Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe brings you her message "Chains of Blessing" about one of the spiritual arts a believer should practice.

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As we approach the end of the financial year, your support is critical to keep this ministry going. Right now, your gift will be doubled through an $82,000 matching grant, helping reach more people searching for peace and direction. As our thanks, we'll send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Peace of My Mind*, a resource designed to help you experience God's steady pace when life feels unsettled. Call 262-788-4648 to have your gift doubled by the match, or give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Here's Jill with the first part of her message, "Chains of Blessing."

Jill Briscoe: Acts chapter 16 and Philippians chapter 1. Now, if you were writing a book about Philippians, you could call it *The Epistle to the Philippians*, written by the Apostle Paul in Rome, or "Jail Mail," written by a free man in chains. That's what I want to call it. This is a priceless piece of jail mail written by a free man in chains.

What's it all about? Liberty, freedom. I love that communion chorus: "Do you know what the blood has done for me? Do you know what the blood has done for me? Do you know what the blood has done for me? It's cleansed me and set me free." What does liberty mean? As I began to study the book of Philippians two or three years ago for myself before I taught it, I realized that this is a book about spiritual art.

There are martial arts, there are fine arts, there's all sorts of art, and there's spiritual art. There's medical arts—we say we practice medicine. That's scary, isn't it? But any art must be practiced. If you're going to be a doctor, you sit in school and you get the theory from a book on medicine, and then you go out and you practice medicine. Theory and practice, theory and practice.

In the book of Philippians, you've got theory and also examples of real-life people practicing spiritual art. What are the spiritual arts? We're going to see them all in this book of Philippians. There's the spiritual art of liberty. Spiritual intimacy is an art—it's got to be practiced. Humility is a spiritual art.

Tranquility, simplicity. Paul said, "I know what it is to be in plenty, and I also know what it is to be in want. I know what it is to have a lot of food, and I know what it is to have nothing. And I'm content with the simple things of life." The art of being content with the simple things of life. It's an art—it's got to be learned, got to be practiced. Spiritual unity, spiritual harmony—that is an art. Keeping the body together, making up, helping people get along with each other, especially in the church.

Of course, Christian ministry and service is a spiritual art, and all of them are seen in the life of the Apostle Paul as he writes his jail mail from, probably, a jail in Rome. People aren't quite sure. Some say Ephesus, some say other places, but most people say, "No, it was Rome. It was at the end of his life." He's on trial, he's preparing his case. He's alone apart from two of his closest friends, and he's waiting, probably, to be executed.

Now, the need to achieve any competence in spiritual arts—the Christian life is a spiritual art—you need the spirit. "Spiritual." You cannot practice any of these arts without the Spirit of God. "If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not a Christian," Romans teaches. So we start right away by asking ourselves—and I ask you—do you have the Spirit of God? Have you been born from above? Does He live in your heart?

You need to be a Christian. You need the Spirit in order to get the theory explained to you from the Bible in order that you might practice it in the world. Paul says being a real user means you're one inside, not just outside. It's not an outward show or rules or tradition. He says in chapter three, "I want to know Christ. I really want to know Him."

So being a Christian isn't one outside—what you do, you go to church, you read your Bible, you do good things. Yes, you do all that, but a Christian is one who is one inside. Paul says it takes the Spirit of God to give us the spiritual intimacy we need to have a relationship with God. Then it takes the Spirit of God to enable us to suffer for Him. That's a spiritual art. Suffering for Christ is a spiritual art, a sacrificial art. You need the Spirit to suffer well.

I came back to a good friend in our church—she has a brain tumor—and I picked up the phone to almost a howl of grief. She had just come back from the hospital from another MRI, and it's bad news. I listened and talked and cried and laughed with that friend of mine for an hour and a half. At the end, I said, "You have learned the art of suffering well." It's absolutely incredible to me, but she has learned the art of saying, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," which, of course, Paul says in the book of Philippians.

