David Wilkerson: "The Mind of Christ" (Text Sermons). And we have the mind of Christ

sprout from dry God's footstool
Prophetic: - Sanctuary
land; There is no form or greatness in Him; and we saw Him, and there was no appearance in Him that would attract us to Him. He was despised and belittled before men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with pain, and we turned our faces away from Him; He was despised, and we thought nothing of Him. But He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our illnesses; and we thought that He was smitten, punished and humiliated by God. But He was wounded for our sins and tormented for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed.

Sprout from dry soil

• Forming the image of a sprout
• Significance in prophecy

Sower

Seed

One of the very first images of Jesus Christ is found in Genesis 3:14-15: - “And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle and above all the beasts of the field; on your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel.” Christ speaks of the seed like this, Luke 8:11: “This is what this parable means: the seed is the word of God.” And we know about the word: In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Gospel of John 1:1.

Seed image

• Formation of the seed image
• The vastness of the meaning of the seed
• Significance in prophecy

Let's turn to Philippians 2 1-9: "Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if there is any joy of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if there is any kindness and compassion, then complete my joy; and have have the same thoughts, have the same love, be unanimous and like-minded; do nothing out of ambition (in the English version - “relying on your own strength”) or out of vanity (in the English version - “for the sake of your own glory”), but out of humility. (in the English version - “submitting to the law of reason”) consider each other to be higher than yourself. Not only each one cares about himself, but also everyone about others. For you must have the same feelings (in the English version - “the same mind, as in Christ Jesus"), which are also in Christ Jesus: He. Being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and becoming in appearance like a man; He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to death, even death on the cross."

Holy Spirit, we ask You to open our ears. Unless the Holy Spirit opens our ears, we will hear nothing; we will not understand anything unless the Holy Spirit gives us understanding. We pray that You do Your work in us and change our hearts in Jesus name. Amen!

So the Apostle Paul says, “Philippians, you must have the same mind as Christ.” In 1 Corinthians 2:16 he states, “We HAVE the mind of Christ,” and in Ephesians 4:23, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” We received such instructions from the Apostle Paul. He called us to have the same mind that Christ has, His way of thinking, the type of thinking. When I speak of the mind of Christ, I mean the decisions made by men and women of God. It's not just about any particular way of thinking. We are talking about thinking that changes and determines our lives. Before coming to earth in the form of a man, Jesus made a covenant with the Father that He would come to earth as a servant, He would leave His glory and come as a man to serve, and not to be served, i.e. He agreed to come in the form of a humble servant - “I do the will of HIM who SENT Me, and not My own.” He made such an agreement with the Father even before the creation of the world, before the appearance of man. Even then He said to the Father: “I will go and do THY will with joy.” The Father, for His part, promised: “If You go and do My will, you will always know what My will is. I will not hide anything from You. You will know what I do and how I do it - You will be My mind, the mind of the Father, a way of thinking that glorifies Me."

When he said, “Let you have the same mind as Christ Jesus,” the Apostle Paul was talking about decisions. When you come face to face with the Word of God, with the thinking of the Heavenly Father, you make a decision: “This is how I want to live. I refuse to do my will, I don’t want to indulge my flesh, I don’t want to live the way this world lives, going about the lusts and desires of your heart." This is exactly what the Apostle Paul called us to: to live as Christ lived, to do what He did. The mind of Christ should touch all areas of our life and be reflected in its image. Among believers there are many people who call themselves His disciples, who are called by the name of Christ, but who never dared to decide to live as He lived. They do not want to part with their temperament, character flaws, declaring: “Yes, that’s who I am! Nothing can be done about it!” However, as we begin to meditate on the Word and look to the Father, slowly, step by step, our mind begins to be transformed until it becomes the mind of Christ. Every time we look into the mirror of Christ, we will see changes, the appearance of His features; from image to image, from one spiritual ascent to another. I want to become like Jesus. I want God's people to begin to seek Him, everyone from my family. I want the Church of Jesus Christ, all my colleagues to know that I am different from other people: I am different, not because something external makes me stand out, but because I love my Christ. I want to be like Jesus! I no longer want to react to something the way I used to; I want to find the meekness, humility, love that Jesus Christ possessed and about which Scripture speaks.

The Apostle Paul explains what the mind of Christ is, its signs and manifestations - “he made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant.” Then Paul boldly declares, “We HAVE the mind of the Spirit.” He also refers to himself as “we”: “I know that I have the mind of Christ.” How can Saul, the persecutor of the church of God, unworthy person, murderer in your heart, have the mind of Christ? Where, when, how did he acquire the mind of Christ? Remember, on the way to Damascus he was blinded by a light, and Jesus asked him: “Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” The Lord directed him to Damascus, where he went to catch Christians and deliver them to death and torture. The Lord and the Holy Spirit stopped him on the way to fulfilling this terrible assignment. Next, he is given instructions to go to Damascus, to Straight Street and stay in the house of Judah. “Wait, it will tell you what you need to do.” For three days Saul stayed in the house of Judas on Straight Street. He didn't eat anything, didn't drink anything, he fasted. At this time, the Lord turns to a man named Ananias, a man of God, a man of prayer: “Ananias, get up and go to Straight Street, find the house of Judah and ask Saul there, you know him. He is waiting for you, knows that you will come, lay on hands, if you pray, he will be filled with the Spirit and receive his sight, for he was blinded by the bright light." Ananias replies: “It is not safe, I have heard about this man, what he is like.” The Lord says to Ananias: “I want to tell you something about him. HE IS PRAYING NOW.” Look, he's praying! “When you come, you will find him kneeling and praying,” i.e. he has already known the mind of Christ! “He knows your name, he knows you, he knows that you must come and lay hands on him and he will see!” Heaven opens to Saul, he sees what God sees when he prays. Paul would later say, “I count all things but loss for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” Further, we see that self-humiliation became the testimony of the Apostle Paul. Why? Because, as he says, Jesus made Himself of no reputation. I don’t know if God would have agreed for Jesus to come to earth in all His glory, in some other way, in another capacity, but Jesus voluntarily agreed to the terms of the covenant: “I will come as a slave, renouncing everything, in absolute dependence from You, Father. My every action, every word will come only from You. I will not have My own will, My will will be completely subordinate to Yours, Your will will be My will, I will seek Your Face, I will seek intimacy with You. By You. I must have YOUR mind."

