God's Purpose - T. Austin-Sparks

 

God's Purpose

From "Written Not With Ink" - Meeting 12

Well, we are very glad to have this little touch with you, dear friends, and I do hope that what our brother has just said will be true; that we shall meet the Lord. We have just a few minutes with you, we want to use them all to the greatest profit. So I just turn you to the Lord’s Word at once, in the Gospel by Luke, chapter 10 and verse 1: “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.”

I think we feel that we are in the company of the seventy. He is sending us into cities and places and I am glad that it is put in that way, because if it had only said “city”, you might feel that you were left out. This is a “place” and the Lord Jesus not only went to cities, but He went to “places” and we believe that He is with us in this place.

Now, you notice that it said here that He sent them before His face into every city and place whither He Himself was to come. What He really did was to send them into every city and place that would provide a place for Him. It was a matter of the Lord’s place in every place, that the Lord should have a place.

A Place for the Lord

Dear friends, that is why you are here. You may think that you are here to preach the Gospel, and of course that is quite true. You may think that you are here to bring other people to salvation. You may think you are here to learn about the Lord. Those things are all true, but there is something more than that in your being in this place. The real purpose for your being here is to provide a place for the Lord, that the Lord should have a place here.

He said, “Wheresoever two or three are gathered in My name, there I am.” He sent them forth two by two, and two being in any place, was in order to provide a place for the Lord. What is the real meaning of your being here? It is really that other people who know that you are here, know that the Lord Jesus is here. If people want to know the Lord Jesus, they know that they will find Him where you are. If people want to know what Jesus is like, they know they will find what He is like in you. If people want to meet the Lord Jesus, they know that this is the place they will meet Him. So you see, you are really here to provide a place for the Lord Jesus. Your being here ought to mean that the Lord Jesus is here. Of course that puts a big responsibility on us, doesn’t it? That means that we must be very sure that Jesus is met amongst us; that when people come into our midst, they do not meet us, they do not go away talking about us, but in looking at us, they really do meet the Lord, so that our coming together in any place must be a setting forth of what the Lord Jesus is like, so that people are able to go away and say, “Well, I meet the Lord Jesus when I go there, I see the Lord Jesus when I go there, the greatest reality about those people is Jesus.”

He sent them before His face into every place where He was going. Well, that is the first thing about our being in any place; but there was something more than that.

Two by Two

What did the Lord mean by sending those people out two by two? Now, I don’t know what you know about Bible numbers, and I can’t explain it to you in these few minutes, but I can tell you this: that every number in the Bible has a meaning. I must just leave that with you.

But here we have the number two and in the Bible, the number two always means a testimony. You see, it is in the mouth of two witnesses that everything is established. A testimony is never sufficient if it is only given by one. A testimony is complete if the testimony is given by two. Jesus sent these men to different places and in doing so, what He was saying was that in every place, there should be a testimony. But what is the testimony? The testimony is that this place belongs to the Lord. This world belongs to the Lord Jesus. Satan has stolen it from the Lord Jesus. We are here to say that it belongs to Him. He is the right Lord of this world, and we are here to declare that Jesus is the right Lord in this world. Another one has taken it from Him and we are here to say that it belongs to Him. 

Now you notice what happened: whenever any people take up that position in any place on this earth and declare that Jesus is Lord, trouble always begins and the devil says, “I am not going to have that! I am going to break up those people, I am going to drive them out, I am going to make it impossible for them to stay here. In some way I am going to spoil that testimony.” Satan knows that there is a testimony that Jesus is Lord and he is not lord then. Now you see why you are in this place; it is really to be a testimony to the truth that Jesus is Lord, to put both feet on this place and say, “This belongs to Jesus.”

Maintaining the Testimony

Now a third thing and I am finished. When the Lord Jesus comes back again, He shall come to the places where His testimony is, and take back that which belongs to Him. There is an Old Testament illustration of this. It is in the life of David, perhaps you remember the story of Absalom, David’s son. Well, Absalom decided that he would be king so he worked to drive David out of his kingdom. He found lots of people who would agree with him, and so he drove his father David out of Jerusalem. But as David was going out, he turned to the high priest and he said, “Don’t you come with me. You go back into the city and take the ark with you, because I am coming back again and I have to have something to which I can come back that belongs to me.” So the high priest took the ark of the testimony back into the city and they waited until David came back. And when David came back, it was to that testimony that he came. Now that is an illustration of what we are talking about. 



Jesus is coming back again. He has been driven out of this world. This world says, “We will not have this Man to reign over us!” They have crucified Him, they have driven Him out, but He is coming back and says, “You go back to that place and hold that place for me. I must have some place that belongs to me, I must come back to that which is My own.” So, you are here, holding the position for the Lord until He comes.

 

You see the three big lessons: you are in this place to provide a place for the Lord Jesus; you are here to be a testimony to the truth that Jesus is Lord; and you are here to be something for the Lord to return for when He comes.

THE NARROW GATE: WHAT I TELL YOU IN THE DARK, SPEAK IN THE DAYLIGHT...

THE NARROW GATE: WHAT I TELL YOU IN THE DARK, SPEAK IN THE DAYLIGHT...: PROCLAIM FROM THE ROOFS A. Brother “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight. What is whispered in your ear, proclai...

Bible Taught or Spirit Taught - A. W. Tozer

Bible Taught or Spirit Taught?

The Root of the Righteous - Chapter 9

 
It may shock some readers to suggest that there is a difference between being Bible taught and being Spirit taught. Nevertheless it is so.

It is altogether possible to be instructed in the rudiments of the faith and still have no real understanding of the whole thing. And it is possible to go on to become expert in Bible doctrine and not have spiritual illumination, with the result that a veil remains over the mind, preventing it from apprehending the truth in its spiritual essence.
Most of us are acquainted with churches that teach the Bible to their children from their tenderest years, give them long instruction in the catechism, drill them further in pastor's classes, and still never produce in them a living Christianity nor a virile godliness. Their members show no evidence of having passed from death unto life. None of the earmarks of salvation so plainly indicated in the Scriptures are found among them. Their religious lives are correct and reasonably moral, but wholly mechanical and altogether lacking in radiance. They wear their faith as persons in mourning once wore black arm bands to show their love and respect for the departed.


