adults to tap into these resources that they can manifest this more abundant life.
This is a class on keys. I am not going to teach you the scriptures, every verse from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. This is not the purpose of the class. But, by God’s mercy and by God’s grace I expect to set before you all the basic keys in the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation which will unfold for you this life that Jesus Christ came to make available which is a life which is more that abundant.
This is why these keys in this class should bring us to the place that we will be certain in the midst of the uncertainty of our time. This Word of God and the greatness of God’s revelation should be unto us a firm rock in the sea of speculation with which we’re surrounded on every hand. And I want this class on Power For Abundant Living to be for you a safe anchorage in the ocean of doubt with which we are surrounded. And today certainly there is so much doubt and so much unsafeness, unconcern, that if we can come back to the keys of the Word of God and set these keys that you can utilize them with a mathematical exactness and scientific precision, then once again you can begin walking and you can begin to manifest that more abundant life.
This first lesson, the first lesson in this first session of this class on Power For Abundant Living deals with the greatest secret in the world today. And do you know that this greatest secret in the world today literally is: that the Bible is the revealed Word and Will of God. The greatest secret in the world today, anyplace, anywhere, is that the Bible is the revealed Word and Will of God because people for the most part just do not believe it. Even those who are deeply spiritual, they’ll take one segment out of the Word of God and drop another. Ladies and gentlemen either the Bible’s the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation all the way through or it’s not the Word of God anywhere. And the greatest secret in the world today is that the Bible, the Bible is the revealed Word and Will of God. That’s the great secret.
You know, I’d like to state it another way: that the Word of God is the Will of God. This is our power for abundant living. It’s like it’s up here above this chart board and you’ll see it hundreds of times through the teaching of this class. The Word of God is the Will of God–the Word of God being the Will of God–that’s the greatest secret in the world today!
Now to get to the depth of this and to start into it’s depth I’d like for you to take your Bibles and turn to the Book of Jeremiah. The book of Jeremiah. In the Old Testament: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah. And there in chapter 2 in verse 13 of this chapter listen to what this Word of God says:
Jeremiah 2:13:
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the
fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns,
that can hold no water.
Who is God talking to? He says, “My people.” He’s talking to His people. He’s not talking to people who are on the outside of the pale. He’s talking to those who are within the fold so to speak. And He says my people have committed two evils. Number one, He says, “they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters.” God is a fountain. A fountain has an unlimited supply; that’s what makes it a fountain. And God said His people had forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters. And ladies and gentlemen when we forsake God who is a fountain we do exactly what this Word of God says; we hew out for ourselves cisterns.
And you know what a cistern is? It’s something that man has hewed out. We have hewed out religions of our own choosing and of our own making, we have hewed them out. But a cistern does not hold an unlimited amount of water like a spring or a fountain. A cistern is limited to the size of the whole. In other words if it’s a fifty-barrel cistern that’s all you can put in it. But a fountain is unlimited, the supply, God is a fountain. And God said that His people, His people had forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters, and they hewed out for themselves cisterns–not fountains–but cisterns.
Furthermore, He said those cisterns were broken cisterns. You know what a broken cistern is? It’s one that’s got a crack in it. You put it in at the top, runs out at the bottom or on the side. It never has the supply just when you need it.
Ladies and gentlemen, I was like this once in my life. I too thought that I had hewed out for myself a tremendous theological system. I had read this, I had read that, I’d concluded this and I’d concluded that but just when I needed the power it wasn’t there. Just when I needed it most, some how or other it seemed like it was an empty hole. And perhaps this is what took me into these years of Biblical research, at least it enabled me and helped me to get started in this field.
So you see, God says, His people forsaking Him the fountain of living waters can only do one thing: they’ll hew out for themselves their own cisterns and they’ll be broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Have you ever asked yourself or have you ever thought of what is the greatest sin a man can commit? You walk down the streets of your city or of your community tomorrow and you ask people, “Well what’s the greatest sin you can commit?” Do you know what they’ll say? Well, one person will say it’s murder, someone else will say it’s adultery, someone else will say something else. You’ll come up with a multiplicity of suggestions as to the greatest sin.
You know what the Word of God says is the greatest sin a man can commit? Well, in Matthew 22:36 and following tell you and I’m sure it’s familiar to about all of you. It’s the first great commandment.
