Looking to Jesus - T. Austin-Sparks

Looking to Jesus.... (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)

There is a real touch of Paul in this Letter to the Hebrews – "Looking off unto Jesus." Whoever actually wrote this Letter, the shadow of Paul is over it. His influence is everywhere. And certainly he was called upon to look off unto Jesus. Now that is a very vital lesson for us to learn. We have to do that again and again in our Christian life. If we get our eyes upon anything but the Lord Jesus we just go to pieces. Have all respect for God's saints. I am not saying that you have to eye every servant of God with suspicion and be saying all the time: "Well, of course, he is not perfect, you know." Give honor to whom honor is due, but never build your faith upon any man, however good he may be.

And as for ourselves – well, I think perhaps we are more tempted to look at ourselves than anything else! This is one of our real Christian exercises. We have continually to remove our eyes from ourselves and everything to do with ourselves. There is nothing more discouraging than this self of ours, and nothing more misleading. Our own judgments are all wrong, and so are our thoughts and ideas. They are not God's thoughts. We must take our eyes off ourselves, but not look out into space and be vacant. "Look off unto Jesus," and you know how that sentence is finished – "Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." Did you start this thing? Are you a Christian because you decided to be a Christian? Well, the Lord help you if that is so! No, He started this thing. Are you not glad that you can say: "It was the Lord who found me. It was the Lord who put His hand on me." What He said is very true: "Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you" (John 15:16). He was the author of our faith, and it says that He is the finisher – He will finish it.


By T. Austin-Sparks from: The On-High Calling Volume 1 - Chapter 9

Wow!  Did he just say a mouthful!  As long as we are still walking in our 'flesh'... our flesh will incorporate religious (spiritual) language and mannerisms, all the while operating from the realm of carnal understanding.  As long as everything circles around what "I think"... how "I feel"... "my knowledge or revelation"... "my doctrinal understanding"... sooner or later we must wake up to the fact that for all of our talk about Jesus, it is still all about 'us'.   Thank God that He will finish what He started... and in that process, He will make a complete and total separation between our flesh and our spirit, dethroning self and exalting Christ.  Glory!

Men Whose Eyes Have Seen the King - T. Austin-Sparks

Men Whose Eyes Have Seen the King
by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 4 - Beholding... Changed... Transformed...

 

"And after six days Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: and He was transfigured before them; and His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became white as the light... and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him" (Matthew 17:1,2,5).
"We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit" (or, "the Spirit which is the Lord") (II Corinthians 3:18).
The link between the two passages lies in one word, unfortunately slightly obscured in translation. In the King James' Version it is 'are changed into the same image'; in the Revised, 'are transformed into the same image'. The Revisers certainly have made a slight improvement on the other, and perhaps with a fine sensibility, or sense of fitness, they avoided putting the true translation, and made this slight change into 'transformed'. The fact remains that we have the same Greek word here as that which is used to describe what happened on that Mount - 'and He was TRANSFIGURED before them.' That is the same word exactly as is here translated alternatively 'changed' or 'transformed'. The exact rendering here would be 'are transfigured into the same image'. So that the children of God have a transfiguration, even as the Lord Jesus had. His was an event, an act; a thing, shall we say, as of a moment. We do not know how long it lasted, but it was at a definite time point. Ours is a long process; indeed, right from the beginning of our Christian life to its climax, this is what is supposed to be going on with us: we are being 'transfigured into the same image, from glory to glory.

The Outshining Of The Glory Of A Perfect Man

 

That at once is very challenging to us, for Christian history, life, progress. There may be - and I am always conscious of being on very delicate ground in making any comparison between the Lord Jesus and ourselves - there may be something different about Him. It has been said that the transfiguration was the outshining of His Deity, and I have no quarrel with that; if that was so, all right; it does not affect the issue at all. But we have reason to believe that it was something other than that also - that it was the perfecting of His humanity, and the outshining of the glory of an absolutely Perfect Man. We do believe, and we feel we have ground for believing, that something like that was God's intention for all men, when He said, 'Let us make man in our own image'. And when there is so much in the Word about the glory and the glorifying which is the consummation of our pilgrimage, surely there is something in the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus which is not altogether isolated from what the Lord intends for us.
That is where I would put the emphasis in our present consideration; that is the point. Indeed, in an earlier meditation on this matter we said this very thing. We said that the glory which took hold of Him, and emanated from Him, filled Him, and transfigured Him, was the glory of His personality as utterly satisfying to God. For God's satisfaction is always the ground of glory wherever you look in the Bible. Whenever you find in any place that state of things with which God can be well pleased, you will find the glory there - the glory fills and breaks forth. That is supremely the case in the Lord Jesus, and that is why at this point the voice from Heaven attested Him, marked Him out, and said, '... in Whom I am well pleased'. The Father was completely satisfied.
I repeat, then, that it was the glory of His personality as the Son of Man; for, almost in association with that, He spoke of His coming again as being 'the coming of the Son of Man in the glory of the Father'. This, so far as His perfecting was concerned, was not something that took place on the Mount. The Mount was the mark of the CONSUMMATION of His perfecting. I do not mean in the matter of sin - sinfulness or sinlessness - but the perfecting of His character, the perfecting of that inner man which we call personality. Personality is a strange thing, an elusive thing, something that you cannot get hold of, but you cannot mistake; it is THE person within - the man inside. Now, He, in that inner life of His, had worked out this whole matter of God's pleasure, God's satisfaction, through His life. There was the Divine approval at His baptism in similar words, indicating, probably, that His thirty years were approved; certainly indicating that the step that He was now taking, right out into public, with the Cross accepted (for His baptism certainly implied that) was approved. That brought the word from Heaven: 'My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased'.
But now this period, between the baptism and the Cross, is concluding, and what a period! One New Testament writer says that He was 'tempted in ALL points like as we'. And that was crowded into a short three years and a few months. Yes, hell tested Him; the world tested Him; in a sense Heaven tested Him. He was put through it in every detail, and won through. He, in that time, was 'made perfect through sufferings', 'learned obedience through the things which He suffered'. That time brought that inner life, that inner personality, to perfection. Now, you will see why I am saying this at the outset; it is not new, it is not fresh, but it is basic to everything else. That is the point.

'We ALL... Are Transfigured'

The apostle takes hold of that very word, and says: 'We all... are transfigured into the same image'. I am glad he uses that little word with its so comprehensive meaning - 'we all...'. He is not talking only about himself and his fellow-workers, brothers in the work; he is talking about the Corinthians and all believers. 'We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transfigured into the same image'. He takes hold of that same word, and brings it over to all saints; making of that which had been perfected and completed in the Lord Jesus a continuous process in the life of believers. He is but saying: What was completed and perfected in that One, has now to be reproduced in us progressively; that perfection, that character, that personality - the personality of the Lord Jesus - perfected, brought into us, developed in us, manifested through us. For 'personality', we could equally well substitute the word 'character'.
Now the first thing to note about this, which is, of course, so helpful and encouraging, is where the apostle finishes this statement, 'as by the Spirit Who is the Lord'. With all that we know about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Person and the work of the Holy Spirit, all the effects of the Spirit's advent and indwelling, let us recognize this as supreme: The inclusive work of the Holy Spirit, in all His manifold activities, is one thing - to reproduce the Lord Jesus in a people. When you pray about the Holy Spirit, and you speak about the Holy Spirit, remember that. The Holy Spirit's supreme and comprehensive object is to reproduce the Lord Jesus, in His character, His personality, His perfected manhood or humanity, in a people.
This is very testing to you and to me. If we really contemplate it - and it has challenged my own heart to the point of making me very hesitant to speak freely - the test of the Holy Spirit having His way in your life and mine, the proof that He is there and that He is doing His work, is our transfiguration. In other words: Is what Christ is in His perfect humanity becoming more and more true of us, in our natures, in our hearts? The real test of a Spirit-governed life lies here: the progressive increase of the character of Christ. If we are going to meet one another as really Spirit-governed men and women, what we must meet in one another is the Lord Jesus; and that must be, not just today, not just in one time of our lives, but going on, going on all the time.