Such persons cannot be dismissed as hypocrites. Many of them are pathetically serious about it all. They are simply blind. From lack of the vital Spirit they are forced to get along with the outward shell of faith, while all the time their deep hearts are starving for spiritual reality and they do not know what is wrong with them. 

This difference between the religion of creed and the religion of the Spirit is well set forth by the saintly Thomas in a tender little prayer to his Lord: "The children of Israel in time past said unto Moses, 'Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.' Not so, Lord, not so, I beseech Thee; but rather with the prophet Samuel, I humbly and earnestly entreat, 'Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.' Let not Moses speak unto me, nor any of the prophets, but rather do Thou speak, 0 Lord God, the inspirer, enlightener of all the prophets; for Thou alone without them canst perfectly instruct me, but they without Thee can profit nothing. They indeed may utter words, but they cannot give the Spirit. Most beautifully do they speak, but if Thou be silent, they inflame not the heart. They teach the letter, but Thou openest the sense; they bring forth mysteries, but Thou unlockest the meaning of sealed things. . . They work only outwardly, but Thou instructest and enlightenest the heart. . . They cry aloud with words, but Thou impartest understanding to the hearing."
It would be hard to wrap it up better than that. The same thing has been said variously by others; however, the most familiar saying probably is, "The Scriptures, to be understood, must be read with the same Spirit that originally inspired them." No one denies this, but even such a statement will go over the heads of those who hear it unless the Holy Spirit inflames the heart.

 

The charge often made against us by Liberals, that we are "bibliolaters," is probably not true in the same sense as meant by our detractors; but candor and self-analysis will force us to admit that there is often too much truth in their charge. Among religious persons of unquestioned orthodoxy there is sometimes found a dull dependence upon the letter of the text without the faintest understanding of its spirit. That truth is in its essence spiritual must constantly be kept before our minds if we would know the truth indeed. Jesus Christ is Himself the Truth, and He cannot be confined to mere words even though, as we ardently believe, He has Himself inspired the words. That which is spiritual cannot be shut in by ink or fenced in by type and paper. The best a book can do is to give us the letter of truth. If we ever receive more than this, it must be by the Holy Spirit who gives it.


The great need of the hour among persons spiritually hungry is twofold: First, to know the Scriptures, apart from which no saving truth will be vouchsafed by our Lord; the second, to be enlightened by the Spirit, apart from whom the Scriptures will not be understood.

Being Subject to the Back-to-Front Kingdom

Being Subject to the Back-to-Front Kingdom

by Lynette Woods

The way of the Wind is the way of greatest emptiness;
The way for the Water is the place of the lowest depth;
The way for the Lightning is along the line of the greatest weakness.
'If any man lack' - there is God's condition for His inflow. - Lilias Trotter

God's modus operandi is usually the opposite of what we think. We tend to apply our earthly principles to heavenly matters and then wonder why things don't work out as we think they should! But God's Heavenly Kingdom operates on completely different principles to what we on earth are used to. If He gave us everything we thought we needed, even "spiritual" things like wisdom, love, joy etc, we would take them and think we owned them and deserved them. We would see those things as ours and would have no need to depend on God. 

There is no greater gift we can give others than the gift of ourselves: our friendship, our love, our time, our thoughts, our lives... and it is exactly the same with God: He gives HIMSELF! Instead of giving us things, God gives us one huge Gift: Himself in His Son. It is easier for us to give gifts of things, than to simply be a gift to someone. Perhaps it would be easier for God to give us things than to BE Himself in us, but if He were to give us Love as a thing, we would think it was us that was loving; if He were to give us Wisdom as a thing, we would think that it was us who was wise...

For Him to be Love, Light, Wisdom, Peace, Joy and everything we not only need but also want, we need to accept His Life instead of ours, and His Way instead of ours. But His Way is not our way, and the principles of His upside-down and back-to-front Kingdom are the opposite of our own...

It is when I know emptiness, that I know Your fullness;
  

When I know silence, I know You are speaking;
  

When I stop, I see You begin;


When I know death, then I experience real Life;


Only when I know how weak I am, do I know true Strength.

It is when I trust like a little child, that I am spiritually mature;


When I am bound to You, then I know true Freedom;


When I am broken, I know Restoration;


When I can't carry on, You carry me on;


Only when I see who I really am, do You reveal who You really are.

It is when I am in darkness, that I find Light;


When I am alone in the wilderness, I have entered the Promised land;


When I am decreased, You are increased;


When I am stupid, I learn Your Wisdom;


Only when I give up, do You take over.

It is when I know real Rest, that I am working;


When I realize how poor I am, I am becoming wealthy in Your Kingdom;


When I am misunderstood, I understand You more;


When I am rejected, I am really accepted;


Only when I am tested, do You become my Testimony.

It is when I see how wrong I am, that I discover how Right You are;


When I mess up, then I know You as Grace;


When I know I am lost, that I am found;


When I lose my mind, that I gain Your mind;


Only when I consider myself last, are You really First. 

It is when I have nothing, that You become Everything;


When I can't see anything, that You reveal everything;


When I stop relying on myself, that You prove everything;


When I can do nothing, I see You do everything;


And only when I am nothing, can You be seen in me as "I Am Everything"!

Instead of giving me wisdom, You give Yourself as Wisdom

Instead of giving me love, You give Yourself as Love

Instead of giving me truths, You give Yourself as Truth

Instead of giving me peace, You give Yourself as Peace

Instead of giving me many things You give me One Thing: everything You are...

