BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

They were scared. They didn’t know what to do because only a few days earlier Christians had been killed for such activity. So they panicked and locked the doors. We couldn’t understand it. “What are you doing?” we asked. “Are you trying to lock us in or lock someone else out?” They had no idea! They were confused because they didn’t know how to operate in this new system of freedom. It was a mystery to them. It was no mystery to us, though, because we were raised in it. So we straightened things out. We said, “Unlock the doors!” and they did. Those flustered ushers weren’t the only ones who had trouble figuring out what to do back then. One of our ministry Partners who lives in Eastern Europe told us it was a widespread problem. He handled it in his family by calling them all together for a meeting. “We all have to watch the Copelands’ broadcasts very carefully now,” he told them, “because we don’t know how to live free and they do.” I’ll always remember those exciting days! I’ll also remember how vividly they illustrated this powerful spiritual lesson: People who have lived under a system of oppression and are suddenly delivered from it, must be taught how to live free. It was true for those people in the Ukraine, and it’s true for you and me. Even if we’ve never lived in a communist country, as believers we’ve all faced the same challenge they did. We know what it’s like to live under a system of bondage and then be set free, because that’s what happened to us when we were born again. We were delivered out from under the oppressive regime of the devil and translated into the freedom of the kingdom of God. When it first happened, we were all just like those ushers at the opera house. We initially had no idea how to function in our new spiritual environment. The operating system of God’s kingdom was a mystery to us. Many Christians get the idea it’s supposed to remain a mystery. They hear someone say that God’s ways are past finding out, so they go to church and read the Bible without expecting to learn a thing. “Well, you just never know what God’s going to do,” they say. “He works in mysterious ways.” As spiritual as such statements might sound, they’re totally unscriptural. Jesus never said God’s ways are supposed to be a mystery to us. He said just the opposite. He said, “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God” (Luke 8:10). Do you realize what that means? It means that, as born-again citizens of heaven, we have access to inside information. We can understand God’s methods of operation. We can study His WORD and learn the process by which He operates. In John 8:31-32, Jesus put it this way: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Lessons From the Master This kind of inside information will change your life! If you want to see how, just look at what happened to Peter in the New Testament. The first time Jesus gave him a command, he knew nothing about Kingdom operations. He had no idea how to cooperate with them. So he missed a major opportunity. You probably remember the story. Jesus had borrowed Peter’s fishing boat and preached from it to the multitudes on the Galilean shore. After finishing His message, He turned to Peter and said, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.” “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing:” Peter answered, “nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:4-5). Notice Jesus said “nets” (plural), and Peter said “net” (singular). Why did Peter alter Jesus’ instructions? Because he was exhausted from the night’s work. He’d already washed all his nets. He didn’t want to throw them back in the sea and get them dirty again just because this preacher—who obviously knew nothing about fishing—thought it would be a good idea. So he chose to use just one old, rotten net so it wouldn’t matter if he didn’t have the energy to wash it again later. Of course, Peter soon regretted his choice because when he threw the net into the water, so many fish jumped into it that it broke. He had to call his fishing partners to come help him. While they hauled in the catch of a lifetime, Peter fell down at Jesus’ knees right there in the boat. With fish tails slapping him in the face, he said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken” (verses 8-9). Just think what that must have been like for Peter! Even though the fishing trip was a success for his partners, for him personally it was one colossal failure. Why? Because he did not yet have any insight into the mysteries of God’s kingdom. JAN '14 : BVOV : 5

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