In the first three parts of the Miracle Manual we have learnt about the miraculous way that God goes about changing us to become more like Him. He shows us the way we have hurt others and asks us to confess our weaknesses and bad habits before Him. He then promises to forgive us and take away all the burdens that weigh so heavily on our minds. This relief from the hurt and heartache clears our minds so that we can see deep, unseen mysteries very clearly. We, (the trees), then put our roots, (our eyes and ears), into the rich, good soil, (God’s Word), and draw nourishment daily to bear good, tasty fruit, (good character traits). This is freedom, giving the strain of changing our weaknesses and bad habits over to God, and letting Him take responsibility for that. We flee into the presence of God on a daily basis and relax and watch Him work in us.

(See picture - It is a miracle when we can give the burden of carrying the load of our weaknesses and bad habits all to God)

Why does God make this miraculous offer to us? What is God’s motivation in taking responsibility for all the hard work? Why does God go out of His way to reach us and make it easy for us to get back to Him? It’s all about friendship. Think about how many true friends you have. Not counting people who have the same interests as you, or people who will go with you on social outings. No, a true friend who will be there for you when you are down and out financially, down and out emotionally, or down and out physically. A true friend who wants to hear the deepest cries of your heart, who will listen and not speak and who will give without wanting anything in return.

(See picture - How many true friends do you have? Can you count them on one hand?)

God created man to be His best friend. As we want children to receive our love and give love back to us, so God wants His children and friends to receive His love and give love back to Him. As we've learnt in the Miracle Manual - Part 2, sin and rebellion on the part of man, separated him from God. Sin and rebellion destroyed the intimate relationship between God and man. This broke the heart of God more than the heart of any earthly father. The loss of His children and friends was so devastating to God that He was prepared to die in order to get them back again. Ever since man turned his back on God in rebellion, God has been reaching out in every possible way for man's return to the love relationship with Him. “Having undertaken our redemption, He (God) will spare nothing, however dear, which is necessary to the completion of His work. No truth essential to our salvation is withheld, no miracle of mercy is neglected, no divine agency is left unemployed. Favor is heaped upon favor, gift upon gift. The whole treasury of heaven is open to those He seeks to save. Having collected the riches of the universe, and laid open the resources of infinite power, He gives them all into the hands of Christ, and says, All these are for man. Use these gifts to convince him that there is no love greater than Mine in earth or heaven. His greatest happiness will be found in loving Me.” (E.G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 57).

(See picture - God created us as His children, to receive His love and give love back to Him, just as we do in our families).

A perfect way to summarize the previous three parts of the Miracle Manual is to look at the illustrative story Jesus told about the 10 virgins and the bridegroom. Let’s read it together. Matthew 25:1-12. “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five of them were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out, ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there might not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’  When this illustration is properly understood, the miraculous freedom which God offers will be unleashed in our minds. We know that the lamps represent the Word of God, ("Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:105), and the Holy Spirit is the oil that makes the lamp burn, ("When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth...thy word is truth." John 16:13; 17:17).

(See picture - Only the wise virgins with lamps that gave off light were let into the wedding banquet.)

The foolish virgins had their lamps, (the Word of God), but they had no oil, (the Holy Spirit). The reason they didn’t have the Holy Spirit is because they had built their lives around things that weren’t of God. They represent people who rely on man-made things for their happiness and build their lives around these things instead of God. They haven’t been sensitive to God, showing Him their weaknesses and their inability to change their bad habits by themselves. They know of God, but they don’t know God. They are content to have access to the Word, (their lamps), but they aren’t desperate to have it work actively in their lives. They are content with their lives and this contentment blinds them to the warnings and calls that God sends through every possible means. The Spirit works on the hearts of people in proportion to their individual desire and consent for a new life in God. “If you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 4:29. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, (or right doing), for they will be filled.”  Matthew 5:6. The foolish virgins have allowed that dark cloud to come between them and God. They pray, but God can’t hear, they read God’s Word, but they can’t understand it, they speak of religious things to others, but it means nothing. They aren’t connected to God, and they don’t know God and therefore God isn’t living in them.

(See picture - The people represented by the foolish virgins build their lives around temporary and material things. This keeps them from understanding how to know God.)

The wise virgins on the other hand, through cautious and careful searching, opened themselves to the Spirit's convictions. They were shown their inability to come anywhere near being like God or improving themselves in any way. They realized that without their lamps being in perfect working order, they were subject to the deepest despair and darkness. A darkness that would blind them from seeing how the Evil Forces would lead them to hurt and destroy others, and eventually hurt and destroy themselves. They were too afraid to go anywhere without their burning lamps. Before they left their homes, they made sure that they had a properly functioning lamp with plenty of oil to spare. They loved the Bridegroom and spent time getting to know Him. They were ready to meet Him at any time because they knew Him so well. “So the followers of Christ are to shed light into the darkness of the world. Through the Holy Spirit, God’s word is a light as it becomes a transforming power in the life of the receiver. By implanting in their hearts the principles of His word, the Holy Spirit develops in men the attributes of God. The light of His glory—His character—is to shine out in His followers.” (E.G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 414).

