Is the Bride of Christ watching and waiting for the return of her Bridegroom with great hope and expectation? Or, is she so tired, frustrated and discouraged from the pressures of this world that she hardly thinks about the Rapture anymore?

If you get caught in the insane pace that the world is operating in, it will wear you out before you realize what is happening to you. To get ahead you will be pushing yourself to the limit, regardless of the cost to your physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.

The Bride of Christ should not be running herself ragged like that. I would like to tell all believers everywhere on the face of this earth that you do not have to function the way the world does. God has something better for you.

What I am about to reveal is so good and so powerful that it is almost frightening to think about with the natural mind. In fact, human nature is terrified of it, and it will try to drive you into a frenzy of activities so that you will not have time to think about it, even though the real you--that new creation--longs for it.

I will try to picture it for you in words, but if you are traveling through life in the frantic pace that the world operates in, you may only see it as a blur. Perhaps this is the time you should begin to apply the brakes to your lifestyle. Once you get that in some kind of control, the inner motor of your soul will begin to run more smoothly.

What will it take to slow you down? Is God, for your own good, going to have to allow something to happen to you that will force you to operate your life at a safer speed limit? Will it take a heart attack or some other major illness? Do you need to have a big crash to knock you out of the fast lane?

I want to spare you from a break down in life. Will you take time to carefully and prayerfully read and think about the contents of this message that has been placed on my heart to share with you? Perhaps, even now, you can hear a small voice in your heart saying, "Hey, listen to him; he has got something to say that can change your life."

What I am saying is simply what the Bible says: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Heb.4:9). But you will never find that rest unless you are first willing to enter the Inner Circle!

This Inner Circle of Rest is right there in the middle of the Pathway of Life and is exclusively for the people of God. I am not talking about salvation; this is an area that you may enter after you are saved. If you miss out on entering the Inner Circle, you will still be saved, but you will lose much of the joy of your salvation while you are here on earth.

God has been calling you for a long time to enter this Inner Circle, but stepping in will not be easy for you. Every ounce of your human reasoning will fight against you as you move toward it; Satan will work overtime to keep you out of it. It is not something that you will just drift into; it is going to take an effort on your part to get there. The Bible says, "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest" (Heb.4:11).

When I mention the word "labor," what will first come to your mind will be a human concept of work; but the work that our Lord speaks of has to do with believing in Him (John 6:29). It is the exercising of your faith.

The kind of work that God wants done in His service is foreign to the world. Unfortunately, it is also unfamiliar to much of the church because the world system has crept into it.

All of your life you have been taught to push yourself to achieve what the world views as success. Your normal, intelligent, reasonable thinking will tell you that it is good to perform in a way that will lead you to become a workaholic, and that it is bad to operate in the way that will lead you into the Inner Circle of Rest. The thought of entering it is frightening to the natural man. Not many Christians are willing to go all the way into that Circle. Some will only put one foot in; others will go in, then quickly jump back out. The more we enter and the longer we stay there, the better life becomes.

Peter, James and John were inside the Inner Circle more than any of the other disciples, and they were given the honor of a closeness to Christ that allowed them to behold His glory and also to know His sufferings. It was in the Inner Circle where they heard God speak in an audible voice saying, "This is my beloved Son: hear him" (Mark 9:7).

The Inner Circle is the place where you commune with God. It is a secret place where the Good Shepherd feeds His sheep the Bread of Life in a personal way. It is where the Bride longed to be when she cried out to the Lord, "Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?" (S. of S. 1:7)

How about you? Do you want to dwell with the crowd in the outer courts of the pasture where there is a lot of religious activity, or does your heart long to get alone with the Lord? Usually, it takes a trip through the wilderness before the Bride of Christ realizes the value of her one on One relationship with Jesus. And nowhere is that sweeter than when she is in the Inner Circle of Rest!

It is there where she forgets about her performance as a Christian and simply swims in the river of God's grace; it is there where she does not worry about her provisions, because it is only in there that the miracle of the loaves can be understood (Mark 6:52).

The line around the edge of this Inner Circle is like a metal detector that we have to pass through at an airport before boarding a plane. Regardless of how much we try to disguise things in our lives, nothing that is dead can cross over the line and enter the Circle: no images; no letter-of-the-word doctrines; no self-glorifying testimonies . . . nothing that edifies the flesh will make it over the line.