Before us is a man who has just turned to God, has been radically transformed, has a new knowledge of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit descends on him, he renounces his glory. He says to himself: “I was a Pharisee of Pharisees,” what a reputation! “I knew the law so well that no one could break it down better than me.” This man was preaching about the Messiah, he did not know Him, but he was preaching about the coming Messiah; he was a very strong teacher of the law. He says, "I was a famous and respected man. I had made it myself by climbing that ladder. But when Jesus came into my life and reached me, everything changed. I truly believed that everything I did glorified God and was not contrary to Scripture, but I missed Christ." When you miss Christ, whatever you do is flesh. He says, “I've given up my ambitions. I don't care if people know about me, if they've heard of me, because that's what Jesus did. That's the mind of Christ. My desire is to live like Him; to be like Him; allow the Holy Spirit to change me." When I pray, I always ask the Holy Spirit: “Is there anything in me that is displeasing to You? If there is something in me that is contrary to Christ, show me, help me figure it out; only with Your help can I understand what the problem is ". God has made a commitment that if you submit to Him and want His mind, He is committed to give it to you, otherwise He would not be God. I give up my desires to be successful and recognized. Despite the fact that I am free, I decide to become a slave for every person and seek the benefit of others, not my own. Jesus was the Son, the Son of the living God, but He chose to come with the heart of a servant. We too are children of God. Jesus said, “I no longer call you slaves, but friends.” We can remain His children, but have the heart of a slave. Paul said about himself: “I am a son of the living God, but I choose to be a slave of Christ Jesus and His church. I am a slave, no longer a master. I do not try to arrange my own ways. The only goal of my life is to gain Christ so that He may live through me and in me!" This needs to become more than just theological conversations. More than just listening to a teaching. But neither you nor I will ever receive this without the revelation of the Holy Spirit. There must come a time in your life when you say, “Jesus, I want more than just talk about You! I want more than just going to church, some teaching ABOUT Jesus!” Come with this desire to your secret room, get on your knees and ask the Holy Spirit: “Holy Spirit, give me insight in my spirit, give me Your type of thinking, point me to those areas of my heart that You want to change.”

“Let you have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.” We will not gain the mind of Christ until our carnal mind is driven out. For three days Jesus emptied Saul's mind to fill him with the Holy Spirit. Some people cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit because they are filled with themselves. We are so full of ourselves that there is no room for the Holy Spirit, no room for His changes and plans.

My preacher father always told me, “David, God always reaches out to those who pray.” One day these words became real to me. The Holy Spirit kindled them in my heart and did not let me go until I said: “Lord, I want to be a man of prayer.” I am nowhere near what I would like to be or what I should be. I remember one incident. I was about 15 years old, I was praying in my room, looking for the Face of God, and for a long time I could not get up from my knees, because His Hand was pressing me to the floor. I was so happy about this that, standing up, I said: “More!” This “still” was repeated 5 times, and then everything stopped. This was one of the most powerful experiences of the Lord in my teenage years. Then I came to one of the churches in Pennsylvania and, entering the hall, I heard Him address me: “If you need Me, look for Me! I give My burden only to those who really want it.” I'm tired of my aimless and carefree life. I often walked through the forest, prayed and cried, saying: “Lord Jesus, I know there is something more! I can no longer live without the Word of God!” I would rather die than live a life for myself - drinking Coke, watching TV in the evenings, and it all burns with a blue flame! I said, "Lord, if it's not the Holy Spirit, I don't need it!" For a month I was in complete despair, contrition before the Lord, seeking His Face. The Lord did not leave my young heart unanswered. He raised me up and then commanded me to evangelize young people around the world, which I devoted many years to. Some time later, He came to me again: “You have deviated from the course, I do not see you in your secret room, you are not looking for Me with ALL your heart. Come back!” And I returned. He returned to his office above the garage and said: “Jesus, let me know Your mind, Your will. I am so tired of being constantly busy with something! Too busy!” The Lord said, “You were so busy that you couldn’t find a moment for Me.” When I got up from my knees, the Holy Spirit spoke to me: “Go to Time Square and start a church.” I submitted to Him. It was then, 40 years ago, that He sent me to New York to work with gangs and drug addicts. I have told you many times how I stood there, looked at the buildings, cried and prayed. The mind of Christ will not appear in you if you just go to church to listen to sermons. You must feel terrible fatigue and dissatisfaction from everything - I’m sick and tired of “playing” church and preaching. If we have not reached this state, but desire to have the mind of Christ, we can be compared to the English parliamentarians of the times of the great awakenings of Spurgeon and Parker - in their luxurious carriages, on magnificent horses, they rode from preacher to preacher: in 8. 00. They listened to Parker's sermon at 10.00. - Spurgeon, then someone else, and so on all day. They heatedly discussed what they heard in Parliament, calling it “teaching,” but such “taught” never gained the mind of Christ, never bore the burden of God, and never changed London.

Everything I have ever heard from God, any revelation or blessing from Him came into my life only through prayer. I'm not talking about prayer services led by pastors, I'm talking about the inner work and movement of the Holy Spirit, awakening you personally; I'm talking about something deeper: "Oh Jesus, I walk with You, I proclaim Your Name, but I want to know You more than now; to have a deeper revelation of knowing You. I want to come to church and hear that “What I already know, hearing this is like confirmation from You!” Then you will smile and say, "I heard that last night. The Lord spoke the same thing to my heart. I hear God!" I know the condition a person can be in, I went through it myself as a young pastor not seeking God. I remember very well the terrible consequences of a careless attitude to prayer. I remember very well the terrible loneliness during my trips. We will not be able to escape all this if we do not value salvation. We will definitely face the destructive consequences of a frivolous attitude towards prayer, gradually leaving the place of peace. Now I am addressing those who have not prayed for a long time; whose heart does not seek to seek God. I know the pain you are experiencing; I know what dry springs of living water are, extinguished blessings, no relationships with God and others - all this is the consequences of a lost search for God, close communication with Him and knowledge of Him. But I also know what glory awaits you once you return to Him again. The prophet Zechariah said that when he sought God, he prospered. This is the kind of prosperity I preach, this is how I imagine it. Prosperity is the mind of Christ. 2 Chronicles 14 tells us about King Asa who sought the Lord. He said, "We sought Him, and He gave us rest on all sides." Do you have peace on all sides, do you seek It with all your heart? 15:15 2 Chronicles says, “All Judah sought Him with all diligence, and He allowed them to find Himself. And the Lord gave them rest on all sides.”