Transfigured Through The Liberation Of The Spirit

 

That is the test and the proof and the challenge of the Holy Spirit's presence, and of the Holy Spirit's liberty to work. You see, the apostle says that here, just in a sentence earlier: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Cor. 3:17). He is, of course, making a comparison, or a contrast, with the old dispensation of the Law - Moses coming down with the Law. There it was all compulsion; there it was all 'you must' and 'you must not'; bondage, thraldom, limitation, suppression, repression, and anxious fretful striving. Now, all that has gone, and the Spirit comes and has His way. Moses, even, as representing that order of things, and that dispensation, had to put a veil over his face - not to hide the glory, but to hide the departure of the glory, and pretend, pretend - for you know it was a dispensation of pretending, on the outside. That was what the Lord Jesus was up against in His day, with the Scribes and Pharisees. He called them 'hypocrites', that is, pretending something that was not true; it was all put on, on the outside. The glory that had gone was not seen through this veil of pretense.
But with Christ, says the apostle, all that has gone; the Spirit has come, and come within; now we are set free from all that sort of thing. When the Spirit is Lord, it is liberty; everything is spontaneous, it is free, it just happens. You do not have to make believe, strive, fret, worry, and suppress: it happens if the Holy Spirit is there. And what happens, what happens? The glory of the Lord - that is, the Perfection of His Manhood - begins, and continues, to express itself in us spontaneously. That is the 'life of the Spirit'. It is 'normal Christian life'; there is something subnormal if it is not up to that, and something abnormal if you are putting on to that. But the 'normal' is that the Holy Spirit, having His way, does this one thing: He makes Christ more and more manifest in our mortal bodies.
So that is the heart of this. Now, the point is that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. That helps us very much, that the Holy Spirit has taken the responsibility for this into His own hands. You and I have not to strive to be Christ-like. With all due respect for Thomas a Kempis, it is not an 'imitation' of Christ - something that we TRY to do. It is this: to a true child of God, who is not putting something definitely in the way of the Holy Spirit, it is as natural to become more Christ-like, as it is to breathe. Now, you do not stop to discuss the question of whether you are going to breathe, how many more breaths you are going to take; whether you are going to breathe now, or save it up till later on, and make a theory of it - you just do it without thinking. And it is as natural as that, because the Holy Spirit is our breath, our life. Set that over against the many difficulties that people find to be Christ-like!

Transfiguration Through Trials

 

Now what is said here is these two things: First of all, there is the Pattern, perfect, complete - Christ glorified. The Holy Spirit comes to work that pattern out progressively in the children of God. He has come for that purpose, to take it over, and to do it. We are not allowed to say how He shall do it; He chooses His own way. That will lead to this next thing. The apostle goes on: 'We have this treasure in vessels of fragile clay, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves' (II Cor. 4:7). Now, how is it going to be done? how are these vessels of fragile clay going to contain, and increasingly contain, and manifest, this glory of the character of Christ? Not in the way that we would think, perhaps, or choose: 'We are pressed on every side... we are perplexed... we are pursued... we are smitten down... we are always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus... we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake... death worketh in us...' (verses 8-12).
That is rather a disconcerting, discouraging view of things, but that is how the Spirit does it. The fact remains, whether we like it or not just this: being pressed on every side means that we are pressed into something more of the Lord Jesus, and that something more of the Lord Jesus is pressed into us. It means that you and I would never come to this transfiguration, only through these trials and these adversities. These are the Holy Spirit's means of our perfecting, of our growth in Christ.
It is a pity that it has to be like that; a great pity that we cannot be Christ-like, without being put into difficulty and trouble and suffering, but that is how it is! Give people absolute exemption from all kinds of difficulties and troubles, and see what kind of people they are - self-centred; self-sufficient; self-assertive. People who are never ill have very great difficulty in being sympathetic and understanding with the sick. They have, at least, to make a great effort to be patient with them - that is why I like doctors to be ill sometimes! But sympathy, understanding, patience, come to us along this line of painful experience; it is a matter of character, is it not?
And so the apostle puts alongside of our transfiguration, all these difficulties and adversities, and in effect he says, This is the Holy Spirit's material; these are the Holy Spirit's instruments for working Christ into us. If we are not rebellious, if we do not allow bitterness to creep into our spirit, it works out that way. Under the government of the Holy Spirit, suffering and trial, difficulty and adversity, will effect this.

Occupation With The Lord

 

But then the apostle checks us here; he says: 'We all, with unveiled face, BEHOLDING as in a mirror...'. The revisers have had some difficulty here, as the translators of the Authorized Version had, and they have not settled their difficulty. Here is a matter in which they did not really know exactly what Paul meant, so they put it in these different ways - what we have in the text, and what we have in the margin. Did he mean that we are a mirror? that the image is thrown upon us as upon a mirror, and then rebounds - is that what he meant? Or did he mean that Christ is the mirror, and we are looking into Him, and He is reflecting the glory of God? I think that is what he meant. He spoke about the 'glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ' - I think the word 'face' there is really equivalent to 'mirror'. I know that it is not the same Greek word, but it is just another word in meaning; it is 'in the face of Jesus Christ'. 'And we BEHOLDING, as in the Face of Jesus Christ' - that is what the apostle is talking about here.
Now the word 'beholding' is a strong word; it is not just taking a look, it is 'fixing our gaze'. That is what the New Testament means by beholding, behold. We all, fixing our gaze upon Christ, as He mirrors in His own Person the glory of God, the satisfaction of God, the mind of God in perfection. The point is that you and I must contemplate the Lord Jesus in spirit, and be much occupied with Him. We must have our Holy of Holies where we retire with Him. We must have a secret place where we spend time with Him. And not only in certain special seasons, but we must seek, as we move about, ever to keep Him before us. Looking at the Lord Jesus, contemplating Him, we shall be changed into the same image. The Holy Spirit will operate upon our occupation.
You become like that which obsesses you, which occupies you. Is that not true? You see what people are occupied with, and you can see their character changing by their obsessions. They are becoming like the thing which is obsessing them; they are changing; they are becoming different. Something has got a grip on them; they can never think about anything else, talk about anything else; and it is changing their character. Now Paul said, 'For me to live is Christ - being occupied with Him'. It is the wrong word to use, but nevertheless it would be a good thing if He became our 'obsession', our continuous occupation. As we steadfastly fix our gaze upon Him, the Spirit changes us into the same image.

