Word ministered by brother Pedro Dong, transmitted by the Life for All Institute, directly from São Paulo, on 12/01/2025. Text not reviewed by the author.

We encourage you to watch the full message on the IVPT YouTube channel.

 

 

1. We finished the epistles of Peter at the end of last year and to our surprise we gained a lot of light. When we started the study, there was still not much clarity about what the Lord wanted to tell us exactly, but when it came to the second epistle, especially the last two chapters, the feeling arose that God wanted to show us something more and we began to perceive the context of the time, which we had not understood until then. Based on this light we will look again at the seven churches, in Revelation 2 and 3. We address the first six churches and we arrived at the church in Philadelphia, only missing the church in Laodicea. With respect to the church in Philadelphia we have reached the eve, the events prior to the new phase, which began in 2017. There was still more lacking, and motivated by the light we received in 2 Peter we have more desire to clarify some things that will help us a lot.
   

   2 Pet 1:12; Acts 2:42-47

    

2. The apostle Peter made an effort to reach out to the recipients of his two letters. His recipients were mainly the Jews who believed in the Lord Jesus in the early church. They went through that wonderful initial phase of the church life, where they witnessed the word of the apostles that went forth with power and directed the entire church. The book of Acts describes the church life that began in a powerful and wonderful way, soon after the day of Pentecost (2:42-47). Peter was certainly referring to those who experienced those powerful days, guided by the word of the apostles, by the Spirit, and by the miracles, wonders, and signs that took place there and were performed by the hands of the apostles.
   

   Acts 15:1,5, Acts 21

    

3. Peter strives to bring these things to mind so that the recipients of his letter, who were mainly made up of disciples who had been scattered due to the great persecution that took place in the church in Jerusalem after the death of Stephen, wouldn’t be able to understand this. Something bad had happened in Jerusalem. Some of the Jews who believed in the Lord Jesus, who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees and defended the practice of Judaism, began to form a faction among the Jewish believers fought to continue practicing the law of Moses. This led Paul and Barnabas to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this matter. Unfortunately, after the formation of this faction, the church in Jerusalem changed its form and nature. It became a church of Jews who believed in the Lord Jesus but who kept the practice of the law of Moses. This means that the church, which was created by the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, returned to practicing the law of the Old Testament. The church then stopped following the Spirit, stopped giving the Spirit freedom to perform miracles and wonders in carrying out God’s work, as happened in the beginning with the apostles.
4. From that moment on, there was a change of direction in the church in Jerusalem and Peter no longer had space, he had to go somewhere else. From the year 50 AD onwards, his whereabouts are unclear, where he was during that period until he wrote his two epistles in the year 60 AD. For more than ten years we did not know his exact whereabouts, but we do know that he was no longer in Jerusalem (Acts 21), because no one there listened to his word as the teaching of the apostles, as happened in the period of Acts, chapter 2. Everyone followed the leadership of James who reconciled the law with faith. There is no way to continue in a healthy way, because according to Paul, the law served as a tutor, so that when faith came with Christ, the people of God would be delivered to Christ, to faith. There is no way to mix the law with faith. In this way, the church in Jerusalem lost its nature.
   

   2 Pet 1:12; 3:1-2

    

5. In his epistles, Peter makes it clear who the recipients of his words were, those who were scattered throughout the Gentile nations. They were not in Jerusalem, but they had experienced that powerful beginning of the church there, and so they needed to continue to remember the present truth. This was the great light that the Lord gave us when we studied the second epistle of Peter. Why did Peter want to awaken their memories? Because they persevered in the teaching of the apostles in the early phase of the church. They were the ones who participated in the powerful beginning of the church’s life, following the prophetic word. They were to remember that in the Old Testament, God spoke to His people through the holy prophets, but the Jewish leadership persecuted these prophets and killed several of them, thus silencing the word of God. Now, in the New Testament, God uses His apostles to bring the commandment of the Lord and Savior to you, but the enemy also used it to make you no longer listen to the word of the apostles. However, the recipients of Peter’s letters welcome the word of God that comes through the prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through the apostles, of whom Peter was the chief.
   