In Galatians 1:1, the Apostle Paul greets us this way: “Paul is an apostle, chosen not by men or through man, but by Jesus Christ...” In other words, he says, I no longer follow man, I have no heroes and no ideal among living on earth. He asks: “Am I now seeking favor from people, or from God? Am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” If I seek the favor of a person, I cannot be a slave of Christ. ATTENTION! If I am looking for people's praise, approval, I am constantly on pins and needles, trying to please someone - this is the desire of my heart and the goal of my mind. But you don't have to seek the favor of the pastor or anyone at all. IF YOU PLEASE CHRIST, YOU PLEASE EVERYONE. Further: “The gospel which I preached is not human; for I also received it and learned it, not from man, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ. ...I did not then consult flesh and blood...” Even when he went to Jerusalem to meet with the other Apostles, he did not hear anything new there, because... The Lord had already revealed this to him by His Spirit. We need preaching, teaching, so that our hearts will be set on fire and our faith will be strengthened, so that we can go into our secret closet of prayer and receive the same Spirit of revelation as the pastor or other men and women of God. The Apostle Paul says that he did not receive this revelation from books, he did not need to read a lot of literature or resort to the help of some human methods. Everything he said and received came from the revelation of the Holy Spirit guiding his life and indwelling him - here is a man who seeks God, walks by faith, does not seek his own glory, submits his mind to the Lord, has the heart of a servant, a servant of the Body of Christ. To do this, he did not need to resort to the help of any books or people. Paul explains: “I walked by revelation... And in those who are famous for anything, no matter what they have ever been, there is nothing special for me... Having learned about the grace given to me, they gave me the hand of fellowship.” Yes, they were famous, but for him there was nothing special about them. They could not add anything to Paul's revelation of who he was in Christ.

Paul says to the Philippians, “Have the mind of Christ,” that he has the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ, His thoughts produce life in us. Paul encourages the Philippians to make this decision. He wrote this letter while in a Roman prison. Despite the bonds and ridicule, Paul still preached Christ, and through this the Lord carried out His work, creating and raising a powerful church in Rome, helping even the emperor’s nobles to be saved. Paul is in captivity: “I am sending Timothy to you, so that I too, having learned about your circumstances, may be comforted in spirit,” from which it is clear that he does not think about himself, but wants to know how things are with the Philippians, how and how they live . He does not draw attention to HIMSELF, does not look for opportunities for others to serve him, he does not ask for money. He says: “I will calm down when Timofey returns and tells how you live, is everything okay with you, what is bothering you. Then I will be comforted. And that’s all I ask.” Here is a man with a servant's heart. Consider what he says next: “For I have no one equally diligent who cares so sincerely for you.” Sad statement. Despite the fact that the Lord is moving in this city (Rome), people are being saved, there are leaders, elders, pastors, “they are all looking for their own, and not what pleases Jesus Christ.” Apart from Timothy, not one was found with a mind enlightened by Christ. "My spiritual son Timothy has the mind of Christ. He serves me, and he comes to serve you. Serving is an integral part of him, it comes naturally to him, thanks to the changes that Jesus made in him; he does not serve to simply accept part of this. He has changed, he really cares about you!” In all of Rome there is no one else but Timothy! Paul and one young man named Timothy - that's all! But this is not just a young man, he is enlightened by Christ, he does not seek glory for himself, and does not adhere to any specific schedule. He goes to the Philippians to make Paul's heart glad, to serve him by serving them.

Do you want to be like Jesus? Do you really want to be like Christ? Is this what your heart is looking for? “I want Christ to live in me!” - this should be the only desire of your heart and mind. "I want my brothers and sisters to know that I care about their lives and that they can count on me." Do you really want to be like Christ? Then, as Paul says, caring for people should become your nature, no need to wait for the pastor to give you direction for action. The church cannot develop programs to make people sensitive to the needs and problems of others. When this is born from the indwelling Spirit of Jesus Christ, then we will see the needs of people, we will feel their pain. Pastors cannot do everything for everyone. You heard that someone can't find a job. You will pray for it or you will start worrying, "I'm next." Paul said that everyone is looking for their own. IN modern world you can see it anywhere and everywhere - in ministry, in economics, in business. Everyone is trying to climb the steps of the ladder leading to success, which is not a characteristic of Christ, but of the Antichrist. Do you want to have the mind of Christ? Then you must forget about your glory and reputation, becoming a servant of Christ, His Church, His Body. When I read the lines: “Everyone seeks his own,” my heart was saddened. “Oh, Lord, I don’t want to be a person who belongs to this crazy world, looking for his own, earning money, so that he can retire peacefully.” There is no need to prove to you that the world is destroying itself, that millions of hearts are paralyzed with fear, aware of the future that awaits us. Is there an answer to this? How can the church rise up with the power given to it? The number of Muslims is increasing, they are advancing like an army, trying to subjugate all nations to their religion. Where is the power and authority given to us? Where will these young Timothys be when everything not only shakes, but collapses, one after another? In the pulpits, especially in America, there should be men who seek the Face of God with all their hearts. Churches should be filled with people who come not just to listen to the choir, the sermon: “Today I liked the sermon more. It’s deeper”; those who want to not only stir their hearts, give free rein to their feelings, and seek people’s help in their problems. Yes, thank God for all this! But the responsibility is placed not only on the one who stands in the pulpit, but also on the one who sits in the hall - to lay hold of God and seek His Face as never before; do not confine yourself to the activities of the church, but go out into the world. Then the church, standing on the truth of the Word of God, seeking God, will shine for this world as an island of salvation and hope; will shine brightly, and these are not just words! I am sure that when the Lord comes and His light penetrates the city, it flows not where there is a pulpit, but where there is a Body - loving, not indifferent people. Then the world will say: “How caring they are!” Yesterday we buried the husband of one sister from another church. The church building was simply packed to capacity with people who wanted to show love and care. Those standing on the street saw such evidence, and those in the building were surprised: “What kind of people!” I will tell you what kind of people are people who have the mind of Christ; not seeking glory, but wanting to serve others.

