Hot Diggity

Hot Diggity

by Eugene Wiesner

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Most of you know that I’m a clinical psychologist, and that I make my living from the eyebrows up. And I want to assure you that the only thing I’ve ever seen work is what is true. You know, we have a lot of things in world psychology that are not true. They don’t work.

But if psychology is in agreement with God’s Word, it works. That’s one thing I’ve noticed. You know, I’ve always been a very practical person all my life. I grew up on a farm in western Kansas. Right. Ron Hayes.

And I farm in Trego County there for a while. So one day I asked my wife if she was willing to help me sell it so we could go down to Kansas University at Lawrence. We finally did that. And I never lost that thing it takes to be a successful farmer. You know, if it doesn’t work, you quit doing it.

Well, psychology isn’t that way. You know, if it doesn’t work, they always blame it on the patient. You know. It was never the doctor’s fault. But I never could get into that. You know, it just… There’s something in me that goes… You know, it won’t let me do it.

And, of course, God came into my life with power. And through the Holy Spirit, you know, He just simply puts in us… You know, I think the scripture says He breathes it into us. He inspires us with His truth, with His Word. And it becomes part of us. And that’s what we use. You see, you know, I don’t have a dramatic story to tell anybody about my life with the Lord. Because I don’t ever remember when I didn’t know the Lord. You know, I grew up in a family where Jesus was the center of it all the time. My very earliest memories of reading books was Bible history. And stories of Jesus walking on the water. You know, I remember still looking at that. Do you wonder how He did that? You know? But I knew He did it. I learned early that Jesus walked on water.

And Peter sank. I’ve tasted the love of the Lord from the time I was little. And periodically, all through my life, every so often, God comes to me and He lets me know, in a very, very powerful way, that He loves me. And that’s the thing that sustains me. If it wasn’t for that, I would never be close to the Lord. And you know, that’s the way it is with people, too. If you know someone loves you, it sustains you. You know, we live on love. You know, that’s what our gas tank needs, is to always be full of love. And then we can go. If there’s none in there, we get sick. We literally become ill.

Why is that true? Because we’re made to the image and likeness of God. God is love. You know, it’s a… I could go into the mathematics and the psychology of God, if you wanted me to, but I don’t plan on doing them tonight. And the research that God has allowed us to show which we’ve come to understand Him in our head. But you don’t really need that. What you need is God in your heart. That’s where it’s that. Let’s see.

And so I work with Christians, you know, who struggle. Who struggle because they’re confused about Jesus. They know about Jesus. They don’t seem to come to know Him as well as they like. Knowing about somebody and knowing Him are two different things. You know, you know about somebody in your head and you know somebody in your heart.

It’s a… And so I spend my life, all my spare time, you know, working with Christians who have a hard time… Christianity. You know what the biggest secret of Christianity is? Is that it’s hard to be a Christian. You know. And if you ever accepted that totally, say, “It’s okay if it’s hard to be a Christian,” then you wouldn’t have nearly as much trouble with it. But if you think Christianity is supposed to be an easy street, you’re always in trouble because it never is. You know. It’s… It just never is. And I find that to be a common denominator with people who come in. They say, “Dr. Wiesner, what’s wrong with me?” And they keep talking about it. I say, “Well, gee, there’s nothing wrong with you. That’s an ordinary Christian life.” You know, they look at me. “Oh, but where’s the victory?” And I say, “Well, we got it. We win.”

But it doesn’t mean that we don’t have a struggle. Yeah, I’m amazed at how many Christians have been taught that Christianity is namby-pamby, easy street. I’m amazed at that. And I want to tell you, if you start with that idea, you’re going to be in trouble until you finally give it up. You have to finally say, “Being a Christian is something tough. But I can do tough things.” You know, so what? It’s okay. It’s like being a Marine. You know, where the government says, “I need a few good men.” And he doesn’t mean masculine. He means people. I need a few good people. And that’s what God says, too.

And you have to ask yourself, are you going to answer the challenge of being one of those good people that God wants? Willing to go through thick and thin, hot and cold, without murmuring and without even being surprised at it.