What may enter is very precious . . . and that is YOU; that is, the new you who was purchased with the blood of Christ! And yes, you may bring some things with you. Oh no . . . not your money! That must be left behind. The only things that will make it over the line are the spiritual riches that you are storing up for Eternity. The Inner Circle is a small piece of Heaven that is right here on earth.

I have spoken of some things that will hinder you from entering the Circle of Rest; but now, I must warn you about something so horrendous that if you let it get into your life, it will keep you so far away from the Circle that you will not even be able to view it with a telescope!

This monster was revealed to me recently in the middle of the night. The revelation did not come in a dream; in fact, I was wide awake all night as was my wife, which is unusual because we are both sound sleepers. The reason we could not get to sleep was because we felt unrest in our house.

Now, as I look back, I can see why I can detect the slightest trace of unrest in our home. It is because we have been blessed with a home of peace as mentioned in Matthew 10:13. My wife and I are not from another planet even though we do not argue. My two sons--who are now grown up--were very healthy, normal boys, and I have never heard them argue or fight with one another in the eighteen years or so that we had the privilege of having them in our home. Now, the experience of having two boys grow up without fighting is indeed unusual and precious. I mention this so that you may see what I mean when I say that we live in a peaceful home.

But this particular night that peace was being threatened. I could sense something coming that was like an evil, dark cloud--it was like a plague. When it got to be 2 A.M., I asked my wife if she was awake (I knew that she was), and she told me that she had heard the Lord tell her to fit into her resting place because there was a storm coming. When she said that, I could immediately identify the plague that was creeping into our home.

At the time, a man and his wife, who are our close Christian friends, were visiting us for a week. We had looked forward to their visit because we do not get to see them very often; but after they had been here awhile, something began to hinder our fellowship: the husband had a complaining spirit. (No, he was not possessed; this was not anything that could be cast out like a demon. It was just something that he should not have been doing.)

I was well aware of his problem by the third day of their visit, but I thought I could live with it for the rest of the week. But when the Lord showed me in the middle of the night that it was a plague that was coming into our home, I got up right then to deal with it.

Even though it was two o'clock in the morning, the man was still up. I went downstairs to confront him with his problem only to find that I could not speak to him about it because the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "You be careful how you speak to one of My precious servants." Yet I knew that I was the one who had to speak to him even though I did not want to. I also knew that it had to be at the right time and in the right spirit. I would wait for that, even if it took years.

For the next few days I found it difficult to talk to him about anything even though he was being very friendly to me. It was during this time that the Lord was showing me just how devastating it is for a Christian to complain--about anything!

Thoughts came to my mind of an incident that happened several years ago at a wedding reception with another brother in Christ. Although he was a very close friend, our fellowship was strained to the breaking point. I had not seen him for a while and I thought that at this reception we would make up for lost time. However, as we began to talk, I had to get away from him. I noticed everyone else was also avoiding him as if he had a contagious disease. I did not like the way I was reacting; I wanted to force myself to be sociable, but I just could not get near him without feeling sick inside. Only now am I beginning to realize why: My friend had given in to a complaining spirit, something that he himself, as a minister of the gospel, had, for years, warned others not to do.

Complaining is dangerous for everyone. People in the world do it all the time. Although it is harmful, they seem not to get corrected by the Lord. When a child of God complains, he does get disciplined for it, but . . . when a minister of the gospel complains, God "quarantines" him!

The Lord showed me this the fourth day of my friend's visit when I read in my Bible about Miriam. She was a prophetess (Ex.15:20) and the sister of Moses and Aaron. She knew what it was to be in the Inner Circle. She was the one who took a timbrel in her hand and led all the other women to take timbrels in their hands to sing and dance before the Lord, giving Him praise as she sang how He "triumphed gloriously" after He brought them through the Red Sea on dry ground and destroyed their enemies.

But the prophetess soon gave in to complaining. She then became leprous, white as snow. Her brother Aaron, who had been her accomplice in this act of complaining, saw what happened and quickly went to Moses in repentance. Moses cried out to the Lord for Miriam and the Lord instantly healed her. But she still had to be shut outside the camp for seven days as a Jewish daughter in Old Testament times would be who did something so disgraceful to her father that it caused him to spit in her face (Num.12:10-14).

