The following is bonus material added by Michael Wilkerson expounding on one key verse of a focused lesson on the topic The Holy New Jerusalem presented on 5-11-2025:
Primarily what I like to focus on is giving you enough scripture that will create for you:
Vision to see your potential
Faith to reach your potential
Conviction to motivate you to pursue your potential
And the passion to overcome every desire to quit until you fulfill your potential in Christ.
Because the Bible says, “Redeem the time, for the days are evil.” Time is running out for the lost. Thus, we must not waste any time getting ourselves in a position to reach the lost most efficiently and effectively.
As Prophet Ed says, “No time for time.”
I don’t need a pep rally. Nor do I need somebody to tickle my ears and tell me I’m fine. What I do need is an anointed somebody who knows the Word of God, so when they open their mouth to exhort, teach, or preach, a river of living water flows up out of their belly that will quench my thirsty soul with a right-now Word from God.
Because it’s the Word of God that enables me to see my potential. It’s the Word of God that enables me to believe that I can reach my potential. It’s the Word of God that will convict me to pursue my potential, and it’s the Word of God that will generate a passion in me so great that it will overcome every desire I will ever have to quit until I fulfill my God given potential. Amen? The Word of God is powerful.
That is why it is critically important to know your Bible. You can reverse the destructive course of people’s lives by knowing and effectively utilizing the Living Word of God.
Idolatry is a damnable sin. It says in Exodus 32:6,7, “And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.”
And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.”
See, if you spend more time pursuing hobbies and chasing after the thrills and pleasures of this life than you do getting to know the Word of God, be warned, and check your spirit. You could possibly be committing idolatry.
Revelation 21:8 states that the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
Therefore, notice how many times the term “knowledge” is mentioned in the following text.
2 Peter 1:1 - 11 says: Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters,[a] make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
In just those 11 verses, we find the word knowledge 5 different times. This stresses the utmost importance of knowing what is printed on the pages of your Holy Bible. This takes effort.
And verse 10 says: Make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will NEVER stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Is it possible to NEVER stumble? We just read that it is so in the Bible.
And how many want to receive a rich welcome into heaven? This scripture implies that some will not. For some, it will be like: Good, you barely made it. Okay next! You brought how many souls with you? Only two? Better than zero. Okay, next!
And Mr. Jovial, coming in behind you, is pulling a trainload of people singing: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. I know I can I know I can I know I can. I believe I can I believe I can I believe I can. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.
Well, I’m driving my soul winning train up to that heavenly place, stop’n along the way to tell of his saving grace. But the scientist community they just want listen to me I guess those evolving monkeys want to stay and argue Darwin’s theory, but I’m going to heaven to live eternally.
This one will receive a rich welcome into the kingdom of God, because of all the souls he won and for all the lives God used him to change.
Remember: One life will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last.
In 1 Samuel 15:23, where it's stated that rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is like idolatry and iniquity. The passage essentially equates disobedience and arrogance with seeking power or favor from sources other than God, which is the core of both idolatry and witchcraft.
I don’t know about you, but I’m here to join the winner's circle.
I’m not here to scratch around with the chickens.
I want to get off the ground, not run around with the turkeys.
I want to soar with the eagles. Is that you? Amen
Then, I’m in good company. Nobody attends this Church and sits through 4-hour services to play games. So, I know you are serious about your faith.
The Bible says that if you walk with the wise, you shall be wise. But the companion of fools shall be destroyed.
That tells me that I must hang out with people who are on a higher level than I, even if that is in front of a video screen or listening to a podcast.
If I want to go to the next level with God, I have to get myself in front of people who have more than I do.
If they are on fire, they will catch you on fire if you stay close enough. Amen?
And if you are already higher than I am and want to go to the next level, you need me to get there. Because for you to go to the next level, you first have to pull me up.
Come on, somebody. Do you know your Bible well enough to know where I am going with that statement?
What is the spiritual principle I am referring to that is found in your Bible?
See, God has spiritual laws in place. And a common theme throughout the entire Word of God is you reap whatever you sow, as it says in Galatians 6:7.
Ephesians 6:8 says: “Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord.”
That means, if you want to go to a higher level in God, you must first pull me up to where I want to go. Then, according to the law of sowing and reaping, the Lord will make sure somebody else pulls you up to where you want to go.