You know, it’s like every time God sends something your way that tests your faith, or builds you up like an obstacle course in basic training, you know, you’re better off saying “Hot diggity” than anything else. Yeah! Hot diggity. Yeah! Hot diggity. Hot diggity. There you go. Is there a song?

Yeah, let’s learn that sometime. Hot diggity. Okay. We’ll call it the hot diggity chorus. The pastor. Well, that’s what James said. In James, chapter 1, verse 2, he says, “My brothers, I want you to consider it with pure joy…

Whenever you’re tested with a trial.” Not only with one, but with all kinds of, he says. Don’t shake your head, honey. Don’t do that! Don’t go right this way! The book’s already been written! You know why? You know why I say that, don’t shake your head? Because when one of my patients shakes a head… “Yes, Dr. Wiesner!”

I was sitting there saying, are you telling me no? You don’t want it that way? Or you’re not glad that it’s that way? See, that’s what it means, see? You know, there’s a lot of times when we were little kids, you know, our parents would tell us to do something, we’d sit there and go…

And a lot of us do that to God! We go that way, go… And I’ll tell you, if you don’t have that eagerness and that joy about saying, “God, I want to thank You that You never test me more than I can handle”… A lot of us don’t believe that! You know, if you knew that there’s nothing will ever happen to you that’s too tough for you!

Nothing! Absolutely nothing! The only thing, whenever you get hit with something that’s disappointing, or it appears to be overwhelming, or it might even be painful! You know, you just sit there and you say, “God, I’m sure glad that You and I are going to get through this one way or the other!”

Very first word! Yeah! Do you know, if you all did that, you know, you’d put guys like me out of business? That you’d only need one-tenth the counselors that are… Do you know that 10% of the body of Christ can use up a hundred percent of the counselors all the time?

Yeah! They go over and over and over! They come back with the same problem and they never make any progress! It’s always the same cotton-picking problem! “Dr. Wiesner!” You know, just that attitude, it’s sort of an attitude of murmuring. You know, “I don’t want it this way!” I remember when they drafted me into the army and put me in boot camp. Yeah! And put me in boot camp. They didn’t start me out with stuff that hurt me. You know, they’d walk me a mile maybe, and I’d be, you know, just wore out. But they’d stop and they’d let me sleep the next day. They’d go a mile and a half. Aren’t you glad they always saved the hardest ones until last?

Let’s all say it… Ha-diggity! Come on! Ha-diggity! Ha-diggity! Dog diggity-boom! What’d ya do to me?! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Yes! I remember when they finally got me in shape to make that 20 mile march under full pack in five hours. If they’d started me out that way they’d have killed me.

So God does that to us. You know, it’s a… And I wanna tell you something. Once you accept that and say, “It’s okay, it’s okay, God, for You to run my life that way, it’s okay.” I want to tell you something. Following Jesus becomes something beautiful. You can never look at God and say, “It’s not okay.”

You know, I’m into IQ stuff. And I’m glad that I’m perfectly aware that God’s IQ is a lot higher than mine. Just a whole bunch higher than mine. And so whenever He asks me to do something, I’ll say, “Well, God, You’re smarter than me. I’m going to listen to You.”

And I want all of you to remember that, too. God’s IQ is much higher than yours. Yeah, you can take that for granted. You don’t have to even hope for it. Just say, “Amen.” Amen, brother. Amen. It’s a… When people come in for counseling and they’re mad at God, I just am so puzzled. I say, “How can you get mad at somebody who’s smarter than you?” It’s like a student in one of my classes. You know, getting smarter, getting mad at me because, you know, I’m telling him something. You know, it’s like the student thinks he’s smarter than the teacher.

I’m always… There you go. I’m always amazed at that. I say, “Why do you pay good money if you don’t believe what I tell you?” You know? A lot of times I’ll say something and some student in the class, “Well, I don’t believe that.” And you know, a lot of us do that with God.