'This Ministry' Is For All: A Matter Of Character

Notice the context of these words in II Corinthians. The apostle here is mainly concerned with the effect of the life of believers in this world, on this earth. He calls the effect 'this ministry'. Perhaps that word needs transfiguring for us. Note that when he says, 'we ALL, beholding...', he includes all believers in that word 'ministry'. It is ALL believers he is speaking to about ministry. And herein lies a tremendous difference. Our technical, professional conceptions of 'the ministry' are mostly external: that is, you give a title; you, more or less, put on a uniform; and so you are 'the minister'. It is all put on the outside, therefore it can be artificial. But what the apostle is saying here, is, that the ministry is not something that you put on, but something that comes out from within. We ALL - and that includes you, my brothers and my sisters - are called to the ministry. Any special application of that word would only be permissible, in the New Testament, in MEASURE, and not in kind. That is, some have a special ministry, and they are God's ministers in that particular way, with that particular measure. It is not that they are a class called 'ministers', and other people are 'laity' - such ideas are altogether foreign to the New Testament. 'We ALL, beholding', have the ministry, resultant from the beholding. And so we are all called to the ministry; it is just the effect of our being here.
Now, what is the apostle saying about this? He is clearly saying that the personality and the ministry must be one. How searching that is, but how very meaningful. The ministry must not be some 'thing' - preaching, teaching, and all those things that are called 'ministry' - something just done, whilst the man himself is different, and the person is apart. What Paul is saying so emphatically here is this, that when you meet a truly Spirit-indwelt and Spirit-governed man or woman, what they say comes out of their life - is a very part of their life. Their teaching can be seen to have been wrought into their history and their experience. When that man or that woman seeks to teach, to 'minister', to say something to someone else of a Christian character, it is known that that has come out of some secret history with God, something that the Holy Spirit has done in them. Their ministry and their character are identical.
That is very important indeed; it is indispensable. That is why the Holy Spirit is so meticulous about character, so careful about the personality, about the inner man, the inner life. That is why, if we are under His government - and this does not apply to everyone who ministers, or is in Christian service - but if we are really under the government of the Holy Spirit, if we, in word, exceed what is true in our own lives, the Holy Spirit will soon take us up on that, and, in effect, will see to it that we are brought abreast of our teaching - that the thing is kept in correspondence and balance. Have you ever said something, and the Holy Spirit has checked you up, and said: Is that true of you? is that something you have said? It is very important, and, if we were honest, we would not really have it otherwise. We want it to be like that.

The Impact Of The Glory

But this is something that involves the glory - that is the point. There is such a thing as the POWER of the Holy Spirit in the glory. We spoke of it on a previous occasion as the 'impact' - the impact of the transfiguration upon those men; and the impact of a seeing of the Lord by anyone afterward - what it registered of power. Now, you and I perhaps covet and crave as much as anything that there should be impact in our lives, that there should be power, that our lives should register, that our presence should not just leave things as they were. We long that, as we go on, and when we have passed on, something may have been left of an impress, at least through our presence, and perhaps through our ministry - something that shall remain. Yes, impact is a very good word.
That is bound up with the glory - that IS the glory. It registers; it is something that remains. Things may come in, and for a time the glory may be veiled, but there is something there that will come up again. I confess that I have had difficulty in understanding - and yet there is some understanding, because we are all made alike - how three men, and one of them in particular, could be on the mount of transfiguration, yet in His hour of need they all could forsake Him and flee for their very lives; or how one amongst them, who by a revelation of the Father had declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God - how that man could yet, when it came to it, deny Him with oaths and curses. And yet all this was only a veiling for the time being; the glory came up afterward. It came up with Peter at the end. Many years afterward he remembered: 'We were with Him in the holy mount'. It remained. There was a temporary eclipse, but it was something that they did not forget. God forbid that such an eclipse should ever be true of us; perhaps we shall never have to go quite the same way as they went. But there is a permanence about this matter - an abiding effect of really having Christ revealed in the heart; and, by that inward revelation of Him, there is a manifestation of His character, something that remains.
Now it is clear that we cannot say this of all that is called 'ministry'. It is a sermon, an address, something given, and it passes. And it goes on like that in a routine, week after week, week after week. But, of course, we do not want it like that; we really do not want that we should come and go, should be just passing things, and not leave any abiding mark. No, there is an impact bound up with this. So, it is not a matter of what we call 'the ministry' - something external. The 'ministry' with Paul is nothing less than, nothing other than, what is true of Christ coming out of the life of His servants, of His people; being there, and coming out.
"Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy... we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God" (II Cor. 4:1-2). 

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By Myself I Can Do Nothing - T. Austin-Sparks

By Myself I can do nothing. (John 5:30 NIV)

One of the most difficult lessons that the Lord's children have to learn is how to let go to God. Even in a matter that is right and in the purpose of God, there has to be the lessons which Abraham had to learn through Isaac. It is not in our personal clinging to a God-given thing, whether it be a promise or a possession, but faith's restful and fear-free holding on to the Lord Himself. If we had a thing from the Lord Himself we can rest assured that what He gives He will not take again without some larger purpose in view; and on the other hand, none can take from us what He has determined for us. But there are many dangers which arise from our own will in relation to a Divine gift or purpose.

The first is of making that thing ours instead of holding it in and for the Lord. This leads to fierceness and personal uprisings. Then jealousy will not be long in showing its ugly head, and jealousy with its twin – suspicion – soon destroy fellowship and spontaneity of communion. Does not jealousy declare most loudly the fact of personal possession, personal interest? If we realized how privileged we are to have even a very small part in the things of God, and how it is all of His Grace, surely we should be very grateful that we could just have the remotest connection with Him. Then further, when we hold things received or as promised or believed to be for us as only unto the Lord, in restful trust, we make it possible for the Lord to save us from being mistaken in the matter. It is not an unusual thing for a child of God to come to see that a thing which he or she most strongly believed to be God's will or way for them was not so, and it had to be surrendered. If there was any personal element of will in it the experience has proved terrible, and has left works of bitterness and mistrust. Yet once again, a strong personal mind and will in relation to things of God too often makes us a law unto ourselves. That is, we get into an attitude which implies that we only know the will of God in the matter. We do not trust that others also may be led of the Lord in this thing, and so the corporateness of guidance so necessary to the house of God is destroyed or paralyzed.


By T. Austin-Sparks from: "The Flame of a Sword"

Pictures of Bethany - T. Austin-Sparks

Excerpt from a meeting in Taiwan; 1957

1. Giving Place to the Heavenly

You will probably remember the first time that we meet Bethany. Jesus and His disciples came to Bethany where Martha and her sister Mary lived. It says that Martha was troubled with many dishes. Of course, it does not put it like that in your translation, but that is in the original text. She was troubled with many dishes, but Mary sat at the feet of Jesus listening to Him. Now, some people think that the Lord rebuked Martha because she was concerned about the love feast that she was making for Jesus and His disciples. Of course that was not true. The Lord said, “You, Martha, are troubled with many dishes. Now Martha, we have only got a little time and just one simple dish is enough. One thing is needed and Mary has chosen the better part.”

Well, here we have the first picture. You see Martha rebuke her sister Mary, or rather she asks the Lord Jesus to rebuke her. Well, our first lesson is this: The Lord Jesus does not want us to put a lot of earthly things in the way of heavenly things. He wants us to have just what is necessary of the earthly, but to give the large and important place to the heavenly. Don’t be too much concerned about the things of this life, but be most concerned about the things of the Lord. That is really the first lesson of Bethany. Of course there is a lot more in it than that, so I say that if you are going to be Bethany, you must be a people who give a very large place to the heavens and whose main concern and interest is in spiritual things.

2. Knowing Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life

Our next picture of Bethany is rather a sad one. That is, it begins in a sad way and it ends in a joyful way. You will remember the story of the sickness and death of Lazarus and how difficult it was for them to understand the Lord Jesus. He was some miles away and the sisters sent a message to Him. The message was: “He whom Thou lovest is sick.” They thought that the Lord only had to know that Lazarus was sick, and He would come. They did not even ask Him to come, they were quite sure that He knew of their trouble and He would come. But Jesus did not hurry to them. We are told that when He heard the news, He tarried in the place where He was for four days, and during that time, Lazarus died.