Matthew 22:37, 38:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
Ladies and gentlemen, if that is the first and great commandment–to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength–let me ask you something: then what is the
first and great sin? The first and great sin by sheer logic is to break the first and great commandment of not loving God, loving something else more than what we love God; putting something ahead of God; hewing out our own religious systems and our own ideologies and our own thinking patterns rather than the divine revelation of God’s wonderful matchless Word. Putting anything ahead of God is the first and great sin–just not to love Him with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength.
And the second is like unto it–“thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
I’d like you also to take a look at Hosea 4. I’d like for you to take a look at that. You see in Hosea chapter 4 in verse 6 I’d like to share this verse with you because here again we have the greatness of God’s wonderful matchless Word. And He says here in Hosea chapter 4:
Hosea 4:6a:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:…
Listen again.
Hosea 4:6a:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:…
Again, God is talking to whom? God is talking to His people. And He says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Ladies and gentlemen it cannot be a lack of knowledge of science or philosophy or history or mathematics that is destroying us. If God’s people are being destroyed today, it is not because they lack a knowledge of social justice or anything else. There’s only one reason that God’s people could possibly be destroyed today. And you know what that reason can be? The only reason it can be is it is a lack of the Word of God. God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge of the Word, not of our current periodicals or our newspapers. Not of the current shows or anything else, but it is a lack of knowledge of the integrity and the greatness of God’s Word: that the revealed Word of God is the Will of God. This is why people are being destroyed, and God said His people were being destroyed because they lacked knowledge.
You know, sometimes people have a great zeal for their religion. They get all hepped so to speak and all shook. And they are standing out here, there and running here, there and yonder and always talking to everybody about their salvation or something else. They have a tremendous zeal but they lack the knowledge of the accuracy of God’s Word. On the other hand there are some people who have a tremendous knowledge of God’s Word perhaps but they lack the enthusiasm and the zeal.
I want this class on Power For Abundant Living to get us back to the accurate knowledge of God’s Word; to bring us back to the integrity and the accuracy of this Word. But not only that, I want this to make us so alive and vital that once again, that once again we will have the zeal, the enthusiasm to set it forth before people with all boldness.
People say to me many times in these classes on Power For Abundant Living, “Well Dr. Wierwille you sure get all hepped on this thing.” That’s right, why shouldn’t I? Why shouldn’t I get concerned about the greatness of God’s Word? Because ladies and gentlemen this Word of God fits with a mathematical exactness and a scientific precision. It fits like a hand fits in a glove. And it works this way over and over again.
Why should I not be concerned and enthused about this?
You know when I was in athletics and playing some college basketball and a little bit of professional basketball I got all enthused, all concerned. I had tremendous zeal for this sports. Why not have tremendous zeal for the greatness of God’s Word? A man can sit in a great stadium some place and they say well he is a football or a basketball fan or some other fan. But when somebody dares to get excited about the greatness of God’s Word they think there’s something wrong with him. Must be something wrong with our scale of values.
Nothing wrong with us except that the Word of God is so tremendous, it’s so wonderful, it’s so rich that when Jesus Christ came, and he said he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly, ladies and gentlemen, he said what he meant and he meant what he said. This is why the Bible is that wonderful revealed Word and the wonderful Will of God.
And so not only do we need to get the knowledge in this class on Power For Abundant Living, the knowledge of the integrity and the accuracy of God’s Word but we must also get the zeal, the enthusiastic believing, the concern that other men and women might know.
Now in order to tap these wonderful resources of the power of God; in order to make your life jell and for the greatness of that wonderful power of God to live within you: To receive anything from God, to receive anything and you’ll notice I’ve underscored the word “anything.”
To receive anything from God we must know first of all what is available. You cannot receive something from God until you first know it is available. You must absolutely find out what is available.
Because there are some things that are not available today. And if they are not available you can pray until your blue in the face you still cannot receive because it’s not available.
The first thing, if you want to tap the resources for the more abundant life, the first thing you and I must do is to find out what is available. Now in the secular realm we’ve applied these principles all our life. Take for instance here–this pen on this desk. Could I have received it if it was not available? Certainly not. The first thing I find out is what is available? Here it is, available. Well, I find out it’s available. That’s the first thing that I have to discover–what is available?