“I don’t believe that.” You know, I have to practice it, too. You know, things happen to me that at first glance, I’d like to say, “Gee, Lord, I wish You wouldn’t do it that way.” But then I have to back up and say, “Well, God, You’re smarter than me. You know? You’re wiser. You know? You know, the things I know are just piddly stuff with what You know. You know, You can see further than I can. You know, I’m myopic. I can only see up this far. But You can see way down. You can see 100 miles away. You know what’s going to happen in my life next year to year after. And You’re already preparing me so that I can take life as it comes. So that no matter what Satan can put at me or what the world can put in front of me, that we, You and me, always win.” And it makes Satan always look foolish.

You see, if God did it, everybody would say, “Well, you know, He’s big and tough. He’s smart. Sure, He can do it.” But when God works through people like us, and Satan sees us do it, he sits there and goes… See, it puts him to shame. You know, he hates that. When those of us who used to be his slaves can now manifest the glory and the power of God, the majesty, he sees that, you know, he pulls in his tail and he slings them off. He hates that. He loves us, though, you know, when we act defeated, when we act like we can’t do it. You know, there’s a certain number of scriptures that I use in my life. And I’m not saying that in a way that… I don’t want you to think I’m bragging. I just want you to share with me the joy of success. And I want to share those scriptures with you. You know, I start out with Psalm 91, verse 9 and 10. It says, “Because you have Jesus as your refuge, and because you dwell under the shadow of the Most High God, nothing bad is ever going to happen to you.” I go, “What do You mean, Lord? What is this that’s happening to me then?”

Well, it’s all kinds of things, but it’s not bad. The circumstances of your life are never evil. I’m amazed at how many Christians do not believe that. I’m amazed at that. If God said it, that’s it. And you say, “Well, how in the world can you believe something like that?” Well, mostly because God said it. He doesn’t lie to us. He doesn’t play games with our minds.

You know, He doesn’t flamboozle us. If God said nothing bad is going to happen to us, guess what? Nothing bad is going to happen to us. Period. Period. See, if God would tell us that no evil will come near us, and then evil came near us, that would be the most monstrous game to play with somebody.

Absolutely. It would be the most hideous, ugly game. So we have to assume that God isn’t that way. Well, mostly because we know He isn’t. We know He’s a loving God. He’s kind. He’s gentle. He’s understanding. And His love for us is so great. So absolutely great.

That He wouldn’t do anything like that to us. I’m all of us awestruck at how God can love us. How God… What tremendous pits we are of God. When you look at the whole universe, and you look at everything He created, and you look how He treats us compared to with everybody else, He says, after we’ve been lost, He came and ransomed us. He brought us back home again. He gave us eternal life again. After we lost it, He came back and gave it back to us. After we sin, over and over again, He forgives us. Over and over again. Fact is, every time we do something dumb, God always thinks it’s the first time.

Yeah, He doesn’t keep a record. He doesn’t have a list. You know that book they talk about in Revelations? The Book of Life? It says there are sins of Gene Wiesner, stamped, paid for by the blood of Jesus. Sins of Gene Wiesner, paid for by the blood of Jesus. Over and over and over. And that’s all that’s going to be in that book.

That’s the first thing. First thing. Nothing bad ever happens to us. Let’s all say that. Nothing bad ever happens to us. I know there’s things that happen to us that we don’t like. I’m perfectly aware of that. Happens to me too.

I know that things happen to us that are excruciatingly painful. I understand all that. Like my grandfather used to say, it’s maxing’s house. Those of you who are German, it doesn’t make any difference. It’s a disappointing, painful… all of things.

Just say that. “I’m sure glad. Nothing bad is happening to us.” You know, you have to make your mind bigger. You have to stretch your mind way out in order to bring that truth in. You have to make your mind bigger so that God’s Word can get in your head.

See? And the way you make it bigger is you start comparing things. Like, you compare your life here on Earth with eternity. Let’s take that one. It’s an exercise to make your mind bigger. You know, here I am, 61 years old, and it just seems like yesterday that I was 16.

All of us, yeah, where did it go? I know, it’s not going to be very long. The Lord’s going to come and say, “Gene, it’s time to come home.” And I’m going to look, I said, “Gee whiz, it just seemed like a week.” Honest, that’s the way it is. All you ask, anybody around here who has white hair, and they’ll tell you that.