Now, when Paul got to a city, he checked out the jail because he knew he was going to end up there very shortly. Any city. You find that Paul has a lot of jail mail written from this jail and that jail in this city and the other city. I'm sure he's glad of the chance to catch up, have a little time out, get his prayer list out and pray for people, write a book. Но в реальности это было совсем не весело.

We find him in the book of Philippians struggling. If you look at the end of chapter one—and I'm going to be in and out of different chapters and verses, so follow me if you will—but at the end of chapter one, he says, he's writing to a little group of people, a little church, "Since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had in times past, and now here I still have." Paul is struggling. Paul didn't sail through his sufferings. Suffering is a struggle, and these people have heard he's struggling. It's not easy to be in a stinking, horrible hole, beaten and lonely and cold and old without anybody near.

Paul says, "I'm struggling with this and you've heard about that." Then look up to verse 29. "But it's being granted to you and me," he says, "on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him." It's a gift. Who wants it? I don't want the gift of suffering, and nor do you. Но на самом деле это подарок. It's given you the privilege on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake.

I've been sitting among those people who are suffering for Christ's sake, hounded, persecuted, not able to meet freely, singing their hymns in whispers in case someone hears them. It's an art, and I watched that incredible church in that restricted country, and I watched sacrificial art. Paul says three times in chapter one, "I'm in chains for Christ." Three times. "Because of my chains." He is chained with one hand to the wall, one hand to the guard.

"I'm in chains for Christ," he says, and he reminds his readers that it's because of his chains all good sort of things are happening. What do we do with chains? Well, we're going to talk a little bit about that. It's a secret art, what you do when you find yourself chained to a situation you don't want to be chained to—or a person you don't want to be chained to, or a job you don't want to be chained to, or a health situation you find yourself chained to. Well, Paul teaches us that because of his chains, he got to know Christ better, deeper, in a more intimate way—in the deep place where nobody goes.

Guest (Male): Jill Briscoe talking today about how to have spiritual intimacy here on Telling the Truth. She's coming right back with more about the spiritual arts. There's a growing hunger for truth in our world today, and more people than ever are searching for real answers. That's why, as Telling the Truth prepares to close out another financial year, your support matters so much. Your support helps take the trusted teaching of Stuart and Jill Briscoe and place it into digital spaces where people are already looking for hope.

Right now, an $82,000 matching grant will double your gift, expanding that reach even further in the months ahead. When you give, we'll say thank you by sending you *A Peace of My Mind*, a powerful resource from Stuart that shows you how to experience God's perfect peace even in uncertain and challenging times. Call today to request your copy when you have your gift doubled by the match: 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

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Jill Briscoe: I'm writing a few little books at the moment. One's called *God's Front Door*, and it's really the conversations with the Lord on the steps of my soul in the deep place where nobody goes. The second little book is just coming out, and it's called *The Deep Place Where Nobody Goes*, and I wrote this in the front of it: I ran to the deep place where nobody goes and found Him waiting there. "Where have you been?" He asked me. "Well, I've been in the shallow place where everyone lives," I said.

I knew He knew. He just wanted me to admit I'd been too busy being busy. "I'm running out," I began. "Well, of course," He said. "Haven't seen you in a while." And He sat down on the steps of my soul in the deep place where nobody goes, and He smiled at me, and an angel sang, and a shaft of light chased away the shadows and brightened my daily day. I smiled back. "I'm such a fool." "Shh," He said, His finger on my lips.

He touched my hurried heart and, startled, it took a deep breath and skidded to a near stop. My spirit nestled into nearness in the deep place where nobody goes. My soul spoke then, and He answered with words beyond music. Where on earth had I been while Heaven waited? What grace. Paul said, "Because of my chains, I want to know Christ." Because of my chains, I don't care whether I live or whether I die.

He knew Him in such a way he didn't care whether he lived or died, and you cannot beat a person like that. It doesn't matter who's persecuting you. If you don't care whether you live—and that's great—or whether you die—and that's better—what can they do to you? Spiritual intimacy is the most important of the spiritual arts because from that depth of knowledge of God—that personal knowledge of God—come all the other gifts, all the other service, all the other things we do for God. It isn't a question of just serving arts. It's inside. It's in here. That's what matters.