(See picture - The wise virgins have learnt that without light, people stumble and fall, hurting themselves and others.)

Many people who profess to follow God think that the supply of oil they receive when they give their lives to God, is enough to last them throughout their lifelong commitment to God. Others think that they can collect a supply every week at their church meetings, and this will last them till the following week. God only supplies enough oil to last for one day at a time. The five wise virgins probably checked their supply that morning to make sure they had enough for that day.

(See picture - Believers think that it is enough to participate in church programs, once or twice a week, in order to get to know God. This is a deception.)

To continue speaking figuratively, there is a dense darkness all around us. It is the darkness of the Evil Forces. This darkness prevents people from seeing the deeper mysteries of how to be friends with God, and how to be like Him. The Evil Forces are quite content for people to be involved in church, do good deeds and even be ministers of God, as long as they don’t have oil in their lamps to light up the darkness of evil. As the apostle John wrote in John 1:4, 5 and 1 John 1:5, 7, “In Him, (Jesus), was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.” Only by trimming those lamps with oil, before our day begins, can we overcome the darkness of evil. If we neglect to trim our lamps properly, the darkness will overwhelm us and we will stumble and fall, keeping the weakness and bad habits locked into our lives.

(See picture - The darkness of evil surrounds us every day, only with God’s light will we discover the hidden mysteries of how to know Him and be like Him.)

The Bridegroom, (which is Christ), states quite plainly that in order to enter into the wedding banquet with Him, we must have lamps that give off light; or could we say, trees that bear fruit? When the foolish virgins came to the door, what did the Bridegroom say to them? He said, ‘I do not know you!’ What a statement. In other words, in order to know God, we must have both the lamp, (the Word), and the oil, (the Holy Spirit). What He is also saying is that if He doesn’t know us, we are lost.

Jesus came as a visible, tangible form of God. Jesus said, "Anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father." John 14:9. The Holy Spirit is the invisible form of God. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. When He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth." John 14:25,26.  The Holy Spirit is a person. He speaks, He listens, He thinks, He teaches and He counsels. After we have cleared our minds by accepting God’s provision of cleansing, the Holy Spirit can communicate with us, change us and bring us to a deeper, broader knowledge of God. As we focus and concentrate on the written Word of God, The Holy Spirit works to make us more like God. The Holy Spirit is the oil that gives light to the lamp which lights up the darkness of evil that tries to dominate the world.

(See picture - The light from the lamps and the fruit from the trees represent the same thing  - good deeds or the character of God.)

The light given off by the lamps also symbolizes good deeds and character traits, as the fruit in Part 1 does. Fruit and light are one and the same thing. Trees without fruit will be “cut down and thrown into the fire, ”Matthew 7:19, and people with lamps which have no light, will hear from the Bridegroom, “I don’t know you,” Matthew 25:12. Just as the fruit grows naturally on the tree because the tree has its roots in good soil, so the light is present naturally because the lamp is burning oil. Neither the fruit nor the light can be brought by any other means. They are both a result of a simple combination of certain elements. Neither the tree nor the virgins can bring about their end products, (fruit and light),  without the combination of those crucial elements. See the comparison between the two illustrations outlined in the table below:

Matthew 5:14-16 confirms the tie in between the fruit bearing illustration and the illustration of the light from the lamps. “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Is this possible? All I have to do to be saved, in God’s heavenly Kingdom, is to know God? That sounds far too easy. But, that is all the Bridegroom said to the foolish virgins. “I don’t know you.” Let’s take a look at a few more scriptures in order to be convinced that knowing God is all we have to do to be saved. Matthew 7:22,23 is almost identical to the Bridegroom’s statement, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers!’” 2 Thessalonians 1:8 swings the statement around the opposite way by saying, “He, (Christ), will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” Jesus Himself stated it so plainly in His beautiful prayer in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ who you have sent.” What overwhelming confirmation for the fruit bearing study in Part 1! Our responsibility is to get to know God by putting our roots into the soil every day, and God’s responsibility is to save us, by living His life through us, and giving us His fruit! When God lives His life through us, how can we be lost? God cannot judge Himself. On Judgment Day, He will see Christ’s blood over our impure lives AND He will see the deeds of Christ practically in our daily lives. Yes, we will be saved, simply by knowing God. By nothing else!

