The Well Within - T. Austin-Sparks

The Well Within
by T. Austin-Sparks 

 

"The water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life." John 4:14.

“And Isaac digged again the well of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the philistines had stopped them up...” Genesis 26:18.

The Word makes it clear that from the Lord's side the life of the Holy Spirit, with all its up-welling and outflowing, should be a spontaneous thing. On God's side there are no difficulties. So far as He is concerned there is nothing more to be done to make possible the reality of the well within. The very fact that when the Lord Jesus ascended to glory in the power of a completed and perfected work, the Holy Spirit spontaneously came down from heaven, is proof that from God's side there was nothing remaining to be done to effect that release. The Lord had made full provision. On the other hand, though, such a spontaneity of up-welling and outflowing of the waters of the Spirit is not as general among Christians as it should be. It is our intention to seek some explanation of this limitation.

The well is there; the spring is provided. If we have believed into Christ and truly belong to Him, then His Spirit is present as the well within. There can be no doubt about this if we are true believers. But we may have seen a swampy patch, with all the evidences of water but no freshness or flow, and have discovered that although a spring existed, its water was interrupted by some stone or obstacle which hindered its flow. This can happen in human life. The spring of the Spirit may be present, but with various obstructions lying heavily upon it, preventing the outflow in a definite course.

Abraham was noted for the wells which he dug. He was a man of faith, and faith always digs wells. The Philistines, however, blocked them up with rubbish after he died, so that his son, Isaac, had to unstop them. Isaac speaks of the power of a risen life in union with heaven, and this gives a good indication of the meaning of the opened wells. The Old Testament type finds its fulfilment in the Lord Jesus, the greater Isaac who, in the power of His resurrection, ascension and heavenly life, has opened up anew those fountains of the Spirit which had been blocked and choked by many things which were contrary to the will of God. The wells are opened in His resurrection. The Spirit is now freely given. But we have to see that no obstacles are allowed to hinder the flow. Perhaps it will help us to do so, if we consider a few of the hindrances which need to be removed if the well within is to be unstopped and the water allowed to flow freely.

HINDRANCES IN THE REALM OF THE MIND

Firstly, there are hindrances in the realm of the mind. We have been told that man is quite unable to cope mentally with the spiritual and heavenly things of God. For this reason God has provided the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth, of revelation and of spiritual knowledge. So there will obviously be hindrances to the free flow of the Spirit if we try to reason things out for ourselves instead of heeding the Spirit-inspired Scriptures. If we try to think things through ourselves, we become involved in all sorts of problems and questions. We are specifically told that: "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God... he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged" (1 Corinthians 2:14), a fact which needs to be accepted and remembered by Christians for themselves, as well as for the world around. There will always arise moments of crisis or experiences full of perplexity and seeming contradiction, for which the only answer is that we must trust God. If we resolve that we will reason the matter out, or if we turn to other men for their explanations, we will never understand the ways of God. His Word is our only source of light. It will, at times, be hard to understand. It will, perhaps, be difficult or even impossible to explain. But if we heed its message we will be delivered from man's foolish reasoning, and we will have lifted off a load of rubbish which was blocking up the well within.

There are bound to be matters which defy analysis or argument, for the ways of God are past finding out. The real test is whether we will trust God when we cannot fathom His ways; whether we will deliberately and positively take up a position of faith; reliance on His faithfulness. Even that may not provide us with an answer which satisfies our minds and solves all our intellectual problems, but it will bring us that blessed peace which is promised to those whose minds are stayed on the Lord. This is just the opposite of the mind of the man who is stayed on himself and his difficulty. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee" (Isaiah 26:3). It does not say that his heart will be at peace because he knows the answers to all the questions. No! The basic thing is a faith attitude towards God's faithfulness. To act in this way is to remove a big stone, and I venture to say that it will clear the way for a new joy, and new peace and a new strength. The Holy Spirit has been pent up, blocked, hindered, arrested, by incessant reasonings of the natural mind. He is released by the simple exercise of a faith which feeds on God's Word and relies on His faithfulness.

HINDRANCES IN THE REALM OF THE HEART

There is another possible realm of hindrances to the up-welling of the Spirit, and this is the realm of the heart. The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of love. If there is coldness towards the Lord, a lack of true devotion to Him, then this is like a heavy stone which makes the life more like a quagmire than a fresh spring. Any reserve which we have, not in the knowing of God's will but in the willingness to do it, will inevitably stem the flow of the Spirit's power. It is always the work of God's enemy to clog up our lives by introducing love of self or love of the world, and it needs ruthless determination to remove the accumulated rubbish and re-dig the well in purity of devotion to Christ.

It may well be, though, that the hindrances arise from lack of love to our fellow believers. We must remember that the Holy Spirit can never have free course in us and through us if we harbour unloving thoughts concerning other of God's children, let alone put those thoughts into actions. He is the Spirit of fellowship, so that if we fail in that realm then we fail in the matter of love. It is so easy to allow unworthy considerations to quench brotherly love, to be clogged up with resentment or to be wrongly influenced by our susceptibilities or hurt feelings. What is more, we find it the easiest thing in the world to say or hear unkind things about others, things which put them in a bad light and somehow make us feel self-righteous. We must not dismiss such matters as unimportant, for although they may seem small in themselves, they become the deposits which unite to clog up the well of the Spirit.

This matter of personal relationships is one in which we have to set ourselves definitely to digging out the earthiness which stops up the wells of the Spirit. We must refuse to speak and refuse to listen to those critical accounts of other believers which would grieve them if they heard and do grieve the Spirit who is always present and who always hears. More than that, we have to be active in positive cultivation of fellowship. To some it is quite natural to be independent. For them deference to others represents a major difficulty. Sometimes they may deliberately ignore or despise others, but sometimes they just prefer to do it alone and never seriously think of inter-relatedness and inter-dependence.