In the medical field, we have this saying: See one, do one, teach one. For example, I show you how to do a procedure, then, under my supervision, I will have you do the procedure. Then, you will teach someone else how to do the procedure until everybody is trained. That’s why they call it medical practice. And practice makes perfect.
To give you another visual, the rules for the Barrel of Monkeys game, which involves players trying to create the longest chain of connected monkeys by hooking one monkey's arm through another's.
The player who makes the longest chain without dropping a monkey wins. If a monkey falls off the chain, the player's turn is over.
The plastic monkey's arms look like this. And if I am one of those plastic monkeys and I hook arms with another plastic monkey and pull him up from the pile of monkeys, I’m immediately at the next higher level as soon as I pull him from the pile.
You see how that works? As I reach down to pull someone else up, another is pulling me up. Remember that game?
Well, God came down here from heaven. And He said, “You people have messed up royally and you are in big trouble with Me.” But, because I love you, I’m going to cut you some slack.
So, this is what we are going to do. We are going to play a little game called: Monkey see monkey do, better known as Follow the leader. And I’m going to start first to show you exactly how to play the game.
This game is very real. I’m going to sacrifice my physical life to save your eternal soul. And you are going to follow Me and sacrifice your physical life to save your neighbor’s eternal soul.
And these are the rules of the game: Number one: Thou shalt love thy God with all thy soul, heart, mind, and strength. And number two: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
It’s easy to love someone who loves you. Right? The Bible says: We love Him because… He first loved us.
And because we love Him, we are willing to obey Him in order to prove our love for Him.
And if you love your neighbor as yourself, you will do whatever it takes to rescue your lost neighbor's eternal soul from hell.
What God essentially said in His Word is this: if you refuse to rescue your lost neighbor, you are not worthy of me having rescued you.
Therefore, I will reverse the pardon I gave you because you failed to play by the rules. Because my ultimate aim in this game is for all to be saved.
Where did God say that? Jesus said in Matthew 10:38, “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” And the people who lived back in the day, when Rome crucified their offenders, knew exactly what Jesus meant.
Understand and know for certain that after God pardons us from all of our sins and justifies us free from the law that condemns those sins, He will surely reverse that pardon if we fail to take up our cross and willingly sacrifice our lives so that others can be saved.
Because the rule of the game is: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And if you don’t play by the rules, you will be disqualified.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”
But don’t look at it as if God were mean. This is how love works. Love is a verb, which is an action word. The Bible says God is love.
God just wants our fear of hell to be greater than our fear of being tortured or martyred for trying to bring the gospel to the lost and making disciples of nations hostile to evangelism.
That is how much God loves you and me and everyone who is lost and undone without God or His Son, who will face eternal hell unless they are warned, repent, and are converted.
God knew in advance that by instituting the threat of hell, we would choose rather to suffer temporarily as martyrs than eternally for disobeying His command to warn the wicked of the wrath to come.
Jesus said, “I send you as sheep among wolves.” Then, He said, “Do not fear man who only has the power to kill the body. But fear Him who, after He has killed the body, has the power to destroy your soul in hell. Yeah, I say unto you, fear Him.”
This truth about the possibility of our pardon and justification being reversed if we refuse to love and warn our neighbor doesn’t get any plainer than how Jesus said it in Matthew 10:38.
But if you need it all spelled out for you in the clearest detail, all you have to do is read Ezekiel 3:18-21. And I can provide you with many other scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments to confirm this truth.
In the game of Barrel of Monkeys, the one with the longest chain of monkeys wins the prize.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:24, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.”
Paul asked the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
So you see, our crown of rejoicing when we get to heaven is to see all the people we helped to bring out of eternal darkness and into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior?
Again, the title of our lesson is: The Holy New Jerusalem. And I want to highlight verse 27 in our lesson text: “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
That brings to mind one of the verses in our lesson text last time I taught, found in Luke 24:47, which reads, “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
That means we are not going anywhere until this gets done. Thus, God may cause persecution to rise in our own backyard in order to spread the salt. This is what happened to the early church in the Book of Acts.
The gospel spread because of persecution. And Jesus did prophecy this would happen again in the last days, which we are now living in. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
Jesus said in John 12:24, 25, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
In John 15:13, Jesus said: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
And then Jesus said this in verse 14: “You are my friends if you do what I command.”
My brothers and sisters, don’t be a coward. A coward will refuse to face death for you because they are afraid. But the brave will do so in spite of their fear.