Yeah, it just seemed like a week. Where did it go? But now let’s think of eternity. How long is eternity? It goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. And I don’t care what kind of mind game you get into, to stretch it out so that you can think of how long eternity is. And then you compare your life here on earth with eternity, and you can say, “It’s not that big a deal what happens to us here. It’s what happens on the other side that’s the big deal.” Because in comparison to my life in eternity, my life here on earth is only that long. Or even, I can’t even snap my fingers to make it the ratio.

And so we say, “Okay, God, for a while, I’ll undergo many trials for You. I’ll do it. It’s okay. It’s okay.” I remember when I was in boot camp in the army, or basic training, the people who murmured against the training exercises. What did they do? You know. And they went over the hill. Those who went AWOL, who deserted the outfit, they’re the ones who bowed and grown and murmured. And the potential that they could have reached through all of this practice could have brought the best out in them. They never achieved who they could be. They were never qualified to meet the canopy.

And that’s the way it is with us. That’s why the scripture says, those who murmured, they died in the desert. And the least that happened is the snakes came out and bit them. No, that’s good. It forced Moses to raise the bronze serpent so that everybody could see their sin.

It says that, all things work to the good of those who love the Lord. And so I’ve had to make my mind bigger. I had to stretch my mind way out in front of me. And not just look at here today, but go all the way down another 35, 40 years. All the way down. Say, “What’s happened to me today, and with the strength that God has given me to get through it, is going to work out for my good down there somewhere.” I don’t know where exactly, but I know it’s going to… Somehow, down there, down this corridor of time that I put in front of my head, you know, one of these little rooms on the side, I’m going to discover how what I’m going through today was actually beneficial for me, although I had no good idea.

And I have to learn that by heart. Not just give it a little bit of room in my brain. I have to learn it so that I’m absolutely sure of it in my head. So that I don’t sit there and I don’t lose hope, and I don’t become sad and depressed and say, you’ve got to make your mind bigger than the circumstances that you’re in at the moment. Because if you don’t, I want to tell you the struggle gets a hundred times bigger.

And so, you know, there’s a lot of scriptures that tell us that this is the way a Christian life is. A lot of scriptures tell us that. You know, it’s, James is one of them. I understand that Maria told you about Peter last night. That while we’re here, we have to go through many trials in order to build up our faith and get us ready for the coming of the Lord so that when He returns we go praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ.

Otherwise, you’ll sit and say, “Who’s that dude?” Yeah. It’s the trials of our life that actually keep us on our spiritual toes. Because if you didn’t have those, they say, army that doesn’t constantly stay in practices, army that deteriorates. Well, we’re an army. We’re an army that fights against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And if God doesn’t keep us in shape every day, we deteriorate.

See? And then there’s the toughies, like 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 8, where Paul shared with us, he says, “My brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant of the fact of what we went through on our journey through Asia.” He said, “We were crushed, absolutely crushed down.”

He said, “We felt like men who were condemned to death. We despaired of our very own life.” He thought, this is it, fellas, this is the end of the road for us. And he said, if this happened to us, to teach us a lesson so that we would learn to always depend on God and never on ourselves. So if any of you in this room are going through an experience where you feel literally crushed down, where you just sit there and say, “It’s all over with. You know, this is the end.”

You might open your eyes, look at God and say, “Okay, God, I know what You’re doing. You’re trying to teach me not to depend on my own strength, but to just kind of surrender to You and say, ‘Okay, God, if I’m going to make it, it’s going to have to be You.’”

You know, one thing my dad taught me when I was little was to become self-reliant. You know, we were the Russian-German farmers out of the Volga River in Russia. We moved over to Ellis County, Kansas. You know, if you ever go down to Ellis County, Kansas, you see all these Brungarts and all the Dreilings and all the Pfannenstiels and the Wiesners and on and on and on. You know, all those Russian-German names down there. They’re still there.