 

"Don’t deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise in the ways of this world, you should give up that wisdom in order to become really wise. The wisdom of this world is nonsense in God’s sight. That’s why Scripture says, “God catches the wise in their cleverness.” Again Scripture says, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are pointless.” So don’t brag about people. Everything belongs to you... You belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God... What do you have that God hasn't given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift? You are partners with Christ Jesus because of God. Jesus has become our wisdom sent from God, our righteousness, our holiness, and our ransom from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, "If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord." "My kindness is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak." So if Christ keeps giving me His power, I will gladly brag about how weak I am. Yes, I am glad to be weak or insulted or mistreated or to have troubles and sufferings, if it is for Christ. Because when I am weak, I am strong." (1 Cor. 3:18-23; 4:7; 2 Cor. 12:9,10; 1 Cor. 1:30,31).

We have given up our wisdom for Christ. 
1 Cor 4:10 GWT

Shared with much 'thanks' to Lynette Woods @ Unveiling

Hope - Branch

HOPE

This word was spoken to me yesterday by a member of our family; she talked about hope that is alive. It so pierced my heart that this morning the Lord said to me to write to the rest of His body about it and what the Lord showed us. So my sister and I would like to share to the rest of our Fathers body what He showed us.
You all know how very quiet it has been. Here we are separated by the will of God into this walk of following our Lord Jesus outside the camp and bearing the reproach of many. There was for a time much activity among us and many were communicating with each other and our spirits were kept high in expectation even though we felt isolated. Then everything began to get quiet like some strange thing. People began to get quiet and the work load that many were under made the day even shorter than usual and it was hard to get things done. Communication slowed up and we found our selves loaded down with the burden of just keeping our heads above water. Many of us were wondering why the Lord was so quiet and as for me the Lord stopped writing through me and I was wondering if I made the Lord angry about something and my body seems to be falling apart and the Lord is QUIET. Doesn't He know I'm dying here for even the quietness itself is killing me!
There is a story the Lord wants you to think about. It is something that happened when Jesus was still on the earth and He was in a boat with His people and just before that He told them who were following Him to get in the boat and said "LET US CROSS OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE."
Dearly beloved, I am writing to you that know the scriptures and you have been doing the very best you know to follow Jesus whereever He leads you, and I know you all want to obey Him in everything pertaining to this walk our Father has called us to do. But there are times the Lord is going to be quiet and He is expecting us to carry on in this way of crossing over to the other side. It is a part of our training to hold fast and not be moved. Let us not be among those who want to jump ship.
You all know the story how Jesus went to sleep and from Him, for the moment, it went quiet. As for the people, they were working there heads off to make some sort of progress; and we are being swamped and we feel like we are dying way out here in the middle of nowhere. They wake Jesus up and the silence is broken with rebuke, "WHERE IS YOUR FAITH?"
I am guilty myself of doing this very thing and it is not that the Lord was not with us; He was just quiet for what I thought was too long. We all have to learn and there is not a one among us who will not suffer one thing or another and feel the enemy trying to swamp us either through a person we love or a person that is a complete stranger; perhaps our health or how about just plain circumstances we find ourselves in.
The time is coming when our faith and patience is what will preserve our souls. I now know that our Lord does these things on purpose to prepare us for what is ahead. We need to remind ourselves of the promises of God that are given to us who believe, least we should let them slip or come short of them.
I am so reminded of the book called 'HINDS FEET ON HIGH PLACES', by Hannah Hurnard. It's about an invitation from the Lord to go with Him to the high places. It's a story about a person called MUCH-AFRAID escaping from her fearing relatives and her walk with the chief shepherd. There was a great deal she went through on her way to the high places and so it is with us also. We need to remind ourselves and each other; though we are counted on to suffer in this world as we follow our Lord with our cross ... we will get there if we don't faint in the way; for the promises of God are a sure thing. Let us continually pray for each other for we are of the same body and if one is crying; we will cry too, or laugh and rejoice, we with you. This is a sure thing that if the Lord said "LETS CROSS OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE," you had better believe He is able to get us there. That boat would not have sunk even though it would be full of water. I believe that boat would have stayed afloat in the same way the boat of Noah stayed afloat.
Let us stir up the faith that the Lord desires for us to have and the living hope that is before us to enter into that perfect rest. There is a rest for us and the Lord desires for us to press on and enter into it. We need to believe in the Word of God and not be in disbelief nor be ignorant of this knowledge, because of this were we taken away from our leaders who lost this light; for the candle light has gone out and they are not even aware of it. The soul is the candle of the Lord and He has by Himself put a fire on our candle that we may see where we are going. They do not seek to enter through this door and they will try to keep you from it if they can get you to follow them. They have no knowledge of this hope. There are those who only wish to get to heaven some day and then there are those who see a hope that pertains to us still living here on this side. The living hope that is before us to enter in is the door of rest. The Lord doesn't want you to think that the only way you can enter into rest is to die and go to be with the Lord in heaven. This door is for you now as He calls you out to be with Him in High Places which is a high calling of God and a refuge indeed.
This door is that same door that was shown to the church of Philadelphia. This church was a born again, Spirit filled church and had been established for a long time before the Lord showed them this door. A place of rest in the Lord which is able to keep us from the temptations that is to try the whole world. I pray we will all keep this living hope alive and to encourage each other so much the more as we see that day approaching.

With much love A spokesman for Jesus Christ and the family,

Branch, February 2007

From 'The Significance of Christ - T Austin-Sparks

 By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Significance of Christ - Chapter 3

He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV)

What is your idea of power? What is your mentality concerning power? Are you clamoring for power, wanting power? Well, it all works out this way. True power from God's standpoint is Calvary power. Christ crucified is the power of God. What is Calvary power? Well, it is emptiness of self, you and I being emptied of self - and truly, that is easier said than endured! Oh, how very much there is of this self about us still! How we hate - how we suffer - being emptied of ourselves! What a terrible thing it is to feel our inability - to know that we do not count in ourselves. Oh, to be ABLE! And yet have we not proved, again and again, that our times of greatest emptiness and weakness have been the times when God has done most, and got glory by what He has done? Yes, it has been true. We have learnt it along various lines and different ways, but God has been working right into the very inside of us, so that the thing is done - it becomes a part of us. He does not have to maintain it by external conditions. But He frequently uses such - very often physical - conditions, to bring us to that place of utter dependence upon Himself. It is really not good enough, is it, to be forced to it, compelled to it? That is God's way of education, but it would be very much better for us to be fit and well and as dependent upon God as ever.