The Word of God, however, is most explicit in ordering us to esteem one another, to submit to one another and to live and work together. The Holy Spirit demands that the people of God live according to a team order of things, that they should be governed by a family spirit. Anything which is of an isolated or detached nature, which fails to recognize and fully accept the family thought of God, is a check on Him. By failing to observe fellowship we quench the Spirit. It is not only a matter of avoiding giving offense but of active pursuit of fellowship. Some may be wondering why there is so little up-springing from the inner well, when they are sitting back in a wrong kind of modesty, failing to bring in their own personal contribution to fellowship life and ministry. Unkindness is not the only obstacle in this realm. Shyness and diffidence can equally rest like a stone on the flow of life. The only thing to do is to dig it up and move it away. Get in, get right in, and let yourself go! Do not always choose the back seat because you like to be left alone, but come forward in the Lord's name and give the Holy Spirit a free course in your lives. He is well able to check you if you become too self-assertive, but there is little He can do if your well is all stopped up with fears and inhibitions.

HINDRANCES IN THE REALM OF DAILY LIVING

There is one more area of life in which this hindering work may be found, and that is that the flow of the Spirit may be checked by inconsistencies in the daily life. The question which constantly faces us is whether or not we want to know the free flow from the well within. Do we want that springing up of living water, of which the Lord Jesus spoke? Do we want that, as He promised, rivers of living water shall flow out from our inner life? If we do, then we must always give serious consideration to anything which may serve as a blockage. Any disobedience, yes, any reservation in obedience, from our side will be sure to hinder the flow from God's side, acting as a deterrent to the Holy Spirit in our lives. We can never know the well springing up and the river flowing out if at any point where God has revealed His will, we fail in the matter of obedience.

This well is choked by disobedience to the known will of God. It is choked and blocked by inconsistency of walk. The Lord wants more than mental agreement with His Word; He expects to see it working out in practical terms. He is concerned with how we spend our time, how we manage our financial affairs, how we behave both alone and before others. He watches us in the home and at our work, as well as in our fellowship activities, always looking for a walk worthy of the gospel which we believe and preach. Not that He desires us to have a narrow life. Far from it! The Spirit has come to bring enrichment and fulfilment to us. God's command to us, though, is that we must not quench the Spirit nor must we grieve Him; in other words that we do not allow any rocks, stones or rubbish to accumulate as a hindrance to the springing-up well. We need to watch the practical expression of our daily life and so avoid a quagmire of suppression, whereas God provides for a well of water springing up into eternal life.

From "Toward the Mark" July-August 1976.

Serve Each Other Through Love

Serve each other through love. (Galatians 5:13 GW)

It is always the work of God's enemy to clog up our lives by introducing love of self or love of the world, and it needs ruthless determination to remove the accumulated rubbish and re-dig the well in purity of devotion to Christ. It may well be, though, that the hindrances arise from lack of love to our fellow believers. We must remember that the Holy Spirit can never have free course in us and through us if we harbor unloving thoughts concerning other of God's children, let alone put those thoughts into actions. He is the Spirit of fellowship, so that if we fail in that realm then we fail in the matter of love. It is so easy to allow unworthy considerations to quench brotherly love, to be clogged up with resentment or to be wrongly influenced by our susceptibilities or hurt feelings.... We have to be active in positive cultivation of fellowship. To some it is quite natural to be independent. For them deference to others represents a major difficulty. Sometimes they may deliberately ignore or despise others, but sometimes they just prefer to do it alone and never seriously think of inter-relatedness and inter-dependence.

The Word of God, however, is most explicit in ordering us to esteem one another, to submit to one another and to live and work together. The Holy Spirit demands that the people of God live according to a team order of things, that they should be governed by a family spirit. Anything which is of an isolated or detached nature, which fails to recognize and fully accept the family thought of God, is a check on Him. By failing to observe fellowship we quench the Spirit. It is not only a matter of avoiding giving offence but of active pursuit of fellowship. Some may be wondering why there is so little up-springing from the inner well, when they are sitting back in a wrong kind of modesty, failing to bring in their own personal contribution to fellowship life and ministry. Unkindness is not the only obstacle in this realm. Shyness and diffidence can equally rest like a stone on the flow of Life. The only thing to do is to dig it up and move it away. Get in, get right in, and let yourself go! Do not always choose the back seat because you like to be left alone, but come forward in the Lord's name and give the Holy Spirit a free course in your lives. He is well able to check you if you become too self-assertive, but there is little He can do if your well is all stopped up with fears and inhibitions.

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Well Within

The Holdfast

The Holdfast

I threatened to observe the strict decree
Of my deare God with all my power & might.
But I was told by one, it could not be;
Yet I might trust in God to be my light.

Then will I trust, said I, in him alone.
Nay, ev’n to trust in him, was also his:
We must confesse that nothing is our own.
Then I confesse that he my succour is:

But to have nought is ours, not to confesse
That we have nought. I stood amaz’d at this,
Much troubled, till I heard a friend expresse,
That all things were more ours by being his.
What Adam had, and forfeited for all,
Christ keepeth now, who cannot fail or fall.

 from The Temple (1633), by George Herbert

The JOY of the LORD

The JOY of the LORD

Just what is... the 'joy of the Lord?'

Is it a feeling? An emotion?

Or is it something greater than those fleeting sensations?

Can we have/ possess/ walk in – the joy of the Lord, without necessarily feeling happy? I believe that when Paul and Silas were cast into the prison in Acts 16, they were filled with the joy of the Lord, but it was not because their lives were rosy.... The words to an old hymn we used to sing in church came to me.... “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace”. After being beaten, they could pray and sing, because of WHO Christ was... IN them.