   2 Pet 3:3-4; 1:19

    

6. Some have failed to accept the word of the apostle Peter as the present truth or as the prophetic word. Never abandon the present truth, never abandon the prophetic word, because it works like a light in a dark place, it gives direction to the church and this light will give direction until the day dawns, which means the second coming of Christ. Until the second coming of Christ, we need to persevere in following the prophetic word which is this light that gives us direction.
   

   2 Pet 3:3

    

7. Unfortunately, in the second phase of the Church in Jerusalem, where they began to follow the leadership of James, mixing the law with faith, they despised Peter’s ministry, the prophetic speaking, and began to mock the words of the apostle. They said that Peter made up stories, such as what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration. They said were fables cleverly invented by Peter, James and John, that it was a lie that only the three of them witnessed the transfiguration. They mocked what the apostle Peter said. Peter’s words were the teachings of the apostles, the present truth, the prophetic word, but they mocked and jeered. The source of their mockery was the Church in Jerusalem in its second phase, so this light and context opens up a new perspective for us to understand what happened in the Church in Jerusalem and in the early church.
   

   Gal 3:1; Gal 1:4

    

8. What is wrong with a church that believes in the Lord Jesus but continues to keep and practice the law? These are two opposites. Christ was crucified to take us out of the law and into faith. If we mix faith with the law, Christ died in vain. The world of survival, entertainment, security, sin, economy, politics, and also the world of religion are all part of the wicked world. Through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, through His death for our sins, God wants to completely uproot us from this wicked world, even though it comes with the appearance of good religion, culture, and education. Be careful, this world lies in the evil one. Christ died to uproot us and introduce us into another kingdom! We no longer belong to this world; we belong to the kingdom of God; we are in another sphere.
   

   John 3:3-8

    

9. Nicodemus represents the best of the natural man: religious, mature, a teacher who helps and teaches others. He represents the best that man has in his natural state, but God wants to uproot us from this wicked world and take us to another sphere, another kingdom. The kingdom of God is entered through the new birth, it is another sphere where God rules and reigns. When we believed in Jesus we were introduced into this new kingdom, today we belong to the kingdom of God. However, we need to walk in accordance with this kingdom we have entered. We cannot just have a title that we are citizens of the kingdom of God, but we do not walk in accordance with this kingdom. This is God’s great struggle with us. We who are born again must be clear that we are born of the Spirit, and those who are part of the kingdom of God no longer walk in the natural way we walked before. From today on, we who are born of the Spirit are part of a new kingdom, where God rules and we no longer walk according to our own will, but according to the Spirit. The Spirit is like the wind. We don’t see it, but we feel it. We don’t know where it blows from or which direction it will take next. The wind blows where it wants and goes where it wants, and so it is for everyone who is born of the Spirit. We no longer walk according to human logic. We don’t walk according to the lessons of the book we received. If you want to go back to practicing the law, you will go back to being perfected in the flesh again, you will walk according to what the law commands. We can be sure that the direction of the Spirit is never against the law of God. We are born of the Spirit and we must walk according to the direction of the Spirit.
   

   Gal 3:2-5

    