Well, you know the rest of the story. Martha and Mary did not understand the Lord, but the Lord knew what He was doing. He deliberately allowed Lazarus to die in order that they might make a great discovery about Him. These people had got to know the Lord Jesus in the greatest way in which He can be known. In the sorrow that the Lord Jesus allowed to come to them, He was hiding the greatest blessing that they could know. He was leading them by a very dark way in order that they might come to new light. They could not understand Him for the time being, but I am quite sure that after it was all over, Martha and Mary said, “Well now, we are glad that He didn’t come when we sent for Him! Now we are very glad that He did not prevent our suffering. The blessing that we have come into has justified it all. We did not understand what the Lord understood. He had a wisdom far deeper than our wisdom.” You know that they came to know the Lord Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life. There is no greater way of knowing the Lord Jesus than to know Him in your own experience as the Resurrection and the Life.

Take the lesson from the second picture now: The Lord may lead you through difficult ways. That is a part of the story of Bethany. Do not think that because the Lord loves you He will never allow difficulty to come to you. It says quite definitely that the Lord loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. The difficulties that He allowed to come to them were not because He did not love them, but because He did love them! And if difficulties come to you, do try to remember that it is not because the Lord does not love you; it may be because the Lord is wanting to bring you into a fuller experience of Himself. That is the way in which Bethany is made.

3. Being a Place Where All is Poured Out

Well, the third picture at Bethany… they made Him a feast. Lazarus has been raised from the dead and so they are having a love feast; a love feast for the Master and the disciples. Martha and Mary are there, and Lazarus is alive and sitting at the table with them. It is a love feast on the ground of resurrection. It is a feast upon the ground of Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life. Now, Martha is still serving. It definitely said that Martha served, but the Lord does not rebuke her this time. She is still serving, and it is a service now that has been cleansed and purified and brought off of earthly ground and onto heavenly ground; off the ground of death, and onto the ground of Life. It is not wrong to be in service, but it is important that our service should be on the ground of heaven and not on the ground of earth, on the ground of Life and not on the ground of death.

Well, this is the third picture of Bethany, but you remember something happened then. Someone thought of something. They thought of a very precious vase of ointment. They had this in the house and they thought, “We must pour this on the Master’s feet” and so they broke the vase and poured the ointment on the feet of the Master. Of course, it was Mary that was doing that. But something sprang out in their midst that was very unhappy. Judas said, “Why was not this ointment sold and given to the poor?” This seemed to be a cloud coming over their happy faces. Well, we know who Judas was, don’t we? The Lord Jesus made it very clear who Judas was. Judas was one whose life was governed by Satan. He was a child of Satan and Satan does not love the worship of the Lord Jesus. You see, this was an act of worship.

That third picture of Bethany is the picture of becoming a place of worship where everything is poured out at the feet of the Master. This is the meaning of worship; we pour out everything at the feet of the Master, the most precious thing that we have, and we put it upon the feet of the Master. We said He is worthy of the best that we have, but Satan does not like that and he tried to spoil the love feast. He would take away from the Lord Jesus rather than give to Him.

Now if you are going to be a Bethany, it must be the place where everything is poured at the feet of Jesus and be seated at the feet of the Lord Jesus; the place of true worship. Do remember that you will always have an enemy, one who tries to rob the Lord Jesus of what He would have; one who would try to spoil your love feast by bringing in a question.

4. Being Filled With Joy

Now we come to this last picture. I like to see how the story finishes, here is a story in four parts. I like to think that the last place on the earth that Jesus visited was Bethany. “And He led them out until they were over against Bethany: and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy…” They returned to Jerusalem rejoicing. The last word about Bethany is “rejoicing”. Rejoicing in a risen and ascended Lord. If you think about it for a moment, this is rather wonderful.

Just think how much the Lord Jesus had meant to them at Bethany… They had said, “Lord, if only You had been here, our brother would not have died.” And then when He raised Lazarus, how much He meant to them! They made Him this love feast. What a grand time they were having with the Lord there and now He was gone. They ought to be weeping; they ought to be feeling very sad for themselves. “Well, we have had a wonderful time and now He is gone. Perhaps we will never see Him again. What are we going to do without Him?” Well, there is nothing of that. As He went from them they were filled with joy.

You see, Bethany is the place from which Jesus never departs. They had learned during the forty days after His resurrection that He was still continuing to appear to them; He was away, and yet He was present. They knew He might be there again at any moment. They had learnt that they had really not lost the Lord, and so they were filled with joy. They were able to say, “He may be back at any time!” and that is true. Dear friends, the Lord may be back any day. He has not really gone far away from us. He said, “I am with you all the days.” He is with us! We cannot see Him and yet He is coming again and then we shall see Him. So the last word about Bethany is “filled with joy”.

May these four things be true of you. First of all, that you give the most important place to heavenly things, then that you come through difficulty and trial to know Jesus in the fullest way in which He can be known as the Resurrection and the Life, and then you are at the place where everything is poured on His feet and on His head. You are the people who give everything of the best to the Lord Jesus, and then you are the people who are filled with joy, because you know He is near and He is coming again. Now I think that if I could write your Chinese language, I would go outside and write on the door “Bethany”!

Some Personal Observations from - Kriston Couchey

These shares are taken from posts on FaceBook, made by Kriston Couchey....

Years ago I had a very powerful dream that was more of a vision . In it I was on a raised platform looking down at two people I have loved and known my whole life. The kingdom age had begun and all that was to transpire had and I was going on to my place of reward.

These two people in real life have both been born again, but have never really submitted their will and life to God fully. They have chosen to live their life on a certain level of existence in which spiritual realities play little part.

In this dream they COULD NOT go where I was going and could not rule in the kingdom of God. They were not going to hell, and were not in torment, but I was sad knowing I would not see them again as the existence I had chosen was not the one they chose.

The overcoming people of God are the bride that is the ruling city of God. Not EVERYONE is allowed in that place nor is everyone allowed to be ONE with God in the place of ruler ship. The gates are open, but the whore mongers, thieves, liars etc, THOSE THAT PRACTICE INIQUITY, are not allowed entrance. It is not about salvation, it is about the kingdom. Grace is given to make us ABLE to walk free from iniquity. It is God's empowerment to be holy. You must appropriate it by faith. You CHOOSE your level of existence.

You can choose to live at whatever level of life you choose. If you are focused on earthly things and pursue them you endanger your place in the kingdom.

So what level of life do you want to live? Fighting in the natural for that which is TEMPORAL? politics, doctrines and nationalistic ideologies? Or, will you lay down your life, your things, your power, your ministries, your country to enter the kingdom?

Let me frame this another way: A few years back I was taken down to nothing by Father and brought very low and broken. In that place I surrendered all my "dreams" and ministry" aspirations, even those given by Him in order to just have Him. I finally stopped trying to build a ministry. In that place He met me and said "Now I am going to build you a ministry!" and then He said "I have given you great authority, USE IT!"

ALL of us have been given that great authority of Christ in us, So why is it not expressed? We are unable to walk in it when we are walking under man's expectations, law, religion, or living to please self. Christ does NOT  inhabit our own works sourced in self or good intentions. He flows out of what is sourced in Himself.

So, when Jesus shared the parable of the talents and the one who hid it away and it was taken from him and given to one who used theirs, what was the REAL problem? The real problem was he did not really KNOW the gift given him or know the heart of his Master, and accused him of being harsh and taking that which He did not sow. In reality the Talent WAS the masters talent (grace) given to (sown into) him.

For us, Father DID sow the talent, for the talent IS Christ! The fact is Father ONLY reaps what He has sown and the one who denigrates His character does not recognize the Grace of God within and know God HIMSELF is the Grace given to express Christ; but accuses Him of demanding harshness, believing Father is reaping what we do for Him and not knowing grace that is Father's ability manifest as CHRIST IN US!. In reality Christ in me is an assertion by God that Seeds must grow, or they are not viable. WE are the talent that is multiplied as we grow in grace, and as Christ in me is manifest. We are the seed of Christ that is sown. And we bear fruit that is CHRIST. Anything that is NOT Christ will not go forth into the age of the kingdom. That is why we choose our level of existence and expression of Who He is. We can express whatever we choose regardless of our right doctrines.

