Paul received the apostleship to work obedience to the faith among all nations to the glory of His name. Rom. 1:5. God’s name is only glorified through obedience! This is hidden to most people. They want to glorify Jesus by speaking about Him who was obedient, which is also great and to His glory. However, He is only truly glorified through our obedience. Then we will become the fruit of His work! Many people think if we could just perform signs and wonders, then God would be glorified! This is a deception of Satan, and when he schemes to deceive the nations so they can receive the man of sin, he will do it with signs and wonders. 2 Thess. 2:8-12. God also performs signs and wonders through His servants in order to help people and to lead them to faith, which means to obedience to the faith. In other words, the great thing is not signs and wonders, but rather obedience to the faith. When do people usually cry out to God and want to see signs and wonders? It is when they have come into need through their disobedience. Through obedience signs and wonders are mostly superfluous. We can learn this from the history of Israel. God performed signs and wonders in Egypt in order to deliver them. Afterwards He performed signs and wonders to get them to believe; yet in spite of all the signs and wonders they did not believe. Num. 14:22-23. They had to wander around in the desert for forty years where they continually experienced signs and wonders. Their garments and their shoes did not wear out, they received manna from heaven, and all they had to do to be healed from deadly bites of serpents was to look at a brass serpent, etc., etc. Why did they come into all this need; why were they bitten by serpents, etc.? It was all because of their disobedience. In the beginning, when they entered the land of Canaan, they came into great need because of their enemies, and God performed signs and wonders. By being obedient they were able to destroy the enemy, and they could live in peace and cultivate the land. God blessed them, and there were no more signs and wonders. Life evolved naturally and became more and more glorious. But then they were disobedient again and came into great need; they cried out to the Lord, and He helped them, and so signs and wonders became necessary again. Ps. 107:10-21. From this we can learn that God is gracious, and by means of signs and wonders He helps people out of the need into which they have come because of their disobedience. Those who call out for signs and wonders also say what kind of people they are: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign . . . .” Matt. 12:39. The intention with signs and wonders has been attained if people come to faith through God’s mighty works. They enter into God’s plan with their life by being obedient to the faith. Then they will no longer call out for signs and wonders; rather they follow Jesus who learned obedience by the things He suffered. Heb. 5:8-9. Instead of calling for signs and wonders, they will experience 2 Corinthians 4:17: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”Sigurd Bratlie

The promise to the church in Pergamos contained three excellent things: hidden manna, a white stone, and a new name. These are the precious things which Jesus Christ Himself guarantees—but only to those who overcome. This promise does not apply to someone who is generous and does many good things, yet cannot control his tongue. Having only a few of the fruits of the Spirit is of no avail; we must partake of all of them in order to overcome. Before Abraham received bread and wine and was blessed by Melchizedek, he had said to Lot, “If you take the left, then I will go to the right.” Jesus told the Jews that their fathers ate manna in the wil­derness and died. They sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. The word which they had heard did not produce eternal life “abiding in them.” They depended on the daily blessing. The hidden manna is for a hidden life. You need to have hidden treasures in your life which people can neither see nor appreciate fully. Faithfulness in the hidden life gives content and value to both the stone and the name. If the person has done what was before him, with faithfulness and zeal, he can receive the stone with understand­ing. If his inner life is like the field of a slothful man, poverty will come like a prowler, and want like an armed man. Proverbs 24:34. Those who are not faithful in living a hidden life can also be along in the assembly of the saints, but they are not baptized into the death of Christ. Romans 6:4. In 1 Corinthians 14:25 we read that when they came together, each of them was to have something to give: a tongue, a doctrine, a psalm, etc. They did not take this seriously, because they did not want to have any constraints placed on them. On the other hand, those who lived a hidden life bore the responsibility and re­ceived a “new name.” We are living in a time of apostasy. Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Even though Solomon and Saul were blessed, they did not pursue a hidden life of godliness and faithfulness. When it goes badly with a brother, you might hear someone say, “I would not have believed it about him!” It would not have happened either, if he had lived a pure, hidden life. “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3. These are the brothers and sisters Jesus is coming for when He comes again, and then He will be one with them forever.Trygve Sandvik