So it all resolves itself into the need, in the first place, for what is meant by being born from above: an entirely new nature and disposition, to begin with, and then a letting God do His work of conforming us to the image of His Son. I am not saying that works and words do not come in, but it is a heartbreaking business to be working and speaking with no power, and no registration of heaven. The Lord give us light as to what He means by this.

Link to Book

The Mark of a Life Under the Sovereignty of the Spirit - JB Harrison

  The Mark of a Life Under the Sovereignty of the Spirit


by Charles J.B. Harrison 
(Published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, February 1942)


 "We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead." (2 Cor. 1:8-9).

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves." (2 Cor. 4:7).

"And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." (1 Cor. 2:3-4).

There are some passages of the Word which stand out because they are in such a very full and vital way a declaration of certain basic principles and ways of the Lord upon which everything else moves, and the third chapter of 2 Corinthians is just such a passage. You will remember that the Apostle puts his finger on a number of fundamental matters upon which everything else depends.

The Power of a New Life Within 

He says first of all, "You are an epistle... written... with the Spirit of the living God". God is no longer doing things outwardly. God is no longer occupied with tables of stone and mere ordinances, even commandments written, but God has moved on and is now concerned only with living, throbbing, vital sons of His own; that His people are themselves, by the very Life of God, that which He is concerned about. God's desire and will is realized not any more by something imposed from the outside, but by the actual inward Life of God doing and working that which is pleasing to Him. The people of God are no longer, as it were, a mere people under orders. They are a people in whom everything that is of God is livingly realized by the Spirit of the living God. God is no longer saying, Thou shalt! Thou shalt not! He has left that: everything is Life. It is not telling us what to do, it is being in us what He wants. Just as God is the living eternal One, so that very nature of God becomes the Life of His people. Thus the Apostle makes that great contrast between the ministry or the ministration of death and the ministration of the Spirit; for "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives Life."

Now, there is the first thing. That chapter shows us that God has come on to a new ground altogether where everything with Him is a matter of the Spirit livingly operating. Oh, so clearly did the Apostle see that to be the case that his heart sank when he found the people of God again occupied with "ought"; the law hanging over them, driving them to do things outwardly through fear either that God required it or that men expected it; in fear of God and fear of men, slavish bondage. You remember how the very next letter in our order, that to the Galatians, is directly concerned with that matter. "Do you desire again to be in bondage?" We are out of that whole realm where things are a legal outward system. God has finished with it. He really has finished with it. 

In every single one of Paul's letters, I believe, he is saying almost the same thing. You remember what he says in Romans — "Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believeth" (Rom. 10:4). God has moved away from that whole process of our trying to be righteous. He has settled righteousness in Someone else and Christ is the end. God has reached His end. Yes, and human nature is always trying to get itself to an end God has already reached. God has settled everything in His Son, and now the Spirit is the power of God by which all that is in Christ is being realized in the saints. God has reached His end, and then He is working that end, so to speak, into the saints by His Spirit, not by the saints again trying to reach the end already reached. It is a thing we do not easily put into words, but God has moved off the basis which our nature is always dropping on to. We are always trying to do something God has done, to be something we will never be, but which the Lord Jesus already is; and all that we cannot do and cannot be, the Lord has undertaken by His Spirit.

It is something like this that is the burden of 2 Cor. 3, that it is no longer a ministry of death but a ministration of Life. "The Spirit quickens." We are living ones; everything for us is Life in the Spirit. We are not in a thing, we are not under a certain system, we are right out in a realm where we are in a river of Life. I am not saying we ought to be; I am saying we are. We have Life, we are in the Spirit. "Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit..." (Rom. 8:9). If only we could see it, all our fetters would snap and we would be free: in Christ we have been raised out of the range of bondage and the domination of legality; we are free indeed. "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:30). In this connection the word of the Lord was showing how there are hindrances to that river of the Spirit in which we should all be revelling. We should all be revelling in the streams that make glad the city of God and, beholding thus His glory, we should be knowing what it is to be changed into that same image, even as from the Lord the Spirit.

An Accompanying Condition of Weakness 

But the word which I believe the Lord would bring us today is very briefly just this: What is the accompaniment of a life where the Spirit is absolutely Lord; or, to put it in another way, what comes to light in this Epistle as to accompanying conditions of a life where, according to the Apostle's own testimony with regard to this new dispensation, everything is in Life and in the Spirit? What is the mark in his own experience of a life under the sovereignty of the Spirit? We are being exercised in prayer about that. We want to know the sovereignty of the Spirit, we want to know the Spirit as Lord in our individual lives and our life together. We want to know the Lordship of the Spirit, where He dictates as He will, where He breaks every barrier of man's setting up, where the Spirit really does take things into His own hands and we are glad to watch Him do it. What are the accompanying conditions found in the servant of the Lord or in the vessel where His Spirit is sovereign? And here we find God's way so different from ours. The word that sums it all up is "weakness".

Oh, how we all used to think that if the Spirit is sovereign, we should be so strong, we should be so able to do things, we should be so full of life that nothing would give us more joy than to get up and hold open-air meetings! That sort of effervescence! We come to the word of the Lord, and the actual experience is weakness, emptiness, hopelessness, that we can do nothing. Why? That the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not of us. The great obstacle to the Spirit's sovereign working is the strength of our own nature.