We can hide the talent which is Christ in me and accept the goodness of God as a reality and embrace fully His grace, or live on the level of existence that is satisfied with that which is sourced in men.

If we are expressing his nature AND authority that is Christ in me, then we are expressing the kingdom. Those who refuse to, in a lack of knowledge of Christ in them, cannot and will not walk in the kingdom, for the kingdom IS Christ in me expressed.

That is why Jesus says depart form me to those who DO things in His name, but do not know the heart of God as it is EXPRESSED in and through them, which is the kingdom of God expressed.

The kingdom is simply Christ expressing His love and authority in and through you, and receiving that expression of Christ in and through others. All that is not Christ is not the kingdom.  So if you are expressing and receiving as life something else ( religion, sin, fear, etc.), you are still living in and missing the reality of life in Christ in the kingdom.

God does not ban people from the kingdom, people choose to live in the kingdom or lesser things. You either have entered or have not, Father has opened the doors wide. To Judge/discern is simply seeing clearly where you are. When Father judges us it is not a condemnation, it is clarification of where we stand. God is not condemning men as unfit, men choose whether they want the simplicity in Christ, or sin, religion, fear, etc.

The kingdom is SO simple that you must as a child receive it. Many talk about leaving Babylon to make their way to the new Jerusalem. It is not a journey of works or external activities, but a journey of the heart into God's peace found in the Rest of Christ. All needs are met in Him, and in Him the kingdom is found. [1/15/2012]

Who Is "I"? - David Skinner

This is an excellent article on 'who I is'..or better yet, who I am in Christ.

"....And I tell you, you are never going to experience the new “I” until you start to believe into it. Don’t wait to feel your behaviour change because it’s the change of your mind that changes everything else. We are transformed. That even goes right down to the physical structure, by the renewing of our minds. “Be not conformed to this world.” Well, just listen for one 24-hour period and hear what you hear after the word “I”. “I’m happy. I’m sad. I’m angry. I’m in love. I hate her. I love this place. I hate this food. I can’t believe that. I can’t believe what’s happened to this country. I can’t believe what’s happened to this family. I can’t believe that.” And listen, it’s a whole world of mistaken identity!..."

Read in its entirety in this PDF file

It's All About Relationship

Because I live, you also will live. (John 14:19 NIV)


Relationship with God today in so many directions, and over such a wide range, is not a living relationship. There is an acknowledgment of God, there is a form of worship of God, there are rites connected with God; yes, there is a recognition in a greater or lesser measure of a kind of devotion to God, worship of God, acknowledgment of God, perhaps desire for God, but all short of a living relationship with God. Yet that He is the living God means that those who are related to Him should live. He would say, "Because I live ye shall live also." A living relationship with God is possible....

It is not a relationship with some dead order of things, but with a living Person. But I must ask, Have you that living relationship? Are you following a system, an order, or are you in living fellowship with a living God? The Lord desires that such a relationship with Him shall be living all the way along. It is a great thing to know that you have access to the living God. You do not know whether a thing is right or wrong? Well, you have the living God, ask Him; He is open, He is accessible, He is alive; you can have dealings with Him. Just to enjoy a living relationship with a living God is how He wills it to be. The desire of His heart is that you should treat Him as being a living God. "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." We must believe, when we come, that He is; not feeling out into the universe, the vacant, empty universe. No, we are coming to a living Person; we believe that He is! There is nothing vague about that.

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Living God 

What Is Spiritual Growth? - T. Austin-Sparks

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

What is spiritual growth? What is spiritual maturity? What is it to go on in the Lord? I fear we have got mixed ideas about this. Many think that spiritual maturity is a more comprehensive knowledge of Christian doctrine, a larger grasp of scriptural truth, a wider expanse of the knowledge of the things of God; and many such features are recorded as marks of growth, development, and spiritual maturity. Beloved, it is nothing of the kind.

The hallmark of true spiritual development and maturity is this: that we have grown so much less and the Lord Jesus has grown so much more. The mature soul is one who is small in his or her own eyes, but in whose eyes the Lord Jesus is great. That is growth. We may know a very great deal, have a wonderful grasp of doctrine, of teaching, of truth, even of the Scriptures, and yet be spiritually very small, very immature, very childish. (There is all the difference between being childish and child-like.) Real spiritual growth is just this: I decrease, He increases. It is the Lord Jesus becoming more. You can test spiritual growth by that.
By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Cross and the Way of Life - Chapter 4 

Amen & Amen

The Purpose of the Elect - T. Austin Sparks

Meeting 15 - The Purpose of the Elect

T. Austin-Sparks

28 February 1957, at Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

I have been occupied with a big question today. We have been having many meetings during the past two or three weeks. For nearly two weeks we have had large meetings in Taipei, and in these last few days we have been having meetings in many other places, and now we have come here and are having some more meetings. The question that has been occupying me today is: “Why are we having meetings?” What is the purpose for some of us coming halfway around the world and others who have gathered together from various places; what is the object of it all? I feel that I should use the time this evening in trying to answer my own question. I feel that there is a very real answer to that question.

Now, I am not going to take any particular passage of Scripture. There will be the whole Bible behind what I have to say tonight, and I trust that you will believe that I am speaking with the Bible as my background.

So we begin to answer the question, and the first thing that we will say is this:-

God Has a Great and a Glorious Purpose.

The Bible reveals that God is occupied with this great and glorious purpose indeed. The whole Bible is one great and wonderful revelation that God is a God of purpose. All the way through the Bible, God is shown to be governed by a definite purpose. God has not created this world just so that the world should be created. God has not created man just so that man should exist. Nothing that God has done has been intended to be an end in itself, but everything that God has done relates to a definite purpose.

The Bible shows us that God, before He made anything, had a purpose in His mind, and that He made all things for that purpose.

Now, that first thing has two or three different aspects. First of all, when God created man, it was so that man should be the vessel of God’s purpose and that man should be in a definite relationship with God concerning His Purpose. The object of man’s existence is to be in fellowship with God concerning His eternal purpose.

I do hope that you will not just listen to the things that I say, but that you will apply them to yourself as I go along. You see, we men and women in this place tonight, the very meaning of our being here in this world is that God has a purpose. There was a purpose in God’s heart in bringing mankind into being. We are a part of that mankind, therefore our existence was intended to be in relation to God’s purpose. But then something went wrong.

When God created Adam, He brought Adam into a very wonderful fellowship with Himself. God came down and walked with man and talked with man. There was wonderful fellowship between God and man, and man and God, and then things went wrong and that union of man with God was broken. That was bad enough, but that was not the worst of it, another thing came about.

Man came into a relationship and union with Satan. The relationship which had existed between man and God was broken and that relationship has passed to Satan. And because of that, God’s purpose was suspended. Of course that was the object of Satan’s interference. Satan had some knowledge of what God’s purpose was, and he set himself to frustrate the purpose of God. And so he brought about a relationship of man with himself. The Bible shows us man’s relationship to Satan. It says that the “whole world lieth in wickedness” so that the children of Adam are now the children of Satan and not the children of God. That is what the Bible definitely stated, but then God moves again. He moves to recover that relationship between man and Himself so that His purpose could be fulfilled.

So we have three movements: the first was man’s union with God, the second was man’s separation from God, and the third is man’s reunion with God. All that we have in the Bible has to do with those three things. Let me repeat them.

First, the union between man and God with God’s purpose in view.

Second, man separated from God and united with Satan and God’s purpose suspended.

Third, man’s reunion with God in Jesus Christ and God’s purpose recovered.