You know, we had to learn to be self-reliant in order to survive. But then when we come to God, He says, “Now you have to learn to rely on Me.” Self-reliance, there’s no place for that in the Kingdom of God. Kingdom of the world, yes. Kingdom of God, no. “You learn to walk with Me hand in hand and you rely on Me.” And so, those of us who were self-reliant in our own selves, God has to take that out of us. And so, the next time something happens to you that you think, “This is the end, there’s no more, there’s no more hope or nothing,” then you might come to your senses and say to yourself, “Okay God, I get Your point.”

I got Your point. I know every time that happens to me, oh, I hate that. I hate it. I, oh, being stuck in something where I can’t do anything about it is like dying for me. You know, I just, sometimes I’d sooner die than to sit there and just finally just say, “Okay God, it’s up to You.” You know, everything in me rebels and everything in me turns over and you sort of, you know.

But God says, “You have to, gee, you’ve got to get rid of that and I’m going to help you. Because if you don’t get over self-reliance, you’ll never learn to follow Jesus. You have to become Jesus-reliant on Him.” That’s hard for those of us who grew up in the world and became successful in him. It’s very difficult for us. But necessary. 1 Corinthians 10 is one of my favorite scriptures. It starts out and says, “The trials that you are going through, Gene Wiesner, are common to every Christian.”

That means I’m not the only one. Everybody has to go through them. And so I sit there and I say to myself, “Well, I guess if everybody goes through them, I can do it too.” And I don’t like to think that. I always like to think that my trials are bigger than others. That nobody has to go through what I’ve gone through. You know, what is that old song? “Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen.” You know, some big secret we got, you know, that I suffer more than anybody else. Be a psychotherapist, and you find out that’s not true.

Yeah. Yeah. So that comforts me. What I am going through is just an ordinary experience that every Christian has to go through. So I stick that in my head. And you know, that’s very consoling to me. And then the next scripture, and besides that, it says, God will never test you more than you can handle. And so you look at this trial that’s in front of you, and you say, “God, God, You and I are going to get through this in one way or the other, aren’t we? Thank You, Jesus, that we’re going to get through it.” So you have to walk in blind faith, not knowing the solution to what you’re going to do, but every step you know in faith that you’re on your way to the victory. You just don’t know how it’s going to happen. So you sit there and you say, “Boy, God, now this is going to be interesting. A real adventure to see how You work this one out.” But you know, He’s going to do it.

And when it’s all over with you, you go, “Wow, God, You really are smart. Not only smart, but You’re wise.” Some of you have heard this story already. I hope you don’t go to sleep home. It’s my pickup story.

That’s the one my 15-year-old boy told me. Yeah. You know, when I sold my farm back in Kansas in 1957, I sold my pickup. And after that, I could have kicked myself up and down the street. And I thought I needed the money, but… And it only brought $600. It was only three years old. Of course, at that time, they only cost $1,300.

But I finally went to school. Finally, after I graduated, I always had in my mind, “Well, get me another pickup.” So in 1978, after I was teaching now for 13 years, I finally went down and bought me a nice little Datsun, a little hustler. Yeah.

It’s a pickup. About all you can say for it. Hush there, Francis. Yeah, that’s what God says, too. Well, I drove that around, and I was so proud of that little thing, you know, it’s zipping around Billings. One day, my son borrowed it and said, “Dad, I want to go hunting up way up in the north of Montana. I want to kill me a muley.” So I said, “Okay, you do it, but you be careful with my truck.” So he wasn’t his typical son. You know, he took it up and his buddies were celebrating and they rolled it. Totaled it. Now, you can total a Datsun and still drive it home.

Which they did. I came home from some workshop like this and I looked at that piece of junk. No glass in it. The cab was no higher than the box. You know. I thank God that none of them were hurt.

I remember saying, “I’m sure glad that nothing bad happened.” I’m saying, now it looked bad. I had to say it in faith. And, you know, I don’t know that it was even perfect faith because I think there were some misgivings in my heart like, ugh. You know, like this. But I said it.

Well, 1983, well, in 82, I bought me a brand new 83 Ranger. Now, that proves that all things work out to the good. Right, Francis? You see, you’re starting to get the point. Well, I ran that around a little bit. Didn’t have power steering, and, oh, I was getting older and really hard on the arms to drive a truck with no power steering.