Paul states in Acts 20:24 “But to me my life is nothing; I am not afraid. I desire only that I may finish (complete) my course (race) with joy (gladness) and the ministry (attendance, as a servant) which I have received of our Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”

(Received: to take , to get hold of; to have offered to one; to seize or remove]): - accept, + be amazed, assay, attain, bring, X when I call, catch, come on (X unto), + forget, have, hold, obtain, receive (X after), take (away, up).

(Testify: to be a witness, that is, testify: - charge, give [evidence], bear record, have (obtain, of) good (honest) report, be well reported of, testify, give (have) testimony, (be, bear, give, obtain) witness).

In the natural, we look at the things around us, the things we are involved in, our ministries, our labors. These 'things' are but a small part of the course set before us. Our calling is to:

“...be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” Romans 12:2. All of our lives we have excelled at conforming to the doctrines of men; we have striven to accumulate more and more spiritual knowledge; but have we picked up our cross and followed Christ? Have our thoughts been replaced with His thoughts? Have our desires become one with His desires? In our own strength and understanding, we can only clean up the outside of the cup; we can put on all manner of pious attitudes and actions. Only the Holy Spirit can expose those things hidden deep within our own hearts; the attitudes and prejudices we hold. The real test comes when we are criticized; how do we respond? Can we still walk in love, when all hell is coming against us? Jesus did.

“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world” 1 John 4:1. And yes, we are called to be as HE is in this world!

“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” Philippians 3:10.

“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening (life giving) spirit” 1 Corinthians 15:45. John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” To take up our cross and follow Christ... is to daily crucify our flesh, with all of its lusts and vanities, and to seek after the things that are of the Spirit of God. This alone will crucify our flesh, because our flesh cannot walk in love when it feels threatened. It will either justify itself, or strike back, or both; but it will not turn the other cheek and forgive.

“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” 1 Corinthians 1:9.

We would do well to consider just what we are called to my friends; what we can expect our 'course' to be like. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” Isaiah 53:3. Jesus said in John 15:18 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” And in John 15:25 “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.”

The combination of suffering and joy sounds like a complete contradiction to the natural mind. God's ways are not man's ways. What is spirit is spirit and what is flesh is flesh. God's wisdom is foolishness to the natural man, and he cannot comprehend it, for it can only be spiritually discerned. Yet we have this charge my friends...

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy (delight, gladness) that was set before him endured the cross (exposure to death, that is, self denial), despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” Hebrews 12:2.

Are you seeing the connection between entering into the REST – as being intricately connected to walking in the 'joy of the Lord' yet? This JOY is not based on circumstance or feeling; it is based on God's faithfulness! On 'knowing HIM' that called us. I saw this quote this morning “The joy that is being attached to the natural love is partial, but the joy that is being attached to the Love of God is fullness of joy.”

It's all about loving Him that first loved us; no matter what!

“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.

Are we seeing HIM yet? The very same JOY is set before us. Will we endure our cross? “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” John 12:25. This bears repeating... “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” Philippians 3:10.

This is the joy that is set before us!

Amen & Amen

Cathy Morris

Anointed For Battle

Anointed for Battle by T. Austin-Sparks

A brief word at the close of the Whitsun Conference. 

We have been occupied in these days with the nature and effect of the fulfilment of the Promise of the Father. A promise made to the Son, and then fulfilled through the Son to the Church, which is His Body. Thus the promise was ultimately revealed to be a corporate and not only a personal one as such. We have before pointed out that after His Baptism it is expressly and immediately affirmed that "He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." The Baptism was in type His acceptance at the very commencement of His ministry of the Cross — death, burial, resurrection — and all His teaching and working from thenceforward was on that ground and in that light. It is most significant and suggestive that the first activity under the anointing should be a deliberate encounter with the "Prince of this World." The battle of the ages is joined, the Eternal issue as the ultimate purpose of "The Promise" is taken up at once. The point with which we want to stay is this, that the express purpose and outworking of the anointing with the Holy Spirit is conflict — warfare.

What was true in His personal case has to be made true in His corporate case — that is, in the experience of the Body-instrument of His abiding outworking of victory. No one can ever come into a living spiritual experience and knowledge of the Cross without being immediately precipitated into this conflict. The essential issue of Calvary is the anointing with the Holy Spirit. The primary purpose of the anointing with the Spirit is the establishment of the sovereignty of Christ through His Church over the entire system of spiritual rebellion, revolt, anarchy, and hostility. Let it be a settled thing that identification with Christ implies and involves a warfare of increasing tensity from which there is no discharge in this life. So many there are who think that if only they can receive the Divine anointing they are going to have such a wonderful time; how rich and beautiful their lives will be; what power will be at their command, and what an end of all spiritual trouble.

Truly there is a blessed side to it and with all the conflict it is well worth while. But it will be as well to settle it at the outset that there is a sterner side where personal blessing, enjoyment and comfort become secondary to the great interests of the Body of Christ. John Bunyan was given wisdom to put Hill Difficulty not far from the Cross. Pilgrim didn't get very far beyond the Cross when he met Hill Difficulty, and there is a suggestiveness to one in that which is full of rich and valuable significance, for it says in effect that the very nature of our Christian life is one of conflict, of battle, of warfare, and that our life absolutely depends upon it. You take our physical organism and you discover that the whole organism of our bodies is planned and arranged and constituted upon a basis of warfare, and real health and real life in our physical being is simply on the basis of triumphant warfare — a battle going on all the time. Our organism creates its own difficulties which in their overcoming constitute real health and real life. There are those difficulties in our organism which are pathological — that is, disorder — and they work death. Now you take that into the realm of the Body of Christ, and you find it is very like this. Its very health depends upon its conflicts, and the organism of the Body of Christ is designedly constituted by the Lord Himself upon a basis of conflict, and the Church is never vigorous without warfare.