Now I want you to notice this very important thing; all that we have in the Bible and especially in the New Testament, has to do with one thing. After the first three chapters of the Bible, where this breaking of fellowship with God took place, all the rest of the Bible is occupied with this one thing: it is a return movement to God. Let us note the movement.

Firstly, everything was in God and all things were in Him. Man was in God, creation was in God; that is, God was the sphere of everything. All things were in Him.

Secondly, there was a departure out from God. Things came out from God and went into Satan, so that all that which was in God came out of Him and went into Satan. Satan is called the prince of this world. He is called the god of this world and as I have quoted, the whole world lies in the hands of Satan. First it was all in God and then it departed out from God and went into Satan. Now the Bible, and especially the New Testament, sees this return movement unto God. That is the explanation of the Lord Jesus.

The great truth about the Lord Jesus is that He abided in the Father. He said, “You shall know that I am in the Father,” and He abided in the Father. The great effort and work of Satan was to get Him to come out from the Father, to get Him to act without the Father, to speak without the Father, to do things out from Himself instead of out from His Father.

Satan was all the time trying to bring this separation between Christ and His Father. He was trying to do with the last Adam what he had done with the first Adam: to separate Him from God. But in the case of the Lord Jesus he never could succeed. Jesus abided in the Father and nothing could bring Him out; and in that way He destroyed the work of Satan; in that way, He secured the purpose of God.

Now you can see the meaning of the second thing, this tremendous amount that is in the New Testament about being in Christ. A Christian is one who is described as one who is in Christ. You have got it on your motto on the microphone, I don’t know if you can explain that funny figure there, but it is “in Christ” and that is the great motto used by Paul. Paul used that phrase over two hundred times.

We are, by our new birth, in Christ; and then the Lord Jesus said, “Abide in Me”. He placed a great deal of emphasis upon this matter: “Abide in Me”. Do you see what that means? He abided in the Father, He did not come out to Satan. Now, He said, “You who believe are in Me, you abide in Me” and the whole of the New Testament has to do with this matter of being in Christ and abiding in Christ. You see, it is in Christ, a return movement into God. That is the first thing. God has a great and glorious purpose and that purpose can only be realized when man abides in God.

Now we come to the second part of our main question, that is, this great purpose of God is centered in His Son, our Lord Jesus.

The Son of God is the Center of all the Purpose of God

The Scriptures on this matter are very many. They tell us that God appointed Him the sole heir of all things. They tell us that in Him and through Him and unto Him were all things created. The Son is the center of this great purpose of God.

We can understand very well now why Satan wanted to get the Son of God separated from God. Satan wants to capture the inheritance for himself. That inheritance belongs to God’s Son. He could not get that inheritance while the Son abided in the Father.

Now, we were created to be joint heirs with Christ in the inheritance. Man, in God’s intention, has a great inheritance with God and Satan therefore is always trying to bring about this separation between Christian and God, to separate them from Christ. That is not only true about Christians, that is true about all men. You see, Satan wants to keep man away from God. He will do anything to keep man away from God. He will get man as far away from God as he can.

If there is anyone here tonight who has not come to the Lord, let me tell you that it will not be an easy thing to come to the Lord, for Satan will keep you away for as long as he can, simply because you are called to this great purpose. This purpose which is centered in God’s Son; you are called into that.

If Satan loses his control over your life, he loses that which his heart is set upon. Let me illustrate this from one of the Lord’s parables. He told a story of a certain man who had a vineyard and let it out to his servants and he went to a far country. Then at the time of harvest, he sent his servant to get the fruit from his vineyard. And the men who lived in the vineyard saw the servant coming and beat him and drove him off. So he sent another servant and they did the same to him. And he sent another servant and they treated him the same way.

The owner of the vineyard said, “What must I do?” then he said, “I will send my son and they will respect him.” And after he sent his son, the men in the vineyard said, “This is the heir! Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours.” Now, Jesus is saying this to the Jews, He said, “You are the children of Satan. He was a murderer from the beginning”. And, of course, Jesus was speaking about Himself; God had sent His servants, the prophets, and they had persecuted and beaten and killed them, and at last God said, “I will send My Son.” And when they saw Him coming, they said, “This is the heir. We will kill Him and the inheritance will be ours.” You see how true this principle was.

Jesus is the heir of all things. It all belongs to Him, but Satan said, “Let us kill the heir and the inheritance will be ours.” Satan wants the inheritance that belongs to Jesus. We are called to that inheritance, so Satan will do everything that he can to keep us away from God. And if we have come to the Lord, Satan will continue trying to get us away from the Lord. There are tremendous things bound up in our coming to the Lord and abiding in the Lord.

The Elect

Now I come to the third part of the answer to our main question. All of these involved an elect vessel. There is that in the Bible which is called “the elect”. Jesus spoke about the elect. What did He mean by “the elect”? Well, the Apostle Paul makes it perfectly clear to us what He meant by “the elect” and what the elect is. The Church of Jesus Christ is the elect. Those who are truly and lovingly related to the Lord Jesus form His Church. And as we said this afternoon, they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. That is the meaning of the elect: a people chosen by God in Christ before the world was, brought into Christ in time. It is what the New Testament means by “the church”.

Now, this elect vessel relates to the eternal purpose. It is a wonderful thing to be in the Church of Jesus Christ, because it is this Church which is His body which is God’s vessel for the realization of His great purpose. We are all acquainted with some of the Scriptures that speak about that. “All things work together for good to them that love God and are the called according to His purpose.”

Look at this passage again in the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1, and verse 11. Here is a clear statement of what I have been saying. Perhaps we had better read verse 10: “Unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in Him, I say, in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will.” What a tremendous statement that is! The purpose of God to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth, and then in Christ we are made a heritage and this is all after the counsel of Him who works all things.

Now turn over to chapter 3, verse 11: “according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And you notice that those words are addressed to the Church. It is the Church that are called according to His purpose. It is the Church which is to be the vessel of God’s purpose concerning His Son.

At the end of one of his prayers in this letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle speaks of the Church in this way, “the Church which is the Body... the fullness of Him.” The Church is the fullness of Him, so this great purpose involves this elect vessel. We are brought into this great purpose of God to be the fullness of Christ.

The next thing that I want to say in answer to our question, is that all God’s interest and all the activities of God are related to His purpose concerning His Son. Now, that is not only a statement made, that implies something for us. Do you want to be in the way and in the place where God will be active concerning you? If you want that to be so, then your whole life must be centered in Christ. All of God’s interest and activities are concerning His Son. If you and I are in Christ, we are in the place where God is most interested and most active. Do you really want God to be interested in you? Do you really want God to work in you? The way in which that shall be is by your being centered in Christ. When we come into the Lord Jesus, we come into the place where God is most interested, where God is most active.

The Place of the Cross

One more thing, this is the explanation of the Cross of the Lord Jesus. For one thing, the Cross is the place where the prince of this world was cast out. It is by the Cross of the Lord Jesus that men are taken out of the power of Satan and brought into Christ. It is in the Cross of the Lord Jesus that we die to our relationship to Satan and rise with a new relationship with Christ.

The Cross of Christ is God’s instrument of securing His eternal purpose. The Cross means our union with Christ, firstly in death, and then in resurrection. I have just said that it is in the Cross that Christ broke the power of Satan. If we are truly crucified with Christ, it means that the power of Satan is broken over our life. If we are raised together with Christ in resurrection life, we are no longer under the power of Satan, we are under the power of God and that brings us onto the ground where His eternal purpose is recovered. This eternal purpose is the object of all the Holy Spirit’s activities. The Holy Spirit has come for this particular purpose: to work in relation to God’s eternal purpose in the Church.