Some of us are only just on the edge of knowing that. We do not come as those who know a great deal about it, but we do know that when we are strong, we are weak; when we think we can, we cannot; when we want to help God, we hinder Him every time. We have got up in the thing and God is out of the thing. Oh, what a disillusionment there has to be in a life before the Spirit is really having His way — terrific breakdown in every vessel.

That is a good word — vessel. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." What is a vessel? A vessel is a receptacle, it is something which can hold something. You do not really bother much about what the thing is like: it is what you want to put into it that is the chief thing. The Lord needs something. He needs a vessel in which His glory can be. "He is a chosen vessel unto Me" (Acts 9:15), a vessel of the treasure, a vessel of His glory, something of which the Lord can be fully possessed and in which He can dwell, and which He would have in every dispensation. Yes, we have here the vessel of His glory in this dispensation. I am glad Paul uses the plural a great deal in this letter. He says, "Having this ministry we faint not." "We have this treasure." The vessel of the purpose of God and the vessel of the glory of God is a corporate vessel. Essentially it is a corporate vessel now. I believe Paul was the servant raised up as a peculiar instrument, and the Lord still has men who are vessels; but He also looks upon His saints together as a vessel.... We know that our mere praying may be powerless; it is the prayer of the Holy Ghost that is effective. It is a vessel in which the exceeding greatness of the power is able to operate.

Well now, what is the nature of that vessel? It is going to be one in which there is great weakness and great break-down of all that is natural capacity. I am not going to stay with that, for our time is short, but we will remember that in every outstanding servant of God through whom the purpose of Gcd was in any way realized, there was a tremendous breaking down. Moses was a man who could do things for God, a man who had a great devotion to the Lord, and in the longing of his heart and even in his faithfulness to the Lord, he set off to serve Him, and it took God forty years to prove to Moses beyond any doubt that he could not serve God in himself; forty years of terrible weakening, weakening, weakening, until it has to be God because it cannot be anyone else. Moses at the end of that forty years is saying, I cannot speak, I cannot go! — an utter inability in the things of God.

The Natural Life the Great Hindrance


I believe the point of this is so important. What is it that is hindering the Lord getting His own clear way? It is something of our own strength in the things of God and if there is to be a real ground cleared for the Spirit to be sovereign, your individual experience and mine will be that we are brought up short again and again. You have tried to serve the Lord and it has been, shall we say, a mess. Why? Because your own nature tried to help God. Oh, it is so wonderful to come across a life that has been dealt with very deeply and to see the difference between that and a life where that emptying and weakening has not taken place. The life in the earlier stage sees a spiritual need or sees something that is felt to be of the Lord and before a moment has past that life has gone into it like a flash and started to help. I must go! I will send them a book! I will do something! But meet a man who has been broken to pieces: he sees the need, the desperate situation, and he is steady as a rock and says, "Unless the Lord does that, it is no good touching it! Where is the fuss?" Yes, but that is not until you are broken. 



Those who in some real measure have come to an end of themselves know this beyond doubt, because they have been through it. Every time they touched a thing, it went to pieces. We ought to be doing something! No, just be sure it is God doing things. Where does Christianity with all its doing, get? It is a terrible undoing, that is all it is. Yes, when the work of God comes up, you and I see it and begin to lay hold of it in case something goes wrong, put our hands upon it. Uzzah died before the Lord. We may not physically die, but we do die. It is a snare for a man to devour that which is holy. Our greedy little minds and thoughts get onto the things of God like that: whereas He wants us to be brought to silence. Then we shall hear what the Spirit says and we shall say, The Spirit is speaking; Lord bring it into realization! The Word of God is quite clear on this: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not of us."



Well, if our heart responds to that, let us ask Him to make us really a vessel of that kind, not being nervous and feeble and afraid of ourselves, but being very steady and saying, Lord, keep me out of it and move me when You want me! To that end it says, "We who live..." (2 Cor. 4:11). Do not let us go about thinking we are dead; we live! "We who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake." It is not the death of that Life, it is the death of this life. Let us live abundantly on that Life. "We the living ones..." Do not let us be afraid of any human natural dying as we recognize we are living ones joined to Him whose life is indestructible, but rather rejoice that because of this we can safely be handed over to death that the Life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

- Link to Source -

On Receiving Admonition - A. W. Tozer

On Receiving Admonition

from "Root of the Righteous" by A.W. Tozer - Chapter 7

 

An odd little passage in the Book of Ecclesiastes speaks of "an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished."
 
It is not hard to understand why an old King, especially if he were a foolish one, would feel that he was beyond admonition. After he had for years given orders he might easily build a self-confident psychology that simply could not entertain the notion that he should take advice from others. His word had long been law, and to him right had become synonymous with his will and wrong had come to mean anything that ran contrary to his wishes. Soon the idea that there was anyone wise enough or good enough to reprove him would not so much as enter his mind. He had to be a foolish king to let himself get caught in that kind of web, and an old king to give the web time to get so strong that he could not break it and to give him time to get used to it so that he was no longer aware of its existence. 

Regardless of the moral process by which he arrived at his hardened state, the bell had already tolled for him. In every particular he was a lost man. His wizened old body still held together to provide a kind of movable tomb to house a soul already dead. Hope had long ago departed. God had left him to his fatal conceit And soon he would die physically too, and he would die as a fool dieth.


A state of heart that rejected admonition was characteristic of Israel at various periods in her history, and these periods were invariably followed by judgment. When Christ came to the Jews He found them chuck full of that arrogant self-confidence that would not accept reproof. "We be Abraham's seed," they said coldly when He talked to them about their sins and their need of salvation. The common people heard Him, and repented, but the Jewish priests had ruled the roost too long to be willing to surrender their privileged position. Like the old king, they bad gotten accustomed to being right all the time. To reprove them was to insult them. They were beyond reproof. 

