"But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way." Matthew 13:25

"And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Matthew 24:22

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Genesis 1:28

"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent." John 6:29

Good Morning, friends, and truly a good morning it can be, and throughout the entire day, to you who are the children of the living God!

Again I want to talk to you about life here on earth, and how we can be successful and very happy. I think it is one of the most important subjects we can discuss, and certainly one of general interest. To most people it is the most important thing in life, and with that I am in full agreement. But where I differ with so many is in the fact that, by and large, people will make this search for success and happiness as an objective in itself, completely overlooking the one basic foundation on which a lasting success and enduring happiness can be founded. If searching for success and happiness, and working hard to get it, is all that counts, then we would see about us a world filled with people wonderfully happy and successful beyond words. But because they have sought the ultimate results, instead of first looking to the basic foundation, we have what we see all about us, which someone has termed the "rat race" – with comparatively little happiness and success largely a stranger. While those who have made more or less a success in building up a bit of a bank account, have failed more often than not to achieve that which they set out for.

About 2,000 years ago a Spirit came out from the Throne of God and incarnated in a babe in Bethlehem. The babe grew up and became known as Jesus the Nazarene. He taught people the Truth, but His doctrine was so astounding that very few could accept it. Some have called Him a revolutionary. To be sure, He was a revolutionary in thought and doctrine. Why? For the simple reason that Lucifer has been, and still continues to be, the prince of this world (Jn. 12:31, 14:30); we might speak of him as the Prime Minister, given charge of this world under the supervision of the great King of the universe.

In the dim and distant past, Lucifer decided that he had a mind of his own, and forthwith commenced doing things according to his own ideas, instead of implicitly obeying the word of God. Therefore, since he has been the prince of this world, he has injected into human thought and life the substance of his own rebellious spirit. To do so successfully, he had to "interpret" almost every word of God in such a way as to give it another slant or appearance. Even the direct Word of God through His Prophet to His people could not be accepted for this selfsame reason – that the people had been so schooled in the thoughts and perspective of Lucifer that the true Word of God seemed unpalatable, and unacceptable to even His Chosen People. Therefore, when the Son of God appeared in their midst, He was considered an extreme revolutionary and a dangerous character – not dangerous because of any violence in His manners, but because His teachings were so different people concluded that He would "lead Israel astray."

Now, Lucifer could not do away with the Son of God. He could not do away with the fact of history: that one Jesus the Nazarene had lived, Who proclaimed Himself the Son of God. Lucifer knew this was true, but he did not want the people to accept the words of Jesus. But since he couldn't do away with that, he inculcated thoughts into the minds of his own henchmen, who had been strategically placed, in order to "interpret" the words of the Lord in such a way that in the sight of man they would appear plausible.

It is true that we still have the words of God as taught to us by Jesus the Nazarene, but the truth of God has been so interspersed with spurious teachings that today none of the twelve Apostles could recognize any similarity between the teachings of today and that which the blessed Nazarene taught to them. That is what the Lord referred to in His parable, when He said that "while men slept, an enemy sowed the tares among the good wheat" (Matt. 13:25). Again I must remind you that the tare is a counterfeit wheat, which in its earliest stages appears just like the true wheat. Only the experienced eye can tell the difference. Not until its very last stages of growth is the difference very apparent. And when the tare-seed or tare-wheat is eaten, it produces sickness, and if eaten in quantity produces convulsions and eventual death. That is the present estate of Christendom: we have eaten of the tare-seed, and as a result, the world at large is sick and occasionally goes into "convulsions," and is slated for a prolonged spasm of convulsions, which will lead to its death.

Because of this, the Voice of God spoke to me out of heaven, saying, "Call My people together." That Voice came to me on June 22nd, 1965. And after a brief pause, it repeated with emphasis, "Call My people together." Why should His people be called together? There may be several reasons, but two very outstanding ones: the first reason is to commence spreading abroad on the face of the earth the true teachings of Jesus Christ, that people may fully come to understand that the kingdom of God, of which He spoke throughout His 3½ year ministry, is a kingdom of joy and happiness for earthly people here and now, not a kingdom to be hoped for in the dim and distant clouds of an unknown world and in an uncertain tomorrow. Rather, it is a spiritual kingdom that we can establish for ourselves right here and now, which, when it is established, translates to peace and joy, to happiness and achievement, which we may term success out of this world.

The second outstanding reason is that during His ministry He told the people in various ways that He was going to go away into "a far country," which was His symbolic language for heaven, or back to the Throne of God, where He would remain for a long time (Matt. 25:14; Lk. 19:12, 20:9). At other times, and in different ways which I cannot now take the time to show you, He stated that He would be gone about 2,000 years. It is now over 1,930 years since He departed. Because God has decreed that man's "week of labor" was only to cover a period of 6 days, we know that our time is almost up. For clearly has He told us that 1,000 years with man is only as one day with God (II Pet. 3:8; Ps. 90:4). Therefore, because man's history, since the Garden episode, shows us that 6,000 years have almost terminated, we also know that our era is almost run out. But He also told us that the era was to be cut short, because man would take leave of His senses and commence to destroy not only himself, but all life on the face of the earth. And our Lord said that unless those days were to be cut short, or terminated by His Own intervention, then no flesh would be saved alive on the face of the earth (Matt. 24:22). My beloved friends, those days are almost upon us. That is why He has called to me out of heaven saying, "Call My people together," that you may be fully warned of that which is to come about, and have time to prepare yourself to enter into the kingdom of God here upon earth now, and, thereby, provide for yourself an absolute shelter from the approaching storm.