This Eternal Purpose

Well, I don’t know how much of this you are grasping. It is a tremendous thing that God presents to us and this is why we are having this meeting. I know quite well that Christians need encouragement and it might be a good thing for some to be meeting for the encouragement of the believers. I know that believers need more instruction in the Word of God, and it might be quite a good thing for having some meetings for that sometimes. But I feel the greatest purpose for which we have meetings is that people should know what a great thing they are called into.

It is no small thing to be a Christian. It is not just a matter of being helped to live a better life. It is not just a matter of having joy and peace in our hearts. And it is not only a matter of escaping judgment and going to heaven. The real meaning of being a Christian is that we are called according to this eternal purpose.

There is a great purpose of God behind our being Christians. All that which God has destined for His Son is brought over to us. We are brought into all that when we are brought into Christ. All the ages of eternity to come are going to reveal the meaning of this great purpose. I say again that it is no small thing to be a Christian. And what has been on my heart today is just this one thing: Oh, that I could make this people see what a tremendous thing it is to be in Christ and what an immense background that is to being a Christian!

I am quite sure that if you could only see that, you would feel that to be a Christian is a far greater thing than you realize. There is something for which to live. There is something for which to suffer. There is something for letting the Holy Spirit do His work in us. There is something worth abiding in Christ for. We are the called according to His purpose, so I say as my last words to you:-

It is a Great Thing to be in Christ.

Being in Christ links us up with God’s thought before ever the world was. Being in Christ links us up with the realization of that Thought in eternity. Eternity past and eternity to come are centered in that “being in” to come. May the Lord open our eyes to see the meaning of this.

So we are, in having these few minutes for this little bit of teaching, trying to help one another along in the Christian life. We are having this matter brought to us that we might help one another. What a great thing it is to be in Christ! May the Lord help you to see that.

I think I would like to close with just turning you to one fragment of Scripture in the letter to the Romans, chapter 11, verses 34-36. And this is a comprehensive statement, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. To Him be the glory for ever. Amen.”

And I think I will close with the last words of one of Paul’s prayers, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

He Died For All, THAT.....

"And that he died for all, that those who live may not henceforth live for themselves, but for him who died and rose for them" 2 Corinthians 5:15, Aramaic.

How easy it is for us, in our natural way of thinking, to try and bring spiritual things - down to our level.  How easy it is for us to become very religious, and assume that because we have changed our behavior and our associations, we are somehow now righteous, pleasing to God.   How easy it is for our natural man to adapt itself to rules and regulations, creeds and doctrines, converting our lifestyles.

While how very hard it is, yes, downright impossible for us to change our heart, or renew our mind.  We cannot do anything from our own volition, our own wisdom or knowledge, that is pleasing in God's sight.  How gladly we embrace the fact that Christ died for all... but try as we might, we cannot live for him in our own strength.  The only acceptable things are those that the Spirit does both in and through one whose heart and mind are submitted to the Spirit of God.   As believers, our only hope is Christ in us.  We reveal the measure of Christ in us... by our words and actions towards others.  I found this mornings share from brother Sparks both encouraging and challenging....

[Quote]

He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him. (2 Corinthians 5:15 NIV)
 

We can only know Christ after the Spirit, so that Christ for us in this dispensation is spiritual in the sense that all that we know of Him or can have to do with Him can only be in the Spirit. “Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.” (2 Cor. 5:16). He is known after the Spirit. Our resources are spiritual. The weapons of our warfare are spiritual. Everything has got to come to us from above. The one great effort of the enemy, which is again and again successful through this dispensation, has been to bring the things of God down to the attachment with this world, attachment to this earth, to make them something here....

You only need to read John to see how unattached everything is, how everything is lifted clean out of this world, and everything is bound up with the fact that Christ is in heaven, and that the Lord’s people are here, but not here; here, but not known; in the world, but not of it; a mystery people in this world so far as the world is concerned... unrecognized, unknown. And yet by that very means and for that very reason, the most potent force that this universe knows: the spiritual, hidden, secret people of God in this earth. To take hold of Christianity and mold it, and shape it, and systematize it, and crystallize it, and make it some mighty movement here; with its roots here, with all its associations such as man can see, appreciate and approve; to register itself upon the ordinary consciousness of this world as being something; all of that is contrary to the Word of God and is contrary to spiritual life and spiritual power. Christ is in heaven, and we are lifted out, translated, seated together with Him in the heavenlies. Our present purpose in this world is testimony only, by which others will be taken out of the nations, a people for His name.


By T. Austin-Sparks from: That Which Was From The Beginning - Chapter 1

The Mind Of Christ

 I doubt that there is anything more devastating to our natural man, than being displaced from the seat of power it feels rightfully entitled to... that being, the throne of our heart. One of the most difficult things for the believer to do is to submit to the Spirit... in All Things. When our mind is brought into subjection, everything else falls into place as well.

“The Church is the body of Christ, only.

There is no adam in it;

no flesh, no rational mind – ONLY Christ.

And therefore, only that measure of us that is Christ, 

is of His body.

We are of the Church according 

to the measure of Himself within us.'

[Quote: Danny Walters]

“Transformational leadership casts a vision and brings people into it. It does not waste it's energy focused on how others are doing it wrong, but casts the vision of how it is done right.”

[Quote: Kriston Couchey]

We have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16) Our natural mind is a great obstacle in the race  which we are running, cropping up all the time with its complexes, its arguments, its interests and its methods. When the Corinthians were brought into the Church they left behind their obvious sins, but they carried over into their new realm the old, natural ways of thinking and reasoning which belonged to the world and not to the Spirit of God. But the apostle remonstrated with them: "But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16), so urging them to allow the Cross to be planted between the natural mind and the spiritual. We shall only come to the fullness of Christ as we leave behind the mind of the natural man and move on more and more in the progress of the mind of Christ. On everything; every judgment, every conclusion, every analysis, every appraisal; we must ask the Lord: "Is that Your mind, Lord, or is it mine?" We may sometimes feel that we have the strongest ground for taking up a certain attitude or coming to a certain conclusion; we may feel that we have all the evidence and so are convinced; and yet we may be wrong. The man who wrote the letter to the Corinthians knew from deep and bitter experience that this was the case. "I verily thought... that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth," he said (Acts 26:9). There was no man who had stronger convictions as to the rightness of his course than Saul of Tarsus. The great revolution which took place in him when he came to Christ was that he had to say: "I have been all wrong in my fundamental way of thinking." After that confession he made good headway in the race because he was always ready to subject his thinking to the jurisdiction of his crucified Lord. This is the way of spiritual progress. We shall not get very far while we hold to our own opinions and our own conclusions, even though we may have the support of others; we have to learn to conquer our natural mind by submission to the mind of Christ. This is most important if we are concerned about spiritual progress. And spiritual progress is the increase of Christ – there is no other. [Quote: T. Austin-Sparks]

Your Father Knows What You Have Need Of - Cathy Morris

 Your Father Knows What You Have Need Of

“For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things” Luke 12:30

We have already been given all that we need…. it is up to us to believe and appropriate it. Quoting from – 'The Blessing of Abraham' by B. Keith Chadwell,

“So, Jesus was really teaching the disciples, who had asked him to increase their faith… that doing “those things which are commanded you was the real lesson to be learned. Jesus was teaching that becoming a faithful servant, an obedient servant, was needful for them... not for Him to increase their faith.” !!!!!!! [exclamation points mine].

The 'it' we need to appropriate, is to believe that Christ is in us, as a reality, and live accordingly.  No longer waiting for 'some day.'  No longer trying to 'imagine' what would Jesus do.  We can become so ensnared in our thoughts, that we become paralyzed.  On one hand we want to be used by God, but when we try to anticipate the how and when, we can inadvertently but very effectively block the spirit within, making us ineffectual.