Churches and Christian organizations have shown a tendency to fall into the same error that destroyed Israel: inability to receive admonition. After a time of growth and successful labor comes the deadly psychology of self-congratulation. Success itself becomes the cause of later failure. The leaders come to accept themselves as the very chosen of God. They are special objects of the divine favor; their success is proof enough that this is so. They must therefore be right, and anyone who tries to call them to account is instantly written off as an unauthorized meddler who should be ashamed to dare to reprove his betters.
If anyone imagines that we are merely playing with words let him approach at random any religious leader and call attention to the weaknesses and sins in his organization. Such a one will be sure to get the quick brush off, and if he dares to persist he will be confronted with reports and statistics to prove that he is dead wrong and completely out of order. "We be the seed of Abraham" will be the burden of the defense. And who would dare find fault with Abraham's seed? 

Those who have already entered the state where they can no longer receive admonition are not likely to profit by this warning. After a man has gone over the precipice there is not much you can do for him; but we can place markers along the way to prevent the next traveler from going over. Here are a few:
                                        
1. Don't defend your church or your organization against criticism. If the criticism is false it can do no harm. If it is true you need to hear it and do something about it.
     
2. Be concerned not with what you have accomplished but over what you might have accomplished if you had followed the Lord completely. It is better to say (and feel), "We are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do." 

3. When reproved, pay no attention to the source. Do not ask whether it is a friend or an enemy that reproves you. An enemy is often of greater value to you than a friend because he is not influenced by sympathy. 

4. Keep your heart open to the correction of the Lord and be ready to receive His chastisement regardless of who holds the whip. The great saints all learned to take a licking gracefully - and that may be one reason why they were great saints. 

The Process of Apostasy - George Warnock

 Do we want to know the Truth, or do we want to be 'politically correct?'  Because we sure can't do both.

The Process of Apostasy

from - Who Are You? By George Warnock

The Bible mentions 3 phases in the process of apostasy, and let us consider briefly each of these, for it shows us clearly what brought us to the state we are in today. It is explained by the apostle Paul in his writing to the Romans.
He begins by stating that in the early days of the human family, men knew God. True Adam had sinned, and fell away from his Creator. But a certain knowledge of God was still there, and persists to certain degree until this day. It is not true that in man's earliest history he worshiped many gods, and finally eliminated them all but one. Early man was monotheistic. He only recognized the true God who created him. How then did he apostatize? Paul sets it forth clearly:
(1) Step One:
"When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful" (Rom. 1:21). This may seem very insignificant to the world about us, and even to many Christians. But this was man's first step downward into the darkness of apostasy. Man said, "I will not give God His Lordship in my life. I refuse to give honor to the God who created me..." Paul couples this with UNTHANKFULNESS. Let us remember, we who profess to know God, that when we refuse to give God His Lordship, and to thank Him for His goodness, and for who He is, ...this is the first step away from the light, and into darkness. And so what happened when men took this step of independence from God, and no longer honored Him as God, nor gave Him thanks? They went into further darkness. "Their foolish heart was darkened". Where did this darkness come from? They refused to give God His Lordship, and became unthankful. With what result? God who is pre Light begins to withdraw His restraining grace from their lives, and "gives them up" to uncleanness, to "dishonor their own bodies between themselves" (vs. 24).
(2) Step Two:
Man now "changes the truth of God into a lie" ...and worships and serves the creature, rather than the Creator (vs. 25). Unless man returns to his God this is inevitable. Truth is perverted and becomes a LIE. Forsake Him who is Truth, and you accept a LIE. And so man begins to worship the creature, "an image made like to corruptible man" as well as "birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things". He worships "corruptible man", a species considered to have been a mere animal, but now evolved to the top of the ladder. He feels he has developed and evolved to a place where he is sufficient in himself. Who needs God? Well, He may exist; but we don't really need Him anymore. And so once again God lets man go his own way into further darkness. He says, "If you can do without Me, I will create still greater darkness for you. I will give you over to greater evil, and leave you to the perversity of your own heart." "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections" (vs. 26). And then the apostle goes on to describe some of the vilest expressions of moral behavior ever known in man's history, ...perverse things like homosexualism and lesbianism. (See Rom. 1:26, 27).
(3) Step Three:
"They did not like to retain God in their knowledge" (vs. 28). Notice the steps: First, I will not give God His place of honor as my Creator. Secondly, I am sufficient in myself, I don't really need God, I will be my own god. And now thirdly, "I don't want God in my thoughts... I will seek to eradicate Him from my very mind". And God says, If you do not want Me in your thoughts, I will create still more evil for you... I will withdraw from you completely. I release you to walk in total darkness and depravity. And so "God gave them over to a reprobate mind" (vs. 28). The reprobate mind (Gr. 'adokimos') is the mind that cannot stand the test; it becomes worthless, rejected. The man who once had an awareness of God, no longer has that awareness, nor does he even want to have God in his thoughts. The reprobate mind is one that lacks moral discernment. IT DOES NOT KNOW OR RECOGNIZE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL.
Do you see, then, where we have come to in our society, and what we are up against? So why march, and protest, and try to legislate proper morals, and argue with people as to the pros and cons of the evils that exist in the land? They do not have a mind that is capable of making a proper judgment in matters of righteousness and morals. It is the last stage of man's apostasy... and I think we are there. Nothing but the proclamation of the Gospel of God, and His holy fire and anointing in our midst, can reverse this trend of our apostasy. If ministers in the "Church" and intellectuals in our schools continue to teach atheism, and humanism, and evolution... that man is a mere animal (but perhaps the most highly developed in the animal kingdom), God says I will create still greater darkness for you. And it all began when men became unthankful and denied God His Lordship, and changed the truth of God into a lie. And finally in man's last downward step of apostasy he now wants to eradicate the very thought of God from his mind. Our legislators, and our educators, and our psychologists are cooperating in all of this, and yet are baffled and confused because they sense how hopeless it is getting to deal with delinquency and perverse behavior. And while they are searching for solutions they are spending millions to fortify the educational system that has caused all the problems by saying: "Just leave God out of the picture, and let knowledge and science be exalted". God is saying to this highly educated and scientific generation: If you are going to leave Me out, I am going to create such darkness, that you will not know which way to turn. If you are going to turn the truth into a lie, I am going to send strong delusion, so that you will believe the lie. God says if you want to eradicate Me from your thoughts, I will eradicate every trace of light that you have ever known, and create more darkness and evil than you will know how to handle.
And so we are very quickly coming to the full expression of Phase III of man's apostasy. Men are being given over to a reprobate mind: the mind that cannot tell the difference between Good and Evil. Light becomes Darkness, and Darkness Light. Good becomes Evil, and Evil Good. Truth becomes Error, and Error Truth. They just do not know the difference.
When "Church" councils convene, as they are doing, for the purpose of coming to a consensus as to whether or not they should ordain homosexuals to the "ministry" or condone the practice of it in the Church, you know that we are right in the middle of ultimate apostasy, no matter what their final decision may be. When people begin to surmise, "Well, perhaps these are not sins after all... let's be open... let's get together and talk about it..."...you know their minds are already in the process of becoming "reprobate".