We pastors have no idea what it means to serve others until the Holy Spirit reveals to us. We must seek Him to receive this revelation. Philippians tells us that Jesus made Himself a slave. Paul did the same thing - he became a slave of Christ and His church. Do you want to become a slave? Then you need to give up all your desires, aspirations, ego. You must bring it to the Lord and allow Him to search your heart. Many times the Lord showed me something in my heart after a while. I asked Him: “Lord, why didn’t You show me this earlier?” He replied: “Then you would not have been able to stand it. Now you have grown a little, strengthened, so I can show you.” But it hurts, it still hurts! Then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, fills you. The Lord wants to make His Church of the last days drunk.

Father, I have exhausted all my words, I have nothing more to say. Come with Your Spirit and touch every open, hungry and thirsty heart. Lord, forgive any negligence and carelessness of those who were once with You, but have lost their way, bring them back and awaken their hearts right now. The Bible says, "Seek My face, and I will answer." I will seek Your Face! Lord, make Your church praying like never before. Let the love of Christ motivate us not to pass by a single wounded heart, reveal to us these needs and give us understanding. I hope that this message will encourage you to seek the Lord, His will and mind, and awaken in your heart a desire to hear from God. I am sure that most of you have encountered the destructive consequences of cooling off, retreating from God, crowding out the search for God with something else; all this also opens the door to temptations, disappointments, fatigue, mistakes, loss of a sense of Divine order in one’s life, and wrong relationships. Lord, help us to seek You with all our hearts; You promised that then You will give us peace on all sides. I know what I'm talking about. After which the incredible, “beyond all understanding” peace of Christ comes to the heart. I believe in the power of corporate prayer and private prayer, I believe in the power of long prayer and the power of short prayer. If you believe in the power of prayer, say it with all your heart, then it will definitely bring change in your life. Now let's pray.

Lord Jesus, I don't want to live for myself anymore. I don't want to be an ambitious person. I want to know You. Lord Jesus, forgive me for not looking for You. Forgive me for serving myself. I want to serve You and others. Cleanse me from all sin and iniquity, cast my sins behind my back. Forgive me and remember my sins no more. Holy Spirit, come and show me Christ. Jesus, reveal Yourself. Open my heart so that I can understand and see You. Place in your heart the desire to read Your Word and grow into the image of Christ. Draw me to You with Your love. I thank You for Your forgiveness, mercy, kindness and love for me!

Translation - Venera Shamsutdinova

An interesting point that even the Apostle Paul wrote: “The natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God, because he considers them foolishness.” Why I say that people call us abnormal is because someone created a norm that is not a norm. Someone created something that was ineffective, and now this inactive church, this inactive ministry was called the norm. And as soon as you leave this norm and start saying what God has given you, in what style to do it, please don’t look at me with carnal eyes, you will feel bad. Just look at me with spiritual eyes, and listen to me with spiritual ears! (I always say: if I seduce you, close your eyes and just listen, it will be easier for you.)

“The natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God because he considers them foolishness. But we have the mind of Christ.”

God is always looking for people who are abnormal by standards. He says: “I sought a man and found David, who will fulfill my purposes.” In general, have you followed David’s life to see what intentions he fulfilled? How can a 16-year-old boy go against himself? strong man in the army? My dears, this is what we are reading today: “Oh David, oh well done, how well he hit Galiath.” When David came out, they couldn’t even look at him. Let's read, a very unique story.

1 Samuel 17:22 “David left his burden with the baggage guard and ran into the ranks and, when he came, asked his brothers about their health. And so, while he was talking with them, a single combatant named Goliath, a Philistine from Gath, came out from the ranks of the Philistines and spoke those words, and David heard [them]. And all the Israelites, when they saw the man, ran away from him and were very afraid. And the Israelites said, Do you see this man speaking? He comes out to revile Israel. If someone had killed him, the king would have given him great wealth, and would have given him his daughter in marriage, and would have made his father’s house free in Israel. And David said to the men standing with him, “What will they do to him who kills this Philistine and removes the reproach from Israel?” For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should so revile the army of the living God? And the people spoke the same words to him, saying, This is what will be done to the man who kills him. And Eliab, David's elder brother, heard what he was saying to the people, and Eliab was angry with David and said: Why did you come here and to whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and your bad heart, you have come to see the battle. And David said, What have I done? aren't these words? And he turned away from him to another and spoke the same words, and the people answered him as before. And they heard the words that David spoke, and told them to Saul, and he called him. And David said to Saul, Let no one lose heart because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, “You cannot go up against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are still a youth, but he has been a warrior from his youth.” And David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and carried away a sheep from the flock, I chased after him and attacked him and snatched him from his mouth; and if he rushed at me, then I took him by the hair and struck him and killed him; Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and the same thing will happen to this uncircumcised Philistine as to them, because in this way the army of the living God is defied. And David said, The Lord, which delivered me from the lion and the bear, will deliver me also from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and may the Lord be with you. And Saul dressed David in his garments, and put a bronze helmet on his head, and put armor on him. And David girded himself with his sword over his clothing and began to walk, for he was not accustomed [to such weapons]; Then David said to Saul: I can’t walk in this, I’m not used to it. And David took it all off himself. And he took his staff in his hand, and chose for himself five smooth stones from the stream, and put them in the shepherd's bag that was with him; and with a bag and a sling in his hand he came out against the Philistine. The Philistine also came forward, walking and approaching David, and the armor bearer went ahead of him. And the Philistine looked and, seeing David, looked at him with contempt, for he was young, fair-haired and handsome in face. And the Philistine said to David, Why are you coming at me with a stick? Am I a dog? And the Philistine cursed David with his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your body to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. And David answered the Philistine: You come against me with sword and spear and shield, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, which you have defied; Now the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will kill you, and take off your head, and I will give the carcasses of the army of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel. and this entire crowd will know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for this is the Lord’s war, and He will deliver you into our hands. When the Philistine stood up and began to come closer and closer to meet David, David hastily ran towards the line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand into his bag and took a stone from there, and threw it with a sling and struck the Philistine on the forehead, so that the stone pierced his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. So David overpowered the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him; but the sword was not in David's hands. Then David ran up and, stepping on the Philistine, took his sword and took it out of its scabbard, struck him and cut off his head with it; When the Philistines saw that their strongman was dead, they fled."

