Yet Paul, even while under unendurable pressure, continued with his preaching and writing, bringing eternal life to uncounted multitudes.

But it was not Paul, it was Christ in Paul who was doing the works and writing the Epistles. This also was true of our Lord Jesus Christ. He did not speak His own words or work His own works. It was the Father who spoke and acted in the Lord Jesus.

But what about the expression "for their deeds will follow them"?

The Lord Jesus was "dead," so to speak, and the Father lived and worked in Him. The deeds that have followed have altered the course of history.

The Apostle Paul was "dead," so to speak. But who can envision the impact Paul's Epistles have had on the peoples of the world?

Ours is an hour of spiritual darkness. The darkness will not diminish but increase as people are willing to follow their own pleasures, instead of denying themselves and keeping the promises they have made even when they are not enjoying themselves. This is especially true of Christians who refuse to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow the Lord Jesus.

The American culture, including the Christian culture, makes every effort to please people and make them happy. The Christian leaders have invented a "rapture" so believers will not suffer. The result of such lack of discipline is an influx of unclean spirit, bringing with them disease and crime.

The Christian pastor who is willing to inform his followers that no one can be a Christian until he denies himself, takes up his cross, and follows the Lord, may find he is serving a small, perhaps a tiny, congregation. Only pastors of integrity are ready for this kind of humiliation.

What is the answer, when we are being pressed day and night with one dilemma and problem after another? The answer, and the only answer for the true Christian, is turning away from one's life that Christ may live in him and enable him to be more than a conqueror.

Ours is a period of the greatest opportunity and the greatest danger.

The danger is that we will be deceived and led astray from Christ.

The opportunity is the availability of the fullness of the Presence of Christ and the Father. The Lord is so close to us today! He is inviting us to move past the Pentecostal experience that we might die to our own will and enter the rest of God.

There will be a warlike remnant of believers who will overcome the accuser by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and by loving not their own lives to the point of death. Satan shall be hurled down from the heavens to the earth. The inhabitants of the heaven will rejoice.

Who among us is willing to lay down our own life that the Lord Jesus might live in us? When enough believers do so, the wrestling match against evil will be brought to a victorious conclusion.

Such believers will be kept from the beast, his image, and his mark. But woe unto those believers who are willing to remain as part of the American way of death!

We are in the world but not of it. It is important we keep this in mind at all times.