10. By practicing the law, by the work of the law, we will never receive the Spirit. Jews can study the Torah all their lives, but they will not receive the Spirit by working the law. It is not by studying the Bible itself that we will receive the Spirit, but by hearing it with faith. It is the same word, but we hear the word spoken by the mouth of God, we believe it and inculcate it, which is why immersion in the word is so important. We hear what God speaks to us every week, we inculcate it and this word will make us receive the Spirit. We have already received the Spirit, but do we have it in our hands at all times? Who do we follow? Many of us start out strong in the spirit, we receive it because we believe in the word and we begin to live a wonderful life, we begin to explore a new world that the Spirit has introduced us to, but after a while living the Christian life, we tend to perfect ourselves in the flesh, because we have been in the church for many years, we already have positions, we take care of departments, we think we are good at what we do, so we stray from the path of the spirit and begin to perfect ourselves in the flesh. We never receive a diploma for walking by the Spirit. Walking by the Spirit has to be done at all times. By practicing the law, we are not granted the working of miracles. It is the Spirit who works miracles, and how can we follow Him? By hearing and believing the word, immersing ourselves in the word and inculcating it in our hearts. This is the hearing of faith. This word will cause miracles to be worked in our lives. This is what colporteurs do on the street.
11. We are receiving between fifty and sixty GPC coordinators. They are the ones who perfect others to work on the streets and they are the first ones who need to be perfected to not walk in the flesh, but in the Spirit. They cannot depend on what they know, nor can they depend on yesterday’s experience. They need to depend totally on the Word because it is the Word that gives them the Spirit that gives them the working of miracles and makes the work of God happens.
12. Each of us continues to have the responsibility of bringing at least one candidate to GPC. Let’s look for people in our relationship group, people we have contact with every day, and ask them if they want to be missionaries. Serving God is the most honorable thing that exists. If someone says yes, we will bring them to GPC. Let’s fill GPC with candidates, because they will leave there as workers, colporteurs on the streets.
13. I just got back from Japan and South Korea. The need to take the gospel of the kingdom to Asia is pressing. We need more colporteurs. Almost none of the colporteurs speak Japanese or Korean, but we need at least people who can speak English. We want to start a service for all GPCers with good English and French teachers who can teach everyone. We want many colporteurs who speak English and French, and if they also know Japanese or Korean, great! The Lord is working in Asia and who knows, maybe He will open a door to the Philippines. We thought that Africa was the next big thing, but at the end of 2024 the Lord took us to Asia. Brothers and sisters, the Lord wants to conquer the whole earth! We need many workers in Europe, the United States, Mexico, Central America, Oceania, Asia. Many, many workers. We have GPC coordinators who are working towards this, and we also have the PAC to improve the colporteurs, precisely so that we have more efficient workers.
14. When we leave the prophetic word and follow the law, we step outside the realm of the working of miracles that the Spirit can do in God’s work, to be perfected in the flesh, then the Lord’s work in the church is at a standstill.
15. The purpose of this work is to investigate how to reach the standard of the church that God needs so that His will may be done, and that Christ may return to seek His bride. We are taking the entire history of the church up to this point for reflection and asking the Lord for more revelation to this end.
    

    Luke 24:49; Acts 1:3-5; 2:1-4,41; 4:13

16. We seek to understand the spiritual principles that made the early church prosper and what were the problems that hindered its progress. After the death and resurrection of Christ, with only 120 Galileans gathered in Jerusalem, the church was created by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and all were clothed with power from on high. It was not by practicing the law that the church was produced; it was by the outpouring of the Spirit prophesied in Luke 24:49. The Holy Spirit clothes the church with power from on high. It is not by practicing the law or by studying a lot in seminary school that we will receive power. This power comes through the outpouring of the Spirit.
17. How could 120 Galileans, people with little education, start a work that is at the center of God’s will, which is the generation of the church? God did not use the scholars of Jerusalem, nor the educated people of the land of Israel. He went to Galilee, where the predominant profession was fisherman. God did not go to colleges, but He looked for 120 Galileans to start the church. There are men who do better than the Lord and start “churches” with thousands and thousands of people. So as the founder of a church, Jesus was a failure. After more than three years of hard work, what He got were 120 uneducated Galileans. This is to show that God’s work is of the Spirit. He does not depend on human ability. It seemed that 120 Galileans would be doomed to total failure to raise a church, but God sent power from on high and poured it out on them. On that day, God used Peter’s mouth, the apostle was used by God to speak His word as a channel, and he represented the twelve apostles. This word went forth with power, and nearly three thousand people were saved and baptized that very day. This is a wonderful thing!
18. The Lord did not choose those who were very wise, very capable, or of noble birth. He chose the despicable things, the things that are not, to shame the things that are, because power does not come from men, but from God. The church was not created by human ability, but by the power of God. It continues to be so today.
    
19. At GPC we continue to lead people to understand that what does the work of God is the power of God. The PAC to perfect colporteurs shows that it is the power of the Spirit who does the work. This power comes through the word.
    

    Acts 2:44-45

20. Detachment from money was the first sign of the power of the apostles’ word. Who does this? Especially with Jews? Everyone loves money, Jews and Gentiles alike. Would we be able to sell everything and hand it over to the apostles for everyone to enjoy, just as they did? Who does this work? It is the power of the Spirit! This beginning was so strong that the first thing that happened among them was detachment from money. Would we have this detachment today?
    