I wonder if David is strange by human standards. You know, my dears, that he had to cover his ears several times in order to enter the field to Goliath. It is very important what you have inside of you, but what is even more important is whether you listen to the Holy Spirit who is inside of you to release this talent. Oh, my dears, this is as important as the dream you have inside yourself.

Everyone has a dream, but few release it because someone told you that you cannot go against Goliath, you are still a child. They told you, you can’t go in this armor, wear mine! The older brother turns, “and so you came here to watch the battle.” History says that David was not 16 years old, if not less, because only his older brothers were at war, he was a teenager. Verse 22, 1 Samuel, chapter 17: “David left... And Eliath heard... look, it begins. Do you know who will start telling you? Those who know you. O my dears, those who do not know me cannot say anything against me, because they know nothing. Those who know me speak against me from my family. Who grew up with me. Who saw me in the yard, how I shot sparrows with a slingshot, caught cats. And so they tell me: - “Eh, -Hee-hee, -Ha-ha. You?!" And so they will teach you to look as they see. And they see you as nothing. When Jesus came to his village, what did they say to Him? - “We know him!” First, they say that we know him. So what if you know Him? Does this make me worse or better? Smarter or dumber? I don’t understand!.. Look, it’s interesting, no one reacted to David. “The elder brother Eliath heard what David was saying to the people, and Eliath became angry with David and said, why have you come here? To whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and your evil heart.” Imagine, even then envy was already working! He saw that David had been anointed king, and even then he felt uneasy. He already saw that this little guy

My dears, with what eyes do you look at yourself? It is very important! With what eyes someone looks at you - there is no problem - they will always look at you, some will respect you, some will hate you. With what eyes do you look at yourself? O my dears, the ten spies could not enter the promised land for only one reason, because they said: “we were like locusts in their eyes.” We were the same in our own eyes. Grasshopper means your life is grass! Enjoy!

Read more about David: “I know your arrogance and your bad heart, you came to spy on the battle.”. Pay attention to David's reaction, that's what makes a man strong! Not that he tore bears and lions there, not that he once performed some kind of feats there, not that you once, somewhere prayed for someone. And your reaction to these things. Your reaction can only be normal if you see correctly! Amen?!

Look! Verse 29 “And David said: What have I done? Are these not words? Oh, such a young guy, and he already understood everything a long time ago! And his reaction: “And he turned away from him to another and spoke the same words and the people answered him as before.” What you need to do is turn away from those who vilify you and do not acknowledge you! And we try to curry favor with them, and we try to pretend that we are accepted by them. By whom? Those who will never accept you as the anointed one!

See: “And he turned away...” oh, what a revelation, my dears! Receive this revelation, turn away! Turn away, cover your ears! Say: “I don’t care about your opinion at all!” Some people will definitely have a heart attack when you say that. How is it that you don’t take care of your dear mother’s heart? So I don’t understand, should I protect your heart, or save my destiny? What do you really want in this life? You and I exchanged our lives for the opinions of people who will never do anything in our lives! You and I exchanged some kind of crowd that is not going anywhere for the revelations of God that He laid in us! Can you tell me the price? And here is your number one reaction, reaction to who is around you!

Look! Verse 31: “And they heard the words that David spoke, and told them to Saul, and he called him.” Saul decided to see, hmm, I wonder what this kid wants. Verse 32: “And David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart; your servant will go and fight the Felistine!” Imagine, there is a king in armor, guards, bodyguards, squires. A boy in shorts comes and encourages the king! Is this normal for you? This is not normal for me. What? Who are you? “Hey king, don’t let anyone lose heart, I’ll kill him.” My dear ones, at the age of 16, David won a battle that no one had ever dreamed of! God didn’t choose him because he was David, God chose him because he had a heart! Because He saw in this boy a thing that would not bend under anyone’s yoke! He saw in this young boy what He did not see in kings, in priests.

Go Blind and Deaf! Hallelujah! We continue to deaf every day. I hear less and less, amen? Let's move on.

“And David said to Saul, let no one lose heart because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David...” I just had a conversation with my older brother, and here again the same song. The song repeats itself. In order for David to do his job, he again needs to close his carnal ears. “And Saul said to David: You cannot go up against this Felistine to fight with him, for you are still a youth.”. Those. boy, he’s a warrior from his youth!

My dears, again someone tells you: you can’t! Look at you, shorts, jeans, flip-flops. Some kind of cap, some kind of stick, and you are proving to me now that you are going to kill him now? Do you understand that this is not put into a normal mind, church? But David saw it completely differently! He saw something that everyone around him didn’t see, he saw something that everyone didn’t understand. Everyone stood and trembled, it is written: they all ran away from him and were afraid. A boy comes out with a heart bigger than the entire army and he makes a coup in Israel!

You say you are “nobody”! Have you ever believed in yourself? Have you had a dream that never occurred to anyone? Please go blind! I beg you, go deaf!

Verse 34: “And David said to Saul...” Again David covers his ears! Can you imagine how much the poor guy had to go through just to get onto the field. Yes guys, are you going to fight? In general, what do you care about me? Let me out and that's it! I'll just do what God told me to do. No, he needs to go through all the brothers, servants, Saul. He still managed to arrange things there, remember this, this robe! This is generally the worst thing, I have a whole topic about this, about dressing up and counterfeiting. Do you think you can achieve something in someone's armor? My dear, I can achieve more in my shorts than with your Bible and your tie. Do you understand what I am talking about? My shorts are mine! I can preach in my shorts in a way that no one in suits can preach. Smile, everything is fine! Everything is fine, Jesus loves you and me, oddly enough. Yes, everything is fine, this is where you were strange, but here it’s normal. Let's redo it, and when you get there, you will say: this is definitely not normal anymore! Because you've eaten something that changes you.