To Be Right, We Must Think Right - A.W. Tozer

This message from Brother Tozer ties in with the previous postings regarding 'Renewing our minds."

To Be Right, We Must Think Right

from Root Of The Righteous, by A. W. Tozer

Chapter 10

What we think about when we are free to think about what we will - that is what we are or will soon become.
The Bible has a great deal to say about our thoughts; current evangelicalism has practically nothing to say about them. The reason the Bible says so much is that our thoughts are so vitally important to us; the reason evangelicalism says so little is that we are over-reacting from the "thought" cults, such as New Thought, Unity, Christian Science and their like. These cults make our thoughts to be very nearly everything and we counter by making them very nearly nothing. Both positions are wrong.
Our voluntary thoughts not only reveal what we are, they predict what we will become. Except for that conduct which springs from our basic natural instincts, all conscious behavior is preceded by and arises out of our thoughts. The will can become a servant of the thoughts, and to a large degree even our emotions follow our thinking. "The more I think about it the madder I get" is the way the average man states it, and in so doing not only reports accurately on his own mental processes but pays as well an unconscious tribute to the power of thought. Thinking stirs feeling and feeling triggers action. That is the way we are made and we may as well accept it.
The Psalms and Prophets contain numerous references to the power of right thinking to raise religious feeling and incite to right conduct. "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies." "While I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue." Over and over the Old Testament writers exhort us to get quiet and think about high and holy things as a preliminary to amendment of life or a good deed or a courageous act.
The Old Testament is not alone in its respect for the God-given power of human thought. Christ taught that men defile themselves by evil thinking and even went so far as to equate a thought with an act: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart," Paul recited a list of shining virtues and commanded, "Think on these things."
These quotations are but four out of hundreds that could be cited from the Scriptures. Thinking about God and holy things creates a moral climate favorable to the growth of faith and love and humility and reverence. We cannot by thinking regenerate our hearts, nor take our sins away nor charge the leopard's spots. Neither can we by thinking add one cubit to our stature or make evil good or darkness light. So to teach is to misrepresent a scriptural truth and to use it to our own undoing. But we can by Spirit-inspired thinking help to make our minds pure sanctuaries in which God will be pleased to dwell.
I referred in a previous paragraph to "our voluntary thoughts" and I used the words advisedly. In our journey through this evil and hostile world many thoughts will be forced upon us which we do not like and for which we have no moral sympathy. The necessity to make a living may compel us for days on end to entertain thoughts in no sense elevating. Ordinary awareness of the doings of our fellow men will bring thoughts repugnant to our Christian soul. These need affect us but little. For them we are not responsible and they may pass through our minds like a bird through the air, without leaving a trace. They have no lasting effect upon us because they are not our own. They are unwelcome intruders for which we have no love and which we get rid of as quickly as possible.
Anyone who wishes to check on his true spiritual condition may do so by noting what his voluntary thoughts have been over the last hours or days. What has he thought about when free to think of what he pleased? Toward what has his inner heart turned when it was free to turn where it would? When the bird of thought was let go did it fly out like the raven to settle upon floating carcasses or did it like the dove circle and return again to the ark of God? Such a test is easy to run, and if we are honest with ourselves we can discover not only what we are but what we are going to become. We'll soon be the sum of our voluntary thoughts.
While our thoughts stir our feelings, and thus strongly influence our wills, it is yet true that the will can be and should be master of our thoughts. Every normal person can determine what he will think about, Of course the troubled or tempted man may find his thoughts somewhat difficult to control and even while he is concentrating upon a worthy object, wild and fugitive thoughts may play over his mind like heat lightning on a summer evening. These are likely to be more bothersome than harmful and in the long run do not make much difference one way or another.
The best way to control our thoughts is to offer the mind to God in complete surrender. The Holy Spirit will accept it and take control of it immediately. Then it will be relatively easy to think on spiritual things, especially if we train our thought by long periods of daily prayer. Long practice in the art of mental prayer (that is, talking to God inwardly as we work or travel) will help to form the habit of holy thought.

The True Power of Christianity - William Arthur, 1856

Taken from 'The True Power of Christianity':

THE TRUE GOSPEL- Chapter Six

The gospel message offers selfish people {sinners} an opportunity to be transformed into the nature of the Son of God. We are not offering mere words to be believed, but a real source of power to be totally transformed. “For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” (1 Cor. 4:20) Offering anything less than the Son’s life of divine love is not the true gospel.

This is the singular glory of the full gospel message. The Son of God has come to recover a bad nature from her awful fall and to remake man into His spiritual image. Our Lord has given everyone an opportunity to “put on the new man, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:24) Yes, we can now become like Him in His nature of love. “Love has been perfected among us in this...because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17) 

 

When Christians become living witnesses to our Lord’s Kingdom-life of love and begin displaying the light of this salvation message, the world begins to see not only that there is a King in heaven, not only that there is a loving Father in heaven who will care for them, but more significantly, that there is a Savior who can save men from their fallen nature.