People who don’t know God think that in order to come to God, they have to give up a whole list of things they enjoy. They think they must stop smoking or drinking, they think they must stop swearing or talking dirty, they think they must start going to church and dress all smart, they think they must give up all their friends and stop going to the places they used to go to. NOT SO! There is nothing that you and I can or can’t do in order to be saved. NOTHING! Avoid even trying to think about it. All we can do is want to get to know God. Once we accept this, without any BUT’s, and get really serious about building our whole lives around getting to know God, a miracle happens. God does everything for us, as we have already learnt in the previous parts of the Miracle Manual.

(See picture - People think that before they can consider knowing God they have to give up many things they enjoy. Giving up things is God's duty, our duty is to get to know Him.)

When God first created man, He made Himself known to man, face to face. He walked with man in the garden and had open communication with him. When man separated himself from God through sin and rebellion, God had to make Himself known through holy men whom He chose to be His spokesmen. These holy men, wrote down the Word God gave to them, in order to instruct all people in all time. Jesus, the Son of God, was the ultimate way God used to make Himself known to man. The disciple Philip asked Jesus in John 14:8, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered in verse 9, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” The life and teachings of Jesus as recorded in Scripture, and, together with the written record of God’s Word by holy men of God, are all synonymous with God. God is made known to us through His Word. Getting to know His Word is the same as getting to know God. God lives in His Word and His Word lives in Him. His Word is as powerful as He is and His Word is as active and alive as He is. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1.

(See picture - God used every possible means to get people to know Him. He spoke through prophets and holy men to explain how much He loved those He created.)

Reading the Bible is something people think they ought to do when they feel that they need it. People use the Bible when things go wrong, or they have questions about life, or when they need to know more about certain aspects of their spiritual lives. The Bible, or the Word of God, is seen as support, or an aid to the various church programs. The church programs usually consists of weekly worship services, prayer meetings and cell groups. The Word of God is used frequently as the subject matter for discussions and sermon topics. The question is, has the Word of God become a side-support to our individual spiritual lives, or is it the life-giving force that everything else depends on? Are believers throughout the Christian denominations building their lives around their time alone with God in prayerful study and searching His Word? How many people do you know who make this their first priority at the beginning of every day? I don’t know of many. Once again, the Forces of Evil know that if a believer absorbs the Word of God, through eyes that have been washed by God, the believer is actually absorbing God into his life. The Forces of Evil thus inspire believers into an array of spiritual activities and commitments, instigating the neglect of God’s Word, in order to severe them from the indwelling of God.

(See picture - The Bible provides subject matters for discussions and sermon topics, but it should be the daily life-giving force which everything else depends on.)

To confirm the seriousness of the believer’s commitment to absorbing the Word of God on a daily basis, and consequently absorbing God and Christ Himself, read John 6:51, 53-57. Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If a man eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.”

(See picture - As food and drink give life to our bodies, so the life and teachings of Jesus are vital in getting to know God. Knowing God is what gives us eternal life.)

Do you think that Jesus actually meant that He must come lie on our breakfast table every day and we must slice pieces off His body and eat it? In a manner of speaking, yes, He did. As we read in John 1:1, Jesus is the Word and the Word is Jesus. As our bodies are made up from what we eat and drink, so our spiritual lives are also made up from what we eat and drink. The life and teachings of Jesus Christ are to be our daily spiritual meals, the food that keeps us spiritually alive. How is it that we can’t miss more than one meal a day but yet can miss days and weeks without eating spiritual meals? (See picture). No wonder we have no strength to stand up against the Forces of Evil, let alone enter into battle with them. We fall flat on our faces as we try to overcome in our own strength---starved of spiritual nourishment. We have no resistance at all. Eating and absorbing God on a daily basis will give God the ability to live and act in us. He brings the good fruit into our lives, He fights the Forces of Evil and He gives us the happiness and peace of mind that we can’t find by ourselves.

The words of Jesus, “If a man eats of this bread, he will live forever,” John 6:51 is confirmed by many other Scriptures. They all show how crucial the Word of God is in saving this rebellious planet from destroying itself. The Word of God is NOT just a manual to base discussions and sermon topics on. It is NOT just an instruction manual to give believers guidance regarding how to go about their daily lives. It is the ONLY way to know God and the ONLY way through which God will be able to save us and give us the victory over the Forces of Evil. Please read through the following Scriptures that confirm this:
 

Romans 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.

Romans 2:8
But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

1 Corinthians 15:1,2
By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain.

Ephesians 1:13
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

2 Thessalonians 2:10
They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

(See picture - The apostle Paul repeated the truth in all his writings that the word of God has the power to save us and work from within to change us without.)

2 Thessalonians 2:13
God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

1 Timothy 4:16
Watch you life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

2 Timothy 3:15
...how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

James 1:21
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

(See picture - In all His teachings, Jesus taught that the Word of God is the active ingredient that miraculously works inside us to change the outside.)