The unfortunate thing is that there are the pathological difficulties which create a warfare which ends in death and arrest in the Body of Christ. We find ourselves occupied far too much with those disorders which create difficulties and which we do not get the better of, and are all the time throwing us into a state of sickness and weakness and infirmity. The Lord would have us — and He has constituted His Body as a spiritual organism — upon a basis of essential conflict for Life, and Hill Difficulty meets us immediately we have faced the Cross and accepted it and stepped across it. It is not far, we meet it in the very ordering of God, not as some misfortune that has befallen us, but in the constitution of the thing to prove and try our Life, and to give our Life this supreme opportunity of demonstrating its reality. And here again is this wonderful insight of Bunyan, that there are those in his allegory who come to Hill Difficulty and never get past it. Formalist comes to Hill Difficulty. He is the man who has put creed and theory in the place of practice and experience. He never gets past Hill Difficulty — he gives up there, it is not the genuine thing. Hypocrisy comes to Hill Difficulty, and he likewise gives up. Hypocrisy is not the man who has put the creed or the theory in the place of experience as we often think, he is the man who is a parasite who lives on the spiritual energy of someone else and has none of his own. He finds his stimulus in someone else's triumph and when he is put to the test he has nothing of his own. Now we must be very careful that we are not spiritual parasites in word or deed. Hypocrisy cannot face Hill Difficulty. Timorous comes there, and Mistrust comes there, but they give up. It is only this reality of the thing, this genuineness of Life which proves itself there and demonstrates its nature and comes through, and is infinitely better for the difficulty. You see the wisdom of God in that; that we come immediately into difficulty, into conflict, into warfare, but that is the very thing for which we were born from above, and that is God's wise way of securing an increase of Life.

The real spiritual effectiveness is that which takes the enemy at his full value into account, and is not ignorant of his devices, and knows exactly what the real business on hand is, and as being alive to that situation stands all the time in the Christ Who is a match for it all. That is the practical ground where the thing has got to be demonstrated. It would be quite an easy thing to say we will never say anything more about the devil. Now let us sing all about the Lord and be happy together, and we will forget there is such a thing as the devil. That is not the way. You may have a happy time in a way, but the range of your spiritual effectiveness is considerably narrowed when you get there. We have all had that temptation. We would all love to rule the devil out of the universe, and, thank God, we are going, in Christ, to have a share in it, but it cannot be done like that.

Now the fact is that that is the background, and we are thrust into that immediately we really recognise the meaning of the Cross and the Body of Christ, and accept it. Do recognise that, beloved, because you are going to meet it, and therefore do not think it strange as though things had gone wrong when you meet Hill Difficulty immediately after your great surrender, and your great acceptance, when you have put everything over for that. That is the proper order — "Then was He led of the Spirit into the wilderness," into battle. We must be watchful against the devices of Satan whereby he would get us to settle down and stop fighting. We receive blessing and then our tendency is to hug our blessing, dwell upon it, seek more, instead of turning it into munitions of war. The Holy Spirit has to come in and pitchfork us into the battle again. He knows that our very life depends upon it.

We often think that if only we could get out of the conflict, if only the conflict would abate a little, or cease, how much more life we would have; how much more joy we would have; how much more power we would have; how much richer and fuller everything would be if only we could get out of this awful battle for a bit. No, it does not work that way. One has, at times, tried for a spiritual holiday, and how the spiritual muscles sag, everything goes to pieces! Afterwards we have got to recover the ground, and we have got to redouble our spiritual energy and activity to get back again. You cannot take spiritual holidays. You cannot go on leave in this business. It is vital to your life, and that is true not only of the individual, but of the Body. You must not have a lull, unless the Lord gives you a lull. There are gracious respites given of the Lord from time to time — "Then had the Church rest," but it was not a long one. Bunyan put an arbour on Hill Difficulty, but Pilgrim went to sleep and lost his book. That is where the trouble began. It was not put there for him to go to sleep; it was put there for him to get more strength. To wait upon the Lord to renew his strength to go... oh, that is all. The Lord gives us a gracious respite here and there, but we must not think He has given us a discharge. No, and it must be the Lord's doing and not ours. Don't let us take ourselves out of the fight. Don't let us run away and think we are going to get more strength by getting out of the conflict. The Lord will check such a course. He will do a work which will bring us back into the fight. The enemy may say to us that the fighting business is the wrong line; it isn't really what the Lord means you to do, He wants you to stop that and go on in a quieter way, but somehow in the Lord's way you find you are fighting again. Yes, the Holy Spirit in the church is a militant Spirit to carry the battle right through to the final issue.

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, July 1928, Vol. 6-7

One Universal Remedy - T. Austin-Sparks

One Universal Remedy by T. Austin-Sparks 

Although our own all-dominating desire is that the absolute Lordship of Christ, which means the ground of His fullness in the saints, should be a realized thing by all of His own, we are bitterly hated and opposed by many children of God. They are praying hard against us. How strange it is that, while so many are thus beseeching the Lord to quench us, from so many parts of the world children and servants of God in various connections of missions and denominations are all the time sending written testimony to the enrichment of life and ministry through this instrumentality! And it is so often those who have been through, or who are in, the fires of trial, or who have passed from the elementary stages of Christian life and service, who so testify. I do not essay to give the solution to this enigma, but I do mention it in the hope that some might pause before jeopardizing the prospect of the fullness of Christ in their own case or in that of others, as did Israel of old, by taking up an "evil report". As for ourselves, we will seek to be faithful and commend ourselves to God's approval "through evil report and good report". If only the Lord's people universally would get away from things and be taken up solely with HIMSELF, how much of all this would cease; and what a way would be made for Him!