What I've just stated, I have stated to you previously in different words. So I want to give you something new to think about, that you may better understand how to lay the foundation for a most wonderful tomorrow. Therefore, I want to read to you from Genesis 1:26 and 28, as follows, according to the Authorized Version:

"And God said, Let Us make man in Our Own image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion...."

Now let us pick up from there in verse 28 where we read,

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

From our knowledge of the present world, we do know that man has gone forth to conquer, and that he has gained a measure of dominion over animals: we have tamed animals and made them work for us, and we have cultivated them for food and clothing. We have also gained proficiency in being able to kill birds of the air and fish of the sea, but I ask you in all seriousness, is our capacity to kill them, the same as having dominion over them? We have tamed almost every animal that we have encountered, but as yet the day is dim and distant, if indeed we shall ever see it, that man shall tame the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, and have them do our bidding.

By setting this thought before you, I am only trying to stress this one fact, which has escaped our theologians: that although we may take the Word of God as being literal, yet the far more important fact is that it carries a spiritual, or deeper meaning of far greater importance to us. That is because God uses symbolic language. God was not interested as to whether or not man would ever tame a lion, and so train it as to be able to jump through rings of fire and perform for the entertainment of vast audiences; but rather, God was speaking to man for man's good, in setting before him the basic truths of his own very being. When He said that we should have dominion over the beasts of the earth, He meant that we should subdue the beastial (bestial) propensities of human nature, that is, within our own selves. And when He said that we should have dominion over the fish of the sea, He meant that we should so control our emotions that we could live as the sons and the daughters of God Almighty. And when He said that we should have dominion over the fowl of the air, He meant that we should learn to control our thoughts which fly hither and yon, so that they would be logically directed, and good thoughts.

Come back to the last words of verse 28, which I will again quote: "...and have dominion...over ever living thing that moveth upon the earth." By what stretch of the imagination can we arrive at the conclusion that we can have dominion over every living thing upon the face of the earth, but exclude ourselves? Surely we are something which moves upon the face of the earth! Therefore, the conclusion is inescapable that we must learn to have dominion over ourselves.

Perpetually I keep sharing about the kingdom of God for earthlings here and now, but man keeps looking out to conquer that which lies beyond, instead of looking within to subdue the beasts that are on the rampage, and to direct the emotions and thoughts which God represented by fish and birds. It is a simple matter to enter into the kingdom of God here on earth right now, but unless we will take the command seriously to subdue the beasts within, and gain control over the symbolic fish and birds, then we soon find ourselves in the same place as Jacob did, after he had come back into the kingdom of God, which the "land of promise" represented to them. He longed for his son who was down in Egypt, and he was afraid that there wouldn't be enough for him to eat in his own land, so he left his birthright behind him and ran away into Egypt (Gen. 45:25-28, 46:6). Egypt symbolizes the world of sinful men, and all its conditions of grief and trouble as we see it today. Therefore, we must gain dominion over everything that moves within us, in order that the kingdom of God, and its riches and joys, may be permanently established for us. Otherwise, like Jacob, we again find ourselves in Egypt, where, like unto him, we eventually die in the midst of the world's woes and troubles.

To gain this "dominion" over the beasts, the fish and the birds within (that is, over our beastial propensities, over our emotions and over our thoughts), is by far the greatest and most important work an individual can ever undertake.

Emphatically did the Lord Jesus say that "believing into Him (Jesus)" was "doing the works of God" (Jn. 6:29). Stop to think: HOW can we say that we have "believed INTO Jesus the Christ" so long as we lust for everything which meets the eye? So long as we fly off into a tantrum over our casual displeasures? Or while we practice cruelty in deed or in word towards our fellow man? We cannot separate the Person of Jesus Christ from the life He lived, or the way He manifested in His contact with other people. Wherefore, to "believe into Him" means far more than getting convinced that He lived; yes, and also far more than believing that He was the Son of God. After careful thought we cannot escape the conclusion that "believing into Him" has not been achieved until we have become His image in our conduct as well as in our own INNER beings.

You may have noticed my quoting that passage as "believing INTO Him" instead of what you read in the Bible as "believing ON Him" (Jn. 6:29). The believing "on" or "in" Him as we read in the Bible comes nowhere near to the meaning found in the original Greek. There the word is eis, the basic meaning of which is `into.' When you walk up to the door of a friend's house, you have gone "TO" his house or home. But not until the door is opened and you go IN, have you gone "INTO" that house.

THAT is what the Lord Jesus meant by "believing INTO Him": we must gain DOMINION over all that lives within us – that we may be like Him. Then have we "believed INTO Him."