The account of Jesus’ temptations by the devil in the wilderness, is found in Matthew 4:1-11. It is remarkable to note that after every temptation, Jesus used the answer, ‘It is written.’ Jesus made it clear in John 5:19 that “the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” Jesus had to rely on His Father just as much as we have to rely on Him to overcome the power of sin. Because God and His Word are one, Jesus would rely on His Father and His Word for everything in His life. He never used his Godly Power to overcome the power of sin. He overcame the power of sin as we are to overcome the power of sin, by letting God work through us by the power of the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit makes the Truth living and active, to change us and to empower us to be like God.

(See picture - The Word of God is our only weapon against the attacks of the evil forces. In overcoming each temptation, Jesus said, ‘It is written.’)

“In our own strength it is impossible for us to deny the clamors of our fallen nature. Through this channel Satan will bring temptation upon us. Christ knew that the enemy would come to every human being, to take advantage of hereditary weakness, and by his false insinuations to ensure all whose trust is not in God. And by passing over the ground which man must travel, our Lord has prepared the way for us to overcome...And how this is accomplished, Christ has shown us. By what means did He overcome in the Conflict with Satan? By the word of God. Only by the word could He resist temptation. When assailed by temptation, look not to circumstance or to the weakness of self, but to the power of the word. All its strength is yours. ‘Thy word,’ says the psalmist, ‘have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.’ ‘By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.’ Psalm 119:11; 17:4. God reaches for the hand of faith in us to direct us to lay fast hold upon the divinity of Christ, that we may attain to perfection of character.” (E.G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 122, 123).

We conclude the study with the same three Scriptures that we ended Part 3 with. The emphasis has been moved from the discernment and understanding to knowing Him better and being established in the knowledge of Him.

Ephesians 1:17, 18
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He called you.”

Philippians 1:9,10
“And this is my prayer; that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.”

Colossians 1:9,10
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying  for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. ”Finally, we read in Jeremiah 31:33, 34, “I will be their God, and they will by my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the Lord. ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’”

(See picture - Throughout history, God has tried to make Himself known to man through every possible way. Still there are very few who understand the simple steps of how to approach God.)

Yes, God is desperately trying to get His children, who were His friends, back to Him to receive His love and give love back to Him. His children don’t know Him anymore, they are strangers to Him and it breaks His heart. God has done all in His power, apart from removing the freedom of choice from His children, to get them to know Him again and become friends again.

(See picture - A close, loving, happy family illustrates the type of relationship God wants to have with each of us.)

John gives us a scripture that ties the fruit bearing study inseparably to this current study. He says in 1 John 2:3, 4, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” We get to know God by spending time alone with Him daily, through prayerful absorption of His Word. God then lives through us and empowers us to keep His commands, become better people, overcome our weaknesses and bad habits, and find happiness and contentment that we couldn’t find by ourselves. Note how the summary of the steps of getting to know God now looks in the table below:

It takes a lifetime to really get to know someone well. A person has so many aspects to their lives and all these take time to discover and become acquainted with. Events that happened in a person’s life in the past has a dramatic effect on the way that person reacts and makes decisions in different situations. Sometimes no-one gets to fully understand the deeper, underlying aspects in a person's life. It takes time and it takes effort to discover everything about a person. A romantic relationship between two people takes a lot of time to mature and develop because of this. To learn how the other person thinks and how the other person sees life is a vital factor in making a relationship a success. Too many people rush into marriage without making these significant discoveries about their partner, and a year or two down the road find out that the person they thought they knew, is really someone else. Divorce is the obvious sad consequence. If more time was taken by people to get to know the deeper, emotional and spiritual aspects regarding the other person, there wouldn’t be such a large breakdown of relationships as there are today.

(See picture - To really get to know someone takes a lifetime. Imagine how much time we need to get to know God!)

How much more time would it take to get to know the Almighty God of the universe? How much more effort would it take for a finite human mind to get to know the mysteries of an Infinite, Invisible, Immortal God? A God who creates by either a word or a thought, who knows every detail of every person in the universe and is superior in every way to His creation. It would take a lot of time. If a person were to spend 24 hours a day, every day, it would probably take a few lifetimes to get to know God fully. Why don’t we put getting to know God first at the beginning of every day? Why do most believers skip so many days without spending time alone with God? Why is it that so many believers, let alone non believers, don’t spend any time alone with God during the week, but rely only on the programs the church provides? The reason I believe, is that the Forces of Evil work overtime to get people to neglect this crucial aspect regarding their spiritual survival and salvation. Without time with God daily, we are as lost as the non believers. Friendship with God, means time with God, and time with God is the means to our salvation.

(See picture - It is wise for two people to take the time to get to know each other before getting married.)