Of course, the Holy Spirit is our instructor, but other people can instruct us in the spiritual arts, too. Know a definition of fellowship? Two fellows in a ship. When the ship goes up, you go up. When the ship goes down, you go down. I know in my life, it's been people in the same boat as me that have helped me learn spiritual arts. Paul had two people with him: Epaphroditus—we'll hear about him later—and he had Timothy, his beloved son that he'd led to Christ.

"My son in the faith," he calls him in another place. Two precious leaders of the church, and they were having fellowship in suffering. When the boat went up, they all went up. When the boat went down, they all went down. They learned from each other. If you read right through the book of Philippians, you can look in the second chapter and read about Epaphroditus and read about Timothy and make a little list of the spiritual arts you see in their life.

So the Holy Spirit is one of our instructors, and we homeschool ourselves in a sense by opening our life and allowing Him personally to teach us about these arts, but also other people that God brings into our life can teach us too. Now, I wonder where this all began? Because if you read a letter to a group of people in Philippi, it's absolutely nonsense to make sense of it unless you figure out what's it all about. Where did it begin? How did Christians appear in Europe?

Now, that's very interesting to me because I'm European. I'm British. I want to know when the Gospel came to the UK, and when the Gospel came to Europe. Who brought it? What was it all about? Well, you can read about that in Acts chapter 16 because that whole chapter tells you where the church began. It's the background to the book of Philippians, and if you don't read it, the letter doesn't make much sense. I'm just going to step you through that—I'm not going to read it, you can read it when you get home.

What happened was Paul had had a team: Barnabas and young Mark was their intern. They went on a very scary missionary journey in Turkey. It is still a wild, inhospitable place, and when Paul and Barnabas and young Mark got there, it was scary. You need to read about that also in the Acts of the Apostles and what happened when they got there. Young John Mark—he was chicken. He said, "I'm out of here. I didn't sign up for this." And he got on the next boat, and he left Paul and Barnabas in the lurch without anybody to assist them and help them, and he went home to his mother.

Paul was not impressed. Barnabas, however, loved young John Mark because he was a relative. When they got back, I can imagine John Mark hiding in the bedroom. "You mean Paul and Barnabas?" "Yes, they're back. They're coming for supper tonight," said his mother. "Oh, wow." And Barnabas wants to see you. "Does Paul want to see me?" "No, but Barnabas does." Barnabas talked to young John Mark. Paul didn't.

When the time came to go on the next journey, Barnabas said, "Well, we are taking Mark, aren't we? We're going to give him another chance." Paul said, "Over my dead body." It says in the end of chapter 15 of Acts: the argument was so strong between Paul and Barnabas, they split up over it. They had a row. Paul said, "You can either take Mark or you can take me." Barnabas says, "Okay, I'll take Mark." And he did, and they never worked together again.

That left Paul without a team. So at the beginning of Acts chapter 16, he has to find a team. So he finds Silas, another leader in the church, and he says, "Now we need a young helper. I know—Timothy." And so he has been working in Timothy's life and he says, "Timothy, do you want to come? Next missionary journey's going to be tough, it's going to be dangerous, going to be difficult. Might not come back. You willing to come?" And Timothy said, "Yes, I'll come."

So here we have three members of the new team at the beginning of Acts of the Apostles. Somewhere along the line, the doctor joins them, whose name is Luke, and there's four of them. They get together and they say, "Now, where are we going? Are we going to Africa, to the camps? Are we going over here? Are we going to Europe?" Paul says, "No, we're not going to Europe, we're going to Asia. I want to go to Asia, I think. Look at Asia—never heard the Gospel. Huge, think about it. Place called China, place called Korea." Now they were called different things in those days.