Each one of us therefore needs to become a living witness of our Lord’s Kingdom-life. We all need to become ambassadors who have been enabled to show forth the light of His life from heaven. 

 

Is this not the testimony that the world needs to hear? There are few things in religion which men doubt more than whether it is possible for them, as individuals, to escape from their sinful nature. It is not apologetics that men need the most. Nothing can more effectively convince an unbelieving heart that Jesus Christ is the one true Savior of the world than to see weak and self- centered men being changed into the Son’s spiritual nature and walking “just as He walked.” (1 John 2:6) 

 

Seeing a completely transformed nature says to them, “There is a Savior who has power on earth to save from sin.” Of all the Christian evidences, this transformation into the Son’s life of love is the one real proof that our Savior is indeed risen from the grave and that He now has all power and authority in heaven and on earth. There is no greater evidence than to see Christ’s prophetic words fulfilled: “...they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me...” (John 17:23) 

 

While there will always be false converts and tares among the wheat, along with Christians still seeking to be delivered from their carnal nature, the transformation that took place in the lives of these early believers, outshines everything else. A large multitude of people had truly lost their old life and were walking in the Son’s life of love. They gave of themselves with a sacrificial love that is not normal in this fallen and self-centered world. They were leading such lives that “Both the One who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” (Heb. 2:11 NIV)

When people have their emotions worked up by human motivational techniques, they can display a self-giving life for a while. But a close examination of their works will show how their nature has basically remained selfish. The church still has people like Ananias and Sapphira in her midst. They want to make everyone think they are generous in their giving, but their heart is still centered on their own personal lives. They will not have the capacity to maintain an unbroken life of sacrificial giving for long. Their natural tendency to both fall into selfish sins and to look for happiness in this world will inevitably expose the remains of their self-centered nature.

Our Lord’s first disciples, however, once they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, were continually united with our Lord’s life of self-sacrificing and self-denying love. While their knowledge of God’s purposes was not always complete, they were enabled to continually lay down their lives for their Lord. The deep transformation that took place in their lives shows that it reached the bottom of their heart and changed their very nature. As Peter himself later explained, the power from on high had “purified their hearts.” (Acts 15:8-9)

It is not a natural change that turns a man from his own ways, turns him against his own interests, and leads him to place all that he holds dear in continual jeopardy, purely for the sake of goodness. It is a life that would be too laborious to maintain for long if the heart was not first united “as one” with God’s life of love. There is simply insufficient strength in human effort to fight against the self-centered nature for long. 

 

To make the heart pure requires an act of God’s creative power. When David said, “Create in me a pure heart” (Ps. 51:10 NIV), the word he used for “create” is one that suggests the same creative power that God used to make the heavens and the earth. David did not merely want some help in being good. He knew there was only one thing that would enable him to be delivered from his self-centered condition. He needed to have a heart that was newly created in God’s image. And, of course, he knew that God possesses this kind of power. “For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1:37) Unfortunately for David, people in his age were not permitted to enter into a real participation with God in His divine nature. (Heb. 11:39-40) The promise was not available until this New Testament age of fulfillment. 

 

The most dangerous perversion ever introduced to the church was the idea that man could not be saved from his sinful nature until after the soul leaves the body. While our mortal bodies will remain weak and subject to the curse, God can just as easily give His children a holy and loving heart in this world as He can do it in the world to come. Nothing in this cursed world prevents God from using His power to create pure hearts in His children of faith, except for the sin of unbelief. 

 

God has predestined His children to be conformed to the Son’s spiritual image in this world. (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 4:17) This is the message of the true gospel. Let us turn from the perversion that teaches people they cannot become a holy community of saints who are perfected in love until they physically die and go to heaven.

The church is made up of individual members. Each individual will therefore be responsible for entering into the Lord’s Kingdom-life of divine love. The spotless church that Jesus Christ will one day present to Himself will be made up of those who have either permitted Him to establish His Kingdom-life within their hearts in this world, or are seeking it with their whole heart.

Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her...that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Eph. 5:25, 27) 

 

Pursue...holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God... (Heb. 12:14-15) 

 

Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless. (2 Pet. 3:14) 

 

Satan is not concerned about a religion that keeps turning over the sub-soil but never produces the fruit of pure love. The “evil one” loves to use the tilled soil that self-centered Christians keep turning over. He knows that those who go on living by the flesh will die. (Rom. 8:13) He also takes their self-produced righteousness and turns it into thorns and briars. He knows that his kingdom of darkness, a place where people still basically live for themselves, will not be disturbed by carnal Christians. 

 

In contrast, the true Christian faith will produce the “light of life” from heaven. When the real gospel message is preached, and the children of perfect love are being raised up by the power of God, this heavenly fruit will begin to renew the face of an earth that was made desolate by the introduction of Satan’s self-seeking and self-serving nature.

What kind of fruit is displayed in a Spirit-filled life? Paul says, “The fruit of the Spirit is {divine} love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23 NIV) This fruit forms a single nature that flows like an endless river from the lives of Christians who are currently filled with the Holy Spirit.

The character of the Christian church as a whole, must always be ruled by the character of individual Christians. When individual Christians are not displaying the spiritual nature of Jesus Christ, then the church cannot manifest the light of His life in this world.

Since everything depends on the relationship that each individual soul has with God, everyone will be individually accountable to God for not entering into a relationship with Christ that permits Him to display His “light of life” in this world. In other words, no one should be waiting for a church-wide revival in order to be perfected in love. If you are waiting for the church as a whole to enter into the Lord’s Kingdom-life of love, you may never have an opportunity to stand with boldness before your Maker on the Day of Judgment.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; (Phil. 2:12 Emphasis added) God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:16-17) 

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