And I would say, I've never lied to you. I never promised you a rose garden. I never said it would be easy. I never promised a life of silk pillows and easy passageways through everything.

     If you will read the instructions, I promised you, you would walk as I walked; you would be persecuted as I was persecuted; you would be rejected as I was rejected; you will experience what I experienced sitting outside that city crying over those I would have loved, those that I would have taken to my heart and given my life even for.

    The pain of rejection, the pain and sorrow of those that you come to with a heart of love, not only rejecting you, but crucifying you, turning with great intent of evil rending you!

     I never hid it in the Gospels. I put it in plain view for all to read and see and think about. If others have pulled a veil over your eyes and convinced you that it would be an easy pathway with no problems, no trials, no severe disciplines upon you then you have been deceived, saith the Lord.

     But light shall come. You will understand the meaning and the purpose of the suffering that you must go through to enter into the Kingdom of God.

     I didn't lie to you. I promised you I'd be with you in it. I promised you I'd never forsake you. I've kept my word. I've not left you, I've not forsaken you, nor shall I. But when you are hurting, when you don't understand there is only one place in the universe you can receive comfort. It's from Me. It is from the God of the Heavens.

     Do not run to your district superintendent; do not run to your friend; do not run to others that can only for a moment give you a temporary relief from the pain and suffering that you are walking through or the anguish that you experience. But I, even I, can inject you with the anaesthetic of God; I can inject you with the novocaine of God; I can give you peace in the midst of your sufferings. I can give you the spirit of Daniel where you stand at quiet in the midst of lions. That is what you need. That is what you need.

     For you will not escape the den; you will not escape the ship that goes down; you will not escape the trials of this life. You can only pass through them by the anaesthetic of God, by the peace of God, by the complete touching of God of your heart, soul, and spirit. In end it is in this well of suffering and sorrow at times that you find the wisdom of God, the peace of God. You understand things that are not understood other ways.

     You will never completely understand the mystery of God. You will never completely understand the Gospel. But know this that My love for you is deep, deeper than you can imagine. My care for you is endless. I will not leave you; I will not forsake you. As you pass through these valleys of the shadows of death, I will be with you, and you will come out the other side. It is not an eternal thing. You will come out of your sufferings, your pains, and your torments, your trials, and I will meet you on the other side. And there will be joy again; there will be great happiness again. There will be the Love of God.

     But you will be different. You will walk with a limp; you will have scars upon your hands; you will have the marks of crucifixion, saith the Lord. But oh, the resurrection, oh the joy. And for the joy that is set before you, you now endure the trials and sufferings that you go through as I did.

 
     But all know that there is great things ahead for you in this life and in Heaven. That must be your meat; that must be what keeps you - the inner knowledge that you are walking as I walked, really walking as I walked, really experiencing what I experienced. And you will feed off the same things that I fed off of. The will of My Father, the meat of a Heavenly God, these things shall sustain you and keep you in times of great trial and distress.

     And the love one for another, do not condemn one another, but support one another in your trials and your sufferings. Do not beat the one to the left or the right over the head with a club. You have no understanding of what they are walking through. You have no knowledge of how they were raised or what they passed through to get to the point that they're at. Simply support them; pray for them.

     If you cannot help them, then just leave them alone, but do not damage them. Do not move against them; do not attempt to remove or destroy that which you don't understand. Simply wait on God. He removes. He destroys. He will lift up. He will raise down. He will take care of all matters.

The Ark of Mercy

     Approach me through the Ark, children. Approach me through the mercy of God. Approach me through the blood of the lamb. That is the only pathway to the Father. It's through the Mercy Seat of God. It's through that Mercy Seat. That is what you don't understand.

     It is by the Mercies of the Lord that you are not consumed. It is by His Mercy and by His grace that you are saved. That is the meaning of the Holy of Holies. That is the meaning of the Ark of the Covenant. For the Mercy Seat was placed on top of the Ark on top of the Law!

     Mercy was placed on top of the Law. You cannot approach a Holy God through any type of legalistic system. You must come before the Mercy Seat where the Blood was shed and you come to the Father through the Blood and you will be received into Heaven's Courts. You will be granted petitions of prayer, but it is on your knees before this Ark of Mercy. That is the pathway to the power in Heaven acknowledging that it is through the blood that you are worthy, that you are worthy, and only through His blood are you worthy.

