RUSSIA
December 3rd, 2015
Day 8
This morning we can finally see our surroundings, because it was already dark when we arrived here last night. This is a Christian camp; and I would describe it more like a conference centre, because it’s such a big complex with all kinds of facilities, but the owner doesn’t accommodate any business meetings. He even is open to display and give out Message books in his little shop downstairs. The compound is surrounded by high brick walls, the doors and windows have iron bars, but done in a nice artistic way. It seems to me that everything in this country has high security.
We meet for breakfast at 9 a.m. in the huge dining hall
.
The Minister’s meeting starts at 10 a.m. and I am here to take some notes for the introduction part. This is the largest gathering of ministers there ever was in Moscow; 70 brothers from 6 different countries are here: from Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, and from different parts of Russia.
Brother Denis Petsevitch from Moscow is the interpreter for these meetings.
After prayer, Brother Sergey opens the meeting by reading Psalm 133:1-3.
[1] Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! [2] It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; [3] As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.
This is the first time we gather together like this with brothers in Moscow and we know it’s a great responsibility. We didn’t expect so many people to come. First we wanted it to be a very casual meeting, but with so many brothers we cannot have it like a round-table.
Each one of us has a burden, and we want to be more successful servants of the Lord. We know the time is ending soon and we want to know how to serve the Lord better.
On a personal note, I want to say, that since we are the ones responsibly for these meetings, our vision for these meetings is not to come together and try to find out and take out the details of anybody’s preaching to bring it to one understanding, but first the main emphasis is to make our relationships better that we have more respect for each other, more honour for each other, more respect to the local pastor somewhere, where God appointed him. It’s not for me to find out or conclude if he is right or not for what he is doing.
We all should appreciate each other the way we are. And I can say that these meetings are already by themselves a proof that our hearts are open and we are full of hope that we can fellowship together. If I wouldn’t have that hope I wouldn’t even organize something like this. But we want God to help each one of us.
Before these meetings I talked with with several brothers and I told Brother Vladimir ‘May be you don’t have a need to come for yourself to understand more for what is going on, but may be you are coming here or somebody else, may be that would help me and strengthen me, to know that I am not alone in this battle. And then we pray to God that He brings us to the unity of faith.
May be I ask each minister, whose name I call, to stand up with the people from his group.
We are all different here, we may have different understandings and circles of fellowship. We are not gathered here to make everybody the same. And we are not here to break opinions of people to make us all think the same. We pray for each other and wait.
The prophet says, we don’t even want to make our people to live a Christian life. We just present an example and show them what God says. We are not taking any authority over them. I want to read from the Church Age Book:
Smyrnaean Church Age
Part of 139: Notice here that Jesus (by the Spirit) in EVERY age addresses Himself to ONLY ONE person relative to the Word for that age. Only ONE messenger for each age receives What the spirit has to say to that age, and that ONE MESSENGER is the messenger to the true church. He speaks for God by revelation to the “churches”, both true and false. The message is then broadcast to all. But though it is broadcast for all who come within range of the message, that message is received individually by only a certain qualified group in a certain way. Each individual of that group is one who has the ability to hear what the Spirit is saying by way of the messenger. Those who hear are not getting their own private revelation, nor is a group getting their collective revelation, BUT EACH PERSON IS HEARING AND RECEIVING WHAT THE MESSENGER HAS ALREADY RECEIVED FROM GOD.
140. In every age we have exactly the same pattern. That is why the light comes through some God-given messenger in a certain area, and then from that messenger there spreads the light through the ministry of others who have been faithfully taught.
But of course all those who go out don’t always learn how necessary it is to speak ONLY what the messenger has spoken.’
God elected you to hear His voice with no private interpretation of the Word, to carry this Word further. You are the carriers of this Word.
Continuation of quote: (Remember, Paul warned the people to say only what he said, I Corinthians 14:37, “If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD. What? came the Word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?”) They add here, or take away there, and soon the message is no longer pure, and the revival dies down. How careful we must be to hear ONE voice, for the Spirit has but one voice which is the voice of God.’ End of quote.
In order to have a revival we just need to come back to the Word. The Spirit has only one voice, that’s the voice of God.
When we are gathered here, I believe we have to remember one thing from Brother Branham. We have to discern the spirit of a person. Not his membership, but we discern what he is trying to achieve. Is he tying people to himself or to Christ?
In Acts 20 Paul says, that the church of God is bought by His own blood. It’s His church, not your church. That grievous wolves would come in, that will not spare the flock but will draw away disciples to follow after them. That is when a man is trying to tie people to himself.
The true vine is not seeking glory for himself, but glory for the Lord.
Quote from the message God’s Only Provided Place Of Worship – 65-1128M
Now, have you noticed, every three years after a–a great meeting, what takes place? A denomination. This is twenty years and no denomination. Dear dying Lamb, may it never do that. If I go in this generation, may the people who believe this message never stand still for a denomination. God will… You’ll die right in your track. Remember that. The very hour that you mention denomination among you, I don’t care how sincere you are, take man for your leader instead of the Holy Spirit to confirm this Word, that’s the hour you die.
We all should be open for direction; and we are open for healthy discussions.
During the day there are many more meetings, where different brothers are speaking.
After the last meeting we are invited for fellowship to the room of the brothers from Ulyanovsk. It’s a real brother’s quarter, so to speak, which is shared by Pastor Brother Anatoly, the deacon Brother Stepan, the trustee Brother Arman, who is working as a heart surgeon and who keeps us entertained all night.
Also Brother Eugene from Orsk, and Brother Erik, the leader of the young people who is also the interpreter for the church there, is sharing the room.
They drove by car about 1000 km to get here and it seems they had the car loaded with food, which they are sharing with us tonight. Because those brothers are of Armenian background, the table is filled with special Armenian bread, sausages and cheeses, homemade cakes and juices, and fruits.
This Armenian bread has the substance almost like a roti, but it’s 10 times the dimension. They bake it in the ground. Then the roll it up like a scroll, rip it in bread size, place cheeses and sausages in it, and eat it like a sandwich.
Brother Arman explains a lot about their city, which is named after Lenin’s last name, Ulyanovsk, who was born there, and therefore the city is also considered the birthplace of communism.
Brother Anatoly presents us with some special wool mittens. He explains, that normal gloves for cold weather have the fingers separated where each finger creates his own environment, but when it gets really extremely cold, it’s better to have mittens, where the fingers are not separated anymore but are close together and warm each other. The natural types the spiritual.
He laid out how it touched him to see the Lord move in such a special way in the meetings today, that at the end of the day each one can see how love conquers everything.
It is midnight when we all get back to our rooms, and we are very glad that we’ve had the opportunity to fellowship with those special brothers from Ulyanovsk.