“And David said to Saul: “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep, and it happened that when a lion or a bear came and carried away a sheep from the flock, then I chased after him, and attacked him and took him out of his mouth, and if he rushed at me, then I took him by the hair and struck him, and killed him. Your servant killed both the lion and the bear, and the same thing will happen to this uncircumcised Felistine as to them, because this is how he defames the army of the living God. And David said: “The Lord who delivered me from the lion and the bear will deliver me from this hand of the Philistine.” And Saul said to David: “Go, may the Lord be with you!” And there the guys from behind began to dig a hole!- “he thinks, listen to die, it’s so beautiful! You think, why did they dress him, well, man, he’s cool, at least let him die gracefully! How I love the Bible! Are you saying that God has no sense of humor? You just have to see everything here!” - and Saul dressed David in his own clothes and put a copper helmet on his head, and put armor on him. And David girded himself with a sword over his clothes and began to walk, for he was not accustomed to such weapons. Then David said to Saul, I can’t walk in this, I’m not used to it. And David took all this off himself, and took his staff in his hand and chose for himself 5 smooth stones from the stream and put them in the shepherd's bag that was with him. And with his bag and his sling he came out against the Philistine. And the Philistine came up to David. And the armor bearer walked ahead of him. And the Philistine looked in and saw David and looked at him with contempt. - “Oh, the Philistine did not see with his right eyes who came against him! Church, do you see how everyone here sees everything wrong except David? Only David could see everything right, so he took the battle! No one, including Saul, Goliath and his armor bearer saw anything! They mocked, everyone mocked! But when David did his job, the jokes ended and then poor Saul did not know where he was pinching, because when he walked through the streets, everyone shouted: Saul has thousands, and David tens of thousands! My dears, the humor is over. Because someone saw something! We read further, I will finish: “And the Philistine looked at David, and saw him, and looked at him with contempt, for he was young, fair-haired, and handsome in face. And the Philistine said to David, “Why are you coming at me with a stick, am I a dog?”

Do you hear me, the Philistine did not even have the audacity to say: I will kill you and everyone. He said: I will only kill you. And David says: I will not only kill you, I will kill all of you. My dear ones, you know that the man’s vision was correct. He could see specifically, he spoke specifically!

Learn to see through His eyes! How to learn? How much time do you spend with God? How close do you walk with Him? Doesn't it depend on how much you read the Bible, how close you walk with Him? When was the last time He told you what to do? O my dear ones, I want to experience His seasons, feel His breath, because if everyone tells me “No” and He says “Yes” to me, victory will always be on my side!

The most important thing in my life is not only to have talent, but to have ears to hear! Sometimes the strangest weapons were amazing! No one has ever fought with a sling and a stick! Before David, a sling and a stick were tools used to drive away dogs, wolves, and wild foxes. It was a shepherd's weapon, which was simply used to drive away. My dears, he also put all the Philistines to death with this weapon.

You know that David taught everyone to see correctly! When he saw correctly, everyone around him saw correctly! My dears, learn to look through God's eyes! When you learn to see with God's eyes, no matter who comes against you, you will always come out victorious because you see with God's eyes! Because you experience His breath, His heartbeat, and you are abnormal in their eyes, but you are the most normal in His eyes! Learn to see, learn to hear, as God wants! And please, become deaf and blind to those and those who are going nowhere! In the name of Jesus Christ!

Father, I thank you my God for opening our ears. I ask you, my Lord, teach everyone here to see as your children saw! Teach us to see as Moses saw! Teach us to see what David saw! Teach us to see as Elisha saw! Teach us to see as Daniel saw!

Thank you, Lord!

Humble yourself to become a servant of Christ and His church.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).

“But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). “be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Eph. 4:23).

All of this is the exhortation of the Apostle Paul. With them, he seems to say to the people of God: “let the mind that Christ has - the very way of thinking of Jesus - also be your mind, your way of thinking. Having His mindset is the only thing we should all strive for.”

But what does it mean to have the mind of Christ? Speaking in simple words, it means to think and act as Jesus did. It means making decisions about how we need to live based on what Jesus wants us to do and acting on it. This means directing all the powers of our mind to find out how we can actually acquire the mind of Christ.

Every time we look into the mirror of God's Word, we must ask ourselves, “Is what I see in myself a reflection of the nature and mindset of Christ? Am I being transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory from all the circumstances that God creates in my life?”

According to Paul, this is what Christ's mindset should be:

“But he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men, and becoming in appearance like a man” (Phil 2:7).

Jesus made this decision while still in heaven. He made a covenant with the Father to leave His heavenly glory and come to earth in the form of a man. He made the decision to come to this earth in the form of a humble servant in order to serve, and not to be served.

Christ expressed all this in the words: “I come to do Your will, Father.” Jesus decided before all time: “I renounce My will in order to fulfill Yours, Father. I submit My will to Yours. Everything I say and do will come from You. I sacrifice everything to depend completely on You.”

In turn, the essence of the Father’s covenant with the Son was to reveal His will to Him. God said to Him, in essence, the following: “My will will never be hidden from You from now on. You will always know what I do and how I do it. You will have My mind."

Many today who consider themselves followers of Jesus have never made the decision to live as the Lord lived. On the contrary, they get along very well with their flesh - with their mood swings, their character flaws, their secret sins. And they don't want to change at all. They say: “This is my nature. I am that I am".

But when Paul boldly declares, “I have the mind of Christ,” he is saying, “I have also made myself of no reputation. Just like Jesus, I have taken on the form of a servant.” And Paul states that the same should be true of every believer: “And we all have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).

When did Paul renounce worldly glory by humiliating himself?

You may ask: at what point and how did Paul become a servant of God? This man was a persecutor of believers, in fact, a murderer. How could such a person ever acquire the mind of Christ?

Paul could tell exactly at what point in his life this happened. Acts 9 tells how and where they made this decision: in Damascus, on a street called Straight, in the house of a man named Judas.

At that time, Paul was known as Saul. He went to Damascus with a small group of armed men to arrest Christians there, return them to Jerusalem, put them in prison and torture them there. But Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, blinded him and directed him to the house of Judah, which is on Straight Street.

“And for three days he saw not, nor did he eat, nor drink” (Acts 9:9).

During these three days, Saul's mind was renewed. He spent all his time in intense prayer, “evaluating”, i.e. rethinking your past life. And what he saw in her, he now began to despise. That's when Saul became Paul.