The coward and the brave both struggle with fear. Because the only thing we humans hate more than pain is more pain. Right?
But the brave will face their fear and come to rescue you, while the cowardly will run away from fear and let you die and forever burn in hell.
If you can relate to that and persecution strikes fear in you, you better hear what the Word of the Lord says in Revelation 21:8: “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Thus, the Bible says the cowardly will burn right along with the murderers and the unbelievers in the lake of fire. That means we, beloved, will suffer the same fate as the people we cowardly fail to warn.
So, let us not be so unloving, but let us be brave and follow our fearless leader even into the jaws of death if necessary to rescue the perishing.
Revelation 12:11 says: “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”
Think about all the first responders around the world, the military, police, and firefighters. They risk their lives to save a physical life. But we brethren have a nobler cause, as we are called to risk our lives to save eternal souls.
Military and police run toward the bullets, knives, swords, fists, and risk being tortured. And firefighters run toward the fire and risk being trapped and burned alive in collapsing buildings, while others flee.
Do you not think the military and first responders have to deal with fear? Of course, they do. But they choose to be brave. Because it’s a matter of choice. Love is a choice.
And Jesus made that choice for us. And He suffered more than any man, for He suffered also in hell, as the scriptures point out, and many Bible scholars concur.
So, beloved, let us follow our Leader. We will be eternally glad we did when we see Jesus’ face and all the souls in heaven that we helped rescue from the flames of hell, unless you had rather burn forever with the cowards.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus mentioned the phrase multiple times: To him that overcomes… There are certain things we must overcome by faith. And fear happens to be one of them.
Again, Jesus said in Revelation 21:7, 8 He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 8 But the fearful or the cowardly, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
I know this has been sobering. But I’m not here to give you a massage. I’m here to give you a message that can alter the course of your destiny. So, don’t shoot the messenger.
This is the power of the gospel and of the living Word of God. When you speak God’s Word, it has the power to bring dead things to life and turn lives around.
And my prayer is for God’s Word to do exactly that, to motivate us to share our faith as if our life depended on it, because it does. Otherwise, scripture says God will cut us off from the vine.
Jesus said, “I am the vine. You are the branches.”
And in John 15:2, Jesus said: My Father cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
This is telling you that God’s will for you is to be fruitful and not squander the time He has given you.
Jesus said: “I am coming and my reward is with me to give to every man according to his works.” So, let’s get busy, church in seeking and serving our Lord in our individual callings.
So, we will not be ashamed when He comes, but received with open arms with a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our God.
Be inspired by the lyrics of this song written by Suzanne Gaither Jennings / Barry Jennings
What this dying world could use is a willing Man of God
Who dares to go against the grain and works without applause;
A man who'll raise the shield of Faith, protecting what is pure;
Whose love is tough and gentle; a man whose word is sure.
… God doesn't need an Orator who knows what just to say;
He doesn't need authorities to reason Him away;
He doesn't need an army to guarantee a win;
He just needs a Few Good Men.
… Men full of Compassion, who Laugh and Love and Cry-
Men who'll face Eternity and aren't afraid to die-
Men who'll fight for Freedom and Honor once again-
He just needs a Few Good Men.
… He calls the broken derelict whose life has been renewed;
He calls the one who has the strength to stand up for the Truth.
Enlistment lines are open and He wants you to come in-
He just needs a Few Good Men.
… Men full of Compassion, who Laugh and Love and Cry-
Men who'll face Eternity and aren't afraid to die-
Men who'll fight for Freedom and Honor once again-
He just needs a Few Good Men.
And that includes women. He’s not only looking for men, He’s looking for more Deborahs, more Ruths, more Esthers, more Annas, more Marys, more Aimee Semple Mcphersons, more Kathryn Kuhlmans, and more Daisy Osborns.
2 Chronicles 16:9 says: “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”
I repeat: “Whose heart is perfect toward Him.” And if you need to know what that looks like or you need to be reminded that God demands we serve Him with a perfect heart, or you just want to be encouraged in your faith to the point of absolutely believing you can serve God with a perfect heart, I posted an audio recording of my previous two lessons on the last two pages of my gospel blog at
www.MakeSureYouGoToHeaven.com.
There, you can listen to my teachings again. I have listened to some of my teachings many times. Because how many know that when you exhort others, you are exhorting yourself? Amen.
You are blessed in Jesus' name!