"Let's go to Asia. If we win Asia, Asia will win the world." So they began to go to Asia, and it says in Acts of the Apostles, the Spirit wouldn't let them. We don't know how the Spirit did that. We don't know whether a prophet came and said, "No, you're not to go to Asia." We don't know whether they felt in their hearts, "No, that's not right." But they set off in one direction and were stopped dead, and then they set off in another direction, in another part of that part of the world—if you look on your maps—and the Spirit of Jesus, it says in Acts chapter 16, said, "No, you're not to go there." And they were absolutely flummoxed.

They'd set off, they'd been sent away, the church had stood up and sang a hymn and said, "We'll pray for you, we'll support you," and off they'd gone, and now they didn't know what to do. That night, very troubled, they went to sleep, and Paul had a vision, and a man walked into his dream. He was dressed in European clothes, and he was from Macedonia—Europe. He said, "Come and help us. We need the Gospel." Wasn't an angel—it was a man. Paul was so convinced this was from God, he got up very early and said, "We're going to Europe. Europe, with all those pagans and all that wild stuff. Where are we going? Philippi. Philippi, it's one of the most important pagan cities that there are." And there's a little tiny group of Jews, persecuted because they're Jews, that went from Israel over there, and they're trying to survive and keep their faith alive. Paul says, "The man said, 'Come and help us.' I saw him." And so they go.

Guest (Male): Jill Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth. In just a moment, Jill comes back with more about the spiritual arts. What if your generosity today helped place biblical truth in front of someone at the exact moment they needed it most? That's what's happening every day through Telling the Truth. Through social media, our Telling the Truth website, and other digital platforms, people are encountering God's Word—many for the very first time—right where they are. And more people than ever are searching for the kind of peace that can only be found through life in Christ.

That's why, as we approach the end of the financial year, it's so important that we finish strong. Your support can help us reach even more people with biblical truth in the coming year. The great news is that a group of generous friends has offered an $82,000 matching grant, doubling your gift to expand the outreach even further in the months ahead. Now is a powerful time for you to step in and help keep God's Word going out to the people who need it most.

As our thanks, we'll send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Peace of My Mind*, to help you experience the peace of God in whatever you're facing today. Just call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Now Jill sits down to talk more in-depth about a few ideas from today's message.

Jill, you talked today about having spiritual intimacy with God. What does that look like in one's life?

Jill Briscoe: If I were to describe it, it wouldn't be perhaps how you would describe it. It simply means the closeness that it is possible to achieve as a human being with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I suppose. People would describe that in different ways. It certainly means an inner knowledge, whether that goes only into the emotions or deeper into the convictions, into the will. Even doing what is right is an intimacy with God.

Intimacy with God involves all of us: our mind, our emotions, our will. If we just live it in the area of the emotions, then we'll never really know God thoroughly and totally. So it's a huge subject, basically, but there is nothing else more worthwhile than finding out what it means from the Word of God and saying to God, "Show me how I do that. How do I meet You? Is it in the Bible? Is it in prayer? Is it in both? Is it through Christians? Is it in church? Is it in worship? What is my main way of knowing You? So that I know I know You internally."

It cannot be done—I do know that—without interaction with the Word of God, with the Bible. There is absolutely no way. If we are to hear His Word to us, His voice to us, then it has to be through the written Word of the Living Word who came to speak to us. So I would say the thing to do is to make sure that you've got a good Bible reading system that suits your learning style. Everybody learns differently. Walk into a Christian bookstore—how fortunate are we to be able to do that—and figure it out. Just go to the place that there are helps for us to get into the Word of God to hear clearly and correctly what God is saying through the Scriptures, and then you just interact with that. That's how intimacy comes, and that's how intimacy grows.

Guest (Male): Thanks, Jill. Before we go, here's something important to remember: your support this month can help Telling the Truth reach even more people in the coming year. Right now, your gift will be doubled through an $82,000 matching grant, helping extend biblical teaching to people around the world through digital platforms. As our thanks, we'd love to send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Peace of My Mind*, to encourage you with the promise of God's peace. So please request your copy when you call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for listening to today's teaching. Come back next time for more biblical truth here on Telling the Truth.