This man was very proud. He was filled with misguided zeal, devoting all his strength to establishing his reputation among other equally proud and self-important religious people. But at this time, as he himself says, “Christ came and revealed himself to me, and I renounced my former ways. Enough with people-pleasing, enough with religiosity. From now on I am Christ’s.”

“And I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8).

Paul was a man who could say of himself: “Once upon a time I was something. Everyone in my class, including the Pharisees to whom I belonged, looked up to me. I was among them as a Pharisee, showing great promise, for whom the way to the top was open, and I was considered a holy man, an authoritative teacher of the law. I had an excellent reputation in my country and was considered impeccable in the eyes of the people.

“But since Christ stopped me in my tracks, everything has changed. The desire to achieve something, to become the first - everything that, as I previously believed, gave my life meaning - was all abandoned by me. I saw that I had completely missed the Lord.”

Paul used to think that his religious ambitions, his zeal, his fighting spirit, his works, his busyness were evidence of his exceptional righteousness. He thought that all this was for God's glory. Now Christ revealed to him that it was all one solid flesh, everything was done only for his “I”.

And so Paul made a decision: “I stopped wanting and achieving success and recognition and decided to be a slave.”

“Being free from all, I made myself a slave to all, that I might gain more” (1 Corinthians 9:19).

Paul saw that Jesus had adopted the lifestyle of a slave. Before him was the Son of God Himself, but with the heart of a servant. Paul knew that he too had been made a son of God through Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, but like Jesus, he also desired to be a son of God with the heart of a servant, and so he decided to become a devoted servant of Christ and His church.

Beloved, I also know that I am a son of God. And like Paul, I too want to have a servant's heart like Christ's. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). To have the mind of Christ means to go beyond all theology. It means surrendering our own will and attending to the concerns of Jesus.

I know of no other way to free myself from my “I”, my ambitions and worldly glory, no other way to become a slave to Christ and His Church, except through prayer.

The Holy Spirit came to a pious man living in Damascus named Ananias. He commanded the man to go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and lay hands on Saul and restore his sight.

Of course, Ananias had heard about who Saul was. And he realized that it would be very dangerous. But this is how the Holy Spirit recommended Saul to Ananias: “he now prays” (Acts 9:11).

The Lord was essentially saying this: “Ananias, you will find this man on his knees. He knows that you are coming. He even knows your name and why you were sent to him. He wants to see the light."

When did Saul receive this inner knowledge? How did he receive this vision, this pure word from God? It came to him through passionate prayers and supplications. I even think that these words spoken by the Holy Spirit to Ananias show us what touched the heart of God in what Saul did: “he now prays.”

Saul was alone with God for three days, refusing all food and even water. The Lord was all he needed, and so he remained on his knees all this time, praying and seeking God.

When I was still a teenager, my preacher father taught me: “God always opens doors for a person who prays.” There have been periods in my life when the Lord provided me with irrefutable evidence of this.

I was called to preach at the age of eight when the Holy Spirit came upon me. I then fell to the ground and wept, praying and crying, “Fill me, Lord Jesus.” Later, as a teenager, I prayed until the Holy Spirit came upon me mightily, like God.

When I was a young pastor in Pennsylvania, I suddenly felt a deep spiritual thirst within me that forced me to pray more diligently. “Serving Jesus is more than what I already do. Oh Lord, I can no longer live a life that reflects so little of what I find in Your Word. It’s better to die than to live such a selfish life as I live.”

And I began to pray: I spent whole months on my knees, crying and praying sometimes for several hours at a time, until finally the Lord called me to go to New York to preach to gangsters and drug addicts. This was over forty years ago.

I was also on my knees eighteen years ago, seeking the face of God with tears and loud cries, when He called me to go back to New York to start a church in Times Square. Then again the Lord said to me: “I need your will, David. I want you to live by My will, by My concerns.”

Whenever I heard a word from God, whenever I had any revelation from Christ, any understanding of the thoughts of Christ, it did not come from studying the Bible alone. It came through prayer; it came from seeking the face of God in the secret chamber of prayer. And if there is any manifestation of Christ in me, it is because I have spent time alone with Him in the secret chamber of prayer.

I also remember what happened to me when I became spiritually lazy and dry, neglecting prayer.

Neglecting prayer is fraught with serious and terrible consequences.

“How shall we escape if we neglect so much salvation” (Hebrews 2:3).

How can any of us who are in Christ expect to escape the consequences of prayerlessness?

I know what it is like when the full-flowing river of blessings flowing in my life suddenly begins to dwindle and is reduced to a weak stream that is not even marked on the map. I know what happens when a source of living water suddenly stops flowing, drying up and draining every blessing that was in life. This happened precisely during those periods when I took prayer lightly.

At such times, my prayer was only a reflection and a pensive state. There was no effective fervor in my prayer. And why? Because the worries of this life took away my time to communicate with the Lord.

So what exactly happened to me during these periods? The thirst to serve turned into self-pity. Service itself began to feel like a burden rather than a blessing. And misfortunes, one after another, began to fall on my soul.

I had to struggle with feelings of abandonment, fatigue, disbelief, an anxious feeling that I had done very little in my life, even thoughts of leaving the ministry. And the flow of God’s blessings was interrupted: irritability appeared in communication with my loved ones, I lost spiritual vision, and new revelations about Christ no longer came.

But I also learned the glory of returning to being in prayer with the Lord. As soon as I returned to my prayer room, the blessings began to flow again. I had joy and peace, my relationships were restored, and God's Word came into my life.

“And he ran to God in the days of Zechariah... and in those days when he ran to the Lord, God prospered him” (2 Chron. 26:5).

“We sought Him, and He gave us rest on all sides” (14:7).

“all the Jews...sought Him with all diligence, and He allowed them to find Himself. And the Lord gave them rest on all sides” (15:15).

Scripture tells us clearly that the Lord's servants who pray find blessing and peace on all sides.

If you are determined to please Christ, you will never need the approval of men.

If I try to please people, then I simply cannot be a servant of Christ. If in my heart I put the approval of others above all else, if this is my usual way of thinking - which, by the way, influences how I live - then my heart will be divided. I will always strive to please someone other than Christ.

A few years after the apostle Paul was converted, he went to a church in Jerusalem to try to join the disciples there.