And so, one day, my new son-in-law borrowed it. I was on a, coming home from a workshop like this. Yeah, I was… And I asked my wife, I said, “Where’s my pickup?” She said, “Ron borrowed it.” “When’s he bringing it back?” “Tonight.” Okay. So I called him. He didn’t, I couldn’t get him. All I got was, “This is Ron and Brenda, you know, we’re not at the phone right now. But if you did, a short message at the sound of the tone.” I thought, turn it over there. Well, he didn’t bring it back the next day.

But that night, he and everybody stopped in for a drink somewhere. And it snowed and iced. And on the way down the hill, he slid sideways and another great big truck came and hit it broadside. And a Ford Ranger that’s hit broadside, his looks like a boomerang.

And so, my wife found me somewhere. I was doing some work and she comes, “Eugene, Ron, total to four.” How do you know it’s total? I didn’t think it could be total. Well, that’s what the wrecker said. It was total. I said, “Well, I’m sure I’ve been a bad ass.”

Now, I want to tell you something here. A story. I’m not finished with that first one, but this is a little one up. When you have somebody in your family who’s trying to learn God’s word by heart, don’t tell them they’re being unrealistic. Don’t tell them it sounds crazy. They don’t need your criticism. They need your help.

Like, what you need to do is say, “Well, hallelujah, we have a believer in this house.” It is so hard because that night my wife got upset with me because I said that. And it’s hard to maintain faith if the one closest to you gets upset with you when you do that. It’s really tough, so don’t be a party to tearing down someone’s faith. Now, I’m not blaming her, you know, because what she did was quite ordinary. You know, well, you know the story. If you look in front of my house today, three-quarter ton four-wheel drive Jimmy.

Power steering. Power steering. Power brakes. Four speakers. Electric windows and doors. You know, carpeted. Well, you know what I’m going to say when I get home. I’m sure glad I’m getting back. That’s exactly… I’m used to that already.

You notice how it always worked out to my good? And it’s true that no evil ever happened to me. Now, iron is iron, you know. You know, it helps a lot of people to total a pickup. Of course, it helps the dealer. It helps the people in Detroit. It helps the Japanese. They buy more scrap iron from us than anything else, I think. Isn’t that our number one export right now, scrap iron? Yeah. It helps the whole world. It gives you wonderful stories for talks like this. Yeah, but I don’t want you to think that’s what I’m doing. I want you to try to put in the most common, everyday life stories of what the truth is in our life. No evil has ever come near me. I’m not saying it wasn’t painful, I’m not saying it wasn’t disappointing, I’m not saying any of those things. It just wasn’t bad. It did work out to my good.

Did the insurance pay all that? It’s lots. It paid $130,000 for that son-in-law wreck. Somebody got hurt in the other truck. He got $100,000. My insurance company hasn’t dropped me yet. Are you running out of son-in-law? That’s something. That may be the real miracle, right? Yeah, that may be that it’s Safeco. And they’re touching about who they insure. I just walked on there because I don’t turn in any more little claims. I’d pay them off myself. It’s a… Well, you get the whole point of trying to tell you tonight. You know, stick with the truth. Don’t ever doubt what God tells us. It’s true. It’s true. It’s sort of like something you… Let me… Very quickly. Very quickly.

This represents the kingdom of God. You can see through it. It looks very transparent. That’s why everything that’s outside of it, you can see through. We have to be careful that you don’t see all the way through because you see everything outside too. Because that kingdom of God is in the world. So, if you look through the kingdom of God, you can see the world. And if you see the world, you think that’s what’s real instead of what’s in the kingdom of God. See, that you have to see by faith alone. The world you can see with your eyes. You can feel it. So, in the world, when you’re in the kingdom of God like this, in there, when you’re born again, a new creature, you live in a new kingdom.

You are a born again person. You have a new life. Your sins are all washed away. God doesn’t blame you for anything anymore. He chooses you. He adopts you. He’s redeemed you. He’s given you the Holy Spirit. You know, you’re just… it’s glorious to be in the kingdom of God. And we sit there and we go, “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! My goodness, this is nice!” You know, we have eternal life. We’re going to live with God in happiness forever!