I would appeal to you, beloved of the Lord, to give yourselves to preparing a way for the Lord. Let the question which governs every matter and relationship be, not, how far will or does it help or hinder such and such an enterprise, movement, society, or piece of work? but, how does this minister to an increase of Christ in the saints? We can take it that a true increase of Christ will have effects in many directions, but the directions must never be separated and made the paramount concerns in themselves apart. I am ever more convinced that for all such troubles as afflict the saints, individually and collectively, the secret of victory, deliverance, and salvation, is a very simple one, so far as both the prescribing and the working are concerned: the one difficulty being - as with so many patients - the honest and wholehearted taking of it.

It is found in a short sentence used frequently by Paul:-

"According to Christ" 

Romans 15:5. Colossians 2:8.

It would be a wonderful thing if in the realm of medicine one remedy could be found whereby every conceivable malady could be most certainly cured. What a tremendous amount of complication and confusion would at once be removed. It is almost too big a thought or prospect for us to take in; there is so much of life taken up with the endless systems of healing, and the countless number of remedies. Not only are there the varieties and multitudes of propositions and advocacies, but there are the strong and, sometimes, fierce rivalries in medicine and surgery; the opposing schools.

Someone years ago gave to spiritual ministry the name of "the cure of souls". That "cure" far outreaches the matter of individual salvation. The Apostle Paul, in particular, had all his time taken up with the "cure" of believers, and the "cure" of the churches. The maladies of individuals and churches were many; from sins of a very low level, through jealousies, factions, personal interests etc., to false doctrine, and all the complexity of church technique.

But this servant of God had and propounded one universal remedy, one panacea for all ills. You ask, "Is that possible?" Yes! In this realm of the spiritual disorders in the Lord's people, whether personal or collective, as for the unsaved of every different constitution, temperament, inheritance, etc., there is

One Universal Remedy 

That simplifies things very much. It sets aside a thousand questions and perplexities. The evil germs of suspicion, prejudice, fear, jealousy, and many other such like things will be killed by the radium-like power of this new Life. The dislocations between people will be quickly and effectively adjusted. The whole question of order and technique in the churches, in all its particulars, will spontaneously resolve and answer itself. The malady of spiritual inertia and lack of concern for the salvation and eternal good of others will yield to a new vitality and energy.

Yes, there is one all-inclusive cure; but to say this is of no more value than an advertisement, unless it is believed and obeyed.

What then is this one all-embracing Remedy? It will not help a great deal just to give the answer in a simple sentence, so we must illustrate or instance it. It is quite clear that every letter written by the Apostle Paul had some maladies as the occasion of it. That is to say, there were things that were wrong in every place to which the letters were written, and which needed to be put right. The outstanding case is Corinth. The disorders and diseases there, both individual and collective, were many and great. While the Apostle referred to these specifically, and rebuked, reproved, exhorted, and warned concerning them, he knew quite well that they could never be cleared up as things in themselves. It was of no use to try and get a solution by discussion, debate, logic, personal persuasion or threat. His one all-covering Remedy is announced or prescribed very early in the first letter to them:-

"I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."

In other words, Paul's finally settled position was that a passion for Jesus Christ in terms of His Cross - that is, in terms of love; the letting go of all personal interest, the yielding of all natural mindedness - will solve every problem and cure every malady. Paul believed that if he could get those believers to become really captivated by a concern for Christ as the objective of an ever increasing devotion and self-surrender, all the evils and hurtful things would fade out. If something more than the initial and basic personal advantages of salvation were to fill the heart, so many of the unhappy conditions in individual and corporate Christian life would disappear. That is to say, if the Lordship of Christ were to be given its place, and His fullness were to be the governing goal, life would be ever rising in ascendancy above the low level, and be enlarging beyond the small and petty measure which is characteristic of so many.

Oh, for the ability to show how the Lordship of Christ in a life, or in a church, and in all the churches, is the solution to every problem and difficulty! Will you ask the Lord to impress you, firstly with this fact, and then to lead you into its reality. To this ministry, by His grace, and as helped by your prayers, we give ourselves until we - with all saints - "attain unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ".

First published in an Editorial in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Nov-Dec 1941, Vol. 19-6

The Cloud Is Moving - Cheryl McGrath

 

·         Word to the Bride: The Cloud is Moving‏ 

Friends,

For some time now I have been discerning a new stirring or shifting in the spiritual atmosphere that I believe has significant importance to the Bride of Christ.  I believe others are discerning this new season also.  Seeking understanding of this from the Lord over recent weeks I have been deeply impressed by the Spirit that the 'Cloud is moving' and that the Lord wants His Bride to know this, focus on Him and move out with Him.  This movement I am sensing is not a movement into more and more work for Him.  No, that is not what He is wanting at all for the Bride.  It is rather a movement in and with Him simply because she must be with Him, only doing what He is doing in the moment He is doing it.  In short, she should no longer be able to bear to be in any other place at any given moment, except right where her Lord is. 

When the children of Israel first came out of Egypt they were a multitude of families and clans formed loosely into tribes.  Not far into their wilderness journey, God gave direction for how they were to organize themselves into a single functioning nation to be identified as Israel.   When Israel camped, each individual and each tribe knew exactly where they were to be.  Viewed from above, the formation of Israel when camping looked like the shape of a Cross with the Tabernacle in the centre.  When Israel moved out and marched together, again each individual, each tribe, knew their place and their function for the journey (Numbers 1-4;  10:13-28).  Israel would keep camp as long as the Cloud of God's Presence remained in the one place.  This may have been days, weeks or longer.  When the Cloud moved, they moved. 

"Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey, but when it was taken up, they would journey.  At the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at the command of the Lord they journeyed;  they kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses."  (Numbers 9:22-23) 

Their lives, whether they stayed still or moved on, were entirely governed by what the Cloud did.  The priests watched continually for any movement of the Cloud and would quickly sound the trumpets when Israel was to break camp and follow the Cloud (Numbers 10:2).  We can try to imagine what that was like, especially when the Cloud had not moved for some time.  Families who had settled into daily routines  would wake suddenly one morning to the sound of the trumpets signifying Israel was to move on.  Mothers gathering up babies and little ones amidst cooking utensils and bedding, men and boys hurriedly loading donkeys and gathering herds so that no-one and nothing would be left behind, Levites disassembling the Tabernacle and it furnishings ready for the journey ahead (Numbers 1:51).   All normal activity became secondary to the one thought paramount in every mind:  "Don't lose sight of the Cloud.  It's moving!"

In similar fashion, the Bride of Christ currently finds herself entering a new season.  There is a trumpet call, there is a stirring in the camp.  This great Bridal company has been called out of the world and the world's systems.   Corporately she carries the sign of the Cross signifying she has followed her Bridegroom even there and has not shrunk back from the crucifying of the flesh.  The forerunners among her are sensing a shift in the wind and are alerting the great company that something's up, but some among this company have become comfortable and fat through the days of camping.  They have lowered their eyes to temporal earthly things and are rapidly losing sight of the heavenly claim on their lives.   Those who do not live each moment ready for the Bridegroom's call risk falling behind,  which is a dangerous place to be.  As Israel journeyed her enemies would often attack from behind, picking off the weak, the vulnerable and the slow trailing at the rear of the great Israelite nation.  Israel's greatest enemy, Amalek, was especially good at this tactic (Deu. 25:17-19).

It is God who has authority over times and seasons (Dan 2:21, Acts 1:7).  Seasons do not arrange themselves conveniently around our timetables.  Things do not change when we feel we are ready for them to change.  They change when God is ready for them to change.  I do not personally know how prepared or how willing individuals in the Lord's Bridal company are for the change in season now upon us.  It is not my responsibility to know such things.  It is, however, my responsibility to be one who sounds the trumpet that rouses the Bride.

I feel it necessary to emphasize once again this is not a call to new or greater works (though these will flow freely of themselves for those who hear).  It is a call to a new level of intimacy and oneness with the Bridegroom, one in which the Bride will function as His agent on the earth at a level she has not previously known.   

With those thoughts in mind the following Word from the Lord to His Bride is submitted to you.

Cheryl McGrath

Great South Land Ministries,

http://www.greatsouthland.org/

WORD TO THE BRIDE:  The Cloud is Moving

Cheryl McGrath

http://www.greatsouthland.org/

March, 2011

I speak to those of you who have learned to wait on Me.  I speak to those who have learned what it is to be still before Me and to those who have learned to yield and lean on Me.  Many are the days when you have longed to move, but My Spirit has bid you wait.  You have been learning of Me.  I have had you secluded in a quiet place.  I have taken you aside unto Myself until the world had no attraction to you, and until the flesh had lost its power over you.  And it seemed to you at times that you died a thousand deaths in that place in the wilderness.  Many did not stay for they could not endure the hardships and the loneliness or even the anonymity.  But for those who allowed me to lead them into the cold hard places of the wilderness the reward of My ever increasing Presence was sufficient.  How many times have I wiped away painful tears from your eyes and turned them to tears of joy as we communed together in the loneliest of places, you and I?  I am your reward, and you, beloved, are Mine.

Lift your eyes now, beloved.  See, the Cloud is moving at last.  That which you have yearned for, cried out to Me for, scanned the horizon for, it comes to you now.  There is a place in Me where you really do live and move and have your being.  There is a place in Me where My thoughts become your actions.  There is a place in Me that is both life and movement together.  I have been longing to show you this place.  You have been longing to see it and hear it, though you knew not what it was you were looking for.  Here is the place we now discover together.  You didn't realize it but I have been leading you here all along.

This, beloved, is the place that I knew in  My Father.  It is the place of oneness of spirit where you do what you see Me doing, not because you see or you hear,  but because you move with Me as I move.  It will be like a dance together.  I will be your partner but I will also be your music, your song.  You have learned to follow Me and you have learned to lean on Me.  Now shall you be brought from the wilderness, leaning on Me, yes, but dancing to the song I sing over you.  Sometimes My song will move you to war with Me, sometimes My song will move you to weep with Me, but always, always, we will move as one in this new place of My Spirit where I will now take you.

Arise now, beloved, I am calling you up from the wilderness.  Many days and nights you have waited, watching and praying for the least movement.  You have known what it is to live beneath both the Cloud and the Fire.  If you lift your eyes you will see the Cloud that was once still is now moving.  Do you know now that I am both the Fire and the Cloud?  If you love Me you will move with Me.  I call you now to movement, I call you to journey on with Me.  The movement I call you to is not the dead works and striving of the carnal religion you have left behind.  The movement is Me.  See, I am moving forward and I desire you to be with Me.  Will you leave behind you all that has made you comfortable and at ease?  Yes, even in the wilderness the flesh knows how to make itself exceedingly comfortable.  Will you forsake all again and move with the Cloud?

Come beloved, I have changed the season for you.  I have decreed a new day for you.  I am ready to take you to a place you have not yet known.  I am the Cloud that covers you, I am the Cloud that surrounds and consumes you.  Move with Me.

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Knowing God

Knowing God

We who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort. (Philippians 3:3 NLT) 

 

The fact is this, that what God is after is not to do things for you and for me, not to impart things to you and to me, not to show things to you and to me, but to bring us to some fresh apprehension of God in Christ. The whole matter is a divinely personal matter. It is the realization of the Person which is going to result, firstly, primarily, and for evermore, not in doing things, not in activities, not in rejoicing in truth, but in worship. Worship is the first, the continuous and the final factor in the knowledge of God in Christ, and is basic to everything else in our relation to Him. True worship only springs from a heart discovery of Himself.