It is the same today for the servant of God who gives in to complaining. It may not be visible leprosy, but something invisible to the naked eye seems to come upon the complainer, keeping others away as if he had a contagious disease. The next time you are about to murmur about anything, even if you have a legitimate complaint, I want the word "LEPROSY" to come to your mind to remind you of the danger you are approaching.

We all have a natural urge to complain; it is ingrained in our human nature and must be denied daily. We may be able to bridle our tongue and keep it under control, which is a great accomplishment, but that is still not enough. We must also place a watch on our thoughts. The best time for us to stop a complaint is to catch it while it is being formed in our mind, before it comes out of our mouth.

If we are sure we really have something we absolutely need to complain about, we must not do it in front of people, because it is contagious. What we should do is go out in the woods or into our prayer closet or some other place where we are alone with the Lord, and then pour out our complaint to Him and Him only.

Now, if we have become a chronic complainer, then we must cry out to God for help just as if we were filled with cancer. There is no reason for a Christian to suffer with such a disease as a complaining spirit. That ghastly infirmity has been healed by His stripes on the cross!

But getting back to my Christian brother who was bringing a plague into my house . . . on the seventh day of his visit, the time had come for me to speak to him about his problem. It is always difficult for me to confront someone with something I think they don't want to hear. But this was different. The time was right when I spoke to him; it was in the love of God, and it was a "word spoken in due season" (Prov.15:23). It was like I was giving him "apples of gold in pictures of silver" (Prov.25:11). When I finished, he thanked me and asked if there was any more. I have never experienced anything like this. When someone cares enough to confront me with my faults, I don't react in this manner.

When I finished speaking to my friend, he told me how his complaining attitude had damaged his relationship with his wife, hurt his children, hindered his ability to get insight from the Word of God, and--worst of all--came between him and the Lord.

God saw his heart and immediately lifted the plague from him. Sweet fellowship was immediately restored; he did not have to spend seven days outside the camp. Needless to say, his wife wept for joy as she saw her husband step back into the Inner Circle!

The key to having victory over complaining is not just denying our old human nature; that always wants to gripe. There is something we can do that is very effective in keeping a complaining spirit away: it is having a thankful heart! The next time you think you have something to complain about, think of what Christ did on the cross for you and be thankful.

Just as complaining drives us away from the Inner Circle, thankfulness draws us to it. Often times, when we are thankful to the Lord, we are right in the middle of the Circle before we realize what is going on. And let me tell you, there is joy in that place! Not only for us but also for the Lord!

How clear this was made to me in an experience that I had several years ago. I wrote about it in another booklet, but it is worth repeating again . . . and again . . . and again. As I look back at it now, I am aware that it happened while I was in the Inner Circle.

I was driving through an area of the White Mountains of New Hampshire on a beautiful fall day when the leaves were in full color. Being familiar with the territory, I knew I was approaching a quiet spot on a hillside where there was a spectacular view; so when I arrived there, I pulled the car over to the side of the road and walked down a pathway leading to the area.

While I stood on the grassy slope, admiring the view, I became very thankful in my heart to God, and I began to tell Him how much I enjoyed His creation. As my natural eyes were drinking in all the beautiful color of the foliage, I thought, The Master has used His paint brush. And then in my spirit I saw the most unusual sight of my life: I saw someone close by, up in the air a little behind me and to my right, and he was so happy that he was dancing! The nature of the dance is impossible to describe except that it was lively, to say the least.

Then it was revealed to me that the one who was dancing was my Heavenly Father! Although I did not see His face, I began speaking directly to Him and He to me. The words spoken could not be heard with the natural ear but were very clear. I asked, "Why are you dancing?" He answered, "Because I'm glad." I then asked, "Why are you glad?" and He answered, "I'm glad that you belong to Me."

Oh, what that experience did for my soul! Let me say it again: "There is a lot of joy in the Inner Circle!"

It is in there where we forget all our hangups and fears and see ourselves as God sees us through Christ's finished work on the cross! It is in there where we forget all our religious rigmarole and communicate in plain words, one on One, with our Heavenly Father! It is in there where we do not fret or worry about anything!