“But everyone was afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple” (Acts 9:26).

The apostles knew that Paul had a reputation as a persecutor.

“I was not personally known to the churches of Christ in Judea, but they only heard that he who once persecuted them was now preaching the good news of the faith which he had formerly destroyed” (Galatians 1:22-23).

Barnabas helped the apostles overcome their fear of Paul, and they received him friendly. But Paul decided to go on pilgrimage among the Gentiles. And Paul himself describes his calling very clearly. He notes that he was chosen “not by men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (1:1).

Then he adds, especially emphasizing the meaning of what he says:

“I declare to you, brethren, that the gospel which I preached is not that of men, for I also received it and learned it, not from man, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ. …I did not then consult flesh and blood” (Galatians 1:11-12).

What Paul is saying here applies to all who desire to have the mind of Christ: “I did not need to read books or use any human methods to get what I have. I received my revelation, my ministry and my anointing on my knees.

I tell you, all this came to me while I was in communion with the Lord, praying and fasting. All the revelations I have about Christ come to me from the Holy Spirit, who dwells in me and guides my life. I cannot afford to follow the ways and methods of others."

And Paul here emphasizes that long before he decided to return to Jerusalem, “he went into Arabia” (1:17). In other words, he is saying here: “I did not receive my revelation of Christ from the saints in Jerusalem. On the contrary, I went to Arabia, to the desert, so that Christ would reveal himself to me there. I spent a lot of time there, freeing myself, listening and learning from the Holy Spirit.”

Please understand me correctly here: Paul is far from the image of a proud, arrogant lone preacher, since we know that he already had the heart of a slave. He renounced all plans for himself, and found complete satisfaction in Christ.

Paul didn't need anyone to show him how to preach Christ. Or how to conquer sinners to the Gospel. From now on, the Holy Spirit was his Teacher.

Paul believed that the mind of Christ changes a person's aspirations forever.

When Christ became the source of his complete satisfaction, Paul began to direct his thoughts and aspirations to the above, heavenly:

“Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; Set your mind on things above, and not on earthly things. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).

Sadly, this is not what most Christians do today. A church pastor once confessed to me, “My father was a very poor, ragged missionary all his life. And when he retired, he was still poor. He barely made ends meet to survive. I was also called to ministry, but I firmly decided that I would not live like my father. I will be a pastor who lives in abundance. I made a vow to myself to make money and invest it in some business in order to constantly maintain the same amount.”

This man managed to make money. But his motivation was absolutely wrong. He trusted in his own ability to provide for his future and the future of his family. As a result, all his investments became worthless, and he became involved in a legal dispute regarding his finances.

Thank God, after a certain time he returned to Christ again and repented of directing his thoughts to earthly things. And now he firmly decided to acquire the mind of Christ, and the circumstances of his life began to change for the better for him.

When Paul wrote his epistle on “The Mind of Christ,” he immediately gave it to the church at Philippi.

It was to the Philippian Christians that Paul first revealed this truth: “have the mind of Christ.” Paul wrote this letter to them while in prison in Rome.

It was from the prison walls that Paul first declared that he had the mind of Christ, because he cast aside his reputation to become a slave of Jesus and His church. Now he wrote:

“I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I also, having learned about your circumstances, may be comforted in spirit” (Phil. 2:19).

This is already a state of mind characteristic exclusively of the mind of Christ. Think about it: we have a pastor in prison. However, he does not think about his own comfort, his own difficult circumstances. He worries exclusively about spiritual and physical condition their believers. And he says to his sheep: “My consolation will only come when I know that you are in good health, both spiritual and physical. Therefore, I am sending Timothy to find out about your circumstances, for my reassurance.”

“For I have no one equally diligent who cares for you so sincerely” (2:20).

What a sad statement! As Paul wrote these lines, the church in Rome where he was located was growing and being blessed. Obviously, the Roman church then had godly pastors. However, Paul says: “There is no one near me who has the mind of Christ like I do.” Why was this?

“For everyone seeks his own, and not the things that please Jesus Christ” (2:21).

Obviously, there was not a single pastor in Rome with the heart of a slave - not one who would throw aside his reputation and become a living victim. On the contrary, everyone pursued their own interests. No one had the mind of Christ. Paul could not trust anyone to truly minister to this congregation of believers.

And the categorical nature of these words of Paul cannot be softened by anything: “everyone seeks his own. All these ministers are looking only for their own benefit. That’s why I can’t trust any of them to take care of your needs and sorrows, except Timothy.”

If we look at the church today, we see that the same thing is happening in many churches now. Ministers and parishioners alike are caught up in the things of this world: money, fame, materialism, success. They are called to serve the church of Jesus Christ, but they do not know the mind of Christ. And the mind of Christ is characterized by sacrifice, love and care for others. In the words of Paul, “everyone seeks his own.”

When I look at the world, I see how it is already rushing into chaos.

We live in a time when the threat of a planned nuclear or chemical explosion hangs over the entire world. The hearts of millions of people are now gripped by fear. And the Church of Jesus Christ now bears such a responsibility as never before in history.

When I see all this, the question arises in me: “Why is the word spoken with authority in Christ not heard? Where are those shepherds, those churches, those ordinary Christians who think the same way as Jesus? Where are those who seek not their own, but the acquisition of the mind of Christ in these days?”

Those who are focused on improving their lives move away from intimacy with Christ. They may preach Christ, but they know Him less and less. And they become more and more defenseless against great temptations.

I want to ask you: Is your church thriving, but you cannot name anyone in it who, like Paul, would seek what is pleasing to Christ? And what about you? When you meet some unemployed person, do you pray for him? Are you looking for ways to help him, to serve him in some way?

Where are the young Timofeys today? Where are those young men and women of God today who are able to resist the universal temptation to strive with everyone else for success and glory, and instead strive with all their hearts to fervent prayer, subordinating all the circumstances of their lives to one single goal - to become true servants of Christ and His churches?

Our prayer should be: “Lord, I don’t want to be self-centered while living in a world that is about to fall into chaos. I don't want to think about my future. I know that You hold my path in Your hand. I ask You, Lord, give me Your mind, Your way of thinking, Your concerns. I want to have the heart of Your servant." Amen!