Take your Bible, especially the New Testament, and especially the forty days after the resurrection (if you want that narrowed down to something that you can grasp), and see if that is not true. It was not because He did or said certain things that they worshiped, but because they discovered Him in a way in which they had never known Him before. God’s dealings with us are governed by this supreme aim: that He might make known to us Himself in Christ; but this comes by illumination, and that illumination is by the touch of Christ.

By T. Austin-Sparks from: Knowing God in Christ - Chapter 1






Worship, by definition:
worthiness, repute, respect, reverence paid to; to regard with great, even extravagant respect, honor or devotion.


“Samuel said, Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” 1 Samuel 15:22.



Worship does not require music or raised hands. True worship is an attitude of the heart; a submission of the carnal mind, to believe and to obey, from a broken and a contrite spirit. Much of what we conceive of as being worship today is more pleasing to our flesh, than it is to God. As our brother Sparks brings out, it is only as we come into an intimate, personal relationship with HIM, that we can truly enter into the kind of worship that He desires. It is only from that standing that we can genuinely praise and adore Him for Who He Is, regardless of our circumstance. Would that we could comprehend the significant, even critical, importance of our coming into right relationship with God. 
 
By way of example: a brother was in the depths of despair. The Lord had told him to do something that went against 'reason.' He did not understand, but he knew the voice of the Lord and did as the Lord had told him to do. As a result, he was vilified and rejected by friends and family alike; viciously attacked verbally, and nearly physically as well. All alone, he cried out to God, and this is what he heard: “To obey me is to worship me.” 
 

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

All, And In All - T. Austin-Sparks

All, And In All

In Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. (Colossians 2:9,10 NLT) 

 

Oh, those subtle suggestions that are ever being whispered in our ears, that if we give up this and that we are going to lose, and life is going to be poorer, and we are going to be narrowed down until we have nothing left. It is a lie! That is the thing that is countering God's great thought for us. God's thought for us is that One, no less than His Son Jesus Christ, in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form, should be our fullness. All the fullness of God in Christ for us! You never attain to that by rejecting Him. Life must be much less than it need be if you are not going all the way with the Lord; and what obtains in the matter of our consecration to the Lord, our entire and complete abandonment to Him in our life and our complete cut with all that is not of the Lord, obtains in the realm of service. This flesh loves to sport itself in Christian work, and tells us that if we are going to be dependent upon the Lord we are going to have an anxious time. But a life of dependence upon God can be a life of continual romance. It is there that we make discoveries which are a constant wonder.

You may be nearly dead one minute and in the next the Lord gives you something to do and you are very much alive, dependent upon Him for every breath you breathe. But thus you come to know the Lord. Then after that experience you are just as helpless and dead again for a while, but you remember that the Lord did something. Then He does it again; and so life becomes a romance; yet no one would ever guess you were depending on the Lord for your very breath. It is a very blessed thing to know the Lord is doing it, when you could not do it at all; it is, humanly, naturally, impossible, but the Lord is doing it!

By T. Austin-Sparks from: Christ - All, and In All

A Visitation of Love... - Francis Howgill

A VISITATION OF LOVE, PEACE, AND GOODWILL TO THE WHOLE FLOCK OF GOD; NOW IN THIS THEIR DAY OF TRIAL AND HOUR OF TEMPTATION (Francis Howgill)

Dear friends and brethren, who have been called to believe by the holy calling of the Lord, unto sanctification and holiness, that you might inherit the promises of God; and that your souls might live, and partake of his goodness; that you might admire Him, and praise his Name forever, seeing the Lord, out of his rich love and mercy, has visited you, who sometime sat in the region and shadow of death, and were cast out of his presence, in the time of unbelief; and seeing He has caused his miraculous Light to shine upon you in his gracious visitation, and has given you to believe in his name, prize his love unto you; and let not his gracious benefits slip out of your minds; for fear that your hearts be filled with other things; that will corrupt your hearts, and make you an unfit habitation for the Lord to dwell in and among.

 

Dear friends! Bear my brotherly admonition and exhortation for the Lord has moved in my heart to write unto you in the bowels of his kind and tender love, and motion of his heavenly Spirit, to stir up your pure minds and consciences unto steadfastness in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ; and so much the more, that you all are watchful, seeing the times are perilous; for now the adversary goes about roaring and ravening, on the right hand and on the left, to destroy and devour that which God has brought forth in you; that he might regain you too under his power and government; and that he might revolt from the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, which stands in power and righteousness, and which is come, and has been of a truth manifested in great glory.

 

This is an hour the power of darkness is let loose to try the faith of those who dwell upon the earth; and he is let loose for a season. Blessed are those who hide themselves under the shadow of the Almighty, and under the wings of Christ Jesus, who is given for a redeemer, a savior, and a preserver of men, that the wicked one touches them not. Now the devil rages, because one stronger than he who rules in the world has come, and has begun to dispossess the strong man, and bind him, and cast him out. Now he rages and stirs up all the temptations, within and without, and all his instruments to join with him, to make war for him; in order that Christ may not rule; who is the heir of all things, and given for a leader, and to be the head of the body his Church, in which He alone has a right to rule; because the Lord of the whole earth, yes of heaven and earth, has put all power into his hands, to bind and to loose; to bring out of captivity, and to lead captivity captive. That life and immortality may again inhabit in the sons of men. That truth and righteousness may predominate. That mercy and love may sit on the throne. That salvation may take hold on the ends of the earth, and this power be made known from sea to sea. That all who wait for Him and love his appearance now when He is made manifest, may rejoice in goodness and life, and may be made glad as Zebulun and Naphtali beyond Jordan, in the days of old, upon whom sprung up a marvelous light. That the whole earth may be filled with his praise and glory, which has been filled with darkness, violence, and cruelty, in the time of the devil and antichrist's reign, which has been long and great in the earth. So that the hearts of the sons of men have been corrupted, and they have gone backward from the Lord; and have degenerated into a strange nature; and have brought forth evil and corrupt fruit like that of Sodom. Those who do evil are not ashamed, neither do they blush, but have become impudent through long habit of evil, and hard and impenetrable; upon whom the hammer of the Lord must come, and His indignation poured on.