    Acts 2:46-47

21. Church life is joyful and happy if we live it to the fullest! Are we living this church life happily? Or are we still unhappy? If you are still unhappy, come live this church life with the power of the Spirit!
22. Church life was lived every day, not just on Sundays. Even if we have to work, we are still living the church life. They were of one mind. Who produces unanimity and unity among us? It is the Word.
    

    1 Thess 2:13

23. God gives direction to the church through the word of the apostles, which is not the word of men, but of God. This word works effectively in those who believe. It is up to the church to seek fellowship in the given word, in this way the Lord had the freedom to govern the church and work through it to do God’s will. How important the word is! It needs to be welcomed, otherwise it passes without effect, but if we welcome it, it produces and works effectively with the power of God.
24. It is impressive how powerful God is in uprooting people from the world and from their attachment to money, right at the beginning of the church’s life, because riches are used by Satan to usurp people’s hearts. We all need money to live, we need to provide for our families, but let us not fall into this trap. The enemy uses even the legitimate things of the world to occupy our hearts. If our hearts are completely occupied with making money, paying the bills and bringing financial security to our families, there will be no space in our hearts for the word of God, like the seed of the kingdom, to enter and bear fruit there, and so Satan wins the battle. The colporteurs are on the streets to fight for the hearts that Satan has occupied for so long. They come to preach the gospel of the kingdom to people, to free their hearts, to soften the soil, so that the word of the kingdom can enter their hearts and produce the kingdom of God. This is our fight.
25. We receive the teaching of the apostles, this word is presented to the church and there are teams that are already preparing the immersion in the word, and the Daily Food. As soon as the message ends, we already have the immersion in the word for Monday. On Monday, we already have all the immersion for the seven days of the week ready. Thank the Lord, He is using brothers and sisters who are serving in His work in such an efficient way that we now have immersion in the word daily. Immersion brings to mind a part of the message, the word that the Lord spoke to the church. When we hear the word and it enters, we cannot let it go so easily, so we inculcate it, that is, we record it and imprint it on our hearts, through repeated repetitions. When the word enters, we must immerse in it, inculcate it, so that it does not leave our minds. That is why it needs to be inculcated in our hearts and thus we also promote the fellowship of life. This word is not only circulating here in Brazil, but also in Japan, Korea, Africa… We already have immersion in Japanese and Korean. This causes all members of the body of Christ to receive the word as supply, and this is what brings us unity and leads us to carry out God’s work.
    

    John 17:17; Eph 5:26

26. The word of God is the truth that sanctifies the church. The word circulates among us like water that washes us, washes away everything that is useless and places in our hearts the very reality, the very truth of God, constituting the divine truth within us. This is the importance of persevering in the teaching of the apostles and this is what the church in Jerusalem lost, because they were more focused on keeping the law, trying to reconcile it with the Christian life, which is impossible.
    

    Acts 4:32-33; Acts 5:12-14

27. The one who made God’s work happen was the word that had the Spirit and power. Who works miracles? It is through the hearing of faith that the word brings us the Spirit and works miracles among us. This is why the early church prospered. We must never lose sight of this. Do not let time pass and we become rigid. Do not depend on your own ability. The church has never depended on its own ability to prosper. It has always depended on the power of God, and God’s power comes from the word. When God has rule over the church through the word of the apostles, without the interference of human hands, the Spirit has freedom to carry out God’s work with signs and wonders that are impossible for man to perform.
    

    Acts 6:7

28. The Lord, in fact, governed the church through the apostles. The multiplication in the first phase of the church in Jerusalem occurred due to the growth of the word of God. How does the word of God grow? First, through the teaching of the apostles, the mouth spoke the word of God, this word was ruminated; the church had fellowship, inculcated the word in the hearts and made it circulate among the people, causing the word to grow and reach more hearts, increasing the number of people. When the word grows, the number of people also grows, and this is how the church grows.
    