And God says, “And I’m going to put you in the world.” It’s like putting a sheep in the pen of wolves. “But while you’re in there, I absolutely assure you, nothing bad’s going to happen to you.” You see? And then we look through that, that kingdom of fun. And we see the world. And the world says, “Something terrible’s going to happen to you.” And we look through this and we see it. And we think that this is real! And so, somebody comes and tells you nothing bad is going to happen to you, you can say, “Boy, that doesn’t sound very realistic.” You see, don’t test God’s Word with the concept of realism.

You see, it was not meant to be realistic. That’s the concept that the world uses to judge its truth. It says something terrible is going to happen to you, and here God puts you in there and says, “Nothing bad is going to happen to you at all.” So you have to decide which one you are going to believe. You are going to believe God and you are going to believe the world. You are going to be unrealistic? Or are you going to be realistic?

You decide because there is volatility. If you believe in both, you are in trouble. Your mind gets real and makes stuff bad. You are going to say, “Oh yeah, Gene Wiesner, yeah, I know that. But…” You know that the word “but” is a disclaimer? It disclaims everything that is said prior to it?

“Yes, I know that I am a born again creature of God. But, that means I don’t believe it! I am a creep!” That’s what the world says. See why? Because the kingdom of God is so transparent that you can only see it by faith. You can’t feel it! You can’t see it! You can’t touch it!

See, and if you rely on the feelings and the touchings that is in the world, then you may be trapped. You may be trapped. You may be trapped back. That’s what I learned as a counseling. It’s a blessing. You’re Christians. You know, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” that means even in the midst of trials, you rejoice. Why? Why? Because you see the truth and the essence of the world. See, all the thoughts that are in here, like it says, we’ve been blessed with every heavenly blessing. And we’re in the world. What does the world say to us? “You’re destitute.”

The Word says we’re chosen by God. The world says, “You’re a reject.” The world says, you know, we’re holy and blameless. The world says, “You’re a reprobate.” You know, God adopted us. Lie, heck. You’re beginning to get that nonsense. Your sins are forgiven. Then how come there’s so many sins around? You know, on and on. There’s always an assault on your mind to try to talk you out of what Jesus tells you. And you know, if you’re not careful, you can get sucked into that. And you get to the place where the world is the only truth. You claim to be a Christian and the world is the only truth. You claim to be a Christian and the only truth. And your life doesn’t ever reflect the joy of the victory. All you do is walk around with a long face and cry. You know, there’s no joy left there. But I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with crying because there’s a time for grief too. But that’s always in the flesh. You know, you can breathe in the flesh and at the same time be joyful in the Spirit. You know, I can do it. You know, I have to do some practicing on it. It can be done.

So you see what I… what I really like you to grab a hold of? I think your mind big and quickly trick me up. Because you can’t have a small mind and have God’s Word in it. And in order to get you to believe it, God has to take you through these trials. It makes you through it till you learn it. Over and over and over. Till you finally get good at it.

Faith is like a bucket with a hole in it. If you don’t keep it full, it’ll gradually drip out. So that you don’t have any faith left. You have to keep ahead of the game. It’s not too hard to keep the bucket full. God will see that you have plenty of little trials. That will prompt you to keep the bucket full. You can do that the rest of your life. Or you can get mad and say, “Well, I don’t know why it always drips out. I’m sick and tired of keeping it full.” You can take that route too. Or you can say, “Well, God, You do things well. I’ll keep it full.” You can do that. You always. Go to your quiet times. Pray about it. I know some of you may have a little war going on inside of you. You know, there may be something in you that just wants to resist it with everything you’ve got. And say, “That’s the biggest bunch of hogwash I’ve ever heard.” So you might go that route too. Or you might say, “God, if there’s any truth, you know what He told us tonight, I’m asking You to help me. God, I’d like to be a soldier. God, I’d like You to teach me to put on the armor.”

God, I’d like You to teach me to put on the armor. And to resist me. God answers prayer. You ask Him for that, you know what? You’ll get it. Ask Him. Can we say the world prayer in this one? Okay. Let’s say it.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. Amen.