Lesson 246 . Where Does Your Strength Come From?

Have you ever wondered why schools, gyms, educational institutions, training programs, courses, and other educational activities and enterprises are needed? It seems as though the entire civilized world does nothing but study. But why is this necessary? Who will work? Strange questions. A person who asks such questions resembles an ignorant man, because there is no way to manage without learning. It gives knowledge, teaches the particular features of what you are studying, and, when combined with practical exercises, adds life experience.

Education helps me see the rakes in my path and skillfully avoid them, although in the process of learning or living, I sometimes have to become acquainted with the force of these garden tools. Acquiring knowledge about life and a profession makes me a specialist in the field I am mastering, while the practical application of this knowledge makes me a professional.

Which army do you think will be stronger: one consisting of children and recruits, or one composed of specialists who have combat experience? The answer is obvious.

I can also say with confidence that those who study at the School of Agape Love are mastering a science that changes the mind, strengthens spiritual muscles, opens new prospects for growth, and fills life with meaning and happiness. I become different and gain a deeper knowledge of what I study. This is the law of beholding and transformation: I cannot remain the person I have always been if I begin to study something or to behold something.

There was a time when I distributed tracts containing God’s message to mailboxes, and I rejoiced at the thought that perhaps one of the readers would become interested in the truth and order the literature offered at the end of the tract. The greatest joy came when a tract was placed directly into a reader’s hands or when there was an opportunity to speak personally with someone about its contents. One day, I took my ten-year-old daughter with me. The work went faster. She helped me in my ministry with great enthusiasm and always asked, “When will we go again?” I always praised her and called her a little missionary. Then one day, my daughter handed another tract to an elderly woman and received so much shouting and so many indignant words in response that she pressed herself against me in fright and wanted to do nothing more. I explained to my daughter that there are people like that and that she should not pay attention to them. But from that moment on, she stopped helping me and never went anywhere with me again.

There are circumstances or people whom we do not know, and we have no idea how they may affect us or what they may do to us or with us. But if we study the particular features of all this in advance, it prepares us for all kinds of surprises.

Knowledge is useful for general development and teaches a person to think about one subject or another. A thinking person has more prospects in life, which will help him find his way properly and earn a living.

But not every kind of knowledge or education is beneficial. There are fields of study that ruin lives and make their students spiritually disabled. Sin is also a school in which the soul masters the science of death and confidently obtains the right to be dead in trespasses. Satan has an extensive educational system of his own values and gladly admits all humanity into his schools. Everyone studies under him except those who choose the narrow way to Heaven. He has an entire staff of demon teachers who teach the art of lawlessness very professionally. To enter one of the evil one’s schools, you may choose whatever appeals to you or simply do nothing, allowing the demons to teach you godlessness and depravity.

To drift with the current, it is enough to enter the water and lie upon it, and the powerful stream of sin will seize your soul, carry it toward the inevitable waterfall, and dash you against the rocks of spiritual death.

But there is another educational system that successfully withstands the temptations and teachings of this world and teaches us to resist evil. A living fish can be recognized by its ability always to swim against the current, and an airplane likewise always takes off against the wind.

Faith in God gives me strength capable of withstanding every wind and current, using their resistance to reach Heaven. I gain experience and knowledge, come to know God’s power, and am able to resist every evil. But all this requires time and much effort. It will not entice a lazy person by itself. There is no automatic education in righteousness. And so I enroll in God’s school and study. There are elementary grades there, and there are also those who have already advanced to a more difficult level.

Love is the highest school, with the highest knowledge, which unites the soul with the Heavenly Teacher and gives the soul unlimited strength to gain victories over the world and over itself. As I study in this school, I comprehend the character of God Himself, come to know Him from within, and allow Him to know me. My mind merges with God’s mind, and He and I become one heart and one soul.

What will happen if, being an unathletic person, you make an agreement with an Olympic champion to prepare you to participate in the next games and place yourself entirely at his disposal? Will he train you according to your rules and wishes, or does he have his own training program? I think you will have to change a great many of your habits and give up a great many things. This is logical and right. Discipline and all kinds of restrictions take first place in this training; without them, you will not accomplish much.

But when I desire to become a spiritual champion and victor in love, for some reason I think that I am free to choose my own exercises and training time, or to do nothing at all and merely ask for a miracle of transformation, without making any effort or studying anything.

The Bible contains the concept of a “wicked and slothful servant.” This is also a child of God, but one with particular traits of character, possessing precisely those qualities that do not please God. I sometimes catch myself thinking that this describes me, and I begin to make efforts so that I will not fall into this condition. But by my own efforts I will accomplish nothing. Sin is stronger than I am, and satan is more agile and clever than all of us put together. But when Christ is my Trainer and Teacher, He does not merely teach me to be strong; He Himself becomes within me that Strength which respects my choice and will, while at the same time binding me in complete dependence upon God and teaching me to hold on to Him with all my might by faith and to follow wherever He leads.

Agape love does not merely give me knowledge; it also becomes my possession, a part of my heart, and is always within reach, ready to begin acting at the first call.

If I have built up my muscles by exercising in a gym and achieved certain results, then all my achievements belong to me and are always with me to help whenever necessary. I do not need this strength while reading books or watching the news; I do not need its special power while eating or taking a bath. But when a situation arises and there is a need to apply strength, it is always at hand, and I use it within the limits of my abilities.

And the love I have learned is always with me, ready to act whenever necessary.

Homework 246

1. In the light of our lesson, please read Ephesians 3:13–21; Proverbs 1:2–9; James 1:5–7, 16–17; Mark 1:22; John 8:2; Luke 6:40, 46–49; Matthew 23:8; Jeremiah 9:23–24; Isaiah 59:4; and 2 Timothy 3:10.

2. What did you understand from this lesson?

3. Does our school give you new knowledge?

4. What has changed in your life since you enrolled in the School of Agape Love?

5. Do you believe that God not only gives love but also teaches us to live in it and establishes us in it? Ephesians 3:18–19.

6. Do you enjoy loving those who do not deserve it?

7. Have you become a different person during the time you have been studying?

8. Are we moving too quickly?

9. Would you like to have this material in book form?

10. Do you think you will be able to retain love, or will you lose it, if the school’s classes cease for some reason?

11. What suggestions do you have for the organizers of this school?

12. How often do you thank God for your education in love?

13. Is love a science?

14. What else would you like to learn?