    Acts 7:4,5, Acts 6:7-15; Gal 3:6

29. The word given by Stephen in Acts 7 sheds much light on how God does His work. Stephen, one of the seven deacons chosen by the church, was full of grace and power and performed great wonders and signs among the people. As a result, the people of the Jewish religion who were against it and saw that the word of God was growing too much, began to invent false accusations to denounce Stephen. There will always be opposition from Satan when it comes to the word of God, and today it is no different. The enemy uses every means to silence the word, because it is doing the work of God, it is performing so many miracles, and the enemy is trying to silence this word in this way, just as they tried to silence the word of Stephen. He was killed for preaching the word of God, but before he was stoned to death, he left a wonderful record in Acts 7.
30. Based on what did Abraham leave his homeland and go to a land that the Lord promised to give him, without any guarantee? It was based on the word of God. Abraham believed in the word of God; this is the hearing of faith. God is pleased with the hearing of faith, whoever hears and believes will receive the blessing, things will prosper. God took Abraham to the land of Canaan, made him look to the east, west, north and south and as far as he could see, God promised to give him all of this, but he died without a square meter of land, but he believed in the word of the Lord. God promised to give the land to his descendants and he didn’t even have a son, but he still believed. This was absurd, but Abraham believed in the word. Look at the power that there is in believing in the word of God! Those of faith are children of Abraham. Are you a child of Abraham? If we don’t believe, we are not, if we don’t practice the hearing of faith, we are not. If we believe that God will give it to us through faith, then we are indeed children of Abraham.
    

    Acts 7:22, 30-35; Ex 3 and 4

31. God prepared Moses, but at the age of 40 he understood that God wanted to use him to save the people, to take them out of the tyranny of Pharaoh in Egypt. When he went out to save the people, he saw an Egyptian mistreating one of his fellow countrymen and took justice into his own hands, killing the Egyptian. The next day he saw two Hebrews fighting and wanted to make peace. They asked if he wanted to kill them as he had done with the Egyptian. He was not recognized as the savior of the Jewish people and learned that Pharaoh was trying to arrest him, so he fled to the desert of Midian, where he remained for forty years. During this time, he lost all the natural ability he had learned in Egypt. Because he was powerful in wisdom and deeds, at the age of 40 Moses was not prepared for the mission, as he was still very confident in his own ability. Let us not think that God will use us as long as we are confident in our ability. He will only really use us when we realize that our ability is not useful for God’s work.
    

    Ex 3 and 4

32. At the age of 80, God sent Moses to Egypt to free the people of Israel. At that time, Moses told God that he was slow of tongue and mouth, that he was no longer capable of doing this work, and asked for someone else to be sent in his place. Moses said to the Lord, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? […] Indeed when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” The I AM sent him to the children of Israel to bring them out of Egypt and to a land flowing with milk and honey. Who sent Moses when he felt incapable? The I AM. Why the I AM? So that we would not depend on human capacity. Let us always continue with simplicity, depending on the Lord. It is not by our own capacity that we do God’s work.
33. Moses was aware of the responsibility and the difficulty people would have in believing that he was truly God’s messenger. God wanted to take the people of Israel out of Egypt, but He needed to use a man for the task. He always depends on man, but He does not use the capacity of this man. The fire that burned in the bush did not use it as fuel; it had fuel within itself. The I AM has the capacity and fuel to do His work. He does not need man as fuel; man is merely a support, a channel for God to use.
    

    Num 12:2; Ex 4:10-14

34. However, Moses knew that it would not be easy for people to believe that he spoke for God. This is what happened later when Miriam and Aaron asked, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” At that moment, God Himself came out to vindicate the situation. Indeed, Moses was the prophet, and God spoke to him face to face.
35. Aaron spoke fluently and did not stutter like Moses. Why didn’t God call Aaron to do this? Because he was not prepared. God called Moses precisely because he considered himself incapable of doing the Lord’s work, and God had prepared this vessel for this work.
    

    Acts 2:22,43; 4:33; 5:12

36. At the age of 40, when Moses believed he was capable of freeing the people from slavery, God did not use him. At the age of 80, Moses had lost all his natural ability; the Lord called him and sent him. Moses felt incapable of the mission; he said he had never been eloquent, slow of speech and tongue; he asked the Lord to send someone else. The Lord told him that he would use his own mouth and would teach him what to say. The man God chooses is not always the most eloquent or has perfect grammar and oratory. However, God will put the words in his mouth, and he will be for God, that is, he will represent God in speaking. And God tells Moses to take the staff, which signifies the authority he received from God to perform signs, with the power of God.
    