For me at least, all of my dealings of late have been centered around the 'renewing of our minds'… and I have been really brought down to the very basics.  For years, in vain, I struggled in my own strength and by an act of my own will, to 'bring every thought into subjection' as we are commanded.  I am learning that even our best intentions are still 'flesh'… that our will is incapable of doing the work that belongs wholly to the 'Holy Spirit'.  I think our carnal reasoning equates 'faith' with 'will'… we think if we repeatedly tell ourselves 'I believe'… that it will make it so.  That our confession, if we confess it enough times, will somehow bring about the desired transformation.  

I went back and looked at a short article posted last August, 'Vessels Unto the Lord.'  This share from Sparks is one that we are all in agreement with. 

“I believe and feel most strongly and intensely that what the Lord is after, what the Lord needs, what the Lord is seeking to possess Himself of is a vessel in such relationship to Himself and His throne in the heavens, as will bring that throne and that heavenly dominion and authority very mightily to bear upon the whole spiritual system of His enemy…..

the one thing the Lord puts right at the commencement, which He seeks to bring us to recognize, which He labours in our experience, and seeks continuously to drive home to us, is that the very commencement of our relationship to the heavenlies as a vessel of the testimony of Jesus pre-supposes that we have left a history behind, closed; the history of the old creation, the "old man." That nature is set aside, the natural man is put out, whether he be a good natural man, as men would call him, or a bad natural man; a religious natural man or an irreligious natural man.

May the Lord bring this home to us and apply it in the way in which it needs to be applied to us individually and respectively, and give us grace that we will not allow any kind of association with that which gives the enemy the occasion for destroying the testimony and putting the vessel out of action. May our life continually be wholly hid with Christ in God.”[end quote]

God is working in us, individually and corporately.  The best that we can do is to accept the people and things in our life, right now, right where we are, by faith believing that there is a greater purpose in them than we can understand at the moment.  If we believe that we are His children; His workmanship; that we are on the 'Potters Wheel', being molded and shaped into vessels fit for the Master's use, then we have to accept where we are.  I say this, because for the most part, we don't like where we are, and would 'like' for it to change, in many, many ways.  I was so struck by the statement I read somewhere; that God is the God of NOW!  He is teaching us to lay down our wants, desires, and expectations; of ourselves and of others; depending solely upon HIM.  The situations that arise in our daily lives are ample demonstration that 'we' cannot effect lasting, life-changing, change on our own.  We may be able to put on an outward show to some extent, but our hearts are not in it.  And it is in our heart where Father is operating.  Only HE can change our innermost responses.  I don't know about you all, but I have been made painfully aware of how many times, in any given situation, "I" has risen up in all its despicable, repugnant glory; defending, justifying, judging, criticizing, and how seldom "I" is capable of being humble, and walking in love.  It seems that hourly, "I" is being stripped naked and exposed for all its shallowness of heart.  It is totally humbling to recognize how subtly our thoughts can see only 'good' in ourselves, and our motivations, while turning a blind eye to the fact that our very 'best' is still self-serving.  Left to our own devices, we are indeed most wretched and hopeless.  Thank God, that we do not have to forever 'lean to our own understanding.'  When we finally get fed-up enough with ourselves, we can lay it down at His feet, 'casting all of our cares upon Him,' and stop worrying about what to say or do, and just REST, confident that He has it all under control, no matter how chaotic is looks or feels.  Which is what He's been patiently waiting for us to do all along.

To me, this is faith.  Believing that His faithfulness is immoveable, and is in no way dependent upon my acceptance or rejection of it.  It stands alone, unshakeable.  It is up to me, whether or not I will exercise it; practice what I say I believe.  And lo and behold, in the process, I am discovering a steady change in the focus of my thinking.  My perspective is being altered.  I want to see others from HIS perspective, not mine.  Mine is worthless.  I no longer want to speak what seems like a good thing to say in a situation; even if remaining silent makes me look stupid or uncaring.  So what?  He is the Great Physician, and when words spoken are from His Spirit instead of my flesh, that is when they will have worth and make all the difference.

We are admonished to 'work out our own salvation, with fear and trembling'... and it is in and through our daily life experiences that this happens.  I had never before realized how carnal my perspectives were, until He started showing me another way to view things.  I see things as they appear in this reality, while God's point of view is quite different.  Of late it has come to me many times, I feel like Elijah's servant must have felt, looking at the host arrayed against them… I daily need to have my eyes opened... to see from God's perspective, from the viewpoint of the Spirit.  

And speaking of God's perspective, have you ever thought about how Paul was there at the stoning of Stephen? (before his encounter with the risen Christ). God had a purpose in it all, and His purpose is far greater than any one individual. He sees the big picture, while we see through a veil dimly. Stephen preached an anointed sermon under the unction of the Holy Spirit, and was stoned for it. Now our flesh sees that as an awful thing to suffer, and we hope never to have to face anything like that. That is a normal, carnal reaction. Our flesh wants to reap the rewards given to those of whom it is said, “Blessed are ye” (Luke 6:22)... but it does not want to actually experience the rest of the verse... “when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.” Our flesh wants to be liked, to be seen as wise, admired, respected. Suffering is contrary to everything natural in us.

I can imagine how difficult it must have been for the believers who undoubtedly were present and witnessed Stephen's death, as well as Saul's approval of it, when Saul later came amongst them as Paul, a 'changed' man... how hard it must have been for them to trust and receive him as a brother in the Lord? It has been painfully brought to my attention, that this is not so far removed from us as we might assume. How do we receive brothers and sisters in Christ? Especially if they have a different perspective than ours? Or are in a different place than we are? If they have a different vision; or don't speak the same language we do?

There is good reason why we can have no dependence upon our flesh; Because our flesh will always give us convincing, irrefutable evidence why we should believe contrary to the Spirit.  'After all, everyone knows (whatever).'

“For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9)... This includes ALL of our thoughts, and ALL of our ways, ALL of the time. What we may 'see' as being righteous, God may see as being a whited sepulcher. I become a whited sepulcher, full of dead mens bones, when I try to 'clean up my own act.' And if I think I have made myself a better person by my own striving, I am deceiving myself.

We all have a history that we are dragging along with us. For some of us, that history is pretty sordid. We cannot go back in time and change the past, nor can we jump ahead and instantly be anything more than we are at any given moment in time. It is what we are doing with the now we are in that matters. Accumulating religious/spiritual knowledge is useless to us and everyone we meet, if we cannot practically apply it in our daily lives. We are not called to say or do what we think needs to be said or done. We are called to be vessels, just as Stephen was, to speak what the Spirit wants said; nothing more, nothing less, with no thought given to what repercussions might come from doing so. We can only do this when we are in the relationship in God that He is calling us to. He is driving home the lessons we need to learn in order to be... “a vessel in such relationship to Himself and His throne in the heavens, as will bring that throne and that heavenly dominion and authority very mightily to bear upon the whole spiritual system of His enemy”. Everything that we suffer, everything that happens in our sometimes mundane daily lives, happens for a purpose. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” Phil 3:10. Our 'old man' has to die; our mind has to be renewed, no longer thinking our own thoughts, or doing our own thing.

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” Phil. 3:13-14.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” 1 John 3:2.

Strong's concordance for appear:

1) expose to view, make manifest, to show one's self, appear
e) to become known, to be plainly recognized, thoroughly understood
1) who and what one is

May we continue to exhort and encourage one another, vessel to vessel, to keep reaching forth and pressing in. May our eyes be opened to see HIM as HE IS... “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ” Phil. 1:6.

Amen & Amen

Cathy Morris 

Recommended reading:
The Rules and Regulations Kill; Only
Christ's Spirit Brings Life and Righteousness