Now spiritually the same thing is true. We have to find out from God’s Word what is available. You cannot find out from people’s conversation what’s available. We will have to go entirely to the Word of God to find out what is available.
I’d like for you to take a look at the Epistle of John. The third Epistle: first, second, third John. Then comes Jude and Revelation. In III John and in verse 2 listen to this:
III John 2:
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
Well what is the Will of God? “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper…” Do you know what prosper means? Just that–prosper. Anybody in business knows what it is to prosper. God’s Will is for the believer; above all that he may prosper. He never meant for the Christian to be poverty stricken and down trodden in every segment of his life. He meant for the Christian believer to prosper.
“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper,” number one, and number two, “and be in good health even as your soul prospers.” God never meant for the Christian believer to be sick all the days of his life. He never meant for the Christian believer to be full of frustrations and fears, anxieties and everything else. God meant that we were to prosper and be in good health.
Well, if this is the Word of God and this is what God’s Word says, now then it must be available. How in the world can I prosper if it’s not available? How in the world can I be in good health if it’s not available? So, the first thing we have to find out in our quest for tapping the resources for the more abundant life: to receive anything from God we must find out what is available.
I’d like to show you a few more scriptures. In Philippians, chapter 4, verse 19 a very familiar passage of scripture to many people.
Philippians 4:19:
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Well now if He is going to supply all of our need, it doesn’t say greed, He is going to supply all of our need according to His riches in glory. If He’s going to do this, then it must be available, right? If it was not available He could not supply it. So, we’ll find out, what is available.
Look at II Corinthians. Acts, Romans, II Corinthians. In chapter 9 of II Corinthians and in verse 8 listen to this:
II Corinthians 9:8:
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
Now how are we going to have an all sufficiency in all things if it’s not available? Do you see why if we’re going to tap the resources for the more abundant life we must find out what is available first and foremost? Look at Romans. Go back a book. Romans, Romans chapter 8. Verse 37 of this 8th chapter of Romans. Another wonderful record in
God’s Word telling us some of the things that must be available.
Romans 8:37:
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Well, now if we’re going to be more than conquerors in every situation it must be available. How could I be more than a conqueror if it was not available? So you see why it’s so important that we find out what’s available? Because things that men and women talk about being available many times are not. Other things they talk about as not being available are. You and I must go back to the Word of Godto find out what is available.
Now, I want to show you one more in Ephesians. Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 3, a wonderful record in God’s Word. Listen to this, beginning with verse 16 of this particular chapter 3:
Ephesians 3:16:
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with by his Spirit in the inner man;
Now how am I going to be strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man if it isn’t available?
Ephesians 3:17-19:
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Listen to that, “that you might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Now how in the world am I going to be filled with all the fulness of God if it’s not available? So you see why we must go to the Word of God to find out that which is available? How am I going to be able to apply the principles of the Word of God and find out what God wants me to do if I do not know something is available?
So the first thing I find out in my quest to tap the resources for the more abundant life, I find out what is available. You know, there are over 900-and-some different promises in the Word of God that will enable us to profit and to be in good health. You cannot utilize, you cannot operate any more than those that you know. How many do you know?
You see, if we’re going to find out what God has made available there’s only one place we can possibly go. We must go back to the Word of God to find out exactly what He made available. And this becomes a very interesting quest, because so many, many times the things that people have said God does; God in His Word says just the opposite, He says He doesn’t. Things that they say He does not do, He declares in His Word that He does.
So you see this class on Power For Abundant Living, as we begin to do our research and start in it, we discover for ourselves that to receive anything from God, the first thing we have to find out is what is available.
I could not have this pen if it were not available. So it is with the Word of God ladies and gentlemen. You and I must find out to the minutest detail what is available. If this is available for us then there are other steps which I will be sharing with you. But let’s be sure that in our quest for the more abundant life and in our Biblical research that the first thing we find out is what is available. So that we as God’s people will not need to be destroyed because we lack knowledge. Let’s go to that Word of God find out what is available.
Because once we know something is available then we can learn the other principles that are involved to make this a life that is more than abundant so that we can manifest forth the greatness of the power of God–to manifest it so that others can walk also in its abundance. This is why we need to find out what is available.