    Deut 18:15,18-19; Acts 7:39-43, 51-53

37. Stephen goes on to say that it was Moses who told the people of Israel that God would raise up a prophet like him for them. In Jesus’ time, the Jews venerated Moses as God’s prophet. But in Moses’ time, they did not listen to him or obey him. The people of Israel began to worship other gods. When God sent the promised prophet through Moses, who was Jesus, they killed Him. Acts 7 is very important. There we read that the people of Israel, since the time of their ancestors, killed all the prophets that God sent to speak for Him. Satan’s strategy is to shut God’s mouth, to silence the voice of the prophets. The prophetic word has the power to accomplish God’s work. If Satan can silence this word, God’s work will stop. Indeed, God’s work has stopped. From the second century onward, there has been nothing but degradation.
38. It was then that Stephen came to this point, saying that they honored the Lord so much with their lips, but that they killed all those He sent to speak His word, that they persecuted and killed them, and that they had just been traitors and murderers of the last one that God promised to give, the prophet, Jesus. When it came to this point, the people caused a riot and, in the end, they stoned Stephen and he was killed.
39. God works miracles so that He can do His work, which is done through His word. To speak His word here on earth, God depends on a channel, a man. As long as this man believes he is capable of doing God’s work, he cannot be used by God. God needs to work so hard on this man until he is convinced that he is no longer of any use or ability to do God’s work. When God calls a man, it is because He is certain that this man will speak only His word, because only the word of God has the power to do His work. If this man speaks His own word, the work will not succeed.
40. God needs, in every age, to raise up prophets to speak the word; and the word that this prophet speaks, when received, makes the work of God happen.
41. God sent many prophets at the end of the second half of the people of Israel, but they only persecuted and killed them. Therefore, the kingdom of Israel did not prosper. The nation of Israel, the northern kingdom, was taken captive to Assyria; and the southern kingdom, Judah, was taken captive to Babylon, because they did not welcome the prophets who spoke the word of God. In the New Testament, the scenario had to change. God sent His own Son, the Prophet Jesus Christ came to earth to carry out God’s work with power, and the Jews who should have welcomed Him, persecuted and killed Him. But God’s work cannot be extinguished by man either, so He preserved 120 Galileans, who did not depend on their own ability, because they had no ability, they were not college graduates, they were not scholars, they were not learned, they did not have great abilities. Therefore, God poured out the power from on high, the ability of heaven, through the Holy Spirit, and then they began to gain power to give birth to the church in Jerusalem.
42. To continue the Lord’s work for the church, God raised up Peter with eleven other apostles. The prophetic word came forth with power and the apostles’ performed signs, miracles and wonders, because it was the power of the Spirit that worked miracles and made everything happen, until that voice was silenced in the church in Jerusalem, because they elected James. Peter went into exile, only taking care of those who had been in the first phase of the church life in Jerusalem and God had to use another channel, Paul, to go to the Gentiles. Thank God, once again the word worked miracles, the Lord raised up churches and more churches, reached Rome and the entire Western world gained this matter of planting churches and the kingdom of heaven grew in the land of the Gentiles.
43. The same opposing force of the Judaizers that acted against Peter in Jerusalem also worked against Paul, following him wherever he went. When Paul was martyred in 67 AD, everyone in Asia had abandoned him; no one listened to or accepted the prophetic word that made God’s work prosper. They managed to silence yet another one.
44. When John comes, in the 90s AD, in another attempt to restore the word to do God’s work, John spoke the word of life, the fellowship of life, and tried to send his missionaries to carry this word, but it was also silenced by the church leaders themselves who loved primacy, the dispute for position and followers, more than they loved the word of God that does His work. Thus ends the first century in this sad situation.
45. It is clear to us: The word is what does God’s work! Today, in the 21st century, the Lord has restored this vision for us, so let us love the word, cherish it, and believe in it with the hearing of faith. Through the hearing of faith, we will bring the Lord back, build the church, and preach the gospel of the kingdom throughout the inhabited earth. Let us restore the power of the Spirit through the word!