 

But you whom God has called out of this state, into a state of redemption and purity, by his Son, the Light of the world, who has illuminated the eyes of your minds, consciences, and understandings, that you may bear witness to Him who is true, and a testimony against the world that lies in wickedness, and pleads for it, and lives in it, as though it were the way to happiness, - hold fast your liberty, hold fast your faith, hold fast your hope, hold fast your testimony. Let none take your crown; and so much the more as you are compassed with temptations, and the times are perilous; so much the more you all have need to keep near the Lord.

 

Dearly beloved, let not the Philistines stop your wells; for then you might perish in the drought, for lack of moisture. The Lord will perform his promise, and keep covenant with those who keep covenant with Him; but if you forsake Him in your hearts in what is made manifest, then He will forsake you; and then you are left to the mercy of your adversary, which will be cruel. Therefore heed not the pride of Moab, nor the reviling of the children of Ammon; for they are unholy in heart, and the moth shall eat them up as a garment.

 

Oh! If any draw back from following the Lamb through suffering, they will be smitten; and the Lord will have no pleasure in them. What will Amalek say, when Israel turn their backs in the day of battle, but, "Where is their God, in whom they trusted?" And, "He that brought them forth was not able to deliver them to the end!" Oh! That such things might never be spoken of now in Gath or Ashkelon; as in the days of old! For fear that the sons of the Philistines triumph, and the daughters thereof rejoice in their wickedness; for this would make the hearts of the Israel of God to mourn.

 

This is the day of the Lamb's war indeed in our age, and a day of battle, though his weapons are not carnal, but spiritual. There is none that goes to war, and entangles himself, that has a purpose to hold out and is resolved to continue with Him in suffering; but will shake off these things that encumber, for fear that he should not obtain the victory, promise, or crown, which all who endure hardship to the end shall receive. O dear friends! Look above all visible things; and stand out of them all, and loose from them, that the enemy does not ensnare you. What! Is not the earth the Lord's, and the fullness thereof? And has not He given the utmost part of the earth for a possession to his Son? What! Was not Abraham our father blessed, when he was faithful, and obeyed the voice of the Lord; and went out of his own country, he knew not where? Was not the Lord with him wherever he went; and his blessing upon him, when he sojourned in a strange land? Did not God treat him kindly in Mesopotamia, and among the Hittites? And was not he loved and feared among his enemies? Was not John, the beloved and faithful disciple of Christ, banished into Patmos for the testimony he held? Were not Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, children of captivity, cast into the furnace? And Daniel too among the lions, for the testimony they held against the common worship of nations commanded by the law.

 

Did not Christ endure the death of the cross, and the contradiction of sinners? Was He not condemned by most? Did not the believing Hebrews, who were banished, wander in sheep skins and goat skins, into dens and caves of the earth, for the hope they held and the country they looked for? Did not Moses through faith forsake Pharaoh’s court, and become companion of poor brick-makers in captivity?

 

A cloud of witnesses might be brought, even of those who died in the faith, and yet are not make partakers of the promises, who many of them saw not what you have seen, nor heard those things that you have heard; nor enjoyed what God has made many partakers of; and have we not a great cloud of witnesses in this our own age? Some who have not loved their lives unto death, for the testimony they received, believed, and held fast to the end, to death? Have not many died in prison with severe usage? Have not some been hung and died a shameful death, and finished their course with joy and peace? Have not many endured great, hard, and long imprisonments for years? Are they weary yet? No, have not many suffered the seizure of their property; and do they not have a reward seven times greater in their bosoms?

 

O! Let the consideration of these things dwell in your hearts, and provoke you to suffering with joy, that in the midst of tribulation, as it abounds, you may feel according to the promise of God, your joy much more abound, to carry you above it. Indeed, now the time has come, whoever manifests himself to be on the Lord's side must suffer; and he who will not, but turns back into the broad way, and runs with the herd of swine into the sea of common pollution, must perish there; and indeed there is no place for halting. If God is God, follow Him; if Baal is he, go after him. Therefore let none draw you aside from what you are persuaded of in your conscience by the Spirit of the Lord; neither join with that you know He disallows; and in the obedience you will have peace and joy. Look not at those who draw back, for they go to perdition, but rather after those who continue faithful, who shall receive honor, glory, immortality and everlasting life.

 

In the fresh, heavenly power of God, meet together and worship Him, as at other times; though the decree has gone forth; and the more because you have been therein refreshed, comforted, and edified; and let none persuade you from that innocent duty, in worshiping God in his Spirit, and assembling yourselves together, for the strengthening of one another. For this is the will of God, and acceptable in his sight; as many of you well know. Watch and pray, for fear that you fall into temptation, and into the snare of the wicked one. The God of heaven and earth establish all your hearts, that you may glorify Him in your generation, and be a sweet smell unto Him in bonds or liberty, in life or death, is the prayer of him who has sought the Lord, and is determined so to do on all your behalf, until the Lord by his power, treads Satan under your feet, that you may triumph over all, rejoicing and praising God, and the Lamb, that lives forever, for evermore, Amen.

 

Your dear brother in the patience and sufferings of Christ, who abounds in perfect love to all the faithful flock of Christ everywhere,