     But once the blood has been applied the worthiness is credited. You are credited; you are worthy to approach the Throne of your Father, through the blood of the Son. All others are robbers and thieves. You cannot approach but through that Mercy Seat. The mercies of God, the mercies of God.

     Once you learn the tender mercies of God you will share them with others. You will understand the Gateway to Heaven. You will understand that other individuals must come this pathway, too, that all must come through the Mercy Seat of God and that mercy is granted to all. Even to those that you would not grant it to I grant mercy, saith the Lord.

     The trail, the suffering, and the mercy of God. I am teaching, I am teaching, I am teaching my Church. I am raising them up, maturing them in the things of God.

     Do not fall back now. This is not a time for falling back. This is a time for strengthening your hand, strengthen your feet, strengthen your resolve. Resolve in your hearts now that you are going to march on with God, you're going to go forward with God, you're not going to fall back, you're not going to quit. You're not going to stop because you have not been able to understand what has happened.

     You will not with your mind understand your life, but with your heart, with your spirit you will know. You've been tested by God, you've been tried by God, you've been proved by God, and you have been passed by God. Those that have been assembled here today have passed, saith the Lord. You have passed, saith the Lord. You have passed saith the Lord.

     Your sufferings, your trials, and your tests, it is not that you will never have another one but you have learned, you have not given up, you've kept going even when you couldn't understand. You put one bloody foot in front of another and you kept going for another day, and another day, and another day, and another day, and you wouldn't stop.

     Therefore, I reward you; I commend you. This day, many of you in this room the trial will stop, it will cease from this moment on. There will be a time of healing, a time of restoration, a time of lifting up in the arms of God, and sweet comforting and cooing over you as a mother would coo over a child in a cradle. There will be a release, saith God, for many in this room this day from the flames, and the fires, and the trials, and the torments that you have been going through.

     And as you heal, and as you mature, you will look back and understand that which you have gone through, and passed through, and what it did inside of you. And as you approach different things in the future you will have a greater confidence in God, a greater understanding of how God works, and a great comprehension of the Love of God.

     Be at peace children; be at peace one with another and be at peace with your life. Setbacks do not mean failure in God. Severe trials do not mean failure with God. When Paul was imprisoned in the prisons, he did his greatest work from his greatest confinement. He wrote the Scriptures that are to this day winning millions to the Lord. In his confinement and in his inability to go out and do things he did his greatest accomplishment. Even he was not aware of it at the moment at the time that he was doing it, that this would be the greatest thing he ever did, to sit down and pen those letters to the churches.

     Fear not, when you do not think that you are being used, I am using you, saith the Lord. I am developing you; I'm doing things in you from your prison cell! And many of you in this room are in a prison cell, emotionally, spiritually, mentally. You're confined, you're locked up, you can't go and do what you want to do. But I am developing great and powerful and wonderful things in each one of you that will be brought forth in the coming days.

     So, fear not when you are imprisoned. Fear not, when your ministry is at a stand still. Fear not, when you can't go out and do the glorious things that you have birthed within your spirit. The time will come when those things will be accomplished, but not now, not at this moment, not while the developmental process is going on. If I restrict you and I hinder you it is to have you grow and mature in certain areas. Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. I will in good season release you. I will in good season fulfill all that I've promised you.

     "Paul, Paul it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks."  Don't kick against what I am doing in you. Learn to cooperate with God. Learn to go deeper into the Scriptures and see the meanings behind the setbacks in some of these people's lives and see what God did with them down the road. Cheat, saith the Lord; open the page and peek ahead! They weren't left out.

     Get it in your head, I'm not going to leave you out! I'm not going to abandon you. I'm going to do things with you. Be at peace. Be at peace. Your calling is secure. Your ministry is secure. No one can touch your ministry. No one can touch your calling. I don't care what law they put down, I don't care what they've spoken over you, and I don't care what decree they've decreed against you!

     I'll break it, saith God. I'll smash every rule in the book that they make, because I didn't make that law. I didn't decree that over you. And I didn't say you'll never be used. Many will be eating their words in the coming days. Many, many will be eating their words that they have spoken things over callings and ministries that were not true, that they perceived in their own hearts. Be careful when you render judgments one against another. Be careful.